Las Cruces Biological Station

Las Cruces was established to preserve the elegant Wilson Botanical Garden, to preserve some mid-elevation rainforest, and to provide spectacular accomodations to weary OTS students.

POLLINATOR CHOICES: A STUDENT PROJECT At each field site, students, under the direction of a resource person, attempted to answer ecological questions with small research projects.

On August 17th, we the intrepid students dragged ourselves out of bed at 4:30AM so that we could observe bee pollination of ginger plants at the height of their activity-- between 5:30 and 7:00 AM. In the early morning light, we carried our chairs into the garden, labeled the flowers, and waited as the sun came up.

Observation of the bees required patience and perserverance!

And was eventually rewarded by breakfast in the garden, if not many bee sightings. OTHER SITES AT LAS CRUCES

Another project involved surveying monocot biodiversity at the "Mossy" site in the "primary" forest. Can you see Sarah waving?

Compare the forest above with Grace's "degraded pasture" bird observation/ mist-netting site near Lynn Carpenter's farm. (With Eric and friend). Back to San Jose