Wayne Law, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Associate who studies ecology, ethnobotany, and conservation in Micronesia. Come speak with him at our Café Scientifique on July 9, from 6 to 8 p.m., in the Conservatory Courtyard as part of The Edible Garden.

When someone asks you to visualize a banana, most people in the United States will picture the typical, slightly curved, yellow-skinned banana with a bland white flesh that can be found at local grocery stores. However, a number of different varieties exist: small bananas, straight bananas, red-skinned bananas, creamy-tasting bananas—even bananas that have a bright-orange flesh—and many of these varieties can be found on tiny islands in the Pacific known as Micronesia, where Botanical Garden scientists are conducting research.

One of our goals in Micronesia is to record traditional plant knowledge that is the foundation of these islands’ unique cultures. The plant knowledge throughout this region is incredibly diverse as plants are integral to all aspects of daily island life, from the construction of houses and canoes to use as medicines and foods. As traditional ways of life are influenced by modern amenities, we are constantly seeing evidence that traditional plant knowledge is being lost and that many common items once made from nature are being replaced by plastic products that have an origin thousands of miles away. One study we conducted analyzed the knowledge of food plant varieties in Kosrae, the easternmost island of the Micronesia chain.

By the early 1900s, Kosrae, an island home to 7,000 people in the Eastern part of Micronesia, had already been exposed to French and Russian explorers, whalers, beachcombers, pirates, and traders, beginning the erosion of what had been a very traditional Pacific island lifestyle. At that time, Ernst Sarfet, a German ethnographer, documented much of Kosrae’s cultural aspects and plant uses during the Hamburg South Seas expedition, an impressive voyage that lasted two years and produced a 13-volume publication based on the observations made during the expedition. The translated work provides an early record of the different varieties of bananas, breadfruit, coconuts, pandanus, sugar cane, soft and hard taro, and yams. (The photo shows a display of some of the fruits and vegetables mentioned, during a holiday celebration in Kosrae.) read more »