The Merwin Conservancy is pleased to announce a partnership with the National Tropical Botanical Garden. The goal of this partnership is to provide “botanical garden” quality cataloging – including taxonomic identification, vouchering, mapping, tagging, accessioning, as well as the recording of the provenance information for the 600 species growing in the “palm forest” on William Merwin’s property on Maui.
The mission of the National Tropical Botanical Garden is to enrich life through discovery, scientific research, conservation, and education by perpetuating the survival of plants, ecosystems, and cultural knowledge of tropical regions. At the heart of our mission is a dedication and commitment to conservation efforts, not unlike the efforts of William Merwin in his quest to preserve his home on Maui and the 2,000 palms that he has planted there.
The Merwin palm collection represents an estimated 600 different species totaling 2,000 individual palms. Many of the palms are endangered, and one, the Hyophorbe indica from Reunion Island, is considered extinct in the wild. Such a collection is a treasure that mirrors the work of NTBG and deserves the cataloging expertise that NTBG’s
scientists can offer.
