David Nelson (botanical collector)

David Nelson ( * 1740; . † 18./20 July 1789 in Kupang / Timor ) was a botanist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Nelson ".

Life and work

Nelson participated in the third circumnavigation by James Cook, which took place in the years 1776-1779, in part. He was in 1789 aboard the Bounty. Nelson, who had once worked in the Kew Gardens should take care on the journey, the Bounty particular 600 breadfruit plants that have been carried from Tahiti. He was among the 18 people who were exposed during the mutiny on the Bounty in a barge after it had proved against Captain Bligh as loyal. Nelson survived the grueling journey in an open boat for a few weeks, but then died as a result of this trip, and was buried in a lavish ceremony at the cemetery for Europeans in Kupang.

1792 named Bligh on another trip to Nelson's Hill near Hobart in Tasmania, Australia to the botanist. Later, the collection was named Mount Nelson. Today there is the Hobart University.

Robert Brown named in his honor the plant genus Nelsonia of the Acanthus family ( Acanthaceae ).