Palms in the genus Metroxylon are best known for their use as sources of edible starch called sago. This food is mostly produced by people living in New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines, and Malaysia from the species Metroxylon sagu. I first encountered Metroxylon on the island of Rotuma, where I learned about its use as both a food and house thatching material. The fact that the plant was being used for two conflicting uses was intriguing because harvest of green leaves (which is what people usually get) reduces production of starch and rate of tree maturation. After completion of my M.S. research at Rotuma I decided to conduct Ph.D. research working with cultural groups who used this genus in these conflicting ways. I specifically focused on cultures who did not use Metroxylon sagu but used one of the other species of Metroxylon as these seemed to be used more often for leaf thatch and were less important for food, although still often used.
Research was conducted to examine a set of phylogenetic, biogeographic and ethnobotanical hypotheses about the relationships between the populations of Metroxylon across the Pacific Islands and the peoples who use them. The resulting publications and presentations are as follows:
Metroxylon Publications
McClatchey, W, Harley I. Manner & Craig R. Elevitch. 2006. Metroxylon amicarium, M. paulcoxii, M. sagu, M. salomonense, M. vitiense, and M. warburgii (sago palms). Pp 491-512 in Traditional Trees of Pacific Islands: their culture, environment, and use. Edited by C.R. Elevitch. Permanent Agricultural Resources, Holualoa, Hawai‘i.
McClatchey, W, Harley Manner & Craig R. Elevitch. 2003. Metroxylon amicarium, M. paulcoxii, M. sagu, M. salomonense, M. vitiense, and M. warburgii (sago palms). Pp 1-23 in Species Profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry. November 2004. www.traditionaltree.org Permanent Agricultural Resources, Honolulu, Hawai‘i.
McClatchey, W. 2004. Cultural Interactions with Palms in the Tropical Pacific Region. Palms & Cycads 85:26-30.
McClatchey, W. 2002. Biogeographical Observation of Metroxylon Section Coelococcus. Pp. 119-126 in New Frontiers of Sago Palm Studies Proceedings of the International Symposium on SAGO (SAGO 2001) A New Bridge Linking South and North, Frontiers in Science Series No. 37 Edited by K. Kainuma, M. Okazaki, Y. Toyoda, & John E. Cecil. Universal Academy Press, Inc. Tokyo.
McClatchey, W. 1998. Phylogenetic Analysis of Morphological Characters of Metroxylon Section Coelococcus (Palmae) and Resulting Implications for Studies of Other Calamoideae Genera. Pp. 285-306 in Evolution, Variation, and Classification of Palms. Edited by Andrew Henderson. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden.
McClatchey, Will. 1998. A New Species of the Genus Metroxylon (Arecaceae) from Western Samoa. Novon 8:252-258.
McClatchey, W. 1996. A revision of the genus Metroxylon section Coelococcus (Arecaceae). Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
McClatchey, W & Paul A. Cox. 1992. Use of the Sago Palm Metroxylon warburgii in the Polynesian Island, Rotuma. Economic Botany 46:305-309
Metroxylon Presentations
McClatchey, W. Some Observations on Cultural Interactions with Palms in the Western Pacific. Invited Speaker. International Palm Society annual meeting, Honolulu, Hawai’i. (May 9, 2004)
McClatchey, W. The Pacific Island Way: Oldest Agriculture in the World to Space Age Solutions. Invited Speaker. University of Hawai’i, Hilo, Geography Department, Hilo, Hawai’i. (February 24, 2004)
McClatchey, W. The Pacific Island Way: Oldest Agriculture in the World to Space Age Solutions. Invited Speaker. Volcanoes National Park, After-Dark in the Park Seminar Series, Volcano, Hawai’i. (September 16, 2003)
McClatchey, W. Phylogenetic and biogeographical analysis of Metroxylon section Coelococcus in the Western and South Pacific. Invited Speaker, International Sago Symposium, Tsukubo, Japan. (October 16, 2001)
McClatchey, W. & Piet Lincoln. Melanesian Neighbors: 1) Ririo Plant Terms in the Context of a Reconstructed Proto-Oceanic Language and 2) Borrowed Landscapes: Ancient Austronesian and Non-Austronesian Interactions Invited presentation for the University of Hawaii, Linguistics, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. (April 4, 2000)
McClatchey, W. Some implications of pre-historic cultural movements of Western Pacific plants in considerations of Pacific biodiversity transect studies. Invited symposium speaker. American Society of Geographers annual meetings, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. (March 1999)
McClatchey, W. Pacific Biodiversity Transects of the Arecaceae. Pacific Biodiversity Research Seminar Series, Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu. (April 28, 1998)
McClatchey, W. A Phylogenetic Analysis of the Useful Palms of Fiji. Hawaii Botanical Society, Honolulu. (October 6, 1997)
McClatchey, W. A Morphological Phylogenetic Analysis of the Basal Calamoideae. Symposium Paper presented at the New York Botanical Garden conference: Evolution, Variation, and Classification of Palms, New York. (June 18-20, 1997)
McClatchey, W. Phylogenetic and cultural distributions of Metroxylon section Coelococcus. Paper presented at the University of Hawaii, Department of Botany, Honolulu, Hawaii. (May 23, 1997)
McClatchey, W. A Role for Linguistic Data in Determination of Phylogentic Relationships of Western Pacific Species of Metroxylon (Arecaceae). Contributed Paper at the annual meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom. (June 1996)
McClatchey, W. Useful Palms of Fiji. Contributed Paper at the annual meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. (May, 1995)
McClatchey, W. Western Polynesian House Construction Terminology and the Development of a Cultural Cladogram. Contributed Paper at the annual meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, Mexico City, Mexico. (also presented at the University of Florida Graduate Student forum, May 1995.)
McClatchey, W. & Paul Cox. The Use of the Sago Palm in the Island of Rotuma. Contributed Paper at the annual meeting of the Society for Economic Botany, Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens, California. (May 1991)