The Plant Press

Art by Alice Tangerini: Chaboissaea subbiflora

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

Chaboissaea consists of three taxa endemic to Mexico and one from Argentina and Bolivia. Using maps of chloroplast DNA, Paul Peterson and colleagues found that the Mexican C. subbiflora is sister to the remaining three species in the genus, and that RFLP data support monophyly of the genus (Systematic Botany 22: 291-302. 1997). Currently, Peterson and collaborators are developing a phylogeny of all species of Muhlenbergia by sequencing nuclear and chloroplast genes.

Botanists Continue Nuclear Testing

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

By Robert DeFilipps

The scope of variation and potentiality of certain plant chemicals, the molecules, are gradually becoming better known. “Taxol,” a molecule developed for the treatment of breast cancer, was originally synthesized from bark of the Pacific yew tree (Taxus). And many people hovering over chili bowls are aware that chili peppers (Capsicum) contain a molecule known as “capsaicin,” which arouses the nerves that respond to painful (i.e., “hot”) stimuli. As neuroscientist Barry Green recently explained, long-term exposure to capsaicin can reduce the sensitivity (to pain) of those nerves, which has led to capsaicin being used in ointments for inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. In another area, the relative similarities and differences in secondary metabolic molecules such as alkaloids, aside from their function in the plants as natural protective mechanisms against herbivorous predators and decay-causing microorganisms, are being studied by conservationists for their predictive value in finding species that may be of potential use for medicines and drugs.

In fact, botanical molecules pervade the very air we breathe, to the extent that, as reported by S.A. Russell, plants can and do communicate with each other by means of, as it were, “cries for help, invitations, even warnings, each in the form of odor molecules that float past human noses unnoticed” (Discover 23(4): 46-51. 2002). Another interesting major group, the macromolecules, is functionally unlike all the micromolecules mentioned above. They occur in the genetic material (DNA) in the nuclei and chloroplasts of cells. Molecules comprising strands of helically coiled DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) are composed of numerous tiny groupings or coded sequences of proteins. Investigations of the variability in the homologous arrangement or coding of these proteins in the chloroplast DNA plasmids, mitochondrial DNA, or ribosomal DNA (and in isozymes), can reveal the hereditary proximity of one line of organisms to another. That is the basis for understanding evolutionary relationships and processes such as plant introgression, polyploidy and other phenomena. The discipline is termed “Plant Molecular Systematics,” and studies in this complex field are becoming ever more helpful towards reducing the guesswork inherent in some traditional botanical pursuits. Scoping out the difference between molecular systematics and regular taxonomy is like comparing a ballet to a barn dance.

Smithsonian botany curators are participating in molecular systematics studies encompassing various major groups such as algae, lichens and flowering plants. Paula DePriest, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada), has found that switching of algal and fungal partners can occur in the symbioses of some cladoniaceous lichens; this was done by comparing their nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) phylogenies to test aspects of coevolution, cospeciation and parallel cladogenesis. DePriest, with colleagues in Canada, Russia, Wisconsin and Tanzania, has also worked with amplified ribosomal DNA sequences from subfossils of an Umbilicaria lichen in a Greenland glacier. Some of the fungus groups they found were the same as others previously detected in DNA extracted from the grass clothing of a Tyrolean Iceman who had been frozen for 3,000 years. With colleagues in Austria and Sweden, DePriest analyzed small subunit ribosomal DNA sequences, and in an article that made the cover of Science magazine (9 June 1995) revealed that lichen symbioses have originated multiple times during fungal evolution in disparate groups of ascomycetes and basidiomycetes.

Departures

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

Jessica Braun’s contract work with Warren Wagner ended mid‑June. Within a short period of time, Braun processed over 2,200 digital images, with the majority of these images intended for the Pacific Island Web site. About 1,200 images can be found on the Flora of the Hawaiian Islands Web pages <http://rathbun.si.edu/botany/pacificislandbiodiversity/hawaiianflora/index.htm> and roughly 700 will be available on the Flora of the Marquesas Islands Web pages, which are presently being developed. Another 210 images of Onagraceae will be presented on a separate Web site being developed specifically for the Onagraceae family. In addition to processing digital images, Braun participated in database maintenance. She entered information into the image database and helped clean up database records of US specimens from the Hawaiian Islands. After finishing her contract position, Braun is visiting family in Denmark and touring the country for one month. We hope to bring Braun back in the near future to continue the excellent work she has begun. 

Species Blancoane Website Debuts

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

The hard work of Dan Nicolson and Dawn Arculus in inventorying the illustrative specimens of E.D. Merrill’s Species Blancoanae (Flora of the Philippines) has culminated in the new Species Blancoanae Website <http://persoon.si.edu/blanco/>.

F. M. Blanco (1778-1845), an Augustinian friar stationed in the Philippines from 1805 to his death, published his Flora de Filipinas in 1837, followed by a second edition in 1845. F. A. Llanos (1806-1881) & F. A. Naves (1839-1910) published a folio third edition in 1877-1883. Original material of Blanco’s names of new taxa in these publications did not survive.

Following the Spanish-American War (1895-1898) the Philippine Islands were ceded to the United States. E. D. Merrill arrived in 1902 and began an intensive collecting program on Philippine plants. Merrill (1918) published his major commentary on all of Blanco’s species. With few exceptions, Merrill cited what he called an “illustrative specimen” for each of Blanco’s names. Those for names of new taxa functioned as replacements for the lost original material.

In 1917, Merrill sent a set of the specimens to W.R. Maxon, an associate curator at the US Herbarium. As a result, the US National Herbarium now holds a significant number of these “illustrative specimens.” The Species Blancoanae Website is available to facilitate the investigation of these specimens by other researchers.

The Website fulfils the promise made by Nicolson and Arculus (Taxon 50: 953. 2001), “…a website focused on US Blanco material is planned, including a database and images.” All images of actual or potential neotypes are available.

Specimen images, such as this one of Plagianthus humilis (=Munronia humilis) of the family Meliaceae, can be found on the Species Blancoanae Website.

 

 

Alain Touwaide: Visiting Scholar in Botany

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

By Robert DeFilipps

A drawing of Artemisia from Herbarius Patavie, 1485, f. 12 recto.

You don’t need to understand ten languages including Arabic, and maintain a personal library of 12,000 volumes, but they sure help to facilitate work. Especially if you are, like Alain Touwaide, deeply interested in the plants of antiquity, and the classical times in which botany first emerged as the study of medicinal plants, incorporating the early history of pharmacology and medicine. Alain Touwaide is a Visiting Scholar in Botany, and he is accompanied by his wife Emanuela Appetiti, an independent scholar, botanical historian, and ethnobotanist specializing in medicinal plants of the Australian Aborigines under a grant from the Italian Institute of Philosophical Studies based in Naples. She is currently compiling a bibliography on traditional uses of medicinal plants among aborigines.

 Born in Brussels, Belgium, and demonstrating an early aptitude for languages, Touwaide received the Doctorate in Philosophy and Letters (Department of Classics) from the University of Louvain in 1981, having written a 5-volume thesis on toxicological treatises attributed to Dioscorides. He also holds a degree in Oriental Philology and History (Byzantium/Arabic World) granted in 1979, among several others, from Louvain. His previous academic appointments have demonstrated a rich international diversity, taking him for various periods of time to Dumbarton Oaks (Washington, D.C.), Nice and Marseille (France), Naples, Barcelona, Madrid, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Norman, Oklahoma, among many other places.

A specialization in classical botany has inspired Touwaide’s searches for ancient manuscripts in numerous libraries around the world. These include the Vatican Library; the Ambrosian Library in Milan; the Marciana Library in Venice; the Topkapi Library in Istanbul; the Mazarine Library in Paris; the library of the monks of Mt.Athos (Greece), and of several other monasteries; and the Bodleian Library (Oxford, England). At the Bodleian, some of the books are still chained to desks for student use, a lingering precaution from centuries ago, and at the Vatican, it is requested that even well-seasoned scholars prove their ability in Latin and Greek to a librarian, in effect to take a “codicological exam,” before being allowed access to the classical manuscripts.

A Sillier Enterprise is Hard to Imagine

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

“Others spend their time trying to replace the functional Linnaean system for general communication about organisms with one based on estimates of times of phylogenetic divergence; a sillier enterprise is hard to imagine…” (Paul Ehrlich: 2002. BioScience 52: 34).

Actually, for most people sillier things are possible to imagine, but not for taxonomists confronted with an immense task to accomplish in an extremely limited amount of time. What is the task? E. O. Wilson referred to it as “completing the Linnaean enterprise.” Others call it the “Catalog of Life.” Most of us just think of “it” as doing what we have been trained to do: discover, describe, and understand the origin of species inhabiting the Earth.

This enterprise has been pursued by modern naturalists for over three centuries and by indigenous cultures for perhaps thousands of years. The job is not done, but the pressure to complete it is intense. In the last ten years, partly as a result of the 1992 “Rio Summit” and the Convention on Biological Diversity, a host of activities have been initiated to make sure it is successful, e.g., the Global Taxonomic Initiative, Species 2000, the Global Biodiversity Inventory Facility, and the All Species Inventory to name a few. Clearly the biological and conservation community want to move ahead with a complete inventory of life before habitats are irrevocably altered. Scientists at natural history museums and botanical gardens are at the center of this inventory.

What’s the fuss? Just when we need to concentrate our efforts on the discovery and description of Life, a cohort of very thoughtful and idealistic, but impractical systematists have proposed a replacement method for naming plants, animals, and microorganisms: the PhyloCode. The extremely successful Linnaean system of hierarchically ranked classifications and binomial names for species is being challenged by a complex, cumbersome, and “silly” system of naming and classifying based on hypothesized phylogenetic relationships. The intent is much appreciated; the execution is ill-conceived and counter-productive.

In March 2001 the Smithsonian Institution convened an international botanical symposium entitled “Linnaean Taxonomy in the 21^st Century” to address the current relevance of the well-tested system devised by Linnaeus in 1753. The general conclusion of the participants was that Linnaeus’ system was not in complete harmony with today’s understanding of the process of evolution, but the current International Code of Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN) still served us well and only needed a few tweaks and some thoughtful explanation to continue to function as a standard for communication about Nature. As a follow-up to the 2001 Botanical Symposium, in late June of this year a group of 15 taxonomists¹ took part in a workshop entitled “Linnaean Nomenclature in the 21^st Century” at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation in Pittsburgh to discuss and identify the necessary tweaks and clarifications of the ICBN.

New Faces

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

David Cameron is a Research Training Program intern working with Robert Faden this summer. Cameron just completed his junior year at Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, where he is majoring in biology. His project is to characterize and describe a new species of Cyanotis (Commelinaceae) from tropical Africa.

Julia Mirabella is volunteering with Warren Wagner and Denise Mix for the summer. Mirabella will be assisting with an array of tasks associated with the Pacific Island Web site, such as selecting images to post on the site, inventorying and imaging Hawaiian specimens, and cleaning up specimen data. She has a budding interest in botany and is eager to learn more during her time at the herbarium. In addition to her volunteer work this summer, Mirabella will be attending a one‑week leadership workshop in Albany, New York, and then shortly thereafter, she will fly to France for a two‑week language immersion program. Mirabella starts her senior year of high school in September and is currently considering which college she would like to attend.

Thaweesak Thitimetatharoch is a graduate student at Khon Kaen University, Thailand where he is working on a Ph.D. degree, studying the Commelinaceae of Thailand. He arrived on 13 April, accompanied by his major professor, Pranom Chantaranothai. Aside from a trip to Hope College, Holland, Michigan in July, to learn DNA techniques from Tim Evans, Thaweesak will be in Botany, working with Robert Faden, until 13 September.

Botany has always been a passion for Leonardo Versieux. As a 2002 Research Training Program intern working with John Kress, Ida Lopez and Aizhong Liu, Versieux has gained a greater insight in the study of botany. Currently in his last year at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Versieux has co-authored several botanical educational publications. He has catalogued the Bromeliads in his home state and has his personal pressed and dried collection of many of these specimens. Versieux’ RTP research project is titled: “Study of genetic variation in Musella (Musaceae) a monotypic genus of Southwestern China.” Using isozyme techniques, Versieux tested Musella lasiocarpa for genetic diversity. Musella has not been recorded in the wild for many years. Unexpected results of his study this summer have only fueled a greater interest in Musella. Versieux states, "Participating in the RTP 2002 was an unforgettable experience. Here I had the chance to work in a very interesting project and was able to realize how rich and diverse are the several areas of natural history sciences." He asserts he gained experience that he will utilize in graduate school as he pursues a doctorate in botanical studies with emphasis on Bromeliaceae.

The Conservation Column

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

By Gary A. Krupnick

Interdisciplinary interactions are highly important in biological conservation research and systematic biology can provide a unique and critical contribution. New research shows that conservation biology is enhanced by the accurate identification and classification of organisms, while systematic studies can be motivated by conservation concerns.

To explore the synergism of systematic biology and other disciplines in conservation research, the March issue of Systematic Biology includes a six-paper special section “Biodiversity: The Interface Between Systematics and Conservation,” which was co-edited by Vicki Funk of Botany, Ann Sakai of the University of California in Irvine, California, and Karen Richardson of University of Queensland, Australia.

These projects stem from a symposium held at the June 2000 joint annual meeting of the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB), the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE), the American Society of Naturalists (ASN), and the Association for Tropical Biology (ATB) at IndianaUniversity, Bloomington, Indiana.

Staff Lecture Series Continues

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

The Botany lecture series has been continuing strong at the museum. Botany curators are delivering research seminars each month. The past three months offered the following lectures:

• Walter Adey presented “The 'New' Biogeography: A Key Tool For Systematists and Ecologists” on 9 April;
• Mark and Diane Littler presented “Taxonomy and Ecological Strategies of Giant-Celled Marine Plants” on 14 May; and
• Warren L. Wagner presented “Diversification of Onagraceae, A Major Madro-Tertiary Lineage of Western North America” on 11 June.

The Importance of Herbaria

From Plant Press, Vol. 5, No. 3 from July 2002.

The Louisiana State University just opened a new herbarium building and its collection is now being expanded and improved. The old herbarium was stored in the halls of the Life Sciences building on the LSU campus and the new herbarium occupies part of a floor in the new Life Sciences annex. This regional herbarium of 250,000 now has room to grow to 800,000 and it is firmly established in the middle of research and teaching efforts in the department. The Smithsonian botanical community celebrates this new addition and congratulates those at LSU who have worked so hard to accomplish this task.

In honor of the new herbarium, Lowell Urbatsch and Merrideth Blackwell organized a two-day event. The first day was a symposium featuring several speakers and the second day was a field trip. The program included a talk by Vicki Funk, “The Importance of Herbaria in Biological Investigations.”

During the course of the day several speakers mentioned the importance of herbaria; Funk and Thomas Wendt of the University of Texas compiled lists. These lists have been combined and various drafts were passed around Botany at the Smithsonian to produce the following summary which may help all of us better justify our herbaria. Readers are encouraged to take this list and use it in any way they see fit, however, Funk asks that any additions or comments be sent to her <[email protected]> for incorporation into our list.

 

US National Herbarium

Department of Systematic Biology

National Museum of Natural History

Smithsonian Institution

Herbaria, dried pressed plant specimens and their associated collections data and library materials, are remarkable and irreplaceable sources of information about plants and the world they inhabit. They provide the comparative material that is essential for studies in taxonomy, systematics, ecology, anatomy, morphology, conservation biology, biodiversity, ethnobotany, and paleobiology, as well as being used for teaching and by the public. They are a veritable gold mine of information. There are more than 60 million specimens in 628 herbaria in the USA, and 7 million specimens in 110 herbaria in Canada. Nearly 5 million are held at the US National Herbarium housed at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.

Herbaria can be used to:

1. Discover or confirm the identity of a plant or determine that it is new to science (taxonomy);
2. Document the concepts of the specialists who have studied the specimens in the past (taxonomy);
3. Provide locality data for planning field trips (taxonomy, systematics, teaching);
4. Provide data for floristic studies (taxonomy);
5. Serve as a repository of new collections (taxonomy and systematics);
6. Provide data for revisions and monographs (systematics);
7. Verify Latin plant names (nomenclature);
8. Serve as a secure repository for “type” specimens (taxonomy);
9. Provide infrastructure for obtaining loans, etc., of research material (taxonomy, systematics);
10. Facilitate and promote the exchange of new material among institutions (taxonomy);
11. Allow for the documentation of flowering and fruiting times and juvenile forms of plants (taxonomy, systematics, ecology, phenology);
12. Provide the basis for an illustration of a plant (taxonomy, general publishing);
13. Provide pollen for taxonomic, systematic, and pollination studies as well as allergy studies (taxonomy, systematics, pollination ecology, insect ecology, medical studies);
14. Provide samples for the identification of plants eaten by animals (animal ecology);
15. Document which plants grew where through time (invasive species, climate change, habitat destruction, etc.);
16. Document what plants grew with what other plants (ecology);
17. Document the morphology and anatomy of individuals of a particular species in different locations (environmental variation);
18. Provide material for microscopic observations (anatomy, morphology);
19. Serve as a repository for voucher specimens (ecology, environmental impact studies, etc.);
20. Provide material for DNA analysis (systematics, evolution, genetics);
21. Provide material for chemical analysis (pollution documentation; bio-prospecting, for coralline algae - determining past ocean temperatures and chemical concentration);
22. Provide material for teaching (botany, taxonomy, field botany, plant communities);
23. Provide information for studies of expeditions and explorers (history of science);
24. Provide the label data necessary for accurate data-basing of specimens (biodiversity and conservation biology, biogeography);
25. Serve as a reference library for the identification of parts of plants found in archeology digs (paleoethnobotany);
26. Provide space and context for accompanying library and other bibliographic resources (library sciences, general research, taxonomy, etc.);
27. Serve as an archive for related material (field notebooks, letters, reprints, etc.);
28. Provide information on common names and local uses of plants (ethnobotany, economic botany);
29. Provide samples for the identification of plants that may be significant to criminal investigations (forensics);
30. Serve as a means of locating rare or possibly extinct species via recollecting areas listed on label data (conservation biology, environmental impact statements, endangered species, etc.);
31. Serve as an educational tool for the public (garden clubs, school groups, etc.); and
32. Provide a focal point for botanical interactions of all types (lectures, club meetings, etc.).

 The US National Herbarium has several urgent needs in order to make maximum use of its substantial resources: additional compactorization of collections to increase storage space, processing of the backlog of unmounted specimens so all material is available, photographing the type images so our most important specimens will be available on the web, and data-basing the specimen label information so it also can be made available on line.