Garden Plants - Abelia

The abelia is named for Dr Clarke Abel - a botanist who accompanied Lord Amehurst on a truly disastrous Chinese collecting expedition in 1817.

The major problems experienced by plant hunters were politics, stupidity and natural disasters - poor Dr Abel was plagued by them all. Europeans were not allowed into the Chinese mainland at this point in history - they had to stop on the island of Macao, which was a Portuguese possession, and accept whatever plants the Chinese brought to them. Lord Amehurst was charged with negotiating a new agreement with the Emperor, a man who was deeply upset by what he viewed as British arrogance and who resented their involvement in the opium trade. The British, following the Dutch lead, had been purchasing opium from India ever since 1556. After territorial conquest of Bengal in 1757, the British East India Company pursued a monopoly on production and export in India. British exports of opium to China skyrocketed from an estimated 15 tons in 1730, to 75 tons in 1773 - causing the Chinese Emperor no little fury!

Lord Amehurst was asked to prostrate himself before the Emperor and he refused. That ended the negations forthwith, the embassy was dismissed and they prepared to travel home. There was no exploration of the interior of China until 1842. However, once the stupidity was over, and the politics had failed, there was still the natural disaster to endure.

On the way home, their ship, Alceste, was wrecked. Abel saved a couple of boxes of seeds and plants, but one of them was then thrown overboard to make room for a chest containing another gentleman's 'good linen shirts' and what was left was burnt by Malay pirates. Just about the only thing that survived was the Abelia chinensis, which finally reached England.

Garden Abelia photograph by jam343, used under a creative commons attribution licence