January 23, 2012
Fieldwork for a rare palm on Mona Island
Montgomery Botanical Center and collaborators recently conducted a field project in search of a rare palm on Mona Island.
Pseudophoenix sargentii is found in many places in the Caribbean Basin, including the Florida Keys – where it is known as the Buccaneer Palm. Where it does occur, the populations tend to be small, with only a few palms in each place.
Mona is a remote, uninhabited island halfway between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Over the years, reports from Mona Island varied. Some counted two dozen Pseudophoenix palms, some claimed fewer – one alarming report claimed only one palm was left!
A grant from the International Palm Society sent four botanists to study and conserve this treasured plant. Patrick Griffith (from MBC) and Javier Francisco-Ortega (FIU and FTBG) teamed up with Eugenio Santiago (Botany Professor at UPR), and Jose Sustache, (DNRA Botanist) for the project.
Over several days of fieldwork, the team thoroughly documented these rare palms on Mona Island – making specimens, detailed notes, and photographs – and collected seeds for conservation. This work can lead to better understanding and protection of other Pseudophoenix populations as well as the Mona Island palms.
January 1, 2012
A New “Giant Zamia” Discovered: Zamia tolimensis
Montgomery begins the New Year with an exciting new discovery — a new species of cycad, Zamia tolimensis, from the “Cordillera Central” mountain range of Colombia. This new species is remarkable for being a large, treelike Zamia — The leaves can be up to 8 feet long, with a trunk over 10 feet tall!
In describing this very interesting discovery, Montgomery staff members Michael Calonje and Claudia Calonje worked closely with colleagues Hector Eduardo Esquivel and Deicy Pava of the University of Tolima Herbarium and Dennis Stevenson of the New York Botanical Garden.
Locally, the plants are known as “palma de yuca”, due to the young stems’ resemblance to the edible tubers of cassava. The team named the new cycad to honor the Department of Tolima, where the species is native.
Some intriguing early specimens hinted at a possible new Zamia yet to be described. Fieldwork in remote areas of the Colombian highlands in 2011 confirmed that the plants from Tolima are a distinct new discovery, easily distinguished from other large South American Zamia species (such as Z. poeppigiana and Z. lindenii).
This is the first cycad species discovered in the highlands of the Central Cordillera of Colombia — the native areas where Z. tolimensis grows are highly inaccessible, perhaps explaining why such an impressive species remained unknown to science until last year. Despite remaining inaccessible to researchers for many years, the plants are considered Critically Endangered due to a high rate of deforestation throughout their native range.
The formal description of Zamia tolimensis can be found in the December 2011 issue of BRITTONIA.
January 2012
MBC's plant collection turns 80 years old: The Coconut Grove Palmetum, 1932
Colonel Montgomery traveled around Florida in the summer of 1932 buying large specimen palms from nurseries, growers, and private collectors. The Colonel obtained specimens of every palm species known to be growing in Florida at that time — around 150 species in all.
Colonel Montgomery developed his palmetum with the advice of David Fairchild and Tom Fennell, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Plant Introduction Station at Chapman Field. In that first year, the Colonel successfully transplanted about 700 specimen palms to the estate — and named it the Coconut Grove Palmetum.
Before long, ten acres had been cultivated and 237 palm species (over 1,000 mature specimens) had been planted in the Palmetum. Col. Montgomery spent a total of $80,000 on plants, grading, landscaping, and planting during the first two years. This greatly exceeded the $10,000 he spent for the property and the $22,000 he spent to build his house.
The Coconut Grove Palmetum was Colonel Robert Montgomery’s private palm collection and estate. In 1959, Nell Montgomery renamed the property and established a not-for-profit in his memory, now known as Montgomery Botanical Center.
Over the course of 80 years, the Colonel's Palmetum has now developed into a thriving center for botanical research and conservation — and MBC looks forward to further good work.
For details of MBC’s early and recent history, please visit the History Page, browse our Newsletters, and also see our News Archives.
