Dr. Alberto S. Taylor, professor at the Universidad de Panamá, was recently appointed a Montgomery Botanical Research Fellow. During his visit to Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC), Dr. Taylor collaborated with MBC executive director, Dr. Patrick Griffith, MBC cycad biologist, Michael Calonje, and MBC collections manager and botanist, Chad Husby, studying MBC’s Panamanian cycad collections. While at MBC, Dr. Taylor presented a public lecture: The Coontie Butterfly (Eumaeus sp.), Foe or Friend of Cycads?

Dr. Taylor is an expert in Zamia biology and a longtime colleague of Montgomery Botanical Center. Universidad de Panamá and MBC have collaborated in fieldwork since 2000. Ongoing biogeographical work by MBC and the Universidad de Panamá has done much to illuminate patterns of Zamia diversity. Dr. Taylor is serving as conference chair for the 8th International Conference on Cycad Biology to be held in Panama in January 2008.

The Montgomery Botanical Fellows Program encourages scientific and educational study of MBC’s palm and cycad collections, linking distinguished scientists and their work with other scientists, educators, our next generation of scientists — the students, and the community. The Montgomery Botanical Fellows Program is supported by generous funding from the Kelly Foundation.