The Plant Press

“What wood is that?”: Expanding the toolbox for species identification

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2020.

By Julia Campbell-Such

The National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian holds many beautiful works of art made from wood, but only rarely do our records indicate what species of wood the artist used. This is not unusual for a museum, but it is a shame since so much can be learned about a piece of art from understanding the materials that were used to make it. Artists choose their materials carefully for their physical characteristics but also, especially in the case of art originating on the African continent, for their symbolic value. Certain tree species can impart meaning, or even metaphysical powers, to an object made from its wood. The identification of which tree species used in African art and belongings can help researchers recreate the history of artworks with uncertain provenance and elucidate the symbolic worlds of those who created them.

Tangential section of a sample from the National Museum of African Art Jane Smith Collection of West African Woods, most likely Entandrophragma utile, under 16X magnification.

Increasingly, species identification is also important in the context of the enforcement of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international treaty to prevent species from becoming endangered or extinct because of international trade. Without proper documentation demonstrating that objects are not made with endangered species, museum artworks travelling to exhibitions abroad may be held, confiscated, or even destroyed by customs officials. Knowing which wood was used can help protect artworks when they travel.

As an Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Object Conservation at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, I have been investigating ways to answer the question, “What wood is that?”, for artwork in the museum’s collection for the past two years. Using the Jane Smith collection of 64 hand samples representing over 50 species of West African woods, I have been comparing traditional wood anatomy to newly developed methods that use the tree’s chemistry, as well as its anatomy, to identify it. With the generous support of the Botany Morphology Lab at the National Museum of Natural History, under the supervision of Kenneth Wurdack and the kind, generous tutelage of Stanley Yankowski, I have been preparing and examining wood slides from this collection. I have then been comparing the results of that anatomical analysis to direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS) of the same samples, conducted at the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute under the supervision of G. Asher Newsome.

Artwork by Regina Olson Hughes featured in a National Technical Institute for the Deaf exhibition

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2020.

The Dyer Arts Center, part of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, has put together an online exhibition focusing on deaf artists and plants. The exhibition, “Palettes of Nature,” went live on September 22. Among the artists featured is Regina Olson Hughes (1895-1993). Hughes was a scientific illustrator who came to the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany after retiring from her position in 1969 as a staff illustrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). She continued to work at the Smithsonian until the age of 95.

The watercolor, Huntleya fasciata (Orchidaceae), by Regina Olson Hughes is currently featured in “Palettes of Nature,” an online exhibition hosted by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf.

At the National Museum of Natural History, Hughes worked as a contract illustrator for scientists at both USDA and the Smithsonian. She painted orchids from the National Orchid Collection for Robert W. Read and a large number of Asteraceae for Robert M. King and Harold Robinson (for example, see The Genera of the Eupatorieae (Asteraceae), https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/57564021).

Reflections on the Botany 2020 virtual meeting

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2020.

The Botany 2020 meeting was held virtually on July 27-31 this year, as an alternative to the on-site meeting originally planned to be held in Anchorage, Alaska. The virtual meeting was a great success considering the circumstances of the pandemic. The virtual platform and the low registration fees ($100 per person to pay for IT support to manage all the video talks) enabled many international colleagues to participate in the conference, most of whom may not have been able to attend the meeting if it was held on-site. Many international researchers, especially students, were able to attend the meeting and interact with colleagues in a conference setting for the first time.

Botany 2020 was attended by 1,323 botanists, substantially higher than the typical attendance for a Botany meeting. The conference attendees hailed from over 45 countries and all 50 U.S. states; there were 439 contributed papers and 202 posters presented, as well as 14 workshops, 7 special lectures, 5 symposia, and 10 colloquia. Many attendees praised the thorough organization and seamless execution of the meeting, and an article published in Science Magazine on virtual scientific meetings highlighted the Botany meeting as a success story.

Global Strategy for Plant Conservation succeeds in aligning actions to protect plant diversity around the world

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2020.

-Adapted from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity

The Plant Conservation Report highlights the initiatives, actions and innovations carried out over the last 10 years to ensure the conservation of plants through the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation.

A new report on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) suggests that while the 16 targets of the decades long plan to protect global plant are unlikely to be met, countries have made considerable progress towards achieving many of them. Such progress is the result of actions under the strategy, with several new initiatives developed specifically to address GSPC targets. In the absence of the GSPC, these actions would not likely have taken place.

These actions include the establishment of a World Flora Online and a Global Tree Assessment. The World Flora Online is led by a Consortium of over 40 key institutions (which includes the National Museum of Natural History-NMNH) to create an open-access web-based compendium of the world’s 350,000 species of vascular plants and mosses (GSPC Target 1 - online flora of all known plants). The World Flora Online provides a comprehensive baseline of knowledge on the world’s plants. The Global Tree Assessment, which aims to have completed Red List assessments for all the world’s tree species by 2020 (GSPC Target 2 - assessment of the conservation status of all known plant species), is of fundamental importance in helping prioritize national actions. The Assessment aims to ensure that no tree species becomes extinct, despite showing that currently one in five tree species globally are known to be threatened with extinction. The Global Tree Assessment is managed and coordinated by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) working with the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Global Tree Specialist Group (GTSG). The GTSG has over 80 tree experts from countries all around the world, including members of Smithsonian’s Department of Botany, who are contributing information and carrying out species assessments.

“Plant diversity is crucial in the functioning of all ecosystems,” said Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity. “The decline of plant biodiversity is an illustration of a larger problem in our relationship with the natural world. As we work to achieve the 2050 Vision of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, botanic gardens and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation play a crucial role in protecting biodiversity and fostering stewardship.”

“Like the assessment in the fifth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook, the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation shows that while there has been important progress, we need greater efforts to achieve the GSPC targets. To reach these goals in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, we will need the engagement of all actors.”