Dipsus Bacario Phoenix – another (probably incorrectly spelt) endangered palm. Off we go, into the forest to find them, tie a nice labelled ribbon round them, mark them on the GPS, and then record their height and the canopy cover. Sounds great, apart from the fact that to find them involves pushing through dense jungle, armed with thorny sticks and garrotting vines. Ants fall from the trees, crawl into my armpits and bite (sometimes they get down the front/back of my trousers, even less pleasant. Huge horse flies buzz around looking for a landing site and mosquitoes home in on the tiniest bit of exposed skin. Sweat drips off of me and to cap it all there are uncountable spiders' webs to walk in to. I'm not arachnophobia but I don’t think anyone likes continually wiping spider silk from across their face and neck. (Who knows where the spiders themselves end up?) We are lucky and we find at least 30 of the rare palms, back on the path the thorns and spiders are forgotten.
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