The roaring, the howling and the screaming

Newsletter 21

Dato 10.1.2007

The time is fast approaching – tomorrow VÆDDEREN leaves Lyttelton, near Christchurch in New Zealand.  Destination: Antarctica...

10 January 2007

The expedition ship lies in Lyttleton port close to Christchurch.  Crew, researchers and media are preparing for one of the harsher legs of the journey:  the southern latitudes they will be sailing may for good reason be known as the roaring forties, the howling fifties the screaming sixties.  Everyone will need to find their sea legs. The expedition sails tomorrow.

One of the crew is the authoress Laila Ingrid Rasmussen.  She is the second of three people who were offered a place on board the expedition to represent the creative arts. To find out more about Laila and her thoughts on literature, follow this link.

To find a list of all projects on this leg follow this link

Galathea researchers come across new plant types

We have just received good news from the tropical botanist Axel Dalberg Poulsen, who is part of the land-based project, ‘The ginger genus in tropical islands’. He has found no fewer than five types of ginger, never before described, at around 2,000m height in a mountainous area of New Guinea.

Photo: Axel Dalberg Poulsen

Billy Bau, a botanist from Papua New Guinea specialising in woods and Axel Dalberg Poulsen with one of the new ginger types which has been found in several of the mountain areas of New Guinea.

The project began in the Solomon Islands in mid November and continued from there to Papua New Guinea. Its aim is to document as many types of ginger as possible. The plant belongs to a tropical family with more than 1,600 types, many of which are used as vegetable food, spice, medicine or ornamental plants. The best known of these are ginger root, cardamom and turmeric. The project will also attempt to document the spread of the ginger species on the main island of New Guinea and on islands to the north and west.

Axel has collaborated with his local colleague, Billy Bau to collect local names and information on how the plant is used. For instance, there is a wild type of curcuma which is still used to make the straw skirts used in traditional dance.

The project continues on West New Britain and Bougainville.

Photo: Axel Dalberg Poulsen

Locals use the leaf-bearing shoots of Alpinia oceanica to climb trees and harvest fruit such as coconuts or the betel nut palm.

The biology of the sea project - now in Tasmania

Another project, studying the 'biological interplay and biodiversity in lakes' at differing climatic regions, is proceeding with a new stage. The researchers have landed on Tasmania.