After teaching my class at UF Wednesday morning, I was whisked away via the GNV airport to Atlanta, finally arriving at LaGuardia in NYC. The flight went smooth and I found my way to the Bronx. I was pleasantly surprised at how the Bronx was strongly imbued with the Caribbean culture. It was my first time to NYC. The next morning I hiked about 45 minutes, partly through the verdant Bronx River Forest. I only made one wrong turn and eventually found my way to the revered New York Botanical Garden. The security team directed me to the building housing the herbarium, where I would spend every possible second I could there. They gave me a lanyard keycard and a key to an office space – excellent accommodations.
Immediately, I buried myself in a few hundred specimens of soapberries (Sapindus), as I just published some work on those. Luckily, looking at more specimens did not raise too many more questions about my earlier conclusions. Over the next several days, I pushed on and dove into as many groups as I could: Desmodium, Guilandina, Lantana, Chiococca, Borreria, Lythrum, Waltheria. Sometimes when I was alone, I put on some jams and rock n rolled through the specimens. The most intensive study group was Guilandina, which spans the tropics, many of which disperse by sea (just like soapberries). Within those, I felt had found an undescribed species (and similarly so in Waltheria). I met some charming staff there as well who kept me company at times, such as Kate Samra and Rob Naczi.
I did no sightseeing and my crosshairs were purely aimed at looking at as many specimens as I could. And in the end, I felt I was able to examine almost everything I came to see (there’s always more, of course). At my last hour in the herbarium, I snuck into the abyss of the indets, the unidentified specimens orphaned without even a family classification. Proudly, I recognized a couple and slapped on some annotation identifications.
Returning to the airport, my cup was filled. I boarded my return flight and serendipitously, my first step into the aisle of seats, someone bespoke “Alan?” I turned and miraculously saw my very good friend Anne Schmidt (a Florida burn boss and ecological restoration specialist). It could not have been more fortuitous, as soon enough the remains of a tropical storm delayed us and forced us back into the airport. That allowed Anne, her dog, and I ample time to hang out, remaining mirthful despite by the delay. It was 6 hours ere the flight took off, reaching Atlanta just before midnight. I spent the night in the airport, having missed my return flight, but was rebooked for the morning. I arrived to GNV a tad lassitudinous, but invigorated by my newfound knowledge from studying at the NYBG herbarium.
Alan Franck is the Collection Manager of the Herbarium at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
The CMSS 2024 Summer Travel Awards are supported by the FLMNH Department of Natural History using funds from the Hoyt and Marta Whipple Biodiversity Fund, the Lawrence Dean Harris and Kathleen A. Deagan Endowment, and the Mary Ross Endowment. If you would like to help support future Postdoc and CMSS travel awards, please go to:
Hoyt and Marta Whipple Biodiversity Fund
Lawrence Dean Harris and Kathleen A. Deagan Endowment
Mary Ross Endowment