Curtis’s Botanical Magazine is an illustrated publication that began in 1787 and is still published today. The Magazine is published by Kew Gardens and is the oldest and most widely cited work of its kind. Plumeria first appeared in the Magazine in 1794 by William Curtis and three more taxa appeared in the 19th century. The first Caribbean endemic species of Plumeria to be featured in the Magazine is Plumeria filifolia, a thin-leaved species from Cuba.
Read MoreBotanical gardens are urban havens and not only pillars for conservation, education, and research but also for exploration. Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (FTBG) was founded in 1938 and named after famous plant explorer, Dr. David Fairchild. Fairchild was a meticulous record keeper and the Fairchild Archives hold many historical documents and photos related to his travels. I was curious if there were any photographs or records of Fairchild collecting wild Plumeria, commonly known as frangipani, in any of his travels, so several students who have been working with my advisor in the archives agreed to see what they could find.
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Yesterday was International Mountain Day, as observed by the United Nations. I love this year’s theme: Mountains Matter for Youth. Our youth are the future leaders of tomorrow. Education, not only on the importance of mountains, but on all natural ecosystems and the biodiversity that they contain has been a large part of my daily inspiration. When I first saw that mountains were being celebrated, I thought of all of the mountainsides where I have looked for wild growing Plumeria, particularly in Haiti.
Read MoreI met Haydee Borrero when I came to visit Miami in 2014. She asked me if I had ever been to the Everglades and when I said no she said “I’ll pick you up tomorrow at 5am”. It was a magical morning. I am happy to call her my friend to this day. This past year we traveled to Cuba together twice since our field sites overlapped. Haydee has had an interesting path is now doing some really cool work as part of her PhD.
Read MoreI am happy to announce that a paper that I have been working on for many years has finally been published in Brittonia this past week! The paper focuses on ten species in the genus Miconia (Melastomataceae), the largest genus in the family. These ten species all occur in the northern Andes in Colombia and Venezuela and the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Coastal Cordillera of Venezuela, with one species endemic to Jamaica. This study illustrates the importance of field and herbarium collections. Herbaria document the world’s flora and provide a permanent record of botanical diversity. This is particularly important for endangered and threatened species such as those in the Miconia ulmarioides complex.
Read MoreI recently went to a talk given by Drs Doug and Pam Soltis, who are botanists at the University of Florida. They discussed their work on molecular systematics and evolutionary genetics. Their talk was so inspiring that I’d like to talk about how we use DNA molecules and how it all fits into the bigger puzzle of life. The Soltis’s focused specifically on the portion of their work involving the Tree of Life.
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