The Garden's director, Prof. Arkadiusz Nowak, paid a visit to Mexico from May 9-23 this year. The purpose of the trip was to prepare a special issue of Acta Societatis Botanicorum Poloniae dedicated to the activities of Prof. Jerzy Rotter-Rzędowski and his wife Graciella Calderon, as well as to explore the rice field communities of southern Mexico (Campeche and Tabasco regions).

In the first part of the trip, a delegation from the Garden visited the Patzcuaro Institute of Ecology (Instituto de Ecologia, AC), which was founded by Prof. Jerzy Rotter-Rzędowski. Here they were acquainted with current research projects, herbarium resources, including Prof. Rzêdowski's collection) and the library, a large part of which are Polish publications. The meeting at the Institute was attended by former colleagues of Prof. Rzêdowski, including Dr. Brenda Y. Bedolla Garcia and Dr. J. Gabriel Sanchez Ken.

The next meeting was more sentimental in nature. It was held at the home of Professor Jerzy Rzêdowski in Mexico with the participation of the professor's three daughters and his closest assistants. We were able to get acquainted with the home workplace and the handy library of this outstanding botanist, who came from Lviv and lived in Sosnowiec for several years.

The last part of the trip was devoted to phytosociological research on the Yucatan peninsula. Rice field communities have been the subject of research by Prof. A. Nowak's team for many years. Despite the fact that American crops have a much shorter history and are much less species diverse, for comparative purposes they are extremely important. Also, assessing the interchangeability of field plants between Old World and New World crops is important in the context of alien plant invasions.