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The Plant Hunters by Anita Silvey

Far­rar, Straus & Giroux, 2012

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The Plant Hunters

True Stories of Their Daring Adventures to the Far Corners of the Earth

Driv­en by an all-con­sum­ing pas­sion, the plant hunters trav­eled around the world, fac­ing chal­lenges at every turn: trop­i­cal ill­ness­es, extreme ter­rain, and dan­ger­ous ani­mals. They bat­tled pira­nhas, tigers, and vam­pire bats. Even the plants them­selves could be lethal! But these intre­pid eigh­teenth- and nine­teenth-cen­tu­ry explor­ers were deter­mined to find and col­lect new and unusu­al spec­i­mens, no mat­ter what the cost. Then they tried to trans­port the plants — and them­selves — home alive. Cre­at­ing an impor­tant lega­cy in sci­ence, med­i­cine, and agri­cul­ture, the plant hunters still inspire the sci­en­tif­ic and envi­ron­men­tal work of con­tem­po­rary plant enthusiasts.

Work­ing from pri­ma­ry sources — jour­nals, let­ters, and notes from the field — Ani­ta Sil­vey intro­duces us to these dar­ing adven­tur­ers and sci­en­tists. She takes read­ers into the heart of their expe­di­tions to then-unchart­ed places such as the Ama­zon basin, Chi­na, and India. As she brings a col­or­ful cast of char­ac­ters to life, she shows what moti­vat­ed these Indi­ana Jones–type heroes. In The Plant Hunters, sci­ence, his­to­ry, and adven­ture have been inter­wo­ven to tell a large­ly for­got­ten — yet fas­ci­nat­ing — story.

Reviews

“Greed! Obses­sion! A pas­sion for nature and trav­el! All these and more have dri­ven intre­pid explor­ers to search for exot­ic plants around the globe for centuries.

Most of these hunters have been altru­is­tic pro­fes­sion­als seek­ing valu­able plants to advance the cause of sci­ence and med­i­cine or to improve their nations’ econ­o­my with poten­tial com­mer­cial crops. In their pur­suit many expe­ri­enced seri­ous ill­ness and injury, extremes of harsh weath­er and ter­rain in remote locales, not to men­tion encoun­ters with dan­ger­ous ani­mals, insects and fel­low humans. Yet the thrill of the chase, the love of adven­ture and the out­doors and the tan­ta­liz­ing belief that the objects of their desire indeed lay at the end of their ardu­ous jour­neys spurred these men and women on, despite the chal­lenges. Some didn’t sur­vive the trip home. Today search­es con­tin­ue so that sci­en­tists may cat­a­log Earth’s bio­di­ver­si­ty and devel­op mas­sive seed stock­piles against any future cat­a­stroph­ic destruc­tion of plant life. The slim, engag­ing nar­ra­tive paints vivid por­traits of these botan­ic adven­tur­ers. It is smooth­ly writ­ten, smart­ly paced and filled with excit­ing tales of risk tak­ing and der­ring-do. Hand­some visu­als include con­tem­po­rary maps, pho­tographs, sketch­es, paint­ings and excel­lent botan­ic illustrations.

Who could have imag­ined that some­thing as seem­ing­ly ordi­nary as a plant could incite such ardor and devo­tion?” (Kirkus Reviews)

“The Plant Hunters by Ani­ta Sil­vey is a high­ly worth­while read filled with the com­pelling sto­ries of plant hunters, past and present, moved by the excite­ment of trav­el, love of the nat­ur­al world, a desire to make a prof­it or the need to devote them­selves to the study of plants.” (Read more.) (Rebec­ca Aguilar, Book Kvetch)

“Each sto­ry will hold fas­ci­na­tion for bud­ding botanists, and those inter­est­ed in adven­ture and history.

These sci­en­tists made invalu­able con­tri­bu­tions to sci­en­tif­ic research. It moves from the long-ago past to the present, end­ing with Richard Ree, a mod­ern-day plant hunter prepar­ing spec­i­mens in Tibet. I found it con­sis­tent­ly fas­ci­nat­ing to read these well-researched tales of trav­el, pas­sion for nature, and dan­ger.” (Read more.) (Sal’s Fic­tion Addic­tion)