Jamaican Sustainable Farm Enterprise Program at the Source Farm Sponsored by Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA). Florida Association for Voluntary Action in the Caribbean and the Americas (FAVCA) & US AID I was tickled recently to be accepted into a development program in Jamaica partly facilitated by friends and mentors Chuck Marsh and Tony Kleese. Both of these … Read more
Written by Elizabeth Drisko On a sunny morning on August 17, 2016, a group of 15 students from the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine met at the Catawba Falls parking lot for a plant and mushroom walk with Marc Williams. He recommended various texts to folks interested in vascular plants, including Guide to Vascular … Read more
It is always a pleasure to visit the Appalachian Institute for Mountain Studies. This non-profit headed up by Dr. Jim Veteto is dedicated to preserving the agrobiodiversity of Appalachia and educating the public on various other topics as well.
The orchard on the property features close to 100 varieties of mostly heirloom apples as well as yellow and black heart cherries, blueberries, persimmons and all manner of other fruit. We even harvested apples in June from a variety appropriately called Early Harvest. For those interested Jim also published an article a couple years ago about his research with orchardist perceptions around the effects of climate change (Veteto & Carlson, 2014).
Blueberries, Yellow Cherries and Early Harvest apples from AIMS
PHI Director Marc Williams was at the United Plant Savers (UPS) Botanical Sanctuary May 6-8 to teach a brewing with non-timber forest products workshop. Aside from that, any excuse to get to UPS is a good excuse.
It’s hard not to be awestruck visiting UPS, unless you are intimately familiar with its beauty as Paul Strauss certainly is. He’s devoted over 40 years of his life to creating one of the most incredible privately held areas of temperate native plants east of the Rocky Mountains. This sanctuary is not only sacrosanct to plants, but all forms of life, especially birds, which Paul believes is due to the astonishing abundance of red fruit producing plants i.e. natives like Spice Bush (Lindera benzoin), Dogwood (Cornus florida), Burning Bush (Euonymous americana) and the exotic invasive Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata). You can learn more about United Plant Savers at their website and can learn more about Paul Strauss and his work through the movie The Sanctity of Sanctuary or his book, The Big Herbs.
I made the mistake of saying the ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) around UPS grows like a weed. I stand corrected: this is always a special plant.
Friday found Marc, Chip (intern manager and ginseng expert), the interns, and I on a plant walk through the Goldenseal Sanctuary. The combined knowledge of plants in that group was quite the treat, as was the diversity of plants apparent during the walk. Some highlights included the tree id quiz, in which 15 trees had numbers attached to them, with a key of answers identifying the trees at the end of the trail. It was a real treat to view the land with the aid of Chip’s experience surveying properties for ginseng, learning the various plants that are associated with ginseng. It was also fascinating to hear insights into recreating prairie (plant cup plant (Silphium sp.) only if you really want it, as it will spread). A cursory plant list of this walk is included at the end of this article.
For the last few years I have taught on my plant courses about the Moken sea gypsies, and the extraordinary relationship they have with their environment. Little did I realise that I would ever get the chance to meet them. I had tried back in the Winter of 2015 while visiting Myanmar formerly Burma, but … Read more
Plants and Healers International Executive Director
i was blessed recently to spend some good time with naturalist and author Roger Hammer both at his home in Homestead, Florida and inside Everglades National Park.
One of Roger’s several books
Roger has written numerous field guides including one on Everglades wildflowers (2015b) and the Florida Keys wildflowers (2004). He has an upcoming book about the wildflowers of central Florida (2016) and he has written a book on attracting hummingbirds and butterflies as well (2015a). Roger worked at Castellow Hammock Nature Center for over 30 years. He also was awarded with an honorary Ph.D from Florida International University in 2012.
Roger took me on a tour of his yard where he has lots of interesting plants such as Pond-Apple (Annona glabra), Moujean Tea (Nashia inaguensis), Arborescent Dutchman’s Pipe (Aristolochia arborea) and many others. He has a number of fruit trees as well. For his Mango he chose the “Manilito” variety. He also has a hybrid of the Sea Grape (Coccoloba uvifera) and Pigeon Plum (Coccoloba diversifolia). Some other choice fruits include Caimito (Chrysophyllum cainito), Black Mulberry (Morus nigra), Avocado (Persea americana) and a J-31 cultivar of Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus). The latter is more columnar and compact in form, suitable as a dooryard tree, but was still loaded with fruit as seen below.
Roger Hammer with J31 Jackfruit
Roger’s knowledge of various kingdoms of life forms is astonishing. In addition to introducing me to many new plants he also shared their connections to birds, butterflies and other organisms. For instance the introduced White-winged Parakeet (Brotogeris versicolorus) loves to feast on the seeds of the Silk Floss Tree (Ceiba speciosa) and the hummingbirds will fight over visits to (Pavonia bahamensis). The latter is also visited by the Zebra Longwing (Heliconias charitonia) which is the state butterfly of Florida. Two-flowered Passionfruit (Passiflora biflora) is a weedy thing in his yard but also supplies larval food for Zebra Longwings, Julia Heliconians (Dryas iulia), and Gulf Fritillaries (Agraulis vanillae), though the fruit is not much to speak of regarding human consumption. The Grackles and Blue Jays love the fruit of the Cherry-of-the-Rio Grande (Eugenia aggregata).
Some other uncommon tropical plants were on display such as the lemon-scented Bay Rum (Pimenta racemosa), Rough Strongbark/back (Bourerria radula), Smooth Strongbark/back (B. cassinifolia) and Euphorbia punicea from Jamaica that is a nectar source for the Zebra butterfly. It was exciting to also see Parrotweed (Bocconia frutescens) that Roger referenced as from the Bahamas whereas the first time i saw this species was way up high in the Talamanca mountains of Costa Rica.
As amazing as the tour of Roger’s yard was i was also excited to go to the local wild environs where he has spent nearly 40 years studying the various life forms, first as an employee of the Miami-Dade Parks Department and now independently. Roger told me how on one occasion he was picked to be a guide for biologists from various disciplines from around the world who came for a conference at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. What an honor and joy to accompany he and his wife Michelle for some small group time on the trails around Long Pine Key in Everglades National Park. Poisonwood (Metopium toxiferum)
Poisonwood (Metopium toxiferum)
was a very common understory plant as was its family member Winged Sumac (Rhus copallinum). Endemics such as Spermacoce terminalis and Pineland Clustervine (Jaquemontia curtisii) were present as well. Roger shared a story about an author working on the Asteraceae of North America who was going to travel a long distance just to catch site of the unassuming Sachsia polycephala syn S. bahamensis known mostly from the Caribbean.
Regarding other life forms we caught site of the Atala (Eumaeus atala) whose caterpillars feed on small Coontie (Zamia pumila)
Atala butterfly caterpillars feeding on Coontie
and was thought extinct in Florida until Roger found it at Virginia Key at Key Biscayne in 1979 (Eliot, 1996). White Indigoberry (Randia aculeata) is a good nectar source for Atalas.
