Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro

In Rio de Janeiro's Botanical Garden, this guide follows a single palm brought as a seedling from Mauritius and planted by the Portuguese king in 1809, the year he founded the garden as a refuge from Napoleon's army. Two decades later the tree finally fruited, and its director tried to keep it one of a kind by ordering every seed burned. The enslaved workers who tended the grounds had other plans, and coffee planters across the countryside soon wanted in on the same status symbol.