This summer, the MBC Team presented Montgomery’s work at a series of local, national, and international conferences.
First on the list was the Florida State Horticulture Society Annual Meeting, held in Delray Beach. Patrick Griffith was invited to speak at the Horticulture Breakfast, by FSHS President (and MBC Board Member) Dr. Juanita Popenoe. Patrick gave a talk titled, “21st century botanic gardens: new challenges and opportunities.”
This year’s meeting of the American Public Gardens Association – “Garden Paths“– was held in Columbus, Ohio. Patrick presented a case study of how horticulture and economics can help with plant conservation. Please see here for the online slideshow.
The Botanical Society of America’s Botany 2012 Conference was also hosted in Columbus. Quite a few speakers at Botany 2012 acknowledged the use of plants here at Montgomery, showing how our living plant collection can help advance science. MBC staff were also authors or co-authors on these talks on palms and cycads:
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New genes for cycad phylogeography (presented by Dayana Salas-Leiva, FIU)
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Phylogeny of the spiny cocosoid palms (Alan Meerow, USDA)
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Plant diversity in the Caribbean (Javier Francisco-Ortega, FIU/FTBG)
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Anatomical evolution of Cycads (Patrick)
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Phylogeny of Zamia (Alan, and Michael Calonje)
The 2012 ESRI International User Conference in San Diego displayed MBC work as well, as part of the Alliance for Public Gardens GIS. Ericka Witcher’s work to adapt remote sensing data for botanic garden use was included in their display.
Finally, Vickie Murphy (MBC Nursery Curator) attended both the South Florida Graduate Research Symposium, in Fort Lauderdale, and the American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference, which was held here in Miami. Vickie presented the results of her Master’s Thesis project to improve conservation horticulture for rare Zamiaspecies – and her poster won an award!
“I’m thrilled to see how much great work is going on here at Montgomery, and how our service to the plant community can also help promote other research and innovations,” said Patrick. “This may be our best summer yet.”