"The idea of travelling began for me as a child. My parents realised that I loved nature, and every summer we went to visit Europe and its botanical gardens. I was fascinated to discover the exotic garden in Monaco with all its cacti growing on a rock, the cold greenhouse in Lisbon with its tree ferns or the La Concepcion garden in Malaga with its subtropical vegetation. As we lived in Suresnes, I was also enchanted by the Bois de Boulogne, with its cascades of ferns and mosses.
I then developed a passion for tropical fish and aquatic plants, especially Cryptocorynes from South-East Asia. When I was 19, in 1972, I set off to find them in Khao Yai National Park in Thailand. It was a shock to see this tropical forest, hot and humid, where tigers still lived and whose footprints we sometimes came across on the paths. It was a bit chilling knowing that, according to legend, it was the last in line who risked being attacked...
Then from Bangkok I took the train to Penang Island in Malaysia. A marvellous twenty-four hour journey, at a derisory price. The berths were wide with real sheets, and you could spend hours in the restaurant car drinking beer. It was a very unusual atmosphere for me.
In the years following my studies in tropical botany, I first went to Asia and French Guiana to observe the growth dynamics of Araceae, plants in the Philodendron family. Then in 1976, as a young researcher, I spent four months between Thailand, Malaysia and Borneo. In Sarawak, we stayed in a longhouse with the Dayaks. I asked the tribal chief if there were any Cryptocorynes nearby, and he replied that he could only find them very far away. The next day, during a walk, I found some in a stream over which he passed every day. Sometimes the local people don't know everything about their environment, and that makes for some wonderful exchanges.
I had other thrills when Nicolas Hulot invited me to appear as a botanist on the Ushuaia programme. Particularly in 1996, when we were climbing the Ruwenzori mountain range in Uganda. It was a bit perilous, as the team climbed from 1,500 to 5,000 metres with the risk of altitude sickness and lack of oxygen. As usual, I had a bag slung over my shoulder and Pataugas on my feet. Everyone reproached me for being badly shod, but after wading through icy swamps, my Pataugas dried in the evening in no time, unlike 'official' walking shoes. In Venezuela, I had to descend into a four hundred metre chasm. Suspended above the void, I had to wait several hours before the sun appeared to start filming.
The green walls I invented some forty years ago have enabled me to create them from Hong Kong to San Francisco, via Sydney, Singapore, Dubai, Berlin and Miami. Recently, I was in Kuala Lumpur, where Jean Nouvel is building two huge towers. I suggested that he create the first hanging botanical garden, with over a hundred species of liana climbing up them. In this way, Asia is honouring my research work. As for the Chinese, they worship me like a plant god. In this country, there are now thousands of copiers, and this is their greatest tribute!
Key dates
1953 : Born in Issyles-Moulineaux, at the Clinique des Feurs.
1982 : Recruitment as a researcher at the CNRS.
1986 : Green wall at the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie in Paris.
1993 : Laureate of the Académie des Sciences.
2005 : Plant wall at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris.
2014 : The world's tallest green walls in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, designed by Jean Nouvel
The green wall, bringing nature to the city, Patrick Blanc, published by Michel Lafon.
