Irish-based botanists travel in search of exotic new plant species

Plant hunting is something many of us consider a pursuit of the wealthy, and something which happened in centuries gone by, says Peter Dowdall.

Many of our traditional, cottage-garden favourites are actually anything but —in fact, when I think of cottage gardens I think of the lupin, which was actually introduced into Britain and Ireland from north America by David Douglas in the 1820s. He later died, aged 35, on a plant-hunting expedition in Hawaii.

Many other plants which we now take for granted were brought home by plant-hunting and adventure-loving tourists, the trips often funded by wealthy garden owners and botanical gardens.