Exploring for Plants Conserving the Cockpit Country of Jamaica

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.

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A tasty breakfast of spiced callaloo, plantains, and dumplings from smiling chef AJ awaited us.  Great fuel for our long day ahead traversing unexplored Cockpit cliffs.  Today, our nimble group managed to climb our way across three hill crests and down into a Cockpit bottom.  The habitat there is much different- our soles finally sunk into soil a bit rather than limestone rock.  The Cockpit bottom was naturally home to a different suite of plant species.  Nonetheless, surrounding it we found the spot bordered on all sides with endless solution holes in the limestone, and dark caves and crevices in every corner.  Caution each step of the way is critical, and we’re all looking out for one another in this rough terrain. 

The expedition work is well worth the effort, as we have made exciting discoveries of plants previously unknown for this region.  This early on, we’ve already collected numerous herbs, epiphytes, trees, shrubs, and ferns.  Today was especially fruitful for building our ex-situ collection of endemic Jamaican species.  The night was cloudy again, with no moon apparent; and we carried on in throughout the evening in our little “lantern city” to conduct meticulous preparations of our hundreds of specimens.  I went to sleep proud and grateful to be working with such a committed team.

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We all awoke bright and early to wafting smells of saltfish and ackee coming from the kitchen.  Yum.  Accompanied by steamed yam and plantains, we all cleaned our plates and the team set out.  After meeting with our local Forestry Dept. staff counterparts, Keron expertly led the way up into the Cockpit.  It was a great first field day to say the least, with several important plants found right off the bat.  Keron doesn’t miss a beat, and his expert botanist’s eyes take in everything around him.  The day led into another long but impassioned evening wherein we proceeded to: further plant identifications, enter full specimen and habitat data, clip and prepare, number and organize, photograph, and press the precious plant specimens.  Whew!  Our committed team finally got to bed for a well-earned rest after a rigorous and exciting start to the expedition.

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Following our afternoon arrival yesterday in Montego Bay, it took us a great deal of time to get everything properly through customs and transport our extensive field supplies into town. We did counts continually to make sure all 17 separate pieces were with us along the way!

Transportation presented me with some unexpected challenges. First, it took us a near two hour wait to finally obtain our 4-wheel drive vehicle that we’d previously reserved for use during our journeys; upon picking it up we found tires were very low on air, the gas station was out of air, and so we had to go on a jaunt around town to get them pumped up and ready to go.

Little did we know, there was still another unexpected transportation obstacle lying ahead of us that Tuesday night…

We journeyed in caravan with the Forestry Dept. through picturesque terrain around narrow hairpin turns (honk! honk! Here we come!). The landscape was dominated by scenes of small-scale farming in red earth, with steep limestone mountains all around. Phone reception to coordinate with the team is difficult at best, but we’re making it happen! A couple hours later we came down and made our way through lovely Bamboo Avenue, and finally we had made it from Montego Bay to our new home base in Santa Cruz. We were met there by our long-time colleague and expedition co-leader Keron Campbell, Botanist at the Institute of Jamaica (IoJ) and our key scientific advisor, Dr. George Proctor, the world’s foremost authority on the flora of Jamaica. They were accompanied by Courtney Lyn, the Herbarium Technician at IoJ, who is a keen new addition to our team. We’d arrived at our base to carry out the expedition work around the south and southwestern area of the Cockpit. After settling in and having a team meeting to review our strategy and methodology, we set off for dinner…

I left the team to have their dinner, as I was due to be back to base to make more arrangements for the long field day ahead- but alas! As Ken drove to drop me off back at base, the two of us suddenly heard a loud pop and hiss from our tire. Fortunately we managed to make it safely to our nearby base. Ken and I proceeded to inspect the damage – a badly busted front tire – and he was pleasantly surprised to see stereotypes shattered as I grabbed our tools and climbed under the rear end of our pickup to get to work with the spare J It was a long night… but in the end, we got everything taken care of to prepare for the long field day bright n early the next morning.

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