On my first day in Miami I met Dr Alan Meerow from the USDA. My host, Dr Patrick Griffith, who is the director of the Montgomery Botanical Garden, arranged for us to meet.
Alan and I had a lot to talk about! Alan works on ornamental plants, but his true passion is population genetics. We talked about his work on Amaryllis, Iris, and of course cycads.
Alan has been working on a complex of cycads in the Caribbean. I had closely read one of Alan's recent papers on the population genetics of three species from Puerto Rico, so it was really helpful to talk to him about his insights on this type of work since I'm going to be conducting similar research on the Australian cycads.
Alan and I had a lot to talk about! Alan works on ornamental plants, but his true passion is population genetics. We talked about his work on Amaryllis, Iris, and of course cycads.
Alan has been working on a complex of cycads in the Caribbean. I had closely read one of Alan's recent papers on the population genetics of three species from Puerto Rico, so it was really helpful to talk to him about his insights on this type of work since I'm going to be conducting similar research on the Australian cycads.
Alan (top left) also gave me a tour of the facilities at the USDA. I was impressed with the robot for automating some of their experiments - even though Alan told me it's a bit outdated (top right)! I also took a couple of photos of the outside of the building (bottom two pictures).