Antoine Duss

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Antoine Düss (August 14, 1840 – May 1924) was a Swiss botanist, Catholic priest, and teacher who studied Caribbean plants. Born in Hasle, Switzerland, he studied in Lucerne and Fribourg, joined the Congregation du Saint-Esprit et du Saint-Coeur de Marie in Paris, and was ordained in 1871. He went to Martinique in 1865, where he taught at Saint-Pierre and Fort‑de‑France and began collecting plants. He built an herbarium, learned Antillean flora from library resources, and undertook field trips despite heat and danger from the Fer‑de‑Lance snake.

After a long stay in the Caribbean, Düss returned to France for a two-year leave in 1889–1891, taught in Beauvais, and established French citizenship in 1890. He went back to Guadeloupe in 1891, where he worked at the College de Basse-Terre until it closed in 1906, collecting plants across Guadeloupe and its dependencies. Beginning in 1895, he wrote the Flore des Antilles françaises, published in 1897, documenting the flowering plants of the French Antilles. He also prepared catalogues of cryptogams and consulted Ignatz Urban to verify his identifications. He joined the Société botanique de France in 1893 and was made an honorary member in 1901.

In his final years he served as chaplain at the Thillac Hospice. He was honored as Officer of the Academy (1898) and Officer of Public Instruction (1905), and in March 1924 was named Knight of the Legion of Honour. He died in May 1924 in Castel, Guadeloupe. Düss left his herbarium to the Paris Museum and, to help the hospice, sold the rights to Flore des Antilles. Genera named in his honor include Dussiella (fungi) and Dussia (plants).