Conservation—The Good News Appreciating Native Grasses Plants for the Home Pond GROWING CARNIVORES America’s First Female Botanist

Fall Classes EDUCATION Using Plumeria Pollination to Engage Student Scientists By Nichole Tiernan Photos by Kenneth Setzer and Nichole Tiernan

THE TROPICAL GARDEN 27 PREVIOUS PAGE Plumeria cubensis, native to Cuba.

RIGHT Sofia Ocampo and Mario Escoriza Gonzalez monitor Plumeria in the Nursery.

s a Ph.D. graduate student in There are more than 50 names described for the joint Florida International the group. The goal of my graduate research is University-Fairchild program, I to uncover the true diversity within the genus, A understand the value of mentorship particularly in the Caribbean islands. My work and outreach in botany. Working with my in systematics utilizes Fairchild’s living collection university, I have found a unique opportunity of Plumeria plants, as well as herbarium and to engage undergraduate students in plant DNA samples I have collected from wild- sciences through the extraordinary Garden growing Plumeria across their natural range in collections and my own graduate research. these islands. Much of my time after returning In this article I will introduce my topic from fieldwork is spent at the bench analyzing followed by details of the great experience DNA or herbarium specimens that I collected. I have had mentoring eight undergraduate students from FIU in topics pertinent to The extensive collecting I have done in pollination and breeding systems of plants. Hispaniola, Jamaica, and Cuba suggests there are approximately 25 Plumeria species The genus Plumeria, commonly known as endemic to the Caribbean islands and many frangipani, was described by Linnaeus in 1753 of these occur on only one island. The flowers and named after Charles Plumier, the botanist of wild-growing Plumeria are perhaps more of King Louis XIV of France. Although these striking than their cultivated relatives because milkweed relatives originated in the Caribbean of the way their large white masses of flowers and adjacent Central and South America, contrast with their surrounding unkempt Plumeria has become a ubiquitous member landscape or complement the turquoise of tropical gardens throughout the world, waters of the Caribbean. including at Fairchild. While flowers are important components of You may be familiar with some of the nearly plant taxonomy and systematics, so too are 300 cultivars of Plumeria, namely from the fruits. However, when finding fruits became a species P. rubra which are easily recognized rare treat, I found myself questioning how the as the pink flowers used in Hawaiian leis. Yet wild endemic species reproduce. The absence despite their popularity, little is known about of fruits in wild plumerias is a potential other members of the genus. concern for conservation, especially given the destruction of habitat in the Caribbean.

28 THE TROPICAL GARDEN Sarah Gonzalez, Jennay Bailey, and Stephanie Espaillat placing mesh bags around flowers and fruit.

This sparks several questions: Can flowers self- base where the nectar is produced. This type pollinate and set fruit without a pollinator? Is of flower design is consistently associated with the lack of fruits due to a lack of pollinators? If hummingbird hawk moths that use their long they don’t require pollinators, why are there so proboscises to access nectar deep within the few fruits in the wild? flower tubes. The mesh bags allowed us to manipulate the flowers, keeping any unwanted To answer these questions, I stepped away visitors out. Using a method designed by FIU from the lab bench and ventured into the Professor Dr. Suzanne Koptur, we mimicked Garden collections. hawk moths—the suspected pollinators—by using fishing line to probe deep into the flower’s If you took a walk through Fairchild’s Caribbean throat to move pollen around inside the flower. Jewels plots this past summer, you may have The busy summer intern pollinators tagged more Plumeria seen purple mesh bags around the than 7,000 Plumeria flowers and are currently flowers and fruits. With the help of eight FIU monitoring the fruits that were produced. undergraduates, I am using Fairchild’s collections to study the breeding system of Plumeria. With so many unique and special species of Plumeria in the Caribbean, the consequences Many undergraduate students pursuing are grave if the habitat becomes unable biological training are eager to get their hands to sustain species diversity. If Plumeria are dirty with research, so it wasn’t hard to find pollinator-dependent for reproduction then this students willing to brave the steamy summer puts incredible pressure on the pollinators to at Fairchild. We selected eight different species maintain the balance of the ecosystem. growing either on the grounds of Fairchild or at the nursery. These included the hairy-leaved P. While this study is still in progress, it will tuberculata from Haiti, named for its tuberculate provide us with important information about (i.e. bumpy) stem; P. cubensis with dark glossy the reproductive strategies of this widely leaves from Cuba; the common P. obtusa from recognized but poorly understood genus. the Bahamas; and the long, skinny-petaled P. stenopetala from the Dominican Republic. Through integrating Fairchild’s education mission, the vast Plumeria collection has engaged Though leaves and petals among Plumeria students and given them a greater understanding species can vary in size and shape, all have about conserving the world’s plants. the characteristic deep-throated white flower with the pollen-bearing anthers deep in the THE TROPICAL GARDEN 29