Biography

French naval surgeon who lived in Tahiti for three and a half years, where he made his name as a botanist. Nadeau arrived in Tahiti in February 1856, proceeding to explore its length and breadth, collecting plants from its various peaks and valleys and studying the medicinal plants used by the islanders. When he left in August 1859, Nadeaud had amassed a significant herbarium and also took with him 43 live plants for display at the Colonial Exhibition in Paris. He allegedly left behind, meanwhile, a son from his relationship with a Tahitian woman, Rereao Taufa.

In Montpellier Nadeaud completed a thesis on the medicinal plants used in Tahiti (Plantes usuelles des tahitiens, 1864), gaining thereby the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He later published an enumeration of the plants of Tahiti in 1873, including some 50 taxa new to science. His herbarium was acquired by E. Drake del Castillo, who sent some mosses to Émile Bescherelle. These formed the basis of Bescherelle's 1895 Florule bryologique de Tahiti. Nadeaud spent the last two years of his life back in Tahiti, working as a doctor at Pare and collecting more plants. Bescherelle acquired more mosses from this sojourn, which he described in 1898. Bescherelle also sold sets of the Nadeaud specimens to various herbaria including BM, FH and NY.

Sources:
Anon., 1899, Revue Bryologique, 26: 40
G. Sayre, 1975, "Cryptogamae Exsiccatae: an annotated bibliography of exsiccatae of algae, lichens, hepaticae, and musci. V. Unpublished Exsiccatae: I. Collectors", Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden, 19(3): 374
Herbier de la Polynésie française, Jean Nadeaud:
http://www.herbier-tahiti.pf/biographie.php.