Paper short abstract:

The paper traces the circulation of date palm offshoots from 1850 to 1930. offshoots. It shows how changes in global trade, Ottoman imperial policies, American boosterism, and the date's biology shaped trade networks. I thus argue to adopt spatial flexibility in debates around plant circulation.

Paper long abstract:

Date palms (Phoenix Dactylifera L.) are dioecious fruit trees endemic to the hot regions of the Middle East. Since their domestication some 5,000 years ago, locals in the region have been cultivating dates for local consumption, often as a part of a polyculture plot. Yet the growing popularity of date fruits among Western consumers during the nineteenth century ignited a global circulation of date palm offshoots - suckers that grow from the base of the mature tree and are considered crucial to establishing every new grove.

My paper traces the transregional circulation of date palm offshoots from the mid-nineteenth to the ni-twentieth century. It shows how new trade networks were shaped by changes in global trade, Ottoman imperial policies, American boosterism, and the date's biology. The paper thus stresses the need to consider the question of scale in conversations about plant circulation. It also reflects on the importance of the late nineteenth century to the emergence of monoculture as the leading agricultural strategy of the twentieth century.