Five Fact Friday: Plant Hunters - Ernest Wilson

1. Ernest Wilson was born in 1876 and grew up in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. Died 1930.
2. His first plant hunting expedition was in 1899, employed by Jame Veitch & Son. He was given the special mission of finding the handkerchief tree. Leaving Liverpool to travel to America on his was to China, he took a detour to the Arnold Arboretum, meeting Charles Sargent - a key player in Ernest's later life. After a false start, Wilson found the Handkerchief tree on 19 May 1900. He gathered a large quantity of the seed and found hundreds of other interesting plants in the area.
3. After marrying Helen Ganderton in the June of 1902, Wilson was off to China again on January 23 1903 for a two year trip. This time his object was the poppy Meconopsis integrifolia, which he found on the 15 July 1903 as a dazzling sheet fluttering in the mountain breeze. He returned home with the seed of 510 species and 2400 herbarium specimens.
4. His last adventures were with the Arnold Arboretum, first in China and finally in Japan - where Helen became the first wife of a British plant hunter to go on a plant hunting expedition. These expeditions were as successful as all the rest and in total Wilson is credited with the introduction of over 1000 species. Sadly Ernest and Helen were killed in a road accident in October 1930.
5. Some of the over 1000 species he discovered include: Viburnum davidii, Lilium regale, and Magnolia sinensis.


Resources:
Musgrave, T. (1998) The Plant Hunters, London, The Orion Publishing Group