The Plant Press

Art by Alice Tangerini: Bahiana occidentalis K.Wurdack

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 4, October 2024.

Bahiana occidentalis K.Wurdack (PhytoKeys 219: 121-144; 2023) was first collected 40 years before it was described based on an accumulation of 35 collections from the seasonally dry tropical forests of northern Peru. Since none of those collections was flowering – sterile, young buds, or fruits – it had lain in herbaria as an unidentified member of Euphorbiaceae that had stymied years of euphorb-specialist scrutiny. The keys to its recognition came with genetic data and the shared morphological feature of unusual spiny stipules that linked it to Bahiana, a genus that had just been described in 2022 based on a second species in eastern Brazil. The illustration by Alice Tangerini began as pen and ink drawings that were digitized and then shaded. This taxon is being included in Kew’s PAFTOL (Plant and Fungal Trees of Life) project, about which Ken Wurdack gave an overview at the XX International Botanical Congress (IBC) of its recent findings for Euphorbiaceae.

By the Numbers: Collections Edition

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 4, October 2024.

U.S. National Herbarium
By the Numbers
* Collections Edition *

A volunteer in the Department of Botany carefully mount plant specimens to herbarium sheets. (photographer unknown)

16,042

Specimens digitized/imaged in FY24

 

6,109

New specimens accessioned into the collection in FY24

 

6,027

Specimens mounted in FY24

 

1,140

Specimens loaned out in FY24

 

A volunteer in the Department of Botany carefully mount plant specimens to herbarium sheets. (photo by Erika Gardner)

Staff activities

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 4, October 2024.

On July 16, 2024, Alice Tangerini traveled to Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF) in Upperville, Viriginia to teach a class on Botanical Illustration and present a lecture entitled, “Botanical Illustration at the Museum.”

Alice Tangerini (top right corner of the table) instructs a class from the University of Virginia on botanical illustration. (image courtesy of the Oak Spring Garden Foundation)

Tangerini was asked by Danielle Eady, OSGF Director of Art and Residential Programs, to lead a class demonstration on botanical illustration in pen and ink techniques to students from the Rare Book School of the University of Virginia. Tangerini’s class this year was modeled after her previous year’s class for the Rare Book School, and it was also part of the curriculum titled, Six Hundred Years of Botanical Illustration, led by Roger Gaskell, UVA Faculty member, and Peter Crane, OSGF President.

Tangerini’s lecture and techniques focused on the last 50 years of botanical illustration. She concentrated on the techniques used in pen and ink illustration but also showed examples of digital artwork and explained the transition from the traditional to digital techniques over the last 24 years.

Gardeners at OSGF provided living material including varieties of rudbeckias and made available prints of the flower heads to expedite the drawing process. Using the tracing acetate and drafting film provided, the class completed their finished pieces in pen and ink of the Rudbeckia heads and leaves. The class ended with Peter Crane giving an early evening tour of the greenhouses and conservation gardens followed by dinner at the former “schoolhouse”.

New faces

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 4, October 2024.

Bertrand Black is a Ph.D. candidate in Plant Biology at the University of Vermont. He joined Botany as a predoctoral fellow in August 2024, working under the mentorship of Eric Schuettpelz. His dissertation focuses on the phylogenomics, biogeography, and systematics of American lady ferns (Athyrium filix-femina complex), with an emphasis on understanding their evolutionary relationships, species diversity, and historical biogeography. While at the Smithsonian, he will continue his work integrating next-generation sequence data and the collection of preserved specimens housed in the herbarium to document unrecognized lady fern diversity across the Americas. At the University of Vermont, he also teaches field courses on plant identification and how to prepare museum-quality plant collections.

 

Angélica Gallego Narbón started a Peter Buck fellowship in October 2024 in the NMNH Department of Botany under the supervision of Jun Wen. Her postdoctoral research examines the influence of climate and biogeography in the evolution of several Araliaceae lineages, with a special focus in the disjunct Asian-Neotropical genus Dendropanax and the ivy genus Hedera. She recently completed her Ph.D. focused on the systematics and evolution of the biggest clade of the plant family Araliaceae (Asian Palmate group) at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in Spain. Her dissertation investigated the evolutionary relationships of the genera within this clade, as well as the evolution, biogeography, and ecology of ivies in their natural habits in western Europe. During this period, she had the opportunity to work at the Smithsonian with Wen supported by the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program (SIFP). Her research interests include studying the plant family Araliaceae from an integrative perspective, combining phylogenomics, biogeography, diversification, climate and functional trait analyses. Her research can be followed on her social media accounts (X: @agallegonarbon, ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Angelica-Gallego-Narbon).

 

Yali Li is a visiting graduate student from the South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. A Ph.D. student in Plant Biology, her thesis focuses on the conservation genomics of Firmiana danxiaensis (Malvaceae), a critically endangered species currently found in only six locations in Guangdong Province and Fujian Province, China. The species is naturally distributed across Danxia and Karst landforms. Under the supervision of Jun Wen, she is working to better elucidate the endangered mechanisms of F. danxaiensis as well as its adaptation to specialized habitats. She has additional interests in biogeography, dispersal, and evolution of the Firmiana genus.

 

 

Ting Wang, a visiting postdoctoral fellow from South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, joined Botany in September 2024, working under the supervision of Jun Wen and Eric Schuettpelz. Her project focuses on the phylogenic and biogeographical origins of Angiopteris (Marattiaceae), a genus that is widely distributed from Madagascar to the Pacific Islands. At the Smithsonian, she plans to supplement the DNA from the Pacific Island samples with the aim of gaining a more comprehensive understanding of the evolutionary history of Angiopteris across time and space.