Professor Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843–25 October 1920)

Italian naturalist, explorer and collector. Beccari studied under Ugolino Martelli at the University of Bologna, graduating with a degree in the Natural Sciences from in 1864. After graduating he spent some time at Kew preparing for his first trip to Sarawak; there he met Charles Darwin, William Hooker, Joseph Hooker and the first Rajah of Sarawak, James Brooke. From 1865 he travelled extensively over three decades, spending time in Sarawak, Eritrea, New Guinea, the Aru and Key islands, Celebes, the Moluccas, India, Australia, New Zealand, Java and Sumatra. Beccari collected thousands of botanical, zoological and ethnological specimens during his travels, including 48 orang-utans. His principle area of interest was palms and he was well known for discovering the aroid, Amorphophallus titanium in Sumatra. In 1869 between expeditions he founded the Nuovo Giornale Botanico Italiano. He settled in Florence in 1880 to study his vast collections becoming a most prolific palm taxonomists; he established 500 species and 35 genera, and published major studies of palm flora. In Florence, Beccari married and had four children.