The Plant Press

Connecting Content at the US National Herbarium

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

By Sylvia Orli, guest contributor
IT Manager

The latest buzz term in natural history is “connecting content.” We see the term used officially in certain contexts, such as the California Academy of Science’s collaborative initiative to digitize natural history field notes and connect them to natural history collections and Biodiversity Heritage Library publications. But connecting content can also refer to projects which connect concepts in various content areas. In the US National Herbarium, we are using our KE EMu (Electronic Museum) data system to store different types of content, such as specimen data, photo images, mapping coordinates, and genetic voucher details, which connect to each other and to outside content. To date, we have nearly 1.2 million specimen descriptive records, 300,000 geocoded collection localities, and 185,000 specimen images and live plant images in EMu and available online. With these resources, we can illustrate botanical taxonomic and geographic checklists with both live images and plant specimen images, create locality maps of our collections, and connect our botanical research to our herbarium collections through the use of online tools.

The original 1856 botanical illustration of “Echinocactus (Sclerocactus) whipplei” drawn by Paulus Roetter, above, is housed at the National Museum of Natural History, whereas the type specimen is at the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Sometimes the merits of connecting our botanical content into one data storage system are shown to us in surprising ways. For example, this year we will be importing our botanical art images into EMu. Alice Tangerini, our botanical illustrator, discovered that the Department of Botany has most of the original botanical illustrations from the Report of the Expedition of the 35^th Parallel, “Explorations and Surveys of a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean,” published in 1856. The exploration was funded by the U.S. Secretary of War and led by A.W. Whipple of the Corps of Topographical Engineers and accompanied by botanists, George Engelmann and J. M. Bigelow of St. Louis. The expedition was part of an initiative of the U.S. government to find a railroad route from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean.

If the Department of Botany had the original report drawings, shouldn’t we also have the specimens from the expedition? The notion of combing the herbarium for specimens from this expedition to match the drawings seemed daunting, as 70 percent of the herbarium specimens are not inventoried. But Botany has also embarked on the Historical Collections project, an effort to document the botanical explorations in the US National Herbarium and digitize the collections associated with the expeditions as part of the Global Plants Initiative (GPI). By querying the name of the expedition in our EMu system, we were able to retrieve 71 records and specimen images for the Whipple expedition and match many of them to the original illustrations. A score for both the Whipple Expedition illustrations and specimens! We could now digitally connect the illustrations to their voucher specimen records.

Botanical Treasure #10. New Compositae species: Fulcaldea stuessyi (US 3580444)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

The tenth botanical treasure is a specimen of Compositae artistically illustrated.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Ficus sangumae Weiblen & Whitfeld

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 1

Ficus sangumae Weiblen & Whitfeld (Art by Alice Tangerini)

In 2010, Timothy J. S. Whitfeld and George D. Weiblen described five new species of Ficus (Moraceae) from the lowland rain forests of Papua New Guinea, including Ficus sangumae (Harvard Papers in Botany, 15:1-10). This illustration of F. sangumae came about when Alice Tangerini was asked to teach a botanical illustration class at the Minnesota School of Botanical Art in Minneapolis. Weiblen supplied herbarium specimens for the class to draw provided he could use them in his publication. Tangerini used her drawing of the Type of Ficus sangumae as the teaching model for the class. It was published as part of the group of illustrations done by class members.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Curcuma arracanensis W.J.Kress & V.Gowda

From Plant Press Vol. 15 no. 4

 

Curcuma arracanensis W.J.Kress & V.Gowda

This illustration of Curcuma arracanensis (Zingiberaceae) was drawn from living plants in the Botany Research Greenhouse when the plants were in flower at the end of August 2006. Tangerini initially drew the plant habit and then flowers and dissections in a couple of days working in the Greenhouse but returned in September to draw the tuberous rhizome to complete all of the figures needed for the publication (Gowda et al., 2012. PhytoKeys 13: 5-14.). Leslie Brothers supplied close up photographs to supplement the sketches since the final ink drawing was done in Tangerini’s office. Having the live plant was necessary to show details of the flowers and their spatial positions which are usually lost in pressed material. The leaf and inflorescence attitude of the live plant habit enabled Tangerini to give a natural look to the drawing.

 

Art by Alice Tangerini: Pedicularis furbishiae S.Watson

Pedicularis furbishiae S.Watson by Alice Tangerini

From Plant Press Vol. 15, no. 3 from 2012

The diversity of Pedicularis (Orobanchaceae) in China’s Hengduan Mountains was the focus of Richard Ree’s talk at the 10^th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium. Alice Tangerini illustrated the North American endangered Furbish lousewort (Pedicularis furbishiae) for the cover of Endangered and Threatened Plants of the United States by E.S. Ayensu and R.A. DeFilipps (1978; Smithsonian Institution and World Wildlife Fund, Inc.). This critically imperiled species is endemic to the Saint John River Valley of northern Maine and adjacent New Brunswick, where threats include ice scouring, flooding, gravel extraction, forestry, and invasive species.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Guadua sarcocarpa (Vol. 15, issue 2)

"Art by Alice Tangerini: Guadua sarcocarpa Londoo & P.M. Peterson" can be seen in this issue from 2012.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Dominant Desert Perennial Plants (Vol. 15, issue 1)

"Art by Alice Tangerini: Dominant Desert Perennial Plants" can be seen in this issue from 2012.

Recovery of Botanical Drawings Missing from the Botanical Art Collection (Vol. 15, issue 1)

"Recovery of Botanical Drawings Missing from the Botanical Art Collection" can be seen in this issue from 2012.

Tangerini Honored by GNSI (Vol. 14, issue 4)

"Tangerini Honored by GNSI" can be seen in this issue from 2011.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Pteris hivaoaensis Lorence & K.R. Wood (Vol. 14, issue 4)

"Art by Alice Tangerini: Pteris hivaoaensis Lorence & K.R. Wood" can be seen in this issue.