The Plant Press

The Temperature of Southeast Asian Botany

FromPlant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

By Robert DeFilipps

On 28-29 March, an enthusiastic group of scientists convened in the National Museum of Natural History in order to take the temperature and feel the pulse of modern Southeast Asian botany. They found the subject to be in a mostly sustainable and thriving condition, though faced with some problems and desirous of additional international cooperation to fulfill its many goals.

The speakers of the Smithsonian Botanical Symposium. From left, W. John Kress (Head of Botany), Christen Wemmer, Hei Leung, Nguyen Tien Hiep, Christine Padoch, John Beaman, David Dilcher, Robin Buell, Ge Sun, U San Lwin, Leondardo Co, Stuart Davies, and Paula DePriest. (photo by Leslie Brothers)

The occasion was the Third Annual Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, and the chosen subject was “Botanical Frontiers in Southeast Asia: from the Discovery of the Earliest Flowering Plants to the Sequencing of the Rice Genome.” The speakers from around the world explored numerous new developments in collaborative biodiversity research, which includes facets of paleobotany, floristic composition, ethnobotany, genome technology and tropical forest structure. As noted by W. John Kress, Head of Botany, these studies are operational within an environmental framework that includes huge increases in land clearing, industrial expansion, and surging population growth which often cause casualties in the health of ecosystems. It is now projected that in the future there will remain less than 1 hectare of arable land per person in Southeast Asia (1 hectare = 2.5 acres).

After an opening reception on 28 March at the United States Botanic Garden (one sponsor of the Symposium), the whole day of 29 March was devoted to presentations by teams of speakers. They were preceded by welcoming remarks by Kress who announced the launching of the Smithsonian Botanical Exploration Fund, and by David Evans, Undersecretary for Science, who expressed a hope that the annual symposia will continue for many years. The much-awaited presentation of the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany was conducted by Laurence Dorr and the honored recipient of the medal was John Beaman, now working at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Beaman’s prolific research career has spanned the realms of Mexican floristics, taxonomy of the Asteraceae, and most recently the complex plant communities of Mount Kinabalu, Borneo and environs.

Unifying the Botany and Horticulture Libraries

FromPlant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

By Robert DeFilipps

In March 2003, the Smithsonian Horticulture Library (ca. 7,000 volumes, established in the 1980s) was moved across the National Mall from its location in the Arts and Industries Building, and was reassembled in the Botany Branch Library (ca. 52,000 volumes, established 1964-1965) in the National Museum of Natural History. The result is a new, strengthened entity, the Botany/Horticulture Library. Having these combined resources under one roof will benefit the staff members of both Botany and Horticulture, as well as visiting researchers.

Botany (the science of plants) and horticulture (the science of growing plants) are so closely related in some aspects, that any presupposed distinctions between the two fields tend to become blurred under close examination. Professional research interests of botanists often include plant families having ornamental or economic species that have been brought into cultivation, while the avocations of many botanists reside in gardening, and many horticulturists rely on straight botany in the conduct of their work.

The range of subject matter in the field of horticulture is enormous. The library’s holdings on gardening, for example, include books about rock, bulb, kitchen, herb, bird, healing (hortitherapy), wildflower, tropical, water (aquascaping), English, cutting, and greenhouse gardening. Books devoted to fruits, vegetables, gardens from Alcatraz to the White House and around the world, special flowers (daffodils, daylilies, hosta, chrysanthemums, etc.), public and private botanical gardens and arboreta, floriculture, house plants, fountains and ornaments, flower arranging including ikebana, insect pests and diseases, and plant propagation are extensively covered in the newly created joint library.

Checklist of Myanmar (Burma) Plants Published

From Plant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

By Robert DeFilipps

W. John Kress, Robert DeFilipps, Ellen Farr and Daw Yin Yin Kyi have published “A Checklist of the Trees, Shrubs, Herbs, and Climbers of Myanmar” (2003, Contributions from the United States National Herbarium 45: 1-590). A thoroughly revised and expanded edition, built upon a foundation laid principally by H.G. Hundley and U Chit Ko Ko in four previous versions (1912-1987), the Checklist increases the combined known gymnosperm and angiosperm flora by approximately 67 percent above the latest previous estimate. In the Checklist are 273 families, 2,371 genera and over 11,800 species. Notes on the habit, distribution and common names are provided for each species.

Included are a brief review of the geology, climate, and vegetation of Myanmar by Shirley Maina; 25 color photographs of representative vegetation types and selected plant species by Kress; and a vegetation map presented in crisp color through the skills of Ida Lopez. Numerous members of Botany assisted variously with inventorying specimens in the US and Myanmar herbaria; computerization of records; and curatorial review of plant families in areas of their research specialization. Many reviewers of families from around the world also participated, and cooperators in Myanmar extended the benefit of their local expertise, particularly of the forest flora.

Myanmar is perhaps most well known to the public as the home of the “Rangoon creeper” (Combretum indicum, Combretaceae); of the commercially important teak trees (Tectona grandis, Verbenaceae); and of the leguminous tree known as “Queen of Flowering Trees” and “Pride of Burma,” Amherstia nobilis, now cultivated in many tropical countries as a breathtaking ornamental. The country was, in past decades, the destination of some of the most intrepid plant collectors in history, who returned to the West with many previously unknown or rare plants of economic potential. Myanmar was the stomping grounds of Joseph F. Rock in the 1920s as he searched for seeds of the chaulmoogra tree (Hydnocarpus kurzii, Flacourtiaceae), whose constituent seed-oil acids are an efficacious cure for leprosy; seeding trees were finally found at Kyokta in northwest Burma and formed the germplasm for chaulmoogra plantations in Hawaii. Rock described his exciting search in a 1922 article in the National Geographic 41(3): 242-276. Even more famed are the many expeditions of Frank Kingdon-Ward in Myanmar intermittently between 1914 and 1956, searching for plants of horticultural interest, and described in the book Frank Kingdon-Ward: The Last of the Great Plant Hunters, by Charles Lyte (1989; John Murray, London).

At a 1997 botanical workshop, a team of Smithsonian staff and Burmese students collect plants on Mt. Popa, Myanmar. (Photo by W.J. Kress)

The sheer magnitude of biodiversity of the flora of Myanmar, and its potential for taxonomic research, conservation-based management, and horticultural investigations, may be glimpsed in the Checklist through such examples as the 118 species of Dendrobium orchids; 194 species of Rhododendron; 46 species of Impatiens; 47 species of Begonia; 57 species of primroses (Primula), and 48 species of jasmine (Jasminum,Oleaceae). There are also 91 species of figs (Ficus), and 51 species representing the clove genus Syzygium (Myrtaceae). Phytogeographically interesting is a center of diversity of the Acanthaceae in Southeast Asia, which is indicated for Myanmar by the presence, for example, of 70 species of Strobilanthes alone; Kress and DeFilipps make 3 new combinations in the genus in an Appendix to the Checklist. Remarkably, there is no recently published floraof Myanmar; a forest flora (excluding herbs) was issued in the 1800s. It is hoped that the Checklist will stimulate further cooperative research on plants of this emerging nation. Extensive plant collecting trips have recently been undertaken by Kress and Mike Bordelon.

DePriest Appointed as Advisory Staff Scientist

From Plant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

Paula DePriest has been appointed as a scientist advisor in the Office of the Under Secretary for Science. The Smithsonian Science Commission recommended establishing this rotating position in their report to the Board of Regents. As scientific advisor, DePriest will be responsible for helping to assess scientific progress and identifying scientific highlights in the scientific units; organizing seminars and meetings; coordinating educational and outreach programs; serving as liaison to the Congress of Scholars and other advisory groups; and providing advice, guidance and information on sources of science content for exhibit planning. DePriest’s appointment is for one year.

John Beaman Recieves Third Cuatrecasas Medal

From Plant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

John Beaman (middle), recipient of the Jose Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany, receives his award from Lawrence Dorr (left) and W. John Kress. (Photo by Leslie Brothers)

John Beaman of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, received the Cuatrecasas Medal at the 3^rd Annual Smithsonian Botanical Symposium. The medal is in honor of José Cuatrecasas, a pioneering botanist and taxonomist who spent nearly a half-century working in Botany at the Smithsonian Institution. Cuatrecasas’ research, especially in the flowering plant family Asteraceae, was devoted to the classification, biogeography, exploration, and ecology of plants of the paramo and subparamo regions of Andean South America. Out of enduring respect and admiration, the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany was established. This medal is presented annually to a botanist and scholar of international stature who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The award serves to keep vibrant the accomplishments and memory of this outstanding scientist. The presentation of the medal at this year’s symposium was particularly poignant since 2003 marks the centenary of his birth.

Report from the First Internaitonal TICA Meeting

From Plant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

By Vicki Funk

The first international meeting of The International Compositae Alliance (TICA), Deep Achene, took place 9-10 January, 2003, and was hosted by the National Herbarium, NBI Pretoria, South Africa. A total of 30 synantherologists from around the world attended. The first day and the morning of the second were devoted to presentations and posters. The paper sessions and the business meeting were open to all interested persons. The papers were organized in a phylogenetic fashion beginning with the base of the cladogram. The tribe with the most talks was the Anthemideae followed by the Gnaphalieae. A very good discussion on the phylogeny of the family followed the presentations.

After the meeting 14 people participated in a field trip (11-17 January) to Golden Gate National Park, Lesotho, Royal Natal National Park and points in between. Collecting was allowed in most places. Many new and interesting plants were seen and a good time was had by all.

Abstracts were distributed at the meeting but they will also be in the Compositae Newsletter. The next international meeting will be held in Barcelona in June of 2006 and will be sponsored by Alfonso Susanna and Nuria Garcia-Jacas with assistance from their colleagues Santiago Ortiz, Aixa Rivero-Guerra, Joan Valles, and others. The purpose of the 2006 meeting will be to produce a new version of the Heywood et al. volume (1977). The upcoming treatment in The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants (Kubitzki, ed.) will provide an excellent basis for the development of a more theoretical volume. Most people expressed a desire for a format similar to the Heywood et al. volume in that each major clade would be covered with a chapter on morphology and a chapter on the results of the molecular analyses. It would also include cross cutting chapters on pollen, chromosome numbers, etc. The meeting will be followed by field trip(s) to the Pyrenees Mountains. The group agreed that we should have local TICA meetings whenever possible and in conjunction with other national and international meetings.

The International Compositae Alliance would like to thank Dr. Marinda Koekemoer and her staff for their hard work, and the National Botanical Institute for hosting our meeting in their lovely new Education Centre.

Anyone interested in being placed on the E-mail list should contact Vicki Funk ([email protected]) and anyone wishing to receive the Compositae Newsletter should contact Bertil Nordenstam (The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Department of Phanerogamic Botany, P.O. Box 50007, SE-104 05, Stockholm SWEDEN).

Botanical Frontiers of Southeast Asia

From Plant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

W. John Kress

The world is currently in a state of conflict and strife. Most immediate is the turmoil in the Middle East, but violence and factionalism are present in many places around the world. The economic and environmental impacts of these conflicts are sometimes obvious and sometimes not. Political diplomacy and interchange, concurrent with this increase in conflict, appear to have reached a significant nadir as well. It is, therefore, important that as scientists and educators we pursue and maintain dialog and discussion among scholars, citizens, and nations. In a time of irrationality, we need rationale thought and discourse. In a time of global uncertainty, we need concrete ideas for the future. In a time of confrontation and conflict, we need international collaboration. The 2003 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium marked the third annual gathering at our Museum of systematists and natural history biologists with the purpose of discussing issues of importance to us as scientists and as members of society.

Our Symposium this year addressed environmental issues in one of the fastest growing regions of the world: Southeast Asia. Why should we be focusing on botany in Southeast Asia? A few facts and predictions about the present state and future economic, social, and environmental outlook for this region provide ready answers to this question:

1)      The population of Southeast Asia was only one third the size of Europe's in 1950 (182 million compared to 547 million in Europe), but by 2050, the population of Southeast Asia is projected to be 25 percent larger than Europe's (786 million vs. 628 million).

2)      By the year 2020, ASEAN will be one of the five largest economic powers in the world after NAFTA, EU, China, and Japan.

3)      As a specific example of economic growth, Thailand by 2005 will be the world’s fastest-growing vehicle exporter producing over 700,000 vehicles per year.

4)      By 2010, Vietnam will have 8.47 million new fixed phones, 1.61 million mobile phone subscribers, and 770,000 local Internet subscribers, which is an increase over today’s number of473 percent, 375 percent, and 962 percent, respectively, in each of those areas.

5)      Seven of the ten largest cities will be in Asia by the year 2050.

6)      As populations and economies increase, supplies of land, water and firewood are shrinking such that by 2020 Southeast Asia will have less than one hectare of arable land per person.

Clearly these major changes in economic structure and social organization will have profound effects on natural environments and biodiversity. In fact in Laos, now less than 40 percent of the country is forested, down from 70 percent in 1940; in Cambodia, over 70 percent of the timber export volume consists of unreported logs; and in Vietnam all substantial forest cover could be lost by 2020 if the current rate of deforestation continues. With respect to marine habitats, it is predicted that as a result of anthropogenic stresses in the form of pollution, sedimentation, and direct physical alteration the complete destruction of Southeast Asian coral reefs will take place by 2030.

Awards and Grants

From Plant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

Dan Nicolson and visiting botanist Alain Touwaide were awarded a grant from the Smithsonian Women's Committee to digitize the text and illustrations from books from the Renaissance (15th and 16th centuries) that deal with plants used for medicinal purposes. The study aims to build a prototype of a computerized data base dealing with a limited number of plants selected on the basis of their historical significance. Texts and illustrations will be digitized, original Latin texts will be translated into English, and the material will be provided with relevant historical data. This program complements Towaide’s database on texts and illustrations of plants in ancient Greek manuscripts. The databases will be made available through the Internet and will constitute a unique reference work for further research. Books will come from the SI collections, particularly the Joseph F. Cullman 3^rd Library of Natural History and the Dibner Library. Technical support will be provided by the Smithsonian Institution Library Imaging Center.

Paul Peterson and Susan Pennington (contractor) were awarded a grant from the Smithsonian Women's Committee to prepare an on-line exhibit and archive exploring the life and work of botanist Mary Agnes Chase through the natural history of the grasses closely associated with her, introducing the public to a pioneering woman scientist and assembling a collection of material that would be of significant interest to teachers, students, scientists, and historians. Renowned botanist, illustrator and author, Mary Agnes Chase (1869-1963) devoted 70 years to studying grasses, the family of plants that provides everything from the putting greens on our golf courses to the bread on our tables, whether it is wheat toast, tortillas, or rice cakes. The exhibit will answer the question of why she spent her life studying these important plants, and why this “living” collection of dried plant specimens at the Smithsonian is still important in the twenty-first century. A traveling panel exhibit through the Smithsonian Institution’s Traveling Exhibition Services and book are also planned.

Elizabeth Zimmer has been awarded a small grant from the Magnolia Society. The proposal for the grant was entitled “Linking Cultural History with Natural History: Population Genetic Surveys of Magnolia virginiana (Sweet Bay Magnolia).”

Botany Assists in Examining Crime Evidence

From Plant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

On 26 March, Botany was visited by two officers of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with tiny bits of plant materials found on a crime scene and on a suspect to determine if there was a connection. Stanwyn Shetler and Dan Nicolson were asked by John Kress to examine the material. It was quickly determined that the two samples of small thorns were almost certainly from a blackberry, probably Rubus pensilvanicus. The other, which they thought might be a grass, meant that Paul Peterson was needed. Peterson took a look and said that it was not a grass. Suddenly it was realized that these tiny bits (less than 1 cm long), were from red cedar (Juniperus virginiana). All involved were delighted.

Yellow Rose Commemorates the Space Shuttle Columbia

From Plant Press, Vol. 6, No. 2 from April 2003.

Botany volunteer Mary Ellen Wiser holds the commemorative rose specimen. (Photo by Deborah Bell)

In the week following the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, visitors to the National Air and Space Museum left many floral bouquets near the space shuttle exhibit in tribute to the seven astronauts. Several bouquets featured yellow roses, symbolic of the astronauts’ home base in Texas. To preserve one of these roses, Valerie Neal, curator of space history, looked for expertise elsewhere in the Smithsonian, and found it in the Botany section of the National Museum of Natural History. The rose was carefully pressed by Deborah Bell and mounted by volunteer Mary Ellen Wiser. The specimen will now be part of the permanent collection of artifacts, joining a white rose that was preserved after the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger accident.