Jun 1, 2022
The “Plant Messiah” and his lifelong obsession with nature’s beauty and wisdom with Carlos Magdalena
*In this episode of The Internationalist, host Julio Bruno is joined by Carlos Magdalena, tropical botanical horticulturist at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in London. *
* In this in-depth conversation, Carlos shares his childhood memories and true inspirations for becoming a horticulturist, for example, Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, who was a Spanish doctor, a naturalist, a self-taught biologist, and a broadcaster. Moreover, moving out to London made him conscious of the link between humans and destruction, especially thoughtless destruction of the planet, which is an undeniable issue in today’s environment.*
*Carlos claims that plants are not what people think they are - unlike inanimate objects, plants communicate using chemicals and fungi present in their roots, which is more complex than human communication. He argues that it takes at least several years of observation to understand how plants behave.*
*Expressing his obsession with horticulture, Carlos explains how it allowed…