Plants, Mobilities and Landscapes: Environmental Histories of Botanical Exchange

Abstract

Abstract This article explores environmental histories of botanical transfers, drawing on the emerging literature of mobilities in social science and historical research about patterns of plant movement. It sees such movement as integral to the annexation of nature by culture that characterises modernity. Using the metaphor of the web, the multi‐directional complexity of these flows is assessed, to counter the seductive thesis of European ‘ecological imperialism’. In addition to the widely acknowledged role of institutions, such as botanic gardens, in assembling and disseminating plant materials in calculative ways, attention is also drawn to commercial linkages. Elements of the refashioned landscapes that resulted are identified: these reveal the tensions of order, mobility and hybridity that also characterise modernity.

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