If you look up garden ruins or follies in the dictionary, you will be told that they are ‘costly ornamental buildings with no practical purpose.’
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution owes more to his garden than the Galápagos
21.08.2023 - 11:57 / theunconventionalgardener.com / guest
Header image: Down House: the home (and garden) of Charles Darwin. Credit: <a href=«https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kent-england-october-25-2015-history-667797409?src=» http:>Shutterstock
Ben Garrod, Anglia Ruskin University
It’s one of the greatest stories in science, right up there with Neil Armstrong’s small step on the moon and Jane Goodall’s overhaul of ideas on non-human relationships. When naturalist Charles Darwin first set foot in the Galápagos, an archipelago of volcanic islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean, he was just moments away from a revelation so significant it would change the way we look at life on Earth forever.
His arrival in the Galápagos was a seminal point in a five-year voyage. Once there, finches and giant tortoises were believed to provide the eureka moment from which our understanding of evolution through natural selection would emerge, evolve and flourish.
At least this is the story most of us know. But it’s not quite the full story. For those willing to read his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, you might be surprised to discover that the Galápagos does not form its central premise at all. In fact, those iconic finches barely get a mention. In terms of revelatory moments in the Galápagos, the various tortoises and mockingbirds held more importance for Darwin.
Besides, in many ways, his time there was a touchpaper for ideas which were more thoroughly investigated once home again in Britain and researched more rigorously with less exotic flora and fauna.
Although it’s too late to rebrand his most famous work, it might make sense to rename it “On the Origin of Pigeons, Worms and Barnacles”. These animals, along with the plants from his own country garden, provided him with much of the
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