The Plant Press

Art by Alice Tangerini: Schiedea amplexicaulis

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

Schiedea amplexicaulis H. Mann is an extinct species that once inhabited the island of Kaua'i, Hawai'i. Tangerini drew this image based upon an isotype specimen at the Paris Herbarium (P) collected on the Voyage of the French naturlaist Ezechiel Jules Rémy (1851-1855). Schiedea amplexicaulis is one of 106 plants believed to have gone extinct in the Hawaiian Islands in the past few centuries. All Schiedea species are currently threatened with extinction, and 638 Hawaiian plants are currently at risk (8% of the vascular flora).

Symposium on Biodiversity of Guyana

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

A recent symposium on the biodiversity of Guyana was generously supported by an anonymous donation received through the Office of the Associate Director for Research and Collections (ADRC) in the National Museum of Natural History, and by the Biological Diversity of the Guianas (BDG) Program. Instrumental in the success of the undertaking were Carol Kelloff, assistant director of BDG who organized the meeting, and Tom Hollowell, data manager of BDG who coordinated the informative poster sessions. Kelloff provided the following report.

“The University of Guyana and the Smithsonian Institution’s Biological Diversity of the Guianas Program hosted a symposium entitled ‘The Biodiversity of Guyana: A Global Perspective for the Future’ in Georgetown, Guyana from 7–10 October. At the opening Reception, James Rose, Vice-Chancellor, University of Guyana, Vicki Funk, Director, Biological Diversity of the Guianas Program, and Ronald Godard, American Ambassador, welcomed over 200 guests.

“Funk announced the completion of the publication Preliminary Checklist of the Plants of the Guiana Shield, Volume 1: Acanthaceae - Lythraceae by T. Hollowell, P. Berry, V. Funk and C. Kelloff. The Shield encompasses Venezuela (Amazonas, Bolívar, Delta Amacuro) and the three Guianas. Complimentary copies are available upon request. The Symposium was dedicated to Dr. George L. Walcott (1928-2001), former Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, who was instrumental in establishment of the University’s Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity.

In The Spirit of Don Jose

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

John L. Clark, graduate student in the joint George Washington University – Smithsonian Institution program in Systematics, has provided the following appreciation of José Cuatrecasas.

“One of my biggest regrets about my Ph.D. program is that I never got to meet Don José. I arrived at the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Botany and the George Washington University’s Department of Biological Sciences to start my Ph.D. in 1998, two years after Don José had passed away. Desapite not meeting him in person, he has provided a tremendous amount of support for my dissertation. I recently received funds from the José Cuatrecasas Botanical Fund, to explore gesneriads in the Andes of Ecuador for my Ph.D. dissertation on the genus Alloplectus (Gesneriaceae).

“Throughout a 3-month period I set up 13 expeditions to the slopes of the Andes. In southern Ecuador I trekked between Paramo areas to lowland rainforest on the eastern and western slopes. I also conducted numerous expeditions in the Cordillera de los Guacamayos and the Cordillera de los Llanganates on the northeastern slopes of the Andes. I brought back over 640 collections with numerous duplicates, 60 packets of gesneriad seed, 1,200 slides, and leaf material in silica gel for molecular systematic studies.

“With my Ph.D. advisor, Dr. Laurence E. Skog, we are in the process of describing and identifying a number of discoveries from this trip. One of the most exciting collections is Columnea isernii Cuatr. This Ecuadorean species has an unusual yellow- and purple-striped corolla with densely sericeous pubescence and a deeply dissected calyx. The plant was one of the last species that Dr. Cuatrecasas described before his unanticipated and inauspicious departure from Spain in 1939. To our knowledge, Columnea isernii has only been collected seven times.

“Two previous collections in the US National Herbarium are dubious due to the lack of flowers or fruits. The holotype is located at the Real Jardin Botánico in Madrid, Spain, and is probably one of the few collections with mature flowers. In October 2001 Columnea isernii flowered at the US Botany Research Greenhouse, and was photographed by horticulturist Leslie Brothers. It was subsequently chosen as the ‘Plant of the Week’ and the photo was displayed on the Botany webpage <http://persoon.si.edu/plofweek/query.cfm>, under the genus query ‘Columnea.’

“Thanks to the José Cuatrecasas Botanical Fund I was able to explore and collect in the Ecuadorean Andes and continue research towards my Ph.D. dissertation on the evolution and systematics of Alloplectus.”

New Faces

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

Aizhong Liu, a postdoctoral fellow working with W. John Kress, arrived on 16 October. His interest is in the systematics of wild bananas (Musa). While at the Smithsonian for one year, Liu will use phylogenetic techniques to study the origin of domestic bananas by comparing different DNA regions, in order to clarify the phylogenetic relationships within Musa. Liu received his Ph.D. from Kunming Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with De-Zhu and Kress as advisers.

Joining the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics (LMS) is Miguel Volovsek, whose doctoral research was on the molecular systematics of Nemeralian red algae, under the guidance of Max Hommersand at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. At the LMS, Volovsek is working with Judith Skog, George Mason University professor and Smithsonian Research Associate and Elizabeth Zimmer. He is investigating phylogenetic relationships among species in the fern genus Elaphoglossum.

Jessica Braun, a graduate of St. Mary’s College of Maryland, has begun work as a contractor for Warren Wagner. She will be involved in the inventory of hundreds of specimens collected in the Hawaiian Islands and the preparation of over a thousand images for the Hawaiian flora website. Braun, who will be here for nine months, previously worked as a contractor with the Biological Diversity of the Guianas Program.

Aaron J. Proujansky, an undergraduate student at Princeton University, is a volunteer intern with the Biological Diversity of the Guianas Program, studying the medicinal plants of the Guianas.

Matthew Smith from Silver Spring, Maryland has begun an internship with Robert Faden, to study the comparative leaf anatomy of the Streptolirioneae, a small subtribe comprising three genera of Commelinaceae. Smith will also assist the Collections Management Unit and the inventorying of Myanmar collections. 

Botanists Promote Endangered Planet Conservation

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

By Robert DeFilipps

Several large regions of the world are confronting environmental problems shaped by intrinsic sets of geographical, biological, and human parameters that have operated for varying periods of time. Among the recurring problems, it is believed that overlooked populations of potentially valuable medicinal plants are at risk on a worldwide basis, and could be extirpated before their pharmacologically active chemical compounds can be studied in anticipation of future use. Will a wider significance eventually be accorded, for example, to the fact that in Brazil Heliotropium elongatum (Boraginaceae) and Ilex paraguariensis (Aquifoliaceae) are used to treat anthrax?

Typical of regional situations facing Latin America are the progress of Amazonian economic development with its attendant rainforest fragmentation and loss of biodiversity, and the conversion of Central American woodlands into pastures for beef cattle. Characteristic of Africa is the struggle to repel desertification in the vast sub-Saharan Sahel and the resulting desperate search for alternative sources of firewood.

Europe has the prolonged effects of denudation throughout the Mediterranean area to contend with. In fact, deforestation is thought to have strongly influenced the demise of the civilizations of Mesopotamia (ca. 2000 BC), Bronze Age Minoan Crete (ca. 1450 BC), Mycenaean Greece (ca. 1200 BC), Cyprus (abandoned ca. 1050 BC), Greece in the Golden Age of Athens (ca. 400 BC), the Roman Republic (ca. 400 BC), and the Venetian Republic (ca. 1500 AD).

The Pacific Ocean realm contains often highly specialized endemic floras in fragile, isolated island ecosystems. Pre-adapted to life without predators, many indigenous plant communities, as in Hawaii, have been strangulated by introduced weeds and rooted-out by feral animals. The calamity is worsened by the fact that some Pacific areas, such as Fiji (for Degeneriaceae), are within the Cretaceous cradle of evolution of the primitive flowering plants, and intensive research into their floras can still teach us much about how angiosperms originated.

A New Century of Biology

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

The Smithsonian Institution Press has just published “A New Century of Biology” edited by W. John Kress and Gary Barrett (University of Georgia). The eleven essays contained in the volume, contributed by Ernst Mayr, Gene Likens, Gordon Orians, Marvalee Wake, Lynn Margulis, Dan Janzen, Tom Lovejoy, Ian Prance, Edward Wilson as well as Barrett and Kress, consider how our discipline must evolve to address the problems of the twenty-first century. Because human activity and increased population will continue to have a profound effect on the environment, biologists must define an effective strategy for integrating the biological sciences with global economics and human social structure.

Discovery Young Scientist Challenge

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

On 22-24 October, Botany played host to 40 of the country’s top middle school science students, as part of the Young Scientist Challenge sponsored by Discovery Communications, Inc. Using the upcoming 200^th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition as an historical backdrop for the challenge, each student was tested for plant identification and map reading skills. The winners receive scholarship awards, while many others receive discretionary prizes such as opportunities to join scientists in the field.

What is Botany?

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

What is Botany? I admit it: we are paraphyletic. Botany at the Smithsonian is all over the Tree of Life: green plants, fungi, brown algae, red algae, and dinoflagellates scattered around the Eukaryota, and then those cyanobacteria and associated (rather disassociated) green plant chloroplasts found in the second major clade of life - the Bacteria.

In fact, taken together, our studies in Botany encompass more of life on the planet than any other unit at the Smithsonian, with the exception, perhaps, of Paleobiology. The direct lineages of the organisms investigated in Botany stretch back to the Early Proterozoic of 2 billion years ago. In contrast, the vertebrates, invertebrates, and insects are clustered in a single clade at the very tip of the tree in the Metazoan clade, at the most going back only a mere 600 million years. Admittedly, the arthropods comprise an enormous diversity of species currently on the planet, but they are confined to a single branch at the tip of the Tree. Botany at the Smithsonian includes work on five of the nine major lineages in the Eukaryota and two of the three major branches of the “Big Tree of Life.” That is a big chunk of the natural world to understand.

Within the green plants, at the Smithsonian we have some of the best collections and curators of non-vascular and vascular plants: bryophytes, ferns, and flowering plants. Within the fungi, our lichen collections and research are among the most extensive on the continent. All four major algal groups (greens, yellows, browns, and reds) that stretch over three major clades in the Eukaryota are currently being studied and documented by our scientists. Within the “ciliate” clade, our dinoflagellate specialist has created one of the best documented collections of the last few decades.

Finally, The Francis Drouet Cyanobacteria Collection housed in Botany is a gold mine of described and undescribed members of this critical clade of Bacteria that indirectly gave rise to all green plants. Botany at the Smithsonian goes beyond what we traditionally think of as the study of plants. Not only does it span the major lineages of life on earth, but also its major habitats, including marine and fresh water as well as tropical, temperate and polar terrestrial environments.

The discipline of botany is a distinctive scientific endeavor and field of inquiry with its own set of rules (e.g., The International Code of Botanical Nomenclature), societies (e.g., Botanical Society of America, International Association for Plant Taxonomy), and publications (e.g., American Journal of Botany, International Journal of Plant Sciences, Systematic Botany). Our colleagues are most commonly found at other botanical institutions, such as botanical gardens, university herbaria, and some natural history museums. Our professional meetings are primarily concentrations of botanists, but the topics under discussion and presentation cut across many fields of study, including taxonomy, ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation. Although the charismatic megafauna often win the public’s attention for inspiring the conservation of habitats, those habitats are defined by their vegetation. Conducting an inventory of the plants is invariably the first priority in the assessment of a new conservation area, and an understanding of plant diversity is the foundation for conserving the entire biota.

Forty Years of Plant Mounting

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

October 2001 marks the 40^th year of plant mounting by Mary Skinner. She began in 1961 as a US herbarium contract mounter at home, and then from 1969 to 1986 she mounted plants in the National Museum of Natural History for the Herbarium Services Unit. After retiring in1986, she began in the same year as a contract specimen mounter for the Biological Diversity of the Guianas (BDG) Program, and is still going strong. With mounting enthusiasm we file our congratulations on her accomplishment, which at a probable average of around 3,000 sheets per year could amount to nearly 120,000 sheets. 

Comments on the Effects of the September 11 Attacks

From Plant Press, Vol. 4, No. 4 from October 2001.

Botany staff received numerous e-mail messages of concern and condolence following the September 11 terrorist attacks. Among the countries from which messages were received are: Canada, Chile, China, Cuba, France, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and Venezuela.

Visits to the US National Herbarium by collaborators with Warren Wagner and other researchers the week of 23 September were cancelled, and planned field work in Venezuela by Laurence Dorr as well as plant collecting in Gabon by Deborah Bell and Stephen Smith were cancelled. Several Botany staff members were traveling during the events, and had difficulties returning to Washington, D.C.

Dan Nicolson was in Sydney, Australia attending a Flora Malesiana Symposium at the time of the attacks, and he reports the following. “Flags were immediately lowered to half-mast and everyone was as shocked as us. I had e-mail messages from Russia, Mexico, Brazil, etc. The symposium continued until 14 September when we took a field trip to a botanic garden in the Blue Mountains. Sunday 15 September my wife and I flew back to Los Angeles where our onward flight to Dulles was cancelled. In Australia, when they saw that my wife was born in Beirut, we were immediately taken away to have all our baggage hand searched. In Los Angeles we had to wait a day to get seats to Washington-Dulles Airport, so we went to a motel overnight. Security was extremely high and it took three hours in long lines to check our bags and clear security. People were patient.”

Gary Krupnick was in Bonn, Germany, meeting with collaborators at the University of Bonn. He arrived in Germany the day before the attacks, and had a successful morning working session before news of the terrorist actions were received. Work continued, but with a heavy heart. He had planned to return to the United States on Friday 14 September. Those plans changed, and after a few days of unclear travel conditions, returned on Monday 17 September. Instead of the direct flight to Dulles Airport, he had to take a flight into Newark Airport and then catch a shuttle into Dulles. Flying into Newark provided the devastating view of the famous New York skyline minus the World Trade Center, with smoke still rising six days after the events. Krupnick reports that he received heartfelt sympathy and support from his colleagues in Germany, and that many memorials and candle light vigils occurred around the cities of Bonn and Cologne.

Vicki Funk was in Santa Barbara, California, at a biogeography meeting at NCEAS, and she reports the following. “I was out bird watching in the morning and did not get to the meeting until the scheduled time of 9 a.m. (noon EST). I had checked out of my hotel and had my small bag with me. I was scheduled to return to D.C. via American Flight #76 which was the actual plane that was headed to Los Angeles when it crashed into the Pentagon. Everyone at NCEAS has been looking for me and we were frantic to find a television and see what was happening. We had people in from Europe as well as all over the U.S. Obviously we were not going anywhere and no one was the least bit upset. Considering the alternative we all felt glad to be alive. We could not get through on the phone and we were all quite concerned about what was happening on the East Coast. Finally we were all able to contact our friends and family and everyone was okay. Although the people at NCEAS were wonderful and Santa Barbara is a nice place to be stuck, I wanted to come home. I tried to rent a car but there were none available. The airlines were very nice and tried hard to get us out but the planes were not flying and when they started again it was going to be the next Monday, maybe, before we could get out. So I took Amtrak from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Chicago (via Albuquerque and Kansas City), Chicago to Philadelphia, Philadelphia to Washington and then got on Metrorail to East Falls Church. I started Friday around noon and I arrived at home around 10 p.m. on Monday. The train was packed and also was pulling 20-30 mail cars and had three engines. I had a seat, not a sleeper, and early on Saturday morning I opened my eyes and we were stopping briefly at Winslow, Arizona. I started humming the song from the Eagles (“Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, what a fine site to see, a girl my lord in a flat bed ford slowing down to take a look at me...”) and before long all the baby boomers in the car were singing along. It was a long 3 days but everyone was subdued and very easy going. We were all just glad to be headed in the right direction. Arizona and New Mexico were nice but by the time we got to eastern Colorado, Kansas and western Illinois, sorry folks, but it was all farmland and we saw very little natural vegetation. I was very happy to be home and very grateful to be alive.”