In 1799, the renowned German polymath
Alexander von Humboldt, accompanied by French botanist
Aimé Bonpland, embarked on a five-year trip to South America. On one occasion, in January 1800, they traveled 130 miles, climbing the Silla de Caracas mountain near Caracas, Venezuela, passed through the valleys of Aragua and Tui, visited the mountains of Los Tequos, the hot springs of Mariare and Trinchera, and the northern shore of the lake of Valencia (by the town of Valencia, Venezuela), where they made the discovery of the cow-tree, so called from its yielding milk. They continued through New Valencia and over the mountain range of Higuerote to Puerto Cabello, 20 miles north of Valencia. By February 1801 they had reached Havana, Cuba. Humboldt took the precaution of making two copies of their descriptions of plants, consisting of two volumes, and containing 1,400 specimens. One copy went to France to be retrieved for Bonpland and one to London through John Fraser to the German botanist
Carl Ludwig Willdenow, Humboldt's friend and early instructor. Willdenow started work on the project, but his premature death required Humboldt to pass on this immense challenge to Carl Sigismund Kunth who completed the work. Bonpland never completed his assignments for this task. The number of plants actually described during the five-year journey amounted to 4,528, and the descriptions filled six volumes three folios and three quartos. The localities of all these plants, as described in the 'Nova Genera et Species Plantarum in Peregrinatione ad Plagam Aequinoctialem Collectarum,' are denoted with the barometric determination of the height above the sea, a detail which has never before been introduced into any botanical work. These volumes were employed by the celebrated German botanist
Carl Sigismund Kunth, Director of the Botanic Gardens at Berlin, in editing at Paris the 'Nova Genera et Species.' As only about a fifth of these descriptions are from the pen of Alexander von Humboldt, the volumes on the death of Professor Kunth were sent by Humboldt, in acknowledgment of the indefatigable industry of his fellow traveller, to the Museum of Natural History at Paris, where they were preserved as the property of Bonpland. In tracking the priority for the discovery and reporting of the cow-tree, it is documented that Brosimum utile (Kunth) Oken was published in: Allgemeine Naturgeschichte fur alle Stande. Register. 3(3): 1571 (1841) It took 41 years from when Humboldt discovered this tree and wrote about it in letters from South America to friends in Europe (although known to the Native Americans), to when Kunth was able to compile and definitely publish this and other findings. Of interest was that as early as 1818, Humboldt's discovery was mentioned in a North American magazine. "American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review" (New York) 4 1818: 309 Cow tree. {Description is based on the reports of Humboldt and Franz Bredemeyer} ==Distribution and habitat==