ROOTS by Ken Johnson I have transplanted palms for a living for 30 years. It is hard to get more involved in palm roots than I have been. Here are some tricks to help you transplant by getting to know your roots better. We all know that root functions to take up water and nutrients […]
Lord Howe Island and Mt. Gower Climb by Troy Donovan ________________________ “Lord Howe Island: The paradise of the Tasman” was the title that I saw in the dusty old National Geographic from 1935 that I read as a 6yearold boy in 1977. After many years of dreaming and procrastination and growing all the Lord Howe Island palms in […]
How Poet W.S. Merwin Found Paradise by Planting Palm Trees Our co-editor, John Dransfield, who was involved in the census and naming of the palms in the Merwin Conservancy comments: This is one of the most exciting and beautiful palm gardens I have ever visited. Here are palms growing in conditions very similar to their […]
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 […]