From 13-15 September, a group of FABIans visited SAPPI plantations in the Richards Bay area to collect leaf material from more than 500 Eucalyptus grandis trees. This material will be used to carry out a range of molecular, metagenomic and metabolomic studies in different families of this species. Participating in this field trip were: Prof. Almuth Hammerbacher, Prof. Sanushka Naidoo, Dr Tanay Bose, Myriam Solís, Dr Erik Visser, Sean Schultze, Demissew Teshome, Shae Swanepoel, Valencia Mogashoa, Bianca Hattingh, Welapie Maluleke and Kgetise Malele.

We would like to thank the Sappi staff for their support and collaboration in this activity and those FABIans who participated in this large harvesting trial.