Botanica: Untold Histories of Plants, People, and Empire

A much-needed new history of American plants: a decolonized, thorough, and honest account of the appropriation of American fauna that recognizes the multiplicity of empire and tells overlooked stories.

Gardeners love to celebrate their plants’ exotic origins and triumphant discoverers, but it is remarkable how little books of plant history have changed since Victorian times. The people who collected our plants from afar are invariably described as self-sacrificing explorers of remote, inhospitable, and uncharted lands. But adventurers are enabled; explorers have guides; assistance is provided for a reason. The establishment narrative of botanical exploration as an act of bravery and service is a story that needs to be rewritten; history requires context. 

In Botanica, Dr. Laura Premack gives a new history of American plants—decolonized, thorough, and honest. She populates the Columbian exchange, fleshing it out with stories of real people, their true motivations, and their full contexts. By letting go of narratives predetermined by national pride and latent racism, Botanica gives an unblinkered account of the appropriation of American plants that recognizes the multiplicity of empire, engages difficult histories, and tells overlooked stories. 

Botanica consists of four parts, organized geographically and chronologically. Each considers themes of health, faith, enslavement, commerce, trust, deceit, class, resistance, art, poetry, beauty, and belonging, among others. Individual chapters focus on particular plants, including—among others—the dahlia, tobacco, pepper, magnolia, orchid, rubber tree, Douglas fir, and geranium.