‘Lived Botany’: Settler Colonialism and Natural History in British North America

Natural historians in early America frequently benefited from information and plants provided by non-elite colonists. Yet these colonists did not think about plants using the categories and rules of natural history, but relied upon a form of knowledge that I call ‘lived botany.’ My term ‘lived botany’ reveals that settlers described plants using methods inspired by material culture, household production, and more. ‘Lived botany’ shaped early American natural history, and facilitated settler colonialism by allowing colonists to adapt to new environments in the Atlantic world.