The renowned Prussian adventurer and science aficionado, Alexander von Humboldt, once said that nature must be experienced through feelings. This pure and immaterial love that comes from being surrounded by a dreamy yet mysterious environment is perhaps what has made the Canary Islands a worthy subject of study. With its volcanic terrain, exotic flora, and unique fauna on the planet – as well as its convenient location on the map – the Archipelago has managed to capture the attention of naturalists and botanists who, with time, observation, and research, have turned the islands into a melting pot of knowledge that continues to inspire dozens of life sciences enthusiasts today.
The isolation of the Canary Islands has provided its animal and plant world with a particular evolution that, as in other archipelagos, differs from the species on the mainland, even though in many cases they have a similar origin. But these indigenous singularities remained in complete obscurity for years until the mid-seventeenth century when a steady stream of the most enlightened travellers from Europe began to arrive in the Archipelago on their way to the Americas.
Canary Islands were in the right place at the right time to become a port of call. Islands halfway between the old continent and the new world, owned by the Spanish crown – which at that time also controlled the largest of Central America – and with sufficient services to prepare a ship for the long journey ahead. In the eyes of any European of the Enlightenment, the attractive volcanic geological formations, topped by the “lighthouse” of Teide, were a sufficient draw to show a primitive amazement for the Canary Islands. But those who ventured into the Islands and took note of its nature realized that there was more to be fascinated by.
Such was Humboldt’s reputation in the scientific world that the mere mention of the Canary Islands was enough to make the Archipelago known
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“We have to go back to 1724 to find the first journey that established a scientific exploration work in the Canary Islands,” explains philosopher and member of the Canary Foundation Orotava History of Science, Alberto Relancio. It was the French astronomer, mathematician, botanist, and religious Louis Feuillée who first embarked on a scientific mission to the Islands. He had a clear objective: to establish the position of El Hierro to discover, in turn, the coveted Prime Meridian of the planet.
“Feuillée was not satisfied with these observations and geographical measurements,” says Relancio, explaining that the “naturalistic” aspect that characterized him led him to also conduct botanical explorations on all the islands he visited. Although it was not a very long journey, the Frenchman managed to describe around thirty plant species unknown to science at the time, including iconic plants such as the Teide Violet (Viola cheiranthifolia) or the Orchilla (Rocella canariensis).
The Exploration Boom
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After that first experiment, silence prevailed for another 50 years. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the arrivals of foreign scientists to the Canary Islands began to be more frequent. “Canaries was considered an exotic stopover and Teide was a big help, as it was considered the tallest mountain in the world for years,” highlights Relancio. In this stream of minds, one of the greatest stars of Enlightenment science landed in the Canary Islands: the naturalist Alexander von Humboldt.
His passion for exploration led him to fund – with the significant sum of money he had inherited after his mother’s death – a costly trip to the Spanish colonies in America, which also had to make a stop in the Canary Islands. Although most of his bibliography refers to his brief stay in Tenerife, the first place that the restless, curious, and adventurous young man set foot on beyond the old continent was La Graciosa. “He made a mistake, his nautical charts were not very good,” explains Fundoro director Miguel Ángel González.
Shortly afterwards, he arrived, this time, in Tenerife where, alongside his companion, botanist Aimé Bonpland, he took the opportunity to do some sightseeing. “Everyone followed the northern route, went up Teide and came down, it was heavily travelled, and in fact, those who had already been there mentioned that there was not much to see,” recalls González. However, Humboldt insisted on refuting that belief.
Images of the work of Berthelot and Webb. / Fundoro
In the mere six days he spent on the island, Humboldt did not conduct in-depth studies on the idiosyncrasy of the Canary Islands – although it did inspire him to establish his famous theory of vegetation zones on Chimborazo – but at that time, his nature-loving reputation was so great in the scientific world that the mere mention of this spot in the middle of the Atlantic was enough to make the Archipelago’s name known in various scientific circles.
Contemporaries of Humboldt included the botanist Auguste Broussonet, who balanced his work asFrench consul in Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1800-1807) with the collection and illustration of local flora, which he compiled in the Florilegium canariense herbarium that was never published; and the taxonomist Francis Masson who in 1778 stayed in Puerto de la Cruz and with his studies laid the foundations of the taxonomy of many species in the Macaronesian region that are still valid today.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the peculiarities of the Canary Islands began to attract more specialists, who had already had the opportunity to read the few lines Humboldt dedicated to the island in his work published in 1807: Le voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent(Journey to the equinoctial regions of the New World). “It was one of the reasons that led the German geologist Leopold von Buch to travel through the Canaries in 1915,” reveals Relancio. Buch’s work Physical Description of the Canary Islands comprehends systematic botanical aspects of a six-month journey that crossed Tenerife, La Palma, Gran Canaria, and Lanzarote.
Humboldt’s accounts even reached the eyes of Charles Darwin who, however, was denied access to the Canary Islands. “On January 6th, we arrived in Tenerife, but we were prohibited from disembarking; for fear that we carried cholera,” reads one of the first lines of the first chapter of ‘Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited’, one of Darwin’s early works. The English scientist was forced to stay aboard the Beagle, the same ship that would take him to the Galapagos Islands, where he would take the first notes that would eventually lead him to write his magnum opus: On the Origin of Species.
He could not set foot on the island, but he could see how the sun “rose behind the rugged profile of Gran Canaria island“ to “suddenly illuminate the peak of Tenerife”. Although many have dreamed about what Darwin’s landing could have meant for the Canary Islands, González is clear: “it would not have changed anything”. “What he could have seen in the Islands would not have been very different from what he saw in Cape Verde,” says the director of Fundoro.
Images of the flora of the Canary Islands by Berthelot and Webb / Fundoro
Humboldt’s exploits and Darwin’s theories inspired the zoologist Ernst Haeckel to visit the Canary Islands in 1866 for a year. The naturalist, a staunch follower of Darwin’s theories, argued that all organisms (animals, plants, and unicellular organisms) came from a single ancestral form. His studies on marine biology, carried out in collaboration with Müller, led him to compare crystal symmetry with that of the simplest animals, and to postulate an inorganic origin for them. This obsession with symmetry led him to produce around a thousand engravings with sketches and watercolors -with shapes and colors creating a psychedelic effect-, in a technique he also used to depict the marine fauna of Lanzarote.
But if there is a scientific work that marked a before and after in the history of biology in the Canary Islands, it is the Natural History of the Canary Islands, published in 1950 with an ambitious expedition through the Archipelago that took place between 1827 and 1830. This work, which also includes aspects of ethnology or the history of the Islands, was almost a whim of the Frenchman Sabin Berthelot. “Berthelot spent half his life here,” recalls the philosopher at Fundoro. The naturalist fell in love with the Canary Islands and wanted the world to be aware of the natural treasure it held. To achieve this, he persuaded the English aristocratic botanist Philip Barker Webb, who had planned a brief visit to the Canaries.
He convinced him to travel through the Islands for three years. During that time, they not only studied the different aspects that made the Canaries a unique environment but also captured those natural wonders in a large number of prints of animals, plants, and landscapes of the Archipelago. “It was one of the aspects that most caught the public’s attention, as they were not only accurate but also eye-catching,” explains Relancio. In the Canarian Foundation Orotava History of Science, in fact, they still keep as the treasure it is part of those graphic documents within reach of those curious about the history of the Islands.
“Following the publication of the book, divided into several volumes, a period began in which scientific exploration voyages progressed towards greater specialization,” explains González. As he asserts, “the impact was enormous throughout Europe,” but in the Canary Islands, it was much less because the work was very expensive and “few people could afford it.” In fact, the University of La Laguna was unable to purchase it at the time.
The dawn of biology in the Canary Islands
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Despite all the knowledge that circulated through the Canary Islands, few Canary Islanders took an interest in the natural world and contributed in a way that marked a before and after. The native of La Realejo, José Viera y Clavijo (1731-1813) is considered the first islander to take an interest in the natural richness of the Islands, but he was not an explorer at heart. “Viera y Clavijo published several descriptive works, but many samples were
Exploring the Fascinating World of Science in the Canary Islands
Relancio narrates, “compilations of what others had already studied.”
Much later, the physician and entomologist Elías Santos Abreu (1856-1937) arrived. The man from La Palma was, alongside Blas Cabrera Felipe from Lanzarote, one of the most prominent scientific figures in the first third of the 20th century in the Canary Islands. According to the records of the research he conducted in a small analysis laboratory – one of the first in Spain – in 1892, Santos would have discovered penicillin even before Fleming himself. However, the distance from major research centres and the lack of adequate equipment deprived humanity of the benefits of this antibiotic three decades earlier.
Canarias established its interest in natural sciences in 1966 with the creation of the Biological Sciences department at the University of La Laguna, spearheaded by the marine biology professor Fernando Lozano Cabo. The Canarian Arnoldo Santos witnessed the first graduating class of future biologists. Santos, like many others, felt drawn to the lush nature of the Canary Islands from a young age. “I grew up in the countryside and was always in touch with the mountains, eager to learn about my surroundings,” he recalls.
The Realejo-born José Viera y Clavijo (1731-1813) is considered the first islander to take an interest in the natural richness of the Islands but did not possess the explorer’s spirit.
For him, the creation of the Biology Department allowed him to pursue what he truly desired, as until then, only the Chemistry Department existed, and he mentions that his family did not have enough money for him to study outside the Archipelago. However, the beginnings were not easy. “There was no one in the Canary Islands who could teach some of these subjects,” Santos recalls, mentioning that this situation led them to be without a teacher for several months. “We even organized some protests and went on strike,” Santos remembers. They also did not have a laboratory, but this also allowed them to spend a lot of time outdoors.
Throughout its six decades of existence, the current Faculty of Biology has trained thousands of biologists who have managed to dissect the Canarian nature to learn about it on-site. Meanwhile, the Canary nature itself has continued to inspire many other scientists, who, even when retired or emigrated, still feel the same pristine love for nature that led Humboldt to unravel its mysteries.
