DPLUS 183 - Field research to study plant genetics

A month of field work took place in March 2024 under the Darwin Plus 183 project with the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, plus partners from US Fish and Wildlife Service and the USVI's Rare Plant Initiative. It was a busy few weeks packed with visits to Guana Island, Anegada, Sage Mountain National Park, Tortola and Beef Island.

It was fantastic to see the forest at Sage Mountain National Park continuing to recover after the 2017 hurricane season destroyed many of the trees.

Clare Weaver and Dewey Hollister of the US Virgin Islands Rare Plant Initiative joined the NPTVI NPTVI team and Sara Barrios of Kew in the field to share their knowledge of shared Virgin Islands plant species

Sara Barrios from Kew, Clare Weaver from Rare in the US Virgin Islands and Omar Monsegur from US Fish and Wildlife in Puerto Rico on Anegada

Now the next phase of work, drying specimens, shipping them to Kew in the UK and doing DNA work!