Chris Thorogood is a botanist and botanical artist on a mission to locate and conserve rare species, and to demonstrate how important plants are to us as humans and our planet. He has a particular obsession with the Rafflesia genus, only located in Southeast Asia, and ‘Pathless Forest’ is the compelling story of his quest to locate, document and conserve these flowers.
Reviewed by Elanor Wexler, Botanical Illustrator and ABA Committee and Education Team Member
Plant hunting is something I associate with the distant past, conjuring up images of difficult journeys on creaking, wooden ships, and expeditions into unexplored lands. Chris Thorogood’s book 'Pathless Forest, the Quest to Save the World’s Largest Flowers' shows us that plant hunting is still an important task today, and that there is an urgency for botanists to find out as much as they can about species which are being lost due to the destruction of habitats around the world.
Chris is the Deputy Director and Head of Science at Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, UK. This is the UK’s oldest botanic garden, founded in 1621, and it has a very active programme of research and education, with a mission statement which states a clear vision about the importance of plants for our future and the current threats to species. Their homepage cites that “The effects of global change now threaten the survival of two in five plant species”; a fact that many of us will be aware of but feel unable to influence.
Chris has had an obsession with the Rafflesia genus since childhood and this book takes us on his journey to locate species of Rafflesia, working with guides and foresters from the Philippines and Indonesia and completing challenging expeditions with the aim ‘to chart Southeast Asia’s most poorly known species of Rafflesia, and to conserve them’.
The book is non-fiction and is written directly from Chris’s experiences on his travels, but reads rather like a novel making it very accessible; this is not an academic text, although you will be able to glean scientific knowledge which Chris manages to communicate in a very easy-to-digest form.
In the book we accompany Chris on his quests to see Rafflesia growing in the wild and, through his writing, we understand the physical and emotional toll of trying to locate these elusive specimens. Rafflesia are parasitic plants which feed off vines through embedded threads or strands, spending much of their life inside their hosts in this form. They grow in remote and overgrown forest areas making them extremely hard to access and Chris relied on local knowledge to locate the plants. When Rafflesia species flower they send out very large blooms, the largest being up to a metre across, but these only last a few days, again making it extremely hard to guarantee seeing these species in the wild.
In the book, Chris expresses that he felt compelled by the Rafflesia to seek it out, but that the closer he got to finding each species, the more he was rejected by the flower and as you read the text you really experience these emotions with Chris. His passion for this plant and his determination to find species in flower give the story momentum and Chris and his colleagues put themselves in many challenging situations as they seek out this rare plant.
Chris writes in a very engaging way and he introduces three voices in the book. The bulk of the text is Chris's story of the expeditions, but woven in are short passages which are the voice of the Rafflesia flower itself, and of a forester called Deki from Sumatra who is communicating with Chris about the risks posed to the flower. You are signposted to whose voice is talking through simple chapter illustrations and gradually come to understand whose voice you are hearing.
The illustrations are another reason to enjoy this work and for us to review it here on the ABA site; Chris is a very talented botanical artist and the book contains illustrations including graphite depictions of the people and plants from the expedition and oil paintings of the Rafflesia in bud and flower. Other species are also illustrated such as a rare jade vine that was discovered on one of the treks. If you investigate Chris’s artwork beyond this book, you will find that he works in a range of mediums and styles, with some of his work depicting the plants in their natural landscapes in keeping with artists such as Marianne North.
If you are interested to find out more about this book and Chris’s story, I’d recommend watching this video of a talk given by Chris at Kew Gardens about Pathless Forest. It will give you insights into his experiences and he also explains some of the artwork from the book.
What is truly inspiring about this book is the positive collaboration that is going on between experts around the world (including indigenous people with knowledge of these plants) to try to put conservation strategies in place and protect these species from extinction. A particularly hopeful aspect is the work being completed at the Bogor Botanic Garden (Indonesia) where Chris and his colleagues were taught how to propagate Rafflesia. They returned to the Philippines and began using this knowledge to explore whether grafting Rafflesia to an uninfected vine in the wild could be a way forward for the plant’s conservation.
This is a book with several aspects. It is a story of adventure and passion, but also has important insights about conservation. After reading the book, you are left feeling both a sense of the complexity of the situation around the destruction of the forests and also a sense of hope that the work being done by inspirational individuals around the world may make that difference.
Author Biography
Dr "Chris Thorogood is a botanist and lecturer at the University of Oxford, where he holds the position of Deputy Director and Head of Science at Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum, and a Visiting Professor at the University of the Philippines. His research focuses on the evolution of parasitic and carnivorous plants, taxonomic diversity in biodiversity hotspots around the world, and biomimetics - exploring the potential applications of plants in technology. An author and broadcaster, he makes regular appearances on TV and radio and is also an award-winning botanical illustrator and wildlife artist. Obsessed with plants, he is on a mission to make us see them differently, and realize how we, they, and our planet, are all connected." https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/296969/dr-chris-thorogood?tab=penguin-biography
To purchase this book: Pathless Forest is published by Allen Lane (part of Penguin Books) and is available widely online and in bookshops. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/455788/pathless-forest-by-thorogood-dr-chris/9780241632628
Further Reading
If you are interested to find out more about Chris and his colleagues work on researching and protecting Rafflesia, these links may be of interest.
Chris Thorogood talking about Pathless Forest at Kew Gardens
Oxford Botanic Garden and Arboretum with many links to related topics
Article on ‘The evolution of parasitic plants’
Article on work being done to protect the Rafflesia species
For those of you in the United States, the themes in this book link nicely with the American Society of Botanical Artist’s exhibition “Curious Allies: Mutualism in Fungi, Parasites, and Carnivores”, currently on view at the New York Botanical Garden in Ross Gallery until October 27th this year.
Julia Trickey Best Bits 2023 talks – section featuring Chris Thorogood at 29mins