François Crépin was born on October 30, 1830, in Rochefort, Belgium.

He was an important botanist and director of the National Botanic Garden of Belgium. As a boy, he developed an interest in wild plants, yet he never received formal training in botany. By the late 1850s, he built a large network of correspondents that included botanists in Belgium and abroad. His “Manuel de la flore de Belgique”, published in 1860, became an essential tool for all Belgian botanists. It yielded him a job as a teacher and a place in the inner circles of Belgian field botany. In 1862, he dominated the Société royale de Botanique de Belgique and wrote numerous book reviews and papers on the flora and biogeography of Belgium. He supported young scientists with an interest in laboratory research. The genus Crepinella (Araliaceae) is named after him. As a taxonomist, he circumscribed numerous plants within the genus Rosa. His Belgian herbarium and his herbier des roses are kept in the collections of the Botanic Garden Meise. In 1872, he became a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium and in 1875, he received the full membership.

He died on April 30, 1903, in Brussels, Belgium.