Cultivating Scientific Authority: A Vegetal Geography of Chinese Rhododendrons at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Abstract

This paper presents a vegetal geography of Chinese rhododendrons at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), examining the mechanisms through which RBGE's scientific authority is established in the field of Rhododendron research and conservation. Building on the geographical conceptualisation of relational plant agency, this paper extends it by illustrating that attending to the rhododendron–people–environment relationship sheds light on the ecological–political nature of the Rhododendron species at RBGE, the broader historical contexts that stimulate the accumulation, and the environmental conditions that encourage the maintenance. Drawing on interviews, observation and document analysis, I illustrate the contribution and labour of the underappreciated Chinese collectors in the historical botanical exploration, discuss rhododendron's ‘plantiness’ and examine RBGE's contemporary activities that aim to accumulate and sustain the ex situ rhododendrons both materially and epistemically. I argue that the scientific authority of RBGE has been shaped by the semi-colonial history of China after the First Opium War ending in 1842, the encounters between British botanists and local collectors, as well as RBGE's intentional accumulation and maintenance of rhododendrons and related knowledge, all of which are mediated by rhododendrons' agency and continue to influence today's conservation dynamics.