Esprit Requien

{{Short description|French naturalist (1788-1851)}}File:Avignon - Esprit Requien.JPG

Esprit Requien (6 May 1788, Avignon – 30 May 1851, Bonifacio, Corse-du-Sud) was a French naturalist, who made contributions in the fields of conchology, paleontology and especially botany.

From the age of 18, he was associated with the botanical garden in the city of Avignon. He performed extensive studies of flora native to Corsica and in the environs of Mont Ventoux. During his lifetime, he amassed an herbarium of 300,000 specimens.[http://cths.fr/an/prosopo.php?id=102899 Prosopo] Les sociétés savantes

In the fields of conchology and palaeontology, he conducted collecting expeditions to the Pyrenees, Catalonia and Italy. The natural history museum, Musée Requien, in Avignon is named in his honor.[http://plants.jstor.org/person/bm000006963 JSTOR Global Plants] (biographical information)

He is the taxonomic authority of a monotypic plant genus Helxine, now treated as a synonym of Soleirolia soleirolii, in the nettle family Urticaceae.{{cite web |title=Helxine soleirolii Req. |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:854165-1 |access-date=27 September 2022}} The genera of lichenized fungi, Requienella (author Jean-Henri Fabre) and the flowering plant Requienia (author Augustin Pyramus de Candolle) are named after him,{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen |trans-title=Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-946292-41-8 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2022|format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2022 | s2cid=246307410 |access-date=January 27, 2022}} as are plants with the specific and subspecific epithets of requienii.[https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/33190204#page/747/mode/1up BHL] Taxonomic literature : a selective guide to botanical publications[https://books.google.com/books?id=8ieqQs7hIREC&dq=%22Esprit+Requien%22+1788&pg=PA1024 CRC World Dictionary of Grasses: Common Names, Scientific Names ..., Volume 1] by Umberto Quattrocchi

The World Register of Marine Species lists 57 marine species names by Requien, most of which have become synonyms.[http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxlist WoRMS:= List of species named by Requien]