Emmanuel Geoffroy was a French botanist and explorer.

Geoffroy traveled to Martinique

Martinique

Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...

 and French Guiana

French Guiana

French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...

 in search of latex-yielding trees, but also studied the region's native plants in the genus Robinia

Robinia

Robinia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae, native to North America and northern Mexico. Commonly known as "locusts", they are deciduous trees and shrubs growing 4-25 m tall. The leaves are pinnate with 7-21 oval leaflets. The flowers are white or pink, in...

after learning that forest Indians of French Guiana used Robinia as fish poisons. One in particular, "Robinia" nicou, which is now considered to be Lonchocarpus nicou, was to be the subject of his thesis, .

In a fact to be discovered posthumously, Geoffroy unknowingly discovered rotenone

Rotenone

Rotenone is an odorless chemical that is used as a broad-spectrum insecticide, piscicide, and pesticide. It occurs naturally in the roots and stems of several plants such as the jicama vine plant...

, which he originally named nicouline.

He died in 1894 as a result of a parasitic disease

Parasitic disease

A parasitic disease is an infectious disease caused or transmitted by a parasite. Many parasites do not cause diseases. Parasitic diseases can affect practically all living organisms, including plants and mammals...

.