Jose Jerome Triana

José Jerónimo Triana Silva (Bogotá, Nueva Granada, May 22, 1828-Paris, France, October 31, 1890) was a Colombian botanist, explorer, and physician.

Biography

He was born in Bogotá on May 22, 1828 into a traditional family that, despite limited financial resources, held a prominent place in national life. His parents were Mrs. Josefa Paula Silva and Mr. José María Triana, a notable educator, author of numerous school textbooks and especially known for introducing Pestalozzi's pedagogical methods to Colombia and for his own encouragement of his son's creative and ingenious personality towards the various academic disciplines. He studied at the Espíritu Santo school guided by the rector and friend of his, Mr. Lorenzo María Lleras, later becoming deputy director and professor of botany.

In 1851 he joined the Chorographic Commission as chief botanist, a job he held until 1857 and which allowed him to compile an extensive herbarium of 2,200 plants.

In 1857, after marrying Mercedes Umaña Bustamante, Triana traveled to France where he came into contact with distinguished European botanists, among them Jules Émile Planchon and Jean Jules Linden, who helped him complete his work on useful species of the Nueva Granada after overcoming numerous difficulties with the Granada government and the lack of financial support from it.

From 1874 until his death on October 31, 1890, he served as Colombian Consul General in Paris. Apart from this, he participated in numerous societies and scientific congresses, among which his membership of the Legion of Honor, the National Agricultural Society of France and his participation in various horticulture congresses in London, Amsterdam and Florence stand out. His work was of particular value at the universal exhibitions in Paris in 1867, 1878 and 1889. At the 1867 and 1878 exhibitions, Triana won prizes thanks to the exhibition of his herbarium. In 1889 Triana assumed the job of organizing the Colombian pavilion, despite the lack of support from the Colombian government, and after enormous efforts, this was carried out in the Uruguayan pavilion with objects that Triana managed to gather mostly from particular people.

Triana worked professionally as a doctor, at the same time that she developed a line of pharmaceutical products that she marketed in France, among which are: bandages to treat corns, a toothpaste powder and a cough syrup, the well-known « Triana syrup. Like his father, Triana wrote several teaching notebooks to learn to write and read, which were used in schools in Colombia.

The death of Triana (to which was added that of his daughter Liboria just a few days later) caused deep sorrow in the heart of his wife, who decided to return to Bogotá, the city where he died in the year of 1895.

Work

• New genera and plant species for neogranadina flora. 1855
• Colombian Flora. 1856
• Monograph of gutters. 1856
• Prodomus Florae Novo-Granntensis. 1862-1867
• Melastomaceae. 1865
• The Quinology of Mutis. 1872

Expeditions

• 1851: Northern Provinces (Norte de Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Santander, Norte de Santander and Sur del Cesar). In Ocaña he collected in the company of Schlim. Triana had the bad fortune to lose some of the materials, the fruit of this excursion, as the mail that transported the specimens to Bogotá was assaulted. In the second half of the year he began collections, this time in the company of the Polish Warscewicz, with whom he traveled the southwest of Cundinamarca, Tolima, Quindio and Valle, arriving to Buenaventura.
• 1852: Southwest of Cundinamarca, Tolima plains, Quindío mountains, Risaralda, Caldas, south of Antioquia. The return to Bogotá was made by Guaduas.
• 1853: south of Cundinamarca, plains of Tolima, Andes del Quindío, northwest of the Valley, Andes del Chocó, Pacific coast from the mouth of the river San Juan to Tumaco, Andes de Nariño, Altiplanicie de Túquerres y Pasto, ascent to the volcanoes Cumbal and Azufral, Cauca, Valle, return by the passage of Quinocío, Tolima.
• 1854: in the company of Karsten around Bogotá, southwest of Cundinamarca, plains of Tolima and passage from Quindio to Cartago. During the second semester he toured the southern slopes of Cundinamarca and the Alto Valle del Río Magdalena.
• 1855: and the eastern and western sides of the Cordillera Oriental in the territory of Cundinamarca and Meta.
• 1856: San Martín plains in the Meta and surrounding areas of Cundinamarca.

Eponymy

Gender

• (Solanaceae) Trianaea Planch. " Linden

Species

• (Cunoniaceae) Weinmannia trianaea Wedd.