French naturalist from Montpellier who qualified as a medical doctor in 1779. As a naturalist, Broussonet was known initially as an icthyologist and published on the zoological collections made during Cook's voyages. He was a correspondent and friend of Joseph Banks and sent a great deal of material to Banks, in return being given access to natural history collections in Britain.
During a stay in England (1780-1782) Broussonet was admitted to the Royal Society as an honorary member, with the assistance of Banks, and while in London was introduced to other scientists including Daniel Carl Solander at the British Museum, Johann Reinhold Forster, Alexander Dalrymple, Anders Sparrman, John Sibthorp and James Edward Smith. He had the intention of publishing a work on all the fishes known in the world, but only the first part, dedicated to Banks, was published. Returning to Paris in 1782, he befriended Louis Jean-Marie Daubenton (1716-1800) and through him became a member of the Academy of Sciences (1785). He was a founder member of the first Linnean Society of the world, the Linnean Society of Paris (1787-1789). He collected in the south of France with John Sibthorp and in northern Spain with Pierre Andre Pourret.
Devoting himself to Agriculture, Broussonet was appointed perpetual secretary to the Society of Agriculture and elected to the National Assembly (1789). However, his favoured position in France came to an abrupt end with the outbreak of the French Revolution in the same year and, sentenced to death for his membership of the Girondins political party, he wrote a series of pleading letters to Banks for safe passage from France. He managed to escape to Madrid in Spain and then to Lisbon, Portugal and Gibraltar before finding comparatively safe refuge in Morocco as a physician to an embassy of the United States. During his exile he made his first botanical collections in North Africa (1794-1795).
He was allowed to return to France, choosing to stay in Montpellier with his family. Broussonet accepted a North African consular position in Mogador (Essouaira) where he made further African collections (1797-1799), before fleeing the city when a plague epidemic killed two thirds of the local population. He was given another appointment in Tenerife, Canary Islands as a trade commissionier for the French government. His Macaronesian botanical collections were made between 1799 and 1803 and during this time the island was visited by the expedition of Baudin; Broussonet spent several days in the company of André Michaux.
He returned to France and was appointed professor at the Montpelier Medical School in 1803 and director of the botanical garden in Montpelier (1803-1807). He died a few years later in Montpellier at a comparatively young age. The genus Broussonetia L'Hér. ex Vent. (nom cons.) in the Moraceae was named after him. He is also commemorated by many other taxa including Antirrhinum broussonetii Poir. (= Linaria amethystea subsp. broussonetii (Poir.) Malato-Beliz), Chrysanthemum broussonetii Balb. ex Pers. (= Argyranthemum broussonetii (Pers.) Humphries), Helianthemum broussonetii Dunal and Thymus broussonetii Boiss.
