As a major food staple throughout the Pacific Islands and around the Pacific Rim, breadfruit an essential agrosecurity crop. Its biggest advocate may well be ARCS Scholar alumna Diane Ragone, who is credited with creating and curating the largest and most diverse breadfruit conservation collection in the world. On Nov. 14 she will be honored with the National Tropical Botanical Garden's David Fairchild Medal for four decades of leadership in the study, cultivation, conservation, and use of the nutritious, starchy fruit known as ‘ulu in Hawai‘i.
Dr. Diane Ragone with breadfruit, NTBG photo by Jim Wiseman
Dr. Ragone began what became her life's work in Samoa in 1985 as a University of Hawai‘i at Manoa student and continued her breadfruit studies on an additional 50 islands, receiving support as a Honolulu ARCS Scholar in 1985, 1987, and 1988. Joining NTBG in 1989, she founded its Breadfruit Insitute in 2003 and since 2022 remains active as director emerita. She collected material from more than 600 trees and interviewed hundreds of local communities, farmers, and cultural practitioners about cultivation and use of different cultivars and contributed to projects and collaborations around the world to increase understanding, interest, and commitment to the vital tropical tree crop. The Breadfruit Institute manages its extensive breadfruit conservation collection at the National Tropicla Botanical Garden on Kaua‘i and serves as a global center for research into agroforestry, climate resilience, and international food security.
Awarded every other year, the David Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration recognizes exceptional individuals who have explored remote areas of the world, using innovative travel itineraries, conveyances, or techniques to discover new plant species or cultivars, or made contributions in cultivation of significant agricultural varieties and/or preservation of endangered species and threatened habitats, The 2024 medal will be presented to Dr. Diane Ragone during NTBG's fall 2025 meeting at its Kampong garden in Miami, Florida. Dr. Ragone was previously named an Outstanding Alumna by UH Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resilience.
