The official publication of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden editorial staff editor in chief chief operating officer Nannette M. Zapata design Lorena Alban production manager EVENTS@FAIRCHILD Gaby Orihuela features writers Georgia Tasker Jeff Wasielewski staff contributors Hillary Burgess Nancy Famulari Erin Fitts Javier Francisco-Ortega Marilyn Griffiths Jason Lopez Noris Ledesma Carl E. Lewis, Ph.D. copy editors JULYMANGO CULINARY 7TH ANNUAL BUTTERFLY NOVEMBERPLANT SHOW AND SALE Kimberly Bobson CONFERENCE DAYS AT FAIRCHILD Presented by the South Florida Mary Collins Friday, July 9 Saturday and Sunday Palm Society Paula Fernández de los Muros 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. September 25 – 26 Saturday and Sunday Ann Schmidt For more information, please call 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. November 6 – 7 advertising information 305.667.1651, ext. 3377 or E-mail 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Mari Novo [email protected] THE 70TH ANNUAL RAMBLE 305.667.1651, ext. 3357 THE 18TH ANNUAL OCTOBERMEMBERS’ DAY PLANT SALE Friday, Saturday previous editors INTERNATIONAL MANGO Saturday, October 2 and Sunday Marjory Stoneman Douglas 1945-50 FESTIVAL: Featuring the 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. November 12, 13 and 14 Lucita Wait 1950-56 Mangos of India 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Nixon Smiley 1956-63 BIRD DAY AT FAIRCHILD Saturday and Sunday Lucita Wait 1963-77 Sunday, October 3 July 10 – 11 Ann Prospero 1977-86 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Karen Nagle 1986-91 HOLIDAYDECEMBER MUSIC TH PLANT SHOW AND SALE Nicholas Cockshutt 1991-95 THE 18 ANNUAL AT FAIRCHILD Presented by the Bonsai Susan Knorr 1995-2004 MANGO BRUNCH Sunday, December 5 Society of Miami The Tropical Garden Sunday, July 11, 11:00 a.m. 6:00 – 10:00 p.m. Volume 65, Saturday and Sunday Number 3. Summer 2010. Tickets and information: For more information please The Tropical Garden is published quarterly. October 9 – 10 305.663.8059 and call Jennifer Baldwin at Subscription is included in membership dues. 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. © FTBG 2010 ISBN 1071-0914 www.fairchildgarden.org 305.667.1651, ext. 3358 THE EDIBLE All rights reserved. No part of this MEMBERS’ LECTURE GARDEN FESTIVAL publication may be reproduced without Art at Fairchild, The permission. Saturday and Sunday 2010 – 2011 Season AUGUSTFREE SUNDAYS AT FAIRCHILD October 23 – 24 FREE admission every Wednesday, December 8 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Sunday in August 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. HOWL-O-WEEN DOG DAY Robert J. Petzinger, Trustee Accredited by the American Association of Sunday, October 31 Exclusively for members Museums, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. is supported by contributions from members PLANT SHOW AND SALE FOLLOW US and friends, and in part by the State of SEPTEMBER Florida, Department of State, Division of Presented by the International This schedule of events is Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, Aroid Society subject to change. Facebook the National Endowment for the Arts, Institute Saturday and Sunday For up-to-the-minute www.facebook.com/fairchildgarden of Museum and Library Services, Miami-Dade information, please call County Department of Cultural Affairs, the September 18 – 19 305.667.1651 or visit Twitter Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor, and the 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. www.fairchildgarden.org. www.twitter.com/fairchildgarden Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners, and with the support of The City of Coral Gables. 8 THE TROPICAL GARDEN FROM THE CANARY ISLANDSTOTHE GREATER ANTILLES

DOMINGO BELLO Y ESPINOSA AND HIS CONTRIBUTIONSTOTHESTUDYOFTHE PLANTSOFPUERTORICO

BY EUGENIO SANTIAGO-VALENTÍN, LÁZARO SÁNCHEZ-PINTO AND JAVIER FRANCISCO-ORTEGA

44 THE TROPICAL GARDEN he first botanical account for many years and supported exploration; Texclusively on plants of and Professor Ignatz Urban, the legendary was written by a Canary Island botanist at the Botanical Museum of native, Domingo Bello y Espinosa, in the who studied and classified massive late 19th century. These early studies of amounts of plant material received from the Puerto Rican flora have led us to the islands. Bello and Krug develop a joint project during the last two developed a friendship and shared a years, including visits to several archives, passion for the natural history of the libraries, museums, and botanical island. Krug was an enthusiastic collector institutes in Tenerife (Canary Islands), of natural history artifacts, and through Puerto Rico and the U.S. We aimed to him, plant specimens collected by Bello find documents pertinent to the life and were studied by professor Urban in Berlin. achievements of this notorious lawyer who had a passion for natural history and Bello’s interest in natural history was not also to review his scientific contributions. limited to plants; he also studied the birds, In this article we will provide an account reptiles and amphibians of Puerto Rico. 1 of our findings after our recent studies He is credited as the first naturalist to undertaken in the Canary Islands. discover a frog species with a tadpole stage that develops within an egg instead Born in 1817 in the town of La Laguna of in ponds or other open environments. (the ancient capital of the Canary Islands) European zoologists were skeptical about on Tenerife, Domingo Bello y Espinosa this discovery, as by then all frogs were was the son of a university professor, believed to require a free-living tadpole Domingo Bello y Lenard. In 1842 stage to reach full development. His obtained his law degree from Universidad discovery was, in a few years, confirmed. de La Laguna and was also elected as This frog species, known locally a mayor of his birth town. He was notorious “Coquí” (Eleutherodactylus coqui) is one and well known in the Canaries because of the most beloved local animals. of his ample cultural and professional achievements. Due to unknown reasons, After approximately 30 years in Puerto around 1849 he moved to the city of Rico, Bello and his family returned to 2 Mayagüez (Western Puerto Rico) where Tenerife around 1879. Shortly after his he opened a school and worked as a return to the Canaries, Bello published his lawyer. In 1855, Bello married Leocadia Apuntes para la Flora de Puerto Rico Raldiris, a criolla from a distinguished (Notes for the Flora of Puerto Rico), where family of the Mayagüez society, with he reported on the plants studied during whom he had two children. his explorations of the western half of the island. This contribution represents the By the 19th century, Puerto Rico had not first printed botanical account specifically been explored botanically. The colony on Puerto Rican plants. The Apuntes were was a military and economic post for issued in two parts (1881 and 1883), the Spain, with no university, natural history first of which precedes the publication of museum or academy of sciences to foster the first volume of Agustín Stahl’s more this and other disciplines of the natural extensive taxonomic work entitled sciences. Plant discoveries were primarily Estudios sobre la Flora de Puerto Rico due to occasional stops made by (Studies about the Flora of Puerto Rico). European expeditions to the Caribbean. Stahl’s Estudios began publishing the Bello’s work is of particular importance as same year as Bello’s second part of his it is part of the first generation of resident Apuntes (1883). Although Bello’s work naturalists of Puerto Rico who, during the was written in La Lag una, it was published second half of the 19th century, and with in Madrid in the Anales de la Real the collaboration of scientists from Sociedad Española de Historia Natural abroad, developed a “golden period” for (Annals of the Spanish Royal Natural the study of natural history on this island. History Society). Just one year after the The group included, among others, second part of his study was published, Agustín Stahl, the first Puerto Rican Domingo Bellow passed away in Santa botanist; Leopold Krug, a wealthy German Cruz de Tenerife on January 21, 1884. 3 businessman who also lived in Mayagüez Unfortunately, the herbarium collection of

www.fairchildgarden.org 45 Bello had deteriorated by the time he no other Canarian botanist is listed in the wrote his account, making it a challenge prestigious Taxonomic Literature 2nd to interpret some of the endemic species Edition (also know as “The TL2”). This is a described by him. In spite of this, our major reference for plant taxonomists, and preliminary research confirms that a it only includes botanists who have made handful of species he described are still historical contributions to the field. valid Puerto Rican endemics. They include, among others, two cacti, Opuntia Unfortunately the legacy that Bello left in repens and Leptocereus quadricostatus, Puerto Rico did not have disciples in the the latter found in the living collections of Canary Islands or the rest of Spain who Fairchild; two orchids, Psychilis kraenzlinii could have followed his steps of plant 4 and P. krugii; one of the two Puerto Rican- exploration and discovery in the Antilles. endemic Magnolias, Magnolia In 1898, shortly after his death, Puerto portoricensis; and one legume tree, Stahlia Rico became a U.S. territory and this monosperma, a new genus that Bello started a new era of botanical exploration, 5 dedicated to Agustín Stahl. Stahlia mostly led by American botanists. monosperma is restricted to the lowlands ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola where it is Dr. Francisco García-Talavera Casañas critically endangered because of (Organismo Autónomo de Museos y Centros del overharvesting; its dark wood has Cabildo de Tenerife) provided institutional support extraordinary durability and beauty. Two for this study. The authors also want to other of the species described by Bello acknowledge the invaluable support provided by have a conservation concern: Leptocereus Jesús Duque Arimay (Museo de Historia and Antropología of Tenerife), Dr. Manuel Hernández quadricostatus is critically endangered and González (Centro de Documentación de Canarias Magnolia portoricencis is endangered. y América of Tenerife), Dr. Octavio Rodríguez Delgado (Departmento de Biología Vegetal, During our research we have found Universidad de La Laguna) and María Colón 6 documents concerning the birthplace of (Municipio de Mayagüez). We also thank Domingo Bello y Espinosa, as well as his personnel of the Archivo Histórico Provincial of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the Archivo Municipal of birth certificate. We have also reviewed La Laguna, the Archivo Diosesano of La Laguna, his bibliography, confirmed his burial the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes of Santa Cruz place at the old “Cementerio de San de Tenerife and the Real Sociedad Económica de Roque” in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, located Amigos del País of Tenerife. The Montgomery relevant documents during his life in Botanical Center provided accommodation during Eugenio Santiago-Valentín’s visits to Miami. Puerto Rico, and appointments in Tenerife Eugenio Santiago-Valentín thanks the University of at the Ayuntamiento de La Laguna, and Puerto Rico (UPR) Botanical Garden, the Biology the Real Sociedad Económica de Amigos Department of UPR-Río Piedras Campus, and the del País de Tenerife. We are currently Center for Tropical Ecology and Conservation 1. Portrait of Domingo Bello y Espinosa. preparing a scientific/historical article and (UPR-Río Piedras) for support of his research visits Courtesy of Carlos Gaviño de Franchy. to Tenerife and Miami. Javier Francisco-Ortega also aim to publish a facsimile edition of 2. Flower of Magnolia portoricensis, an elegant tree thanks the Louis J. Skinner Foundation and Fairchild species endemic to the mountains of Puerto Rico, his Apuntes. A major mystery that we are Tropical Garden for supporting this project. was discovered by Domingo Bello y Espinosa in the seeking to solve concerns the th AUTHORS’ AFFILIATIONS 19 century. Photo by Dr. Eugenio Santiago-Valentín. whereabouts of his drawings. Bello was an excellent illustrator and sources of the Dr. Eugenio Santiago-Valentín is an associate 3. Original illustrations of two Peacock orchids endemic professor at the Department of Biology (University to Puerto Rico as they were originally illustrated by period praise the images of plants and of Puerto Rico at Río Piedras) and the head of the Domingo Bello y Espinosa, Psychilis krugii, animals drawn by him in Puerto Rico; herbarium of the Botanic Garden of the University P. kraenzlinii in 1881. Notice that they were however, after two years of intensive of Puerto Rico. described as Epidendrum krugii and E. kraenzlinii. Courtesy of the Botany Library of the Museum of research we still have not been able to Dr. Lázaro Sánchez-Pinto is the director of the Natural History of London. locate these drawings. We believe that Museo de Ciencias Naturales of Tenerife. 4. Flower of Kraenzlin’s Peacock Orchid, Psychilis Dr. Javier Francisco-Ortega is an associate kraenzlinii, from the mesic to dry forests of they might represent one of the most professor at the Department of Biological Sciences Puerto Rico. relevant pieces of botanical illustration for of Florida International University. He has a joint Photo by James Ackerman. Caribbean Island flora. appointment with Fairchild Tropical Botanic 5. Flower of Krug’s Peacock Orchid, Psychilis krugii, Garden and is the head of the FIU-Fairchild Plant from the dry forests of Southwestern Puerto Rico. Molecular Systematics Laboratory, and Manager of Photo by Ana Cuevas Prado. No other naturalist from the Canary the Fairchild Challenge. 6. Legumes, seeds and leaves of Stahlia monosperma. Islands has ever reached the international Domingo Bello y Espinosa described a new genus to recognition received by Bello; he was the science: Stahlia. This tree species, in the pea family, is only botanist from these islands who restricted to Puerto Rico and the eastern Dominican Republic and is considered a critically endangered authored a floristic study from tropical species. regions. Therefore, it is not surprising that Photo by Dr. Martin Gardner.