I officially studied architecture/environmental design but somehow ended up working as a plant taxonomist/botanist. You can find me out in the field or at the UPRRP Herbarium in Puerto Rico.

I am involved in several projects regarding ecological site descriptions, species identification, surveys, species status assessments, conservation and management plans. I work with and/or collaborate with most federal & state environmental agencies as well as private conservation organizations in Puerto Rico.

Se habla español!

Je ne sais beaucoup français mais comprend plus.

Feel free to contact me regarding any Caribbean plant species, especially in the PR Bank.

I'm particularly interested in

1. Coccoloba spp.
2. Utricularia spp.
3. Arecaceae
4. Poaceae
5. Pteridophyta
6. Naturally occurring plant hybrids
7. Variations and oddities in plants
8. Introduced plant species monitoring
9. Phenology

If you are working with any of these in the Caribbean, feel free to reach out to me and perhaps we can collaborate; or I can provide important information to your research.

2023 iNaturalist Goals:

-Get to 200,000 observations identified, especially plants in the Caribbean. (I reached my goal of 100,000 last year!)

-Have 2500-3000 plant species in Puerto Rico documented (Again, due to last year only reaching 2266 confirmed to species level and lower (hybrids/subsp./var.) by the end of the year. PR full species estimates range from 2912 to 3559]

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Do not agree with my IDs based on my credentials, I may (and have been) wrong! Use your own criteria. Sometimes I will look at observations in the 'Identify' window, which only shows icons. I do not open every single observation to examine the images or contents in detail.

Several of my observations are private or diffused, do not ask me to put them public because:

1. Some localities may be hidden because they are part of personal or colleague research.
2. Many are private due to being part of government-agency related research. I'm required to keep them private.
3. Others are private due to being on private land and I was required to not make them public by the owners of the land.
4. Some localities are hidden for specific groups (examples: cacti, carnivorous plants, orchids.) due to being rare or having a high chance/degree of poaching.

To me it is important that I upload them, even without public locality, because there is poor photographic reference for many of our Caribbean species. A photo without a precise locality is of great aid to many people.

If you are a bonafide researcher I will gladly share any localities that may aid your research. Use of images or data is subject to authorship/credit being noted, and/or having proper permits to be conducting such research (in the case that it is needed).

If you want me to collaborate on research by collecting material or providing more substantial information do not hesitate to do so, but it will be your responsibility to obtain the proper permits for doing so and paying any fees associated with said processes. I do not collect material, nor export material for nonscientific (research/conservation) purposes.