I want to share with you one of the most incredible stories - a story about the stunning flowers Bougainvillea and the first woman who traveled around the world.
In 1766, French Navy admiral Louis Antoine de Bougainville was commissioned by the king to sail around the world in the First French circumnavigation. The expedition was accompanied by a brilliant, internationally renowned scientist-botanist - Philibert Commerçon and his assistant and co-researcher - Jeanne Baret. When Commerçon was unable to collect specimens around Rio de Janeiro due to an old leg injury, it was Jeanne Baret, who went to explore the area and brought back aboard an exotic magenta-flowered vine of the plant that is known today as Bougainvillea.
Commerçon and Baret were both exceptional botanists and partners in life and work. The king himself invited Commerçon to join the scientific expedition as chief naturalist. However, at that time, women were strictly prohibited on French navy ships, so 26-year-old Jeanne Baret joined the trip disguised as a man. Jeanne acted as Commerçon’s assistant, "Jean Baret", in order to travel the world. She assisted her beloved one, who was in poor health, kept papers organized, and collected plants during the expedition.
How did the paths of a peasant like Jeanne Baret and an aristocrat and outstanding scholar like Commerçon cross? While Commerçon learned from books, Baret learned from oral traditions and nature herself, knowing the medieval secrets and medicinal properties of plants. She was a highly intelligent "herb woman" and was not only Commerçon's student, but also his teacher. They shared a passion for plants and botany, and later became romantic partners.
Jeanne's time onboard and during the trips inland to gather plants was not easy. She repeatedly demonstrated strength and stamina, frequently carrying heavy boxes with papers and plant samples.
The Bougainvellia flower was discovered during this trip, but it was not Admiral Bougainville who wandered inland searching for plant specimens. Commerçon probably also didn’t explore much ashore either, as he had limited mobility, suffering from a leg injury. So, it was Jeanne who was responsible for collecting most of the South American plants, over a thousand of which are still found in herbariums today.
A girl passionate about plants, from a social class that would rarely travel further than their village, hiding her identity to follow her love and passion - there is hardly any doubt that it was she who discovered and appreciated the Bougainvillea.
I wonder how she felt standing there in front of the magnificent magenta bush, meeting it for the first time ever, seeing what no one has ever seen?
Admiral Bougainville admired her courage and effort and wrote about Jeanne in his journal “…she well knew when we embarked that we were going round the world, and that such a voyage had raised her curiosity. She will be the first woman that ever made it, and I must do her the justice to affirm that she has always behaved on board with the most scrupulous modesty. She is neither ugly nor pretty, and is not yet twenty-five.”
Being an invisible hero, as invisible as tiny flowers of Bougainvellia, did she know - that it was all worth it? That she was as exceptional and grand as the magenta cloud… Jeanne Baret stayed in history as the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. While her heritage - the stunning Bougainvellia, symbolizing passion and beauty - fascinates people in different parts of the world.
Jeanne Baret lived a long adventurous life. Her birthday was on July 27, 1740.