The remarkable adventurer is associated with hundreds of plants, particularly the great Douglas fir.
Studied Plant Culture in Perth College
Born June 25, 1799 in Scone, the son of a stonemason, David Douglas spent much of his time as a boy studying flora and fauna on Kinnoul Hill.
At age 11, he left school to start a gardening apprenticeship at Scone Palace where he worked for seven years. He attended college in Perth to learn more about the scientific aspects of plant culture. While working at Fife, he had access to a library of books on zoology and botany.
Later working at the Botanical Gardens in Glasgow, David Douglas attended botany lectures at the University of Glasgow. Professor William Jackson Hooker, impressed by the young man’s knowledge and interest, took him on plant-finding trips in the Highlands. He taught him the correct methods of pressing and drying plants during the excursions.
Expeditions to North America
In 1823, recommended by the Professor, Douglas moved to the Horticultural Society in London. To test his abilities, the Society sent him to North America. The samples he collected near Amherstburgh, Ontario greatly impressed the Society.
His next expedition (1824) was to the Pacific north west under Hudson’s Bay Company sponsorship. He collected samples of numerous plants, including the Douglas fir. One of his mentors, Archibald Menzies who was also from Perthshire, had seen the tree during his earlier trip with Captain Vancouver. Douglas gave the botanical name, Pseudotsuga menziesii, to the great tree.
Columbia River and Hudson Bay
Between 1825 and 1827, during two expeditions, Douglas explored the wilds of the Columbia River area and its tributaries. While living off the land, he collected specimens of more than 200 species that included lupines, phlox, penstemon, sunflowers, gaillardia, and California poppy.
In 1827, he travelled to Selkirk’s Red River Settlement and on to Hudson Bay where he boarded ship and returned to London. In those two years, he covered more than 10,000 miles.
Douglas Fir Seed Planted at Scone Palace
In London, the adventurer was uncomfortable with the elite who hailed him as a hero. He was made a fellow of the Geological and Zoological Societies of London. After preparing and presenting his detailed journals, he visited his widowed mother in Scotland and his professor. He also planted seeds of the Douglas fir on the Scone Palace grounds where the tree is still growing.
During his next expedition, he spent eighteen months in California where he marveled at the giant redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens. He travelled up the Columbia River, then on the Fraser River and into the northern interior of present-day British Columbia.
Douglas was having problems with his eyesight due to snow blindness during an earlier expedition. While travelling through the Fort George Canyon, his canoe overturned. He lost his collections, maps, scientific journals, and instruments.
Last Expedition in Hawaii
After a five-day climb and search in Hawaii, he returned from the volcano Mauna Kea with species of lichens, mosses, and ferns. Douglas died July 1834, during an expedition to the north end of Hawaii (known then as the Sandwich Islands). He had fallen into a pit designed to catch wild cattle in which a bull had been caught. Many questioned the circumstances, but an inquest in Honolulu found no evidence of foul play.
David Douglas was buried in Honolulu at the Kawiashoa Church. A plaque to commemorate his achievements was installed. Douglas firs were planted near the site.
Though his career was brief, David Douglas introduced more North American plants to Europe than anyone else (more than 250). There are about 50 plant species and one genus (Douglasia) bearing his name. After his death, the great tree of western North America was given the name Douglas fir.
Sources:
Scots in the North American West, 1790-1917 by Ferenc Morton Szasz, University of Oklahoma Press, 2000
Traveler in a Vanished Landscape: The Life and Times of David Douglas by William Morwood, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., Publisher, 1973.
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