An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Diego Molina (Environmental Humanities Fellow, 2026)
On ‘Exotics’ and Civilisation’: The 19th-Century Transatlantic Exchange of Ornamental Plants
In the 19th century, the movement of ornamental plants across the Atlantic became a key aspect of both European horticultural practices and the rise of neo-colonial power dynamics in the Andes. In Europe, the fascination with ‘exotic plants’ spurred intense botanical exploration and the extraction of living plants from the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador. Upon their arrival in Europe, previously wild orchids, anthuriums and other species were transformed into commodities for sale. However, the commodification of these plants was not simply about importing flora. It involved a complex network of actors: large nurseries imported and sold these plants, while greenhouse engineers created the artificial tropical environments required to sustain them. Meanwhile, hybridisers produced previously unseen forms of diversity, which botanical illustrators further heightened, making them even more desirable to European audiences. Paradoxically, in the Tropical Andes, where these plants were native, members of emerging local elites were busy creating public gardens and parks as part of the modernisation of cities such as Quito and Bogotá. To this end, they introduced a vast number of plants historically used in the ornamentation of European cities, which, to their eyes, were not ‘exotic’ but symbols of ‘progress’. In their view, local and uncultivated flora represented backwardness, while streets planted with elms or planes were a mark of ‘civilisation’. Thus, the differentiated flow of ornamental plants across the Atlantic reveals how asymmetrical power relationships shaped aesthetic ideals in both Europe and the Andes, transforming the global distribution of plants in a way unseen since the 16th-century Columbian Exchange.
Meeting ID: 384 971 962 716 1
Passcode: nV6Rg79e