Botanical Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru facts for kids
The Botanical Expedition to the Viceroyalty of Peru (in Spanish, Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú) was a large scientific journey organized by Spain. It explored the colonial lands of the Viceroyalty of Peru and Chile from 1777 to 1788.
King Charles III of Spain asked for this expedition to happen. It was led by important botanists like Hipólito Ruiz López, José Antonio Pavón Jiménez, and Joseph Dombey.
Contents
Why the Expedition Happened
During the 1700s, people in Europe became very interested in the science of botany, which is the study of plants. Spain decided to send many scientific trips to its colonies in America, the Pacific islands, and Asia. King Charles III of Spain really supported this kind of science. He provided money for several explorations during the later part of the century.
Getting Ready for the Trip
Hipólito Ruiz López was chosen to lead the plant studies for the expedition. He had studied at Madrid's Royal Botanical Garden with Casimiro Gómez Ortega.
A French doctor named Joseph Dombey and a pharmacist named José Antonio Pavón Jiménez joined him as assistants. Two talented artists, Joseph Bonete and Isidro Gálvez, also went along. Their job was to draw the plants.
The Expedition's Journey
The expedition team left Cádiz, Spain, in 1777. They arrived in Lima, Peru, in April 1778. For more than ten years, from 1778 to 1788, they explored areas of what are now Peru and Chile. They studied plants and collected many samples.
The journey faced many problems. In 1784, a ship called San Pedro de Alcantara sank. It was carrying many plant samples, which were lost. In 1785, a fire in Macora, Peru, destroyed more samples and equipment. There were also disagreements among the team members, especially between Ruiz and Dombey. Dombey left the group in 1784. Juan José Tafalla Navascués took his place that same year.
In 1788, most of the expedition members went back to Spain. Only Tafalla stayed in Peru to keep sending materials. Later, in 1793, painters Xavier Cortes and Jose Gabriel Rivera joined botanist Agustin Jose Manzanilla. From 1799 to 1808, a special plant collection center (herbarium) was set up in what is now Quito, Ecuador. This was to study the Huayaquilensis Flora. They kept sending plant materials to Spain regularly until Tafalla died in 1811.
Overall, the expedition collected over 3,000 different plant samples. They also created 2,500 life-sized drawings of plants. When they returned to Spain, they brought back many living plants. One important discovery was a plant that could help with the flu and toothaches. It used the boiled sprouts of Buddleja incana.
Most of the collections arrived in Cádiz in 1788 in good condition. They were kept at Madrid's Royal Botanical Garden and the Gabinete de Historia Natural. This Gabinete later became the Museum of Natural History. The scientists discovered about 150 new groups of plants (genera) and 500 new plant species. These plants still have the names given to them by Ruiz and Pavón. Sadly, some of the collection was lost. A ship carrying 53 crates with 800 drawings, dried plants, seeds, and minerals sank off the coast of Portugal.
What Happened After
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In 1794, Hipólito Ruiz López became a member of the Royal Academy of Medicine. He wrote several scientific papers for their publications.
After Ruiz passed away in 1816, Pavón sold some of the expedition's collections. He sold them to Aylmer Bourke Lambert and Philip Barker Webb. Lambert had translated some of the expedition's plant papers. Thanks to Lambert, Pavón later became a member of the Linnean Society of London.
The main collection, which included more than ten thousand engravings, stayed at the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid. It also had 2,254 plant drawings with descriptions. Most of the papers and documents about the expedition and the Flora peruviana book are at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid. The items related to people and cultures from the expedition are now at the Museum of the Americas, also in Madrid.
In the archives of the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid, there was also information about Flora Huayaquilensis. This was a collection of work by Juan José Tafalla Navascués. He was one of the first people to travel to South America and record different plants with amazing paintings and written descriptions. All of his work was in the archives. It was only published by Dr. Estrella after he searched the archives and found the information that became Flora Huayaquilensis. This finally brought Tafalla's life's work to light.
See also
In Spanish: Expedición Botánica al Virreinato del Perú para niños
