Exploring for Plants Conserving the Cockpit Country of Jamaica

Fairchild Trustee Faith Bishock and I made the trek to Honolulu, Hawaii, on Wednesday to begin the first leg of our expedition.  We are taking advantage of the altogether unavoidable plane stop here on the 8,000 mile journey to the Federated States of Micronesia.

Think of our time in Honolulu as a warm-up exercise before the big workout.  We practiced our palm spotting and plant collecting skills at Lyon Arboretum on Thursday.  It just so happens that Lyon has specimens of all three Ponapea species we’ll be studying on this expedition.  Faith was the first to spot Ponapea palauensis.  Ray Baker, research associate at Lyon, graciously spent the entire day with us, mucking around in the rain.  We collected lots of seeds, cuttings and root divisions of cool tropical plants not already in the Fairchild collections.  They are on their way back to Fairchild as I write.

Our Honolulu stop is also a mission in intergarden relations.  Fairchild has lots of friends here in Honolulu – lots of botanical garden friends – and to keep up good relations, long distance friends must say hello from time to time.  In addition to Lyon Arboretum, we are visiting the Foster Botanical Garden, Koko Crater, Waimea Falls and Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden.

Fairchild researcher Carl Lewis and Steve Perlman of National Tropical Botanic Garden will join us in Honolulu on Sunday on the eve of our flight to our first stop in Micronesia – Kosrae.

Aloha!