They began counting, sampling and preserving every species of flowering plant that unfurls its petals over the next 12 months in Great Puckland's Meadow, next to Down House in Kent.
Down House at Downe was Darwin's home: the scene of the painstaking observation and experiment that led to his great book The Origin of Species in 1859. In June 1855, Darwin collected wildflowers from the 13-acre hay meadow next to his house, and recorded 142 species. He did not, however, leave a list: very few of the plants of 1855 are known.
"It is very important that we recreate the experiment to learn how he did his work. This time we will survey and sample it properly: the only thing we have from Darwin is that he sampled 142 species: we do not know which species he sampled," said Johannes Vogel, of the Natural History Museum in London. "Everything we collect will be incorporated in our herbarium collection at the Natural History Museum. We are also going to take DNA samples and we are including the amateur naturalists from around Down to help us with that survey."
Darwin recorded his wildflower collection in the first long draft of his masterwork because he was interested in diversity and its role in evolution.
