There, he took a job teaching plant biology as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina.
Although field botany courses are effective at teaching plant identification, they are both labor and time intensive, and have been falling out of use at larger universities.
Teaching plant identification is difficult because of variability in the plants' appearance, the difficulty of bringing them into the classroom, and the difficulty of taking students into the field.
He has taught plants and design for 20 years at Harvard, and he runs his firm like a studio.
Divorced, he now lives with Beth Royer, who teaches plant science in Killingly.
Thomas Silva, who teaches plant physiology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., said that when a plant freezes, death comes as a result of cells bursting.
Abbe Futterman, the science teacher, was already growing vegetables and fruit in sawed-off pickle barrels right outside her classroom window, using the garden to teach plant science and nutrition.
The trainers will also teach planting and harvesting techniques that help farmers grow and select only the choicest coffee beans, and the fund will provide equipment like scissors, shears and mechanized pickers to ensure that the beans are properly harvested.
Dr. Tripp is a born teacher -- she came to the Bronx from Smith College, in Northampton, Mass., where she taught plant science and public garden administration, and directed the college botanic garden -- so if you bump into a beaming woman worshiping the tanyosho pines at sunset, she will no doubt show you something.
The prophet Hosea teaches: "Plant righteousness for yourselves; harvest the fruits of goodness" (Hosea 10 12).
