George Forrest was a famous botanical explorer who, between 1904 and 1932, made seven expeditions to Yunnan province of China. He collected plants at a volatile time after the Boxer Rebellion, with help from the Naxi people of the region. These indigenous collectors discovered many of the plants in our gardens today — but often without any worthwhile recognition of their own. This omission of colonial history is a long-standing problem with most natural history museums of the western world. Hopefully, the problem is changing.