Garden clubs are wonderful, and the Four Seasons Garden Club
of Hocking County, Ohio, is many-times blessed to have Barb Andreas as a member.
Barb has a Ph.D. in Botany and is a retired professor from Kent State
University. At our March, 2014, garden club meeting Barb was so kind to
share her month-long experience on a ship that took her around Cape Hope, Archipelago
(South America) and the Straits of Magellan, no less.
The expedition took place within the UNESCO (United Nations,
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) biosphere, and was funded
by the National Science Foundation. The mission was to gather Bryophyta (mosses), non-vascular plants that do not have veins to carry water and
nutrients to the plant’s system. This lack of a vascular system is the reason
mosses are relatively stunted in height and mostly lay low to the ground. Instead
of developing flowers and seeds, mosses create one-celled spores that rely
entirely on the wind to relocate and thrive.
You might be just a bit curious as to how a sweet little gal
like Barb ended up on a fishing boat in turbulent waters off the southern tip of
Chile. Answer: She was invited by the prestigious
New York Botanical Garden to go on an expedition. In 2010, Barb spent the
summer as an intern at NYBG, where she studied the genus Blindia. From that, in a publication Barb named three (3) species of Blindia that are new to science, thus becoming the world’s expert on this genus, those being her qualifications for
being a part of this expedition.
Barb’s quest for her target genus, Blindia, began in Punta Arenas, when she boarded the 17x58 foot sea-faring
vessel, Doña Pilar. Captain Pato and his 3 seasoned mates quickly assisted the
nine scientists to settle into their Spartan sleeping quarters. Normally claustrophobic,
Barb adjusted well enough to her top bunk, where she could not even sit up to
read or write. One of her colleagues suggested that she keep her eyes closed
while in the bunk. That worked.
Ship accommodations were cramped, the only luxury being one
bathroom with a hand-held shower sparingly used because of a lack of fresh
water onboard; however, dining in the galley was relatively splendid, the crew
serving up such delicacies as king crab stuffed with avocado or tomatoes. The members of the expedition woke up
each morning to the smell of fresh-baked bread. Not bad, huh?
In the region’s summer season, the average January temperature
was a chilly 42 degrees, the wet and windy conditions making forages onto the
islands rather perilous. Dressed in layers of warm clothing, rain gear, and
cumbersome rubber boots, they were taken ashore by a Zodiac (inflatable boat).
Each scientist carried a pack that contained a GPS, a marking pen, lunch-sized paper bags, and a hand lens, much like a jeweler’s loupe, used
to closely inspect specimens in the field.
By the thirteenth day of the expedition, Barb had collected only
a few samples of her target genus, Blindia.
By the same token, by the 30th day she’d collected and bagged approximately
530 specimens, gathered each day and taken back to the ship for an evening of
sorting in the fragile warmth of the galley, the galley becoming a make-do laboratory.
Then, after sorting, mosses were taken to the engine room for drying. The
collections would later be boxed and readied for shipment to the New York
Botanical Gardens. For the better part of the next year, Barb will be spending an enormous amount of time going through the detailed process of identifying and
cataloging the mosses from the Cape Horn Archipelago.
[Excerpt
from Barb Andreas’s journal]
"The landscape is beautiful. There is never a view that does not include
snow-capped mountains and southern beech forests. We wear rain gear and big rubber boots in the
field. It makes moving through the
vegetation really tough. There are no
paths!
One day
we "walked" to the edge of a glacier.
It was pure hell. There were
large and small waterfalls pouring over us, and the rocks were very
slippery. I mostly crawled up, often
clinging to clumps of grass and other dwarf vegetation. The easiest way to get down was to slide from
one level to the next. It was the
scariest thing I've ever done.
We go
to bed around midnight, after we are finished with the specimens. Wake up is around 6:30 am, often to the smell
of baking bread."
At the beginning of the trip, the topography was made up of
rugged mountains, high elevation tundra and glaciers. As the ship voyaged toward
Cape Horn, the mountains became softer, an absence of glaciers, the tundra coming down to the shoreline.
[Excerpt
from Barb Andreas’s journal]
"We
spent two days on the island where a famous English botanist, Joseph D. Hooker,
was stranded for several months. During
that period, Hooker collected one of my target plants and I was able to re-find
it.
We also went to Isla Wollaston, and
I was able to recollect one of mosses I named, Blindia buckii. When we arrive at these islands, we spread
out to cover more territory. My
colleagues found many more localities for that moss.
The
forests on these windswept islands are low, about 4-5 feet in height and
tightly packed. It's sort of like
climbing through a never-ending blackberry patch. Sometimes it would take me an hour to go a
hundred feet (and I am not exaggerating).
Sometimes hidden among the brush would be a steep-sided stream that I
would then fall into. There were numerous times I asked myself "what am I
doing here?"
Rounding the treacherous waters of Cape Horn, Barb cracked a
rib, but it was well worth the pain considering the incredible sightings of
birds that inhabited the remote islands. Dolphins played and swam around their
ship, even racing the Zodiac whenever she and her colleagues went ashore.
Numerous Orca whales were spotted, and at one point there were so many that the
captain went below to tap on the hull of the ship just to make sure the whales
knew the ship was there. Sea lion colonies graced rocky outcrops of islands, relatively
secure on the rocks in their isolated habitat.
[Excerpt
from Barb’s Journal]
"We once
passed a cruise ship while in the Beagle Channel -- it dwarfed our little 17 x
58 foot ship. Mostly, however, we never
saw other boats. The captain knew the
area well and each night we would find a cove in which to dock in order stay
out of the incredible winds. Some of these
coves had little corrugated metal cabins that fishermen had built, and there
might be a rope to which our ship might attach."
Finally, mission
accomplished, the ship arrived back at Punta Arenas. Barb said, “Never again in
my life will I have an adventure like this.”
One last point of interest, Barb was the only one who
thought to bring duct tape on the expedition. Rain gear was punctured and torn by
the thorny vegetation, and then repaired with the tape. Barb also used the tape
to bandage sore and cracked hands and fingers.
It goes without saying that Barb’s duct tape was a very popular item
during these thirty days.
What an incredible journey, Barb Andreas! Another
note of interest is that Barb and her husband, Denny, who are both avid
“birders” will be venturing to Iceland in June. Well, now, that’s a whole
different story. Can’t wait! What an amazing woman!!
For more information about the expedition, go to New York Botanical Garden - Bill Buck From the Field - Cape Horn 2014
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