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Three centuries ago, botany was about the most dangerous occupation in Europe's budding scientific enterprise. In the quest to identify new plant species in the New World, botanists endured hardships and took risks that would be unimaginable today. Many, such as French naturalist Philibert Commerson, died far from home.
The first woman to sail around the world was a young French herbalist who concealed her gender to join a scientific voyage as Commerson's assistant. Between 1766 and her return home nine grueling years later, Jeanne Baret helped gather, prepare and catalog many specimens that were later used to characterize new plant species.
While it is customary for new species to be named after their discoverers, no plant's scientific name has borne Baret's name, according to biographer Glynis Ridley. Now University of Utah biologists have corrected this historical oversight by naming a freshly discovered potato relative endemic to South America after Baret — Solanum baretiae.
"Given the importance of her work and the singular nature of her achievements, Baret has clearly made a sufficient contribution to the field to deserve a species named after her," wrote Eric Tepe, lead author of a new study identifying the plant. Tepe is a postdoctoral research fellow in the U.'s biology department and adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati.
About a year ago, Tepe heard Ridley interviewed on public radio about her new book, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe. Baret was Commerson's lover and collaborator when he was appointed to sail aboard the navy ship l'Etoile on an official expedition of scientific discovery. At the time, French law forbade women on naval vessels, so the couple disguised Baret as a man. They gathered 6,000 specimens as the two-ship expedition wound its way west before dropping the couple on Mauritius, the island in the Indian Ocean famous for its biodiversity.
"Over 70 different species bear the epithet commersonii, but nothing is named after Jeanne Baret. Lots of men on the ship have things named after them," said Ridley, an associate professor of English at the University of Louisville.
Tepe later contacted Ridley with a plan to give the explorer her due.
While working in Cincinnati's herbarium, he had recently come across a specimen identified as Solanum chimborazense that didn't look right. The specimen was covered in the fuzz and pale violet flowers characteristic of S. chimborazense, but the flowers seemed too big and densely distributed, and the leaves' shape was wrong. He figured he had stumbled upon a new Solanum species, and traveled to Peru, where he observed the distinct species in the field.
He published his findings last month in the journal PhytoKeys, with Ridley and U. biology professor Lynn Bohs as co-authors.
"I have since run DNA analyses and we now have genetic confirmation that the two species are indeed different," wrote Tepe, who is now conducting field work in the Dominican Republic.
Solanum is among the largest plant genera, with 1,500 species, and the most important economically. It includes New World foods, such as tomatoes and potatoes, that transformed European diets.
Commerson intended to use Baret as the namesake for a new genus he found. The plant had varied leaves, which he believed reflected the cross-dressing Baret's multifaceted personality, according to Ridley. But before he could publish the study, he succumbed to dysentery on Mauritius in 1773. The aristocrat tried to bequeath some of his wealth to the penniless Baret, who came from a working-class background.
"The French governor decided all his stuff was state property. She was locked out and lost the specimens and notes. She literally only had the clothes she stood in," Ridley said. Baret could get back home only after marrying a French marine.
bmaffly@sltrib.com Jeanne Baret
In the 1760s, this Frenchwoman concealed her gender to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Her real interest was discovering new plants, which she gathered in abundance. Baret's botanical contributions were largely forgotten until recently, thanks to a new biography and help from University of Utah biologists. Postdoc Eric Tepe published a study last month characterizing a new plant species, which is the first to be named for this adventuresome figure.