The Plant Press

The Conservation Column

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 from January 2004.

By Gary Krupnick

On October 8 and 9, the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) convened at the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland. NAPPC, a tri-national (United States, Canada, Mexico) public and private partnership of over 50 organizations and agencies, aims to promote pollinator awareness, policies, educational outreach, research and conservation. The conference brought together nearly 70 invited delegates from potential partner organizations and scientific authorities to develop itemized strategies and work plans to affect collaboratively positive change in the areas of pollinator research, education and awareness, conservation and restoration, policies and practices, and special partnership initiatives. Gary Krupnick attended the conference as a representative for the National Museum of Natural History.

 The goal of the conference was to (1) evaluate NAPPC work and process to date, (2) revise an implementation plan for the various committees, and (3) deploy new task forces to undertake and complete short-term activities.

Discussion occurred in small groups and at plenary sessions. Five key working groups focused on issues pertinent to pollinator protection: Research, Outreach and Education, Conservation and Restoration, Policies and Practices, and Special Partnership Initiatives. The working groups focused on comprehensive long-range approaches to the pollinator issue from distinct categorical perspectives that continue over time. The groups worked for approximately three hours on 8 October, presenting their concepts at the end of the afternoon. The working groups reconvened the next day for two hours and prepared a final report of their deliberations. In the week following the conference, the reports of the working groups were transcribed and returned to each group chair for review by the committee members.

A Trip to Africa

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 from January 2004.

Robert Faden and his wife Audrey Faden, a Master Gardener and Behind‑the‑Scenes Smithsonian Volunteer, spent four weeks in Africa and a week in England (29 August to 5 October). In Kenya he worked at the East African Herbarium, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi on the family Commelinaceae for the Flora of Tropical East Africa. He also visited the Mpala Research Center in central Kenya where he collected plants and worked on a check list of the vascular plants of Mpala for posting on the station's website. A surprise bonus was finding a Commelina that is possibly a new subspecies of a central Kenyan local endemic species.

            In Ethiopia the Fadens participated in the pre‑congress trip to forests in the southeastern part of the country. This part of Ethiopia is home to Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) which was seen growing wild at one locality. The six‑day trip varied from 3,000 ft to over 10,000 ft in elevation. Black‑and‑white colobus monkeys were seen frequently as was a tremendous diversity of butterflies. A lot of forest was observed, but mainly on distant ridges. A few research plants of interest were encountered, including an undescribed species of Commelina.

            During the second week in Ethiopia, Faden attended the XVII^th Congress of l'Association pour l'Étude Taxonomique de la Flore d'Afrique Tropicale (AETFAT), where he presented a paper entitled, "Orange‑flowered species of African Commelina (Commelinaceae): are they all related?" The meetings were held at the United Nations headquarters in Addis Ababa. Faden also visited the herbarium of Addis AbabaUniversity one morning and annotated some specimens.

            In England Faden visited the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew where he continued his research on African Commelinaceae.

New Faces

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 from January 2004.

Four new volunteers have begun assisting the Core Collections Management team. Herrick Brown recently obtained his M.S. in Herpetology at the University of South Carolina and is helping with outreach activities. He is also spending time with George Zug in Invertebrate Zoology. Lizzie McGee is working toward her degree and hoping to supplement her skill set by working on different imaging projects. Elizabeth Sandifer has quite a varied background, including owning her own business. She is working on transaction management documentation and assisting Deborah Bell with conservation tasks. Heijia Wheeler has recently retired from college administration duties (she has a Ph.D. in Botany and she is Louis Wheeler’s niece) and will be assisting on a number of collections projects. We are very fortunate to have these accomplished and selfless individuals volunteering their time for us in Botany.

Microbiologist Contributes to Study on the Biodiversity of the Gulf of Mexico

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 from January 2004.  

Maria Faust has been invited to join a project on the Biodiversity of the Gulf of Mexico as part of a large initiative within the recent established Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies (located at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi). The purpose of this tri-national collaboration, including the U.S., Mexico and Cuba, is to encourage and enhance the long-term sustainable use and conservation of the Gulf of Mexico. This initiative will be part of the Census of Marine Life program at the Consortium of Oceanographic Research and Education.

Faust attended a State of Knowledge Workshop held in Corpus Christi on 14-15 October. One of the group’s challenges is to update the 1954 U.S. Fishery Bulletin volume entitled “The Gulf of Mexico - Its Origins, Waters, and Marine Life.” It is anticipated that the original volume will be updated to three or four volumes, and include all current knowledge of biodiversity in the Gulf of Mexico.

 A team of taxonomical experts will address varied taxonomic groups of marine organismal groups and intends to conduct a total inventory, including key references, habitat, and distribution for all species in the Gulf. Faust’s contribution will be on the biodiversity of dinoflagellates. The gathered data will become part of a dynamic digital atlas of this large marine ecosystem, and it will be accessible over the Internet.

Adey Explores the Subarctic

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 from January 2004.

Botany researcher and curator Walter Adey and his wife Karen, a Smithsonian Institution volunteer, have recently returned from a three month field session in the Canadian Subarctic. With a field team of six, the Adeys, two student/SI Fellow SCUBA divers and a volunteer cook and engineer, have been occupying rocky subtidal stations across the core northwest Atlantic Subarctic from the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence through southern Labrador and across the northeastern coast of Newfoundland.

Holding the Subarctic kelp Saccorhiza dermatodea in St. Anthony, Newfoundland, is (from left to right) Alok Mallick, graduate student and master diver; Erik Adey, 1st mate and engineer; April Bagwell, cook; Alex Miller, undergraduate student and diver; and Walter Adey. (Photo by Karen Adey)

 

During the summer 2003 field season, the team occupied 20 stations across the Subarctic. Each station consisted of a series of “thrown” quadrats, from low water neaps, at a series of standard depth levels, to the local depth limit of algae, up to 30 meters depth. At each of the quadrats, the divers first took digital photographs and then scraped or cut all the seaweed biomass, collecting it in plastic mesh bags. Although some station depths had water temperatures near 10ºC, many were in the 5 - 10ºC range and the deeper zones were often close to 0ºC. The divers had special training and equipment to be able to withstand heat loss during the time required to locate, denude and bag the algal samples from each quadrat.

The Adeys had spent three prior years constructing a specialized research vessel, the R/V “Alca i.,” a long-range, 64 foot, 50 ton motor-schooner, to carry out this project. Equipped with a laboratory that would allow sorting, identification, biomass determination and voucher extraction of each species of seaweed, the vessel also provided inflatable dive boats, remote-location SCUBA facilities and living quarters for the crew. On its maiden voyage, the “Alca i.,” while small enough to work close to a very rugged and often foggy and poorly-charted rocky coast, proved capable of handling frequent gales and providing crew comfort in cold waters.

This expedition was the first season of a five year project to determine the Subarctic/Arctic distribution of seaweeds based on species biomass rather than their presence or absence. Virtually the only information previously available on benthic marine species in the North Atlantic has been presence/absence at a very limited number of stations. Such data cannot account for microhabitats and minor seasonal and yearly fluctuations and had thus created a very confusing biogeographic picture.

New World Grasses Receive Full Treatment in New Catalogue

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 from January 2004.

On 28 October, Paul Peterson and Robert Soreng in association with several co-authors published the “Catalogue of New World Grasses” in the Contributions from the United States National Herbarium volumes 39, 41, 46 and 48 (1775 pages total), a complete treatment of all names, types, taxonomy, synonymy, higher classification, and distribution of New World grasses from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego. As a collaborative effort among the Smithsonian Institution, the Missouri Botanical Garden, Instituto de Botánica Darwinion in Argentina, University of Wisconsin, and UPIS-Faculdades Integradas in Brasil, the Catalogue brought together over 50 scientists on a 13-year project, culminating in the first true synthesis of nomenclature, taxonomy, and distribution of grasses for the entire Western Hemisphere. This data has already proven to be an invaluable starting point for countless research projects around the globe, and has been the subject of a recent symposium on the classification and biogeography of New World grasses at the Fourth International Symposium on Grass Systematics and Evolution (April 2003). The database is continually being updated and is available at <http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/nwgc.html>.

Medicinal Plants of the Guianas is Prepared

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 from January 2004.

Robert DeFilipps, Shirley Maina and Juliette Crepin have prepared a manual entitled “Medicinal Plants of the Guianas (Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana),” with scientific names, synonyms, vernacular (common) names, medicinal utilization, chemical notes, and literature references for 170 families and 1,402 species of indigenous and introduced plants. The main emphasis is on ferns and flowering plants, although a few mosses, fungi and gymnosperms (Gnetum) are reported. The largest medicinal plant families are the Apocynaceae (43 taxa), Araceae (41), Caesalpiniaceae (51), Euphorbiaceae (58), Fabaceae (69), and Rubiaceae (54). For persons adhering to the modern trend of accepting Leguminosae as a single family comprising three large divisions, add 27 mimosoids to the 51 caesalps and 69 faboids, for a grand total of 147 taxa, making the “greater” Leguminosae the largest medicinal family in the Guianas.

            An introduction, glossary, bibliography of Guianan Amerindians and ethnobotany, medicinal index, common names index and species index are included. Third author Crepin is a natural resources specialist and phytochemical analyst with a patent in andiroba chemistry, and experience in French Guiana and the perfume chemistry laboratories of Yves Rocher, Nina Ricci, and Robertet, Paris. She is currently working with DeFilipps and Maina on medicinal plants of Myanmar (Burma) and previously assisted DeFilipps on a manual of “Selected Medicinal Plants of Haitian Vodou”.

            Incorporated in the manual is much original information from ethnobotanist Mark Plotkin’s extensive researches among the Amerindians of southern Surinam (e.g., the Tirio and Wayana shamans), and from Guyanese ethnobotanist Suroojnauth Tiwari’s major study of medicines of the Patamona, perhaps the least acculturated tribe of Guyana Indians. Plant remedies of the Saramaccan Bush Negroes of Surinam and the black Boni (pronounced “Bonny”) people of French Guiana, as well as the Carib and Arawak Indians populating all three Guianas, plus many other tribes and the people of towns and villages, are also covered. The introduction discusses the influences of the former British, Dutch and French colonial heritage and plant interchanges between the Guianas and Europe with respect to some species used for medicinal purposes.

            As one may expect, the range of diseases and afflictions that is treated by use of plants and herbal remedies in the Guyanas is large. Just taking into consideration the plants specifically used only by women, with chemical properties affecting the female physiology, a diversity of plants (arranged in disease categories in the medicinal index) is used to alleviate the discomfort of pregnancy and in association with the easing of childbirth and later infant care; menstruation (dysmennorhea, hemorrhaging), abortifacients (juice of unripe pineapple is a widespread favorite), fertility and birth control plants, midwifery infusions, lactation, aphrodisiacs, and cosmetics (hair conditioners). Whether a Ricinus communis leaf tied around the forehead to treat a headache, or stem-exudate of Iryanthera cf. hostmannii (Myristicaceae) placed in the male genital orifice to relieve gonorrhea by the Tirio Indians of Surinam, the array of remedies extracted by Guianan Indians from the surrounding flora is formidable. And fortuitous, since many cannot afford the luxury of purchasing the pills, lozenges, syrups, drugs, pharmaceuticals and medications taken for granted as always available over-the-counter in advanced societies. The 568-page manual even indicates a few plants (Lonchocarpus, Fabaceae) used for the treatment of AIDS, and 10 hallucinogenic species.

Littlers Receive AAUS Lifetime Achievement Award

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 from January 2004.

The former presidents of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) convene each year and select an individual(s) that has contributed unselfishly to the advancement of underwater science. The award recognizes excellence over decades of time in the scientific disciplines of biology, chemistry, fisheries, geology, physical sciences, archeology, ecology, and the area of hyperbaric physiology. This year, the Academy recognizes two individuals that have a long, illustrious, and intimate relationship with marine plants.

AAUS proudly awarded Diane and Mark Littler the American Academy of Underwater Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award for 2003. The Littlers are good expedition organizers, they go to the far ends of the planet to study marine plants and learn all the secrets they possibly can about lives of these marine plants.

The Littlers have spent over 30 years studying the marine plants of the Atlantic, Pacific, and IndianOceans. They have published over 150 papers in scholarly journals on a wide range of subject mater; and have published several beautiful books with exquisite photos of plants and the animals that utilize the plants for homes and food. The Littlers received the prestigious Prescott Award presented this year from the Phycological Society of America for their book, “Caribbean Reef Plants.”

The current crop of young researchers has a debt to pay to the Littlers. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to identify a marine plant (alga) you needed to go through an archaic dichotomous key that frequently led you to the wrong plant. The Littlers recent books have a dichotomous key, but they also have fantastic photographs and excellent drawings of the plant’s microstructure. They hold a Guinness world record for discovery of the deepest plant on earth (268 meters). They are interested in the role of overfishing and the resultant changes in the plant life on reefs.

Staff Retirements

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 from January 2004.

In October 2003, two curators of the Department officially retired from the Smithsonian Institution. Dieter C. Wasshausen, specialist in Acanthaceae and Begoniaceae, and Laurence E. Skog, specialist in Gesneriaceae, each had 30 or more years of consecutive federal service in the Department. Both were previously profiled in the Plant Press. (Wasshausen: 5(4), 2002; Skog: 3(2), 2000).

Awards and Grants

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 1 January 2004.

The Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy has honored Dan Nicolson with a certificate nominating him as an Honorary Fellow in recognition of his contributions in the field of angiosperm taxonomy.

Nicolson was also selected as President of the Nomenclature Section for the XVII International Botanical Congress to be held in Vienna, Austria on 17-23 July 2005.

On 7 October, Robert Faden and his wife Audrey Faden were given an award by the Alexandria City Beautification Commission for the gardens they have installed on the Alexandria YMCA. The award was presented by Alexandria mayor Bill Euille.