International recognition for the 1769 Seed Archive
Great to see Waikereru and the 1769 Seed Archive featuring in this article in the Smithsonian journal - recognition from that famous US scientific museum.
The 1769 Seed Archive, and our collaboration with Dr Edwin Rose from the History and Philosophy of Science department at the University of Cambridge, also featured in a post from the Natural History Museum in London
That collaboration has been exciting, and rewarding. With our support, Dr. Rose has been transcribing and translating Dr. Daniel Solander’s field notebooks, written in Latin, from the Endeavour voyage in 1769. These reveal that during the Endeavour’s visit to Tairāwhiti in 1769, the naturalists Joseph Banks and Dr. Daniel Solander with the Ra’iatean high priest navigator Tupaia as their interpreter recorded many Māori names for the plants they collected, and information about their uses by local people. That includes the term ‘manuca’ [mānuka], recorded in their field notebooks and manuscripts as the name for this species in Tairāwhiti. This is invaluable for local hapū, who are trying to stop Australian honey producers from pinching the name ‘mānuka’ for their products, derived from a different species of plant in Australia.
Edwin was thrilled to see many of the plants he knew only from pressed specimens in herbaria thriving in the 1769 Seed Archive - including mānuka.
