POPPIN' ART Roy Lichtenstein at Fairchild
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autumn 2007 POPPIN’ ART Roy Lichtenstein at Fairchild published by fairchild tropical botanic garden 10901 Old Cutler Road Coral Gables, FL 33156 305.667.1651,he ext.S 3305h op at Fa www.fairchildgarden.orgT irch shop online at The Shopild at Fairchild www.fairchildonline.com GARDENING SUPPLIES UNIQUE TROPICAL GIFTS TROPICAL GOURMET FOODS HOME DÉCOR ACCESSORIES ECO-FRIENDLY AND FAIR TRADE PRODUCTS BOOKS ON TROPICAL GARDENING AND CUISINE FAIRCHILD TROPICAL BOTANIC GARDEN Vase Blue Hand, $142 Members price, $127. Photo by Gaby Orihuela/FTBG. contents 18 A BOTANIC GARDEN IN THE HEART OF GUATEMALA 28 SALVIAS FOR COLOR AND MORE 22 THE ART OF FLOWERS: BLOOMING ART 34 THE RECOVERY OF Jacquemontia reclinata: 46 THE SCIENCE OF PATIENCE DR. DAVID FAIRCHILD’S DREAM departments FULFILLED 5 from the executive director 7 news 8 explaining 9 displaying 10 calendar 12 tropical cuisine 14 ask martha 15 vis-a-vis volunteers 16 plant societies 32 book review 34 conserving 42 gifts & donors 43 garden views 46 from the archives contributors SCOTT ZONA, PH.D. Dr. Zona has been Fairchild’s Palm Biologist for over 14 years and enjoys writing about plants that combine his love of botany with his passion for gardening. Salvias, with their dazzling flowers and intriguing relationships with pollinators, are one such group. He has collected and photographed huela/FTBG salvias in their natural habitats in California, Florida, Mexico and the Gaby Ori Caribbean. MARILYN GRIFFITHS Marilyn has been a plant recorder at Discover how much fun your Surround yourself with Fairchild for 14 years. Working in landscaping can be! wonder and beauty. Living Collections and Garden Landscapes, she is responsible for Relax, Dreams maintaining data on all plants in the enjoy, can garden through inventories, maps and the database. She is also Chairman of delight your come the Plant of the Year Committee and helps to manage the Horticulture senses. true. Orihuela/FTBG Library. Gaby Fred Anderson Landscaping & Maintenance The Adventure Begins — Call Now SAM WRIGHT Samuel is a Field Biologist who Cel: 786-512-6301 Phone: 305-247-5268 received his B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida. He has been a valuable member of the Fairchild South Florida Conservation Team for six years. In addition, he has extensive collection management and field experience with coastal dune vegetation surveys, design and implementation of endangered Jacquemontia reclinata experiments. ON THE COVER Miconia calvescens Photo by Pedro Lastra from the executive director I hope you enjoyed the lush opulence of Fairchild during the summer. The Victoria water lilies are filling their pool and the hedychium gingers are spicing the air. I greatly enjoyed our fourth Butterfly Festival at Fairchild—a wonderful partnership with the Miami Blue chapter of the North American Butterfly Association. For two days, we celebrated butterflies and butterfly gardening with the wonderful Lisa D. Anness Butterfly Garden as the centerpiece. It is hard to believe that only one year ago Larry Rutherford initiated the project. It is now a vibrant garden that attracts flocks of people and butterflies. A highlight for me is seeing how Fairchild’s population of the endangered Atala butterfly is thriving to the extent that we now provide caterpillars for reintroduction to other sites. As with all our festivals, it was tremendously rewarding to see how Fairchild’s great staff and volunteers worked together to deliver a wonderful event. Gardening should be about celebrating the locality and developing a sense of place for plants and people. Accordingly, butterflies and mangos are defining elements for the South Florida garden. In mid-July, we held our most successful International Mango Festival with thousands of people enjoying our garden and celebrating the Caribbean’s mango heritage. Behind the festivities are decades of hard work and that particular horticultural understanding that is gained, not from books but from the field and grove. Dr. Richard Campbell and Noris Ledesma are two extraordinary people who have developed and curated the world’s greatest mango collection. The table display of mango cultivars at the International Mango Festival is a potent display of mango diversity and a dizzying selection of shape, size, aroma and taste, a reflection of centuries of horticulture. Dr. David Fairchild provided the original institutional focus on science that is reflected in our mission and excellent research collections. As with all great endeavors, our garden has grown across the generations, building on the energy and expertise of each generation. Our experts in tropical horticulture and botany represent a direct link with Dr. Fairchild and his philosophy: the interconnection of plants and people. The first book by Dr. Fairchild that I read was The World Was My Garden, a wonderful heady mixture of plantsmanship and exotic travel for a teenager in the south of England. Today you can see the world at Fairchild. Our plant collections have never been richer and more spectacular. While we continue to exhibit the world’s tropical flora, our staff works to conserve that flora for future generations. This summer, Fairchild staff explored in the Cockpit Country of Jamaica; helped establish a new botanic gardens in Guatemala and Oman; assessed Asian palm conservation priorities in the Philippines; and ran a training program for botanic garden staff in Panama. Here at home, our education team continues to inspire thousands of Miami-Dade students. The horticulture team has been transforming the garden in preparation for our forthcoming Lichtenstein at Fairchild exhibition. This summer the readers of The Miami Herald voted Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden as the number one wonder of Florida. This was a great tribute to the garden and the generations who have nurtured it. Thank you for supporting us and allowing your garden to grow to its current glory. Fairchild’s work has never been more important as we realize that all life depends on plants. Mike Maunder, Ph.D. www.fairchildgarden.org AUTUMN 2007 5 news STUDYING Aiphanes minima CORAL GABLES Florida International University COMMUNITY graduate student, Karen FOUNDATION Laubengayer, just returned from Landscape architect her final collection trip to Raymond Jungles, Dan Martinique and St. Lucia in the Keys of the Coral Gables Lesser Antilles. With the help of her Public Service Department, assistant, Fairchild volunteer, Lynne and Mike Maunder, Ph.D., Rittenberg, they collected research have been named as (L-R) Dan Keyes, Dr. Mike Maunder, Raymond Jungles Photo byLynne Rittenberg material from 36 Aiphanes minima advisors of the Coral Karen Laubengayer collecting wild and Howard Glicken palms in the forest on St. Lucia. (Arecaceae) trees for Laubengayer’s Gables Community thesis, which will later be stored as Foundation’s Greening of the Gables initiative. The announcement was dried specimens in Fairchild’s made by Foundation Chair Howard Glicken of The Americas Group. Herbarium. Laubengayer’s thesis The Advisory Committee will provide counsel and recommendations studies have taken her to Barbados on all aspects of the greening project with an emphasis on selecting tree (where she has also left vouchers in and plant types with the greatest environmental and aesthetic benefits. their herbarium), Dominica, Martinique, St. Lucia and St. Vincent. FAIRCHILD AND FIU’S CONSERVATION TRAINING PROGRAM Aiphanes minima is a spiny palm Fairchild’s international conservation that grows throughout the Lesser training program continues to grow Photo byKaren Laubengayer Lynne Rittenberg behind a young Antilles. Throughout history, with two visiting scientists, Danae Aiphanes in the forest on St. Lucia. botanists have argued whether there Cabrera from Instituto de Ecología, is only one or several species on the different islands. Under the Xalapa, Mexico, and Nirzka Martínez direction of her research adviser Dr. Scott Zona, Laubengayer’s from Universidad de Puerto Rico, Rio thesis will determine if there is more than a single species of this Piedras. These two Ph.D. students palm in the Lesser Antilles by studying morphological and visited Fairchild to receive training on anatomical variation. Accompanying her most recent collections, a Photo by Gaby Orihuela/FTBG. DNA fingerprinting techniques from Danae Cabrera total of 79 DNA samples were collected for future molecular work. Dr. Javier Francisco Ortega and Dr. Carl Lewis. FAIRCHILD LEADS A RED These new techniques, being pioneered LISTING WORKSHOP IN THE by Fairchild’s DNA team, are solving PHILIPPINES several conservation biology questions Palm Biologist Dr. Scott Zona led relating to the definition of species and a workshop at the University of the assessing levels of genetic diversity within Philippines, Los Baños, in early populations. Both students are working June. At the request of the with critically endangered species. We organizer, Mr. Bian Tan of Botanic Photo by Gaby Orihuela/FTBG. thank the Montgomery Botanical Center Photo by Bian Tan Nirzka Martínez Workshop participants Soe Tint and Gardens Conservation for providing housing during their stay. Mya Win, both of Myanmar, receive instruction from Dr. Scott Zona on International, Dr. Zona instructed This past summer Isidro Ojeda, a using the red listing software. 17 delegates from eight southeast botany graduate student from University Asian countries in the use of the Word Conservation Union/Species of British Columbia, worked with Dr. Survival Commission’s