About « A Neotropical Savanna

About

My name is Mary Farmer and my degree is in oceanography, not botany! I spent a few years at sea, and I never came back from a cruise without having learned something new about the ocean or what lived in it. Now I’m starting over, learning something new about the savanna ecosystem nearly every day I step outside.

I started my blog because I read somewhere that it’s a good way to manage large amounts of content. I felt I needed to have a way to organize my material so I could get at things quickly. It’s obviously a work in progress but my idea is to post notes on new observations and then create static pages of confirmed results.

Music: Vivaldi, Mozart, Anonymous Four, Bach, Puccini, Verdi, Wagner, and Britten. Authors: Arturo Perez-Reverte, Elizabeth George, Patrick O’Brian, Joseph Conrad, Ian Rankin, Willa Cather, Eudora Welty, Edith Wharton, Michael Connelly, J.K. Rowling.

Note: This drawing, which is cropped a little and used in my avatar, is of a Miconia sp., used by permission from Raintree Nutrition.

7 Comments »

Susan Staley said,

March 6, 2007 @ 4:13 pm

I visit your blog regularly to see what’s going on in your neotropical savanna.
scrooge_74 said,

September 15, 2007 @ 7:02 am

I just stumble across your blog. Is great to find usefull websites of my home country.
miconia said,

September 15, 2007 @ 10:27 am

Hi, scrooge,

Nice to hear from you, and it’s nice to hear you find this site useful. Panama is a wonderful country to explore.
Jinjah said,

March 26, 2008 @ 2:06 pm

Hello Mary,
Thank you for all the information on ‘Hot Lips’ On a recent vist to Panama, Gamboa area, I was fascinated by the discovery of Hot Lips… what a beauty! On my return to Grand Cayman, where I live, I was determind to gather more information. Good old Google came up trumps with A Neotropical Savanna.

I hope to make a return visit to Panama and explore more treasures on offer.

By the way, the link to the noni fruit, which is growing in my garden has a similar interior to that of a custard apple, completely different taste, any relation?
miconia said,

March 26, 2008 @ 2:24 pm

Jinjah,

Thanks for commenting. Take a look at the noni growing in your garden and see if you can find the “interpetiolar stipules” as described for Hot Lips. That should verify for you that the noni is in the Rubiaceae family, along with Hot Lips. Its scientific name is Morinda citrifolia.

The custard apple, or sugar apple, is in a different family - the Annonaceae. I’m not sure which species you have in Grand Cayman. You might check wikipedia for more information.

I trust you’re enjoying Grand Cayman - it’s beautiful in an entirely different way from Panama.

Mary
Jerry C. Collins said,

May 29, 2008 @ 1:16 pm

Hello Mary,

Enjoy your blog. I got into it looking at your articles on El Nino and the impact on Panama.

I am a semi-retired ocean engineer working in the oil & gas industry. I live in Chitre, over on North-East side of the Azuero Penninsula.

I am trying to understand the plant life in Panama and how the seasons for the plants compare with those from up North. I have a love for hummingbirds and am always looking for plants I can have around the house to attrack them. Their sweet-tooth helps attrack them to our feeders.

One area of need I am trying to resolve is where to find good sources of materials to make potting soil. Like vermiculite and peat moss. I am trying to set up a plumeria group with lots of colors and smells, getting my stock from Hawaii and Florida.

Seems to me your on a wetter part of the Savannah, down here in Chitre we are in the dryer part, less than a meter of rain a year.

Gotta go,

Jerry
miconia said,

May 29, 2008 @ 2:25 pm

Hi Jerry,

Thanks for checking in. Good luck with your potting soil quest and the Plumeria group. Plumerias are really beautiful, aren’t they?

Part of the difference in our rainfall averages may have to do with altitude, wouldn’t you guess?

I wonder if you guys are seeing the effects of the current (end of May) tropical depression off the Pacific coast near Costa Rica. It’s been raining here, in pulses, for the past 36 or so hours. Not your basic rainy season rain, at all.

Nice reading your comments.

Mary