Marc Finnell
speaker
240 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 28 Jun
Marc Finnell’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.
Appearances
It's a story about plants being uprooted from one part of the world and transplanted into another, and the enormous consequences that came with that.
And the Wardian case was one of the crucial tools affecting food, science, trade, industry.
If you told Nathaniel Ward that his glass plant box would end up reshaping world history, I'm not sure he'd have believed you.
The thing about the Wardian case is that, yes, it was a microenvironment housing a plant, but it also housed soil, which could introduce some nasty things to its new home.
After a century of being used all around the world, the Wardian case was eventually phased out.
Partially because of its habit of introducing invasive species, but also international transport just got faster.
You didn't have to put plants on long ship journeys, you could pluck them, wrap them in plastic and fly them to their new home.
Today, there are only about a dozen original Wardian cases left.
Most of them are in Kew Gardens in London.
But in Australia, there is one.
This is Deborah Tyler, president of the Waroona Historical Society, which is south of Perth.
To this day, the far-reaching consequences and colonial legacy of the Wardian case still felt all over the world.
Dr. Luke Keogh is the author of the book, The Wardian Case, How a Simple Box Moved Plants and Changed the World.
Now, if you were listening to that and you would like to know more about Robert Fortune, the botanist who nicked tea from China, I have excellent news for you.
The brand new season of Stuff the British Stole, the TV series, it is streaming right now on ABC iView.
And the very first episode is about Robert Fortune.
And if you want to hear more about quinine and how the British moved those plants, there's an episode of the Stuff the British Stole podcast you can listen to, and there is a link in the show notes.
This episode of No One Saw It Coming, though, was produced by Zoe Ferguson and Rebecca Metcalf.
No One Saw It Coming is made on Gadigal land in Sydney, Australia, for ABC Radio National.
I'm Mark Finnell, and I'll catch you next week.
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