Botanical Provenance; Culture and origin

Provenance (prɒv(ə)nəns) noun: the place of origin or earliest known history of something.

With provenance comes authenticity, you know what it is, where it came from and where it’s been. When choosing plants it is important to know where they came from – where they were sourced so you know how they may grow [see Botanical Provenance (1) Life or death]. But there is more to this; under the skin of an onion is another skin…

I worked on Isaac Newton’s apple tree once. The very tree that inspired Isaac to formulate his theory of gravitational pull. Or so the story goes. But the tree I worked on wasn’t in Grantham (Isaac’s home) or in Cambridge (where he studied and taught), but in London. It turns out the original apple tree, or at least one that might have been that tree blew over in 1820. That tree regrew from its roots, and descendants from that tree can be found in various locations around the world. It seems I worked on one of those. My tree had lineage, it was a direct descent, but was it actually Isaac Newton’s apple tree?

Whether it was Isaac’s apple tree or not, doesn’t really matter to me. I’d all but forgotten that I had worked on it (one of them, maybe). But for some, botanical provenance is crucial. Culture and origin.

My understanding of this is as an outsider looking in, sadly I don’t share those connections (they are not mine to have), but botanical provenance in terms of culture and origin is very real, and its significance shouldn’t be underestimated.

In Māori the term tangata whenua is used to describe people of the land, the Māori people of a particular location. Whenua, also means placenta and tangata whenua indicates being born of the land and having a direct connection between Papatūānuku (Earth mother). The importance of the connection between Māori and the land is a source of their unity and identity. The land itself, what stems from it, and what flows through it are considered taonga (treasures) and tangata whenua are the kaitiaki (guardians) of those taonga.

Traditionally Māori were great recorders of stories; tales of important historical ancestors and events were passed down through various means including weavings and carvings. When it came to carvings, what the story was carved into was part of the story. You would not source a tree from someone else’s land to tell your story.

When kauri dieback disease was first identified and the potential threat to this iconic tree species was realised there was a call to arms to collect seeds and save the species. It was a noble response and probably the right thing to do, but where did the seeds come from and where did they go? For Māori kauri are taonga. Many of these seeds are now small trees, but is it right to have someone else’s treasure in your backyard?