Littonia Modesta

Biography:

Louis Benoît van Houtte (1810-1876)

Van Houtte was a Belgian horticulturist who worked a the Jardin Botanique de Brussels between 1836 and 1838 and is best known for his famous series of botanicals, Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l’Europe.

Early
in his career van Houtte worked in Brussels for the ministry of finance
and occupying his leisure time on botanical pursuits. He was on good
terms with men like Parmentier, Edouard Parthon de Von (1788–1877),
D’Enghien, and befriended local gardeners. With Charles François Antoine
Morren, van Houtte founded L’Horticulteur Belge (1833–1838), a monthly botanical magazine, in November 1832. Van Houtte also started a shop selling seeds and garden tools.

Devastated
by the loss of his wife to whom he had been married only a short while,
he set off to Brazil to collect orchids for Parthon de Von and the King
of Belgium. He left for Rio de Janeiro on 5 January 1834, but due to
bad weather and stopping over at Maio in the Cape Verde islands, only
arrived in May 1834.

When he returned from his 1834-36 expedition to Brazil, van Houtte founded the Ecole d’Horticulture
and also established in 1839, a nursery at Gentbrugge near Ghent with
partner Adolf Papeleu. Van Houtte’s botanical knowledge, business acumen
and facility with languages, led to his commercial success and the
office of mayor of Gentbrugge.

At the height of European orchid
mania in 1845 he dispatched plant collectors to the Americas to search
for orchids and other exotic plants. Van Houtte produced plants for
European conservatories and with the help of Eduard Ortgies cultivated
the first Victoria Lily on the Continent. By the 1870’s van Houtte’s
nursery was flourishing, covering 14 hectares and comprising 50
greenhouses.

The business was carried on by van Houtte’s son, when he died in 1876.