Celebrating Plant Explorer Frank Kingdon Ward: An Intrepid Explorer Who Brought Beauty Home

"During the beginning of the twentieth century, Frank Kingdon-Ward went on twenty-four Indiana-Jones-like expeditions throughout Tibet, China, and Southeast Asia in search of rare and elusive species of plants.
Among his many accomplishments, Frank found the legendary Tibetan blue poppy."

November 6, 1885

On this day, Frank Kingdon-Ward, English botanist, explorer, plant collector, and author, was born.

During the beginning of the twentieth century, Frank Kingdon-Ward went on twenty-four Indiana-Jones-like expeditions throughout Tibet, China, and Southeast Asia in search of rare and elusive species of plants.

Among his many accomplishments, Frank found the legendary Tibetan blue poppy.

Frank’s accounts of his adventures are captivating.

In 1942, he arrived in New Delhi after a 500-mile walk over mountains and through jungles.

A newspaper account said:

A thin, wiry little man in his 50s, Captain Kingdon-Ward...decided that the Japanese were getting too close for comfort so he loaded two 60-pound bags of rice on two mules...

But instead of taking the short road through the Chaukan pass, [he] decided to travel the 500 mile mule trail through Tibet... 

[Kingdon-Ward tramped] knee-deep in snow [and] crossed the Himalayas at the 14,500 foot pass....

[He said]

"It was a pleasant walk and [my] reward is in the finding of dazzling flowers never seen before.

You know they may always blush unseen unless you manage to take them back and make them grow where others can admire them.

They are a little bit of the enchantment of Asia transplanted into England or America.

It is satisfaction enough if you can feel in an industrial age like the present that you have brought home a little beauty for others to enjoy."


This post was featured on
The Daily Gardener podcast:

helping gardeners find their roots,
one story at a time
Frank Kingdon-Ward 1932
Frank Kingdon-Ward 1932
Frank Kingdon Ward
Frank Kingdon Ward
Frank Kingdon-Ward, 1942
Frank Kingdon-Ward, 1942
Frank Kingdon-Ward, 1952
Frank Kingdon-Ward, 1952
Frank Kingdon-Ward 1948
Frank Kingdon-Ward 1948
Frank Kingdon-Ward
Frank Kingdon-Ward

Leave a Comment