Every Friday at 8 a.m., a group of students plant palm tree seeds at Miami Dade College North Campus' new palm tree nursery.

``Students learn a lot about palms even though they aren't science majors,'' said Juliette Llado, Student Government Association president. ``Each palm has a unique way about itself.''

The arboretum -- a nursery with more than 400 palms from around the world -- has brought students of all disciplines together to work at the MDC Science Complex, 11380 NW 27th Ave. North Campus President José Vicente said the facility -- called the Palmetum -- is the only one of its kind in higher education institutions in the country.

The nursery cost around $50,000 and was funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Education.

The 3.4-acre facility gets technical consulting from the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the USDA Plant Introduction Center at Chapman Field Park, the Montgomery Botanical Center in Coral Gables and the Albert Livingston Tree Farms in Homestead.

So far, only North Campus students use the facility, but eventually it will be utilized by all MDC campuses and by Miami-Dade public schools.

MDC officials say the complex, which includes a botanical garden with an ornamental greenhouse, is part of the campus' effort toward environmental sustainability.

Instructors and students use the arboretum for horticultural and biology research focusing on how palm seeds grow and the best places in South Florida for them to grow.

The Palmetum is part of the North Campus' new $40 million Science Complex, which officially opens Jan. 19.

Steve Ritter, a professor of biology and horticulture who teaches at the Palmetum, was involved with the grant writing, palm selection and installation.

``Part of it is plant identification, so I'm trying to get enough diversity here so I can show them the live specimens instead of just showing them videos or photos of them,'' Ritter said. ``We live in the tropics and have a lot of biodiversity here, so why not show it?''

The Palmetum is divided into eight world regions that include trees native to each area: the Americas, the Indian Ocean, Australia, Africa, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Basin and what Ritter calls the ``deviant palms,'' which are rare varieties that grow in all regions.

Ritter said Fairchild helped them acquire some trees that would otherwise not grow in the campus. Vicente added that the botanical institution helped ease what could have been an arduous task.

``If you were to conduct research you would have to go from location to location to get the seeds we got,'' he said.

While horticulture, biology and agriscience majors do research at the Palmetum, students from all disciplines in campus life get together every week to plow the land.

Architecture students even got to design the complex.

The idea of the arboretum grew from a discussion between the campus president and the science instructors.

Vicente said he gave the science faculty the freedom to choose a project that would characterize the science complex and be of significance to the area.

He also wanted MDC to develop a unique project that expanded into the research arena.

``Community colleges are known for their teaching and not for their research, and the science complex is a teaching and research facility,'' Vicente said.

That's how Graham Smart, the former director of the School of Fire and Environmental Sciences, came up with the idea of doing the palm tree nursery.

Students couldn't be happier with the outcome.

Roxanne Diaz, a biology major, was inspired to pursue research into environmental issues.

After participating in the palm planting, she applied for and received an internship in genetics research at the University of California, Merced.

Others, like Kelley Baptiste, a political science major who helped plant palm seeds, felt a sense of accomplishment from the Palmetum.

``I'm thinking about 10 years later, when I come back, I'm going to be like `that's my tree and I planted it all by myself,' '' he said.

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