Bloom: Readings in the History of Plant Knowledge, 1700–1900

The 18th and 19th centuries witnessed fundamental changes in approaches to plants, plant knowledge, and plant use. In this Seminar, we will trace these changes through close reading of a selection of both canonized and overlooked primary sources. Beginning with Carolus Linnaeus’s classification of plants based on their reproductive organs and continuing to debates about the plant-nature of corals and how best to transport seeds across the Atlantic, we will study projections of gender to plants, techniques and spaces of plant experimentation, the importance of colonial plant trade to constructions of ‘exotic’ and ‘tropical’ nature, as well as cultures of plant breeding on European soil. Together, the Übung will give an updated overview of the history of modern botany, which will provide an excellent foundation to discussions of the biodiversity crisis, contemporary gene editing techniques, and food scarcity.