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Hunting lost plants in botanical collections

A bark specimen at Kew recalls the story of a South American man who harvested the most potent source of the only effective malaria treatment available in the late 1800s. Killed for his work and forgotten by history, Manuel Mamani was a victim of the colonial juggernaut.

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  • Fyffes bananas : your sunshine fruit for glowing energy : "I'm tropical - please keep me warm" : unzipp [sic] a Fyffes banana / Fyffes.
  • Fyffes bananas : your sunshine fruit for glowing energy : "I'm tropical - please keep me warm" : unzipp [sic] a Fyffes banana / Fyffes.
  • Tropical fruits, including guava, custard apple, lemon, pompelmous and plantain bananas. Line engraving after C. de Bruin, 1706.
  • A fruiting tropical plant (Duroia eriophila) and five water beetles (Dytiscus species). Coloured etching by J. Pass, c. 1803, after M. Merian.
  • Gardenia jasminoides J.Ellis Rubiaceae. Cape jasmine - as erroneously believed to have come from South Africa. Distribution: China. Named for Dr Alexander Garden FRS (1730-1791) Scottish-born physician and naturalist who lived in Charles Town, South Carolina, and corresponded with Linnaeus and many of the botanists of his era. The fruits are used in China both as a source of a yellow dye, and for various unsubstantiated medicinal uses. Other species of Gardenia are found in tropical Africa and the roots and leaves have all manner of putative uses. Gardenia tenuifolia is used as an aphrodisiac, for rickets, diarrhoea, leprosy, gall bladder problems, toothache, liver complaints, diabetes, hypertension, malaria and abdominal complaints. It causes violent vomiting and diarrhoea. It, and other species, are used to poison arrows and to poison fish. Some native, muthi medicine, healers regard Gardenia as a ‘last chance’ medicine, given to patients when all else fails – the patient either dies or recovers (Neuwinger, 1996). Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
  • A fruiting breadfruit tree (Artocarpus altilis). Photograph.
  • Breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis): fruiting branch. Coloured etching by J. Pass, c. 1796, after J. Ihle.
  • Still life of fruits, including gourds, cucumbers, figs and grapes. Engraving by J-B Haussard after Boisseau.
  • A durian (Durio zibethinus): an entire and sectioned fruit. Photograph.
  • Yuzu orange plant (Citrus species): branch with two fruit. Watercolour.
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