Introduction.

History of Plant Collecting

According to Urban in his publication Symbolae Antillanae, the first known collections in
St. Lucia were by J.B. Leblond in 1767. F. Masson followed in 1780. Other early collectors
were Auguste Plée (1821), Père Duss (1885), G A Ramage (1889), H E. Box (1931-1938),
and F.A. Squire (1936-1938). John and Pamela Beard made collections during the 1940’s.
Richard Howard and George Proctor made important collections from 1950 onwards, and
Brigid Sturrock collected from 1968 to 1973. St. Lucia’s own efforts commenced as a result
of the commitment of Gabriel Charles (Chief Forestry Officer), Robert Devaux (Director of
the National Trust) and Dr. Gilbertha St. Rose of the herbalist society to the idea of making
a St. Lucian plant collection. Verna Slane, a peace Corps volunteer, began in 1985
collecting for the express purpose of identifying the plants used locally medicinally and
culturally. She set up a home-made herbarium using very limited local supplies. Meanwhile
funding in the UBUTROP program became available from The OAS and herbarium
equipment was ordered and set-up at the National Trust. Verna met with a young St.
Lucian, Laurent Jean Pierre who had been chosen under the same funding to train in
herbarium managemant and taxonomy in Trinidad. Over the next few years Verna and
Laurent collected over 700 species, with duplicates being housed and identified by Dr
Howard at Arnold Arboretum. (Sue Thompson also made some collections, primarily
Araceae for the Carnegie Museum). The plant collection moved to Department of Forestry
in 1995 and is now housed in botanical cabinets in an air-conditioned room. From 1995-
1997 some collections were made by Margaret Severin and Dwayne Walker of the
Department of Forestry.

The Author, Plants and St Lucia

I moved to St. Lucia in 1990 after a very early retirement from teaching. I took an interest
in the Atlantic coastal plants in my area and by 1993 had started trying to identify what I
saw. It was frustratingly slow progress as I could get virtually no help locally. A trip to Paris
secured Fournet’s first flora of the French islands and a kind German guest secured Flora
of the Lesser Antilles for me. I wrote to Dr Howard 1996 and was surprised to get an
answer. He encouraged me to collect and I sent several boxes of specimens during 1997 of
species that I presumed to be first records. Mostly I was correct and this encouraged me to
continue studying as clearly there was a lot to be discovered in St Lucia. The arrival of
email ended my isolation. Dr Fournet was always very prompt, helpful and encouraging
and was my main source of help for the next few years until his retirement in 2004. His
very thorough new flora continues to help. Bee Gunn, from Missouri Botanical Gardens
came to study Syagra amara, and subsequently to collect other palms, and this led me to
their specialists who helped with difficult determinations, Tom Croat, Henk van der Werff,
Doug Stevens and John Pruski among others.

In 1999 I met a young a farmer, Melvin Smith. His interest, excellent botanical eyes and
bush sense meant that for the first time I could go off-trail particularly in the Gimie Range
and Gros Piton and to follow the narrow, deep lowland ravines of the Choiseul area. Our
200 or so field trips took us to all parts of the island. These walks were always exhausting
(at least for me), sometimes exciting (rock falls, snakes, flash floods) but resulted in a
treasure trove of over 250 new records.
In 2004 I decide to tackle orchids. Through Jacques Fournet, Director of the herbarium in
Guadeloupe, I contacted Philippe Feldmann who helped with some tentative
identifications of images. He suggested I also contact James Ackerman of UPRRP which led
to Frank Axelrod. As I had already found quite a few new orchid records, they encouraged
to collect specimens to be lodged at UPRRP. (Up to this point I had been studying the flora
more than collecting.)
Some funding through the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan became available
to me and I used it to make initial collections of sedges and grasses in 2005, 2 families I
had not tackled and for which Frank Axelrod made the initial determinations. This then
broadened into a project to essentially to have all extant monocot and dicot wild taxons
(about 1300 species) represented by specimens at UPRRP. This has proceeded quite fast
as I already knew the species and where and when to collect. Normally I was able to
identify specimens and prepare labels. This project will be essentially complete by 2007.
A late idea was to collect ferns and about 80 species have been found so far – Zoë Goodwin
made an initial collection in July 2005 and I followed up in 2006 - again I needed Frank to
make initial determinations. These specimens are now being digitalized and will be
available on -line
I am deeply indebted to Frank Axelrod who has responded patiently to hundreds of emails
over the last 2 years, helping me with technicalities of collecting, labeling, checking my
identifications, identifying initial collections of grasses, sedges and ferns, and suggesting
suitable experts (Mark Strong, Leslie Landrum, and Pedro Acevedo). Given his workload,
his prompt detailed help has been amazing.

The Future
In the future I would like to make a electronic pictorial flora of cultivated and wild plants
of St. Lucia, using the 10,000 or so digital images I have – this would be very welcome in
St. Lucia where many people are interested in wild plants but find the variety
overwhelming.
In addition if funding becomes available, I would like to collect on other British
Commonwealth mountainous islands as I believe they are richer floristically than is
recorded.

Thanks
Many of the individuals and institutions abroad I have to thank are mentioned above.
Within St Lucia I need to mention the following organizations and people:

St.Lucia has an excellent forest reserve, due entirely to the efforts and enthusiasm of the
Department of Forestry. Personally I must thank all members of the Department of
Forestry, from casual worker to Chief Forestry Officer, for their continuous support and
encouragement, and for allowing me to use their facilities and roam the forest. I have
never had anything other than positive reactions from everyone in the department.

I must also thank Henry Augustin, co-owner with myself of La Panache Guesthouse. With
the exception of some welcome funding in 2005 (see above), all the substantial costs
(cameras, equipment, books, transportation, guides, FedEx parcels, computers etc. etc.)
of over 10 years of work have been sponsored by the guesthouse and hence by Henry.
In addition our housekeeper Sheran O’Reilly has cheerfully tolerated the restaurant being
repeatedly covered by “bits of old bush” which she has to clean up at the end of the day.
Fortunately for me Henry and Sheran both have a great love of plants.