On Saturday 28th of May, Didier Roguet, Matthieu Grillet and Fred Stauffer organized guided visits on the “Doum palm world” at the Conservatory and Botanic Garden of Geneva. Those visits were framed by the Night of the Museums, an activity fostered by the Department of Culture of the City of Geneva. We organized our visit in three chapters: science and exploration (Fred Stauffer), ethnobotany and economic botany (Didier Roguet) and germination and planting (Matthieu Grillet). All in all, we spent a great time with curious visitors that discovered our project and enjoyed our explanations on the fascinating “Doum palm world”. Here some pictures depicting several moments of our four visits (All photos were taken by D. Roguet and M. Grillet).
Our visit starts explaining the morphologic and taxonomic diversity of the palm genus Hyphaene (8 spp.). The original 3rd volume of the Historia Naturalis Palmarum (Martius, 1838) was one of the most spectacular items displayed.