Jack Sayers’ interest in palm trees may not be a true obsession, but he certainly has gone to great lengths to find and photograph rare palms in the wild. ADVERTISING Jack Sayers’ interest in palm trees may not be a
Jack Sayers’ interest in palm trees may not be a true obsession, but he certainly has gone to great lengths to find and photograph rare palms in the wild.
Take his journey to Madagascar, where long flights were just a prelude to tortuous road trips, slippery treks through the rain forest, and a night of vomiting and cramps so severe that he couldn’t bend his knees.
And that was on his honeymoon.
Fortunately, Sayers, a California Institute of Technology astrophysicist and worldwide palm hunter, is still married. He explains that his wife, Lindsey, had “always been interested in lemurs and had also been dreaming of a visit to Madagascar.”
The trip helped establish a regular pattern for the couple — travel to someplace exotic and remote, where Lindsey can track wildlife and Jack can binge on photographing palms. Their destinations include tropical hot spots all over the world: the Amazon, Borneo, Namibia, Peru, Australia, Mexico, Thailand, Taiwan, South Africa the Dominican Republic.
Sayers is bringing some of his best photos and stories to Hilo at 7 p.m. Friday for a presentation sponsored by the Hawaii Island Palm Society in Room 115 of the University Classroom Building at the University of Hawaii at Hilo. The presentation is free and open to the public.
Visit www.hawaiiislandpalmsociety.com for more information about the palm society.
The focus of the presentation, “In search of palm trees and wildlife in the jungles of Borneo and the outback of Australia,” stems from Sayers’ current role as director of the International Palm Society. Next year the IPS will bring together more than 200 scientists, growers and plant enthusiasts for an international event beginning in Borneo and ending in Singapore.
Given his peripatetic tendencies, it’s not surprising that Sayers has made the trip from his Los Angeles home to the Big Island more than once. As an astrophysicist Sayers estimates he’s made about 50 trips and has spent a year’s worth of cold nights at the Caltech submillimeter telescope at the summit of Mauna Kea.
