#21: Make your own Wardian Case

Via SISI - Alien Detectives

A Wardian Case is a small enclosed ecosystem which can be created within a box or bottle. It can also be called a Terrarium.

This is a small experiment which can be undertaken to see how they work with a small plant inside a plastic bottle. It may be a good plan to create these at the relevant stage in the course, and track the success of the plants within them for a period of time.

It will be interesting to see what practical activities are suggested for students to complete as part of the draft specification to make the connection with the life sciences.

The Wardian case was created to try to keep plant speciments alive on the long journey back from plant hunting trips, or to send specimens long distances on board ships.

The first time they were used was an experiment. It took place in 1829, when the surgeon and amateur naturalist Nathanial Bagshaw Ward accidentally discovered that plants enclosed in airtight glass cases can survive for long periods without watering.

If you look outside of your window many of the plants that you see in the gardens are actually imports from other parts of the world. 

How natural are they really?

Wardian Case (1870 ) Copyright: Economic Botany Collection, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

This Kew Gardens piece looks at the importance of these portable greenhouses.

The new glass cases could be kept on deck allowing the plants to receive sunlight. The specially designed cases also protected plants from salt water, but allowed condensed moisture to reach the plants. With time and testing these cases were further developed to better protect the plants. This included the addition of crossed battens to hold the plants in place on rough crossings, and ventilation holes covered in perforated zinc to keep out rodents.

This Conversation piece looks at the impact of the Wardian case on Australia, which was of course affected by the tyranny of distance.

The cases were also used to break trade monopolies.

The invention also opened new opportunities for plants importing, breaking some of the geographic agricultural monopolies. One of the first and most noticeable cases was a Scottish botanist Robert Fortune’s venture: he smuggled tea plants from China in Wardian cases to start a new plantation in Assam, India, in the 1840s. 

The cases were also used in transportation of cinchona (quinine) plants from South Africa and rubber trees from Brazil.

This Linda Hall piece provides more detail on these cases.

There is potential here to use this as a context for exploring the movement of crops around the world, and how they connect with colonisation and some present day food brands and companies who benefited from the land grabs of the time.

#OTD 1855 a scientific meeting at the @ApothecariesLDN was hosted by Fellow of the @LinneanSociety Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward; he is seen standing next to his vivarium, the original 'Wardian case'. pic.twitter.com/1cruBsIIjE

— Glenn Benson (@talloaksfrom) April 11, 2023