Travelling Tea Plants in
East Africa
Photo: Bengt G. Karlsson
Bengt G.
Karlsson
CASE 1. Travelling Tea Plants in
East Africa
British settlers brought the Assam tea plant from India to East Africa, turning dense forests into monocultural plantations. Climate change and plant breeding reducing the tea species’ genetic diversity have now made these plantations highly vulnerable. Tea plants have also escaped into nearby forest and become ”invasive”.
Plants do move, but at a pace and in manners that humans tend to miss. British planters carried seeds across the Indian Ocean to grow tea on colonized lands.
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Selected publications
Dealing with Biodiversity Dilemmas in Ordinary Places: The Case of Invasive and Introduced Species
2024. von Essen, E., Ahlberg, K., Cole, T., Karlsson B. G., and Maček, I. Nature and Culture 19(3): 237-45. https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2024.190301
The Imperial Weight of Tea
2021. Karlsson, B. G. Geoforum: 1-10.
Life and Death in the Plantation
2021. Karlsson, B. G. Seedways: 121-44.
Blog posts
2 May, 2024 Travelling Tea Plants
