The Plant Press

Touwaide Reference Collection Details the History of Botany

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004.

Alain Touwaide, a recognized and renowned scholar of the history of ancient, medicinal, and Renaissance botany, has been a Research Associate in our Department sponsored by Dan Nicolson and W. John Kress for a number of years. While in residence, Touwaide has made great use of the library resources in the Department, in the Smithsonian, the Library of the National Institutes of Health, and the Library of Congress in pursuing his research on the history of botany and the transmission of plant knowledge from the ancient Greeks to present time. In addition to receiving outside funding support from the EarthWatch Institute and the Smithsonian Institution’s Women’s Committee (with Nicolson) Touwaide has been involved in the development of botany exhibits at NMNH, the Library of Medicine, and the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh. His work has not only brought recognition to himself, but also to the Department of Botany and the Institution.

Touwaide has now brought to the Department his own reference collection of monographs, journals, and microfilms documenting the history of botany. In 2003 Touwaide first made the proposal to Nicolson and Kress to bring this resource to the Department to enhance his research as well as that of the Department’s scientists and other scholars in the field. After discussion with the Botany Space Committee, it was decided that “The Cave” on the 5^th floor of the National Museum of Natural History was the best space to house the collection in order to make it available to all who would like to use it. At that point an agreement (reviewed by the Office of General Council) was made to house the collection in the Department for a five‑year period (with the possibility of renewal) with no liability for damage or loss to us. This arrangement was previously discussed and approved by the Smithsonian Institution Library (SIL). There will not be any impact on the Botany Library. Touwaide will catalogue the collection in collaboration with SIL technical services with a compatible software system.

The Touwaide library collection is a fantastic temporary resource in the Department for understanding the history of botany and it is recommended that those who are interested should make use of it in collaboration with Touwaide. When the cataloguing and arrangement of the volumes are complete later this year, Touwaide will provide a tour of the resource for all those interested in the collection.

Smithsonian Botanical Symposium 2004

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004.

Lindenbaum by David Kyber, in Hieronymus Bock, Kreutterbuch, 1587 [Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural History].

How did major developments in botany and horticulture impact gardens, gardening, landscaping, agriculture, and science? How did botany and horticulture contribute to larger changes in social and cultural practices? To examine the potential impact of scientific and cultural practices on the fields of botany and horticulture, presentations at this symposium will offer broad perspectives that relate large botanical and horticultural customs to the cultural, social, economic, and political context throughout history. Major changes in plant introductions, techniques of cultivation, breeding practices, and the naturalization of exotics as they relate to important changes in society will be explored.

The Symposium will begin with the analysis of a number of situations taken in varied historical and geographical domains of culture and proceed to the present. Through invited presentations and a contributed poster session this symposium will explore the social and political conditions under which horticulture and botany gave added cultural significance to nature.

Attendees will be able to register for the Dumbarton Oaks sessions (May 6-7), the Smithsonian session (May 8), or both.

Botanical Symposium Workshop Results in Three Papers

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004.

Three papers that appear in the latest issue of Taxon are a direct result of a workshop on Linnaean nomenclature that was organized as a follow-up to the first Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, held in 2001 at the National Museum of Natural History (see Publications on page 11). The Symposium, “Linnaean Taxonomy in the 21st Century,” focused on the relevance of Linnaean binomials and hierarchical ranks in the light of recent advances in phylogenetic systematics. The symposium was attended by 190 scientists from around the world. Following the symposium a workshop was held 26–28 June 2002, at the Hunt Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which was developed to discuss the integration of phylogenetic information into the current systems of naming plants. A group of 15 taxonomists, including co-moderator W. John Kress and participants Paula DePriest, Vicki Funk, and Dan Nicolson, were either invited or selected to attend based on their response to an announcement about the planned workshop.

The first paper (Barkley et al.; 53: 153-158) represents a distillation of the discussions and conclusions reached at the workshop. The central problems of the current codes revolve around the concepts of circumscribing taxa, hierarchical ranking, and the use of binomials. The paper identifies the four goals that were used to help focus the discussion

during the workshop. The overall conclusion was that Linnaean nomenclature is very flexible, but the authors recognize the need for a manual to guide users. A summary and conclusion in the paper identifies seven major points, such as the fact that the Linnaean system of nomenclature continues to serve well, modifications to the existing system are necessary, misconceptions are prevalent as embodied in the codes of nomenclature, and the PhyloCode is unnecessary in order to accommodate phylogenetic principles in classification.

The second paper (Barkley et al.; 53: 159-161) addresses the specific articles of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature deemed potentially problematic in relation to phylogenetic classification. The third paper (Moore et al.; 53: 214) makes three formal proposals to modify the language of the current Code, which will be voted on in July of 2005, at the XVII International Botanical Congress in Vienna, Austria.

Department Acquires Howard Slide Collection

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004. 

Richard Howard's slide collection includes images such as Pleomele aurea from Hawaii.

After months of negotiations with the Estate of Dr. Richard A. Howard, former Director of the Arnold Arboretum and Professor of Botany at Harvard University, the U.S. National Herbarium is pleased to report that it has acquired Howard’s photographic slide collection. This collection is a record of Howard’s botanical exploits around the world, including such places as Hawaii, Southeast Asia and, most importantly, the Caribbean. In his role as Director of the Arnold Arboretum, he had reason to visit many of the world’s most important botanical gardens and arboreta and these he recorded with photographs.

Although he spent much time addressing administration and research, he was ultimately a teacher and many of the slides in the collection were used in both academic and public lectures over the years. Some of these lectures, including the public favorite “A Botanist in Your Grocery Store” are still poised in their respective carousels. Many of his photographs document plant uses, anatomy, morphology, and anthropogenic effects.

It is anticipated that these images will be quite useful to a wide variety of projects and interests in the Department, indeed numerous requests have already been made. The task of organizing, databasing and scanning these image resources has already begun and more than 1,500 of these will be available later this summer when the Department launches the public web application, PIC-Online. Anyone with an interest in these slides should contact Rusty Russell <russell.rusty@nmnh.si.edu>.

Three Botanists Selected for the 2004 Research Program

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004.

Three undergraduate students who have been selected to join the Research Training Program (RTP) Class of 2004 will be conducting research in the Department this summer. From an applicant pool of 215, the names of 19 students were selected for the 2004 RTP. The three students in Botany are Xavier Haro, Emily Moran, and Gabriela Salazar.

Xavier Haro is currently a senior at Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador (PUCE) in Quito, Ecuador, where he is majoring in Botany. He plans to attend graduate school pursuing botanical studies and conservation biology. This summer, he will be working with Harold Robinson on the project “Investigation of Two Species of Plants in the Family Asteraceae from Brazil.” Haro will assess differences and similarities in two unidentified Vernonieae species and prepare any needed descriptions.

Emily Moran is currently a junior at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she is majoring in Biology with a focus in ecology, evolutionary biology, and botany. She plans to attend graduate school with focused study in botany, particularly plant ecology or the interaction of plants with animals, fungi, and microbes. Working with Vicki Funk, her project is titled “A Morphological Characterization of the Genera of the Plant Tribe Liabeae (Compositae).” Moran will learn the basics of data gathering for morphology characters and will use the latest programs for analyzing those data.

Gabriela Salazar is currently a freshman at CornellUniversity in Ithaca, New York, where she is majoring in Plant Science. She plans to attend graduate school with focused study in Plant Science. She will be working with Robert Faden on the project, “Commelina imberbis and Commelina mascarenica: How Can We Tell Them Apart?” Using primarily herbarium specimens borrowed from the East African Herbarium, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, supplemented by other materials, such as living plants of both species growing in the Botany Research Greenhouse, Salazar will be looking for characters that can be used to identify these two species.

Wilkes Birthday Festival Celebrated at Garden

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004.

The United States Botanic Garden (USBG) celebrated the 206^th birthday of Admiral Charles Wilkes on 3 April in an event co-sponsored by the Department. The event celebrated Wilkes exploration of the South China Sea by a presentation of lectures, a meet-and-greet with “Admiral Wilkes,” and display of the important role that Wilkes played in the early creation of the USBG and the Smithsonian Institution. Two type specimens from the U.S. National Herbarium were selected for exhibit, selected from the U.S. South Pacific Exploring Expedition under the command of Captain Wilkes, U.S.N., 1838-42, collected in the Philippines.

 Two lectures were presented at USBG to celebrate the festival. On 2 April, W. John Kress shared stories of his explorations of plant research in Southeast Asia with the lecture “Exploring the New Plants in Southeast Asia: From Wilkes to the 21^st Century.” He spoke about currentefforts in Myanmar to promote botanical sciences. On 3 April, Rusty Russell presented “The Plants of the U.S. Exploring Expedition Under the Command of Capt. Wilkes, 1838-1842,” in which he spoke about the many plants that were collected, pressed, and taken back to the United States for study. Russell described the role that these plants play at the U.S. National Herbarium and the current efforts to preserve these specimens for the future.

Age of Botanical Discovery Captured in Rare and Exclusive Books

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004.

In the age of discovery, man’s enthusiasm for the environment, art and health was feverishly unleashed among the pages of the first botanical books. The quest of these early botanical explorers, through their writings, was to discover practical ideas and resources for the journey through life.

This spring through fall, the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) and the Chicago Botanic Garden share with visitors the journeys of early European and American writer-scholars through “Plants in Print: The Age of Botanical Discovery” on exhibit in Washington, from 1 April through 15 July, and in Chicago from 18 September through 7 November.

 On display will be the remarkably diverse paths of Theophrastus, Carolus Clusius and Francois Andre Michaux; the botanical discoveries that led to the development of a common “plant language” still spoken today; the books that sparked the use of plants in modern medicine; the adventures of botanists and businessmen as they set out from Europe to explore distant lands and their flora. The exhibit features 34 historic books from the rare book collection of the Library of the Chicago Botanic Garden, each selected for exhibition because of its significance in the history of botany and horticulture.

The oldest book in the exhibit – published in Treviso, Italy in 1483 – is “Historia plantarum” by Theophrastus, an ancient Greek philosopher who is today thought of as the father of botany. The volume is one of the first botanical books created with the new technology of the 15^th century – the printing press.

“There is magic in these books, a direct connection to the past that ignites the imagination. Our aim is to bring them to a nationwide audience and to underscore that, as in the past, the future of human society is inexorably linked to plants,” says Christine Flanagan, manager of public programs at USBG.

 An historic collection of rare books is especially valuable to researchers studying the evolution of plants, as well as their cultural importance. Those interested in the development of botanical illustration and the history of landscape design also will find these rare books fascinating. “Plants in Print” takes visitors on a visual journey through four stages: Early Botanical Books, A Common Language for Discovery, Exploring the World, and Discovering America’s Plants.

The botanical art featured in “Plants in Print” includes a woodcut illustration that provides a 17^th century, European botanist’s view of the Garden of Eden (“Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestris” by John Parkinson, 1567-1650); a copperplate engraving showing Vernicia cordata or Japanese tung oil tree (“Flora Japonica” by Carl Peter Thunberg, 1743-1828); and three, vibrant hand-colored volumes of “The orchid album” (Robert Warner, 1811-1888). As part of a series of 11 volumes, this work set the standard for orchid description and illustration. 

Art by Alice Tangerini: Cornus L.

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004.

Springtime in Washington usually means one of two things: cherry blossoms or the flowering of dogwoods. A new species of Cornus was recently named for the late Richard H. Eyde (1928-1990), former curator in the Department (see page 5). In 1987, Tangerini drew this image for Eyde’s publication on splitting and lumping subgroups within Cornus, (Systematic Botany 12: 505-518). The four main kinds of cornels displayed are: (A) Cornus mas (cornelian cherry), (B) C. sanguinea (a bractless dogwood), (C) C. suecica (a dwarf cornel), and (D) C. florida (a big-bracted dogwood).

Botanical Partners Lecture Series

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004.

Brent Berlin, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Georgia, continued the Botanical Partners Lecture Series by presenting “Bioprospecting Research, Local Stakeholders, and the Convention on Biological Diversity” on 15 January at the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) Conservatory. The Botanical Partners Lecture Series is a collaboration between the Department and USBG, designed to bring together the Washington scientific community interested in botanical studies. Invited speakers have been chosen to attract participants from a broad spectrum of the local community who are interested in the botanical sciences. An informal reception after the talk was hosted to promote discussion and exchange of ideas. If you have suggestions for future speakers, please contact Gary Krupnick at krupnick.gary@nmnh.si.edu.

What is Sustainable Development?

From Plant Press, Vol. 7, No. 2 from April 2004.

As world populations expand, natural resources are consumed, and environments significantly changed, people and communities are taking action locally, nationally, and globally. At the international level one of society’s responses to the increasing degradation of the environment is the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) initiated in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This treaty represents a revolution in the value placed on biodiversity and the intellectual property rights attached to Nature. According to the Convention biodiversity should be conserved, sustainably used, and its benefits shared among all parties. Worldwide efforts to conserve and share the rights to biodiversity are underway. Of the three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity the sustainably use of biodiversity is perhaps the most difficult to define and implement. What is sustainability and can it be achieved?

The CDB defines sustainability as “the use of components of biological diversity in a way and at a rate that does not lead to the long-term decline of biological diversity, thereby maintaining its potential to meet the needs and aspirations of present and future generations.” This definition and the goal of sustainability is certainly a tall order for a planet whose inhabitants are rapidly growing in numbers and consuming its resources at an ever increasing rate. But it is also a goal that is foremost in everyone’s mind. The sustainable use of biodiversity is only a part of the larger goal of sustainable development, the focus of the recent World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2002. In Johannesburg discussion and debate called for definitive actions on sustainable development that can comprehensively address the economic, social, and environmental issues confronting the global community. Although the CBD’s goals for conservation and benefit sharing were overshadowed by the drive for sustainability, the link between conserving biodiversity and successful sustainable development was recognized. At the Johannesburg summit concrete definitions and goals of sustainability and sustainable development were articulated; progress towards outlining a plan to achieve these goals was limited.