Mountains of Wonder: Patrick Synge’s Botanical Adventures

September 17, 1910

Dearest garden enthusiasts, today we celebrate the birth of Patrick Millington Synge, a British botanist whose adventures in African plant hunting and subsequent leadership at the Royal Horticultural Society would help shape 20th-century garden writing.

Like his predecessor Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, who explored the Himalayas, Synge ventured into some of the world's most challenging terrains.

In 1934, he joined the British Museums expedition to the Ruwenzori range in Kenya and Uganda, following in the footsteps of earlier botanical explorers like Francis Masson and George Forrest.

What wonders must have filled his mind as he encountered plants that seemed to defy reality?

His experiences in these mysterious mountains, which ancient Herodotus called the Mountains of the Moon, led to his masterwork The Mountains of the Moon. Like Frank Kingdon-Ward's accounts of plant hunting in Tibet, Synge's writing captured both scientific detail and romantic wonder.

Here is his lyrical description of an African lake scene:

Slowly we glide out through a long lane of water cut through the papyrus thicket into Lake Kyoga, where blue water lilies cover the surface with a far-stretching shimmer of blue and green...

What magical realm did Synge reveal to his readers?

Imagine encountering six-foot-tall impatiens, when their garden cousins barely reach our knees!

How must it have felt to stand beneath 30-foot-tall lobelia and tree-like heather, as if having wandered into a botanical Alice's Wonderland?

The great Vita Sackville-West herself fell under the spell of Synge's storytelling.

Here are her enchanted words about his work:

Readers of Mr. Patrick Synge's enthralling book... will remember his photographs of this alarming plant (groundsel).

As editor of the Royal Horticultural Society's publications, Synge followed in the tradition of William Robinson, combining practical knowledge with engaging prose. Like his contemporary E.A. Bowles, his influence extended far beyond his plant hunting adventures.

Today, his legacy blooms in our gardens through Narcissus hispanicus ex 'Patrick Synge' and that beloved exotic, Abutilon 'Patrick Synge'. Much as Ernest Wilson is remembered in Lilium regale, Synge lives on in these botanical namesakes!

What better tribute to a plant hunter than to have his name forever linked with the beautiful flowers he so loved?

Let this anniversary of his birth remind us that the greatest garden adventures often begin with a single step into the unknown!