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Ferdinand von Mueller, John Dallachy, and the Golden Penda
Plant hunting in Far North Queensland
Golden Penda (Xanthostemon chrysanthus) are in flower. One moment, these small rainforest trees are covered in lime green buds, the next those buds explode like supernovae. Birds, bees and butterflies waste no time. Those flowers are rich in nectar.
John Dallachy arrived in Australia in 1848. Born in Scotland, he had trained in horticulture in the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Chiswick and Kew. After spending a few years in Sri Lanka, Dallachy and his family moved to Melbourne, where he was appointed curator of the city’s newly established botanical gardens. An enthusiastic collector, he gathered seeds and cuttings from native plants all over Victoria and brought them into cultivation.
In 1853, Ferdinand von Mueller accepted an invitation from Lieutenant-Governor Charles La Trobe to become official botanist for the Colony of Victoria. Mueller had migrated from Germany to Australia in 1847. A pharmacist by profession, his passion was botany. He settled in Adelaide and spent most of his time studying the plants of eastern South Australia, from Mount Gambier to the Flinders Ranges.
At the Melbourne botanical gardens, Mueller’s focus was on documenting the flora of Australia. When given the opportunity to join the North…
