| George Forrest, a renowned plant hunter and explorer without whom our gardens today would look dramatically different was an active plant collector during the first half of the 20th century. Around
1% of plants in cultivation in the UK today are native – making the rest ‘aliens’ or exotics introduced by plant collectors
like George.
In 1904 he set off on his first expedition to the Western Chinese province of Yunnan, botanically China’s richest province. During his lifetime he made seven collecting expeditions to Yunnan, collecting and documenting over 31,000 plant specimens, several hundred of which are still in cultivation today.
The specific epithet
'forrestii'
occurs in more than thirty genera and thousands of hybrids
have been bred from Forrest stock. Cultivated stock of genera
such as rhododendron, primula,
magnolia and camellia were
greatly boosted by his dedication to plant introductions.
Forrest
died before he had an opportunity to write
extensively about his travels. However, he did leave
behind an archive of letters, notes and photographs,
many of which are held at the RHS Lindley Library at
Vincent Square.
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