RESEARCH

The staff of the Herbarium are frequently asked to provide plant identifications and botanical advice to environmental consultants, agriculture personnel, customs officials and the public. Monitoring the origin and spread of invasive exotics is also an important task. Other recent projects have included writing books, performing an environmental impact assessment of the Babeldaob Island road, Republic of Palau, as well as giving advice to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on conservation measures for endemic vegetation in Rota, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Current projects:

• Monitoring the spread on Guam of an invasive escaped ornamental convulvacean Porana volubilis Burm. f.
• Photographing sheets and digitizing label information of all Herbarium specimens.
• Preparation of a revised and enlarged Flora of Guam.
• Identifying and curating the vegetation of the recently instituted War in the Pacific National Park for the U.S. National Park Service.
• Preparing a book on the weeds and invasive grasses of Guam.
• Describing a new orchid found only on the islands of Guam and nearby Rota.