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Nypa fruticans inflorescences at Montgomery Botanical Center

April 29, 2008

Spring/Summer 2008 Montgomery Botanical Newsletter Available Online

For expanded coverage of Montgomery Botanical Center's expeditions, research, and conservation efforts, please see Montgomery Botanical News Spring/Summer 2008.

April 26, 2008

Montgomery Botanical Center Palm Material in National Arboretum Exhibit

Montgomery Botanical Center contributed palm foliage and fruits to The U.S. National Arboretum for use in their South African Plants Used in Traditional Zulu Culture exhibit. The Zulu use the dried leaves of Hyphaene coriacea to weave baskets and watertight containers; its fruits are used for carvings and jewelry.

Montgomery Botanical's tradition of providing plant material for exhibits dates back to the 1939 New York World's Fair, where much of the palm material for Fairchild Tropical Garden's plant display was shipped from Colonel Montgomery's Coconut Grove Palmetum. Tropical plant displays have long been a curiosity in more temperate reaches and make an important contribution to education.

April 23, 2008

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and MBC Collaboration Continues

Martin Gardner, coordinator of the International Conifer Conservation Programme (ICCP) of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE) visited Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) with RBGE glasshouse supervisor Fiona Inches. While here, they studied several native U.S. conifer habitats in the southeast including Torreya State Park, home of the critically endangered Torreya taxifolia and Taxus floridana.

The visit was part  of ongoing collaborative efforts among RBGE, MBC, and Atlanta Botanical Garden (ABG) to further conservation of warm climate conifers. Last October, Chad Husby, MBC collections manager, and Ron Determann of ABG traveled to Edinburgh to exchange tropical conifer propagating material. That project was funded by a USDA Germplasm Exchange grant.

While at MBC, Martin Gardner presented a seminar on the tropical conifer conservation work of RBGE's International Conservation Programme. He shared photos and information about the ICCP's efforts to improve the conservation status of threatened conifers, including extensive work in New Caledonia, Vietnam, and Chile.

April 18, 2008

Dr. Donald Hodel Studies Montgomery Botanical's Sabal Species

Dr. Donald Hodel, University of California, Davis, studied Montgomery Botanical Center's (MBC) wild-collected Sabal species in an effort to help identify the Sabal species being cultivated in California.

While at MBC, Dr. Hodel presented an update of his research on Pritchardia palms, including their distribution, ecology, and conservation status. He presented illustrated profiles of 26 Pritchardia species.

April 15, 2008

Paul Drummond Fund for Palm Conservation Grows

With a very generous gift from Jeff Shimonski, the Paul Drummond Fund continues to grow. Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) has earmarked this fund for palm conservation work via expeditionary fieldwork to collect palm germplasm. The Fund honors the life and work of Paul Drummond, past president of the International Palm Society and lifelong palm enthusiast. Mr.  Drummond passed away in September 2007; this recent gift was made in remembrance of his birthday.

March 27, 2008

Montgomery Botanical Center Hosts Environmental  Education Day

Montgomery Botanical Center hosted students from John A. Ferguson Senior High School as part of The Fairchild Challenge. Please see our Education page for more on this Environmental Immersion Day.

March 20, 2008

Montgomery Botanical Center Co-Sponsors 20th Gifford Arboretum Lecture

Julie S. Denslow, research ecologist and team leader for the Institute of Pacific Island Forestry, USDA Forest Service, presented Weeds in Paradise: Invasive Plants in the Pacific Islands at the University of Miami. The 20th Gifford Arboretum Lecture was part of the Coalition for Excellence in Tropical Botany (CETroB) lecture series. Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) hosted Dr. Denslow in the Arthur Montgomery Guesthouse.

"Dr. Denslow's research on invasive plants is of great importance for botanical conservation," states Dr. Patrick Griffith, MBC executive director. "MBC recently completed a cycad conservation expedition on Guam and Rota and a palm conservation expedition in the Hawaiian Archipelago -- invasive species biology has a role in each of these Pacific Island conservation concerns."

The Gifford Arboretum celebrated its restoration this year, with a special rededication of the Arboretum collections following the extensive recovery work required after the 2005 hurricane season. With funding from the IMLS, John Cozza, Aldridge Curator at the Gifford Arboretum, developed and implemented a new master plan designed to maximize the educational and research use of the Arboretum collections.

March 15-16, 2008

Montgomery Botanical Hosts South Florida Palm Society Sale

For a second year, Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) hosted the South Florida Palm Society's spring sale. Close to 30 vendors offered over 500 species and varieties of palms for sale during the weekend event. Motorized tours of Montgomery Botanical's grounds were available for visitors interested in learning about MBC's palm and cycad research collections.

"MBC was pleased to, once again, host the South Florida Palm Society sale," said Dr. Patrick Griffith, MBC executive director. "We are also grateful for SFPS's continuing support of our palm conservation work." 

March 10, 2008

Montgomery Botanical Completes Successful Cycad Conservation Expedition

Montgomery Botanical Center's (MBC) cycad biologist, Michael Calonje, recently returned from a month-long expedition to the Chiriquí and Wargandí provinces of Panama. Supported by MBC's Zane B. Carothers Memorial Fund, the expedition helped advance phytogeographic understanding and ex situ conservation for Zamia fairchildiana and Z. cunaria (pictured).

Successful collaboration with the University of Panama and the Kuna indigenous communities of Wargandí Province helped accomplish expedition objectives. Michael Calonje worked closely with Dr. Alberto Taylor, cycad researcher at the University of Panama and Montgomery Botanical Research Fellow.

A total of 733 seeds representing five species and 27 accessions of cycads and palms were collected. For additional expedition information, please see this report.

March 4, 2008

Turks & Caicos National Trust Visits MBC

The leadership of the Turks & Caicos National Trust is being hosted at Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) this week. Ethlyn Gibbs, executive director, and Bryan Naqqi Manco, senior conservation officer, are in south Florida following an international meeting on Pine Rockland conservation.

While at MBC, Ethlyn and Bryan met with the MBC staff to plan future collaborative conservation projects focusing on palms native to the Turks & Caicos Islands (TCI). Comprised of many islands, rocks, and keys, TCI encompasses some of the largest uninhabited islands in the Caribbean. The Turks & Caicos National Trust seeks to safeguard the natural, historical, and cultural heritage of the Turks & Caicos Islands. Through collaboration with MBC, ex situ conservation collections can help advance this mission.

February 20, 2008

Dr. Andrew Henderson Presents New Palm Discoveries at Montgomery Botanical

Dr. Andrew Henderson, curator at the Institute for Systematic Botany at The New York Botanical Garden, has recently returned from a five-month field survey of palm diversity in Vietnam. While studying at Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) this week, Dr. Henderson presented a seminar on the palm diversity of Vietnam based on this fieldwork.

Working in collaboration with Dr. Ninh Khac Ban of The Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Dr. Henderson collected palm specimens from throughout Vietnam. The survey sought to also investigate the sustainability of rattan harvesting activities in Vietnam. This fieldwork discovered a great number of palm species new to science.

The large volume of new botanical discoveries from Dr. Henderson's fieldwork highlights the continuing ongoing need for basic phytogeographic research in many areas of the world. There remains a great deal of plant diversity yet to be described.

Dr. Henderson is a longtime collaborator of MBC, having spent several summers here performing detailed morphological studies. He is author of several books on the palm family, including Evolution and Ecology of Palms, and A Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas.

February 14, 2008

Pritchardia Conservation Project

A research and conservation project involving Montgomery Botanical Center and National Tropical Botanical Garden recently obtained specimens and data for conservation and research. The project focused on native Pritchardia populations. Pritchardia comprises some of the most imperiled palm species in the world.

Christine Bacon recently returned from her 30-day Pritchardia research and conservation expedition in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Christine is a doctoral candidate at Colorado State University, McBryde Graduate Fellow of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, and Montgomery Botanical Research Associate.

With generous funding from The Thomas S. Kenan Foundation, Inc., and logistical support from National Tropical Botanical Garden, Christine was able to conduct research at 11 field sites across five islands. The expedition resulted in valuable ex situ material of Pritchardia for Montgomery Botanical's palm collections.

For a detailed account of the project, please see this report.

January 19, 2008

Montgomery Botanical at Cycad 2008

Cycad 2008, the triennial scientific conference for cycad biology, was held in Panama City, Panama, January 12-18. Hosted by Universidad de Panamá (UP), Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) was honored to co-sponsor this important meeting in collaboration with other important research institutes and botanic gardens including The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) and The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. The meeting also bridged the scientific and enthusiast communities through the participation of The Cycad Society.

Dr. Alberto Taylor, professor at UP, MBC research fellow, and conference chair, organized the conference and all related functions. Montgomery Botanical was well-represented among the diverse scientific and horticultural findings presented at the conference. Michael Calonje, MBC cycad biologist, presented a poster on his very recent phytogeographic research, highlighting new field data obtained in the days before the conference. Dr. Patrick Griffith, MBC executive director, gave a talk on MBC phenological data, coauthored by Dr. Damon Little and Dr. Dennis Stevenson of NYBG, with Michael Calonje and Chad Husby, MBC collections manager and botanist.

For more information regarding MBC's participation in Cycad 2008, please see this report.

January 10, 2008

Noted Cycad Scientist, Dr. John Donaldson, Visits MBC

Dr. John Donaldson, chief director of conservation science at the South African National Biodiversity Institute, visited Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) with his graduate student, Terence Suinyuy. While here, John and Terence discussed future research and conservation collaborations with MBC, and photographed the Encephalartos collections.

In a presentation, Pictures From The Edge, Dr. Donaldson shared his project photographing cycads -- some of which are now extinct -- "to inspire an appreciation of wild plants in wild places". Wild Portraits is a limited edition of prints from that project which supports cycad conservation; the IUCN Cycad Specialist Group receives a portion of the profits.

Larry Aronson, a longtime volunteer and friend of MBC, has very generously donated a complete set of those nine cycad prints to MBC. Montgomery Botanical plans to display the cycad portraits in the Nixon Smiley Meeting Room upon completion of the Room's renovation.

"I was very excited to bring Larry [Aronson] and John [Donaldson] together for this presentation," stated Dr. Patrick Griffith, MBC executive director. "Larry has been an incredibly dedicated volunteer here, and the prints he gifted to MBC are wonderful. Having John describe these beautiful prints in person was a unique opportunity."

January 8, 2008

Conifer Authority, Dr. David J. de Laubenfels, Studies
Montgomery Botanical's Collections

Dr. David J. de Laubenfels, a renowned authority on conifers of the Southern Hemisphere and professor emeritus at Syracuse University, studied the cycad and tropical conifer collections at Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC).  Dr. de Laubenfels has described 100 species of conifers and is also an authority on the genus Cycas.

Working with Chad Husby, MBC collections manager and botanist, Dr. de Laubenfels helped with identifying MBC's conifers  and species within the genus Cycas. While here, Dr. de Laubenfels presented The Southern Hemisphere Conifers.

In the photo at left, Dr. de Laubenfels at MBC with Araucaria laubenfelsii, a species named after him which has been growing in MBC's collection for 20 years.

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