David Douglas (1799–1834): The Scone Gardener Who Gave Us the Douglas Fir

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

Douglas kept journals of his North American travels, published in 1914, and these are the main source for his adventures. His death was witnessed by no one, and accounts were collected afterwards, so its circumstances remain uncertain.

Gardener's boy from Scone

established David Douglas was born in Scone on 25 June 1799, the son of a stonemason. He was a restless pupil but a keen naturalist, and around the age of eleven he was apprenticed as a gardener at Scone Palace. In 1820 he moved to the Glasgow Botanic Garden, where the professor of botany, William Hooker, took him on plant-collecting trips in the Highlands and recognised his talent. Hooker recommended him to the Horticultural Society of London, which was looking for collectors to send abroad.

The Pacific Northwest

established After a first trip to eastern North America in 1823, the Society sent Douglas to the Pacific Northwest. He sailed in July 1824, rounded Cape Horn and reached the mouth of the Columbia River in April 1825. Based at the Hudson's Bay Company post at Fort Vancouver, he travelled thousands of miles on foot, on horseback and by canoe through what is now Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, often alone or with Indigenous guides.

established He was overwhelmed by the scale of the forests. He collected cones from trees too tall to climb by shooting them down, and once wrote to Hooker that people would "begin to think I manufacture pines at my pleasure". In 1827 he crossed the Rocky Mountains to Hudson Bay and sailed home a celebrity.

What he brought home

established Douglas introduced about 240 species to British cultivation. The most important were conifers: the Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, noble fir, grand fir, sugar pine and, from California, the Monterey pine. In the twentieth century Sitka spruce became the most planted tree in British commercial forestry, and Douglas fir one of the most important timber species. He also introduced garden favourites, including the flowering currant and many lupins, which transformed Victorian gardens.

established The tree that carries his name was not named for him scientifically. Its Latin name, Pseudotsuga menziesii, honours Archibald Menzies, the Scottish naval surgeon and botanist who first recorded it on Vancouver Island in 1792. Douglas sent the seed that brought it into cultivation, and its English name honours him.

California and the Fraser River

established Douglas returned to the Columbia in 1829 and spent 1830–32 collecting in California. His eyesight was failing, his relations with the Horticultural Society had soured, and in 1833 he lost his journals, notes and collections when his canoe was wrecked on the Fraser River. He then sailed for Hawaii.

Death on Mauna Kea

shared On 12 July 1834 Douglas's body was found in a pit trap dug to catch wild cattle on the slopes of Mauna Kea, with a wild bull in the pit with him. He had last been seen at the house of Ned Gurney, an escaped convict from Australia who hunted cattle on the mountain. Some at the time, and some since, suspected that Gurney had murdered Douglas for his money and thrown his body into the pit. No evidence contradicted Gurney's account that Douglas had fallen in, and the death is usually recorded as an accident. He was 35.

Legacy

established A memorial to Douglas stands in the old kirkyard at Scone, and another marks the place of his death on Mauna Kea. David Douglas High School in Portland, Oregon, is named after him. Every Douglas fir and Sitka spruce plantation in Scotland is, in a sense, his monument.

shared That legacy has a complicated side. The vast Sitka spruce plantations of the twentieth century, though economically important, are criticised for damaging peatlands, including the Flow Country, and for their effect on native biodiversity. Douglas cannot be blamed for later forestry policy, but the trees he introduced are at the heart of that debate.

• Douglas shot cones down from trees too tall to climb.
• The Douglas fir's scientific name honours Archibald Menzies, not Douglas.
• Sitka spruce, which he introduced, is now Britain's most planted commercial tree.
• He lost his journals in a canoe wreck on the Fraser River in 1833.
• He died in a pit trap on a Hawaiian volcano at 35.
• A high school in Portland, Oregon, is named after him.

• Myth: Douglas discovered the Douglas fir, and its scientific name honours him. Archibald Menzies first recorded the tree in 1792, and Pseudotsuga menziesii honours him. Douglas sent the seed that brought it into cultivation, and its English name honours him.
• Disputed: how Douglas died. His body was found in a pit trap on Mauna Kea with a wild bull. Some suspected the escaped convict Ned Gurney of murder, but no evidence contradicted Gurney's account that Douglas fell in, and the death is usually recorded as an accident.
• Myth: Douglas is to blame for damaging conifer plantations. Sitka spruce plantations are criticised for harming peatlands such as the Flow Country, but Douglas cannot be blamed for later forestry policy. The trees he introduced are simply at the heart of that debate.