As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have been going through the Hort department's plant orders and inputting that information into a plant database and as of yesterday (Monday 5/23) I have successfully inputted each Acacia tree into the plant record database. Now that each Acacia has been cataloged and correctly labeled with it's genus, species, and family I have moved onto the mapping portion of my project. Using GIS program and the individual accession numbers, I am now out in the field logging the location of each individual Acacia. I expect to finish the field location logging by next week, once this portion is done I will be going out into the field once more to physically tag each Acacia. The overall final product of my internship project will include a detailed Acacia tree catalog and that will be implemented into the Safari Park's official horticulture plant collection. I believe the Thorntree/Acacia collection will be the third installment in the park's official plant species collection;the other include the Bamboo and the Old World Baja.
Alongside plant collection work I am also refining my propagation skills. Just in these past two days, I have propagated over 250 succulents. Using the cuttings from parent succulents the offsets and plantlets can also be separated from their parent plant and grown on in their own pot. Haworthia limifolia ("Fairies Washboard") is a good introduction to propagating plants via their offsets, as a little baby haworthia grows from the root out to the side. This type of propagation is quite simple and rewarding, but time consuming. .
Fajita's plant fact of the day: Succulents, often called “fat plants” derive their name from the Latin, Sucus meaning juice.