Biography

French gardener and botanist from Metz who was appointed gardener to King Louis XVI at the Jardin du Roi. He was later selected by André Thouin to join the Pacific expedition of La Pérouse in La Boussole and L'Astrolabe (1785-1788). The scientists of the expedition made botanical collections on Tenerife on 18th August 1785 and, although collections and journals were sent back to France during the long voyage, it is not clear if these Canarian botanical collections survived or were later lost in a shipwreck. Seeds collected by Collignon were later sent back from the Pacific coast of North America and cultivated in France, including material of Abronia umbellata Lam. which became the first plant to be described from what is now the Southwestern United States.

Collignon was wounded in an attack at Maouna Island, Samoa where many of the crew was massacred. He probably died at Vanikoro, Santa Cruz Islands in the Solomon Islands where both ships were wrecked on an unchartered reef. Some of the survivors that reached the island were killed by natives but a number survived for several years and later built a smaller boat to escape from the island, but this boat was apparently also lost. A number of expeditions were sent to search for the lost expedition including the official expedition of Admiral d'Entrecasteaux in 1791, who discovered and named the island but did not land and hence missed saving the last of the survivors still living on the island. Evidence of the shipwreck was not discovered until 1826 and a number of much later archaeological expeditions studied the remains and pieced together the events surrounding the loss of the La Pérouse expedition.

Biography

French gardener and botanist from Metz who was appointed gardener to King Louis XVI at the Jardin du Roi. He was later selected by André Thouin to join the Pacific expedition of La Pérouse in La Boussole and L'Astrolabe (1785-1788). The scientists of the expedition made botanical collections on Tenerife on 18th August 1785 and, although collections and journals were sent back to France during the long voyage, it is not clear if these Canarian botanical collections survived or were later lost in a shipwreck. Seeds collected by Collignon were later sent back from the Pacific coast of North America and cultivated in France, including material of Abronia umbellata Lam. which became the first plant to be described from what is now the Southwestern United States.

Collignon was wounded in an attack at Maouna Island, Samoa where many of the crew was massacred. He probably died at Vanikoro, Santa Cruz Islands in the Solomon Islands where both ships were wrecked on an unchartered reef. Some of the survivors that reached the island were killed by natives but a number survived for several years and later built a smaller boat to escape from the island, but this boat was apparently also lost. A number of expeditions were sent to search for the lost expedition including the official expedition of Admiral d'Entrecasteaux in 1791, who discovered and named the island but did not land and hence missed saving the last of the survivors still living on the island. Evidence of the shipwreck was not discovered until 1826 and a number of much later archaeological expeditions studied the remains and pieced together the events surrounding the loss of the La Pérouse expedition.

Biography

French gardener and botanist from Metz who was appointed gardener to King Louis XVI at the Jardin du Roi. He was later selected by André Thouin to join the Pacific expedition of La Pérouse in La Boussole and L'Astrolabe (1785-1788). The scientists of the expedition made botanical collections on Tenerife on 18th August 1785 and, although collections and journals were sent back to France during the long voyage, it is not clear if these Canarian botanical collections survived or were later lost in a shipwreck. Seeds collected by Collignon were later sent back from the Pacific coast of North America and cultivated in France, including material of Abronia umbellata Lam. which became the first plant to be described from what is now the Southwestern United States.

Collignon was wounded in an attack at Maouna Island, Samoa where many of the crew was massacred. He probably died at Vanikoro, Santa Cruz Islands in the Solomon Islands where both ships were wrecked on an unchartered reef. Some of the survivors that reached the island were killed by natives but a number survived for several years and later built a smaller boat to escape from the island, but this boat was apparently also lost. A number of expeditions were sent to search for the lost expedition including the official expedition of Admiral d'Entrecasteaux in 1791, who discovered and named the island but did not land and hence missed saving the last of the survivors still living on the island. Evidence of the shipwreck was not discovered until 1826 and a number of much later archaeological expeditions studied the remains and pieced together the events surrounding the loss of the La Pérouse expedition.