VOL. 6 NO. 2FALL 1998Ve

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AssessingClient Needs

The primary clients of Montgomery Botanical Center are botanists,particularly those who study palms and cycads. While we continue togrow as an institution specializing in live plant research collections, wemust keep in mind the needs of our clients. As a scientist with 20 yearsof research experience, I understand the basic requirements for ascientifically valuable collection: genetically diverse population samplesof well-documented, expertly identified plants; easy access to the plants;security and protection of the study plants over the length of a project; andthe ability to manipulate plants as required by research protocols. But eachgroup of plants has its own idiosyncrasies when it comes to studying them. Igenerally understand those of cycads, having worked with this plant groupfor almost 10 years now. Palms are a different manner.

To better appreciate the needs of ethnobotanical palm researchers, Iattended the Palms and People Symposium chaired by the Society forEconomic Botany at their annual meeting this summer in Aarhus, Denmark.My objectives were two-fold: to let the researchers know what the Center has tooffer, and to find out what they need from an institution like ours. During theweek-long conference, it became clear from the lectures and my discussionswith researchers that these scientists consistently lacked and urgently neededbasic biological data on the palms associated with their studies. Many indicatedthat the next step in their ethnobotanical research required that they understandthe growth rates, phenology, and life-history of the species they were studying. Onlythen could they advise communities which are accessing natural palm populationsas economic resources on how to develop sustainable management practices.

Montgomery Botanical Center is an excellent site for palm researchers to undertakethese life-history studies. The timing is particularly good because we have recentlyplanted over 1,000 young palms grown from seed. Although we will continue recordingmonthly phenology data from our palms, we look forward to visits from researcherswho will collect the more specific life-history data they need.

Given the success of my trip, I plan more travels to meet with other types of researchersso that we can refine our efforts to serve them.

Letter from the Executive DirectorTerrence Walters, Ph.D.

Newsletter of Montgomery Botanical Center

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NVolunteers& Visitors

Volunteers continue to give their best,donating over 1,700 hours during the past sixmonths. Mayna Hutchinson’s volunteer effortsin archiving historical documents were high-lighted in a Miami Herald article on June 21.

In addition to the dedicated individualswho work with us on a weeklybasis, several organized groups assistus with special projects. Theseinclude the Dade County MasterGardeners, who are renovatinghistoric Old Cutler Road, and theSouth Florida Chapter of theInternational Palm Society, whosemembers helped us plant over 80palms on Saturday, May 16.

Students also help. FloridaInternational University andMiami-Dade Community Collegeundergraduates weeded andmulched planting beds on March 7.As a Dade Partner with Coral ReefHigh School, Montgomeryprovides learning and workingopportunities for advanced students

at that school. We sponsor the Montgomery Botanical Center Awardof Excellence, which, this year, was awarded to Coral Reef studentJamie Lawson. We also collaborate with Fairchild Tropical Gardenin bringing in summer interns to our institutions. This year’sinterns were Barbara Basti of the University of Florida and CliftonJones of Tuskegee University, Alabama.

In addition to the many scientists who work with our plant collections (seepage 3), several other interested groups and individuals have visited recently totour our facilities and talk to our staff. Executive Director Terrence Walters gave

a lecture and tour to the Surfside Garden Club on March 24. The North Miami Historical Society visited on March 14. Off-site, GroundsSupervisor Judith Miller gave a historical lecture about Montgomery to the Miami Beach Rotary Club on June 2.

Other visitors included the son (Peter Jennings) and grandson (David Jennings) of Alvin Jennings, who visited us on June 13. RodMoffet, a local tropical fruit nurseryman, toured the jackfruit collection at Montgomery with Fairchild’s Richard Campbell in May. TinusSchutte of Merensky Technological Services, South Africa also toured the tropical fruit collection at the Center with Dr. Campbell, takingback to Africa many mango and canistel cuttings.

As one of the hosts of the 1998 Gifford Arboretum lecturer Dr. Paul Cox, we were pleased to accommodate the Director of theNational Tropical Botanical Garden in our guest house. During his visit, Dr. Cox met with our Executive Director to discuss futurecollaborative projects between our institutions. We also co-hosted the Coconut Grove Orchid Show in March, providing housing to someof the major speakers. Rodney Vargas, from the Organization for Tropical Studies, stayed with us during his meetings at Fairchild todiscuss collaboration between OTS and FTG. Another distinguished guest was Bernadette Cozzart, founder of the Greening of HarlemCoalition and a participant in the Greening of the White House project. We co-hosted Ms. Cozzart during her lecture series at FloridaInternational University.

Above: Larry Noblick gives a tour to the SouthFlorida Chapter of the International Palm Society.Members of the society held their directors’ meeting,plant auction, and barbecue at Montgomery onMarch 14. Right: Property Manager Lee Andersonthanks Dan Keys, president of the society, for thesociety’s help in planting palms. Below: Summerinterns Clifton Jones (left) and Barabara Basti assistCollections Recorder Fabian Gomez with surveying.

Volunteers Kept Us Afloat During the Long Hot Summer

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Research & Education at the Center

From top tobottom are Drs.Charles O’Brienand PeterKovarik, StanWalkley, andDr. AndrewHenderson.

Botanischer Garten, Germany 20 seedsBroward County Chapter of the

International Palm Society 141 seedsCentral Florida Palm & Cycad Society 135 seedsCycad Society 500 seedsFairchild Tropical Garden 773 seeds, plantsLowveld Garden, South Africa 20 seedsMissouri Botanical Garden 2 seedlingsNew York Botanical Garden 13 seeds, plants

Montgomery Seed & Plant DistributionBetween March 1 and August 15, more than 5,000 seeds and plants were donated from the Center to other institutions, scientists, andplant societies. Over 550 of these seeds were of the rare cycad Microcycas calocoma. We also donated seedlings of the extremely rare palmNypa fruticans to Missouri Botanical Garden for the mangrove area of their Climatron. Plants of the cycad Zamia integrifolia were givento New York Botanical Garden for their Conservatory. Listed below are some of the other recent recipients of our distributions.

Montgomery’s plant collections support a growing number of research and educational projects. Drs.Charles O’Brien and Peter Kovarik of the Department of Entomology and Biocontrol, Florida A&MUniversity spent a week with us in May collecting weevils for their palm pollination studies. Other palmexperts who have visited recently include Dr. Andrew Henderson of New York Botanical Garden, who is

working on a palm biology book, and Australian nursery owner StanWalkley. Fijian palm expert Dylan Fuller of the Natural HistoryMuseum in London spent two weeks on-site, collaborating withFairchild’s Dr. Scott Zona on a monograph of the genus Veitchia andannotating our living Veitchia collection.

Cycad research is also flourishing at Montgomery. ProfessorMichael Wink of the University of Heidelberg, Germany is using theCenter’s collections to examine evolutionary relationships amongAfrican species, and to understand the defense chemistry of insectsliving on Asian cycads. Insect eradication research continues as Drs.Bill Howard and Dick Baronowski (University ofFlorida) test various treatments against the cycadscale on our property. Another study utilizing ourcycads is Dr. Ken Hill’s DNA analyses aimed at

determining the phylogeny and biogeography of thegenus Cycas. We’ve been sending material to Dr. Dennis

Stevenson at New York Botanical Garden for his continu-ing research on the molecular biology and genetics of cycad

neurotoxins.Graduate student Carol Landry, from the University of

Michigan, spent time with us this summer collecting material andmaking observations of the native Florida mangrove, Laguncularia

racemosa. Our populations are providing the basis for her graduatestudies on the morphology and mating system of this species.Another plant family being studied at the Center is the Sterculiaceae.

In August, we provided Dr. Mike Pollard (Michigan State University)with six fruits of Sterculia foetida every 10 days so that he could studythem at different stages of maturity, thereby establishing the developmental pathway forsterculic acid production.

In addition to collecting palm roots for his research on mycorrhizal associations,Fairchild’s Dr. Jack Fisher obtained leaf, cone, root, seedling, and branch material from ourcycad, tropical gymnosperm, and native plant collections for teaching an undergraduatebotany class at the University of Miami. Also for educational purposes, we donated livecycads from our nursery to Dr. Francisco Joe Ferrer of the University of Sagrado Corazon inPuerto Rico. He planted the cycads at his institution for use as a teaching collection. In May,we participated in the National Science Foundation’s 1998 Faculty Development Program ofShort Courses for College Teachers by co-hosting with Fairchild two one-week classes ontropical plants. In April, Margaret Balwick photographed the Center’s flowering tree collec-tion for a book on Caribbean Flowering Trees.

Nong Nooch Garden, Thailand 35 seedsPalm Beach Palm & Cycad Society 121 seedsSouth Florida Chapter of the 1,007 seeds,

International Palm Society plantsUniversity of Florida 28 cuttingsUniversidad Sagrado Corazon, Puerto Rico 3 plantsUniversity of Stellenbosch, South Africa 20 seedsUniversity of Texas 9 seedsWilson Botanical Garden, Costa Rica 20 seeds

Montgomery Seed & Plant Distribution

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COLLECTIONS

by Sue Katz, Collections SupervisorSharing Our Database Expertise

It’s been a busy outreach year for me. Thissummer, I went to Philadelphia to attend thenational meeting of the American Associationof Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, and then Iwas off to Michigan State University for theAABGA mid-west regional meeting. These meetingsallowed me to exchange ideas with record-keeping staffat other institutions. And, they were wonderful opportu-nities to spread the word about database management andmapping at the Center.

We are one of only about 20 institutions worldwide that useboth the database management software BG-BASE and theassociated mapping program BG-Map. Consequently, we play acentral role in educating others about this combined technology. Forexample, at the AABGA meeting in Michigan, I joined MikeO’Neal of BG-BASE, Inc. and Ethan Johnson, Plant Recorder atThe Holden Arboretum, in presenting the symposium “Collec-tions Documentation Using BG-BASE and BG-Map.”Montgomery’s database and mapping programs were sent to a siteon the Internet, and then downloaded at Michigan State Universityand set up for my presentation.

Our training role continues this fall, when a group ofHungarian scientists will visit the U.S. as a continuation of athree-year project funded by the U.S./Hungarian Joint TechnologyProgram. The ELTE Botanic Garden in Budapest just installedBG-Map and BG-BASE; garden personnel are coming here to seehow our database and mapping protocols function.

To ensure that we are using and relaying to others the most up-to-date information, each year Montgomery brings either MikeO’Neal or Mark Glicksman to Miami for further training andupgrades on BG-BASE and BG-Map. This October, I will alsocontinue my education by attending an Advanced BG-BASETraining Class in Ohio.

Producing Quality Seedsfor Distribution

Beside our new map printer are Sue Katz, BG-Map creator MarkGlicksman, and Larry Noblick. BG-Map does more than map oursurveyed plant collections. We can also survey, record, and map thelocations of buildings, roads, irrigation lines, and other structures onour property, as shown on the inset above.

At right,Judy andVivian areholding arecentcollectionof Syagrusseeds, andLarryAronsonand LarryKraus areholdingmale cones from the cycadsEncephalartos hildebrandtiiand Dioon spinulosum,respectively. Pollen from thesecones will be collected and storedin Montgomery’s new cycadpollen bank for future seedproduction. The seed productionteam is standing in front of theStudio, which has beenreorganized to serve as a facilityfor storing pollen and forprocessing and cleaning seeds.Below, Larry Kraus is pollinat-ing a Macrozamia moorei cone.

The Dade Chapter of the Florida Nurserymen & GrowersAssociation (FNGA) is currently providing financial supportto Montgomery for a seedbank coordinator position andexpenses related to producing and distributing seeds fromour plant collections. So far, we have given over 60,000seeds to the Dade Chapter of the FNGA as well as to local,national, and international botanic gardens and institutions.New employee Judy Kay is our Seedbank Coordinator,overseeing the production, collection, cleaning, and distribu-tion of these seeds. She is supported by an outstandinggroup of hard-working volunteers including Vivian Jordan,Larry Kraus, Larry Aronson, and Beth Thomas.

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DEVELOPMENT

The southern tip of Africa is a botanicalparadise with roughly 8% of all known

vascular plants in just 0.8% of the world’s landarea. Amongst these extraordinary riches are a

wealth of cycads and a few palms that occur alongthe eastern margin of South Africa as well as in the

tiny Kingdom of Swaziland. As part of MontgomeryBotanical Center’s Revitalizing Program, I undertook

several expeditions to collect seeds from as many of the 40cycad and 4 palm species as possible.Most of the localities I visited have been explored before so I

cannot claim any great achievement in finding them. However, thegoal was to collect seeds and that presents a vast challenge to even the

most experienced cycad adventurer. African cycads are notorious fortheir poor seed set under natural conditions. Many populations simplydo not produce cones for many years, or cones occur in such lownumbers that finding them is an adventure in itself. Of course, anyexcursion into the African bush is likely to yield some surprises.

One of my intentions was to collect seeds of Encephalartosumbeluziensis, which grows in the catchment of the Umbeluzi riverrunning eastwards from the subtropical savanna of Swaziland to thecoast of neighboring Mozambique. I had been given details of thelocality by a missionary who had worked in that area and it all seemedquite simple: drive to the nearby village, park near the little whitechurch, and walk down the path, taking the left fork for a fewhundred meters. When I got to the area, I contacted the local natureconservation officials; they were horrified by my plan and informedme that the villages en route were run by bandits who ferried weaponsand other contraband between Mozambique and South Africa. Aftersome discussion, I was sent off to find another group of conservatorswho lived closer to the E. umbeluziensis site. They agreed with theircolleagues and insisted I would not emerge unscathed if I stuck to myoriginal plan. Instead, they offered to guide me along the banks of theUmbeluzi river—an offer I decided to accept.

With my maps, global positioning system (GPS), and otherparaphernalia, three of us set off to search for cycads. Ephraim andSimon were wonderfully knowledgeable about the plants along ourroute and delighted in feeding me a variety of berries and leaves, andthen watching my reaction. After four hours of fastwalking in the intense subtropical heat, we got to apoint where Ephraim and Simon would go nofurther because they felt it was too dangerous.According to the GPS, we were still a kilometer awayfrom where we wanted to be and we had seen only afew plants but no seeds. I was keen to push on, butwe had already encountered a Mozambique SpittingCobra and my first-ever Black Mamba (Africa’sdeadliest snake) on our way, and I was loathe to riskwalking on alone. Needless to say, with the additionalthreat of arms smugglers, we returned to the car

Searching for Seeds from South African Cycads and Palmsby John Donaldson, Ph.D., National Botanical Institute, South Africa

empty-handed. Starved of the adrenaline that would have flowed hadwe found some seeds, the walk back seemed an interminable drudge.

I have to confess that not all my trips were quite so adventurous,but it did turn out to be a bad year for cycad seed set across southernAfrica. I eventually managed to collect a reasonable number of seedsfrom 16 southern African cycad species.

When I was asked to collect palm seeds I was more than a littlenervous. I know cycads well and have devised all manner of tricks todislodge stubborn cones from their pedestal on top of the plant.Shinning up stems or using long cutters is not part of my cycadrepertoire but, ever anxious to please, I agreed to collect palm seeds. Istarted with Borassus aethiopum, the largest and rarest species in SouthAfrica. The tall stems towered above the surrounding bush near thelittle town of Leydsdorp, making me feel even more inadequate.However when I got to the site, the cupboard was bare—othercollectors had gotten there earlier and taken all the seeds.

I was confident that I would find seeds of Hyphaene coriacea,which I had seen in great numbers in northern Zululand on the roadthat leads to where Encephalartos ferox grows. Imagine my dismaywhen I discovered these huge populations of palms with not a seed insight. After close examination, I realized that all the plants were toosmall to set seed. The local people routinely cut back the palms toharvest leaves for basket-making and to collect the sapfor palm-wine. The harvestinghad been so intense that theplants could not reproduce.Fortunately, I was eventuallyable to find some large plantswith abundant seeds and mysense of humor was restored.

All told, I spent 40 days inthe field, flew 6000 km, andtraveled an additional 7000km by road, collecting seedsof 16 cycad and 2 palmspecies for Montgomery.

Among the moreinteresting cycads fromwhich John Donaldsoncollected seeds wereEncephalartos aemulans(left) and E. cycadifolius(above).

lay of the land6s

This detailed design plan for the western side (which includes the forked road) of the centralsection of the Palm Walk was produced by Sasaki Associates. Shown in the upper right,between the palms and the limestone escarpment, are 400 feet of the actual path. The entirePalm Walk path is 2,200 feet long. In the lower right corner of the drawing is the beginningof the Australian collection, encompassing a variety of Livistona species collected duringrecent expeditions. Palms shown on this map are some of the many that were planted this year.

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The bumper sticker saying “Plant a Palm”is seemingly ubiquitous in South Florida. Isee it on work-horse pick-ups in theRedlands, on sleek Lexuses in the Gables,and on funky VW vans in Coconut Grove.A simple, noble, and earthy sentiment, tobe sure. At Montgomery, though, thissentiment has taken on an entirely newdimension over the past few years. Nobleand earthy, still, but simplicity has blos-somed into an efficient protocol based onplanning and newly-tapped resources.

In 1996, our planting of 160 palms inhand-dug holes—brutal and time consum-ing work—seemed like quite a feat. In1997, we planted 320 palms, doubling theproduction of the previous year. Thisincrease was possible because of a newbackhoe equipped with a rock bucket. Atthe end of that planting season, theMontgomery palm planting team thought,“Gee, how have we been able to get alongwithout this piece of machinery?”

However, this year, we’ve been able toplant 1,018 palms, thanks to a new skid-steer loader equipped with an auger bit,trenching bar, and grapple bucket. Nowwe’re saying, “Gee, how were we able to getalong without this piece of machinery!?”

The skid-steer loader, donated by Loydand Eileen Kelly, proved to be much moremaneuverable and less damaging to thesurroundings than the backhoe. A nine-inch auger was used for the excavation ofholes. To avoid the possibility of palm roots

becoming root-bound in perfectly cylindri-cal holes drilled into rock, our equipmentoperators learned to drill four adjacentholes in a clover-leaf pattern. The drilltailings were later incorporated into thebackfill mix; this contemporary practice,which saves considerable time and material,provides the optimal soil ratio for thebackfill mix.

Machinery hasn’t been the only factorresponsible for the phenomenal increase inthe staff ’s ability to plant palms. Ourcontinual evaluation of resources andprocedures has allowed us to develop aprotocol that is productive with respect toplanting, while still maintaining our abilityto nurture the existing collections. Each

department in our organization plays avital role: management personnel assist insite interpretation; Collections Develop-ment performs the actual siting, surveying,and labeling; Facilities puts in the irrigationlines; and Horticulture does the planting.

This year, our planting efforts extendedthe Coconut Grove Palmetum to the eastand north, filled-out the northern third ofthe Palm Walk, and extended the centralsection of the Walk to the south, east, andwest. As we plan for further developmentof the southern end of the Walk next year,transferring as many as 1,000 more palmsfrom the nursery into the ground, we feelconfident that we have the right resourcesand protocols to meet the challenge.

Plant a Palmby Lee AndersonProperty Manager

The Cycad Walk also continues to grow. So far in 1998, EricShroyer and Vickie Murphy have planted over 200 cycads inthree beds: Asia #4, Americas #3, and Australia #1. At left,Ansel Thomas helps Judith Miller position a rock in the rock-ridge of an Americas bed, which is shown above.

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HAPPENINGS

Although we were sad to see StanleyCalizaire retire on March 30, we enthusias-tically welcomed several new employees tothe Montgomery Team, including Land-scapers Hostilio Torres, LaWayne Barthell,and Hilton Rollison, Systems Specialist JuanCorona, Seedbank Coordinator Judy Kay,and Assistant Horticulturist Renae Asher.Upward movements in the organizationwere experienced by Ansel Thomas, ournew Facilities Assistant, EquipmentOperator Mike Shea, and AssistantHorticulturist Vickie Murphy.

Employees continue to enhance theirskills. Administrator Evelyn Youngcompleted the courses Ad-vanced Microsoft Word andBeginning and IntermediateMicrosoft Excel at Miami-DadeCommunity College. PropertyManager Lee Anderson took aU.S. Environmental Laws &Regulations self-study course inApril. Other studies earned hima Commercial ApplicatorRestricted Use Pesticide Licensein June and OSHA FirstResponder Certification inAugust. Laurie Danielson andVickie Murphy took a class fora Private Applicator’s Licenseon April 15.

Collections Manager Larry Noblick iswowing audiences with talks of hiscollecting expeditions. At the AnnualMembers Meeting in March, his slidepresentation of his recent experiences inBrazil was emotionally charged as well aseducational. In July, he was the guestspeaker at a meeting of The NantucketMaria Mitchell Association in Massachu-setts. His lecture “Searching for Palms inMadagascar” was accompanied by strikingslides of that country’s landscape.

In July, Executive Director TerrenceWalters lectured on Montgomery at Kewand Edinburgh Royal Botanic Gardens inthe United Kingdom, and interacted withparticipants of a Palm Symposium inDenmark. These and future outreachactivities are designed to market theCenter’s resources to the scientific commu-nity and to learn from the community howwe can best be of service.

MonetaryCycad Society Seed BankDiggers Garden ClubFlorida Nurserymen & Growers AssociationLoyd & Eileen KellyJaywood & Jane LukensMarguerite MathewsPalm & Cycad Society of Southwest FloridaPricewaterhouseCoopers LLPRobert & Betsy ReadEvelyn SmileyGarth ThomasStan WalkleyRichard WattLoran & Eva Whitelock (Cycad Gardens)Jane WilsonFrancis Zierer

PlantsLibby & By BesseJeffrey BlockTom Broome (B&B Landscaping)Ellis BrownJohn DeMott (Redland Nursery)Fairchild Tropical GardenWilliam Fritz (Washington University)Bill GaynorRolf KyburzNong Nooch Tropical Garden

Goods & ServicesJeffrey BlockCity of Coral GablesRobert DeArmondMayna & Bob HutchinsonArthur MontgomerySouth Florida Property Developers, Inc.Stan Walkley

Montgomery Botanical Center is tax exempt under Sec-tion 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.Contributions to Montgomery are deductible for fed-eral income and estate tax purposes. Montgomery isregistered under the Florida Solicitation of Contribu-tions Act. A copy of the official registration and financialinformation may be obtained from the Division of Con-sumer Services by calling toll free within the state800-435-7352. Registration does not imply endorse-ment, approval or recommendation by the state.

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Jeanne BellamyLibby BesseSally BrownLiz Davis

Samuel Dennis IIIWalter D. Haynes, Esq.

Marian JenningsBeverley Johnson

Loyd G. KellyNicholas KellyStanley KiemDavid ManzPeter Manz

Ina MonhollenArthur Montgomery, Ph.D.

John Popenoe, Ph.D.Karl Smiley, M.D.

Mark SmileyLoran Whitelock

Montgomery Members

Montgomery Botanical Centerwelcomes contributions and

bequests to support our activities

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Staff Activities Synergy at WorkMontgomery and Fairchild are workingtogether to produce seeds of the extremelyrare cycad Cycas micholitzii. Montgomery’svolunteer cycad propagation team collectedpollen from plants in our 1992 ChinaCollection and pollinated the female plantin Fairchild’s Conservatory in March. Seedsshould be mature in 1999.

Another collaborative project involvesthe Botanic Garden of Curitiba in Brazil.The Brazilian garden sends duplicate palmherbarium specimens to Larry Noblick inexchange for his expert annotation of thespecimens. We, in turn, donate the annotatedspecimens to Fairchild’s herbarium.

Above, attendees of Montgomery’s Annual Members Meetinglecture, held on March 28, gather outside the Nixon SmileyMeeting Room.

. . . to volunteer Publications CoordinatorDr. Deena Decker-Walters, who designedMontgomery’s brochure. In July, thebrochure won Best of Category at the 11thAnnual Florida Print Awards.

Kudos!!

We thank the following for theirrecent donations to the

Montgomery Botanical Center

MONTGOMERY BOTANICAL CENTER

11901 Old Cutler RoadMiami, Florida 33156

Who We Are

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The Montgomery News is publishedtwice a year by the MontgomeryBotanical Center, a non-profit privateoperating institution specializing intropical plant research collections,emphasizing palms and cycads.

We can be reached by telephone at(305) 667-3800, by fax at(305) 661-5984, and by e-mail atmontgome@fiu.edu.Our normal operating hours are7:00-3:30 Monday-Friday. A

From the Montgomery Archive comes this photograph of

Nell Montgomery and her dog, Di, sitting on the running

board of her mid-1930s Packard 4D Phantom.

Terrence Walters, Ph.D.Executive Director

Lee AndersonProperty Manager

Renae AsherAssistant Horticulturist

LaWayne BarthellLandscaper

Jack BauerFacilities Supervisor

Barbara BohnsackCollections Recorder

Mario BorrotoLandscaper

Juan F. CoronaSystems Specialist

Laurie DanielsonPalm Horticulturist

Fabian GomezCollections Recorder

Barbara JuddNursery Horticulturist

Sue KatzCollections Supervisor

Judith KaySeedbank Coordinator

Marta LagosHousekeeper

Judith MillerGrounds Supervisor

Vickie MurphyAssistant Horticulturist

Larry Noblick, Ph.D.Collections Manager

Willie PayneLandscaper

Jessie PenderLandscaper

Hilton RollisonLandscaper

Mike SheaEquipment Operator

Eric ShroyerCycad Horticulturist

Ansel ThomasFacilities Assistant

Hostilio TorresLandscaper

Evelyn YoungAdministrator

The Montgomery NewsDeena Decker-Walters, Ph.D.

Publications Coordinator, EditorJeanne Bellamy

Editorial Consultant