The Botanical King of Colorado: Charles Christopher Parry’s Mountain Legacy
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
August 28, 1823
My dear green-thumbed companions, today marks the birthday of a most remarkable plantsman, the one and only Charles Christopher Parry, crowned the "King of Colorado Botany," who graced this earth on this day in 1823.
Darlings, our birthday boy discovered both the Torrey pine and Engelmann spruce—names that whisper of the illustrious mentors who shaped his botanical journey. Though Parry danced with academic luminaries, his heart belonged not to the ivory tower but to you and me—the everyday dirt-diggers and bloom-admirers.
In 1845, while still a fresh-faced college student, Parry studied under the magnificent John Torrey (what I wouldn't give to have attended those lectures!). He formed a delicious friendship with Asa Gray, another of Torrey's protégés. By 1848, our botanical hero was learning the trade secrets from none other than George Engelmann, that dazzling star of the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Sweet pea enthusiasts, imagine the summer of 1862, when Parry, like a horticultural Pied Piper, led Elihu Hall and J.P. Harbour on a Colorado expedition! The trio gathered ten complete sets containing over 700 species—a collection that, according to William Weber, remains "the largest ever made in Colorado in a single season."
What ambition!
What dedication!
For twenty glorious summers, our beloved Parry nestled himself in a cabin between Torrey Peak and Gray Peak—mountains he christened after his mentors. My fellow flower-lovers, isn't there something utterly romantic about naming geography after those who shaped your mind? He even named a mountain after his wife—Eva Peak—and another Mount Flora.
A man after my own heart!
In 1870, during what must have been a thrilling visit to England, Parry met the botanical maestro of the age: Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. It was the esteemed Hooker who bestowed upon Parry the magnificent title "King of Colorado Botany." And rightfully so!
But Colorado couldn't contain our Parry's passion. He traversed the West with the enthusiasm of a child in a sweet shop, amassing over 30,000 specimens for his herbarium. Imagine that collection, dear she-shed besties—30,000 botanical treasures!
While collecting in California, he maintained his delightful habit of recording thoughts in notebooks.
Occasionally, the landscape moved him to poetry, as in this enchanting passage from his California sojourn:
"A newborn moon hangs her crescent over the western hills, and by its full-orbed light, we hope to see our way to winter quarters on the Pacific."
Don't you just feel the moonlight on your face, my garden companions?
Such was the magic of Parry—botanist, explorer, poet, and king—whose legacy blooms eternal in the mountains and flora he so ardently documented for us all.
