Franz Boos

Franz Boos (23 December 1753 (Frauenalb) – 9 February 1832 (Vienna) ) was an Austrian gardener-botanist in the Age of Enlightenment, a voyager and collector of natural history specimens for Emperor Joseph II of Austria, who reigned from 1765 to 1790.

Boos came from a gardening family that lived in the Grand Duchy of Baden, his father being head gardener in Rastatt, his son Joseph Boos (1794–1879) being an assistant gardener at the Schönbrunn Palace. Franz began his career in 1771 as a gardener to Prince Leopold of Dietrichstein in Seelowitz (Moravia). From 1774 to 1775 he worked at the famous gardens of Prince Johann I of Liechtenstein in Lednice (also in Moravia) then, in 1776, he became assistant gardener at the Imperial and Royal Court Gardens of Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.

Franz Boos is best known for successful voyages to America, the Caribbean and South Africa during which he collected a wide range of natural history specimens for the parks and gardens, menagerie, and Cabinet of the Emperor's palace at Schönbrunn. The Emperor had appointed Franz Joseph Märter (1753-1827) as organiser and leader of this voyage of scientific exploration. Franz Boos, an under-gardener at the time, was selected as the primary collector specialising in tropical plants for the greenhouses. When Boos sailed to the Isle de France (now Mauritius) and Bourbon (Reunion), he was a passenger of the then unknown merchant sailor Nicolas Baudin. The knowledge gained from Austrian Boos was later combined with French horticultural and botanical expertise which lead Baudin to the forefront of scientific exploration and research as the century moved into the upheaval of Revolutionary Wars. He worked at the Jardin du Roi, Pamplemousses, with Nicolas Céré and at Palma with Joseph-François Charpentier de Cossigny.

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