Sources for “Touch Me Not”

“Touch Me Not” is a flash piece from the point of view of what we in the English-speaking world call the Himalayan balsam. Given that the work touches on the plant’s history, specifically its journey from the Himalayas to Europe in an era of European colonization in Asia, I read pertinent (and sometimes tangential) articles and papers to grasp this aspect of non-human history. Here, I share the readings that helped me write “Touch Me Not,” along with my notes.

Before the 1840s, colonial masters engaged in seed smuggling by placing seeds in layers of dried banana leaves, then placing these banana leaves in cane baskets. This was the case for the rubber tree in Brazil. I couldn’t find information on how other seeds were transported from the European colonies, but it’s possible that they were smuggled in the same way. Most seeds died during the travel; I saw a 19 to 20 ratio of deaths to survivors.

• Sir Henry Wickham (1846-1928), drawings. Christie’s.

• ”Sir Henry Alexander Wickham,” by John Loadman.

• “Adventurer Wickham sowed the seeds of success for global rubber trade.” Daily Express, 2 September 2022.

• “The International Natural Rubber Market, 1870-1930.” EH.net.

• “What Is Natural Rubber and Why Are We Searching for New Sources?” by Marina Arias and Peter J. van Dijk, in Frontiers, 19 July 2019.

The Wardian case, which was like an early terrarium, was invented by accident in 1829. After a few successful test sails, in the 1840s, people stopped transporting seeds and instead began transporting seedlings and more mature sprouts. Death to survival ratio reversed to 1 to 20. “Touch Me Not” opens before the widespread use of the Wardian case, because the Himalayan balsam was introduced in London as an ornamental plant in 1839.

• “How a Glass Terrarium Changed the World,” by Jen Maylack, in The Atlantic, 12 November 2017.

• Old Rose History and Synopsis by Brent C. Dickerson.

• “Europe’s obsession with Chinese flowers through the centuries, and how a portable greenhouse transformed the intercontinental plant trade,” by Jason Wordie, in South China Morning Post, 18 October 2022.

• “The Wardian Case: How a Simple Box Moved the Plant Kingdom,” by Luke Keogh, in Arnoldia Volume 74, Issue 4, 17 May 2017.

• “The Wardian case: Botany game changer,” by Katie Avis-Riordan, Kew.org, 6 December 2019.

The following websites helped me get an estimate for the full moons from 1838 to 1839, especially for the journey between India and Britain before the Suez Canal opened in 1869. In my mind, plants don’t have the same concept of time as humans do—the days and months and years—so I turned to moon phases instead. The mention of seven full moons in “Touch Me Not” is my own approximation.

• Phases of the Moon: 1801 to 1900. Astropixels.

• Full Moon 1838. Moonposition.

• Full Moon 1839. Moonposition.

• ”The East India Company trade, c. 1800,” by Simeon Netchev, Worldhistory.org, 27 September 2022.

• ”India British Period (1800-1947CE) - Geography and People,” by Hemendra Acharya, Lokvani.com, 17 November 2022.

Plants from Asia, such as azaleas and hydrangeas (from Japan), were smuggled to Britain and replanted in London’s Kew Gardens. Rubber tree seedlings (whose seeds had been transported from Brazil) also grew at Kew Gardens and were later shipped to Ceylon and other British colonies.

• “How did Japanese plants get into British gardens?” by Cecily Nowell-Smith, Kew.org, 15 October 2021.

• Old Rose History and Synopsis by Brent C. Dickerson.

In “Touch Me Not,” the block quote from the Spirit Stealers incorporates phrases in news articles and government websites about the “invasive species” on my side of the world. I didn’t fabricate the war language. Phrases like “better diversity for our native species” and “coloniz[ing] roads and rail tracks” are also pulled from the same sources.

• “Invasive plants use roads to colonise Swiss Alps.” Swissinfo.ch, 27 January 2023.

• “How Switzerland is battling invasive species,” by Luigi Jorio, Swissinfo.ch, 22 May 2019.

• “Exotic palms in southern Switzerland displace native species.” Swissinfo.ch, 14 March 2023.

• “Invasive Neophyten.” Infoflora.ch.

The structure of the above-mentioned block quote, and how it is one long sentence, is inspired by a letter of conscription written by Abraham Lincoln in 1863; accessed on Loc.org.

The poems quoted in “Touch Me Not” are:

• “A Red, Red Rose,” by Robert Burns, 1794. Accessed in Poetry Foundation.

• ”Between Fulmination and Adoration,” by Lois P. Jones, 2022. Accessed on Poets.org.

As I was about to finish one of the early drafts of “Touch Me Not,” I wondered: In Britain, and perhaps other parts of Europe, why were some flowers propagated over others in the 1800s? The rose that is the face of Valentine’s Day today, the hybrid tea rose, emerged from breeding European and Chinese varieties of roses. Why is that, along with azaleas and hydrangeas, not considered invasive in Europe, while other flowers, like the Himalayan balsam, are? How much was economics a factor? Roses were well-loved for their fragrance even then, and they were used in the growing tea industry. Azaleas, despite being poisonous, are said to be easy for people to grow in their gardens. Was the desire to control plants—where, how much, and how often they grow—what informed the Himalayan balsam’s status as an invasive species and weed? The hardy balsam can grow and spread without humans, and it hasn’t been contained by humans. And isn’t control of resources a backbone of any industry, monopoly, or oligopoly?

• “A Brief History of the Rose,” by Cynthia Haynes, in Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Horticulture and Pest News, last reviewed in January 2023.

• “Tea Tuesdays: The Scottish Spy Who Stole China’s Tea Empire,” by NPR Staff, 10 March 2015.

• “Britain’s Great Tea Heist,” by Nicola Twilley, Cynthia Graber, and Gastropod, in The Atlantic, 2 August 2017.

I’m not the first to consider the parallels between nationalist/anti-immigrant/imperialist sentiments and genocide in the non-human realm. These works gave me the confidence to pursue “Touch Me Not.”

• “The rhetoric of invasive species: Managing belonging on a novel planet,” by Alison E. Vogelaar, Revue française des sciences de l’information et de la communication [Online], 21 | 2021, online since 1 January 2021.

• “Invasive species as a metaphor for colonization,” by Jessica Hernandez, in Rewilding Magazine, 16 June 2022.

• “It’s time to stop demonizing 'invasive' species,” by Marina Bolotnikova, in Vox, 28 November 2021.

Similarly, I want to acknowledge people whose writing and work on their respective lands (through permaculture, and more importantly, natural farming and agroforestry) have shown me other ways of living and engaging with nature. I’m grateful for their generosity.

• Masanobu Fukuoka, who wrote The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural Farming (1975). Fukuoka grew and maintained his orchard in Japan with the help of the Morishima acacia. In his book, he spoke of the tree’s functions and benefits, and was mindful enough to add that it was not “native” to Japan.

• Ben Falk, who wrote The Resilient Farm and Homestead: An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach (2013). Falk believes that “non-native species,” or “invasive species,” are important to biodiversity, which in turn helps make the earth more resilient. He questions the whole notion of nativeness by asking, “Native to when?” I highly recommend his appearance on the podcast Rewild Yourself, where he discusses the concept of invasive species.

• Angela of Parkrose Permaculture on YouTube, for talking about invasive species, showing how she uses “weeds” in her garden, and leading me to Ben Falk.

• Timothy Lee Scott, who wrote the book Invasive Plant Medicine (2010). In it, he details how chemical companies and governments have begun and bolstered warfare on plants and people, and he shares the medicinal benefits of the “weeds” and “invasive species” in the US.