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Palms of New Guinea
Over a period of 24 years, Lucy has prepared 250 scientific pen and ink botanical illustrations describing the entire known palm flora of New Guinea for a book published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This project was started in 1999 by palm botanists Dr Bill Baker and Dr John Dransfield, and includes an international team of authors and contributors. Many of the species represented are newly described to science. After 24 years of work, the book is now printed and available in shops and online! A free downloadable copy of the book is available here from RBG Kew.
Physical copies of the book can be found at Blackwell’s, Amazon UK, Summerfield Books, and hopefully the Kew shop will have it back in stock again soon.
All images (c) copyright Lucy T Smith
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A series of the genus Hydriastele drawn in pen and ink for Palms of New Guinea
Palms of New Guinea, NOW PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2024
Calamus lucysmithiae. I'm honoured to have had a species named after me - a rare climbing palm found in mangroves.
Calamus lauterbachii
Hydriastele biakensis
Calyptrocalyx albertisianus
Calamus serrulatus
Calamus pachypus
Saribus surru
Metroxylon sagu
Calamus superciliatus
Licuala heatubunii
Cocos nucifera
Hydriastele variabilis
Korthalsia zippelii
Manjekia maturbongsii
Ponapea hentyi
Calamus pilosissimus
Saribus rotundifolius