Maybe the name of Thomas Fairchild It may not be familiar to you, but you may know one of its most important creations: artificial hybrid plants. Given his important contribution to the world of plants and flowers, we think it is interesting to get to know him a little better.
Let's review who this horticulturist and botanist who lived in the 18th century was and why his name is still popular today among gardening fans.
Who was Thomas Fairchild?
Although he is spoken of as a botanist, The truth is that Fairchild had no formal scientific studies, He was neither an academic nor an aristocrat. Despite this, he managed to stand out within the closed and elitist scientific society of England in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Thomas Fairchild was born in London in 1667 and lived there until his death in 1729. He was a gardener, and had a nursery in Hoxton. (a town outside London) in which he carried out multiple experiments with plants and flowers.
He was the first to hybridize a flower. But Its discovery was not immediately made known for religious reasons, since at that time it was understood that human beings could not intervene in the natural order of plants.
Although he never became a member of the Royal Academy, he participated in some of its plenary sessions. Furthermore, the botanists who were part of this entity recognized and appreciated Fairchild's work.
The artificial hybrid plant
The artificial hybrid plant is Thomas Fairchild's most important legacy to the world of botany. What he did was manually fertilize a flower of the Dianthus species with pollen from another species, resulting in a new plant. Thus, Dianthus caryophyllus var. barbatus.
An artificial hybrid plant is a plant created from the deliberate crossing of two different species or varieties, through human intervention. A process that is carried out to combine characteristics of those two species or varieties in a single plant, the hybrid.
The development of this technique has led to species that are more resistant to diseases and have improved performance. Something that is especially important in fruit trees and plants that produce food.
The creation of these plants is carried out through the technique of controlled pollination. Which involves manipulating the reproductive parts of plants to facilitate the transfer of pollen from one species to another. A process that can be carried out by hand or with brushes, but currently It is done with more sophisticated techniques such as emasculation of the flowers, in order to avoid unwanted self-fertilization.
Once the parent plants have been crossed, the resulting seeds are collected and planted, resulting in the hybrid plant.
This technique, which seems very normal to us today, is the result of the work of Thomas Fairchild. His experiment showed that plants could deliberately interbreed to give rise to varieties with desirable characteristics of different species and with unique traits. His work helped lay the foundation for modern research and work in plant improvement and plant genetics.
A late recognition
As has happened on other occasions with scientists who have been ahead of their time, Fairchild did not receive all the recognition he deserved at the time.
We have already noted before that he never became a member of the Royal Society, although it is known that he participated in its plenary sessions on two occasions. The first time, in 1720, Patrick Blair presented the artificial hybrid created by Fairchild. Already in 1724, Thomas himself gave a speech to the scholars.
In addition, he published different publications that highlight the great knowledge he had about the botanical world, despite not having specialized studies in this field:
- In 1722 he published The City Gardener. In which he explained which were the best plants for London gardens.
- In 1724 he read this article before the Royal Society and presented illustrations of the plants it mentioned. This document has ended up having such importance that today it is kept in the British Museum.
- In 1729 he published Catalog Plantarum.
- In 1730 he had already died, but Philip Miller (secretary of the Royal Society) published A catalog of trees and shrubs both exotic and domestic which are propagated for sale in the gardens near London. This work by Miller is strongly inspired by that of Fairchild and, for this reason, it is indexed in the British Museum under the name Fairchild.
Thomas Fairchild was a visionary who dared to experiment with artificial hybridization of plants, and had great success. Although he did not receive great recognition at his time, Today he is considered one of the protagonists in the development of botanical science and horticulture.
His work forever marked the Royal Society, which for more than 140 years has organized an annual address at Shoreditch Church to honor Fairchild's will. For this, The interested party himself had bequeathed a fund of 25 pounds.
From 1746, when the fund bequeathed by Fairchild had been exhausted, it was the Royal Society itself that was responsible for the cost and for appointing the lecturers. Since 1981, This annual address is held at St. Giles' Church Cripplegate.
A job with great impact
More than three centuries have passed since Thomas Fairchild artificially hybridized a plant and, since then, This genetic work has not stopped advancing. Having a significant impact at different levels:
- Development of horticulture and agriculture. His work laid the foundations for the development of new varieties of more resistant plants with greater fruit production capacity.
- Expansion of botanical knowledge. With his work, knowledge about plant genetics and the understanding of the mechanisms of plant inheritance took a leap in quality.
- Improvement in plant diversity. Artificial hybridization has enriched the genetic diversity of crops and ornamental plants.
Without a doubt, Thomas Fairchild has left us an important legacy that we should all know. A figure that deserves public recognition.