Francisco Manuel Blanco

Francisco Manuel Blanco (1778 – 1845) was a Spanish friar and botanist.

Born in Navianos de Alba, Castilla y León, Spain, Blanco was a member of the Augustinian order of friars. His first assignment was in Angat in the province of Bulacan in the Philippines. He subsequently had a variety different assignments.

Towards the end of his life, he became the delegate of his order in Manila, traveling throughout the archipelago. He is the author of one of the first comprehensive flora of the Philippines, Flora de Filipinas. Según el sistema de Linneo (Flora of the Philippines according to the system of Linnaeus) which followed after the work done by Georg Joseph Kamel. The first two editions (Manila, 1837 and 1845) were unillustrated. Celestine Fernandez Villar (1838-1907), together with others including Antonio Llanos, published an illustrated posthumous edition from 1877 to 1883, printed by C. Verdaguer of Barcelona.

Blanco died in Manila in 1845. The botanist Carl Ludwig Blume (1789-1862) named the genus Blancoa of the family Palmae in his honor.

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