Exhibition Date：18th Nov 2009 - 31th May 2010

Exhibition Venue：National Museum of Natural Science–Sunshine Passage

Sponsor：National Museum of Natural Science, International Collaboration and Promotion of Taiwan e-Learning and Digital Archives Program —Digitization of Historic Museum Collections from Taiwan Deposited in Other Countries

Co-sponsor：The University Museum, The University of Tokyo, The Kochi Prefectural Makino Botanical Garden, Center of Digital Humanities , National Taiwan University

Loaner：Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, SMC Publishing Inc., Herbarium, National Taiwan University, National Museum of Taiwan History, Herbarium of Taiwan Forestry Research Institiute

Through sample collection and public education the world was first introduced to Taiwan’s’ flora in 1845. In the century and a half that followed, the island’s biosphere quietly changed during the Dutch occupation, under the Chengkung Cheng rule, through the annexation by the Qing dynasty, then cession to the Japanese, and finally to the Chinese KMT that came to Taiwan. However, few noticed these ecological changes. Some of the changes were quite drastic; for example the tidal basin of the Danshui River, in its early days, ran rampant with rice paper plants and Formosan lilies. But informing people of that today would most likely result in a wide-eyed look of disbelief. Furthermore the tea plant Wuweishan Drupetea, which used to dominate the southern landscape in Taiwan, disappeared for the next 100 years after being amassed by the British and Japanese from the 19th to 20th centuries. Fortunately, the Wuweishan Drupetea has just recently been rediscovered. Why?

The tides of time and shifts in political agendas gouged a destructive trail in our ecology. Native plants slowly became displaced by cultivated crops, and virgin woodlands were razed for new development. Faced with a continually diminishing habitat, wild animals and native plants could only acquiesce, and often disappeared forever. The disappearance and the mysterious reemergence of Wuweishan Drupetea should serve as a reminder to us all; we need to reevaluate our past practices, and stop taking our natural environment for granted.

Following the footsteps of various botanists who collected plants in Taiwan since 1854, this exhibition introduces audiences to the natural history of flora in Taiwan with a special tribute to the plant Wuweishan Drupetea.