Biography

He was born in Ambleny

Ambleny

Ambleny is a commune in the department of Aisne in Picardie in northern France.-Population:...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. After having worked in kitchen gardens and for the Parisian market gardeners, he was appointed by André Thouin

André Thouin

André Thouin was a French botanist who was born in Paris. He studied botany under Bernard de Jussieu . In 1793 Thouin attained the chair of horticulture at Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. Thouin was a good friend of U.S...

 (1746-1824) garçon jardinier in 1790 at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle

Muséum national d'histoire naturelle

The Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle is the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France.- History :The museum was formally founded on 10 June 1793, during the French Revolution...

 of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

. There he studied the Linnaeus

Carolus Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...

' Systema vegetabilium and the art of painting with the artist of the museum Gérard van Spaendonck

Gerard van Spaendonck

Gerard van Spaendonck was a Dutch painter.Gerard was born in Tilburg, an older brother of Cornelis van Spaendonck , who was also a renowned artist. In the 1760s he studied with decorative painter Willem Jacob Herreyns in Antwerp...

 (1746-1822) but his main influence is Redouté (1759-1840). Thouin named him, two years later, head of the Botanical school of Paris, but in 1793, Daubenton chose him to establish a botanic school and garden in Bergerac. This project failed and in 1796 Thouin offered Poiteau to go to Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo

Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...

. He was arrested as soon as he landed because he did not have official papers to justify his presence. Soon afterwards he was in Haiti

Haiti

Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...

, at the head of the new botanical garden of Cape

Cape

Cape can be used to describe any sleeveless outer garment, such as a poncho, but usually it is a long garment that covers only the back half of the wearer, fastening around the neck. They were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon, and have had periodic...

. Receiving no wages, he had to join the administration as an assistant to Hédouville and Roume, the governors of the island. In 1802, he brought back to France six hundred packets of seeds and 1,200 species, all named and classified by him. Among them were 97 species of mushrooms and 30 species of lichens. He published, in Paris in 1808 with Pierre Jean François Turpin

Pierre Jean François Turpin

Pierre Jean François Turpin was a French botanist and illustrator. He is considered one of the greatest floral and botanical illustrators during the Napoleonic Era and afterwards. As an artist, Turpin was largely self-taught....

 (1775-1840) whom he met in Haiti, Flora Parisiensis secundum systema sexuale deposita et plantarum circa Lutetiam sponte nascentium descriptiones, icones....

After some years of free literary activities, he was appointed in 1815 head of the Royal tree nursery of Versailles

Versailles

Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...

. In 1816, he published a description of the plants cultivated in the botanical garden of the School of medicine of Paris. Two years later, with Antoine Risso

Antoine Risso

Giuseppe Antonio Risso , called Antoine Risso, was a Niçard naturalist.Risso was born in Nice, County of Nice, a part of the Duchy of Savoy, and studied under Giovanni Battista Balbis. He published , and . Risso's dolphin was named after him...

 (1777-1845), he published Histoire naturelle des orangers (Natural history of the orange trees).

In 1818, Poiteau went to 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...

 where he supervised the cultures of the plantations of the royal houses. Back in France in 1822, he was appointed head gardener of the castle of Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau

Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...

. From 1829 to 1851 he directed the Revue horticole (Horticultural review). In 1835, with Pierre-Jean-François Turpin, he published a new edition of the Traité des arbres fruitiers (Treatise of the fruit trees) by Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau (1700-1782) and, in 1846, Pomologie française. Recueil des plus beaux fruits cultivés en France... (French pomology). In 1848 and 1853 the two volumes of his Cours d'horticulture (Lessons of horticulture) were published. A member of many scientific societies, Poiteau later became head of the museum of natural history, to which he offered all the animals and plants he had brought back from Guiana. Poiteau discovered numerous species of plants and animals, he even created some families (cyclanthae, for example). As a gardener and a pomologist, he much contributed to the amelioration of the edible fruits. As an artist, he is appreciated and his colored lithographs are sought-after by amateurs. On this ground, he is often compared to Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Pierre-Joseph Redouté , was a Belgian painter and botanist, known for his watercolours of roses, lilies and other flowers at Malmaison. He was nicknamed "The Raphael of flowers"....

.
He died in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.