Rethinking Botanical Nativism: Oral History, Plant-based Cultural Heritage and the Indigenous-Exotic Binary

Abstract

This paper begins with a series of questions that highlight the intricate relationship between natural heritage and plant indigeneity. In the Anthropocene - the designation of our current era of anthropogenic climate change impacting negatively on the ecosystems of the planet - what does the future hold for people with well developed and enduring affections for indigenous flora? Conversely, what are the implications of having acutely averse feelings towards the non-indigenous plants of a place - those 'invasive', 'feral' or 'weed' species with which the indigenous (or native) species must often compete for resources? Moreover, how does an unnatural plantscape, consisting of non-native plants, impact, or even deaden, embodied sensory experience and appreciation of a place? Finally, how might the binary categories of natural or unnatural plants cape be defined, in the eyes (and in the noses, and on the tongues and fingers, that is, through the bodies) of community members with longstanding involvements with and emotional attachments to their flora?