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Haupu Native Habitat Management Project Begins
The Mt. Haupu Native Habitat Management Project launched in August and began with a cultural ceremony at the base of the Kauai peak. This project aims to improve and maintain native habitat for rare species including Polyscias bisattenuata, Kadua fluviatilis, Schiedea perlmanii, Myrsine linearfolia, and Isodendrion longifolium.
This project is a collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and will focus on improving habitat for rare species at the Haupu summit. “In this first phase of the project, we are surveying for additional populations of rare plants and weeding around known populations. said NTBG Curator of Living Collections, Mike De Motta. “We will also work on eradicating invasive woody species in the area,” he continued.
While there are many rare and endangered native plant species that call the summit of Haupu peak home, the project also aims to protect native insects endemic to the peak including one of the world’s largest species of tree cricket. NTBG staff and conservation partners will monitor the rare plants and make collections of propagules for future restoration and possible outplanting in phase II.
Cheng Ho! Sailing and Trekking David Fairchild’s Legendary Journey
By Craig Morell, Director, The Kampong
In the golden age of plant collecting a century ago, botanical explorers traveled the world in search of rare and unusual plants. Unfettered by modern agricultural regulations, they explored remote regions at will, surveying and searching for botanical gardens around the world. Dr. David Fairchild was one such collector. Credited with more than 70,000 collections over half a century, Fairchild spent a great deal of time in the Pacific Islands, especially the East Indies. Many important food and ornamental plants were gathered on these trips, including new varieties of mangos, avocados, palms, flowering trees, and interesting new fruit trees.
Cheng Ho Journey
Fairchild had a Chinese junk called the Cheng Ho built especially for his 1940 journey. As chief plant collector for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Fairchild had the huge task of finding new plants to help feed America. Some of the plants photographed in his books and assembled on those trips were introduced and can be found at The Kampong today. Fairchild started the Office of Plant and Seed Introduction very early in the 20th century, giving him numerous opportunities to collect plants in many countries. Last September, I had the chance to retrace Fairchild’s extraordinary Cheng Ho journey.
Two years ago, Dr. Carl Lewis of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (FTBG) had an idea to revisit several of the islands where Fairchild traveled in 1940. The trip would also include a few islands left unvisited after Fairchild had to depart abruptly at the onset of World War II. What took David Fairchild weeks to reach — the Moluccas Islands — was for us just 25 hours away.
Dr. Lewis had arranged all of the stops on the 21-day tour, starting in Bogor, Indonesia where Fairchild studied at the Treub Laboratory at the Bogor Botanic Gardens on two separate occasions. The 210-acre garden is legendary for its vast herbarium and living collections and has been pivotal for its role in tropical botany.
Where Fairchild set sail on his Chinese junk in Ambon harbor, we left in a different fashion: boarding a modern twin-mast 132-foot Balinese schooner called the Ombak Putih, Indonesian for White Wave.
21 Days, 900 Miles
Our island stops — twelve in all — would be 50 to 100 miles apart, and as on Fairchild’s Cheng Ho expedition, the islands are mostly volcanic in origin. Cone-shaped and ringed with verdant bands of towering coconut palms, many of the islands are barely arable, with the only commerce taking place wherever there is enough land to build a small fishing village.
In following Fairchild’s journey, we hoped to find the islands where he had collected plants, visit the villages he’d visited, and perhaps see some of the same trees he saw 76 years ago. Plant enthusiasts will understand our thrill, knowing that David Fairchild was one of the world’s foremost plant collectors and that some of us were from his former home The Kampong and the garden named for him.
David Fairchild’s Home and Legacy
As a point of reference, The Kampong (NTBG’s garden in Coconut Grove, Florida) was David Fairchild’s home from 1916 to 1954. FTBG was named after Fairchild late in the 1930s, and is seven miles south of The Kampong. Both gardens are on the Atlantic coast and enjoy a sub-tropical climate. The two gardens have had a long-standing relationship based on their namesake.
Our travels took us through a variety of islands where the balmy climate fostered a spectacular growth of plants with no heat or drought stress set upon them for decades at a time. Motor launches got us onto the beaches with little effort, although we were forced to quickly become accustomed to “wet landings” in which we waded through seawater to reach the beach.
Taxis and rented vehicles motored us to interesting forest areas to see plants that Fairchild would have seen, such as the famed Pigafetta palm, Hydnophytum ant plants growing on tree trunks, massive Dipterocarp trees, and many others. I took a copy of Fairchild’s Garden Islands of the Great East with me using it to track the islands on our journey as a check list of plants and sites to explore. We visited islands with lyrical names such as Kahatola, Halmahera, Mandioli, Ternate, Obi, Buru, and others.
Island by island we traced a 900-mile course, landing on one beach, then another, trekking through fascinating forests, each different from one another, all while gaining knowledge at every turn. A lecture preceded dinner every evening, usually followed by spirited discussions of the day’s events. Dr. Lewis and I re-created a photo from the Garden Islands book by posing in front of what we believe is the very same Hernandia tree seen in Fairchild’s book.
Curious Roots, Fruits, and Tubers
As we trekked through the Spice Islands[1], we could see and smell the reasons for the area’s historical name. The Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese battled fiercely over control of the islands for their natural bounties of nutmeg and cloves. In the West we are used to seeing these spices in small jars at large prices on market shelves, but in these islands we saw hundreds of pounds of the spices drying on tarps along the streets. The local village markets had heaps of spices, selling packets for just a few coins.
Following Dr. Fairchild’s methods, we toured several farmers markets, redolent with the smells of chili peppers, fish, and mollusks brought up from the depths, and a wide spectrum of curious roots, fruits, and tubers. We could imagine David Fairchild collecting seeds and fruits in such markets in 1940.
For all of us, recreating Fairchild’s Cheng Ho expedition offered the rare chance to experience the native habitats of many plants that are now in cultivation around the world. For a few brief
moments, we were intrepid travelers, collecting memories and photographs just as David Fairchild did 76 years ago.
Following this journey I can now look at some of the plants that David Fairchild collected and say to myself, “I know where that plant came from — I was there.” Having experienced my own version of the Cheng Ho expedition and seen the native habitat of the plants I care for enriches and informs my role as one of the caretakers and preservers of the legacy of David Fairchild.
[1] Moluccas (or Maluku) archipelago north of Australia and west of New Guinea are historically famed for producing spices like nutmeg, mace, clove, and pepper.
An Eye on Plants – Tahina palm (Tahina spectabilis)
The Unlikely Discovery of the Tahina Palm
The unlikely discovery of the Tahina palm (Tahina spectabilis) is rooted in the story of Xavier Metz, a Madagascar-born Frenchman working as the manager of a cashew nut plantation in the island’s remote northwest. In 2006, accompanied by his wife and three young daughters, Metz happened upon several gigantic palm trees at the foot of a rugged limestone hill.
It wasn’t the first time they’d seen the enormous palms — on a weekend outing one year earlier they’d noticed the same palms. On their second encounter, however, one of the giant palms was bulging with a pyramid-shaped bunch of flowers.
After Metz shared photos of the mysterious trees with a fellow palm enthusiast, the challenge of identifying the palms grew into a discussion and then all-out investigation which ultimately led to their identification by renowned palm authority Dr. John Dransfield of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The Discovery of the Decade
Dransfield confirmed that the palms were not only a newly described species but an entirely new genus — a noteworthy event indeed. Dransfield called it “the palm discovery of the decade.”
This gigantic fan palm, the largest in Madagascar, bears a trunk that can soar to 60 feet and has fronds as large as 15 feet in diameter. The structure of the flowers and flower-bearing branches immediately indicated that it belongs to the tribe Chuniophoeniceae which includes palms native to Vietnam, Thailand, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Arabia.
The discovery was published in 2008 (Dransfield et al.) and ultimately named Tahina spectabilis after Metz’s middle daughter Anne-Tahina. In Madagascar’s Malagasy language Tahina means “blessed” or “protected.”
With only the one known population, the Tahina palm is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Researchers have confirmed that the solitary Tahina palm is hapaxanthic — meaning it will produce flowers only once and then perish.
When the question arose of how to conserve this rare palm about which so little is known, there was agreement that not only did it need to be protected in its native habitat, scientists agreed Tahina palm seeds should also be distributed to botanical gardens and arboreta throughout Madagascar and overseas.
A Safe Home on Kauai
In 2008 NTBG’s Conservation and Horticulture Center on Kaua‘i received three accessions (documented collections) of Tahina seeds. After successfully propagating seeds, the Garden planted out eight seedlings between 2011 and 2014 in McBryde Garden and near the entrance to the Garden’s headquarters in Kalāheo, Kaua‘i.
Six of the eight slow-growing palms have survived and are steadily inching skyward. While no one is yet certain how long the Tahina palm can be expected to live, it will likely be many decades before this remarkable new genus erupts with its tremendous display of flowers and seeds before the parent tree expires.
The addition of the Tahina palms to the living collections helps ensure that even if disease or disaster struck the sole known population on Madagascar, their irreplaceable DNA is preserved for the future.
Collectors of NTBG Bulletin back issues will find a photo story on NTBG’s early efforts to propagate the Tahina palm in the Spring 2008 issue (Volume XXV, No. 3, pg. 19).
An Eye on Plants – Ohe ohe (Polyscias bisattenuata)
Little known is the story of Polyscias bisattenuata (ohe ohe in Hawaiian), a critically endangered member of the Araliaceae (ivy family). Endemic to Kaua‘i and only infrequently found growing on slopes and ridges between 1,300 and 2,300 feet, in recent years ohe ohe was known from just two trees until 2005 when NTBG Research Biologist Ken Wood discovered some 30 individuals growing in a summit gulch and on the cliffs of Mt. Haupu.
Botanical Gold
Then, in the fall of 2016, working with the support of a grant from the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, NTBG’s Living Collections Botanist/Field Collector Natalia Tangalin struck “botanical gold” when she discovered 34 new trees in five populations (four of them previously unknown) while botanizing on the steep slopes and ridges of the forests of Haupu and Mt. Kahili. To date, NTBG has documented a total of 52 ohe ohe in seven populations.
Like many native plants in Hawaii, ohe ohe fruits are subject to predation by rodents. Natalia knew that between her return visits to the trees, the olive-shaped, purplish fleshy fruits would likely fall victim to rats. This sprawling tree is also threatened by habitat loss and invasive plants like strawberry guava and Koster’s curse. Add to that no known pollinator and you have a recipe for extinction.
Meanwhile, NTBG’s Oshibana volunteer artisan group had heard about the need to protect the vulnerable fruit and offered to design and sew rodent deterrent bags. Two volunteers, Maryanne Nordwall and Joanne Watson, experimented with different material, finally settling on woven plastic mesh sandbags which were readily available, flexible, and most important — rodent resistant. Together they sewed more than a hundred bags of varying sizes.
With Velcro-lined openings, the bags stayed firmly attached to tree branches while keeping out predators out but letting in light and air. The bags protected the fruit until they reached maturity and until Natalia and other field collectors and KUPU interns were able to return to harvest the fruit. Over multiple visits, they were able to collect some 55,000 seeds, adding 50 accessions to the Garden’s living collections.
Making a Comeback
Back at NTBG’s Conservation and Horticulture Center, Nursery Manager Ashly Trask, working with staff, volunteers, and KUPU intern Randy Umetsu, began the monumental task of squeezing out seeds from thousands of fruits to be cleaned, sorted, counted, and potted within hand-built cages (to protect from rats). Before long the south shore nursery was filled with a bright green sea of seeds popping out of a perlite-vermiculite substrate. Ashly said that the survival rate of young sprouts was around 80 percent. Now, less than a year later, NTBG has grown more than 6,000 plants.
With so many seeds, the question arises: can these seeds be dried or frozen and stored for later planting? Currently, ohe ohe seed storage behavior remains unknown but NTBG’s Seed Bank and Laboratory Manager Dustin Wolkis continues to test the seeds’ ability to withstand cold and dry storage conditions.
Already around 200 plants have been planted in the Lower Limahuli Preserve and many more will be added to the native section of McBryde Garden. NTBG is also working to re-establish populations within its former range on private lands. Mike DeMotta, Curator of Living Collections, said the successful collection of ‘ohe‘ohe helps secure genetic representation of the species in NTBG’s ex-situ collection, adding: “Our goal has been to create additional collections so if the population collapses in the wild, we’ll still have a broad representation of the species.”
Exploring the Roots of NTBG’s Breadfruit Institute
By Dr. Diane Ragone, Director, Breadfruit Institute
Have you ever wondered why breadfruit is the signature plant of the National Tropical Botanical Garden and serves as its logo? In 1967, three years after the Garden was established by a Congressional charter, a distinguished group of botanists, horticulturists, and botanical garden directors were appointed to the Garden’s Science Advisory Committee (SAC). Their assignment: provide guidance and advice to [1]PTBG’s Board of Trustees and Executive Director on what was needed to build a world-class garden, beginning with the selection and purpose of its living collections.
In 1974 the advisory committee recommended breadfruit as an important Pacific Islands plant with nutritional and ethnobotanical significance worthy of study and evaluation in the field and in cultivation. That same year, the Garden’s iconic breadfruit logo, featuring the attractive leaves and patterned fruit in black and white, was adopted. A watercolor painting by renowned botanical illustrator, Mary Grierson, provided the color scheme for the logo since the early 1990s.
A definitive collection of breadfruit and breadnut
PTBG’s Kahanu Garden, established in Hana, Maui in 1972, already had numerous mature Hawaiian breadfruit cultivars and was identified as a good location to establish a breadfruit collection. In 1976, then Garden Director Dr. William Theobald (1975-1993), called for the creation of “a definitive collection of breadfruit and breadnut[2].” Soon after, Pacific Island expeditions to collect breadfruit cultivars (varieties) commenced, with Allerton Garden co-founder John Gregg Allerton and staff botanists traveling to the remote island nation of Kiribati.
Over the next few years, Steve Perlman, then the Garden’s nursery manager, brought back numerous cultivars from the Society Islands. Additionally, Dr. Arthur Whistler, then a staff botanist, sent several cultivars from Samoa, as did agriculture departments in Pohnpei (Federated States of Micronesia) and the Seychelles Islands.
Three Tahitian and Seychelloise cultivars were the very first breadfruit trees planted in the Lawai Valley on Kauai in 1981, and can still be seen along the Lawai Stream in the McBryde Garden. Two different Tahitian varieties are still flourishing at Limahuli Garden. Thirty-one cultivars were planted at Kahanu Garden between 1978-1981 and form the nucleus of NTBG’s extraordinary breadfruit germplasm repository.
I became interested in breadfruit in 1983 as a graduate student in the Horticulture Department at the University of Hawaii. While conducting a literature review for a term paper on breadfruit, I came across The Bulletin of the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden, and learned about the Garden’s collection. That chance discovery laid the groundwork for my three-decade involvement with the Garden and a career collecting and studying breadfruit diversity.
Support from PTBG and regional, national, and international organizations allowed me to conduct extensive fieldwork throughout Oceania in 1985 and 1987 during which time I documented more than 500 accessions with detailed information about each tree, as well as photographs and/or herbarium specimens, and propagating material in the form of root cuttings or seeds that was collected and sent to University of Hawaii greenhouses on Oahu.
A total of 185 trees (128 accessions) in pots were loaded into open-air shipping containers and shipped by interisland barge to Maui where they were planted at Kahanu Garden between 1989-1991.
I was excited to join the staff of NTBG in August 1989 as Director of the new Hawaii Plant Conservation Center (HPCC) on Kauai. In those days I checked on the trees in Hana once or twice a year and worked with the gardening staff to coordinate care and maintenance. The HPCC was integrated into the Garden’s Science Department in 1994 and as a staff scientist my attention returned to breadfruit.
Many of the trees planted in 1989-1991 were beginning to fruit and the time was right to begin systematically evaluating and documenting the entire collection which is, first and foremost, a conservation collection, intended to preserve breadfruit diversity. It is the largest breadfruit germplasm repository in the world, conserving three species of breadfruit and 150 cultivars from 34 Pacific islands, including some cultivars that are now rare, or extinct, in their home islands.
The collection also provides unique opportunities for researchers to better understand this underutilized crop. The SAC’s blueprint for how living collections advance scientific research helped guide my efforts. The first study began in January 1996, and was aimed at answering the question “Is it possible to have year-round production of breadfruit?” After five years of data collection I selected a core group of 20 “elite” cultivars to intensively study, including propagation research, so we could share these cultivars with other countries.
To promote the conservation, study, and use of breadfruit for food and reforestation
The idea for the Breadfruit Institute resulted from a discussion between two members of NTBG’s Board of Trustees after visiting the breadfruit collection in 2002. The institute was envisioned as a new department at NTBG, capitalizing upon the breadfruit collection and my expertise and professional network. It would be more than a research program. The first step was to claim the URL www.breadfruit.org and adopt the mission statement: To promote the conservation, study, and use of breadfruit for food and reforestation. I was appointed as director when the institute was formally established in October 2003.
Soon we began extensive photographic documentation of each species and cultivar through the services of Jim Wiseman, a photographer and videographer, and expanded the scope of research to include nutritional composition, fruit characteristics, systematics, as well as genetic and morphological diversity. This research has been carried out by institute staff and in collaboration with scientists and graduate students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) at Okanagan, the University of Hawaii, Chicago Botanic Garden, and others.
In vitro (micropropagation or tissue culture) was a major research program directed by Dr. Susan Murch of UBC Okanagan. This collaborative project was aimed at developing methods to propagate breadfruit with the goal of duplicating and conserving germplasm and distributing elite cultivars. Despite numerous logistical and biological challenges, her team was successful in propagating several cultivars, the first being Maafala, a compact tree with a delicious and highly nutritious fruit.
We also partnered with a private horticultural company, Cultivaris LLC, NA, working under the name Global Breadfruit, to develop commercial micropropagation of breadfruit, including disease indexing and methods to wean or acclimatize plants from laboratory conditions to greenhouse settings. Shipped as small rooted plugs in soil-free media, these plants are more robust, have a much higher success rate than plants produced using traditional vegetative methods, and are ready for field planting in 12-20 weeks.
Global Hunger Initiative
This partnership made it possible to launch a Global Hunger Initiative in 2009 to respond to critical global food security issues by expanding plantings of good quality breadfruit cultivars in tropical regions. In less than 15 years since its foundation, the Institute has proven that breadfruit is a viable sustainable resource for regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, reforestation, and economic development.
To date, more than 100,000 trees have been shipped to 44 countries around the globe. In Hawaii, we have distributed more than 10,000 trees statewide through our Plant a Tree of Life – Grow Ulu project. Homeowners, community groups, non-governmental organizations engaged in food and nutrition and community development, farmers, and food entrepreneurs worldwide are embracing breadfruit as a versatile, nutritious crop with human and environmental benefits.
Agroforestry at the Breadfruit Institute
Agroforestry is the planned integration of perennial woody plants — trees and shrubs — with annual crops and animals. It is a biodiverse dynamic system both spatially and temporally. Breadfruit has been an important component of traditional agroforestry systems throughout the Pacific Islands, interplanted with numerous crops and useful species. The Breadfruit Research Orchard in the McBryde Garden is an ideal location for our forthcoming Breadfruit Agroforestry Demonstration. When completed, this demonstration will serve as a living laboratory for producers to better understand how to plant breadfruit agroforests and for the general public to learn the importance of breadfruit for people and nature, culturally and commercially. This exciting project will show the benefits of growing breadfruit, not as a monoculture, but as part of a diverse mix of plant species to maximize production and yields while also rebuilding soil health and fertility. The demonstration, to be installed in 2017-2018, will include four themes: Contemporary tropical agroforestry, Heritage Pacific agroforestry, Shade-grown agroforestry, and Regeneration agroforestry, each encompassing about one-half acre.
[1] The Garden was established in 1964 as the Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden (PTBG). When The Kampong (in Florida) became part of the organization, the name was changed to National Tropical Botanical Garden.
[2] Both breadfruit and breadnut are in the genus Artocarpus, part of the fig family (Moraceae).
NTBG Science and Conservation Staff Judge as Students Compete in STEM Showcase
On February 16, the Hawaii Academy of Science conducted the Kauai Regional Science and Engineering Fair with more than 50 students from local middle and high schools participating in the one-day event. Two staff from the NTBG Science and Conservation Department, Seana Walsh and Dustin Wolkis, judged for the Plant Sciences category.
One of the student participants, Kauai High School 9th grader Aidan Gregerson, received the “NTBG Young Ecologist Award” for his experiment which tested soil from the roots of native and invasive plants to see monitor changes in soil nutrients. Aidan tested three native plant species: Acacia koa (koa tree), Sadleria sp. (amau fern), and Pritchardia minor (loulu) and three invasive species: the obscure morning glory, ironwood tree, and a ginger species. He found that the pH level of the soil from the native plants was much lower (more acidic) than the invasive plants, with native plants preferring higher amounts of nitrogen. He noted that if invasive plants are introduced, they could potentially alter the balance of nutrients.
A second Kauai High School student, Isabella Parsons, received the “NTBG Plant Conservation Award” for her project: Investigating the Effects of the Removal of Red Mangrove Trees on the Ecosystem of Kauai.
Speaking of fostering Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education, Dustin said, “It is my hope that by providing honest positive feedback and co-presenting these two awards that all Science Fair participants will continue their passion for STEM education.”
Seana added, “Supporting our science fairs on island is very much in line with NTBG’s mission. Many of the student projects aim to address problems in our community, and the students are really passionate about them. It gives me hope for the future of our island.”
Read more here: https://www.thegardenisland.
Photo courtesy of MC2 Sara Sexton
A global plastid phylogeny of the fern genus Asplenium (Aspleniaceae)
NTBG Director of Science and Conservation, Dr. David Lorence and Research Biologist, Ken Wood are co-authors of the recently published study, “A global plastid phylogeny of the fern genus Asplenium (Aspleniaceae).”
Abstract
The infrageneric relationships and taxonomy of the largest fern genus, Asplenium(Aspleniaceae), have remained poorly understood. Previous studies have focused mainly on specific species complexes involving a few or dozens of species only, or have achieved a large taxon sampling but only one plastid marker was used. In the present study, DNA sequences from six plastid markers (atpB, rbcL, rps4, rps4‐trnS, trnL and trnL‐F) of 1030 accessions (616 of them newly sequenced here) representing c. 420 species of Asplenium(60% of estimated species diversity), 16 species of Hymenasplenium, three Diplaziopsidaceae, and four Rhachidosoraceae were used to produce the largest genus‐level phylogeny yet for ferns.
Our major results include: (i) Asplenium as broadly circumscribed is monophyletic based on our inclusion of representatives of 32 of 38 named segregate genera; (ii) 11 major clades in Asplenium are identified, and their relationships are mostly well‐resolved and strongly supported; (iii) numerous species, unsampled in previous studies, suggest new relationships and numerous cryptic species and species complexes in Asplenium; and (iv) the accrued molecular evidence provides an essential foundation for further investigations of complex patterns of geographical diversification, speciation and reticulate evolution in this family.
How an NTBG Education Program and Globe-Trotting Botanist David Fairchild Helped Steer One Reporter from the White House to the Greenhouse
By Jon Letman
Leaving his sunny California roots behind, budding journalist Daniel Stone — then 22 years old — set off to Washington, D.C., to cover politics. The young reporter had a core interest in environmental issues and saw his position at Newsweek magazine as an opportunity to cover the intersection of public policy and science. In 2009, still less than three years in Washington, Daniel learned of NTBG’s Environmental Journalism Program offered on Kauai; he applied and was accepted.
In hindsight, the program was a turning point in his career. “Not only did I have immediate access to extremely smart and advanced scientific minds, but I also understood the urgency behind things I’d always been interested in.”
As part of the five-day Environmental Journalism Program, Daniel joined six other journalists for a week of immersive instruction focused on plant conservation, ecology, and environmental issues specific to tropical islands.
Impressed by efforts to save the rare plants that he encountered on Kauai, Daniel thought, “These issues are so important and so timely, I can be in a position to write about, explain, and introduce them to a much wider audience.”
Daniel had covered general botany before but says NTBG’s program afforded him the chance to interact directly with people and plants in a setting where the issues were “razor sharp in their relevance and timeliness.” He called the program a novel and eye-opening experience.
Energized and enthused, Daniel returned to Washington eager to expand his environmental reporting. Throughout the coming months, he made a “very deliberate” professional shift toward covering plants, science, and nature.
Months later, Daniel enrolled in a two-year graduate program on environmental science and policy, after which he decided it was time to make his move.
From the White House to the Greenhouse
It was 2012 and Daniel was covering the White House by then. It was a plum beat — every political reporter’s dream job — but Daniel couldn’t betray his passion for science. When the opportunity arose, he accepted a job as an articles editor for National Geographic.
At the time, Daniel was unfamiliar with the early 20th century National Geographic board member and contributing editor David Fairchild. But when a colleague described the historic figure as an “adventurer botanist,” Daniel’s curiosity was piqued and he embarked on what would grow into a three-year project researching the legendary plant explorer’s diaries, journals, and photographs as well as thousands of archival documents.
Seeing the potential for a fresh examination of the legendary plant collector, Daniel contacted Fairchild’s surviving grandchildren and planned a trip to Fairchild’s historic residence, The Kampong, in Coconut Grove, Florida.
By his own admission, Daniel became “obsessed” with Fairchild’s story. It was during his 2014 visit to The Kampong, and to the actual study where Fairchild had written his most influential books, that Daniel realized he had unwittingly returned to NTBG.
Daniel described the rush of inspiration he felt as he sat on a bench on The Kampong lawn gazing out at the placid waters of Biscayne Bay. “It really clicked at that moment,” Daniel recalled. A one-time NTBG student and writer for National Geographic, Daniel was pursuing — and felt pursued by — the story of a man who had his own deep ties to both organizations.
Over the next three years, Daniel’s research led him on a journey from The Kampong to the National Agricultural Library in Maryland, north to the Nova Scotia seaside estate of Fairchild’s father-in-law inventor Alexander Graham Bell, and east to the Yokohama nursery from where Fairchild introduced the sakura (cherry blossom trees) that have become synonymous with the U.S. capital.
Daniel’s own transformation — from political reporter to authoring a book about the plant explorer — stems, in no small part, to his participation in NTBG’s Environmental Journalism Program.
He says it’s difficult for him to imagine himself writing this book without having had a relationship with NTBG and the people he met. “I wouldn’t have realized how interesting plants could be if I hadn’t met people who showed me.”
The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats
David Fairchild — plant explorer, innovator, diplomat, and yes, sometimes spy and thief — revolutionized what Americans eat. The remarkable story of this icon of agriculture, and his countless successes (and failures) are documented in author Daniel Stone’s recently published book The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats.
This new history recounts the early decades of Fairchild’s life (1869-1954), focusing on his career after moving from the plains of Kansas to his humble beginnings in the 1890s as a junior scientist studying plant pathology at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Daniel reveals how Fairchild went on to explore and collect thousands of plants around the world alongside his wealthy and colorful patron, Barbour Lathrop.
The Food Explorer is the story of a man dedicated to enriching the American agricultural palette, helping farmers adopt new crops, and encouraging a sometimes reluctant public to accept new foods and plants.
Daniel paints a vivid portrait of Fairchild circling the globe with growing enthusiasm and confidence, searching for plants of economic and nutritional value. Returning with his bounty of seeds, cuttings, and fruits, Fairchild struggled to distribute and establish a market for culinary and agricultural curiosities, such as a leafy European peasant food called kale, an Andean grain named quinoa, and new varieties of okra, beans, melons, peppers, flax, and thousands of other plants.
Transforming the American Food Landscape
Fairchild’s best-known introductions include 38 varieties of mangos, Chilean avocados, Iraqi dates, Egyptian cotton, Bavarian hops, Italian seedless grapes, olives, cashews, peaches, pomegranates, and citrus of all stripes.
And while Fairchild’s government collections are well documented, Daniel notes the widely varying estimates of how many plants he actually introduced. USDA records confirm he was responsible for more than 5,000 plant introductions but other estimates range from “many thousands” to as high as 150,000.
In addition to the formidable roster of thousands of food crops, Fairchild was also responsible for introducing more than 3,000 sakura (cherry blossom trees) to Washington, D.C.. The story of the horticultural challenges and the diplomatic tightrope Fairchild walked to get the beloved Japanese trees from a nursery in Yokohama to the banks of the Potomac River described one of the most difficult and risky endeavors of his career.
As Daniel points out, “Fairchild is celebrated for his success… but he had a lot of failure too.” He cites the mangosteen as an example of a fruit Fairchild adored but was unsuccessful in establishing as a widely grown food in the United States. Fairchild called it “queen of tropical fruits,” but the mangosteen was also bulky, difficult to ship, easy to damage, and required a lot of effort to extract the small but delicate sweet flesh from the leathery rind. Alas, Fairchild’s favorite fruit never caught on.
Much of Fairchild’s USDA plant-collecting ended at the beginning of World War I as Americans grew more insular and cautious of all things foreign. The book’s final chapter recounts Fairchild’s later years, collecting on behalf of private plant enthusiasts in the 1920s and ’30s, concluding with Fairchild’s famed Chêng Ho expedition of 1939.
To read Daniel Stone’s exhaustively researched account of one of America’s premier plant explorers is to come away better informed about the history, science, politics, and plants of the world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Food Explorer, both timely and timeless, is a delight whether you’re a botanist, a gardener, a farmer, or just someone who loves to eat and read.
Daniel Stone’s The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats, 416 pages (Dutton) is available in hardcover, eBook and, audio.
Perpetuating Ohia
By Seana Walsh, Conservation Biologist and Dustin Wolkis, Seed Bank and Laboratory Manager
Ohia is the Hawaiian name for species in the genus Metrosideros. Ohia are the most abundant, ecologically important, and culturally significant plants in Hawaii. As a foundation species[1], forming the largest portion of the canopy in native wet and mesic forests, they provide food and shelter for many native animals, including our native forest birds and insects. Further, Ohia facilitate soil development, provide habitat for seedling establishment, and aid in replenishing our aquifers. Ohia are also culturally significant and prominent in many moolelo (stories), mele (songs), oli (chants), and are one of the kino lau (physical manifestations) for several Hawaiian deities.
Rapid Ohia Death
In 2013, Hawaii Island residents became concerned when they began observing seemingly healthy ohia trees dying within a matter of weeks. This phenomenon was termed Rapid Ohia Death (ROD). Researchers have now identified that ROD is caused by two recently described species of Ceratocystis fungi previously unknown to science, C. lukuohia (“destroyer of ohia”) and C. huliohia (“changes the natural state of ohia”). Although trees can be infected with either fungal species for long periods of time, nutrient and water transport is eventually blocked. Once a tree shows symptoms of infection by C. lukuohia, all leaves turn brown and the tree is dead within weeks. Infection by C. huliohia is more localized, potentially affecting only parts of the tree.
ROD has affected over 75,000 acres of native ohia forest on Hawaii Island. In May of 2018, C. huliohia, the less aggressive of the two fungal pathogens, was confirmed on Kauai. When Ohia disappears from the landscape, habitat for other native plants and animals vanishes; non-native, invasive plant species, such as strawberry guava (Psidium cattleyanum), replace native forests.
Mitigating the Spread of ROD
To mitigate the spread of ROD throughout the archipelago, the State of Hawaii has implemented a quarantine that prohibits the transport of untreated Ohia wood from Hawaii Island. A committee of experts have formulated a ROD Strategic Response Plan which includes a statewide effort to collect and bank Ohia seeds from seed zones throughout Hawaii.
Seed zones are areas within which plant materials can be transferred with higher likelihood of survival in their new location. These zones are a crucial tool used to guide plant collections and reintroductions.
NTBG staff and the Kauai Island Botanist of the Hawaii State Department of Land and Natural Resources, Division of Forestry and Wildlife (DLNR, DOFAW) worked together to create seed zones for Kauai.
Based on climate and vegetation data, along with local knowledge of the environment, 10 unique zones were identified. Seed zones have helped guide landscape restoration projects across the continental United States. However, this approach to guide transfer of seeds has not been applied on Kauai, where the highly eroded island contains many different microclimates across relatively short distances. Although the impetus for creating seed zones was to guide current seed collections, banking, and future reintroductions with the potential for ROD to spread to Kauai, they have relevance for all native plant species occurring across the island.
In the winter of 2017, NTBG was awarded a grant from the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority to help mitigate the potential for ROD to impact Kauai. Components of the grant-funded project, in which many NTBG staff are involved, include outreach and education through workshops, our visitor program, and social media and marketing.
Seed Bank Partnership
This grant has supported coordinated efforts to collect, bank, and reciprocate seeds with Hawaii Seed Bank Partnership organizations of all four Metrosideros taxa from each of the 10 seed zones on Kauai. Throughout 2018, NTBG staff, interns, and volunteers embarked on approximately 30 collecting trips, half of which require helicopter flights to otherwise inaccessible locations. Collections were made from single individuals as well as from several individuals within a single population.
Individual plants were tagged using a “Population Reference Code” system standardized in the State of Hawaii. This unique plant ID system will ensure consistency and streamline future monitoring. Specifically, it will allow researchers, conservation biologists, and land managers to link individuals found to have ROD resistance or other measures of high fitness, back to the mother tree from which the seeds came.
The collecting goal for 2018 was from approximately 1,300 individual trees encompassing all four taxa spanning each seed zone in which they occur, totaling over six million seeds. A small portion of these seeds was sent to NTBG’s Conservation and Horticulture Center Nursery for immediate propagation for outreach, ex situ (“off-site”; outside their natural habitat) collections in our gardens, and in situ (“on-site”; in their natural habitat) restoration.
Most seeds were banked, as they are desiccation and freeze-tolerant and can, therefore, be stored using conventional methods (as opposed to seeds of species which are sensitive to desiccation and/or subfreezing temperatures, which require special storage conditions). After desiccation seeds are hermetically sealed and stored at -80°C.
Initial viability was determined for collections entering the NTBG Seed Bank and Laboratory, and viability of stored seeds will continue to be assessed at designated intervals throughout the lifetime of the collection. These data contribute to our understanding of seed longevity for each collection, and when taken as a whole, increases our knowledge at the species level. To mitigate against disaster striking any one storage facility, one-third of banked seeds are stored in the NTBG Seed Bank and Laboratory; one-third are stored on island at the Kauai DLNR, DOFAW Seed Bank; and one-third are stored off island on O‘ahu at the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum, Seed Conservation Laboratory.
How You Can Help
These seeds will provide geographically and genetically appropriate plant material for restoration, testing for resistance to the disease, and other current and future research. This work is only possible by a coordinated effort between many NTBG staff, interns, and volunteers, as well as partner organizations working on all aspects of the project. By undertaking this project we are doing our part to perpetuate Ohia on Kauai.
You can help prevent the spread of Rapid Ohia Death by not moving Ohia wood; not transporting Ohia inter-island; sanitizing tools, gear, apparel and other equipment, and pressure washing vehicles before and after working in Ohia forests. For more information on ROD, visit rapidohiadeath.org.
[1] Foundation species are locally abundant, regionally common, and create conditions required by many other species.
An Eye on Plants: Sacred Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)
On the hottest summer nights when stillness in the garden signals the season’s climax, one plant offers relief. Rising from the murky depths of mud-bottomed ponds and steely surfaces choked with duckweed, slender green stems climb skyward, swaying just slightly, crowned with floral perfection — the sacred lotus.
Beauty, Elegance, and Dirt Repellant
Universally recognized for its beauty and elegance, the lotus blooms flawlessly in ponds, marshes, gardens pools, and in earthenware pots on temple grounds. Its superhydrophobic leaves, unrivaled in the botanical world, repel even the stickiest mud and are known as the “lotus effect.” Scientists and engineers study the plant’s water and dirt repellent quality, attempting to mimic it in clothing, paint, and other man-made surfaces.
This resistance to stain makes the lotus a symbol of purity in an otherwise polluted world. Buddha statues sit and recline on golden lotus in airy Thai wats and in the alcoves of candle-lit Tibetan monasteries. Synonymous with the auspicious and divine, the sacred lotus is India’s national flower and frequently used icon.
According to legend, India’s most revered river, the Ganges, first flowed across the earth after Lord Vishnu’s lotus feet were washed, giving the holy river the name Vishnupadi. Another one of the river’s 108 names is Vishnu Padabja Sambhuta which translates as “born from the lotus-like foot of Vishnu.” Indeed, the Hindu deity is frequently depicted standing or seated on a giant lotus blossom, holding a smaller lotus in hand.
Botanical Name and Uses
The botanical name Nelumbo nucifera is rooted in the Tamil nelum (blue) and Latin nux (nut) and fera (bearing), referring to lotus seeds which are called makhana or fox nut in India where they are eaten as a snack. Other parts of the plant are also valued as medicine and food. Lotus tubers or roots are eaten steamed, fried, pickled, and braised, and especially popular in East Asian dishes.
Famed botanist, explorer, and founder of The Kampong, Dr. David Fairchild collected sacred lotus while visiting Japan in 1902. In his notebook he wrote: “These plants are from a noted lotus grower in Tokyo, who claims to have hundreds of varieties and whose lotus show in late August is said to be unusually fine… All shades of pink, yellow, and green, and many variegated forms were represented.” Fairchild collected twenty varieties, including beni botan, ashimaru, tamausagi, and sakuraten.
Lotus at National Tropical Botanical Garden
Today at The Kampong, west of the Fairchild-Sweeney house, a pond is planted with two species of lotus — the ivory-white Nelumbo lutea, native to North America, and a stunning variety of N. nucifera called Bali Red, introduced by Kampong Director Emeritus Larry Schokman.
Look for lotus ponds at the Garden’s South Shore Visitor Center on Kauai as well as in the Allerton Garden across the Lawai Stream from the Allerton residence. That lotus pond evolved from what was once a Hawaiian fishpond. After being damaged by a tsunami in 1833, the area was used for growing watercress, taro, rice and then in the 1930s and 40s, commercial lotus production.
John Gregg Allerton is credited with restoring the pond in the 1970s after it had become abandoned and overgrown with bulrush, replanting lotus seeds from Japan. Repeatedly destroyed by tsunami and hurricanes, the pond has always been rebuilt by Garden staff and volunteers, cleared by hand and replanted so that the pond would again give rise to the swell of hundreds of pink lotus blossoms.
