MADAGASCAR: the Directors’ Cut
The location of the IPS Interim Meeting of the Board of Directors in Madagascar provided many photo opportunities, including other travel destinations tacked on before and after the meeting itself. This issue of the Newsletter features photos and commentary submitted by a number of Directors.
From Mike Merritt:
JeanFrançois (“Hery” on PalmTalk) is very knowledgeable about palms of Reunion and the other Mascarene Islands. He picked me up at the airport, found someone to board me for three days, and took me on hikes and on garden tours. When the condition of my knees and feet prevented me from completing the Mafate Canyon hike to the Latania lontaroides “wild form”, he stayed with me. There is a grove of palms, primarily Dictyosperma album and Acanthophoenix rousselii, along with other rare Reunion endemics that a farmer has preserved, just mowing it for the hay it produces. Part of that pasture is shown in the picture below. Elsewhere, both Dictyocaryum and Acanthophoenix have been virtually eradicated because they are prized for their tasty palm hearts.
