Manosquin Heritage Committee / e-ReColNat Infrastructure

Former high school students from 1960s, we remember hearing about an herbarium kept within the school. A visit in 2003, reinforced our vision that this herbarium should be made available to the public via the Manosquin Heritage Committee, in agreement with the school’s headmaster.

The maker of this herbarium was Gustave Fenoul, born in 1858 in Manosque, 8 rue des Potiers, son of a “potter”. He died in 1922.

It was the life achievement of a Manosquin.

He was a professor in Nice and Jablines (Seine et Marne), and became a member of the French botanical Society in 1888.

Its collects spanned from 1834 to 1920, with a discontinuation between 1914 and 1918.

At his death in 1922, the herbarium and other work of plant determination, were donated by his widow to the high school.

In 3 cabinets, 56 folders contain over 6,000 well preserved sheets. They have multiple origins: some come from collects, and other come from various exchange with fellow botanists.

We felt a duty to bring this herbarium to the public eye, for the general curiosity that bring such objects, as well as the study of the plants’ origin. Some may have migrated, or maybe simply disappeared.

The sheets were all digitized by our care, and are currently preserved at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris, with which we are in partnership.

Thanks to Marc Pignal and to the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, a 100 years after its making, the G. Fenoul Herbarium acronym FEN, is freely available for consultation without any risk of deterioration.

Contact
Michel Martinet : martinet.m@wanadoo.fr