One Year Anniversary of the Ethnobotanic Tour at Kona Kai

On March 21st of this year, we celebrated both the one-year anniversary of the Gardens and of the first integral ethnobotanic tour I created for Garden visitors, which will hopefully expand to include several more. Because of this milestone, I took time to reflect upon the Tour over the past year and the many visitors I have had the pleasure of spending time with, talking about the ethnobotany of plants in our collections and the general importance of plants in our lives. One theme that really stood out to me is how frequently I would hear something like, "You know, my significant other dragged me along to go on this tour, but I really, really enjoyed this - it wasn't what I expected it to be and I didn't think I'd be learning so much." Some of the most enthusiastic reviews of the Tour have come from those with no real interest in plants or knowledge of them, but these are the people who often think that since they aren't "plant people," this tour isn't for them. I thought, "I've got to try and find a way to convey this is something you'll be really glad you took the time to do, even (and especially) if it's something you don't think you'd enjoy doing." In that spirit, I have written the following note, which we have also decided to post on our websites (Facebook, kkresort.com, and kkbg.org) to get the word out. While it is tailored to visitors who are staying overnight in the Gardens in one of our rooms, it is certainly applicable to visitors who come to the Gardens just for the Tour. Staying for a few days/nights in the Gardens does, however, greatly enhance the experience, as you are able to spend more time contemplating the plants you have learned so much about and also benefit from other ways to learn more about the collections, such as the informative display labels and interactive smartphone "app." Enjoy the rest of the post and I hope to see you soon here at the Gardens!

Photo courtesy of Mike Hentz of the Key West Citizen newspaper.

So you’ve finally made it to Kona Kai for a long-anticipated vacation. Flip-flops and sunglasses are in the “ON” position and you’re ready to unwind. Perhaps you are planning on spending your vacation doing as many fun and interesting things at as many places as possible, or spending almost all your time here at Kona Kai, focusing on some serious relaxation.

You might recall Tracey or Denise mentioning something during your check-in about doing a tour of our Botanic Gardens with a guy named Rick who is some sort of ethnocalabalofrotanist (a.k.a. ethnobotanist). This was probably too much for your mind to handle at the moment, as you were probably busy thinking about what kind of delicious seafood you’re going to order; how soon you’ll be able to hop into one of our hammocks; or where you’ll be able to find piña colada ingredients and a good bottle of wine.

With all of the great things to do here during your vacation, it’s easy for a “garden tour” to fall by the wayside. However, whether you’re looking to do as much, or as little, as possible during your vacation, I highly recommend giving my tour a try. In over a year, I can honestly say I have had no one indicate to me through words or body language that they regretted taking the time to join me for a tour. I can, however, recall several times in which I have had guests tell me that my tour was the highlight of their vacation activities. Even if it doesn’t end up being THE highlight for you, I’m sure it will end up being something you won’t soon forget.

I want to clarify something when it comes to the “garden tour” here at Kona Kai - it is not a “garden tour.” You’re probably thinking AutoCorrect must have accidentally replaced “confuse” with “clarify” in the previous sentence, but allow me to explain. Yes, the tour does take place in a botanic garden, but the tour involves much more than what most people think of when they hear “garden tour” (i.e. me taking you down all the paths and telling you the names of our plants). While I will certainly mention the names of the plants we talk about, my tour experience involves much more.

My aim during this ethnobotanic tour is to enlighten you, in as entertaining and interactive a fashion as possible, about the crucial and indispensable roles plants have played and will continue to play in our survival and well-being, as well as open your eyes to the hidden wonders of plants to be found throughout our gardens. I guarantee you will learn more things than you’ll be able to remember and that these things will cause you to see plants and your relationship with them in a profound new way. If you’ve had a day or two to walk the grounds before taking the tour, you’ll walk it again and not only see the gardens, but experience them in a completely new and different way. What was once just a collection of passive, nameless green objects sometimes pretty to look at, becomes a space inhabited by living, breathing organisms that have names, stories to tell, fascinating complexity, beauty beyond the apparent and significant value to our daily lives.

So, I challenge you: give my tour a try. Come with an open mind and 90 minutes of your time set aside because, although I'm happy to give an abbreviated tour, I’ve toured enough visitors to know you’ll probably want to stay for the whole thing.

Rick Hederstrom

Associate Director

Olympic Wreath Competition Awards Ceremony

On March 9th, I traveled to Key Largo School for a morning much anticipated by 7th grade students in the classes of Ms. Burson, Ms. Prew, and Ms. Delgado. I last saw the students in December, when I helped them identify many of the plants they had brought in as potentials to use in their wreaths - it was great to see them having such a great time with the wreath-making process. After the students completed their wreaths and essays, the teachers selected eleven of the finest in late January to send to Kona Kai for judging to determine which five wreaths/essays would be sent to London for the final round of judging, the winning submissions of which will be displayed during the 2012 Olympic Games. That March 9th morning, I was to announce and present awards to those students whose entries were being sent to London.

I had quite a crowd waiting and the anticipation was so thick you couldn't even cut it with a bandsaw.

Before getting into that, let me give you a bit of background as to what happened between January and March, leading up to the awards ceremony. After receiving the eleven chosen entries, we worked to put together a panel of judges as I began the objective process of evaluating each submission for its satisfaction of required criteria, checking to make sure: the wreath is made only of plants; a minimum of three plants are used in the wreath; correct common and scientific names are given for each plant; the plants used are representative of southern Florida (the Keys in particular); a conservation message is included for one plant; and a 500 word rationale is provided for plant choices. On February 23rd, we brought in our panel of judges, which included Jon Olsen, our local 5-time Olympic medal-winner; Connie Chapell, an esteemed local educational consultant; and Ronnie Harris, our own artistic expert here at Kona Kai. After a couple long and grueling hours of careful and meticulous evaluation, our judges had selected the Top Five wreaths to send to London, based on averages of their scores using a detailed standard rubric put together by BGCI and Fairchild, encompassing both wreath design and essay quality.

Our judges hard at work, and me - probably doodling epic wreath designs.

We now had our winners and were ready to set up an awards ceremony at Key Largo School, which brings us back up to March 9th. To start off the ceremony, I recognized each of the students involved in the eleven submissions to Kona Kai (which all met the requirements) by calling them up individually and presenting them with a family day-pass to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden:

The students involved in the eleven submissions sent to Kona Kai, sporting their Fairchild passes.

After this, it was time for me to announce the Top 5 entries that were selected to be sent to London; the moment the students were looking forward to since December, no doubt with countless sleepless nights and almost unbearable suspense, which you have likely been experiencing as well. I'm happy to say you can look forward to a good rest tonight because here are the winners from the Kona Kai judging, whose wreaths and essays have been submitted to and received by BGCI in London to await the final round of judging (photos by Patricia Joy of Key Largo School):

In a tie for 4th/5th place - Luis De La Fuente (pictured on left) / Victoria Ellis (pictured on right), Nick Perez and Jerryck Ornelas

3rd place - Amy Warnaar (pictured) and Taryn McCain

2nd Place - Brittney Doyle (pictured), Lauren Leach and Hannah Boehm

1ST PLACE - Bridget Welsh (pictured) and Emily O'Connor

In addition to our Top 5, we also had an Honorable Mention done by Bailey Williams, Haylee Curry and Elise Anderson. 

The judges gave Awards of Merit to a select few entries as well:

-For wreath design and presentation - Eric Kruger and Tyler Prenesti

-For most traditional / authentic Olympic-style wreath - Lauren McCormick

-Judges' favorite essay - Hanna Boehm, Brittney Doyle and Lauren Leach

-Judges' favorite wreath - Bridget Welsh and Emily O'Connor

The students who were involved in the making of the Top 5 entries received, in addition to the Fairchild family day-passes, a native Florida thatch palm seedling from our Gardens and a certificate (the demand for which can only be accurately likened to that for Golden Tickets to Wonka's chocolate factory) for each student and a guest to join me for an ethnobotanic tour of the Gardens here at Kona Kai. Here's a final picture of students involved in the Top 5 entries, along with the three teachers (L-R Ms. Burson, Ms. Prew, Ms. Delgado) who participated in this year's Competition:

Our first try at bringing one of the Fairchild Challenges to schools here in the Keys ended up being a great success for all involved. I should be hearing from London about the results from the final judging in May or June (more suspense!), so I'll be sure to post when I hear back from them. In the meantime, we're looking forward to the "challenges" next school year may bring!

Rick Hederstrom

Associate Director

Environmental Immersion Day at Kona Kai

I know it's been a little while since my last post and you're no doubt wondering if I got stranded on a remote island, lost in the Everglades, or eaten by a giant clam. Fortunately none of the above have befallen me and I have just been very busy with some exciting programs here at Kona Kai, one of which took place this past Tuesday, when The Gardens hosted our very first Environmental Immersion Day (E.I.D.) in partnership with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden for ten high school students from Belen Jesuit Preparatory School in Miami. We provided an opportunity for these selected students to learn more about ethnobotany and experience how what they learn in the classroom applies to "real life." This day was very relevant to The Gardens' educational aspect of its mission and a part of its increasing outreach to local communities to educate both students and adults about the vital importance of plants to human life throughout history and into the future.

To start off the day, I gave the students a brief introductory ethnobotanic tour of the grounds, explaining elements that make for an effective and enjoyable tour along the way. Afterwards I had the students each present on the ethnobotany of a different plant I had not yet covered in the tour. I could see that several of the students found the facts and stories about the plants interesting, giving them an expanded appreciation of their value beyond aesthetics.

Sharing some ethnobotanical facts about our paradisiacal coconut palms (Cocos nucifera).

One of the students describing the ethnobotany of the locust-berry (Byrsonima lucida).

After getting a taste of the ethnobotany of the plants in our collections, we then set out to discover hidden wonders and beauty to be found in our gardens. I first explained to them some of the artistic options we have for taking pictures with our DSLR, such as changing the depth of field, lighting, and close-ups. I encouraged the students to take more than a passing glance at the plants, to point out shots they thought would be interesting, and describe how they want me to adjust the settings on the camera before taking the shot. After getting several good shots, we went back to the conference room and displayed the photos on the projector, from which we selected our favorites, a few of which can be found interspersed throughout the rest of this post.

Aechmea 'Blue Tango' was a given - the students suggested I use this angle, focus on the tip of the inflorescence, and blur the background.

Students were able to gain a greater appreciation for the complexity of plants through this activity and realized there is much more to be seen if one takes the time to look closely. Speaking of looking closely, while we were walking the grounds I took time to explain how to identify and treat some plant health maintenance concerns we deal with that are often hard to see, including mealy bugs, scale, nutrient deficiency, trees that need pruning, thrips, whitefly, and snail damage. Veronika, our Grounds Director, is great at staying on top of all these concerns to the extent that most of our guests never see any adverse effects of these concerns on our plant collections and it was tough for me to find examples to show the students!

The students liked the look of this recently-pruned and now re-sprouting branch of our royal poinciana (Delonix regia), calling it "The Three-Headed Monster."

One of the challenges I faced when coming down to the Keys was learning a new set of plants. I had lots of help from Joe and Veronika but sometimes I had to make use of plant identification keys in order to determine the identity of a plant, which can be both a fun and frustrating process. I made up a small key of plants on the property and after dividing the students into three teams, gave it to them to figure out the names of several of the plants in our gardens. They really got into it and enjoyed the process of keying out the plants as well as the friendly competition with their peers.

They had no need for a key to identify the papaya plant (Carica papaya), but I had to help them out with the name of our photogenic reptilian friend, the green anole.

In the early afternoon I took the students out to conduct inventory of a few of our garden beds so that they could get an idea of what is involved in properly curating a plant collection. We measured plants, evaluated their condition, took phenology notes (in bloom, ripe fruit, etc.), and then came back inside to enter all the data we collected into BG-Base. The students had a fun time arguing about what condition the plants were in and also guessing at measurements of the plants. A more in-depth description of what we did can be found in my blog post from Nov. 19: Plant Inventory Finished and Records Labels Arrive!

Our pummelo tree (Citrus maxima) was in bloom and is deliciously fragrant, but as this picture demonstrates, look carefully before diving in nose-first!

In the conference room, we then discussed the purpose and process of creation of records labels and display labels for plants, and also the process of ethnobotanical research which goes into the creation of the large display labels. After this, we talked a bit about the social media aspect of my job and I had the students write a small hypothetical blog or Twitter post in which they describe their overall impressions from the day, several of which I've quoted below:

"Coming to the Botanic Gardens at Kona Kai was  a fantastic experience, especially during the hands-on exercises."
"Opened my eyes to see plants differently...ordinary things can have a much greater importance in everyday life. Plants can heal, comfort, and offer pleasure."
"Thanks to @kkgardens for showing me around their beautiful botanic garden. There are more to plants than you think!"
"Great time @kkgardens! I encourage taking a tour as there is much to learn about ethnobotany!"
"Had an amazing experience at @kkgardens. I enjoyed learning about different plant species, how they can affect our lives, and what we can do to help keep them healthy and alive."
"Had an awesome day at Kona Kai Botanic Gardens. What people don't understand about plants is extraordinary. I learned so much about the uses of plants in our development as humans."
"The Botanic Gardens at Kona Kai really helped me understand the real-world value of plants and the ethnic, medicinal, and industrial implications they have in our surrounding environment. Often we don't stop and appreciate the real value these plants have in our lives."
"At Kona Kai my eyes were opened up to how useful plants are in our everyday lives and how our interactions with plants have helped the human race survive and prosper."

The flowering stalk from one of our 'Praying Hands' banana plants - the bud opens bract by bract to reveal lines of flowers, which are then pollinated and become fruits.

It was excellent to hear that sort of feedback from the students; is seems like my points hit home with them and that the hands-on activities we took part in throughout the day engaged not only their bodies but their minds as well. Finally, we had a final question and answer session and I was sure to record all the feedback given by the students. Fortunately, we seem to have done very well with our first try but "the largest room in the house is always the room for improvement," so we'll be working hard to make our next E.I.D. even better and more interactive. To finish up, here's a great shot of all the students who participated in our E.I.D. along with their chaperone from Belen, Mr. Martinez (far right) - I had a great time spending the day with you all!

Look forward to more posts about the ways in which The Botanic Gardens at Kona Kai Resort is getting involved in and giving back to our local southern Florida communities, including the third installment of the Olympic Wreath Competition story, coming up next!


Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director

Challenge Your Perception Of Plants

There are some very interesting books out there about plants and our interactions with them.  Joe and I have been trying to keep up a good reading list on this theme and I wanted to share some books we think would be of interest to people with a limited background in the sciences but with an interest in the subject.  Here are a few selections if you have the curiosity and a mind open to perceiving plants in new ways:

Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire is a great read for just about anyone interested in reading about interesting things, though it just so happens to deal with relationships between plants and people.  In a very accessible writing style, Pollan explores the reciprocal relationship between people and four notable domesticated plants: the apple, tulip, potato, and marijuana.  He posits that these four plants have been domesticated to satisfy four basic human desires: sweetness, beauty, control, and intoxication, respectively.  He emphasizes the fact that although we most often view ourselves as using plants for our own benefit, we could easily flip things around to consider if and how plants, through their attractive characteristics, have domesticated us and "use" us for their survival and benefit.  Pollan weaves extremely interesting history and anecdotes throughout the book, making it as entertaining as it is fascinating.  One of my favorite books in any subject area.

Matthew Hall's Plants as Persons is, as the subtitle indicates, a work exploring "philosophical botany."  It has the feel of a textbook more than a novel, so you have to be really interested in the subject to make it through all the pages.  Hall delves into historical aspects of philosophy to argue why plants are considered by most people to be non-sentient organisms, then presents reasons we should not be too hasty in dismissing the possibility that plants are sentient.  The book will certainly make you re-evaluate your relationship with the plants around you, challenging you to see them as individuals who have interactions and relationships with the world around them much like other organisms, only in different ways.

Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird's The Secret Life of Plants is a seemingly earth-shattering work.  I can remember reading this book for fun back in my early years at college and I felt like the natural world as I knew it was being turned upside-down.  Tompkins and Bird present plants as being extremely advanced in terms of sensory perception, emotion and spirituality (and even more advanced than humans in areas like ESP).  If you had to classify this book, it would probably fall under "metaphysical botany."  You have to take this book with a few grains of salt and know that many of the experiments in the book have not been replicated with enough consistency to be considered scientifically valid (there is even a Mythbusters episode devoted to the advanced plant perception described in the book - see Wikipedia's entry on paranormal plant perception).  STILL, the book is incredibly fascinating and it leaves you thinking that plants just might have some incredible capacities we have yet to uncover or fully appreciate, and that the people discussed in this book might have found clues to some of these capacities.  A very enthralling, thought-provoking work that will no doubt lead you to do some of your own research into the subjects and experiments discussed in the book.


All three of these books are available in our gift shop just in case you want to do some ethnobotanical reading whilst in our ethnobotanical gardens during your stay!  If you do end up reading one of these books, either at Kona Kai or at home, I would love to hear what you think.  Several of these topics are also covered in my tour, especially for guests who have already taken the first, "introductory" tour.  Even if you are just passing through and can't stay overnight, tours are open to the public as well, by appointment - just call Tracey or Denise on the front desk at (305) 852-7200 to reserve a spot.

Hope to see you soon!


Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director

Creatures from Our Gardens at the 1st Annual Islamorada Fine Art Expo

Double-takes were not uncommon at the 1st Annual Islamorada Fine Art Expo on January 21-22, and many attendees were no doubt thinking they may have had too good a time the night before. Why? Because the streets were crawling with a few much-larger-than-life creatures including a lizard, praying mantis, and glow worm that escaped our Gardens:

Annie Hickman is the designer of the costumes and also the performing artist in the lizard costume. Veronika, our Grounds Manager, made a fantastic praying mantis and Ronnie Harris, VP of the Gardens, made a groovy glow worm. Our objective in showcasing these creatures was to introduce people to our relatively new Botanic Gardens here at Kona Kai and also add a unique artistic and interactive element to the Art Expo. I was the designated photographer for the weekend and worked with Tracey and Denise, who you may know from our Front Desk, to snap high-quality pictures of Expo attendees with the creatures (free of charge, which was surprising to many)  so that one person in a given group didn't have to be out of the picture to take the photo; we will be sending the pictures to them via e-mail. Watching people interact with the creatures was very interesting and entertaining - most folks warmed up quite well to them:

...but then there were also some who were a little frightened, understandably so, of such large creatures before we explained that they were actually just people in very convincing costumes:

You might wonder what these sorts of creatures have to do with botanic gardens. If we look closely at plants and their interactions with their surroundings, we find that many "creatures" are, for better or worse, integral parts of a plant's life: plants often rely on creatures for pollination and seed dispersal; plants produce flowers with beautiful colors and diverse shapes in order to attract different creatures; plants may form symbiotic relationships with insects where insects protect a plant from herbivores in exchange for food and/or housing provided by the plant; plants produce many chemical compounds, which are often useful to humans (e.g. caffeine, quinine, digitalis), in order to deter herbivorous creatures. Essentially, we have insects to thank for a significant part of plant diversity, beauty, and ethnobotanical utility.

Be sure to check out our Facebook page for a larger album of photos of the creatures at the Islamorada Fine Art Expo, which should be up in the next week or two.  Also, be sure to check in for a stay at Kona Kai sometime; you never know what you'll find in our Gardens!

Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director

Mahogany In The Making

West Indian mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni) wood is not only beautiful but also contains catechin, which is a powerful anti-oxidant useful in reducing the risk of heart disease and cancer. But before you go out and make a delectable salad of mahogany branches to reap the benefits, you might care to know that this compound can also be found in red wine and green tea, which is why you don't see many bags of mahogany wood chips tempting your taste buds in the health food store snack aisles.

That being said, the utility and beauty of the wood remains. Our mahogany trees are a regular part of my ethnobotanical tour here at Kona Kai and during one particular tour with a couple staying at the Resort, the gentleman in the pair became extremely attentive when I began talking about these trees. His eyes were those of Ralphie from A Christmas Story daydreaming of the Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, only our guest was no doubt daydreaming of mahogany logs under the Christmas tree. He explained that a big hobby of his is woodworking and that he has always been jealous to read on woodworking forums about others who were able to get their hands on pieces of West Indian mahogany, as their range is quite limited in the United States and naturally-occurring populations are protected by law from harvesting. While I knew that most of our major mahogany trimming had been done years ago, I promised to let him know if we happened to remove a piece that could be of use to a woodworker.

A few months later, we had the tree crew arrive to work on a few trees on the property, including a couple of the mahoganies. I was actually doing a tour when one of the trees was being pruned but happened to be in the right place at the right time, just as a solid log was cut and set by the base of the tree. I quickly put the tour on pause, had the log set aside near the door to the office and posted three Italian mastiffs by it to ensure it would not disappear during the remainder of my tour. Afterwards, I sent a picture of the log to our guest, who was elated and dispatched UPS to obtain and deliver the log. Here's a picture of the hand-off for delivery:

As it turned out, much like Ralphie, our guest had a wonderful Christmas surprise with the object of his dreams finding its way to a spot under the Christmas tree.  Just over a week after sending the Log (our guest bestowed upon it the honorary capitalization), I received a picture of work on the Log already being done:

It is clear to me that this log was so incredibly awesome that no log cutting machine in existence could cut through it without being utterly destroyed, hence the enormity and complexity of the pictured machine, which was no doubt custom-built for the sole purpose of cutting the Log. You can see the Log in the picture laying on its side with cuts being made lengthwise and part of the address still visible on the end. I had never mailed a log before, but learned from our guest that the way to go about it is to write the address on both ends of the log in permanent marker.  An ideal package, really, with no box or packing peanuts required! I am excited to see pictures of the next steps of the Log's transformation, which will end up chronicling a modern-day ethnobotanical journey involving both a Kona Kai plant and a Kona Kai guest - look forward to more updates to come!


Rick Hederstrom
Associate Director

Plant Champions Olympic Wreath Competition

Back in October, I introduced you all to the Plant Champions Olympic Wreath Competition that The Botanic Gardens at Kona Kai Resort has been working to bring to students down here in the Florida Keys in collaboration with Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and BGCI.  I left you hanging with the knowledge that I would be introducing the Competition to classes sometime soon.  I can proudly report today that I have completed the introductions and have come back alive against all odds with tales to tell and pictures to share.

I didn't really know what to expect going into the introductions.  I soon found out, however, that the students were surprisingly attentive, receptive and even enthusiastic about what I had to say. Many students raised their hands to participate whenever I posed a question and gave me very little trouble.  I say "very little" because there seems to always be a student interested in finding opportunities to be funny during a presentation.  During one of my introductions, one such student made himself known.  I was giving examples of how plants are used and was talking about their use as perfume/cologne ingredients.  The student loudly interjected with "Wait, I thought perfumes and colognes were made of whale blubber."  I must have been on my game that day because I was able to return fire (good-naturedly and in the spirit of fun, of course) immediately with "There may be a few, and although I'm not going to judge you based on your choice to perfume yourself with whale fat, I'm interested to know how it's working for you."  I got quite a bit of laughs from the quick response, a bushel of street cred points and un-interrupted attention from the whole class for the rest of the presentation.

Classroom introduction to the Competition.

Helping the students identify their plants.

As you can see in the pictures above, many of the students brought in plant parts for me to help them identify or determine if they are native to the Keys.  It was a little challenging at times because some of the students had only brought in a single leaf or even part of a leaf.  Luckily, I was born with a right eye that has a built-in plant DNA analyzer wirelessly linked to the world's best plant name databases, enabling me to determine plant identity in only a few seconds, so it really wasn't an issue. After giving the introductions, the classes went ahead with the Competition and began assembling wreaths later on in the week.  I have some excellent pictures of the wreath-making and it is quite hard to choose only a few to share with you.  We will be putting together an Olympic Wreath Competition photo album on our Facebook page, which will have many more photos, at a later date - so keep an eye out for that.  In the meantime, here is a sample of pictures taken during the in-class wreath-making (photos by Patricia Joy of Key Largo School):

Students using a book to identify their plants.

Putting the wreath together.

The students all seemed to have a great time making the wreaths.

A wreath nearly complete.

Great stuff.  It's awesome to see such enthusiasm and fun while learning about our native plants and their importance to us as well as the greater natural environment, all of which is core to the mission of The Botanic Gardens at Kona Kai Resort.  Look forward to more on the Competition in the months to come!

Rick Hederstrom

Associate Director