Exploring for Plants Conserving the Cockpit Country of Jamaica

An inspiring day it was – to say the least. We were really far off the beaten track, way past the “end of the road.” The “road” in this case was an old bridle road that had been completely overgrown and was now dominated by full-grown trees and shrubs. Odontocline sp. was frequently encountered climbing all over the plants around us, bringing sunny bursts of its bright yellow flower clusters into view all around.

Hidden rock terraces discovered deep in the mountains

Botanist and plant lover that I am, I must nonetheless admit that what most inspired me today was not the local flora. (Although documentation of the flora was our focus of course!) It was an area we came across that inspired me most. Let me relive for you what we discovered in this unique spot:

As I mentioned, it really felt as though we were far out in the middle of nowhere. The area was completely uninhabited and there were no signs of recent yam-stick harvesting or any other recent human-caused disturbances in the forest. However, on one hill we climbed, we came across definite sign of human activity… from a long, long time ago. We discovered a hillside completely covered in terraced, hand-piled, low rock walls. After climbing many a Cockpit Country hill, I had never seen anything like it. Limestone rocks, both large and small in size, had been piled in low walls of about 1.5 meters high by about 2-3 meters wide, in terrace fashion all the way up the hill. Why had they been put there? By whom? When?

We still don’t really know the answers to those questions. Our local partner, who grew up in the area, told us that his ancestors came from a long line of escaped slaves that had once used these remote mountains as cover, and had once utilized a footpath through the mountains all the way to the north coast to the famous “Runaway Bay.” These independent, strong people overcame the serious challenge presented by the rugged terrain of these mountains and turned it into their advantage. Maybe the rock walls we saw were hideouts, perhaps they were small hidden vegetable plots, or maybe even lookout points to the landscape below. We just don’t know.

I stood for a time looking out over the hidden rock terraces, made by people I will never know, but whose strong spirit will remain alive in generations to come.

Field reporting contributed by:

Ms. Lois Morgan (Royal Botanic Gardens, Hope, Jamaica)

TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2009

The wonderful chef and staff sent us off to our field research today with a sumptuous breakfast of calalloo omelettes, locally grown coffee, and fresh papaya.  Being a first timer to the Cockpit Country, I expected a warm welcome from plants, trees, birds, and bees. The team today consisted of Melissa Abdo, D’Owen Grant, Stephen Hodges, and myself.

The plants were amazing: they spoke in loud tones telling me that there was so much more to learn about the Cockpit Country’s endemic and flowering trees and shrubs.  Birdsong was everywhere – the warblers, doves and the sweet sound of the John to whit! 

Early on our trail, I was eager to collect a Pecluma fern I spotted. I leaned over into a rocky crag to collect a few specimens from a clump. As I went in to carefully collect it, I was instantly stung by some kind of insect that had the power to cause a scream which undoubtedly echoed across the many pits of the Cockpit Country! The burning was quickly relieved by the ever-quick-thinking Mr. Grant who suggested that I rub some pepper elder on the spot. Within 10 seconds of the resident field doctor Melissa administering the remedy, the burning had subsided.

The walking trail we made reminded me that it helps to be physically fit to successfully do a floristic inventory of the Cockpit! The cardinal rule when hiking is: only pack what you can carry and then remind yourself that 2 pounds will feel like 10 when climbing steep limestone trails.  As the day ended, my imagination reminded me of how good it felt to smell wafts of sweet vanilla arising from nearby flowers, and to encounter the wonderfully scented bark from wild Prunus trees…

Assistance with horticultural plant documentation is provided by leading staff member Lois Morgan of the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Fairchild expedition leader Melissa Abdo and colleague Hillary Burgess are impressed with Rudy, the first dog to climb a Cockpit mountain!

Field reporting contributed by:

Lori-Ann Harris (Institute of Jamaica), Hillary Burgess (Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden)

Monday, June 15, 2009

We are happy to report that the expedition team is finally together in Jamaica, gearing up for another much-awaited expedition to the Cockpit Country. All are eagerly anticipating getting out and into the field! Due to mechanical difficulties, the use of another vehicle is delayed until later this week. However, this may not be a disadvantage just now because we’ve worked out an efficient method of allocating our resources: some persons will stay back to do work from base each day while others will conduct field research. Today the field team will be scouting the area and conducting reconnaissance at our Cockpit Country sites.
Today we are thankful to be joined by Mr. D’Owen Grant, an extremely knowledgeable dendrologist who has conducted extensive work in the Cockpit Country. After breakfast, the lead team will be leaving for their first day undertaking a reconnaissance trip and preliminary field research activities.
We are all excited about the possibility of finally seeing fertile specimens of the Cinnamodendron grantii (ined) that Mr. Grant first discovered. He believes that it is probably in fruit now, but has likely already finished flowering at this time. He is hopeful about revisiting it at one location, and has suggested another favorite Cockpit Country site that he’d like to re-examine as well.
Mr. Grant aptly captured the team’s excitement during breakfast this morning when he said that his blood is ‘tingling from the inside’ in anticipation of what we may find during this botanical adventure.

Botanist Stephen Hodges is right in his element: surrounded by tropical plants while conducting scientific research!

It was a bright cloudless day that we set out to another unexplored inner region of the Cockpit Country.  Scaling jagged limestone rocks and making my way over endless deep crevices, with each step my eyes fell upon a broad array of plants.  Both as a scientist and conservationist, I felt extremely fortunate to behold and study numerous plant species in their native habitat - many of which are found nowhere else on earth. 

Astoundingly, at least 34% of Jamaica’s flora is comprised of endemic plant taxa – plants found nowhere else on earth.  Over at least 12 million years, the terrain, habitats, and biodiversity have evolved into the Jamaican landscape we see today, with its abundance of endemic species.  Every day during our expedition we seek to capture detailed information on the Jamaican Cockpit Country habitats and the plant diversity they contain, with a special emphasis on collecting data on rare plants and plants endemic to Jamaica.  Indeed, there are not only numerous plants endemic to the island but there are also at least 60 known species that are endemic to the Cockpit Country alone. 

All of the Cockpit Country mountains we have chosen to visit during this expedition have been hitherto undocumented by botanists… in fact, we soon learned that even the locals living nearby these hills don’t have names for the forested hills our expedition team is climbing up to.  So, we take the grand opportunity to give memorable names to the Cockpit hills as we explore them and document their hidden biodiversity.

The northern breeze was blowing strong and cool as we climbed our way up to newly named “Breezy Hill.”  Notions of the elusive plants awaiting us in this botanical terra incognita filled my mind as we climbed to the top. 

Looking out across the hilltop, a lovely Aechmea bromeliad in flower frames the view.  The habitat at the very top of Breezy Hill is similar to other Cockpit peaks we have climbed to: the steep and nearly conical karst peak receives a good deal of sun as it is well-exposed in comparison to the Cockpit hill sides and Cockpit bottoms.  The moderately sunny hill peak is habitat to a unique assemblage of plants that are well adapted to living in the rocky karstic terrain.  The peak of Breezy Hill is also similar to other hilltops in the Cockpit in that many of the rarest plants and noteworthy endemic species are found here, and nowhere else in the world.

The sound of rustling leaves blowing in the wind atop Breezy Hill was all that was heard all morning, as we spread out and searched every nook and cranny of the steep rock faces in concentrated silence.  Our efforts were paying off well, as we filled our sacks with the morning’s careful collections.  Notes were taken and GPS points plotted.  Finally, we would each carefully grasp one of the day’s large collection sacks in one of our hands, while the other hand felt for rock crevices to hold tightly on to as we made our decent down through the treacherous and steep Cockpit face.

A winding and bumpy ride took us and our 6 hefty sacks of plants on a two hour drive back to base.  So far, so good: no more flat tires in our trusty 4WD pickup truck! 

After a hard day of climbing and collecting, we worked late into the night to document our plants and carefully press them in newspaper and cardboard for drying in our handcrafted field dryer. 

Our work just this one expedition day on Breezy Hill has yielded an amazing 210+ fruiting or flowering specimens processed.  Processed, you ask?  This means that for each one of our precious plant specimens we: climbed, searched, and found fertile specimens; clipped, collected, numbered, tagged, described them in my yellow notebook, saved them in plastic bags, and carried them carefully down the Cockpit mountains; and finally identified, photographed, pressed, and packed them carefully into our field plant dryer. 

All in a good day’s work as a plant explorer.  

This critically important plant exploration and expedition is made possible through the dedicated staff from Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and our key partners, the Institute of Jamaica’s Natural History Division, and the national Forestry Department. 

For a few days starting today, however, our team is fortunate to be joined by staff from our full team of partnering Jamaican staff: including representatives from Hope Botanical Gardens in Kingston, and from the University of the West Indies’ Dept. of Life Sciences.  Our great team is pictured below. 

The team spirit was so contagious that we even had an unexpected addition to the team today: an intrepid little trail dog we fondly named “One Eye” managed to get her head in the group photo, and even followed us halfway up the Cockpit mountain!     

On Saturday’s market day we made a much-needed trip to the local markets to restock on supplies, and pick up fresh fruit to keep our bodies healthy for our expedition.  Marlon, Ken, and I checked out the lively market and found some sweet grapefruit, hand bananas, oranges, and Jamaican apples in season and stocked up for the week.  We made it back just in time to pull our laundry off the clothesline before the afternoon rain…

I managed to run some preliminary analyses while stuck indoors, and am thrilled to report that we have already collected, documented, and prepared at least 640 scientific plant specimens- in addition to numerous propagules already representing a healthy, robust horticultural collection.  Astoundingly, our hard work has already yielded critically important collections of plants- including many endemics- and provided growing evidence of the importance of biodiversity conservation of Jamaica’s Cockpit Country.

Saturday made it the second consecutive afternoon of heavy rain.  This is the dry season in this part of the Cockpit, but it seems the weather front coming down is causing the afternoon precipitation.  Data connection and communication is tricky here (to say the least) so it is hard to get reliable weather updates, but Keron’s apt instinctive knowledge of his environment got everyone turned back in the nick of time before the rain on Friday.

While the rain certainly impacts fieldwork, it is on the other hand beneficial to our horticultural propagules collection as it provides moisture in the microenvironment in our makeshift field nursery.  Marlon and Ken have done an amazing job keeping the propagules alive and happy; their green thumbs and expertise are great.