Re: Relocation Amorphophallus collection Wageningen

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Aloha.  

I am so sorry to hear of your situation, but, it has happened to many gardens and I have personally witnessed such disasters.  In your case, it is especially unfortunate since I am assuming this was the greatest Amorphophallus collection in the world; curated by a legendary specialist.  I am an advocate of greater cooperation between governments, botanical gardens, expert amateur collectors, etc. so that genetic material is never lost, and also to encourage more public knowledge and enthusiasm for plants( and nature at large).  Some gardens and governments take an," us versus them", attitude...but we are all in this together.  In the end, it can change with the whim of a director or administration; a stroke of the pen.  In this case, you found a good home for the collection, for now.  I have seen many great collections broken up or destroyed due to lack of interest or ignorance of a single person with power or the death of an individual.  If one knew the great sacrifice in making living collections and maintaining and curating such treasures, we would never allow this to happen.  But, it happens all the time.  We never learn.

The best of luck to you and your colleagues...and the collections.

Aloha("in the presence of the breath of life")

Leland Miyano

--- On Fri, 11/27/09, Wilbert Hetterscheid <hetter@xs4all.nl> wrote:

From: Wilbert Hetterscheid <hetter@xs4all.nl>
Subject: [Aroid-l] Relocation Amorphophallus collection Wageningen
To: "'Discussion of aroids'" <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
Date: Friday, November 27, 2009, 6:52 AM

Dear friends,

Some of you already know this but several months ago Wageningen University
decided to close down its botanical gardens and to terminate scientific
curation of the collections. Also the tropical greenhouse needs to me
emptied by Jan. 1st 2010. You can imagine that the last months have been
hard for me and my colleagues as we must now find new jobs and have to leave
a good deal of our lives' work behind us.

Another consequence is that I had to find a botanical garden fit and willing
to harbour the enormous Amorphophallus collection (1500+ plants). I am happy
that the botanical garden of Hamburg University has adopted the collection
and it will remain available for scientific research and I will be allowed
to  co-coordinate matters concerning the collection. Therefore I will still
be available to you all for questions etc. Material requests will not be as
easily fulfilled as before (or equally difficult........).

This is what happens when economy takes over science & education.

Wilbert (aka Lord Phalless). 

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