Plant Collecting in Another Planet

E.H. Wilson in Australia 1920-21

Author: Margaret J. Grose

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30th September 2025

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Description

Ernest H. Wilson (1876-1930), trained at Kew Gardens, became Harvard’s most famous plant collector in the early decades of the twentieth century, and established his fame through travels in China and his superb photography. In 1920-21 Wilson collected in Australia, where he was astounded by the plants he found and thought them so different to anything in the Northern Hemisphere that it was like collecting in ‘another planet.’
Wilson’s Australian journey was largely undocumented and the extent of his collection unknown until Margaret Grose unravelled his travels, scrawled pencil diary entries, images from the Arnold Arboretum, and the hundreds of plant specimens found in the Harvard Herbaria. In this book, Grose tells a tale of Wilson’s travels across Australia and the plants collected with insight into how the landscapes Wilson saw have since changed. Of note, Wilson appeared free to speak his mind on what he called the ‘arboricidal mania’ of Australia’s appalling treatment of its trees: ‘For God’s sake Stop!’ he said with mounting anger. Margaret Grose’s Plant Collecting in Another Planet presents fascinating new insights into the deeper thoughts of one of the world’s great plant collectors.

About the Author

Margaret Grose grew up in the dunes and bush of coastal Perth. She studied agricultural science at the University of Western Australia, followed by a PhD in the ecophysiology of banksias. After work in Sydney, Oxford, and Cambridge, she returned and studied landscape architecture. She teaches ecology and design at the University of Melbourne but moves between Melbourne and south-west Australia. Her book Constructed Ecologies: Critical Reflections on Ecology with Design was published in 2017. Plant Collecting in Another Planet grew from a Sargent Award from Harvard University and reflects her deep connections with Australian landscapes.