Most botanical biographies seem to be about the great plant
hunters of the past. The Plant Messiah
is the story of Kew’s modern-day botanical horticulturist, Carlos Magdalena.
Rather than collecting exotic species, he’s out to save them.
Early Beginnings
A Spanish journalist called Carlos ‘The Plant Messiah’. The name stuck. The seeds were sown in childhood.
Carlos learnt how to grow and graft plants at a young age. His propagation
skills and sheer determination earned him a place on Kew’s prestigious
horticultural diploma. His story opens a window on the extraordinary
conservation work taking place at Kew and across the world.
As you turn each page, you will each endangered species to
survive. Carlos’s perseverance despite repeated failures is remarkable. My heart
sank as he reported a failure. He does not seem to dwell on the failures. Years
seem to pass trying different methods to no avail. Thankfully, there are
success stories too.
This Spanish-born plant messiah travels the world. His adventures are worthy of the historical plant hunters. A
human ladder in Mauritius, a crocodile watch in Australia and plant theft are
just a few of the anecdotes.
It’s not just about saving plants personally. Wherever he
goes, Carlos teaches the local people his propagation skills. This even finds
him teaching after midnight in Bolivia.
The water lily tales stand out. The importance of
international cooperation between the world’s botanical gardens is underlined by Carlos’
success with Nymphaea thermarum. An
exchange of seeds with Bonn sees him try to grow the species beyond germination
into maturity. The Plant Messiah
succeeds thanks to a combination of obsessional persistence and a ‘tortellini
moment’. Only after his success does he hear that he had been working with the
last five seeds in existence. A rat ate the last plant in Germany.
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| In the Water Lily House at Kew Gardens |
Publisher
The Plant Messiah has Penguin Books as its publisher.
It is unusual for a botanical subject to have such a mainstream publisher. I
hope that Penguin will be inspired to take on more botanical subjects and
authors at this critical time for endangered species. This inspirational book has
been well-ghostwritten and edited for an enthralling read.
The book ends with The
Plant Messiah returning to Kew with ‘a new waterlily species to show the
world’. It doesn’t feel like the end of his story. There simply has to be
another instalment. The epilogue ends with a prayer, urging everyone to be a
plant messiah. You don’t have to travel as far as Carlos to help plant diversity and conservation.
‘We have been given
one earth and we are not managing it properly.
We don’t deserve
another.
Instead, let’s turn things around and garden our way out of this
apocalypse,
green up the world and
plant our future.’
Amen.
Publisher: Penguin Books (2017)
