Susan Fawcett has spent a year gathering morphological data and genetic material that could change our current thinking about Hawaii's native palms both in the wild and in cultivation. Hawaiian Pritchardia conservation has never been easy as most species are restricted to remote areas often on steep cliff sides.  Susan spent her postdoc at NTBG on Kauai butt scooting down steep slopes on Lanai and Maui, helicoptering into the Iao river valley, carefully measuring the individual palms in the large Pritchardia collection at NTBG, and browsing through the herbarium at the bishop museum.  Come hear Susan share her adventures and discoveries, and learn how her work and other new research on Pritchardia might impact conservation efforts.

Susan Fawcett is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai.  She is a Research Botanist at the University and Jepson Herbaria at UC Berkeley, a National Geographic Explorer, and is on faculty at the University of Michigan Biological Station, where she teaches botany and botanical illustration. 

Susan is a monthly contributor to iNaturalist, check out her recent observations of Pritchardia forbesiana at Mt. Eke on Maui.