A Major Palm Achievement pages 6-7 Montgomery Provides National Leadership page 3 Bahamian Buccaneers pages 4-5 Montgomery Botanical Center Established 1959 Board of Directors David Manz, Esq., President Charles P. Sacher, Esq., Vice President Karl Smiley, M.D., Vice President From the Walter D. Haynes, Esq., Sec./Treasurer Charles S. Sacher, Esq., Asst. Treasurer Executive Director Lt. Col. Justin M. Haynes Nicholas D. Kelly L. Patrick Kelly Peter A. Manz Stephen D. Pearson, Esq. Juanita Popenoe, Ph.D. Mark Smiley Dear Friends, Executive Director M. Patrick Griffith, Ph.D., M.B.A. t is an exciting time at Montgomery! Our work with palms and Icycads has shown wonderful progress and amazing outcome s. In Research Fellows this newsletter, we are only able to show you some of this nice work Angélica Cibrián Jaramillo, Ph.D. – selected news to show the breadth and depth of our reach into the John Dowe, Ph.D. botanical field. William Hahn, Ph.D. Damon P. Little, Ph.D. In terms of breadth, the facing page shows how widely our work Cristina Lopez-Gallego, Ph.D. can relate; Montgomery has a national role in the science of botanic Mónica Moraes R., Ph.D. garden conservation! Our work to examine the genetics of garden Fred Stauffer, Ph.D. collections is increasingly relevant, as shown by a new federal grant. Alberto S. Taylor B., Ph.D. I am thrilled that I will be able to report results from this grant to you Irene Terry, Ph.D. in future writings. The work takes us into beautiful and interesting Barry Tomlinson, Ph.D. habitats in search of palms that provide insight into critical questions – pages 4 and 5 show our recent work with the bahamas national To advance science, education & trust, investigating a cherished Caribbean palm species. conservation of tropical plants, emphasizing palms and cycads, Montgomery Botanical Center grows Depth is best exemplified by Dr. Larry Noblick’s recent living plants from around the world in achievement (see pages 6 & 7). This monumental work by the world population-based, documented, expert on queen palms includes virtually everything about their scientific collections in a 120-acre biogeography, history, and conservation. This work is not only deep in botanical garden exemplifying detail – Larry also traveled broadly to compose his life’s work. excellent landscape design. Montgomery is only able to go far and wide in the world and in Montgomery Botanical Center is a botany because of your generosity – in addition to page 3, see the tax-exempt, nonprofit institution great improvements and studies made possible by funders such as the established by Eleanor “Nell” Montgomery Jennings in memory of Kelly Foundation (page 8) and the stanley smith horticultural trust her husband, Colonel Robert H. (page 9). When you – our community – help us (pages 10 & 11), Montgomery, and his love of you join with these local and national benefactors to move botany palms and cycads. forward. I am deeply honored and grateful for your support. Montgomery Botanical News I write this message to you en route to another distant location in is published twice a year by search of palms … I look forward to sharing it with you soon! Montgomery Botanical Center. 11901 Old Cutler Road Coral Gables, Florida 33156 Phone 305.667.3800 Fax 305.661.5984 [email protected] www.montgomerybotanical.org Edited by Tracy Magellan Pictured: Dr. Grith aeld in Curaçao; to be detailed in the Fall 2017 Newsletter. On the Cover: Dr. Larry Noblick with the twin palm (Syagrus cearensis) that he Printed on recycled paper discovered in Brazil in 1994. 2 Montgomery Botanical News | Spring/Summer 2017 Mongomery Provides NationalTo safeguard Leadershi our trees ontgomery was awarded this project will ensure that botanic address critical needs of the museum Ma N L garden trees can benet future genera- eld and improve services for the G by the Institute of Museum and tions. Led by Montgomery, the project American public. It is thus a highly Library Services! brings together experts at other botanic competitive program with only 13 e project, Safeguarding our Plant gardens, organizations and zoos: the awards made this year! Within the Collections, will develop clear protocols Arnold Arboretum of Harvard Uni- entire, nationwide museum eld – to protect plants, starting with Mont- versity, Botanic Gardens Conservation including art, science, history, and even gomery’s cherished palms and cycads. International, the Center for Plant zoos – Montgomery was the only e project will carefully select which Conservation, Chicago Botanic Garden, botanic garden thusly honored; another groups of palms to grow by explor- Chicago Zoological Society, Morton demonstration of how the MBC Team ing their DNA, and will help protect Arboretum, National Tropical Botani- innovates and advances the science of other trees, from oaks to magnolias, by cal Garden, and the USDA. e group plant collections. As this grant arms, adapting proven conservation methods studies a carefully selected group of Montgomery is a N L. from zoos. is research continues a plant species, providing comparative successful line of study on the genetics case studies which can benet work at of botanic garden plant collections led most every garden. Patrick Grith, Executive Director [email protected] by MBC. e National Leadership Grant is Called “one of the largest advances the largest and most prestigious grant in tree conservation since the 1970s,” awarded by the IMLS, designed to Background: the work builds on and expands upon Montgomery’s innovative, IMLS-funded conservation research. Projects in 2012 and 2014 studied the Central American cycad, Zamia decumbens (pictured here), and the Caribbean cycad, Zamia lucayana. Museum experts sounded a nationwide call for expanding these studies beyond cycads – thus providing the motivation for this new project, which compares the conservation genetics of cycads and palms to other long-lived tree species. For more information, and to download our GUIDES FOR LIVING COLLECTIONS, please see our Collections Genetics webpage: http://www.montgomerybotanical.org/ Pages/Collection_Genetics.htm Patrick and Tracy assembled experts from around the nation at the Morton Arboretum in October to begin the project. Spring/Summer 2017 | Montgomery Botanical News 3 BhamianProvide Buccaneers a model for plants worldwide Dr. Griffith with a robust specimen of Pseudophoenix sargentii, on Eleuthera. Buccaneer palms often occur in isolated, small populations (see page 5, lower left), and are faced with many threats! Feral livestock, horticultural harvest and unseasonal wildfires can harm these plants. This population of buccaneer palms in the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve is exceptionally healthy and well protected. Dr. Griffith collecting leaflets for DNA analysis. With DNA samples from over 100 of these mature palms, compared to nursery seedlings, this project (see page 3) can determine exactly how well current collecting protocols capture wild diversity. 4 Montgomery Botanical News | Spring/Summer 2017 he buccaneer palm, Cuba, Dominica, Mona Island, and Potential comparisons from TPseudophoenix sargentii, known Florida saw far fewer plants than in the this work will be informative: How from the Lesser Antilles to the Yucatan preserve, often imperiled. us, the many palms do we need to grow at – and even here in Florida – is among Eleuthera plants provide an ideal model Montgomery? Do groups of seeds the most prized of ornamental palms. for the genetics of these palms (see page collected in dierent years capture Its beauty, ease of transplant, and slow- 3). How many garden plants do we dierent genetic diversity? How do growing habit have prompted many to need to maintain and represent the wild these palms compare with palms in remove these palms from their native diversity of such a robust forest? Florida and elsewhere? soil. But on Eleuthera, large numbers of With this research goal in mind, I In pondering these questions, I am buccaneers thrive on a prominent hill, was delighted to work with experts at most glad to work with these Bahamian in a dense forest preserved for its unique the Leon Levy Preserve this winter. e botanists; bringing these palms biological diversity. preserve’s botanists and experts provided and these colleagues into our large ere, at e Leon Levy Native deep knowledge of the plants in their project raises the scope and scale from Plant Preserve, Pseudophoenix sargentii care, gracious hospitality, and access to to . populations are dense and healthy. the invaluable scientic treasure they Patrick Grith, Executive Director Montgomery’s recent work in Belize, steward. I am grateful. [email protected] Our collections at the Loyd G. Kelly Conservation Nursery include buccaneer palm seedlings from Eleuthera, collected in 2012 by Dr. Brett Jestrow. These five-year-old plants show how slowly this species can grow. Comparing this group to the more recent seedlings can help develop good conservation protocols. Seeds from this 2017 fieldwork are now germinating at Montgomery. This trunk of a mature buccaneer palm growing at Montgomery came from seed collected in the Bahamas in 2002. After 15 years, these palms are producing seed of their own. An Update on Florida’s Acknowledgements Buccaneer Palms I thank Falon Cartwright and Ethan Freid of the Leon Levy Native Tracy Magellan’s study Plant Preserve, for guidance and of this species in Florida expertise. Permission for this eld- was highlighted in our work was generously provided by Spring 2015 newsletter. the Bahamas National Trust, the Tracy has just published Bahamas Environment Science her ndings in the latest and Technology Commission, the issue of P (Vol. 61, Bahamas Ministry of Agriculture pages 41-44). Only 3 adult and the USDA. is project informs buccaneer palms survive in IMLS National Leadership Grant # Florida – demonstrating MG-30-16-0085-16. Funding was how vital these genetic generously donated by Charles and studies are for conserving Dorothy Sacher.