As the story goes, Brazil is the only country in the world named after a plant.
In the early years of Portuguese colonization, the vast expanse at the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean was referred to as the Isle of the True Cross (Vera Cruz) or — when it became clear that it was not an island — the Land of the Holy Cross, or Terra de Santa Cruz.
In the early 1500s, the main commercial product exploited in this new land was brazilwood trees — pau-brasil in Portuguese. The word “brasil” is derived from the Portuguese for embers (brasa), due to the deep red dye that can be extracted from brazilwood trees.
And, not unlike the Côte d’Ivoire and the island of Madeira, Brazil eventually became another land named by European colonizers for its main extractable product. Its inhabitants became the “Brasileiros,” (brazilwood harvesters), a demonym that has been used ever since.
The brazilwood tree is native to the country’s Atlantic Forest, the vast biome that snakes from the northeastern tip of Brazil to its far south, always following the coastline. When the Portuguese arrived in the early 16th century, all they saw was the Atlantic Forest and its dense vegetation.
In fact, at that time, all of what is now southern and southeastern Brazil was covered by the Atlantic Forest. Today, only 24 percent of the biome remains, and only around 12 percent is well-preserved and mature forest, according to the environmental NGO SOS Mata Atlântica.
And the brazilwood tree, so emblematic of the...
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