Joseph Hooker

Joseph Hooker was one of the creators of the modern scientist – medical graduate, botanist, plant collector and adventurer – who circled the globe, discovering, describing, naming or introducing over 12,000 plants that have changed the face of our gardens and landscape. A confidante of Charles Darwin, he made his first plant collecting expedition to Antarctica in 1837, an epic undertaking that took him to the ends of the known world, collecting and identifying hundreds of plants. Following major expeditions to the Himalayas and India, he was appointed Assistant Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in 1855, and later traveled to the Western United States, eventually bringing back over 1000 specimens. Extensively and beautifully illustrated from the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Joseph Hooker Botanical Trailblazer takes the reader on an extraordinary voyage with one of the world’s greatest botanists.