Charles-Joseph Marie Pitard

Charles-Joseph Marie Pitard, name sometimes given as Charles-Joseph Marie Pitard-Briau (30 October 1873 – 29 December 1927) was a French pharmacist and botanist.^[1]

In 1899 he obtained his doctorate in natural sciences at the University of Bordeaux, later serving as a professor at the school of medicine in Tours. He conducted botanical and exploratory investigations in the Canary Islands (1904–06), Tunisia (1907–10 & 1913) and Morocco (1911–13). Many of his plant collections were sent to herbaria in Geneva and Paris.^[2][3] Pitard edited three exsiccata-like specimen series.^[4]

He was the taxonomic authority of numerous botanical taxa. About 525 names have been published. Such as Aichryson mollii Pit., Iles Canaries 189.^[5]

The genus Pitardia (Batt. ex Pit.), now classed as a synonym of Nepeta L.,^[6] was named in his honor.^[3] Then in 2003, Tirveng. published Pitardella, a genus of flowering plants from Indo-China, belonging to the family Rubiaceae.^[7]

Also named in his honour, are plants with the specific epithets of pitardii (about 27) and pitardiana (about 7).^[8][9] Such as Beaumontia pitardii Tsiang,^[10] and also Poa pitardiana H.Scholz.^[11]