I grew up in southern California, Portugal, the Cape Verde Islands and spent five years as a landscape designer and horticultural consultant in Los Angeles before moving to Honolulu, Hawai`i where I am currently pursuing botanical studies at the University of Hawai`i at Mānoa. I'm preparing myself for a career in the conservation of threatened and endangered Hawaiian flora.
I've been fascinated with plants and nature since before learning to speak, and bulbs were my first love.
I live to explore and learn. I have a keen interest in ecological conservation, botany, and sustainable living. Horticulturally speaking, I have always have a taste for the unusual and always preferred growing species over man-made hybrids (this much to the dismay of my Danish great grandfather who believed the only plants worth growing were vegetables). Although my love affair with geophytes began around the age of seven, the beguiling nature of other highly ornamental plant families such as orchids, palms and cycads further saturated my passion for plants as an adolescent.
As a boy I was fortunate to live not far from Chino Hills State Park, and spent hours on end roaming the rolling hills, delighting in the Dichelostemma, Bloomeria and the occasional Calochortus in the California coastal sage scrub plant community. It was then that the seeds were sown for a deep appreciation and concern for threatened ecosystems.
Today I have amassed a sizeable collection of geophytes. My most avid interest lies with the Amaryllidaceae, Hyacinthaceae and Themidaceae, and though I have a terrible time picking favourites because I am easily inclined to appreciate the beauty of any plant species, I can safely say my favourite genera include: Amaryllis, Ammocharis, Bessera, Bomarea, Boophone, Brunsvigia, Clinanthus, Crossyne, Eriospermum, Eucharis, Eucrosia, Eustephia, Gethyllis, Griffinia, Haemanthus, Hessea, Massonia, Milla, Nerine, Petronymphe, Stenomesson, Strumaria, and Worsleya.
I am most fortunate to have my winter-rainfall bulbous collection currently split between the care of a dear friend in Santa Barbara, California and my partner Nhu Nguyen in Berkeley, California. Here in Hawai`i I am growing the subtropical and tropical species, also having fun experimenting with the performance of the summer rainfall South African species. I hope to add information to the wiki as I learn more about successfully growing geophytes in the tropics, as horticultural data on this seems scant.
Favourite groups of other plant species include those of the California Floristic Province, Hawai`i, New Caledonia, Soqotra, Madagascar, Cape Verde as well as other islands with unique flora. In addition, I adore fragrant members of the Apocyanaceae, Rubiaceae, and Magnoliaceae. Further still, members of the Proteaceae and southern hemisphere coniferous genera such as Araucaria and Agathis also captivate me.
Beside my very avid interest in learning about plants, my other interests and hobbies include ceramics, running, hiking, learning languages and singing. I currently sing with the Hawai`i Vocal Arts Ensemble.
Email: jacobknecht@gmail.com
See my botanical photography
Myself at the University of California Berkeley Botanical Garden
