ZONA, Scott - Director and Co-Editor PALMS

[bgl]

PalmTalk Username: scottzona

Scott Zona is Florida International University’s Conservatory & Greenhouse Curator, a position he has held since February, 2008. Previously, he was Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s Palm Biologist, a position he held for 14 years. He holds a B.S. in horticulture and an M.S. in botany from the University of Florida. His Ph.D. in botany is from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Claremont Graduate University, California. Scott grew up among pines and palms of Boynton Beach, Florida. He has explored for plants in Florida, California, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Bermuda, the Pacific islands, Indonesia, Malaysia and Madagascar. His interests are in horticulture and plant diversity of tropical plants, especially palms, orchids, salvias and bromeliads. He has over 100 publications, both scientific and popular, on palms and other tropical plants. Scott is co-editor of the IPS quarterly journal, PALMS. He gardens in South Miami, where, ironically, his favorite palm, Jubaea chilensis, does not grow.

[PalmFiber Fan]

I would like to talk to Mr. Scott Zona regarding a report he created, in concert with the late Dr. Natalie Uhl, on the attempted identification of unknown palm fiber submitted to them by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in 1995/96.  The organic fiber was thought to be from the husk of the Cocos nucifera.  Mr. Zona and Ms. Uhl were asked to identify said fiber and a samplar of C. nucifera was provided for comparison using SEM photographs.  I believe the organic fiber thought to be from the husk of the coconut, may in fact have come from the Judean Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), which in the last decade has been revived from seeds found in Israel (Methuselah Project). The radiocarbon dating by both WHOI and BETA Analytics (BETA LABS) has dated multiple specimens within the time period of 1229-1330 (exclusive of the +/- extensions).  These specimens have been collected over a 45+ year period from the same site. I have determined, the original volume of this organic fiber exceeded 1.54 metric tons. Such material has been continued to be found under the beach sands of the same location. My contact information is: dneisen@satx.rr.com.