Amazing Free Collection Of Antique Botanical Posters

I love vintage natural history posters showing collections of feathers, seashells and insects. In the past, I have shared the fabulous natural history posters of Adolphe Millot and his animal poster collections. Here, I have compiled a collection of Adolphe's antique botanical posters.

Adolphe Millot was a French painter and entomologist and the senior illustrator at Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris. He is well known for his fabulous natural history and botanical posters. He painted these posters for the Le Petit Larousse Illustré, a French-language encyclopedic dictionary published by Éditions Larousse.

Downloadable Antique Botanical Poster Collection

You probably recognize many of Adolphe Millot's natural history and botanical posters. The prints have been used widely for interiors and gifts, appearing on anything from paper napkins to bags and pillows. Cavallini uses many of Adolphe Millot's prints with its wrapping paper and products.

The good news is that these botanical posters are in the public domain and copyright-free. I've curated a collection that you can download and use as you like.

For this collection, I have just focused on both the collections of mushroom and floral posters of Adolphe Millot. I have included a poster he painted of aquatic plants and seaweed, too. You can find his botanical fruit and vegetable posters here. There are also some wonderful free Tree posters from Larousse.

Just click on the title of the botanical poster you would like to download. A larger image of that poster will open in a new tab in your browser. If you right-click your mouse, you can save that larger image to your device.

The Vintage Botanical Illustration Posters

1. Champignons - Mushrooms

Neither meat nor vegetable mushrooms are known as the meat of the vegetable world. Many species of mushrooms seemingly appear overnight, growing or expanding rapidly. This phenomenon is the source of several common expressions in the English language, including "to mushroom" or "mushrooming" (expanding rapidly in size or scope) and "to pop up like a mushroom" (appearing unexpectedly and quickly). 

A lovely identification botanical poster of over 40 mushrooms, toadstools, fungi and truffles. A handy key at the bottom indicates whether the poster's mushroom illustrations are consumable, poisonous, indifferent or suspect ( comestible, vénéneux, indifférent, suspect.)

2. Champignons Mushrooms 2

A second collection of Champignons painted by Adolphe Millot.

Check out this easy tutorial for drawing mushrooms on the blog.

3. Champignons 3

A third mushroom fungi collection by Adolphe.

Visit here for more mushroom and fungi charts. Oken's vintage botanical prints collection includes 4 mushroom posters.

4. Fleurs - Flowers A.

The first of four flower botanical posters by Adolphe Millot. This one identifies over 60 "Plantes annuelles et plantes bisannuelles" (annuals and biennials).

Annual plants complete their growing season in one year, from germination to the production of seeds before dying. In contrast, the biennial plant takes two years to complete its growing life cycle.

A French key at the bottom of the poster identifies over 60 common flowers. From, tulips, anemones, dahlias, amaryllis, foxgloves, poppies and many more.

5. Fleurs - Flowers B Botanical Poster

This is the second of four flower botanical posters. "Plantes vivaces de plein air au moins pendant l'été", summer outdoor perennials. A perennial plant lives for more than two years.

There are over 50 flower illustrations with an identification key, including arums, campanulas, asters, chrysanthemums, and many more.

6. Fleurs - Flowers C Botanical Poster

This is the third of four Adolphe Millot flower botanical posters. "Arbres et arbrisseaux", trees and shrub flowers.

Over 50 beautiful floral illustrations, complete with an identification key. The floral botanical paintings include azaleas, rhododendrons, magnolias, roses, hydrangeas and cacti.

7. Fleurs - Flowers D Botanical Posters

This is Adolphe Millot's fourth flower illustration poster, "plantes de series" (greenhouse plants). It features over 50 flower paintings and comes complete with a key.

8. Fleurs - Le Larousse Pour Tous

An Adolphe Millot botanical poster of flowers from "Le Larousse pour tous". A fantastic poster of pretty flowers. Instead of a key at the bottom, the name of each flower is written next to it.

9. Algues

A gorgeous print of seaweed and algae. For more algae prints, check out Ernst Haeckel's.

10. Botanicals

An attractive black and white drawing of a vast range of botanicals by Adolphe Millot that featured in the Larousse Illustrated Dictionary.

11. Medicinal Plants 1

12. Medicinal Plants 2

Other Related Collections

These botanical posters of Adolphe Millot are fabulous. They are just some of the beautiful illustrations he did for the French Encyclopedic Dictionary "Nouveau Larousse illustré."

Check out some more Adolphe Millots vintage illustration posters to download for free.

• Vintage Printable Natural History Posters of Adolphe Millot
• Free Natural History Sea life Posters of Adolphe Millot

Or, if you are looking for more vintage floral images, check out the Emile Deyrolle classroom posters, Gessner's Botany Prints and the collections below:

• Vintage Flower Pictures to Download
• Gorgeous Peony Paintings
• Botanical Sunflower Drawings

If you fancy, you can Buy Me A Coffee Here.