Paper short abstract:

This is an in-depth review of the Colombian Items in the Economic Botany Collection of the Royal Botanical Gardens Kew. The review highlights the scientific interest of British institution in Colombia since the mid XIXth century all the way to modern ethnobotanical expeditions.

Paper long abstract:

This paper is an analysis of the Colombian items of the Economic Botany Collection in the Royal Botanical Gardens Kew (Kew). Three hundred and twenty-nine items from the Economic Botany collection were identified as having originated in Colombia. The specimens were categorized, photographed, and contextualized using historical and archival evidence. As a result of this investigation, we identified several different themes that highlight Britain's often complex scientific and economic interests in Colombia since the mid-XIXth century. It mostly sheds a unique light on how an imperial academic institution, such as Kew, has transformed its scientific approach with regions that are biodiverse and exist in the periphery of the empire. We can clearly observe how this approach has changed from actively identifying and cataloguing useful plants and plant-derived products to a more conservationist agenda interested in protecting and identifying endangered ecosystems and species. The collection also demonstrates the dynamic collaboration between local experts and Kew scientists which continues to this day. The data analysed here was uploaded to Kew's online catalogues including colplanta.org as part of the ColPlantA project and Kew's strategic output Plantsoftheworldonline.org (POWO).