Mexican Fuchsia. Fuchsia arborescens, Laurel-leaved Fuchsia, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
As part of the so-called Bourbon Reforms, devised to limit the powers of the Church and of unscrupulous nobility and to further the economic reconstruction of the Spanish Empire, Charles III (1716-1788), king of Spain, also set great store by the revitalisation of the sciences. One of his projects was the Expedición Botánica al Virreinato de Nueva España sent to Mexico 1787-1803. It was led jointly by a Spaniard, physician Martín Sessé y Lacastra (1751-1808), and a native Spanish-Mexican José Marino Mociño (1757-1820). Besides exploring and collecting it was their task to found a Botanical Garden at Mexico City. Obviously they garnered many plants, which were also relayed to Europe.
One of these - arriving in England by the early 1820s - was the pictured Fuchsia arborescens or arborea. Our botanists had found it near the city of Uruapán in the state of Michoacán. In England it was scientifically described in 1823 by John Sims (1749-1831), the first editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, on the basis of plants grown from the seed brought back to England by that curious English jack-of-all trades - jeweller, antiquarian, naturalist, miner, business man, traveller and even utopian - William Bullock (1773-1849), who'd gone to Mexico for an unsuccessful silver mining enterprise.
Mexican Fuchsia. Fuchsia arborescens, Laurel-leaved Fuchsia, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
As part of the so-called Bourbon Reforms, devised to limit the powers of the Church and of unscrupulous nobility and to further the economic reconstruction of the Spanish Empire, Charles III (1716-1788), king of Spain, also set great store by the revitalisation of the sciences. One of his projects was the Expedición Botánica al Virreinato de Nueva España sent to Mexico 1787-1803. It was led jointly by a Spaniard, physician Martín Sessé y Lacastra (1751-1808), and a native Spanish-Mexican José Marino Mociño (1757-1820). Besides exploring and collecting it was their task to found a Botanical Garden at Mexico City. Obviously they garnered many plants, which were also relayed to Europe.
One of these - arriving in England by the early 1820s - was the pictured Fuchsia arborescens or arborea. Our botanists had found it near the city of Uruapán in the state of Michoacán. In England it was scientifically described in 1823 by John Sims (1749-1831), the first editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, on the basis of plants grown from the seed brought back to England by that curious English jack-of-all trades - jeweller, antiquarian, naturalist, miner, business man, traveller and even utopian - William Bullock (1773-1849), who'd gone to Mexico for an unsuccessful silver mining enterprise.