Dances with Leaves

Plants and People, Anytime and Anywhere

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Our Latin American sabbatical 2026 - the big picture

Context Deborah Apgaua and myself are a couple and academic team working at the School for Field Studies (SFS) Australia. With a team of four academics, including ourselves, and other support staff, we run semestral and summer study abroad programs for North American undergraduate students. After a term of 4-5 years of service, the academics are given an opportunity to apply to take sabbatical…

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A little botanical exploration of the mangroves of Tárcoles River, Costa Rica

a.k.a “Una exploracioncita botánica por los manglares de Rio Tárcoles, Costa Rica” It would be a huge shame for a biologist and botanist to be on sabbatical in a country like Costa Rica and not explore its mangroves. And that shame was almost a reality if not for our colleague Milena Cambronero taking us out on during her free time to go on a wild tour and a rather random drive. My first…

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A moment with Quetzal and a mix of feelings

(Disclaimer: I modified one of my original photos with AI and featured it here to help make a point) I met the Resplendent Quetzal recently. During our Latin America sabbatical, we visited an animal rescue centre, the Rescate Wildlife Rescue Centre near the School for Field Studies Costa Rica Centre. I was not going in with any expectations but I was very impressed by the range of animals they…

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Some traditional juices and drinks of Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, people have their meals accompanied with a refreshing (and might I say, often generously sweetened) drink. In restaurants, the fruit juice (frescos or refrescos) options often include coconut, passionfruit, pineapple, starfruit, strawberry, orange, lemonade, and watermelon, soursop with mint. Various fruits and herbs are also blended in water, ice or milk (called batidos). Chilled…

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A taste of traditional Costa Rican fruits

The Costa Rica league of our sabbatical came right after our stay at the Peruvian School for Field Studies Centre, and as Costa Rica has its own local cuisine and use of plants, I wanted to take the opportunity to photograph and try whatever local food items I came across. One thing that struck me about Costa Rica was that even though the country is biologically diverse, my first impression was…

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Favoured by the spirit of Volcán Poás

Volcanoes have always been regarded as places where spirits dwell, and reflecting on my own journey, I have visited a number of volcanoes in the Asia and Australian region. Also, I learnt about volcanoes during my time as an undergraduate taking one or two lectures on volcanology. Documentaries too (usually featuring Hawaii), had made up my previous intellectual diet on the topic of volcanoes.…

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Exploring the botany of Tarapoto, Peru

As part of our 2026 sabbatical, Deborah, my mom and I visited the School for Field Studies Peru Centre at Tarapoto and stayed there for close to a month. There we had the opportunity to explore the botanical diversity, traditional plant medicines, and ethnobotany of the region. This post will feature the botanical highlights of this league of our journey As my training in botany is mostly from…

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A taste of traditional plant foods of the Peruvian Amazon

Visiting a place like the Peruvian Amazon provides an opportunity to experience delve into an experience a living rainforest culture that still manifests itself strongly in a traditional plant uses for medicines, crafts, and for food. This post records a few of the local plants I have had the luck to taste and photograph during the trip. Lucuma – El Oro De Los Incas I got to try fresh Lúcuma…

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Dendrocnide photiniphylla (Urticaceae)

I remember the first time I got stung by this. This was early in my days of exploring the rainforests of north Queensland and I knew well enough to keep away from the infamous stinging trees. But this species did not look one bit like Gympie Stinger (Dendrocnide moroides). If anything, it looked like a species of native fig (Ficus spp.) The common name for this tree is apt – Shiny Leaf Stinging…

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An ash tree in the tropics - the evergreen tropical ash (Fraxinus griffithii) 

An ash tree in the tropics to remind us of the tree of life

Temperate botanists might raise an eyebrow at a tropical ash tree. The tropical botanist might not know what an ash tree is. Ash trees, the genus Fraxinus, are mostly temperate, but have both temperate and tropical members (see also my recent post). In the Wet Tropics, the Tropical Evergreen Ash (Fraxinus griffithii) is a commonly cultivated tree. This tree forms more or less neat crowns, and…

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Meet a stately endemic - the Grey Satinash (Syzygium gustavioides)

Meet the gargantuan Grey Satinash (Syzygium gustavioides), one of the largest species of endemic Syzygiums one will find in the Wet Tropics. In my time in the Wet Tropics, I have had the rare privilege of seeing this both in flower and in fruit in the canopy, while doing research and plant collections up in the Daintree Rainforest Observatory canopy crane, some 25-30m up in the canopy. That…

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Enjoying a treat of tropical raspberries - Rubus probus

Temperate raspberries and blackberries are great treats, but I love also the tropical counterparts, if I can get to them before the birds. It is nice to know that the tropics produce “berry” like fruits that are more associated with temperate regions. In the Wet Tropics of north Queensland there are four native species of the genus Rubus, R. moluccanus, R. parviflorus, R. queenslandicus, and…

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Becoming spleenwort savvy - Learning about some European Spleenworts (Asplenium spp.)

In the tropics where I grew up, the so called Bird’s-nest fern (Asplenium nidus) was all around, and that was my very early introduction to the large genus Asplenium, which comprises of some 700 species. When I studied in Tasmania, I learnt of a number of beautiful Southern hemispheric spleenworts (e.g. see my post on Asplenium obtusatum in Tasmania). Encountering their temperate northern…

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Is Portugal becoming an extension of temperate Australia ? - reflections of a forest ecologist

My mom and sister inspect a large specimen of Tasmanian Blue Gum (Eucalyptus globulus) at the Botanic Gardens of the University of Coimbra On a recent family trip to Portugal, we entered the country from the north in the city Porto, and then took buses heading south, first to Coimbra, and then to Sintra, Cascais and Lisbon. It was an eye opener traversing through the landscape by bus. Portugal…

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Gold stamen rays of the Fibrous Satinash (Syzygium fibrosum)

When I first arrived in Far North Queensland, one of the first native Syzygiums I encountered was the Fibrous Satinash. I had seen it at Cattana Wetlands, where I frequented in my free time. “Fibrous Satinash” really is a poor choice of a name for this beautiful native satinash (Syzygium fibrosum). The flowers are showy, and are borne in the leaf axils. Each flower comprises abundant…

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Mini-odyssey by rail through the Scottish Highlands - Scotland 2024 trip Part 3

Just the sound of the words “the Scottish Highlands” invokes imagery of mystical places (see Part 1 of this series of posts), and given our very short amount of time in Scotland, we wanted to make the most of it by taking a Scotrail train from Inverness through the Scottish Highlands and down to Edinburgh so that we could see a cross section of the landscape. Our train departed from the Inverness…

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Exploring the miniature world in ancient Scottish woods - Scotland 2024 trip Part 2

A open paddock with Urquhart Woods in the background On Google Maps, any place that has “forest” or “woods” is like a beacon to me. While we were scanning through Google Maps along the A82 highway beside the Loch Ness, a place of interest called Urquhart Woods showed up and no doubt piqued my curiosity. Urquhart Woods at Drumnadrochit, is according to woodlandtrust.org.uk, is one of the best…

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