Captain Bligh's Breadfruit? Tall Tales about Two Leaves in 19th-century Edinburgh

Description

This short piece discusses two breadfruit specimens that travelled, apparently, from Oceania to Scotland via Mauritius in the late eighteenth century. Unpicking the itineraries taken by the plants, and the narratives told about them, the article exposes the importance of myth-making about breadfruit not only to the Oceanian cultures who originally cultivated the plant but also – and significantly – within Western science.

This is a ‘crossover’ (academic/public) article, based on a longer chapter about the breadfruit that will be published in Minna Törmä (ed.), Plants and Gardens as Artefacts in Transcultural Contexts: Between Asia and Europe (Routledge).