The local botanist François Botté has died, after a long period of ill health. He will be greatly missed by everyone in the Association de botanique et de mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine. A man of extraordinary energy with a breadth and depth of knowledge of the local flora that was second to none. It was like following a whirlwind if you accompanied him on an outing. This was speed botany, done almost at a run, with periodic pauses to go into great detail about this plant or that in the field. His abilities were formidable and there was no one else quite like him. Outings were fun but you had to work hard to keep up. Appropriately, his wishes were that only simple wild flowers be laid on his coffin.
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| François on the left, explaining the finer details of some plant specimen during a survey of the Courtineau Valley in April 2016. |
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| François pulling a Wild Onion Allium vineale (Fr. Ail des vignes)
apart bit by bit to demonstrate all the diagnostic characters needed to
identify the species. Apparently early in his career, leeks had sent him a bit crazy. |
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| François surveying one of the ponds that was recreated along the new high speed trainline from Tours to Bordeaux. The new ponds were very successfully accommodating breeding newts and dragonflies, as hoped. |
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| Photographing a very co-operative Scarce Swallowtail resting on François' finger during an outing to the Puys du Chinonais in May 2015. |
3 comments:
Did he pass his great knowledge to somebody?
chm: well he certainly tried with a whole bunch of us. But none of us will ever be his equal.
What a pleasure to have known such a man. Your admiration and respect shines through what you have written.
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