Indigenous Data

In the New York Times Tuesday, an article on the use and misuse of genomic and cultural resources extracted from indigenous peoples, typically without their consent.  https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/29/science/indigenous-data-microbiome-science.html 

It reminds me that botanists have been horticulturally to blame for the same.  Somehow, plant species of an indigenous people's homeland are considered "open source" for anyone to use as they see fit.  Valuable species are collected and transplanted to areas far outside their native range for maximum profit.  And that profit does not flow back to the original home range.  Rubber and coffee are two famous examples.  The Royal Botanical Garden at Kew was developed largely to process the botanical resources obtained by an expanding empire.  

Then again, moving some species around doesn't seem helpful.  The kousa dogwood (above) at the Japanese Garden blooms beautifully in May, but by June the leaf tips are turning brown.  By July the tree has an unhealthy burnt look.  It's definitely a case of a transplant that is not thriving.