Interview: Libby Besse by Ray Hernandez In November of last year, IPS Director Kim Cyr asked me to interview Libby Besse for the online IPS newsletter. I was delighted at the opportunity to have a one-on-one meeting with one I consider to be a living legend in the palm world. Here was a name I’d held in reverence since my early palm growing days. Along […]
Message from the President, Leland Lai Wishing all IPS Members a Joyous Holiday Season and a Happy New Year Greetings to my fellow IPS Members, wishing all of you a happy and safe holiday season. I want to share some of the happenings this last year, reflective of much background work and budgeting for the new face of the IPS. For several years, […]
Dr. Andrew Henderson, Recipient of Multiple IPS Grants from Cindy Adair Each year, the IPS considers applications for grants from the IPS Endowment Fund. Dr. Andrew Henderson, Curator, Institute of Systematic Botany at New York Botanical Garden, has received six grants from the IPS over the last eleven years. Grants in 2003 and 2005 were given toward preparation of A Field Guide to the Palms of Southern Asia, (pictured […]
THE MERWIN CONSERVANCY Announces the Preservation of the MERWIN PALM FOREST. When W.S. Merwin, a Pulitzer Prize winning U.S. Poet Laureate and resident of Maui, Hawaii, came upon a parcel of land in the small valley of Pe’ahi Stream in the late 1970’s, he found an agricultural wasteland with the soil decimated and eroded by a failed pineapple plantation. Merwin set about a nearly 40-year journey to give […]
Letter from IPS Grant Recipient Joanna Tucker Lima The society’s support through the Endowment was very important to the success of my research and continuing love and investigation of palms. Here follows a brief description of my research associated with the IPS grant. Thank you! Biofuels represent a promising resource for isolated rural areas of Amazonia, where poor accessibility has slowed electrification, and high fuel prices limit transportation of […]
IPS TRAVEL 2016 SARAWAK & SINGAPORE ~ PALMS IN HABITAT from David Tanswell, Jack Sayers, and R. Haresh The 2016 IPS Bienniel meeting will take you to South East Asia and will have an emphasis on palms in habitat. Full details will be published well in advance, however we are aiming for the second week […]
CHENG HO If you were so fortunate as to attend the 2014 Biennial in South Florida, you received this little gizmo at the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden dinner. Dr. Carl Lewis, Director of FTBG, spoke that evening about one of the greatest plant explorers of all time, Dr. David Fairchild, namesake of the Tropical Botanic Garden. As described on the FTBG website, “For 37 years, he […]
2014 BIENNIAL IN SOUTH FLORIDA: People and Palms The June and July issues of the Newsletter will be dedicated to the gathering of 128 members in Miami. The first evening, after a presentation by Dr. John Dransfield about the discovery of Guihaia argyrata, Libby Besse was bestowed the Dent Smith Award for her many years of service to the IPS. The same award was […]
Fifty Years Back: International Palm Society’s 1964 Biennial in Arcadia,California Excerpts from the archives of PRINCIPES “Report of the Biennial Meeting April 11-18, 1964 “The California members of The Palm Society were hosts to the fourth Biennial Meeting, which was held at the Los Angeles State and County Arboretum, Arcadia, Calif., on April 11th, 1964 at 10 a.m. About sixty members and their guests […]
IPS Endowment Grant Recipient:Mijoro Rakotoarinivo from Cindy Adair Each year, the IPS considers applications for grants from the IPS Endowment Fund. At the 2010 IPS Biennial in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the Board of Directors awarded a small research grant to, among others, Mijoro Rakotoarinivo. Mijoro is the Kew Madagascar Conservation Centre and Geographic Information Science Unit Manager and Palms Conservation Officer. According […]