Theophrastus was an ancient Greek philosopher and naturalist, often considered the "father of botany." He was a student of Aristotle and succeeded him as the head of the Lyceum in Athens. Theophrastus made significant contributions to various fields, including ethics, metaphysics, and biology, but is best known for his works on plants and their classification. His most famous texts, Enquiry into Plants and On the Causes of Plants, laid the groundwork for modern botany. Theophrastus's observations and classifications of over 500 plant species were pioneering for his time and influenced later scholars, including Pliny the Elder and Carl Linnaeus.