Bogotá born medic, diplomat and naturalist José Jerónimo Triana collected throughout Colombia and worked in Paris, publishing a number of influential works. He began his career in botany after developing an association with the illustrator Francisco Javier Matís who was working for the Botanical Expedition to Nueva Granada, and began testing the medicinal virtues of certain plant species, publishing his findings in the newspaper El Dia and later the Official Gazette. This gained him a degree of fame and he was asked to join the 'Comision Corografica' with the responsibility of advancing the study of the Colombian flora.

Between 1851 and 1857 Triana explored vast areas of the country, despite illness and major political unrest, and collected thousands of species in this time. Among others, he worked with the German botanist Hermann Karsten in 1854, exploring the flora of the areas surrounding Bogotá. His collections were sent to Brussels and soon he too moved to Europe, travelling to Paris in 1857 after his marriage to Doña Mercedes Umaña.

While studying these specimens in greater detail he began an association with J. E. Planchan, a professor at Montpellier, and together they published Monografía de las Gotiferas. He continued to work in Paris under an extended contract despite the 1861 revolution, and in 1866 was named vice president of the International Botanical Congress. During this time he published the Prodromus florae novo-granatensis, also with Planchan. He won further fame working to present Colombia at the Exhibition of Paris in 1867 and was rewarded with several prizes, including three bronze medals for the arrangement of his botanic displays. Triana was president (1862) of the Asociación de la Academia Italo-Partenopea; founding member (1867) of the Gabinete Nacional de la Academia Italo-Parpenopea; and Consul General to Colombia in Paris (1874).

Forced to move to London and work in Kew during the Prussian invasion of 1870 Triana found much of his collection and work destroyed on his return. He therefore set to work cataloguing and studying earlier Colombian plant collections, publishing the overlooked pioneering work of J.C.B. Mutis (1732-1808) on quinine and made further studies of Cinchona. Triana material at BM includes Triana's personal herbarium, received in 1891; duplicate material was sent to the Colombian government for inclusion in COL. The lables of BM specimens usually give the locality as 'Nouvelle Grenade', one of the names used for Colombia during Spanish colonial administration. He died in Paris in 1890 and the national flower of Colombia (Cattleya trianae) was named as a dedication to him.

Sources:
Rueda Enciso, J. E., 2004, "Jose Jeromino Triana" Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango: http://www.lablaa.org/blaavirtual/biografias/triajose.htm Accessed 22/09/08.