From a very young age I was captivated by plants and have subsequently devoted my life to studying and growing them. I want to make a difference for some of the world's most imperilled plants via study, conservation and education. I sincerely hope that the content of our wiki will contribute to awareness and appreciation of the wondrous floral riches that still remain on the planet, to inspire more people to grow them and to support efforts to protect their native habitats. I also hope we can inspire more younger people to take up horticulture and spend more time with nature. I love how unlike other hobbies and pursuits that involve collecting things, plants are potentially the most accessible and egalitarian as they can be propagated and shared (some more easily than others). I believe the more people there are in the world deriving joy and satisfaction from growing plants, the happier we'll all be!
I am fascinated by all ecosystems. The floral regions that most captivate me are the ones with the highest degrees of endemism. I have particular interest in the native flora of Hawai'i, sub-Saharan Africa (both east, west and south), Soqotra, Madagascar, Mascarenes, Macaronesia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Australia. I also love cloud forest and equatorial alpine plant communities. The main plant groups I focus on growing are orchids (especially angraecoids), geophytes (i.e. bulbs) from around the world, neotropical blueberries (and other Ericaceae), tropical gymnosperms (Araucariaceae, cycads), palms (mainly Madagascar and New Caledonia species), members of the Campanulaceae, Rubiaceae, Myrtaceae, and Proteaceae, Hawaii native flora and many others.
Bulbs really were my first love and as a boy I grew as many varieties as I could find. Finding the Pacific Bulb Society on-line in the early Noughties was a revelation; it greatly expanded my awareness of the variety of geophytes that exist in the world and I've since learnt a tremendous amount from the wiki and group discussions. I love the PBS.
I'm fortunate that my partner Nhu Nguyen and I share a love of geophytes and that our favourite genera overlap a great deal. Together we maintain a cosmopolitan conservation collection of geophytes that range from the highly conspicuous to almost invisible. Favoured families include Amaryllidaceae, Themidaceae, Iridaceae, Liliaceae, Hyacinthaceae, Colchicaceae, and Tecophilaeaceae. At a push I would pick the Amaryllidaceae as my favourite. I also have particular interest in growing epiphytic and lithophytic bulbs, which I grow in the company of my orchids. My experience of growing bulbs in the tropics has given me unique perspective on cultivation techniques and phenotypic plasticity.
I've grown up and lived in a number of countries, including the United States (California, Hawai'i), Portugal and Cape Verde. I've been lucky to see a number of California native bulbs in situ, namely Calochortus, Allium, Dichelostemma, Brodiaea and Triteleia. I look forward to visiting more bulb habitats in the future!
I've been a singer since a young age (classical and jazz) and I love the outdoors, particularly hiking and anything at a beach! I enjoy comedy, vegan food, exploring history, culture, art, literature and music. I spend a great deal of my life cultivating, studying and photographing plants.
I enjoy contributing photos and information to the wiki. To see more of my photos please visit my flickr photostream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morabeza79/ I also repost some of my pictures to tumblr with the hope of getting more of the younger age group hooked on plants: http://phyto-porno.tumblr.com/
It gives me great pleasure to share my photos here on the fantastic PBS Wiki to further the appreciation and education of bulbs, however I retain copyright and those who wish to use my images will need my permission.
For years I've used my first and middle names interchangeably, but I no longer use the name Jacob. I'm now using my middle name Uluwehi but prefer the nickname Ulu (pronounced "oo-loo"). I don't mind my oldest friends calling me Jacob if they prefer it, but I no longer call myself Jacob.