By Mark Plotkin, PhD
Richard Evans Schultes, PhD, was the greatest
Amazonian explorer of the 20th century. Boston-born and Harvard-educated, he
set off for the Amazon in 1941 for a six-month expedition. He was so entranced
by the plants and the peoples of this great rainforest that he essentially
extended this expedition for more than a decade. Now, interested readers can
follow his journeys in an interactive, informational story map.
Schultes (1915-2001) first learned of the concept
of “ethnobotany” in an undergraduate course at Harvard University taught by the
prominent orchidologist Oakes Ames. After Schultes wrote his term paper on the
traditionally revered peyote cactus (Lophophora
williamsii, Cactaceae), Ames sent Schultes to Oklahoma to experience the
sacred cactus firsthand in a traditional Kiowa tribal ceremony. Later, Schultes
returned to Harvard, and decided to pursue a PhD under Ames, focusing on the “magic
mushrooms” of Oaxaca, Mexico. As a newly-minted PhD, he headed south to the
northwest Amazon to study arrow poisons from the curare vines (e.g., Chondrodendron tomentosum, Menispermaceae), which, at the time, were being used as pre-surgical muscle
relaxants in abdominal surgeries.
Cartographer Brian Hettler of the Amazon
Conservation Team decided to recount Schultes’s travels and research in a compelling
new story map.1 With commentary and explanations
supplied by this author, Hettler traces Schultes’s phenomenal journeys through
the rainforest in search of healing plants. Using the capabilities of the story
map format, Hettler has organized this information in a way that allows readers
to click on a location and see photos of the location and/or the people that
lived there. Perhaps even more impressive, readers can click on a list of
plants collected by Schultes and see the actual herbarium specimen he collected
in high resolution.
Hettler’s story map allows readers to follow the
late ethnobotanist into some of the world’s most remote locales in search of
exceedingly rare plants. It is hoped that this intriguing initiative will not
only teach about the history and importance of the science of ethnobotany, but also
will inspire others to use the story-map format to teach about botany in
general, and medicinal herbs in particular, in new and compelling ways.
Mark
J. Plotkin, PhD, is an ethnobotanist whose field research focuses on
the plants and peoples of northern Amazonia. He currently serves as president
of the Amazon Conservation Team, a nonprofit organization that conducts
environmental and cultural sustainability activities in the Amazon basin
(www.amazonteam.org). He is the author of several books and is a member of the
American Botanical Council Advisory Board. Previous HerbalGram
Coverage of Richard E. Schultes, PhD
|
References
- Amazon Conservation Team. The Amazonian Travels
of Richard Evans Schultes. Amazon Conservation Team website. Available at: http://amazonteam.org/maps/schultes/. Accessed May 4, 2016.
- Cox PA. Medicinal
Plants and the Legacy of Richard E. Schultes. HerbalGram. 2013;98:73-75. Available at: http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue98/hg98bkrvw-schultes.html. Accessed May 4, 2016.
- Davis W. The
Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes. HerbalGram. 2005;66:50-59. Available at:
http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue66/article2831.html. Accessed May 4, 2016.
- Blumenthal M. The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes. HerbalGram. 2005;65:73-74. Available at:
http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue65/article2788.html. Accessed May 4, 2016.
-
Davis
W. One River: Excerpts from the new
book about the life of ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes. HerbalGram. 1996;38:32. Available at: http://cms.herbalgram.org/herbalgram/issue38/article1219.html. Accessed May 4, 2016.
|