Tropical Garden Winter 2012 - Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Transcription

winter
2012
A BLOOMING GARDEN
p u b l i s h e d by fa i r c h i l d t r o p i c a l b o ta n i c g a r d e n
Home Decor from the
Emilio Robba Collection,
$35-$295
The Shop
AT FAIRCHILD
tropical gourmet foods | home décor accessories | eco-friendly and fair trade products
gardening supplies | unique tropical gifts | books on tropical gardening, cuisine and more
fa i r c h i l d
t r o p i c a l
b o ta n i c
g a r d e n
10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables, FL 33156 • 305.667.1651, ext. 3305 • www.fairchildgarden.org • shop online at www.fairchildonline.com
contents
19
26
DEPARTMENTS
5
FROM THE DIRECTOR
8
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
9
NEWS
11
TROPICAL CUISINE
14
EXPLAINING
17
VIS-A-VIS VOLUNTEERS
24
WHAT’S BLOOMING
47
BUG BEAT
48
WHAT’S IN STORE
50
GIFTS AND DONORS
50
WISH LIST
53
PLANT SOCIETIES
54
VISTAS
56
GARDEN VIEWS
60
FROM THE ARCHIVES
62
CONNECT WITH FAIRCHILD
32
Membership
AT FAIRCHID
Membership Categories
Your Benefits...
We have expanded and added membership
categories to better fit your needs:
• Free daily admission throughout the year
• Free admission to all daytime events and art exhibitions
• Free parking
• Free admission to all Members’ only events, including
Members’ Lectures, Moonlight Tours, the Members’ Day
Plant Sale and select Members’ only evening events
• Quick Admit at all admission points
• Early admission to select plant sales and events
• Subscription to the award-winning magazine, The Tropical Garden
• Discounts to all ticketed day or evening events
• Discounts at The Shop at Fairchild
Individual Admits one adult
$90
Dual Admits two adults
$75
$125
Family Admits two adults and
children of members (17 and under)
Grandparents
$125
Admits two adults and grandchildren
of members (17 and under)
Family and Friends
$170
Admits four adults and children
of members (17 and under)
Sustaining
$250
Admits four adults and children of members
(17 and under). Receives six gift admission
passes ($150 value)
Signature
Admits four adults and children of members
(17 and under). Receives eight gift admission
passes ($200 value)
Photo by Gaby Orihuela/FTBG
$500
• Discounts and priority registrations to
adult education classes and seminars
• Discounts to kids’ summer camps
• Discounts on a wide variety of products and services from
participating Branch Out Partners
• Free or discounted admission** to more than 500 other gardens,
arboreta and museums in the U.S. and abroad (**certain
restrictions may apply)
For more information, please call the
Membership Department at
305.667.1651, ext. 3362 or visit
www.fairchildgarden.org/Membership
from the director
T
The founders of our garden had a bold vision
of a spectacular landscape and plant
collection to inspire and educate the public.
That vision, first put into words by Marjorie
Stoneman Douglas 75 years ago, energized
generations of Fairchild members, volunteers and
staff to create the institution we have today. Lately,
during the current period of unprecedented growth
at the garden, I have been thinking about how far
beyond our founders’ vision we have come.
When Col. Robert Montgomery came to South
Florida, he brought his passion for ornamental
horticulture and his style of gardening on a grand
scale. The trees he transplanted from his extensive
conifer collection in Connecticut did not survive our
year-round heat, but he found cycads and palms to
be worthy replacements. He established Fairchild as
a world-leading botanical collection of tropical
plants with a special emphasis on cycads and palms.
Much later, 50 years after Fairchild was established,
we branched out and added tropical fruit to the list
of our specialty collections. That’s when we began
assembling more than 400 mango cultivars, now the
finest collection in the world and the centerpiece of
our famous International Mango Festival. It was also
the start of our work with many other tropical fruit
species, now on display in the Whitman Tropical
Fruit Pavilion, and the beginning of a worldwide fruit
exploration initiative. The tropical fruit program is
now such a treasured and respected part of our
garden that most people assume it had been here
since the beginning.
Now we are expanding our programs again, taking a
leap into new botanical and horticultural territory.
Orchids will now take the stage among palms,
cycads and tropical fruit as an integral part of our
programs. As the most species-rich family of plants,
orchids are incredibly diverse and ecologically
important throughout the tropics. Each species exists
in a delicate balance with its surrounding ecosystem,
and therefore orchids are highly sensitive to
environmental change.
Our new partnership with the American Orchid
Society will allow our garden to become a repository
of orchid information and a gathering place for the
global community of orchid specialists. In the
coming months we will see thousands of new orchid
plants taking root in our garden, both outdoors and
in The Clinton Family Conservatory. Our
conservation work with orchids is also growing, with
Dr. Hong Liu’s research on threatened orchids in
Southeast Asia is receiving worldwide acclaim.
As we expand, we never lose sight of the dreams of
our founders. In this issue, Georgia Tasker describes
the innovative horticultural research Dr. Chad Husby
is conducting at the Montgomery Botanical Center.
Through field exploration and exchange of
specimens with other institutions, Dr. Husby has
amassed a collection of beautiful tropical conifers
well suited to South Florida’s growing conditions.
His work, an extension of Col. Montgomery’s love of
conifers, will likely shape South Florida horticulture
for generations to come.
Like Dr. Husby, I have great respect for and
sentimental attachment to the work of our founders.
Last month we said goodbye to one of my favorite
old Fairchild trees, a majestic specimen of
Hernandia that grew for 70 years beside the garden's
main overlook. It was grown from seed collected in
1940 by Dr. David Fairchild on the sandy beach of
Buru Island, in what is now eastern Indonesia. Two
unusually cold winters in a row proved to be too
much for our tree, which began to collapse in April.
As sad as I was when Bob Brennan, our arborist,
informed me that the beloved Hernandia tree could
not be saved, I knew our collections and exploration
programs had grown beyond Dr. Fairchild’s dreams
in many ways. This summer we returned to eastern
Indonesia, carrying the notes and diaries from Dr.
Fairchild’s 1940 trip. Melissa Abdo, our international
conservation projects officer, rode a helicopter into
forests Dr. Fairchild never had a chance to explore,
and found new species that had been out of reach in
1940. Perhaps one of those species will soon take
the place of the Hernandia tree beside the overlook.
We have grown far beyond the dreams of our
founders, but we remain true to their adventurous
spirit and their goal of building one of the world’s
great botanic gardens. Thank you for supporting us
and allowing us to reach farther than anyone thought
possible. We hope you will enjoy the new additions
to the Garden in the months and years ahead.
Best regards,
Carl Lewis. Ph.D.
www.fairchildgarden.org
5
Richard Lyons’ Nursery inc.
inc.
contributors
Rare & Unusual Tropical Trees & Plants
Flowering
Flowering •• Fruit
Fruit •• Native
Native •• Palm
Palm •• Bamboo
Bamboo •• Heliconia
Heliconia
Hummingbird
Hummingbird •• Bonsai
Bonsai &
& Butterfly
Butterfly
KEN FEELEY, PH.D., works jointly at
Fairchild and FIU as an assistant
professor of plant conservation. After
receiving his Ph.D. in biology from
Duke University, he worked with
Harvard University and the
Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute to study the effects of climate
change on rainforests. Dr. Feeley and
his family, Carmen and Manu, have
been very happy as part of the
Fairchild family.
AMY PADOLF is Fairchild’s director
of education. She oversees all of the
education programs at the Garden,
including the award-winning Fairchild
Challenge and the Graduate Studies
program. She holds a bachelor’s degree
from the University of Pittsburgh and a
master’s in science education from
Duquesne University. Amy began her
career as the director of education at
the National Aviary in Pittsburgh and
has more than 20 years of formal and
informal education experience.
PROUD MEMBER OF
www.RichardLyonsNursery.com
www.RichardLyonsNursery.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
@lycheeman1
@lycheeman1 on
on Twitter
Twitter
Nursery:
20200
S.W.
134
Ave.,
Nursery: 20200 S.W. 134 Ave., Miami
Miami
Phone:
Phone: 305-251-6293
305-251-6293 •• fax:
fax: 305-324-1054
305-324-1054
Mail:
Mail: 1230
1230 N.W.
N.W. 7th
7th St
St •• Miami,
Miami, FL
FL 33125
33125
DO YOU HAVE POND PROBLEMS ?
IS YOUR REAL PROBLEM YOUR
POND SERVICE COMPANY?
Call Dr. Jeff Murray, Pondologist
WE DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!
305-251-POND(7663) | www.PondDoctors.NET
Licensed/Insured
RODNEY SNYDER
researches cocoa for chocolate giant
Mars and has visited every major cocoa
growing region, including West Africa,
South America, the Caribbean and
South Asia. After having roasted every
type of cocoa, he can identify the origin
of cocoa beans by their flavor and
aroma. He is the author of the chapter
From “Stone Metates to Steel Mills: The
Evolution of Chocolate Manufacture” in
the chocolate history book Chocolate:
Culture, Heritage, and History.
JEFF WASIELEWSKI is the multimedia
specialist for Fairchild, where he
works as a writer, editor and
videographer. He holds a master’s
degree in education from the
University of Miami and is an adjunct
professor at Miami Dade College,
where he teaches horticulture. He
loves the plants and natural areas of
South Florida and enjoys sharing his
knowledge through classes, articles
and videos.
ON THE COVER
Will Ryman, Icon, 2011.
Photo by Benjamin F. Thacker.
Your Water Garden Professionals
Have you taken a
walking tour lately?
For up-to-date schedule, please
visit www.fairchildgarden.org/
walkingtours
fairchild tropic al botanic garden
Bike Valet
During major festivals like
Chocolate, Orchid, Mango and
Ramble, Green Mobility Network
and Mack Cycle offer their unique
bike valet service at the South Gate.
fairchild tropic al botanic garden
schedule of events
JANUARY
PLANT ID WORKSHOP
Friday, January 6, 1:00 p.m.
Reservations at www.fairchildgarden.org/plantid
PLANTS AND PEOPLE
Tours for those living with Alzheimer’s
Monday, January 9, 11:30 a.m.
Reservations at 305.667.1651, ext. 3388
MOONLIGHT TOUR
Thursday, January 12, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
Tram tours every hour, Rina Yoga, star gazing
with the Southern Cross Astronomical Society
and delicious snacks from the Lakeside Cafe
MOMMY AND ME TEA
Sunday, January 15, 3:00 p.m.
Tickets and information at 305.663.8059
LECTURE: CHOCOLATE IS AMERICAN HISTORY
Presented by Rodney Snyder of Mars, Inc.
Thursday, January 19, 7:00 p.m.
6TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL CHOCOLATE
FESTIVAL FEATURING COFFEE AND TEA
Friday, Saturday and Sunday
January 20, 21 and 22, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
PLANTS AND PEOPLE
Monday, January 23, 11:30 a.m.
SPLENDOR IN THE GARDEN
Luncheon and Fashion Show
Thursday, January 26, 11:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Tickets and information at 305.667.1651, ext. 3375.
LECTURE: CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE:
SEEING IT BETTER
Presented by Martin Margulies of the Margulies
Collection at the Warehouse
THE FAIRCHILD CHALLENGE PRESENTS:
ENVIRONMENTAL DEBATES
Saturday, January 28, 8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
NIGHT OF A THOUSAND PIXIES
Saturday, January 28, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
Join us for a night of family fun. Information at
305.667.1651, ext. 3391
SUNDAY SOUNDS
Presented by UM’s Frost School of Music
Sunday, January 29, 1:00 p.m.
LECTURE: CREATING A VISUAL LEGACY:
NEW PUBLIC ART IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY
Presented by Brandi Reddick
Corbin Building, Classroom A
FEBRUARY
LECTURE: MIAMI, WHERE ART GROWS!
Presented by Bonnie Clearwater of the Museum
of Contempory Art
Thursday, February 2, 7:00 p.m.
PLANT ID WORKSHOP
Friday, February 3, 1:00 p.m.
GALA IN THE GARDEN
Saturday, February 4, 6:30 p.m.
Tickets and information at 305.667.1651, ext. 3375.
SUNDAY SOUNDS
Sunday, February 5, 1:00 p.m.
MOONLIGHT TOUR
Thursday, February 9, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
MOVIE NIGHT: SIXTEEN CANDLES
Ticket information at 305.667.1651, ext. 3377
PLANTS AND PEOPLE
Saturday, February 11, 11:30 a.m.
SUNDAY SOUNDS
VALENTINE’S CONCERT AT FAIRCHILD
Monday, February 14, 7:00 p.m.
Featuring Nicole Henry. Tickets and information
at 305.667.1651, ext. 3377
LECTURE: BIODIVERSITY IN
TROPICAL RAINFORESTS
Presented by Fairchild’s Visitor Experience and
Exhibits Manager Gaby Orihuela
SUNDAY SOUNDS
LECTURE: THE BASS MUSEUM’S HISTORICAL
AND CONTEMPORARY COLLECTIONS
Presented by Silvia Cubina of the Bass
Museum of Art
MOVIE NIGHT: FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF
RESEARCH PROJECT SHOWCASE
Saturday, February 25, 1:30 – 3:30 p.m.
SUNDAY SOUNDS
FIRST LADIES TEA
Tickets and information at 305.663.8059
PLANTS AND PEOPLE
Monday, February 27, 11:30 a.m.
MOVIE NIGHT: PRETTY IN PINK
Friday, March 2, 6:30 p.m.
SUNDAY SOUNDS
Sunday, March 4, 1:00 p.m.
MOONLIGHT TOUR
Thursday, March 8, 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.
FAIRCHILD’S 10TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL
ORCHID FESTIVAL
March 9, 10 and 11, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
THE ORCHID TEA ROOM
March 9, 10 and 11, 11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
PLANTS AND PEOPLE
Monday, March 12, 11:30 a.m.
LECTURE: PERSUASIVE POWER OF
ORDINARY OBJECTS
Presented by Cathy Leff of the Wolfsonian, FIU
Thursday, March 15 7:00 p.m.
MOVIE NIGHT: DIRTY DANCING
SUNDAY SOUNDS
LECTURE: FLORIDA ICONS, FIFTY CLASSIC
VIEWS OF THE SUNSHINE STATE
Presented by Roger Hammer
Thursday, March 22, 7:00 p.m.
SUNDAY SOUNDS
PLANTS AND PEOPLE
Monday, March 26, 11:30 a.m.
LECTURE: AN INTIMATE LOOK AT THE RUBELL
FAMILY COLLECTION
Presented by Don and Mera Rubell of the Rubell
Family Collection
MOVIE NIGHT: THE BREAKFAST CLUB
YOUTHCAN MIAMI
Saturday, March 31, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
MARCH
LECTURE: FAIRCHILD AND THE AMERICAN
ORCHID SOCIETY
PLANT ID WORKSHOP
This schedule of events is subject to
change. For up-to-the-minute
information, please call
305.667.1651 or visit
www.fairchildgarden.org/Events
news
HELPING ESTABLISH HAITI’S NATIONAL
BOTANIC GARDEN
(L-R) Javier Francisco-Ortega (FIU-Fairchild faculty), Ricardo Garcia
(director of the National Botanic Garden of the Dominican Republic),
and William Cinea (director of the Botanic Garden of Cayes).
Dr. Javier Francisco-Ortega, head of the FIU/Fairchild Plant Molecular
Systems Laboratory at the Garden’s Center for Tropical Plant
Conservation, is helping establish a national botanic garden in Haiti. He
was one of several eminent international researchers who participated in
an October 23-25 workshop in Port-au-Prince, that nation’s capital. The
workshop brought together botanists, environmental biologists and
landscape architects from several botanical gardens and universities in
Canada, Dominican Republic, France, Haiti, United Kingdom and the U.S.
Dr. Francisco-Ortega delivered a talk on “Developing Partnerships
between Universities and Botanic Gardens.” During the meeting, Fairchild
agreed to work with Haiti’s Botanic Garden of Cayes and the National
Botanic Garden of the Dominican Republic on three projects:
environmental biology education programs at the National Botanic Garden
of the the Dominican Republic, conducting a plant endemicity study for
Haiti that will provide the basis for future conservation actions and
developing conservation biology projects with threatened palms. Support
for this trip was jointly provided by Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and
the College of Arts and Sciences of Florida International University.
AMERICAN ORCHID SOCIETY MOVES ITS
HEADQUARTERS TO FAIRCHILD
Two recognized leaders in conservation, education and research are joining
forces to ensure the perpetuation and appreciation of orchids in North
America and throughout the world. The venerable 90-year old American
Orchid Society (AOS), known for its passion for orchid education,
conservation and research, is moving its headquarters to Fairchild.
PSEUDOPHOENIX
SARGENTII WORK
FEATURED IN UPCOMING
TEXTBOOK
Fairchild’s reintroduction work with
the Sargent’s Cherry Palm will be
featured in the upcoming textbook
Ecological Restoration by Dr. Susan
M. Galatowitsch (Sinauer Associates,
2012). She recently wrote to Dr. Joyce
Maschinski, Fairchild conservation ecologist, saying, “To
illustrate concepts, I’m relying entirely on actual projects
(minimizing hypothetical examples or examples from general
ecological studies). I’ve used your paper on Sargent’s cherry
palms published in Biological Conservation, and the
reintroduction project in general, in several places in the
book. It makes a really nice teaching case.” It’s an honor to
have Fairchild’s plant conservation work featured in a
textbook that may reach thousands of undergraduate students
studying restoration ecology.
“The AOS move and strategic partnership with Fairchild Garden will
move the North American center for education and tourism regarding
orchids to Miami-Dade County,” said Bruce Greer, president of
Fairchild’s Board of Trustees. “We are especially excited about the
educational and research opportunities [coming together] on one
campus in Fairchild’s soon-to-be-completed Science Village.”
The society’s outstanding collection of rare orchids will be used for
teaching and will be displayed in Fairchild’s new 12,500-square-foot
Clinton Family Conservatory, part of the DiMare Science Village
scheduled to open in December 2012. Together, the AOS and Fairchild
will expand and enhance the Garden’s annual International Orchid
Festival, which celebrates the orchid family with a show in the Garden
House and outdoor sales tents by exhibitors.
The enthusiasm for orchids, the largest family of flowering plants, was
kindled in the 18th century and has never waned. The AOS, which also
promotes excellence in orchid culture and hybridization through its esteemed
awards system, will bring to Fairchild its more than 15,000 varieties of
orchids. It will continue to publish its monthly magazine, Orchids.
“The missions of AOS and Fairchild Garden are perfectly aligned,” said
Ron McHatton, chief operating officer of AOS. “With Fairchild’s
international reputation, we have found a financially strong, solid strategic
partner equally focused on horticulture, education and conservation.” Both
groups will remain independent and autonomous, fulfilling their own
missions while sharing administrative space in Fairchild’s corporate offices.
9
The official publication of
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
editorial staff
editor in chief
chief operating officer
Nannette M. Zapata
design
Lorena Alban
production manager
Gaby Orihuela
feature writers
Georgia Tasker
Jeff Wasielewski
staff contributors
DR. ERIC VON WETTBERG TRAVELS TO INDIA
Fairchild is continuing its work with researchers around the world to breed chickpea suited to grow
in low-fertility soils. September 4-7, Fairchild researcher Dr. Eric von Wettberg traveled to
Patancheru, India for a meeting at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRISAT). The meeting was part of a chickpea project under the auspices of the National
Science Foundation-Gates Foundation Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development
(BREAD). This collaborative research with the groups of Dr. Doug Cook at University of CaliforniaDavis and Dr. Rajeev Varshney of ICRISAT’s Center of Excellence in Genomics aims to use an
understanding of the consequences of domestication in chickpea to facilitate breeding for lowfertility soils. The project is ongoing, and in January, FIU-FTBG agroecology graduate students
Klara Scharnagl and Vanessa Sanchez will travel to India to follow up on the research.
DR. KENNETH FEELEY PUBLISHED IN DIVERSITY
AND DISTRIBUTIONS
The science journal Diversity and Distributions recently
published an article by Dr. Kenneth Feeley, Fairchild researcher
and FIU assistant professor of biology. The article, titled “Keep
collecting: Accurate species distribution modeling requires more
collections than previously thought,” was featured on the
journal’s cover, which included a picture of the Fairchild
Herbarium’s collections. Herbarium records such as Fairchild’s
have become a powerful new tool in conservation, allowing
scientists to map where species currently occur and where they
are likely to occur under future climate change and habitat loss
scenarios. While promising, this technique relies fundamentally
on having a large number of collections with accurate
geographic coordinates for each species. As Dr. Feeley explains
in his article, we simply don’t have enough collections for most
tropical plant species.
Even for those species for which we do have large sample sizes,
Dr. Feeley noted, more often than not the collections are
heavily clustered around areas that are easy to access, such as
roads, waterways, field stations and towns. This clustering
means that the collections don’t provide accurate representations
of the full ranges of species. These problems can only be overcome
through more collections in more remote and exotic locations.
Dr. Feeley concluded that in this age of computer simulations
and models, it is vital that we continue to emphasize the basic
botanical explorations which provide the data on which these
models are built.
10 THE TROPICAL GARDEN
Stephanie Bott
Anna Brickner
Ken Feeley
Paula Fernandez de los Muros
Erin Fitts
Javier Francisco-Ortega
Marilyn Griffiths
Nancy Korber
Noris Ledesma
Kiki Mutis
copy editors
Rochelle Broder-Singer
Kimberly Bobson
Mary Collins
Jeff Wasielewski
advertising information
Adam Arzner
305.667.1651, ext. 3351
previous editors
Marjory Stoneman Douglas 1945-50
Lucita Wait 1950-56
Nixon Smiley 1956-63
Lucita Wait 1963-77
Ann Prospero 1977-86
Karen Nagle 1986-91
Nicholas Cockshutt 1991-95
Susan Knorr 1995-2004
The Tropical Garden Volume 67,
Number 1. Winter 2012.
The Tropical Garden is published quarterly.
Subscription is included in membership dues.
© FTBG 2012, ISSN 2156-0501
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced without permission.
Accredited by the American Association of
Museums, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
is supported by contributions from members
and friends, and in part by the State of
Florida, Department of State, Division of
Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council on Arts
and Culture, the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation, the National
Endowment for the Arts, the Institute of
Museum and Library Services, the MiamiDade County Tourist Development Council,
the Miami-Dade County Department of
Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs
Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and
Board of County Commissioners, and with the
support of the City of Coral Gables.
tropical cuisine
Growing Cacao: A piece of Cake
By Noris Ledesma
C
hocolate really does grow on trees; although not as little
chocolates wrapped up in foil. Chocolate comes from the
seeds of the understory tree Theobroma cacao, a tropical
rainforest species closely intertwined with the needs of mankind.
Cocoa cultivation began in the Americas at the hands of the Maya
in Central America, around 1500 BC. The Maya attributed to cocoa
a divine origin, believing it had been brought down from heaven by
their God Quetzacoatl. The cocoa beans were so precious, in fact,
they were used as currency.
Cacao today still thrives throughout most of the lowland tropics,
sharing its needs with a diverse mixture of shade trees. Because of
cultural tradition, economic necessity and crop biology, it is grown
beneath larger trees that form a shade canopy, creating a closed,
forest-like habitat within the typically open, degraded agricultural
landscape. Shaded agro ecosystems of this type provide a promising
means of creating forest-like habitats for tropical biodiversity in a
landscape that is experiencing rapid deforestation, while
simultaneously providing a lucrative crop for agricultural
communities.
As a crop, cacao is not only lucrative; it is also one of the most
environmentally sustainable tropical food crops. Though the
management of its shade canopy can vary tremendously from crop
to crop and within a crop type, its presence generally provides
some benefit to the farmer, while improving the ability of these
agricultural habitats to harbor a diverse array of flora and fauna.
Bearing Fruit
The fruit of the cacao tree is a pod that contains a sweetish pulp
clinging tightly to the seeds. The pulp is eaten as a dessert and
squeezed for juices, both fresh and fermented. The seeds or “beans”
are fermented while still in the pulp, then dried, roasted and
processed into cacao, the raw material for chocolate.
Cacao trees grow and bear fruit in a band 20 degrees north and
south of the equator. They thrive on tropical rains and partial shade.
A thick layer of leaf litter or compost and a still, moist environment
is ideal. If you're one of those people who love “green” challenges,
then consider growing cacao plants at home. While they can be
purchased from local specialty nurseries in Florida, those are
usually seedling plants. Seedling cacao plants may be selfincompatible, and their flowering will result in little or no pod
production. It is a good idea to plant multiple plants to increase
pollination and the chance of fruit production. There are self-fruitful
types of cacao that will bloom and fruit in isolation, but these are
not generally available in South Florida at this time.
Theobroma cacao
Illustration by Julio Figueroa
For planting, select an area protected from wind and providing
partial shade. The richest organic soil in your home garden should
be devoted to your cacao plant for optimal conditions. When the
temperature drops below 50 degrees, you must provide cold
protection for young trees by covering the entire tree with a blanket
or with a large cardboard box. Even with protection, the leaves of
the cacao tree will develop brown leaf edges during the winter and
spring due to cold, low humidity and winds. In your home garden,
the cacao tree will take up to four years to begin to bear fruit.
11
How to Make Chocolate from Scratch
Recipe by Noris Ledesma/FTBG
fairchild
board of trustees
1. Harvest: Harvest mature cacao pods and scoop out the
seeds. Remove the cacao beans, still covered in sweet,
fruity pulp.
2. Ferment: Soak the seeds in water for three days
to ferment.
3. Dry: Drain off the water and dry the seeds in the sun. The drying
process takes approximately one week. During that time, their color
changes from reddish brown to dark brown.
4. Roast: Cacao beans can be roasted in your oven at home. The temperature and time of roasting
affects the flavor and color of the chocolate. Roast three times, with the first roast at 425 F for 7
minutes, then at 325 F for 8 minutes and finally at 260 F for 10 minutes.
5. Winnow: Let the beans cool and then separate the beans from the hulls. Remove the husk from the
chocolate by first cracking the cacao bean and then blowing the husk away.
6. Grind: Place the beans in a coffee grinder to remove more of the husks and refine the chocolate.
After just a few moments the beans will be reduced to cacao paste. Keep the paste at room
temperature in a plastic container.
2011 - 2012
This is the base for any chocolate recipe.
Secretary
Bruce W. Greer
President
Louis J. Risi, Jr.
Senior Vice President & Treasurer
Charles P. Sacher
Vice President
Suzanne Steinberg
Vice President
Jennifer Stearns Buttrick
Vice President
L. Jeanne Aragon
Vice President &
Assistant Secretary
Joyce J. Burns
Leonard L. Abess
Alejandro J. Aguirre
“Age of Discovery” Vanilla-Scented Hot Chocolate
Raymond F. Baddour, Sc.D.
From The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes by Maricel
E. Presilla (Ten Speed Press, 2001). Adapted by StarChefs
Norman J. Benford
Yield: 8 Servings
Ingredients:
2 quarts milk or water
¼ cup achiote seeds
12 blanched almonds
12 toasted and skinned hazelnuts
2-3 vanilla beans split lengthwise, seeds scraped out
(Maricel prefers Mexican vanilla beans from Papantla, Veracruz)
¼ ounce dried rosebuds (sold as rosa de Castilla in Hispanic markets)
Two 3-inch sticks of true cinnamon
(try soft Ceylon cinnamon, sold as canela in Hispanic markets)
1 tablespoon aniseed
2 whole dried árbol or serrano chiles
8 ounces dark bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao), finely chopped
(Maricel prefers El Rey Gran Samán or Chocovic Ocumare)
Pinch of salt
Sugar to taste
1 tablespoon orange blossom water (optional)
Method: In a heavy medium-sized saucepan, heat the milk (or water) with the achiote seeds over
medium heat. Bring to a low boil, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to low and let steep until the
liquid is brightly dyed with the achiote, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, grind the almonds and
hazelnuts to the consistency of fine breadcrumbs using a mini-chopper or Mouli grater. Set aside.
Strain the warm milk through a fine-mesh sieve and return it to the saucepan. Add the ground nuts,
vanilla beans and scraped seeds, rosebuds, cinnamon, aniseed and chiles and bring to a low boil.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat; add the chocolate
and salt and stir until all the chocolate is melted. Taste for sweetness and add a little sugar if desired,
together with the orange-blossom water. Strain again through a fine-mesh sieve. Transfer the
chocolate to a tall narrow pot and whisk vigorously with a Mexican molinillo (wooden chocolate
mill). Or try using an electric molinillo to make a spectacular frothy head. Serve immediately.
Nancy Batchelor
Faith F. Bishock
Leslie A. Bowe
Bruce E. Clinton
Martha O. Clinton
Swanee DiMare
José R. Garrigó
Kenneth R. Graves
Willis D. Harding
Patricia M. Herbert
Robert M. Kramer, Esq.
James Kushlan, Ph.D.
Lin L. Lougheed, Ph.D.
Bruce C. Matheson
Mike Maunder, Ph.D.
Peter R. McQuillan
Clifford W. Mezey
David Moore
Stephen D. Pearson, Esq.
T. Hunter Pryor, M.D.
Adam R. Rose
Janá Sigars-Malina, Esq.
James G. Stewart, Jr., M.D.
Vincent A. Tria, Jr.
Angela W. Whitman
Ann Ziff
Carl E. Lewis, Ph.D.
The Lin Lougheed Director
THURSDAY NIGHTS
AT FAIRCHILD
JANUARY
MOONLIGHT
TOUR
January 12
Tram tours every
hour, Rina Yoga,
star gazing with
the Southern Cross
Astronomical
Society and
delicious snacks
from the Lakeside
Cafe
CHOCOLATE
IS AMERICAN
HISTORY
January 19
Rodney Snyder,
Research Director
for Mars Inc.
This lecture will
take place in the
Garden House,
South Entrance
CONTEMPORARY
SCULPTURE:
SEEING IT BETTER
January 26
Martin Margulies,
Founder, Margulies
Collection at the
Warehouse
Thursday Nights at Fairchild
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
For Moonlight tours, gates open at 6:30 p.m.
FEBRUARY
MIAMI, WHERE
ART GROWS!
February 2
Bonnie
Clearwater,
Director, Museum
of Contemporary
Art, North Miami
MOONLIGHT
TOUR
February 9
Tram tours every
hour, Rina Yoga,
star gazing with
the Southern Cross
Astronomical
Society and
delicious snacks
from the Lakeside
Cafe
BIODIVERSITY
IN TROPICAL
RAINFOREST
February 16
Biodiversity in
Tropical Rainforests
Gaby Orihuela,
Visitor Experience
and
Exhibits Manager,
FTBG
THE BASS
MUSEUM’S
HISTORICAL
AND
CONTEMPORARY
COLLECTIONS
February 23
Silvia Cubina,
Director, Bass
Museum of Art
MARCH
FAIRCHILD AND
THE AMERICAN
ORCHID
SOCIETY
March 1
MOONLIGHT
TOUR
March 8
Tram tours every
hour, Rina Yoga,
star gazing with
the Southern Cross
Astronomical
Society and
delicious snacks
from the Lakeside
Cafe
PERSUASIVE
POWER
OF ORDINARY
OBJECTS
March 15
Cathy Leff,
Director,
Wolfsonian-FIU
Museum
FLORIDA ICONS,
FIFTY CLASSIC
VIEWS OF THE
SUNSHINE STATE
March 22
Roger Hammer,
Author and
Naturalist
AN INTIMATE
LOOK,
THE RUBELL
FAMILY
COLLECTION
March 29
Don and Mera
Rubell, Founders,
Rubell Family
Collection
APRIL
MOONLIGHT
TOUR
April 5
Tram tours every
hour, Rina Yoga,
star gazing with
the South Cross
Astronomical
Society and
delicious snacks
from the Lakeside
Cafe
CONSERVATION
AND RESEARCH
AT FAIRCHILD
April 12
Melissa Abdo,
International
Conservation
,Bł?AN#1$
GETTING TO
KNOW THE
EVERGLADES
April 26
Dan Kimble,
Superintendent,
Everglades
National Park day
fa i r c h i l d t r o p i c a l b o ta n i c g a r d e n
explaining
Fairchild’s PlantMobile is Ready to Go!
Kiki Mutis. Photos by Kiki Mutis and Laura Tellez/FTBG
The PlantMobile is
adapted to offer
kindergarten through
12th grade students
the opportunity to be
ethnobotanists and
botanists for an hour.
F
airchild’s PlantMobile is one of the many exciting ways that the Garden’s
education department is fulfilling our mission of “Exploring, Explaining and
Conserving the world of Tropical Plants.” On Thursday mornings, the
PlantMobile travels throughout Miami-Dade County to bring a magical piece of the
Garden into classrooms. Although it’s optimal for children to come to the Garden
for an educational field trip, it is increasingly difficult for many schools to do so,
due to budget shortfalls and testing requirements. That is precisely where the
PlantMobile comes in—as an interactive, hands-on, fun, educational, standardsbased program delivered by enthusiastic Fairchild educators right in the classroom.
The PlantMobile is adapted to offer Kindergarten through 12th grade students the
opportunity to be botanists for an hour, and closely explore the diverse world of
plants through three different programs tailored for each grade level: Rainforest
Relationships, The Secrets of Seeds and Kitchen Botany.
The Rainforest Relationships program transports students into tropical rainforests. As
budding ethnobotanists, they take a close look at handmade artifacts from a South
American tribe. While working in small groups, they hone their observation and
critical thinking skills and determine what the object is used for, who in the village
would use it and from what type of forest plants it is made. Students discover the
tight interdependencies between plants, animals and people of the rainforest and,
most importantly, how very important rainforests truly are.
The PlantMobile
engages students of
all learning styles
to discover that
botany is very cool
and that plants
have a major role
in their lives.
The Kitchen Botany program brings the building blocks of botany out of the
laboratory and onto the dinner plate. A student will undoubtedly say during the
program, “I don’t eat stems or roots, yuck!” and then explain that she loves to eat
french fries, which are made from potatoes, a modified stem. By using hand lenses,
the students look closely at various plant parts to discover in amazement that
broccoli is a developing flower and cucumbers and tomatoes are fruits. By the end
of the program, they realize that just about everything we eat comes from a plant or
an animal that in its food web depends on plants.
Students learn first-hand about the marvelous engineering design of seeds through
The Secrets of Seeds program. Seeds, no matter how tiny or large, hold within them
the potential for new plant life. Students discover that the information needed to
create a new plant—its roots, stems, flowers, nectar, pollen and leaves—is within
that seed. They also look closely at various seeds from the Garden to study their
dispersal mechanisms. Some seeds use the wind as a dispersal medium, others
float, some are transported in the gut of animals and others hitch a ride on furry
passersby. They come to understand that plants have adapted many seed dispersal
mechanisms to maximize their dispersal range and increase their survival.
Teachers, principals and parents are enthusiastic about the PlantMobile visiting
their schools. It engages students of all learning styles to discover that botany is
cool and that plants play a major role in their lives, from the food they eat to the
clothes they wear.
For more information on the
PlantMobile Program, please visit
www.fairchildgarden.org/PlantMobile
Where cool and
sophisticated meet.
ONLY CORALGABLES
Visit Downtown Coral Gables and Miracle Mile, where you’ll find more than 200
restaurants and bouques made for those who appreciate a good vibe with good
taste. Only 10 minutes south of Miami Internaonal Airport. Centralized Valet,
six parking garages, over 1,700 metered parking spaces. For information
call 305-569-0311 or visit www.shopcoralgables.com
ShopCoralGables.com
vis-a-vis volunteers
Fairchild Horticulture Volunteers
are Rooted in the Garden
Text by Stephanie Bott. Photos by Fairchild Staff.
“No occupation is so
delightful to me as
the culture of the
earth, and no culture
comparable to that of
the garden.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Volunteer Jack Rich is a member of the Lakes
volunteer team. This great team cultivates
plants and maintains healthy ecosystems in
and around Fairchild’s lakes.
E
very fall, a new group of prospective volunteers attends Fairchild Tropical
Botanic Garden’s Volunteer Information Days to learn about volunteer
opportunities during the season ahead. Many of these volunteers are Fairchild
members and long-time visitors who have learned from and been inspired by the
beauty of the Garden’s landscapes and now want to contribute to their care and
preservation. These new volunteers will join the ranks of Fairchild’s outstanding
corps of horticulture volunteers who work behind the scenes, year-round, in all
types of conditions, helping to tend Fairchild’s world-class plant collections.
More than 100 horticulture volunteers support Fairchild’s horticulture staff by
working in 17 different areas—from the flower garden to the nursery, in plant
records and propagation, and from the rainforest to the butterfly garden. Last year,
horticulture volunteers gave more than 10,000 hours of service to Fairchild. More
than their time and hard work, however, horticulture volunteers share a
camaraderie with one another and with staff and a dedication to purpose which is
at the heart of what makes Fairchild such an extraordinary place.
Volunteer Ellen Roth helps to maintain the beauty
of Fairchild’s Geiger Tropical Flower Garden,
located just outside of the Visitor Center.
Take a walk through the Garden on most weekday mornings, and you will find
beehives of activity where horticulture volunteers are going about their many jobs.
Working in pairs or small groups, they weed, plant, prune, update plant records,
rake algae out of the lakes, clean the ponds and then weed some more. Venture to
the Center for Tropical Plant Conservation, and you will find more horticulture
volunteers working in the nursery pruning and repotting plants. Another group
working with Senior Horticulturist Mary Collins propagates plants from the collection
in preparation for Members’ Day and Spring Plant Sales. According to Jason Lopez,
17
Volunteers Ginny Guin, Trish
Swinney and Lise Dowd take cuttings
from the Garden and propagate them
at the nursery. These plants will
eventually be sold at one of
Fairchild’s popular plant sales.
Fairchild’s living collections manager, “Horticulture volunteers are woven into just
about every aspect of this Garden. Each individual has attributes that contribute to
Fairchild’s growth. With the help of my volunteers, I am able to accomplish any
number of goals, whether it be weekly tasks or one-time specialized projects. While
helping, the volunteers learn, make friends and have fun.”
Horticulture volunteers commit to working one morning a week for three to four
hours, persevering even when the weather is at its most humid and the air dense
with mosquitoes or when the temperatures drop as they have during the past two
winters. Volunteer Bill Quesenberry, a member of the vine pergola team, loves the
hot summer days because, he says, “While the heat makes the work a little
uncomfortable, everything grows so quickly in summer that I can see how necessary
my work is, and I know I’m making a difference.”
By taking on the enormous job of helping to maintain Fairchild’s 83 acres of plant
collections and 7,000 nursery plants, horticulture volunteers contribute in a
significant way to our vital mission to display tropical plants and educate the world
about their importance. As Dr. Richard Campbell, Fairchild’s director of horticulture,
says, “Thanks to the tireless efforts of the Garden’s dedicated staff and volunteers,
the science of horticulture can be seen and experienced every day in Fairchild’s
world-class plant collections.”
Pete Vandervlugt is a member of a
volunteer team which takes care of the
Palmetum, where Fairchild’s world-class
palm collection is on display.
Horticulture staff and their volunteers are the caretakers of a collection which reflects
years of study and exploration by Fairchild horticulturists and researchers, including Dr.
David Fairchild. The plant collections are central to Fairchild's education programs for
students of all ages, provide inspiration to the home gardener and are useful for gathering
information about endangered plant species. The collections also allow visitors to enjoy
the beauty of nature, provide moments of quiet reflection and create a one-of-a-kind
setting for Fairchild’s annual art exhibitions and popular festivals. The plant collections
are, in short, at the center of all that Fairchild is and does as a botanic garden.
For all of these reasons, Fairchild is tremendously grateful to the horticulture
volunteers for their incredible hard work and exemplary dedication to maintaining
the beauty of the plant collections for all who visit Fairchild Tropical Botanic
Garden. Thank you horticulture volunteers for a job well done!
BACK TO THE
FUTURE
Herbarium
Collections
are Our Ne
in the Fight
west Tool
to Protect T
ropical Div
ersity
BY KENNETH
J. FEELEY
Dr. Brett Jestrow frequently uses herbarium specimens for his research.
hen early plant explorers collected herbarium
specimens from the cloudforests of Peru or the
jungles of Indonesia, they could not have
imagined that they were helping to save these
habitats from climate change and deforestation.
But that is exactly what they were doing. Indeed, the millions
of collections from dedicated botanists everywhere have
become one of our newest and most powerful tools in
understanding and conserving tropical forests.
When you think of an herbarium, images of dark and dusty rooms
crammed with rows of cabinets full of stacked piles of pressed
leaves may come to mind. While this may accurately describe
many of the world’s physical herbaria, herbaria have evolved over
time and have begun to move into the digital age. Now, highresolution images of specimens are being captured using
special cameras and scanners. These digital images, along with
information on when and where each specimen was collected,
are then uploaded onto the internet and made freely available
to the global public. A fantastic example of this is Fairchild’s
own Virtual Herbarium (www.virtualherbarium.org) where you
can search through more than 80,000 plant collections based on
scientific name, collector’s name or location of collection, and
then view information and high-resolution images for the
matching specimen.
While the tens of thousands of collections available through
Fairchild’s Virtual Herbarium may sound like a lot, they are
really only the tip of the iceberg. Other herbarium around the
world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, have also been
digitizing their collections and making them available online.
Herbarium specimens are carefully filed and organized
at the Center for Plant Conservation.
Many of these online collections, including Fairchild’s Virtual
Herbarium, have been combined into a common data clearing
house maintained by the Global Biodiversity Information
Facility, or GBIF (www.gbif.org). GBIF provides access to
millions of collections housed in thousands of different
herbaria around the world.
In the past, scientists would have to travel to dozens of
individual herbaria in remote countries and comb through
thousands of herbarium sheets to find information on species of
interest. But now they can access orders of magnitude more
information with just a small fraction of the time and effort.
Easy access to millions of specimens from hard-to-reach
countries has been a huge boon to botanists, ecologists and
conservation scientists alike. Now, by combining the
information available through online herbarium records, we
can map the ranges of thousands of rare and endangered
species, identify and better understand the factors that limit
species distributions, document the impacts of climate change
on plants and work towards better preserving species from the
combined threats of climate change and land use.
One of the most basic ways that conservation scientists use
herbarium collections is to map the ranges, or distributions, of
species. The process for mapping a species’ distribution based
on herbarium collections is relatively straightforward. First, the
locations (latitude and longitude coordinates) from where the
species has been collected are downloaded from an online
virtual herbarium or the GBIF clearinghouse. These locations
are then plotted on a map that has information on climate, soil,
topography, elevation and/or any other environmental variable
Volunteers place herbarium specimens on acid-free paper to
minimize deterioration of the plant material.
that might be important to the species. Statistical models are
then used to relate the presence of the species to the
underlying environmental variables (In other words, was the
species collected from places where it is hot or places where it
is cold, where it is dry or where it is wet, etc?). Finally, these
relationships are extrapolated to other areas on the map to
identify places that have the right environmental conditions
suggesting that the species might occur there. For example, if
we see that all the collections of a hypothetical species come
from locations with a mean annual temperature between 20oC
and 25oC, then we can highlight all of the areas within this
thermal range as potentially suitable habitat. If we then
consider not just temperature but also rainfall, we may be able
exclude some places that have the right temperature but that
are too dry or too wet for our species. If we repeat this process
across a list of environmental variables, we will exclude more
and more areas and eventually come up with a fairly plausible
map for where the species is likely to occur. Ideally, the
predicted range maps are then verified through targeted field
campaigns. Indeed, these maps have helped botanists to locate
unknown populations of rare species.
Maps of where species occur are extremely valuable to
conservation biologists. They allow us to identify which
species are most threatened by deforestation or other human
land uses and which species are relatively “safe.” This
information in turn can be used to help better direct
conservation efforts and funds to those species that need it
most. Online data has made our maps more accurate and has
improved many conservations efforts. For example, just a few
years ago—before herbarium collections were easily available
online—scientists trying to predict the impacts of deforestation
on Amazonian diversity assumed that all species occur
A finished herbarium specimen ready for scanning into the virtual herbaria.
everywhere within the basin, and therefore all species were at
equal risk of extinction due to habitat loss. We knew that this
was a faulty assumption, but it was the best that could be done
at the time given the extreme lack of information available for
most tropical species. Recently, though, I completed a study in
which I used online herbarium records to generate maps for
tens of thousands of Amazonian plant species. I then overlaid
maps of deforestation based on remotely-sensed data (see
“Conserving Earth from Space” in the Spring 2011 issue of The
Tropical Garden) on top of these range maps and measured
how much habitat each species had already lost and was likely
to lose in the future due to ongoing deforestation. Incorporating
the new range maps greatly changed our estimates of how
deforestation is impacting Amazonian diversity. Specifically, I
found that most plant species in the Amazon are concentrated
in the west along the base of the Andes Mountains in Peru and
Ecuador and that diversity generally decreases as one moves
south and east. This is almost the exact opposite pattern from
deforestation, where rates of forest destruction are greatest
along the so called “arc of deforestation” in the southeastern
Amazon along the frontier between the rainforest and the
cerrado savannahs.
Consequently, it now appears that many rainforest species are
being spared from the chainsaw (for now!) simply due to their
good fortune of living where the rate of deforestation is still
relatively low (for now!). It also appears that there are many
thousands of species from the southeast Amazon which have
already seen most of their natural habitat converted to pasture
or soybean plantations and that are either on the brink of
extinction or have already been lost. This information is being
passed on to conservation organizations so that they can better
focus their efforts.
21
A
B
C
D
Distribution maps for the plant species Cordia
nodosa in South America as predicted using the
locations of 551 herbarium collections (points) as
predicted on the basis of A) temperature, B)
temperature and rainfall, and C) a suite of 19
climatic variables. Panel D shows how the
distribution of C nodosa is predicted to change due
to a doubling of atmospheric CO2: red shows
current distribution, yellow shows the future
distribution, and orange shows the overlap
between current and futute distribution.
Mapping where species occur not only allows us to estimate
how the species are being threatened by current disturbances
such as deforestation—it may also help us predict how species
will respond to future threats. One of the most prominent
predictions of the impact of climate change on species is that it
will bring about changes in where they grow and the amount
of habitat available to them (see “Where will the tropical
rainforests be in 100 years?” in the Spring 2010 issue of The
Tropical Garden). Mapping a species’ current distribution is the
first step in predicting where it will move in response to
changes in climate. We then project that distribution into the
future by creating a map based not on current environmental
conditions, but on the conditions predicted for the area in the
future under different climate change scenarios. We can then
overlay the maps of the species’ current and future ranges to
see how far the species will need to move and how much
habitat it is likely to lose (or in some rare instances, gain). In
some cases, researchers may decide that a species won't be
able to move the necessary distances naturally and thus they
may intervene through “assisted migration” or “assisted
colonization,” transplanting individuals from their current
range into the predicted future range.
Herbarium specimens have many other uses which we are
only now tapping into. For example, researchers are using
herbarium records to look for changes in the phenology, or
flowering time, of plant species. According to standard
practice, herbarium specimens must always include
reproductive material and thus there are often flowers collected
along with the leaves. As such, the dates over which a species
has been collected provide some indication of when a species
produces flowers at a given location. By comparing collection
dates of a given species/location through time, we may be able
to see the fingerprint of climate change in shifting flowering
times. Indeed, studies analyzing herbarium records have begun
to show that many species from North America and Europe are
flowering earlier each year. One explanation for this
phenomenon is that rising global temperatures have shortened
winter and pushed forward the spring flowering season. While
earlier flowers may seem nice, it may actually lead to
ecological disasters as different interacting species fail to
synchronize their new schedules. For example, just imagine
what might happen if plants start flowering earlier in the year
but the hummingbirds that pollinate them don't show a similar
change in their return flight from wintering in South America.
Herbarium collections may even enable us to investigate how
individual plants are acclimating to climate change. For
example, one team of researchers compared the leaves that had
been collected from trees in Harvard University's Arnold
Arboretum (www.arboretum.harvard.edu) at the time of their
planting with leaves collected from the same individuals but at
later dates (many of the individual trees are still living today).
The researchers counted the number of stomata (pores used for
gas exchange) on the undersides of leaves and found that the
number of stomata tended to decrease over time. The proposed
explanation is that since the concentration of CO2 in our
atmosphere has been climbing steadily higher since the
industrial revolution, fewer stomata are needed to provide the
carbon that plants require for photosynthesis—in other words, as
it gets easier to breathe, the plants don’t need as many nostrils.
The number of stomata on a leaf may seem like something
trivial and only of interest to botanists, but it actually may have
very important implications for the world’s population. Indeed,
studies have shown that fewer stomata mean that plants will
release less water into our atmosphere through transpiration.
This in turn will have significant impacts on the Earth’s
hydrology and climate.
Herbarium specimens are being put to uses that early botanists
and collectors never dreamed of. Herbarium collections are
now one of our greatest sources of information on plant species
and one of our most powerful tools in predicting (and
hopefully mitigating) the impacts of tropical deforestation and
climate change. But the utility of herbarium collections for
conservation science is largely dependant on sample size. In
order to map a species’ range we need to have lots and lots of
collections—indeed some studies have suggested that 20 to 50
records per species is the absolute bare minimum.
Unfortunately, most tropical plant species are known by just
one or, at best, two collections. And untold thousands of
species are not known by even a single collection. How many
of these species will we lose before they can be collected
and mapped?
How do we fill this data void? There are really only two
answers. The first is that we must simply increase the raw
number of herbarium collections. This means investing more
effort and more dollars in the unglamorous but crucial task of
botanical exploration and collecting. The second answer goes
hand-in-hand with the first: We must increase the availability
of these new collections as well as the collections that already
exist. While millions of collections are already available
online, there are millions more that sit undigitized and underutilized. This problem is not limited to herbaria in remote or
developing nations. Fairchild’s Herbarium has made great steps
towards digitizing its collections, but neatly piled in those rows
of cabinets there are still thousands of collections that have yet
to see the scanner.
THE FAIRCHILD
HERBARIUM
By Brett Jestrow
With more than 200,000 collections, The Fairchild
Tropical Garden Herbarium is the largest scientific
collection of plant specimens in South Florida. The
collections span from material collected by historical
botanists in the late 1800s to material gathered during
Fairchild field projects currently in progress across the
Caribbean and Malay Archipelago. The majority of the
Herbarium is composed of carefully prepared dried plant
material, but it also includes alcohol, wood and
microscope slide collections. From a pickled cactus bloom
to the Hurricane Andrew wood collection, there is
something to surprise and interest every visitor.
As a whole, the Herbarium mirrors the garden by
specializing in the palms and cycads of the world, as well
as the floras of the Caribbean and South Florida. Of
course, the Garden’s cultivated plants are also very well
represented, as many have been the focus of scientific
investigations. Specimens from the Garden and vouchered
in the herbarium have played leading roles in anatomic,
genomic, taxonomic and even medical research.
As a member of Index Herbariorum, the global directory of
herbaria, we are able to exchange specimens with other
scientific institutions from around the world. Recently, we sent
specimens of date palms to Spain, fruits preserved in alcohol
to Argentina and dried flowers to the Netherlands. And the
exchange goes both ways—indeed as I am writing this, a gift
of three boxes of specimens of Caribbean plants arrived from
the herbarium of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew of England.
By developing our collaborations, we build our collections
while furthering scientific research internationally.
For those research projects which do not require physical
specimens, Fairchild’s Herbarium also hosts a virtual
herbarium, a highly efficient method of storing information
and increasing access to the collections. While the virtual
herbarium currently hosts images and data for more than
80,000 herbarium specimens, the majority of our
collections are still not digitized or available online. This is
especially true for the Caribbean collections, the vast
majority of whose specimens are not yet digitized—despite
being one of the most important collections housed in the
herbarium. We are actively working to increase the number
of collections available through the virtual herbarium.
Garden members who are interested in visiting the
Herbarium are encouraged to come to a Plant Identification
Workshop, which is held at the Herbarium on the first
Friday of every month at 1:00 p.m. Feel free to come by
and tour the herbarium, with or without a plant. If you are
bringing a plant for identification, you must reserve your
space online at www.fairchildgarden.org/plantid.
4
3
2
5
1
6
What’s
blo ming
this winter
Text by Marilyn Griffiths. Photos by Mary Collins and Marilyn Griffiths
T
he winter-flowering plants in the Vine Pergola will be our first
stop in this issue’s tour, followed by several great plants that
attract hummingbirds. I will begin the tour at the Visitor
Center and follow the brick path that leads to the vine collection.
The red flowered 1. Clerodendrum splendens at the North entrance
to the Vine Pergola invites us to stroll through this shady collection
of tropical vines. It was planted in 1995 and has grown to cover this
end of the pergola with deep green leaves and brilliant red flowers.
Moving past the large Albizia niopoides, a low vine greets us with large
yellow flowers. The common name of Solandra grandiflora, chalice
vine, provides a clue to the shape of the flowers. Cup-like and yellow,
they have wavy edges that roll back to reveal burgundy stripes,
drawing the eye to the center. Our specimen was planted in 1941.
Nearby, climbing up and over the Pergola, Wagatea spicata, candy
corn plant, shoots out spikes of flowers that live up to its common
name. The individual flowers are red at the base and change to
yellow towards the tips. This member of the legume family is a
descendant of the original specimen, which came from the
Peradeniya Royal Botanic Garden in Sri Lanka in 1966.
2. Congea tomentosa, shower of orchids, cascades from a post
further south. Its delicate lavender flowers cover the plant in winter;
after the flowers have finished, the soft gray sepals persist, giving it
a downy appearance through spring. Its broad native range includes
India, Malaysia and China.
Now we’ll look at plants that attract the tiny hummingbird. A few
steps east of the Vine Pergola, Plot 6 contains many unusual plants
from desert habitats. Fouqueria splendens, ocotillo, attracts
hummingbirds with its long clusters of brilliant red tubular flowers.
Even though it is native only from Texas west to California, ocotillo
is flourishing here.
Continuing on our hummingbird tour, we follow the tram road as it
curves south. At the curve, in Plot 3a, 3. Hamelia patens, firebush,
and 4. Holmskioldia sanguinea, Chinese hat plant, afford the
perfect feeding location for hummingbirds. These large scrambling
shrubs provide hiding places as well as the nectar that these tiny
birds love. 5. Pavonia bahamensis, swamp-bush, is further south
along the tram road. Because it provides both a haven and nectar,
hummingbirds fly in and out of this large shrub.
The butterfly garden in Plot 19 also hosts hummingbirds in the winter.
Both 6. Salvia coccinea, tropical sage, with its brilliant red flowers,
and Bourreria virgata, Roble de Guayo, host hummingbirds.
William Lyman Phillips’ original landscape design of the garden is
available at the Visitor Center and at the South Gate booth. It shows
the plot configurations and their numbers. On the reverse there is a
current list of flowering plants. Ask one of our friendly volunteers at
the desk for a copy.
A plot map of the garden is available at the Visitor Center and at
the South Gate booth. On the reverse there is a current list of
flowering plants. Ask one of our friendly volunteers at the desk for a
copy. A complete list of plants in the Garden is online at
www.fairchildgarden.org. Browse through the botanical names or
the common names to locate a plant of interest.
Our website is an invaluable
resource for plant information,
horticultural advice and news of
plants at Fairchild. The Plants of
the Year can also be found with
detailed information and images.
Visit www.fairchildgarden.org/
Blooming to find what’s blooming
this month.
Plot 6
Lakeside
Café
Plot 3a
Plot 19
Sunken
Garden
E.D. Merrill
BY GEORGIA TASKER | PHOTOS: ARCHIVE/FTBG
T
LEFT PAGE
Dr. E. D. Merrill during an
expedition to Cuba.
February 1939.
Photo by David Fairchild.
he Christmas palm, Adonidia merrilli, is
named for the second president of Fairchild
Tropical Botanic Garden, Dr. Elmer Drew
Merrill. A longtime friend of Dr. David
Fairchild, he was among the most illustrious botanists
of his day. He worked in the Philippines for 22 years,
becoming expert at identifying Pacific plants. He
served as dean of the College of Agriculture of the
University of California, director of the New York
Botanic Garden and administrator of the botanical
collections of Harvard University. Yet, as an
undergraduate at Maine State College (later University
of Maine), he had taken only one botany course.
During the two decades he spent in Manila, Merrill
explored many of the archipelago’s 7,000 islands,
plus Borneo, Java, the Malay Peninsula and much of
southern and eastern China. It was an auspicious
stage of his career, but one that began inauspiciously:
in an empty room with no furniture, no files, no
botanical books or papers. Everything had been
destroyed in the war. By the time he left Manila, he
had built a herbarium of 275,000 sheets. He sent
duplicates to other herbaria in America and Europe,
so that when the Japanese again destroyed the
herbarium in 1946, he was able to help Filipino
botanists rebuild the collection.
After graduating from college as valedictorian with a
degree in science, Merrill explored the plants of Mount
Washington and Mount Katahdin in northern Maine and
amassed a 2,000-specimen herbarium. He then worked
as an assistant in the university’s natural science
department before going to Washington to work for the
U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was a grass specialist
there, but, not yet committed to a botany career, he
spent nights going to medical school. In 1902, he was
persuaded to become a botanist at the Insular Bureau
of Agriculture in the Philippines, created by the
United States after the Spanish-American war ended
in 1898. On his way to Manila, Merrill met Fairchild,
and the two became lifelong friends, communicating by
letter and visits, always sharing plant news and opinions.
From the position of botanist, Merrill eventually
became director of the Bureau of Science and
professor of botany at the University of the
Philippines. His ambitious goal of writing the flora of
the Philippines was never realized, but he did
complete a flora of Philippine flowering plants that
ran to four volumes, according to a biography written
for the National Academy of Sciences.
(L-R) Charles H. Crandon, Dr. David Fairchild, Liberty Hyde Bailey,
Dr. E. D. Merrill, Thomas Barbour, Ben Y. Morrison and
Col. Robert Montgomery
When Fairchild was preparing for the Cheng Ho
Fairchild Garden Expedition to Indonesia that
launched in 1939, he wrote to Merrill—by then at
Harvard—asking for a book on the plants of the
Moluccas. “I’m afraid that there isn’t anything doing
on the Moluccas,” Merrill wrote back. “There isn’t a
(L-R) Mrs. Atkins, Dr. E. D. Merrill, Thomas
Barbour and David Sturrock during an
expedition to Cuba. February, 1939.
27
LEFT
Dr. E. D. Merrill planting a
Adonidia merrillii specimen
at the dedication of Fairchild
Tropical Garden 1938.
RIGHT
Dr. E. D. Merrill
flora or even a list published on this group. … After
all, old Rumphius on Amboina is the best bet, for he
has pictures, many of them distinctly good; and he
illustrated most of the lowland and coastal types.”
Merrill suggested that Fairchild could get a copy from
Washington of his interpretation of Georg Eberhard
Rumphius’ six-volume herbal, Herbarium
Amboinense, the first tropical flora, which Rumphius
completed in the 17th Century. (See sidebar, pg. 30)
LEAVING THE PHILIPPINES
Although E.D., as he always was called, had married
and lived in Manila with his wife Mary and two young
children, the death of their two-month-old son
convinced him that his family should not live on the
island. He established a home for them in the United
States in 1915, and for eight years saw them only
during a single leave taken in 1920-21. In 1924,
Merrill left Manila to become director of the University
of California’s College of Agriculture. While serving as
dean as well as director of the UC experiment station,
which conducted applied research for California
agriculture, he also wrote a flora of Borneo and added
110,000 sheets to the school’s herbarium.
Merrill left UC to become director of the New York
Botanical Garden in 1929 and professor of botany at
Columbia University. He once again changed jobs in
1935, becoming a professor of botany and
administrator of botanical collections at Harvard
University. There, he supervised nine botanical
enterprises, from the Arnold Arboretum in Boston to
the Atkins Institution in Cuba. He wrote to Fairchild,
“The Harvard offer was a nut to crack—I considered it
for six weeks, up to the end being against the move—
I have to give up so much. There are, it is to be
hoped, compensations.”
During the mid-1930s, Merrill also was president of
the Botanical Society of America, an official delegate
to the Sixth International Botanical Congress in
Amsterdam representing the U.S. government and the
National Academy of Sciences, president-at-large of
the Herb Society of America, on the board of
managers of Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
on Barro Colorado island in the Panama canal zone
and much more. As busy as he was, Merrill still
managed to increase the size of the Arnold Arboretum
herbarium with specimens from the Far East, Mexico,
the Antilles and Africa.
In 1939, he was awarded the Linnaean Medal for
service to the Linnaean Society of London, which
documents the world’s flora and fauna. That same
year, on Dec. 18, Col. Robert Montgomery wrote to
Merrill: “It gives me much pleasure to inform you that
you were unanimously elected President of the
Fairchild Tropical Garden on Friday, Dec. 15. The
new letter paper is in the hands of the printer and will
be out sometime this week. I will send you a supply.”
Shortly thereafter, in early 1940, Montgomery scolded
Merrill for plans to leave Florida immediately after the
annual meeting and head to Cuba. “Unless you are
planning to come back here after you go to Cuba,
your plans are highly unsatisfactory to us. We are in
desperate need of a lot of advice and suggestions
regarding the proper way to run this enterprise,” he
wrote. Apparently things worked out, for Merrill
served as board president until 1947.
After that 1940 meeting, Merrill wrote to Fairchild,
still on the Cheng Ho, that he laid down the law to
the acting director of the Garden: “I suppose that if I
am to be the president of the FTG that I will have to
develop a good set of teeth so that I can bite on
occasion. You are too tough to get bit by me, and
besides you are too far away, but I might take a
nibble if you pass up those botanical specimens.” He
had urged Fairchild again and again to “take with you
a properly qualified collector who may be charged
with the collection and preparation of botanical
specimens … representing the floras of the regions
you will visit in your travels.” And when Fairchild
sent Merrill samples of collected plants from the
expedition, Merrill indeed took a very big nibble:
“Enclosed is the sad story of the collections made on
the Moluccas trip, and about all that can be expected
from the fragmented nature of the material,” he wrote.
“I shall put none of the scraps and none of the sterile
material in the herbarium, for it is quite worthless for
study purposes. Manifestly, conditions on the Cheng
Ho were not conducive to the collection of botanical
specimens. Now what are you going to do for the
names for the several hundred seed numbers
collected for which there are no vouchers?”
Merrill wasn’t always easy to get along with. An
obituary that appeared in the Washington Academy of
Sciences journal noted that, “It would not be factual
to omit he did nettle some of his associates.” Even
William J. Robbins, who served as director of the
New York Botanical Garden from 1937 to 1958,
wrote in his memoir of Merrill for the National
Academy of Sciences that Merrill, “convinced in his
own mind of the rightness of his judgment, had no
hesitation in expressing it and fighting for it.”
A KEEN SENSE OF HUMOR
Merrill didn’t hesitate to go after important
specimens. In 1941, the dawn redwood, Metasequoia
glyptostroboides, was discovered in China, creating a
huge sensation among scientists who had thought it to
be long extinct. Merrill, as director of the Arnold
Arboretum, sent a team to secure seeds in 1948, and
(L-R) Dr. David Fairchild, Dr. Liberty Hyde
Bailey, Dr. Walter T. Swingle, Dr. E. D. Merrill,
and Col. Robert H. Montgomery.
29
was said to delight in giving seeds from his coat
pockets to associates in England.
Robbins described him as having “a keen sense of
humor” and recalled that as director of the New York
Botanical Garden, he insisted on sitting in the front seat
of an automobile “because that was evidence of rank
and ‘the Director was the rankest member of the staff.’”
For relaxation, Merrill would work in his vegetable
garden or go fishing in Canada. Even after he retired
from Harvard, he continued to go to his office and was
made emeritus professor of botany in 1948. One July
day in 1949, he sent a note of thanks to Fairchild for
mangos, apparently making a decision during its
writing: “Here it is 3 p.m. and a terrifically hot day (95
plus), the third or fourth in a row, and I’ve been playing
with the Philippine Eugenias until I’m dizzy. So you
know what? I’m going home, connect with a nice cold
bottle of beer and listen to the broadcast of the baseball
game between the Red Socks and the Indians.”
During his lifetime, Merrill described, according to
Robbins, more than 3,000 new species of plants from
the Philippines, Polynesia, China, Moluccas and
Borneo, and was the author of more than 500
technical papers and books. But it was making
herbarium specimens at which he excelled, and he
probably added more than 1 million sheets to
herbaria around the world. He wrote to Fairchild in a
letter dated Nov. 10, 1949: “Dear Fairchild, Did you
ever attempt to sort some 9,000 unmounted
specimens into families and genera? This is what I
have had to do for the Philippine stuff that is pouring
in on me.” Still, he said, he had gathered two quarts
of raspberries from his garden “and now we revel in
raspberry pie. Ripe raspberries in Boston at almost
mid-November is really something.”
At age 75, in 1951, Merrill received a Guggenheim
fellowship of $5,000 and, as he told Fairchild, “I
pretty nearly fell through the cement floor.” He could
then go to England to straighten out the unnamed
Malayan specimens in the British Museum. The
fellowship was renewed the next year. While working
at the British Museum, he identified remnants of
botanical collections made on Captain James Cook’s
voyage around the world. Using those findings, he
wrote his last book: The Botany of Cook’s Voyages.
On May 6, 1953, he wrote to Fairchild, “Dear David,
This letter should have been mailed yesterday, but I
‘clean forgot’ which explains my present condition. ...
I am closing up all work, but it goes very slowly.”
At least seven genera are dedicated to Merrill,
including Merrillia, Merilliodendron and
Merrillosphaera, and 220 binomials have specific
names dedicated to him, such as the Adonidia merrillii.
He died in Forest Hills, MA. on February 25, 1956.
GEORG EBERHARD RUMPHIUS
Working for the Dutch East Indies Company, Georg
Eberhard Rumphius devoted his life to describing
plants and animals on the island of Ambon, in the
Maluku Islands of Indonesia, where he was initially
sent as a soldier.
E.D. Merrill “interpreted” Rumphius’s six-volume
work, Herbarium Amboinense, sending a botanist to
Amboina to collect plants from areas where
Rumphius had collected. Unfortunately, that
botanist, the Canadian C.B. Robinson, was killed in
a tragic incident. The December 23, 1913, New
York Times ran a story about Robinson’s death, with
the headline “Malays Kill Botanist.” Because he had
red hair, Ambon native believed Robinson was a
demon. When he asked for a coconut to quench his
thirst, Robinson apparently used the wrong word
and asked for a head. That was the last straw,
according to taxonomist Joseph Arditti, who, writing
in the Malay Orchid Review, noted that Robinson
was soon given his own head.
Despite the notoriety of Robinson’s trip, the works of
Rumphius himself remained under the radar. In
Merrill’s 1945 book Plant Life of the Pacific World,
he called Rumphius “one of the outstanding
naturalists of all time.” Still, it wasn’t until the 21st
century that the invaluable worth of Rumphius’s
work was widely known. Monty Beekman, a
Germanic language professor in Amherst, Mass.,
began to translate Rumphius’s original volumes in
2000. In 2010, the National Tropical Botanic
Garden posthumously presented Beekman with the
Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration. Volume One
of his translations has been published by Yale
University Press.
Restoring the
Isabel J. Foster
FERN GLADE
By Jeff Wasielewski
A historical part of Fairchild has been restored to
prominence and his now home to a number of rare
and endangered ferns.
T
he Isabel J. Foster Fern Glade, true to its
original intentions, is now a place for
quiet contemplation and a contrast in
textures. Under the watchful eye of Ricardo
Aberle, Fairchild’s landscape designer, the
Glade now boasts more than 40 new ferns.
tropics, but it is locally rare and
endangered in Florida. These ferns were
collected as spores from a Miami-Dade
County preserve in 2008 and grown in a
terrarium until they were large enough to
survive in Fairchild’s nursery.
The Fern Glade is located near the main
waterfall in the Richard H. Simons
Rainforest. It was first established in 1980
and is named after Isabel J. Foster, the mother
of Nell Jennings. Nell Jennings, the wife of
Garden founder Col. Robert Montgomery,
played a vital role in establishing Fairchild.
Creeping star-hair fern (Thelypteris
reptans)
Stiff star-hair fern is named after the stellate
(star-shaped) hairs on its fronds, which are
so tiny that magnification of at least 20X is
required to clearly view them. This unique
and beautiful fern—endangered in
Florida—can be found growing directly on
limestone in the wild. It often produces
roots and new leaves at nodes along its
longest fronds, a phenomenon known as
“creeping” or “walking.”
Mr. Aberle restored the Glade by putting in
ferns of different heights, textures and
shades of green to play with the filtered
light that falls through the Rainforest’s
canopy to the forest floor. According to Mr.
Aberle, “The Fern Glade looks best on a
sunny day as the light plays on the textures
and shapes of the many varying ferns.”
The Isabel J. Foster Fern Glade original sign
was uncovered after the restoration.
The Fern Glade restoration not only
beautified the Rainforest—it also became
the home of a number of rare and
endangered ferns grown by Fairchild field
biologist Jennifer Possley. The rare ferns
include the lattice-vein, creeping star-hair
and brittle maiden hair ferns:
Lattice-vein fern (Thelypteris reticulata)
Growing to two meters or more, latticevein fern is the largest species in Fairchild’s
program to conserve Miami’s rare ferns. It
is relatively widespread in the New World
Brittle maiden hair (Adiantum tenerum)
Although it is one of Florida’s endangered
species, brittle maiden hair fern grows like
a weed in parts of Fairchild. This
limestone-loving species can be found
throughout the Garden in shady spots on
our natural rock outcroppings and low
limestone walls. One of this species’ most
beautiful features is its new fronds, which
unfurl into tiny, delicate, pink leaflets.
Fairchild’s staff is excited to move forward
with new plantings that pay tribute to the
past. We hope that the next time you are in
the Garden, you make time to visit the newly
restored Isabel J. Foster Fern Glade.
31
is American History
By Rodney Snyder
L-R
An early print from the 17th century
showing chocolate being made.
A botanical print showing the fruit,
flowers and leaves of the cacao plant.
c
hocolate is American history. It is more than just a food or confection.
Chocolate has been a part of American cultures and seminal events
from antiquity to the present—a common connection through time,
inextricably woven throughout the fabric of North American history.
Transporting cacao beans.
Although chocolate is often associated with European culture, its roots are
firmly planted in the Americas. Europeans first saw cocoa during Columbus’
fourth voyage to the New World in 1502. They did not drink chocolate until
1519, after Hernando Cortés visited the Aztec royal court of Montezuma.
Chocolate was consumed in beverage form until the 1900’s, when it was
widely transformed into a confection.
By the time Europeans discovered chocolate, the peoples of America had been
enjoying it for 3,000 years. Advertisers in the 1970’s coined the jingle “baseball,
hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet” to reflect items that were regarded as
“typically American.” In reality, the only apple trees native to the Americas are
crab apple trees, making chocolate more American than apple pie!
Chocolate in Mesoamerica
The cacao tree is indigenous to the Upper Amazon Basin and was transported
and domesticated in Olmec, Mesoamerica more than 3,500 years ago. Cacao
trees are not easy to transplant, since they require live seedlings and cannot be
germinated from dried beans. Over many years, these seedlings were most
likely transported along the Pacific Coast of South America and then across
land into the Veracruz region of present-day Mexico. The migration of the
trees was probably along established trade routes, and the cocoa beans from
the tree were subsequently incorporated into the local cuisines.
Roasting the beans would have created the same enticing chocolate
aroma then as it does now. Grinding the roasted beans and combining
them with other unique indigenous plants would have led to the first
chocolate drink. Chocolate recipes included ingredients such as ground
corn, allspice, chili pepper, pinenuts and ear flower (custard apple). The
drink was poured back and forth from one vessel to another until it was
foamy (similar to the froth on modern-day cappuccinos). This chocolate
drink became an integral part of Olmec, Maya and Aztec cultures
and played an important religious, medicinal and economic role in
their societies.
Chocolate in the American Colonies
The first reference to chocolate in North America uncovered to date is
from the Spanish ship Nuestra Señora del Rosario del Carmen, which in
1641 arrived in St. Augustine, Fla., with crates of chocolate. In 1670,
Dorothy Jones and Jane Barnard opened a public house in Boston to sell
chocolate, most likely imported from Europe. The Europeans added Old
World spices and flavors such as anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper
and sugarcane to the chocolate recipes.
By 1682, a British report detailed cocoa exports from Jamaica to Boston.
By inference, cocoa exports into the colonies can be assumed to be used
for local chocolate production, marking the beginning of chocolate
production in the American colonies.
Chocolate was mentioned in a North American newspaper as early as
1705, when it was advertised for sale in Boston at the warehouse of Mr.
James Leblond on the Long Wharf near the Swing-Bridge. In 1716, the
French suggested planting cocoa trees in the southern Mississippi River
region to trade for sugar from Cuba. Unfortunately, the climate in the
southern part of North America was not conducive to cocoa growing.
L-R
Immature cacao fruit and new flowers.
Cacao beans ready to be processed.
Crushing cacao nibs using a metate.
L-R
Making chocolate is big business.
Melted chocolate goodness.
Chocolate comes in many shapes and sizes.
As demand for chocolate increased, manufacturing methods had to be scaled
up to increase production capacity. In 1737, a Boston newspaper carried an
advertisement for a hand-operated machine for making chocolate. That same
year, an inventor in Massachusetts developed an engine to grind cocoa. It was
inexpensive to run and could produce 100 weight of chocolate in six hours.
By 1773, demand for chocolate in the colonies led to annual imports of more
than 320 tons of cocoa beans. Drinking chocolate was affordable to all classes
of people and was available in most coffee houses, where colonists would
gather to talk about politics and the news of the day.
Because chocolate could be transported in solid blocks without spoilage, it
was used as a ration by the military. In 1755, Benjamin Franklin secured six
pounds of chocolate per officer as a special supply for soldiers marching with
General Braddock’s army at the onset of the French and Indian War. The
British army was also drinking chocolate, supplied during construction of His
Majesty’s Fort at Crown Point, N.Y., in 1768. To ensure a supply of affordable
chocolate for the military and to combat profiteering during the Revolutionary
War, the Continental Congress in 1777 imposed price controls for both
chocolate and cocoa. It was also forbidden to export chocolate from
Massachusetts, as it was required “for the supply of the army.”
From Chocolate Drink to Chocolate Confection
In the 1800’s, advances in manufacturing processes turned chocolate from a
drink to a food. By the mid-1800’s, advertisements for solid eating chocolate
first appeared. Although drinking chocolate was very popular, the ease of
eating chocolate in any location at any time was enticing. But the first solid
eating chocolates retained the coarse and gritty texture of the bars used to
make drinks, and were not well received.
It was a European invention that truly turned chocolate into a popular food: In
1879, in Switzerland, Rodolphe Lindt developed a machine that resembled a
conch shell to process his chocolate. The result melted on the tongue and gave
off a very appealing chocolate aroma. Thus began the transformation of
chocolate from a drink to a confection. By the 1920’s, eating chocolate had
surpassed drinking chocolate in popularity.
Modern-Day Chocolate
When someone drinks hot chocolate today, it is usually hot cocoa, a beverage
made with cocoa powder, milk powder, sugar and water. Since cocoa powder
is produced by removing cocoa butter from the ground cocoa nibs, hot cocoa
does not have the flavor, texture or mouth feel of real hot chocolate. Although
this is a pleasant drink, particularly in the wintertime, hot cocoa is only
distantly related to the chocolate drink enjoyed in Colonial America. The
Colonial American chocolate drink was prepared with liquid or scraped
chocolate instead of cocoa powder, and produced a much more intense
chocolate flavor and aroma. It also possessed a thicker mouth feel, similar to
the difference between skim milk and full-fat milk. This combination of flavor
and texture explains why drinking chocolate was enjoyed as a nutritious,
great-tasting food for thousands of years. People who have only tasted hot
cocoa may wonder how a chocolate drink could be revered so highly by
earlier cultures, but anyone who has tasted a real chocolate drink understands
the reverence.
By the beginning of the 21st century, manufacturers had refined all of the
processing techniques first practiced by the Olmecs into highly controlled,
mass production processes. After almost 400 years of innovations in chocolate
manufacturing, the captivating aroma and seductive flavor of chocolate still
entices scientists to discover new advances in both technology and product
development. Today, the health benefits of dark chocolate are well known,
and a trip through the grocery store provides evidence that chocolate has
infiltrated a diverse selection of edible products. Chocolate has evolved over
its history from a drink to a confection, but regardless of its form, it has elicited
a multitude of responses from its consumers. Chocolate is a part of our
American past that will continue far into our future.
In 2009, Mars Inc. celebrated the publication of Chocolate: History, Culture
and Heritage. The book was the culmination of 10 years of collaborative
research with the University of California, Davis, investigating the early history
of chocolate in the Americas. More than 200 archives, libraries, museums and
private collections were visited by 115 researchers across the world to
produce 56 chapters by 46 authors. Together, they illustrated that chocolate
has been surprisingly involved in every aspect of society.
Rodney Snyder is chocolate history research director for Mars Inc.
Discover American Heritage Chocolate at
www.americanheritagechocolate.com.
Chocolate references
from North America
• Henri Joutel was an eyewitness historian of the La
Salle expedition of 1684, which sought to reach
the mouth of the Mississippi River by sea in 1684.
He mentioned drinking chocolate in his diary.
• Samuel Sewall, a Massachusetts judge best
known for his involvement in the Salem witch
trials, wrote about breakfasting on venison
and chocolate in 1697.
• Benjamin Franklin sold locally produced
chocolate in his Philadelphia print shop. In 1739,
he was selling bibles and other books, pencils,
ink, writing paper and “very good chocolate.”
• John and Abigail Adams were very fond of
chocolate. In 1779, John Adams, while in Spain,
wrote, “Ladies drink chocolate in the Spanish
fashion. Each lady took a cup of hot chocolate
and drank it, and then cakes and bread and butter
were served; then each lady took another cup of
cold water, and here ended the repast.” Abigail
Adams, writing to John Quincy Adams in 1785,
described drinking chocolate for breakfast while
in London.
• In 1785, Thomas Jefferson predicted that chocolate
would become the favorite beverage in North
America, surpassing coffee and tea. This prediction
came after the Boston Tea Party and the rejection
of tea by the colonists, and prior to the widespread
consumption of coffee in North America.
• Meriwether Lewis, while on the Lewis and Clark
Expedition from 1804 to 1806, wrote about
drinking chocolate in 1806: “I felt myself
very unwell and directed a little chocolate which
Mr. McClellin gave us, prepared of which I drank
about a pint and found great relief”.
You’ve
Y
ou’ve b
built
uilt yyour
our ssanctuary.
anctuar y.
N
Now
ow ffind
ind yyour
our p
peace.
eace.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Japanese
Japa
anese Koi
African
Afric
can Cichlids
<RXWK$GXOW6DLOLQJ&ODVVHV
$W7KH
&RFRQXW*URYH6DLOLQJ&OXE
Fish & Pond Treatments
Treatments
Pumps
Pum
mps & Filters
Hikari
Hika
ari Foods
TTetra
e
etrra Pond Products
Pond
Pon
nd Service & Maintenance
FREEE Water Analysis
FRE
www.AngelsHatchery.com
w
w w.An g el sH atc he r y. co m
C
Call
all TToday
oday | 305.248.7777
o
7
We
W
e aaccept
ccept V
Visa
isa & MasterCard
MasterCard | 1
16375
6375 SW
SW 256th
256th St.,
St., H
Homestead,
omestead, FFLL 3
33031
3031
• NO MEMBERSHIP REQUIRED
• Weekday and weekend courses available
• Learn to sail on Sunfish, and Keelboats
• Now offering cruising classes
2990 S Bayshore Dr. Miami FL 33133
For more information visit cgsc.org
or call 305-444-4571 ext 18
Fairchild’s 6th Annual International
Presenting
Sponsor:
featuring Coffee & Tea
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, January 20, 21 and 22, 2012
By Jeff Wasielewski
Photos by Gaby Orihuela/FTBG
T
aste the extravagance of chocolate, savor the rich flavors of
coffee and enjoy the elegance of that perfect cup of tea at
the 6th Annual International Chocolate Festival. The
Chocolate Festival will immerse you in the world of chocolaty
goodness while offering the opportunity to learn more about the
history and importance of the world’s favorite confection.
Fairchild’s lush tropical surroundings and the art of Will Ryman will
combine with South Florida’s gorgeous winter weather and
everyone’s favorite flavors to produce the most decadent, flavorful
festival of the year.
You can also watch well known chefs create delicious chocolateinspired dishes. There will also be an educational ChocoWalk,
yummy samples and plenty of vendors selling hard-to-find specialty
and gourmet chocolates..
A new interactive exhibit, called Bean to Bar and presented by
chocolate maker Mars, Inc., will include hands-on demonstrations,
informative stories and hot chocolate samples, made from a
historical recipe from the 1800s.
Chocolate, coffee and tea are coming together for an incredible
three days of fun, flavor and excitement, so make sure to bring your
family to visit Fairchild’s 6th Annual International Chocolate
Festival featuring coffee and tea. You won’t want to miss it.
Kids will love the ChocoKids area, where they can learn about the
cacao plant’s role in forest ecology and explore a giant food web.
There will also be an international chocolate activity passport and
coloring book that will help kids learn about chocolate and explore
the garden as they visit different locations and collect passport stamps.
39
The
Colonel’s
Conifers
Col. Robert Montgomery’s lifelong passion for
conifer trees lives on today in plantings at
Montgomery Botanical Center.
Text and photos by Dr. Chad Husby and Georgia Tasker
Illustrations by Julio Figueroa
W
ell before he founded Fairchild Tropical Botanic
Garden, Col. Robert Montgomery began
searching for a country home. The successful
New York accountant and attorney said he
especially wanted “a quiet place and trees.” His
1920 search landed him in Connecticut, where
he found what he described as “a primeval
hemlock forest with ravines and ponds and a
house. The house wasn’t much, but the forest was
and is the only one of its kind near New York.”
Montgomery recounted how he came to collect
trees in his autobiography Fifty Years of
Accountancy. He wrote that in 1928 he read an
article in Atlantic Monthly by George P. Brett,
president of the New York publishing firm of
Macmillan Co., describing his collection of conebearing evergreens, called a Pinetum. “I wrote and
asked if I might see his conifers. He gave me a
cordial invitation to lunch,” Montgomery related.
L-R
Araucaria cunninghamii
A. Subulata A. luxurians
That set off the Colonel’s conifer collecting spree,
during which he accumulated some 700 species
and varieties. In the world today there are
between 546 and 630 or more species of conifers
(depending on whether you are a lumper or a
splitter) in 67 genera. Conifers are found on six
continents, but not Antarctica (although conifer
fossils have been found there).
Montgomery and Brett were following in the
footsteps of conifer collectors in Great Britain,
where Victorian-era gentry planted conifers from
California, China and the eastern Himalaya as
eagerly as they collected orchids from South
America. The first Pinetum in England was
started in 1816, according to Aljos Farjon in his
book A Natural History of Conifers. Great
avenues of conifers such as monkey-puzzle trees
and giant sequoias are maturing in Britain two
centuries later.
At the New York Botanical Garden, meanwhile,
some 200 species that were a part of the
Colonel’s collection are maturing. Montgomery,
who was on the board of that garden, donated
the trees and the collection opened to the public
in 1949. It includes a dwarf blue spruce named
for him: Picea pungens ‘R.H. Montgomery.’
41
CLOCKWISE
Callitropsis cf. lusitanica
Podocarpus rumphii
Agathisovata
A Surprisingly Tropical Tree
When Montgomery moved to Florida, following
Brett to Coral Gables, he, like Brett, began
collecting palms. And that, in a fairly short time,
led to the founding of Fairchild Tropical Botanic
Garden. Yet he didn’t give up on the conifers. In
1938, Montgomery brought conifers from his
home in Cos Cob, Connecticut, to his South
Florida estate, including two Araucaria species,
cypress, pines, Podocarpus, cedars, a Patagonian
cedar, fir and dwarf cypress. Unfortunately, none
of those original trees, many of which were from
temperate areas, still grow at his estate, now the
Montgomery Botanical Center.
But the Botanical Center has not given up on the
Colonel’s passion for conifers. Dr. Chad Husby,
who heads collections development at MBC, has
concentrated on revitalizing the Colonel’s early
effort by adding tropical and subtropical conifers
from as far away as New Caledonia, Vanuatu,
Borneo, New Guinea, Vietnam, Malaysia,
Taiwan, Australia and South Africa. MBC now
has 181 different species growing either in the
ground or in a shadehouse—one of the largest
collections of warm-growing conifers in the
world. To tour the collection with Dr. Husby is to
become awed, like Montgomery, by the various
forms this ancient group of trees displays, from a
podocarp that looks like the even more ancient
spore-bearing plant Lycopodium to a giant Klinki
pine (Araucaria hunsteinii) that can reach 295
feet, making it the tallest tree in the tropics.
Conifers are among the four living classes of
gymnosperms, the other three of which are
cycads, ginkos and gnetophytes (really weird
plants such as the Welwitschia mirabilis from
Namibia, which has only two leaves that
continue growing for the entire lifespan of the
plant—between 400 and 1,500 years). When Dr.
James Eckenwalder, author of Conifers of the
World, spoke last spring at MBC, he said there
are two-tenths of 1 percent as many conifers as
flowering plants, which are known to have about
275,000 species. Conifers first appeared much
earlier in the Earth’s history, about 300 million
years ago, and flowering plants only made the
scene some 100 million years ago. Like cycads,
conifers today generally thrive in particular
habitat niches. Many conifer species are in
decline. For instance, Dr. Eckenwalder says,
Redwoods and giant sequoias are relics of
formerly widespread populations. However,
others, such as Juniperus virginiana in the
southeastern US, are expanding their populations.
CLOCKWISE
Agathis silbae
Agathis ovata
Araucaria laubenfelsii
“There’s a
general
perception that
conifers are
northern. Yet
more than half
are tropical
and
subtropical.”
Dr. Eckenwalder, who worked as a taxonomist at
Fairchild in 1977-78, told the audience, “There’s a
general perception that conifers are northern. Yet
more than half are tropical and subtropical.” China
has the largest number of conifer genera and species
(29 genera and 107 species) of any country, and the
United States ranks No. 2 (16 genera and 96 species).
But New Caledonia, located in the southwest Pacific
area known as Oceania, is the per-capita conifer
capital of the world. Its one major island of just more
than 6,300 square miles (smaller than New Jersey)
plus several small islands are home to 13 genera and
44 species of conifers.
Vietnam is another country with a rich supply of
conifers, such as Calocedrus rupestris, which was
described in 2004 and can be seen in MBC’s collection.
It grows in ancient limestone forests of northern
Vietnam, near Laos and China, where some individual
trees are probably 600 to 800 years old. In the last
dozen years, two conifers new to science have been
discovered in that country, Dr. Husby says, the other
being Xanthocyparis vietnamensis. Vietnam also has a
rainforest pine tree, Pinus krempfii, with pairs of flat
needles separating like scissors blades, creating an
appearance very unlike any other pine tree in the world.
Not all conifers have what we think of as cones.
Podocarpus species, for example, have two united
and succulent bracts, which are red, yellow, orange
or black and look like (and even taste like) a fruit, and
are attached to a seed. Juniper “berries” are seed
cones with a bluish waxy coating that are used to
flavor gin. (Male pollen cones, on separate branches,
are tiny and yellowish.)
The General Sherman Tree in California’s Sequoia
National Park, Sequoiadendron giganteum, is the most
massive living thing in the world, while Lepidothamnus
fonkii of Chile and Argentina is a dwarf shrub less than
one-and-half feet tall. Neocallitropsis pancheri, from
New Caledonia, is a shrub that seems always to remain
in a juvenile condition. Another New Caledonian
conifer, Retrophyllum minus, grows in streams and
has been called an “aquatic baobab.” While many
Araucaria conifers have needle-like or flat leaves, they
aren’t all prickly. In areas where browsing animals
are native to the same habitat—in Australia, New
Guinea and South America—the needles of juvenile
trees are prickly for self-defense, but may, as happens
in A. cunninghamii, become soft higher up. Where
there are no native browsing animals, as in New
Caledonia and Norfolk Island, neither juvenile nor
adult needles are prickly.
43
CLOCKWISE
Agathis ovata
Neocallitropsis pancheri
Podocarpus sp. (from the South Pacific)
Conifer fossils have been found in Antarctica,
and some of them may be related to the genus
Wollemia. This conifer was only discovered as a
living tree in 1994 (Wollemia nobilis), although it
appeared in the fossil record 95 million to 125
million years ago, making it one of the oldest
living conifer genera—a living fossil. Fewer than
100 mature tree survive in the wild and their
location is kept secret.
Building a Florida Collection
In 2007, Montgomery Botanical Center and
Atlanta Botanic Garden (ABG) received a USDA
Germplasm Exchange Grant. They used it to
bring to the U.S. rare and endangered subtropical
and tropical conifer seedlings and cuttings from
the International Conifer Conservation
Programme at Scotland’s Royal Botanic Garden,
Edinburgh. There, the conifers grow in glass
houses and are often unable to reach mature
size. Dr. Husby and Ron Determan, from the
Atlanta garden, brought back bare-root plants
and cuttings, where they were established in a
fog house, then transferred to Coral Gables,
where they may be grown outside. The next year,
colleagues from Edinburgh visited both MBC and
ABG, bringing more material.
Thanks to one of the Edinburgh exchanges,
Podocarpus rotundus from Borneo grows in the
MBC shadehouse, and Agathis microstachya
from Australia, along with Agathis montana and
Araucaria muelleri from New Caledonia have
been planted out and are growing well. Other
special plants received from the RBGE exchange
include Podocarpus coriaceus from Dominica,
Dacrydiumelatum elatum and and Xanthyocapris
vietnamensis from Vietnam and many others.
Growing conifers from cuttings requires care.
“Conifers have a juvenile phase and an adult
phase,” Dr. Husby says. “Sometimes, when you
grow them from adult cuttings they revert to the
juvenile form, though typically not. They’re
easier to root from the juvenile stage, so cuttings
are best collected from the lowest branches on
the trunk. They remember what age they were at
that height.” Xanthyocapris vietnamensis,
described in 2002, is unusual in that it often
spontaneously reverts from adult leaves to juvenile
foliage on the intact tree, producing long,
spreading leaves instead of the short, flat,
leaves instead of the short, flat, clasping leaves it
displays as an adult.
The Wollemi pine, Wollemia nobilis, in
the MBC conifer collection, was
discovered in Australia, where it exists
in several small groves in a deep
sandstone ravine. The oldest tree is
about 1,000 years old. DNA testing has
found that the trees are apparently
genetically identical, though of varying
ages. There was such a fuss made over
this Araucaria relative when it was
discovered that the trees were
displayed in cages in Sydney and
Melbourne. The Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, also built its tree a cage
for fear of thievery, but today, you can
buy the plants on the internet.
Photo by Jason A. Smith
Fairchild and
his Favorite
Conifer
David Fairchild told the stories of some of
his favorite trees at his home in Miami, The
Kampong, in his 1947 book The World
Grows Round My Door. Among them was
a conifer, the Queensland Copal tree,
Agathis robusta, about which he wrote that
he loved the “smooth, gray-green leaves.”
He described it this way: “It is a conifer,
but instead of having needles it has broad
thick leaves covered with a dense bloom
like the bloom on a plum. It is related to
the Araucarias of South America and to the
Kauri Pines of New Zealand.”
The tree reminded him of “a magnificent
one I saw and admired in 1926 in the
great Gardens of Peradeniya, Ceylon. Its
smooth, branchless stem rose like a
Grecian column 40 feet or more into the
air and then formed a dense crown of
broad thick leaves. It is one of my favorites
of all the trees of the world.”
He planted a specimen in an old azalea
bed filled with peat. When friends told
him he wouldn’t live to see it attain great
size, Fairchild would reply: “What
difference does that make? Is not a baby
interesting? Are not children fascinating
from their cradles up, all the way up?”
Agathis robusta can be found at Fairchild,
near the Learning Garden.
The newer trees Dr. Husby has added
surround older conifer plantings made
during the 1970s and 1980s, when Dr.
John Popenoe, then director of Fairchild,
started a conifer planting at Montgomery.
The taller Araucaria species were planted
in the 1980s, except for Araucaria
columnaris, which was grown from the
first Araucaria seeds produced in Florida in
1974. Several young specimens of the true
Norfolk Island pine, Araucaria
heterophylla, also grow at MBC. Araucaria
heterophylla is topped with a star-shaped
whorl of new branches and has broad
spaces between the tiers of branches. It is
native to Norfolk Island in the southern
Pacific Ocean, east of Australia.
The plant in South Florida that we call
“Norfolk Island pine” is really Araucaria
columnaris, Cook pine, from New
Caledonia. It is named for Captain James
Cook, the first European to discover the
trees in 1774. “The Cooks typically lean
a little,” Dr. Husby explains. “In New
Caledonia, they grow on the edges of
islands and get used to dropping branches
in hurricanes.” This explains why almost all
of them here stood after Hurricane Andrew.
A particularly important conifer in MBC’s
collection is Agathis silbae, which Dr.
Husby says is a very rare conifer from the
island of Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu (in the
South Pacific). Until recently, the
specimen at Montgomery was the only
one in cultivation outside of Vanuatu,
though now others are being grown in
Australia. The MBC tree was received as
seed from Vanuatu in 1987 and planted in
1990. It has produced cones for the last
couple of years. This summer, it produced
viable seeds for the first time. In fact,
Agathis species in general are Dr. Husby’s
favorite conifers. Agathis is also the genus of
the giant Kauri trees in New Zealand. The
genus name is Greek for “ball of string,”
named because the spiral pattern of the
smooth cones resembles that of a ball of
string. The trees are hurricane-tolerant,
(secured by specialized “anchor roots”),
they don’t compete with other plants and
rarely set viable seeds in Florida, so there’s
no issue with invasiveness, and they don’t
look like northern conifers. “They seem to
be superimposed on the landscape,” Dr.
Husby says. “Ecologists have found that they
are not competing with other trees; they’re
just doing their own thing. In New
Caledonia, they are gigantic, compared with
the flowering trees that grow with them.”
So the Colonel’s desire to have a conifer
collection in Coral Gables is being
realized by a young botanist now working
where the Colonel once lived. Were
Montgomery there, he might wax as
eloquent as he once did, calling winter
buds: “indescribably gorgeous. The colors
are vivid, running through silver and pure
gold to vivid crimson. They are best seen
through a magnifying glass and it is worth
any amount of trouble.”
45
FAIRCHILD’S
SOUNDS
AT FAIRCHILD
PROGRAM FOR ALZHEIMER’S
Presented By:
Every Sunday
January 29, 2012
through April 29
1:00 p.m.
Lakeside Cafe
(except Festival weekends)
Enjoy live music performed by
students of University of
Miami's Frost School of
Music. Ensembles will
include: the harp, the French
horn, guitar, clarinet, the
bassoon and more.
January 29, 1:00 p.m.
February 5, 1:00 p.m.
March 4, 1:00 p.m.
March 18, 1:00 p.m.
March 25, 1:00 p.m.
April 1, 1:00 p.m.
April 8, 1:00 p.m.
April 22, 1:00 p.m.
April 29, 1:00 p.m.
Concerts are free with
price of admission.
Are you or a loved one living with Alzheimer’s? If so, then
come to Fairchild and experience the power of plants.
This is a free program. Early registration is encouraged.
RSVP to 305.667.1651, ext. 3388.
Support is generously provided by Lin Lougheed, the Aaron I.
Fleischman Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Association.
24/7 Alzheimer’s helpline: 1.800.272.3900
Monday, January 9
Monday, January 23
Saturday, February 11
Monday, February 27
Monday, March 12
Monday, March 26
Monday, April 16
The Plants and People Program begins at the
Visitor Center at 11:30 a.m.
bug beat
Giant African Land Snails
Invade South Florida
By Jeff Wasielewski
In what seems to be a headline pulled from a
science fiction movie, Giant African Land
Snails (GALS), Lissachatina fulica, have invaded
South Florida. The snails can reach sizes of
eight inches, but so far the largest snail found
in Miami-Dade County has been five inches.
T
his snail infestation is being taken very seriously, as this pest
can damage more than 500 types of plants, as well as homes
and even human health.
GALS feed on fruit trees, vegetables and a wide variety of ornamentals
and reproduce at a fantastic rate. This pest also damages structures.
The snails need calcium to build their ever-expanding shells, so they
feed on calcium-rich building materials found on the walls of many
homes, including stucco and plaster, leaving behind a slimy trail of
excrement that can sometimes stain the paint.
Need one more reason to loathe the Giant African Land Snail? The
snails are also carriers of a nematode that causes a non-lethal form of
meningitis, so do not handle them with your bare hands. Wear thick
rubber gloves and do not let the snails make contact with your skin.
The Division of Plant Industry (DPI) and the United States Department
of Agriculture (USDA) have been working together around the clock
to destroy the infestation. In September of 2011, the snails were found
in heavy numbers in a residential area in Miami-Dade County. Since
then, the snails have moved to 12 other areas. All 13 areas are being
aggressively targeted by the USDA and the DPI with the overriding
goal of hand collection and eventual destruction of the snails.
It is important to make sure we don’t accidently transport a giant
snail. They can travel great distances by hitching rides on potted
plants or plant debris. Each time a snail is moved to a new area and
discovered, a new core is set up to battle the pest.
This is not the first time GALS have been discovered in South
Florida. In 1966, three snails were brought here from Hawaii by a
child to keep as pets. As happens so often, the snails wound up in
the wild, breeding. Once it was discovered, a 10-year battle ensued,
with more than 18,000 snails destroyed at a cost of $1 million. At
the time, it was estimated that if the snails were not destroyed, they
would have cost the plant industry $11 million annually.
flange
Identifying GALS is simple when you look for the
characteristic flange found around the snail’s
opening and the stripes which are stricly
longitudinal.
This infestation is even worse: The number of snails destroyed has
already topped the 32,000 mark, with an estimated three to four
years before the pest is thoroughly eradicated.
The snails are hermaphroditic, meaning they contain both male and
female reproductive parts. Each snail needs a partner to produce eggs, but
they fertilize each other when mating. Plus, a snail can store sperm for up
to two years, continuing to reproduce long after their slimy courtship is
over. A snail produces 200 eggs up to six times a year, so a single snail
can produce 1,200 eggs a year. They begin to reproduce as young as five
months, propagating at a rate which spells doom for the succulent
and tasty plants of South Florida if the pest is not quickly controlled.
You can identify these snails in three ways: their shell shape, shell
markings and a flange found under the snail. The shape of the shell is
long and pointy and not the typical round shell shape that one thinks
of when imagining a snail. The elongated shell is the same shape as
our harmless native tree snails, many of which are endangered. You
can differentiate the Giant African Land Snail from our tree snails by
its markings. GALS have only longitudinal stripes on their shell—
meaning the stripes go from the point of the shell to the opening.
There will not be any horizontal stripes on GALS. The Giant African
Land Snail also has a flange around the snail shell opening, a sort of
tiny ridge that is not found on most snails (see photo).
Snail baits can be effective against this pest, but most of them are
extremely toxic and can damage pets and other vertebrates. If you
choose to use a snail bait, use one containing iron phosphate, such as
Sluggo or Ortho Elementals Slug and Snail Killer, as they are less toxic to
pests and wildlife than baits containing metaldehyde (such as Deadline,
Trails End and Slugfest). Always make sure to follow label directions.
If you suspect that you have GALS on your property, remember not
to touch them with your bare hands and take a close look at the
snails and make sure their stripes are only longitudinal in nature. If
they are, call the USDA at 888.397.1517 to report the infestation.
They will most likely dispatch someone to your home to positively
identify and eradicate the pest.
what’s in store
Delicious History
By Erin Fitts
The Devil’s Cup: A History of the World
According to Coffee
By Stewart Lee Allen, $14.95.
Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage
Edited by Louis Evan Grivetti and Howard-Yana
Shapiro, $99.95.
An entertaining journey through the
history of coffee—from the countries
that cultivate it to the coffeehouses that
serve it.
This book features essays on the history of
chocolate from research produced by the
Chocolate History Group, which was formed by
the University of California, Davis, and Mars
Inc. to document the story of chocolate.
Tea: The Drink that Changed the World
By Laura C. Martin, $21.95.
Food in History
By Reay Tannahill, $18.00.
A history of tea and its uses, this book
shows how much influence this drink
has had on the world.
A remarkable history of food from prehistoric
times to today, illuminating the incredible
influence food has had on humanity.
Sign up today for The Shop at Fairchild’s frequent shopper program! After you make six merchandise
purchases, we’ll add them all up and give you 10% of your total in reward dollars to spend in the store.
You can purchase these books online
at http://store.FairchildOnline.com
The Shop at Fairchild
Gets a Makeover
The Shop at Fairchild, located in the Jean duPont
Shehan Visitor Center since 2002, was recently
remodeled. Inside, visitors will still find an
extensive book collection, gifts and home decor
with a tropical flair.
The original intent of the building’s design has
been restored so that guests enter directly into the
breathtaking beauty of the Garden.
Photos by Gaby Orihuela/FTBG
Experience a luxurious tropical garden with
a large selection of proven and exotic
plants for South Florida
Orchids, begonias, water lilies, vines,
flowering trees and shrubs. rare plants,
butterfly plants, supplies and more
Landscape design | Waterfalls
Pond installation | Water features
Palm Hammock Orchid Estate, Inc.
Est. 1973
Wisit our website, then visit our garden
9995 SW 66 St. Miami, FL 33173 305-274-9813
www.palmhammock.com
D.D.M. HORTICULTURE SERVICES, INC.
A DESIGN, BUILD & MAINTENANCE COMPANY.
Diverse Garden Projects.
New garden construction. Older plantings refurbished.
We are the single source provider for entire project, including plantings, hardscape,
irrigation, lighting, ponds, fountains and its follow up maintenance.
Telephone: (305) 663-0993 Field: (305) 710-8848
Email: [email protected]
Debra DeMarco, B.S., Ornamental Horticulture
6790 SW 74 Street
South Miami, FL 33143
wish list
gifts and donors
The following gifts were made between August 16, 2011 and October 31, 2011. Please
notify the Member Services and Donor Relations Office at 305.667.1651, ext. 3357 if
your information is incorrect. We apologize in advance for any errors or omissions.
MAJOR GIFTS
Capital Campaign
Mr. and Mrs. Allan Herbert
The Fairchild Challenge
The Fairchild Palms
FAIRCHILD GIFTS
The following list combines
membership and gifts to
Fairchild at the $1,000 level
and above.
Platinum Fellow
Mr. and Mrs.
M. Anthony Burns
Ryder Charitable Foundation
Gold Fellow
Prof. and Mrs.
Raymond F. Baddour
Ms. Anne Lovett and
Mr. Stephen G. Woodsum
Mrs. Virginia Myers
Silver Fellow
Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Feldman
Mr. and Mrs.
K. Lawrence Gragg
James Deering Danielson
Foundation
Fellow
Mrs. Blanche T. August
Prof. and Mrs.
Raymond F. Baddour
Mr. and Mrs. Victor C. Balestra
Mr. and Mrs. Carl Bauer
Mr. and Mrs. William Biggs
Dr. and Mrs. S. Allen Bradford
Ms. Teresa Buoniconti
Dr. and Mrs.
Gustavo A. Calleja
Mrs. Pamela W. Cole
Dr. and Mrs. Alfred Damus
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Eastlick
Mr. Elling O. Eide
Mr. and Mrs.
Kenneth R. Graves
Dr. and Mrs. Steven M. Holmes
Ms. Barbara Lalevee
Dr. and Mrs. Richard Levine
Mercedes-Benz of
Coral Gables
Mercedes-Benz of Cutler Bay
Mr. and Mrs.
Anthony R. Morgenthau
Fahlgren Mortine
Medical Marketing Group, Inc.
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Z. Norton
TRIBUTE PROGRAM
Commemorative Gifts
In Honor of Thomas W. Abell
Mrs. Nan Ciralsky
In Memory of Don Erdman
Mrs. Priscilla M. Greenfield
In Honor of Bruce W. Greer
and Evelyn Langlieb Greer
Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Price
In Memory of
Ludmila Freedland
Ms. Florence Faggen
In Memory of
Dr. Leonard J. Greenfield
Mr. and Mrs. Matt Geandreau
Mr. and Mrs. Al Davidson
Mrs. Jane Morrison
Ms. Karen Rozen
Ms. Daniella Biffi
Ms. Tracey Brenner
Dr. and Mrs. Jack Wolfsdorf
Mr. Michael Worner
In Memory of
Marcia Zuckerman Lavine
Gulliver Schools
In Memory of
Michelle Louise Marx
Ms. Marisa Farrell
Dr. Elizabeth P. Gilmore
and Mr. Hugh Gilmore
Ms. Mary Hessen
and Mr. Andrew Hessen
Horr, Novak & Skipp
Ms. Jennifer Lestino
Levin & Papantonio
Family Foundation
Marlow, Connell, Abrams,
Adler, Newman & Lewis
Netherlands Association of
So. FL, Inc
Mr. Peter Oppenheimer
Screen Actors Guild
Ms. Sally H. Seltzer
In Honor of Mr. Moose
Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Szydlo
In Memory of
Jean Ellen Shehan
The Dean Foundation Inc.
Mr. and Mrs.
Philip P.W. Parish
Fairchild has a wish list of items that will
enhance our programs, but we need Wish
Makers. We hope you see an item that you can
help fulfill.
In Memory of Sylvia Scott
Mr. and Mrs. Julio Capo
Ms. Julie Fazio
Mr. Samuel Ritter
Mrs. Patricia Ritter
In Memory of Anne Waxmunski
Mrs. Stephanie Haider
FOR THE HORTICULTURE TEAM
• LCD Projector, $1,000
• 12 Golf-cart Batteries, $1,200
• Walk-Behind Aerator, $1,500
• Software/Hardware for Accession Tag
Embossing Machine, $2,600
• Plant Transport Van, $20,000
Tribute Bricks
In Honor of Natalia J. Aragon
Mr. James Robinson
In Honor of Heather and
Jacopo Barovier
Mrs. Heather R. Swanson
In Memory of
Dr. Leonard J. Greenfield
Ms. Cassandra Greenfield
In Memory of Rita Johnston
Ms. Robin Zimny
In Memory of
Michelle Louise Marx
Mrs. Anna E. Combs Beckerich
In Honor of Dominic Patel
Mr. and Mrs. Jaime Moreno
In Honor of Amaya,
Mikel and Maya
Mr. Julio Riquezes and
Mrs. Amaya Ariztoy
In Honor of Marina and Julio
Mr. Julio Riquezes and
Mrs. Amaya Ariztoy
FOR CONSERVATION, RESEARCH AND THE
ONLINE HERBARIUM
• Extra Tall Tripod, $150
• Macro Zoom Lens for SLR Sony Camera, $800
• Laptop Computer, $2,000
• New Display Giclee Prints on Canvas for
Public Events, $2,000
• Ultra-Cold Freezer (DNA Bank), $6,000
• Plant Canopy Imager, $6,000
• Seed Germination Chamber, $8,500
• Mid-Size Pick-up Truck, $26,400
Tribute Trees
In Memory of Natalia J. Aragon
Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Aragon
Ms. Ellen Hoppensteadt
In Memory of Guillermo
“Willy” Menendez
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas J. Booth
Mr. James Merrick Smith and
Mr. Hal Birchfield
In Memory of
Norma C. Walcutt
Ms. Anne F. Platt
In Memory of
Jean Ellen Shehan
Mr. and Mrs.
Philip P.W. Parish
The Donald and Terry
Blechman Tram Fund
Mrs. Lydia P. Gluss
To support Fairchild, please visit
www.fairchildgarden.org/Donate
FOR THE RESEARCH LIBRARY
• New Computer, $1,200
• Large-Format Scanner, $2,600
FOR THE FAIRCHILD FARM
•Golf Cart, $7,000
FOR THE MARKETING AND
COMMUNICATIONS TEAM
• Nikon Digital 22-24mm Super Wide
Angle Lens, $900
FOR SPECIAL EVENTS
• Energy Efficient Washer/Dryer, $1,500
• Fully-equipped Commercial Kitchen for
Visitor Center
FOR MEMBER AND DONOR SERVICES
• Laptop Computer/LCD Projector, $2,000
• Digital SLR Camera, $1,000
FOR EDUCATION PROGRAMS
• 5 iPads or Similar Tablet Computers $2,500
• Solar Golf Cart Conversion Kit, $2,000
• SMART Board, $2,000
• Canon Double-sided Feeder Scanner, $3,000
• Art Supplies
• Recording Studio time (In-kind or Underwriting)
FOR VISITOR SERVICES
• Golf Cart, $7,000
FOR THE VOLUNTEER DEPARTMENT
• Digital SLR Camera, $1,000
To fully fund a wish, donate a portion of the cost
or donate the actual item, please contact Adam
Arzner at 305.667.1651, ext. 3351,
[email protected].
To fulfill a wish online, please visit
www.fairchildgarden.org/Donate
Fairchild’s 10th Annual
INTERNATIONAL
ORCHID
yxáà|ätÄ
FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
March 9, 10 and 11, 2012
Showcasing the spectacular forms and stunning
colors of the world’s most coveted plant.
For more information, visit www.fairchildgarden.org/OrchidFestival
plant societies
Bromeliad Society of South Florida
By Robert Meyer
T
he Bromeliad Society of South Florida (BSSF) is a nonprofit
organization whose purpose is to educate South Florida about the
varying Bromeliaceae family.
The society meets the third Tuesday of each month at Fairchild Tropical
Botanic Garden in the Corbin building. Each year, BSSF has a Spring
Show and Sale at Fairchild, where members show their prize-winning
plants in the Garden House auditorium. More than 300 individual plants
have been displayed at the show during the past several years. Selected
vendors from around the state sell an incredible variety of bromeliads at
the show, too. Some are rare and unusual, some are dazzling colors and
others display interesting shapes and habits.
Membership in the society costs $20 for individuals and $30 for couples.
Members receive 10 lectures annually at the monthly Tuesday meetings;
entertainment, plants and dinner at the annual holiday party; opportunities
to engage in field trips throughout the year; and annual community affairs.
The community is always welcome at the monthly meetings.
Guzmania ‘Sunkist’. Photo by Michael Schmale
It’s Tea Time!
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Gates open at 5:30 p.m. Concert starts at 7:00 p.m.
Presenting Jazz Singer
Nicole Henry
Presenting Sponsor:
General Admission: Members $60, Non-members $75,
Kids 6-18 $20, 5 and under are free
VIP package: Member price $150, VIP Non-member price, $175
includes reserved seating,candlelit dinner and wine.
For more information and to purchase tickets, please call
305.667.1651, ext. 3358.
Join us for an elegant afternoon
of live music by Rob Friedman
and tropical tea custom
blended by World Flavors
Spices and Teas. Enjoy
scrumptious scones, savories
and sweets while viewing the
Garden from the Visitors Center
Ballroom and Veranda. A lovely
way to spend an afternoon.
3:00 p.m.
Jean duPont Shehan
Visitor Center
Sunday, January 15
Mommy & Me Tea
Sunday, February 26
First Ladies Tea
March 9, 10 & 11
Orchid Tea Room
Sunday, April 29
Spring Garden Tea
Sunday, May 13
Mother’s Day Tea
Sunday, June 10
Celebration Tea
Fairchild Members, $27
Non-Members, $37
Children 12 and under, $17
For reservations and group
information, please call Marnie
Valent at 305.663.8059.
vistas
Art Basel Miami Beach Elite Celebrate
Opening of Will Ryman at Fairchild
Photos by Benjamin F. Thacker and Gaby Orihuela/FTBG
100 of Art Basel’s most elite attendees—including museum
directors, gallery owners, high-profile international collectors and
other leaders in the art community—kicked off Art Basel Miami
Beach at an exclusive preview of Fairchild’s 2011 art program,
headlined by American artist Will Ryman.
Art at Fairchild supporters Aaron Fleishman, Lin Lougheed and
Bruce Greer hosted the event on Tuesday, November 29, 2011, at
Fairchild. Guests were greeted with champagne as they made their
way into the Lin Lougheed Palm Grove, where Ryman’s whimsical
Bee sits on top of the lily pond. After enjoying delicious hors
d’oeuvres in the lush surroundings of Fairchild’s landscapes, guests
set off for a special tram preview of the outdoor exhibition, which
includes works by Yoko Ono, Dale Chihuly and Daisy Youngblood.
They were then treated to a lunch by Le Basque alongside Pandanus
Lake. The guests were thrilled to enjoy this year’s groundbreaking
exhibition set amongst Fairchild’s breathtaking vistas.
The exhibition will remain on display until May 31, 2012.
1
3
1.
2.
3.
4.
4
2
Jon Cole, Bettina Young, Evelyn Greer and Aaron I. Fleischman
Bruce Greer and Will Ryman
Will Ryman, Icon, 2011
Agnes Husslein, director of the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, with Paul Kasmin,
director of the Paul Kasmin Gallery
5
6
7
9
8
5. John and Mary Pappajohn, founders of the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park
in Des Moines, IA.
6. Will Ryman, Ants, 2011
7. Bruce Greer, Bruce Clinton, Adam R. Rose and Peter R. McQuillan
8. Lin Lougheed and Debra McLeod
9. Will Ryman, Encore, 2011
10. Brunch participants were treated to a narrated art tour.
10
garden views
Photo by Jeff Wasielewski/FTBG
THE RAMBLE—A GARDEN FESTIVAL
Over 11,000 people came out for the 71st Annual Ramble, a Garden
Festival. The three-day festival kicked off with a salute to veterans on
Friday, November 11. It was highlighted by patriotic music and a
flyover from Homestead Air Reserve Base fighter jets. We also saw a
mad dash at 9:00 a.m. as members searched for unique finds within
Antiques & Collectibles and Old & Rare Books. Others enjoyed all
the Garden had to offer while perusing vendors selling everything
from handmade jams to organic breads to a wide selection of herbs
to create your own edible garden. Works by local artists and
craftsman were among some of the favorite items for sale throughout
the weekend. And of course, there were more than 15,000 plants for
sale, including orchids, palms and rare fruit trees. Kids and adults
mingled with Fairchild scientists and got a great look at specimens
under the microscope, and had fun with annual favorites like the
Pollen Toss and Fishing in the Flooded Forest. The 71st Annual
Ramble was truly a garden celebration with fun had by all.
FAIRCHILD’S 3RD ANNUAL EDIBLE
GARDEN FESTIVAL
A special thank you to Books & Books for donating tons (literally!) of
books each year to help make our Rare & Old Books sale a success!
As summer turned to fall, guests were anxious to enjoy the
activities of the Edible Garden festival here at Fairchild on
October 22 and 23. The festival hosted more than 4,200 people
and featured delicious food, cooking demonstrations, plant sales,
gardening demonstrations and lectures on how to create your
own edible garden. The entries from the 3rd Annual Scarecrow
Competition were a big hit and all visitors enjoyed hanging out
and taking pictures in our Pumpkin Patch. Guests also
celebrated the arrival of fall with rich and hearty autumn beers
and ciders in our Fall Beer Garden, sponsored by Whole Foods,
where a variety of different brews were available for sampling.
EIGHTH ANNUAL BUTTERFLY DAYS
THIRD ANNUAL BIRD DAY
On September 24 and 25, Fairchild held our favorite fluttering
festival—Butterfly Days! More than 1,200 guests celebrated these
winged wonders with expert-led butterfly walks for adults and
kids, butterfly lectures and talks, plus tips on butterfly
identification. Guests had plenty to choose from throughout the
day, including plants sales that featured the best plants to attract
butterflies to your garden, educational kids’ activities featuring the
defense mechanisms of butterflies and moths and, of course, food
and fun for the whole family!
Despite cloudy skies, more than 500 guests joined us for
Fairchild’s Bird Day on October 9. Lifelong bird enthusiasts and
novices alike were inspired by this fun and educational day of
activities. Between the presentations by ornithological experts, the
many Bird Walks for young and old and an informative lecture by
our keynote speaker, David Allen Sibley, the day truly flew by!
Bird Day was made possible by the generous support of the James
A. Kushlan Bird Conservation Program. Our 3rd annual Bird Day
was a great way to celebrate our feathered friends.
BEV MURPHY’S HALLOWEEN DECORATIONS
Longtime Fairchild volunteer Bev Murphy brought her spooky
and playful handmade Halloween decorations to Fairchild
this past October. Mrs. Murphy has been creating works of
Halloween art for the Garden for five years and has been
making decorative display art for more than 20 years.
Each of these whimsical, wonderful pieces or art is made of
found plant materials such as coconut palm inflorescences,
royal palm leaf bases and anything else Mrs. Murphy can
gather that looks as though it could have a second life as a
ghost, goblin or witch. Mrs. Murphy searches for materials
throughout the year, always looking beyond what they are
for what they could become. She has created more than 300
Halloween decorations and logged thousands of volunteer
hours for Fairchild. She is a true boo-tanical artist!
On October 30, visitors to Fairchild weren’t alone—guests also
included Man’s Best Friend! Howl-o-Ween brought special
activities for pups to the lush grounds. Dog-friendly activities
included demonstrations and lectures, canine caricatures,
professional pooch photographs and even Doga provided by
Green Monkey—yoga for dogs! The Howl-o-Ween Dog
Fashion Show and Costume Contest was a huge hit with more
than 40 participants. Fan favorite costumes included a
Flamenco Dancer, a Girl Scout Troop and the characters of
“The Little Mermaid.”
Photo by Kimberly Bobson/FTBG
HOWL-O-WEEN AT FAIRCHILD
57
2011-2012 FAIRCHILD CHALLENGE LAUNCH BRUNCH
TLE EXPERIENCING THE GARDEN
On August 27th and September 10th, the education department marked the 10th
anniversary of The Fairchild Challenge. Between these two days, more than 470
enthusiastic South Florida teachers joined us at the 2011-2012 Fairchild Challenge
Launch Brunch. This year’s event had the largest turnout on record.
Fairchild is pleased to partner with The Learning
Experience School (TLE) as part of TLE’s student job
skills training. The Learning Experience School
promotes a safe and peaceful environment that
encourages individualized academic, social and
emotional growth for all children and adults with
developmental disabilities. It provides its students
with the necessary tools to become more active
members of society.
At the brunch, teachers had the opportunity to learn about the year’s competitions,
called “challenges.” They include competitions in performing and visual arts,
creative and reflective writing, a botanical fashion show, an environmental debate,
engineering, citizen science, intergenerational interviews, school gardens and
habitat restoration. Environmental action challenges give students the opportunity
to implement environmental stewardship projects in their home, school and
community. Throughout the year, student projects will be submitted to Fairchild to
be evaluated by a panel of professionals from the community. The goal of the
schools is to collect as many points as possible to win The Fairchild Challenge
Award. Top scoring schools will receive cash prices.
To support our efforts, the Fairchild Palms—the Garden’s young professionals
group—gave us a generous donation of $15,000 (Learn more about the Palms at
www.fairchildpalms.org).
During the 2010-2011 school year, The Fairchild Challenge engaged more than
100,000 South Florida students and teachers in this free, multidisciplinary
environmental education program. With the tremendous outpouring of interest
and support, we expect that number to grow, and we look forward to another
spectacular year. To learn more about the program and follow its continued
growth, please visit us at www.fairchildchallenge.org and on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/TheFairchildChallenge.
TLE students participate in Fairchild’s “Experiencing
the Garden” program, part of our Plants and People
initiative that encourages people to interact with the
garden in an enjoyable and relaxing way. Each
Friday morning, 12 to 17 students participating in
TLE’s Adult Program visit Fairchild to provide help
in departments across the garden. They have helped
create new member packets, prepare items for
festivals and further art projects like Yoko Ono’s
Wishing Tree. Students’ visits are full of excitement
as they are eager to learn and assist in any way
possible. It is a wonderful way for them to give back
to the community by volunteering, while learning
necessary skills that are required in today’s
workforce.
18TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY MUSIC AT FAIRCHILD
It was a magical night in the Garden for the 18th annual Holiday Music
concert, co-chaired by Susan Feldman and Jane Battle. After a delicious
champagne dinner, provided by Macy’s Catering, guests enjoyed a wonderful
program conducted by Robert Heath, director of music for Plymouth Church
and an esteemed member of the Bach Society in Miami. The music program
included such favorites as Antonio Vivaldi's “‘L’Inverno’,” “Do You Hear
What I Hear” and “Silent Night.” This delightful evening would not have been
possible without the support of White & Case LLP, Baptist Health South
Florida, Bank of America and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management.
(L-R) Holiday Music co-chairs Jane Battle and Susan Feldman, along with Bixie Renick
and committee members Jeanne Aragon, Maureen Gragg and Diane Davis.
PARADISE FOUND
Saturday
February 4, 2012
Ticket prices start at $600 per person.
For table and ticket information,
please contact Susannah Shubin
at 305.667.1651, ext. 3375 or
[email protected]
The BRANCH OUT Program provides Fairchild
members with discounts and benefits to over 200
local businesses and organizations. To view a list
of the participating BRANCH OUT locations and
discounts, visit
www.fairchildgarden.org/BranchOut today.
If you are a business and would like to join the
BRANCH OUT Program, please contact Adam
Arzner at [email protected].
staff news
Photos by Gaby Orihuela and Jeff Wasielewski/FTBG
HENRY SKIPP, Fairchild’s
public allies intern, has been
coming to the Garden since he
was five years old. Mr. Skipp
received his Bachelors’ degree
in history from Whittier
College and is thrilled to
have the opportunity to begin
work at Fairchild. Though his
background is in history, he
has been inspired by nature
since he first visited Matheson
Hammock as a young boy,
making memories and
building tree houses in the
mangrove canopy.
JASON DOWNING is
completing his Ph.D. in
biology at Florida
International University,
under the advisement of
Fairchild and FIU research
ecologist Dr. Hong Liu. Mr.
Downing received a B.S. in
biology from the University
of Kansas, then later obtained
a master’s degree from FIU
under the direction of Dr. Liu
in the department of earth
and the environment.
SARA EDELMAN is
Fairchild’s new palm and
cycad manager. She
graduated cum laude from
the University of Florida in
August 2011, with a Bachelor
of Science in environmental
studies and a minor in
business. Before working at
Fairchild she interned at the
Montgomery Botanical
Center. While at Montgomery,
Ms. Edelman conducted her
own research and assisted the
horticulture staff.
LUIS MARRERO recently
celebrated his 30th
anniversary of working at
Fairchild. Mr. Marrero clearly
remembers his first day at the
Garden, which was a beautiful
fall day in October of 1981.
Born in the very same site
where the Botanic Garden of
La Habana, Cuba, sits today,
he has always had a special
connection with the natural
world. His pleasant nature and
tremendous work ethic make
him one of Fairchild’s most
valuable employees.
from the archives
Following the Steps of Dr. David Fairchild
in the Canary Islands
By Javier Francisco-Ortega, Arnoldo Santos-Guerra, Nancy Korber, Marianne Swan and Janet Mosely
The legendary dragon tree at
the town of Icod, Tenerife.
At left is an image taken
during the second Utowana
expedition to the Canary
Islands in July 1925.
Archives/FTBG
At right is an image taken
January 31, 2009.
Photo by Arnoldo Santos-Guerra
D
r. David Fairchild is well known for his planthunting journeys to tropical regions of the
world; however, little has been written about
his expeditions to the Mediterranean Basin, Europe and
the Atlantic Islands. In fact, Fairchild’s first two trips on
the Utowana (in the summer of 1925) focused on
Spain’s Canary and Balearic Islands—not on the
tropics. The Canaries are located 100 km west of the
coast of the Sahara, and the Balearic Islands are in the
Mediterranean Sea, relatively close to the Spanish
region of Catalunya.
The Canary trips led to the publication of five research
articles. During his time in the archipelago, Fairchild
collected 89 plant samples (73 species) for the U.S.
Department of Agriculture and more than 315
photographic images that are kept in the archives at
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. These images
represent true gems for those interested in the rural and
urban life of the Canaries in the first third of the 20th
century. On a recent trip, Dr. Santos-Guerra and Dr.
Francisco-Ortega revisited some of the same places
that Fairchild traversed on his travels. We took
photographs and compared what we found to his
descriptions and images. Some of these places have
changed very little, but others have not escaped the
urban and agricultural development that currently
dominates large sections of the archipelago.
The seven volcanic islands of the Canaries are home to
unique flora (some 600 endemic species); and the
archipelago has a rich scientific history linked to the
most important European expeditions of the 16th
through the 18th centuries. From Fairchild’s accounts,
we know that before visiting the archipelago he had a
great interest in the natural history, traditions and
ancient history of these islands. Therefore, it’s not a
surprise that he visited the islands four times and that
three of the chapters of his famous book Exploring for
Plants are devoted to the Canaries.
Dr. David Fairchild in the Canaries (1903-1927)
In 1903, Fairchild made his first trip to the Canaries,
stopping only on the island of Gran Canaria. That stop
came during Fairchild’s trip from South Africa to
England in the company of Barbour Lathrop, but the
actual dates of the visit are not recorded. The data
found in documents from the Garden’s archives and
Fairchild’s seed collection information suggest that they
visited the island in April; however, in one of Fairchild’s
works he indicated that they were there in May.
Subsequent visits were supported by Allison V.
Armour. The first of these trips—in July 1925—was
Fairchild’s most extensive expedition to the
archipelago. The crew included Fairchild’s son,
Alexander Graham Bell Fairchild; Dr. William M.
Wheeler, an entomologist and professor of zoology at
Harvard University; Allison V. Armour; and two of
Armour’s wealthy friends: Jordan Mott III and his wife
Katherine J. P. Mott. The group visited the islands of
Gran Canaria, La Palma, Lanzarote and Tenerife. On
Gran Canaria, Fairchild explored the famous cloud
forest of “Monte Doramas.” On La Palma, he saw the
cultivation of endemic legumes as fodder, and in
Lanzarote he toured the island’s unique cropping
systems, which are based on the use of volcanic ash
as mulch. Highlights in Tenerife included the
legendary dragon tree (Dracaena draco) of Icod and
the botanic garden of Orotava, which is the secondoldest botanic garden in Spain.
In December 1926, Fairchild made his second
Armour-supported visit, landing on Gran Canaria and
Tenerife. Two scientists joined him on the expedition:
Dr. John M. Dalziel from Kew Gardens, who was one
of the authors of the Flora of West Tropical Africa, and
Dr. Harold Mc Kinney, a USDA plant pathologist who
specialized in mosaic plant diseases. Fred W. Schultz
traveled with them as an assistant and photographer.
Armour’s sister, Mary Whitehouse, joined the expedition,
along with her husband, Francis M. Whitehouse, a
prominent architect who designed several landmark
Chicago buildings. From one of the photographs, and
its description in Fairchild’s pocket notebooks, it
seems that Jordan Mott also joined this team.
Fairchild’s final trip to the Canaries came in 1927,
when the Utowana stopped on Gran Canaria at Las
Palmas. While the published data indicate that he
arrived at this island on March 20 and left for Europe
on April 1, Fairchild’s pocket notebooks and
additional documents in the Garden’s archives don’t
match those dates. No plant material was collected
during this trip and we have not been able to compile
a complete list of the expedition participants.
While several foreign botanists visited the Canaries
during the first half of the 20th century, Fairchild and
his compatriots were the first foreign scientists to visit
the islands with a focus on collecting plant material
for agricultural research. They traveled on mules,
small boats and by foot, conducting plant hunting
before the Canaries became a major tourism target
and the landscape was severely transformed by urban
development and an extensive network of roads and
expressways. Fairchild found the islands to have a
unique endemic flora with crop relatives, potential
fodder crops and ornamental species. His pioneer
expeditions to collect plant germplasm in the
Canaries were subsequently followed by other plant
hunters, and our knowledge of the archipelago’s flora
is richer for it.
CLOCKWISE
Canary pine (Pinus canariensis)
forest on the furthermost area of
La Palma near the village of
Fuencaliente, July 1925. The
San Antonio volcano is in the
background.
Archives/FTBG
Prof. William M. Wheeler
standing near an individual of
Echium pininana at the garden of
“La Hijuela” La Orotava, Tenerife,
July 1925. This is a species
endemic to the cloud forests
of northeastern La Palma. “La
Hijuela” is the satellite garden of
the Jardin de Aclimatación de La
Orotava, the second oldest
botanic garden of Spain.
Archives/FTBG
Participants in the second
expedition of Utowana to the
Canary Islands. Image taken
onboard the yacht at Santa Cruz
de Tenerife, December 25, 1926.
From left to right: Fairchild,
Whitehouse, Dalziel, Armour,
Mc Kinney, Schultz, and
Whitehouse. Fairchild (Exploring
for Plants, page 193), refers to
this image as the expedition
members standing in pajamas
on the deck of the Utowana.
Archives/FTBG
connect with fairchild
VISIT US
GET INVOLVED
Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables FL 33156
T: 305.667.1651 F: 305.661.8953
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Everyday (except December 25)
Admission: Free for Fairchild Members and children 5 and under.
Non-members: $25 for adults, $18 for seniors 65 and up and $12
for children 6-17.
Eco-discount: If you walk, ride your bike or take public
transportation to Fairchild, receive $5 off admission for adults and
$2 off admission for children. Members, remember to bring your
Rewards Card to earn your gift passes!
Military Discount: We are pleased to offer active military
personnel free admission. In addition, admission for spouses is $20
and children $10. Please present Military IDs.
Become a Member
FAIRCHILD BLOGS
Gardening with Georgia
Plant writer extraordinaire Georgia Tasker writes about plants and
everything Fairchild. www.fairchildgarden.org/GeorgiaTasker
Musings with Mary
Fairchild Senior Horticulturist Mary Collins writes about
horticulture in the garden and around South Florida.
www.fairchildgarden.org/Horticulture
Become a member and enjoy Garden benefits all year long.
Inquiries: 305.667.1651, ext. 3301 or 3362
[email protected]
www.fairchildgarden.org/Membership
Volunteer
Become a volunteer and help the Garden grow.
Inquiries: 305.667.1651, ext. 3324
[email protected]
www.fairchildgarden.org/Volunteer
Give
Donate to the Garden and help support Fairchild’s programs.
Inquiries: 305.667.1651, ext. 3351
[email protected]
www.fairchildgarden.org/DonateNow
EVENTS AND PRIVATE RENTALS
Information about events can be found on Fairchild’s website.
Tickets for certain events maybe be purchased online. Interested in
having your event at Fairchild? Please call us or visit our website.
Inquiries: 305.667.1651, ext. 3359
[email protected]
www.fairchildgarden.org/Events
For the Love of Mangos
Fairchild Tropical Fruit Curators Dr. Richard J. Campbell and Noris
Ledesma write about traveling the globe in search of the world’s
most delicious fruit. www.fairchildgarden.org/LoveMangos
A Conversation about Conservation
Fairchild’s conservation scientists write about their adventures
exploring for and saving plants and habitats in South Florida and
around the world. www.fairchildgarden.org/ConservationBlog
The Cheng Ho Blog
Seventy years after David Fairchild’s famous Cheng Ho expedition,
you can follow the ship’s journey with daily journal entries posted
in this historical blog. www.fairchildgarden.org/ChengHo
The World is Our Garden
Conservationist Melissa E. Abdo invites you to share in both the
wonderment of international plant exploration and the challenges
of scientifically sound conservation in her exciting blog.
www.fairchildgarden.org/WorldGarden
GIFTS THAT GIVE BACK
Give the gift of Fairchild
Inquiries: 305.667.1651, ext. 3351
[email protected]
www.fairchildgarden.org/GiftIdeas
SHOP AT FAIRCHILD
Visit The Shop at Fairchild for a large selection of gardening and
culinary books, home decor items and unique gifts.
Inquiries: 305.667.1651, ext. 3305
[email protected]
store.fairchildonline.com
FOLLOW US
Facebook www.fairchildgarden.org/Facebook
Twitter www.twitter.com/FairchildGarden
www.fairchildgarden.org/YouTube
THROUGH 5.31.12
Made possible by the generous support of: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,
Lin Lougheed, Aaron I. Fleischman and the Paul Kasmin Gallery.
FAIRCHILD
TROPICAL
Will Ryman, 66th Street, 2011. Photo by Kirkland Hyman/FTBG.
BOTANIC
GARDEN
Printed on recycled paper that contains
10% post-consumer waste, using
vegetable-based ink and is FSC certified.
Please pass this magazine on or recycle it.
Fairchild’s
6th Annual International
featuring Coffee & Tea
Presenting Sponsor:
January 20, 21 and 22, 2012
9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Non-Profit
Organization
U. S. Postage
PAID
Miami, Florida
Permit No. 155

Tropical Garden Winter 2012 - Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

Transcription

Similar documents

Hoodoo Gurus, Violent Femmes and Sunnyboys

Chantal and Alain Bertrand

ORAN BELL - AuctionArrows

THE PARK EXPO AND CONFERENCE CENTER

Tuxedo Collection

Twin Brooks - Community League

Jardim - Coimbra Group

Marketplace of Homes Marketplace of Homes

Joyful

Cheesecake Petit Fours