However , DNA studies are gradually solving the mystery location of its origin , somewhere on the Arabian Peninsula . When that is pinpointed , should that original host region be compensated for this plant valued around the world ?
Ikin is always eager to share positive outcomes , too . “ Lebanon is pioneering a new approach to land management — a balance between preserving biodiversity and provisioning human need — and the results are promising .“ This is good news for the endangered Lebanese endemic Iris sofarana , the Sofar iris , striking for its blend of marbled greys and bronze with purple highlights . Also hopeful are new cultivation techniques in Ukraine that are slowing the wild harvest of increasingly rare Galanthus nivalis ( which , ironically , is known as the “ common snowdrop ”) to allow for its natural recovery , and to ensure income to its host country .
GLOBAL MOVEMENT OF PLANTS What is a Wardian case ? Any English gardener between 1850 and 1900 could have easily answered that question , but today it is mostly forgotten . Partly because the term was used for two distinct variations of the device . The first was a decorative , enclosed case — the forerunner to the terrarium — that allowed Victorian plant lovers to grow their ferns and orchids despite the heavily polluted air of London and other cities . The second was a tool for transporting plants on long sea voyages , and this variation is the subject of “ The Wardian Case : How a Simple Box Moved
Plants and Changed the World ,” by Luke Keogh .
In part , the book is also a biography of Nathaniel Bradshaw Ward ( 1791 – 1868 ), a London physician who was a passionate , amateur botanist . His experiments with sealed environments led to the highly successful efforts in the 1830s to transport plants for the many months it took to travel from , for example , Sydney to London . Prior attempts had mostly failed because of damage from salt spray or a shortage of fresh water . This invention became so popular that by later in the 1800s “ there were thousands if not tens of thousands of these cases in operation , moving plants around the globe . Our choices of what we drink , eat , smell , and wear have all been transformed by the movement of plants .”
This movement of plants had a profound impact on human cultures , especially those colonized by European powers . The Wardian case allowed for the transport of many valuable crops to be grown in colony plantations with suitable climates . This agricultural endeavor typically displaced native flora and often involved the subjugation of the local population to work on the foreign crops . Examples include tea , rubber , cocoa and cinchona , the source of quinine used to fight malaria .
These plants did not travel alone . In their soil and on their leaves came various animal species and plant diseases that attacked susceptible native flora . Many of the imported plants also became invasive . All this led to efforts in the 20th century to counteract the damage by using the cases to import predatory insects to attack unwanted plants and destructive pests . The advance of air travel ended the prominence of the Wardian case , but for about a century it was closely linked to all aspects of the global movement of plants for profit , research and horticulture .
WOMEN IN HORTICULTURE Jennifer Jewell has gained a wide following for her blog “ Cultivating Place .” Produced from her home in northern California , it is self-described as a “ conversation on natural history & the human impulse to garden .”
Summer 2021 v 27