Francesco Franceschi (horticulturist)

Francesco Franceschi (1843–1924), known in Italy under his birth name of Emanuele Orazio Fenzi, was an Italian horticulturist who spent part of his career in the United States, where his efforts contributed to the introduction of new plant species in southern California.

Early life

Emanuele Orazio Fenzi was born on March 12, 1843 in Florence, Italy to Orazio and Emilia Fenzi, members of a wealthy family involved in banking and railroads. He was the grandson of Emanuele Fenzi, and he was raised at Palazzo Fenzi by his grandparents following the early death of his parents. He graduated from the University of Pisa, from which he received a degree in political science and administration. Although he manifested an early interest in botany and gardening—especially tropical species—he initially acceded to his grandfather's desire that he go into the family business. He pursued his horticultural interests on the family's summer estate, where he developed a botanical garden. He was a founding member of the Italian Botanical Society in 1878, and he was a member of the Royal Tuscan Society of Horticulture, serving first as its secretary and then as its president. Over the course of his life, he developed into an expert on succulents, palms, and bamboo, and he is credited with introducing such species as bamboo and eucalyptus into Italy. In 1878, he introduced the first threshing machine to Italy.

With his wife, Cristina, he had six children. Following an economic crisis in Italy that decimated the family's wealth, he emigrated with his wife and three of their children to America in 1891. For his new life in the United States, he took a new name: Francesco Franceschi.

California years

After two years in Los Angeles, Franceschi moved to Santa Barbara. There, he and local landscape architect Charles Frederick Eaton jointly founded the Southern California Acclimatizing Association in 1893 to introduce new species from around the world to California. It was initially headquartered at Eaton's Montecito estate of Riso Rivo, which became a botanical nursery for their experiments in plant propagation. Eaton planted an enormous variety of both native and non-native trees at Riso Rivo, including live oak, camphor, cinnamon, avocado, Abyssinian banana, candlenut, and many species of citrus and palms. Many kinds of seeds were also grown on the estate in their attempt to determine which were suitable for southern California's Mediterranean climate.

The partnership with Eaton ended in 1895 when Franceschi moved the SCAA to Santa Barbara from Riso Rivo, where he ran it as a combination experiment station and commercial nursery. He incorporated the SCAA in 1907 as a partnership with a local nurseryman named Peter Riedel who had immigrated from Holland. During this phase of the SCAA's existence, it propagated trees for use along Santa Barbara's city streets, some of which can still be seen. The partnership ended badly after just two years, in a lawsuit between the partners from which Riedel walked away with both the SCAA and its prime location in downtown Santa Barbara. Today the SCAA is recognized as the first nursery to "scientifically evaluate new plants for California's climatic conditions". The SCAA's 1900 general catalog runs to over 100 pages of trees (especially palms, cycads, and bamboo), shrubs, and flowers. There are special sections on fruit-bearing plants, California natives, trees for street planting, and drought-resistant plants.

In 1903, Franceschi's wife bought 40 acres of land on Mission Ridge in Santa Barbara. They named the property Montarioso and built an American Craftsman style redwood house on it. It was one of the earliest houses built in what is now known as Santa Barbara's Riviera. Franceschi turned about 10 acres of the land—which at 800 feet above sea level was in an almost entirely frost-free zone—into a scientifically organized nursery and botanic garden. Franceschi was an early advocate of xeriscaping, and the grounds of Montarioso included many species of cactus, aloe, agave, acacia, and—most spectacularly—a palm tree “amphitheater” embracing about a hundred different species that he had grown from seed. He experimented with the low-growing ornamental frogfruit as an alternative to traditional lawns.

Ultimately, through Franceschi's (and the SCAA's) efforts, some 200 new plant species were introduced to California. Two years before he died, Franceschi was awarded the Meyer Memorial Medal by the American Genetic Association in recognition of his contributions to his adopted country.

Franceschi was the first scientist to describe the Franceschi palm (Brahea elegans), which was named for him. It is currently considered a synonym for Brahea armata, also known as Mexican blue palm, though a few experts hold it to be a locally adapted variety of Brahea aculeata due to its similar morphology and coloration.

During the American years, Franceschi was also a contributor to Bailey’s Cyclopedia of American Horticulture and published a comprehensive account of local gardens (Santa Barbara Exotic Flora, 1895).

Later years and legacy

By 1909, partly as a result of the SCAA lawsuit, Franceschi was in financial difficulties. After the city of Santa Barbara failed to take up his proposal to turn Montarioso into a city-sponsored arboretum, he began selling off parts of the property. Not long afterwards, after two decades in southern California, Franceschi moved back to Italy with his wife and took up his birth surname of Fenzi again. In 1912, the Italian government hired him to go to Libya—then the colony of Italian Tripolitania within Italian North Africa—and work on introducing new plant species suitable for the north African climate. In Libya, he started a nursery and a number of related projects: a collection of date species from around Tripoli, a herbarium of native plants, and a reorganization of the library at the School of Agriculture. His plant introductions in Libya include eucalyptus (which his nursery supplied for planting along Libya's railroad lines), avocado, Natal plum, and bamboo.

Fenzi died in Libya in 1924. After his death, part of his Santa Barbara estate was bought by a wealthy American philanthropist, Alden Freeman, who greatly admired Franceschi's work. Through his efforts, the property was enlarged and the house remodeled in a Mediterranean style. In 1931, Freeman donated them to the city of Santa Barbara. The grounds are now open to the public as Franceschi Park, while funds are being sought to convert Franceschi House (which suffered decades of deferred maintenance and general neglect) to a horticultural center.

Partial list of Franceschi's plant introductions to California

• Bailey acacia, 1908
• Blue trumpet vine, 1908
• Brazilian pepper,1897
• Climbing aloe, 1908
• Floss silk tree, 1897
• Natal plum, 1908
• Pineapple guava, 1905
• Tipu tree, 1897
• Japanese wisteria, 1908

Further reading

• Beittel, Will. Dr. F. Franceschi: Pioneer Plantsman. Santa Barbara: Santa Barbara County Horticultural Society. 1984.
• Chamberlin, Susan. "A History of Franceschi Park, Santa Barbara, California". Eden: California Garden and Landscape History Society Journal 5:1 (Spring 2002), 5-13.
• Franceschi, F. "Fifteen Years' Experience in Southern California", The Pacific Garden, December 1908, p. 9. (Continued in the January, February, and March 1909 issues.)
• Franceschi, Francesco. "New and Little Known Trees Suitable for Southern California Avenues". Pomona College Journal of Economic Botany 1:1 (December 1911), 201–208.
• Franceschi, Francesco. "Behavior of Alien Plants at Santa Barbara, with Special Regard to their Naturalization and Phenological Phases." Journal of Heredity 1 (1911): 446-454.
• Popenoe, Wilson. "Dr. Fenzi’s Contributions to American Horticulture, the Work of a Pioneer Plantsman in California". Journal of Heredity 13:5 (May 1922), 18-27.
• Tucker, John M. "Francesco Franceschi", Madroño 7:18-27 (January 1943).