Conservation Genetics Blog

Congratulations to Alex Fernandez

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 02:04:41 GMT

Congratulations to Alex Fernandez, an FTBG high school intern in his junior year at Christopher Columbus High School. He won the Fairchild award and an excellent evaluation for his entry in the South Florida regional science and engineering fair. His project entitled "Does salt accumulate in the fronds of the the mangrove palm Nypa fruitcans was started in my laboratory....

Autumn snow

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:18:36 GMT

The thanksgiving holiday is both a chance to give thanks, and to catch up on all of the things that can get set aside in the midst of a busy autumn. Fairchild is absolutely delightful this time year. The weather is perfect, the grounds are prepared for festivals and larger number of visitors, and there are cannonball tree flowers. Back in late October I had the opportunity to give an invited seminar at Swarthmore College in southeastern Pennsylvania. It was a good excuse to visit several sites...

Notes from abroad

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:37:19 GMT

I recently had the opportunity to travel to Hyderabad, India. Traveling always provides a new perspective; my trip it provided some perspective on how we may view native plants here in South Florida. Some of my research is on the genetics of native plants, and some is on the genetics of crop plants. I was visiting ICRISAT, the International Crop Research Institute of the Semi-Arid Tropics. ICRISAT breeds improved pigeonpea, chickpea, peanuts, sorghum, and pearl millet, five important tropical...

Musings on what it means to be a native plant

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 14:19:27 GMT

[A similar post was published previously in Tillandisa, the member magazine of the Miami-Dade chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society. The version is available on the Dade FNPS website: http://dade.fnpschapters.org/pastnewsletters/2011/09.php] South Florida is where North America meets the Caribbean and Latin America. This is as true culturally as it is botanically. We have many plant groups where there are members here from both North America and the Caribbean. But North American and...