20 Facts About David Fairchild

David Grandison Fairchild was an American botanist and plant explorer.

David Fairchild was born in Lansing, Michigan and was raised in Manhattan, Kansas.

David Fairchild was a member of the Fairchild family, descendants of Thomas Fairchild of Stratford, Connecticut.

David Fairchild continued his studies at Iowa State and at Rutgers with his uncle, Byron Halsted, a noted biologist.

Barbour Lathrop, a wealthy world traveler, persuaded David Fairchild to become a plant explorer for the US Department of Agriculture.

For many years David Fairchild managed the Office of Seed and Plant Introduction of the US Department of Agriculture in Washington, DC One accomplishment was to help introduce flowering cherry trees from Japan to Washington.

David Fairchild is credited with introducing kale, quinoa and avocados to Americans.

David Fairchild was a member of the board of trustees of the National Geographic Society, and an officer in what is called the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

David Fairchild covered this property with an extraordinary collection of rare tropical trees and plants and eventually wrote a book about the place, entitled The World Grows Round my Door.

David Fairchild was the namesake of David Fairchild Elementary in South Miami.

David Fairchild was a member of the board of regents of the University of Miami from 1929 to 1933.

David Fairchild herself wrote a book, East of the Andes and West of Nowhere, about living in rural Colombia during the 1940s.

David Fairchild is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, Anolis fairchildi.

Several plants were named after David Fairchild, including Indigofera heudelotii var.

David Fairchild played an important role in introducing cotton to the southwestern United States.

On behalf of the USDA, David Fairchild visited Egypt in 1902 and brought back a few cultivars.

David Fairchild wrote four books that describe his extensive world travels and his work introducing new plant species to the United States.

Beside sharing his legendary tropical botanical expertise, David Fairchild provided graphic accounts of native cultures he was able to see before their modernization.

David Fairchild was an accomplished photographer and illustrated these books himself.

David Fairchild wrote numerous monographs about plants, plant exploring, and the transportation and cultivation of new plants in the United States.