On occasion I show images of unknown trees and plants at Bosque Santa Lucia and I write off nomenclature as part of tropical biodiversity in the Amazon. Such was the case of the seedpod in the attached image. I didn't know the name of the tree myself; my caretaker didn't know the name; my neighbors didn't know the name; nobody knew the name, despite the fact that it was a beautiful tree with very unique seedpods. One local person took a stab at identifying it, but he turned out to be a trickster, who thought he would pull one on me. Well, most unknowns remain unknown, but deep inside I figure that there's always a possibility that someone out there might come to the rescue. Such was the case when Robin Foster at the Field Museum in Chicago happened to open my blog, I assume because he has a professional interest in tropical biodiversity. He posted a remark on this particular entry identifying the tree! The family is Flacourtaceae; and the genus is Lindackeria. I spent some hours researching these names on the internet and it's possible that the species is Paludosa, but I'm not qualified to say for sure. Regardless, I appreciate Robin having contacted me. He also made some additional identifications, which I'll be sharing with my readers. One of the little joys in life is learning the name of an unknown tree!
Saturday, September 06, 2008
From the unknown to the known
On occasion I show images of unknown trees and plants at Bosque Santa Lucia and I write off nomenclature as part of tropical biodiversity in the Amazon. Such was the case of the seedpod in the attached image. I didn't know the name of the tree myself; my caretaker didn't know the name; my neighbors didn't know the name; nobody knew the name, despite the fact that it was a beautiful tree with very unique seedpods. One local person took a stab at identifying it, but he turned out to be a trickster, who thought he would pull one on me. Well, most unknowns remain unknown, but deep inside I figure that there's always a possibility that someone out there might come to the rescue. Such was the case when Robin Foster at the Field Museum in Chicago happened to open my blog, I assume because he has a professional interest in tropical biodiversity. He posted a remark on this particular entry identifying the tree! The family is Flacourtaceae; and the genus is Lindackeria. I spent some hours researching these names on the internet and it's possible that the species is Paludosa, but I'm not qualified to say for sure. Regardless, I appreciate Robin having contacted me. He also made some additional identifications, which I'll be sharing with my readers. One of the little joys in life is learning the name of an unknown tree!
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1 comment:
Thank goodness for people like Robin!! I come across so many insects I would like to find out more about, but cannot seem to find anyone who is willing to help with names. Unfortunately, here we not not have many books on the subject and so information is scarce. At most I can manage to find a species name at least.
Excellent previous posts Steven. Sorry but I was away for the weekend and did not get to commenting until now.
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