The Plant Press

The Biological Conservation Newsletter Celebrates Issue Number 250

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.

This month, the Biological Conservation Newsletter celebrates the publication of its 250^th issue. The newsletter has been a monthly publication of the Department of Botany for the past 25 years. Edited by Gary Krupnick, Head of the Plant Conservation Unit, the newsletter contains items on biological conservation issues, highlighting research at the Smithsonian Institution and elsewhere. The newsletter is mailed postally and electronically free to over 2,100 subscribers in 94 countries.

The newsletter was first issued by the Office of Biological Conservation (housed in the Department of Botany) in February 1981. In its humble beginnings, the newsletter stated “The Office seeks to develop an awareness in the minds of our colleagues and the general public to the ever-present changes in the environment caused by human activity and thus serves as a monitoring and warning system.” In the “Recent Literature of Interest” section of the newsletter, the first issue cited 11 publications; the October 2005 issue cites 200 publications for the month.

 The newsletter features articles on conservation research and current news items, as well as information on new publications, fellowships and grants, job announcements, educational materials, and meetings. In addition, the newsletter’s Web page <http://ravenel.si.edu/bcn/> features an extensive searchable bibliography of 25,923 citations, making the newsletter a valuable resource to the biological diversity and conservation community.

Botanical Partners on the Mall Lecture Series

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.

In October, the Department of Botany and the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) will begin the third season of the “Botanical Partners on the Mall Lecture Series.” This quarterly lecture series brings together the Washington scientific community interested in botanical studies. Invited speakers are chosen to attract participants from a broad spectrum of the local community interested in plant sciences. All talks are held in the USBG Conservatory. This year’s speakers will address diverse topics:

6 October 2005: Bruce A. Stein, NatureServe – plant extinctions;

19 January 2006: Roger P. Hangarter, IndianaUniversity – environmental sensory-response systems and plant development;

13 April 2006: Michael J. Balick, New York Botanical Garden – ethnobotany in the 21^st century.

An informal reception will be hosted after the talk to promote discussion and exchange of ideas.

Asian Botanist Digs Ginseng

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.

By Gary Krupnick

In August, Jun Wen formerly at the Field Museum of Natural History joined the Department as an Associate Curator, the first new curator the Department has hired in 13 years. Since 1985, Wen has been conducting monographic, phylogenetic, biogeographic, and ethnobotanical studies on Asian and New World disjunct plants. Her research employs herbarium, field, and laboratory approaches as well as various modern analytical methods to understand the taxonomy, patterns, and processes of diversification of disjunct plant groups.

Jun Wen collecting Aralia bipinnata Blanco in Benguet Province, Luzon, the Philippines, September 2004. Photo by Martin Sands.

 

Wen is a broadly trained botanist and evolutionary biologist, working on various genera in a large number of plant families. She has made extensive botanical collections (over 8,000 collection numbers) and also helped build (through gifts and exchanges) new collections of over 8,000 specimens for the Field Museum Herbarium in the past three years, primarily from China, Vietnam, and India. She is also interested in developing more projects on biodiversity inventory and conservation studies. Wen has traveled extensively throughout the world, conducting field studies and collections in the Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Thailand, United States, and Vietnam.

Born in the Chinese province of Hubei, Wen received a B.S. in Forestry from CentralChinaAgriculturalUniversity at Wuhan in 1984, and a Ph.D. in Plant Biology from the OhioStateUniversity in 1991. After completing a two-year postdoctoral position at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University, she moved to the Smithsonian Institution in 1994 as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Botany and the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics. In 1995, she joined the staff of the Department of Biology at Colorado State University as Assistant Professor and Curator of the Herbarium. In 2000, she moved to Chicago where she began her work as Associate Curator at the Field Museum.

Wen also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Botany, the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China, and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois, Chicago. In 2002 she was awarded Honorary Member of the Indian Association of Angiosperm Taxonomy, India. Wen has over 82 publications to her name, in addition to translating from English into Chinese a Rapid Biological Inventory of the southern Gaoligongshan in Yunnan, China with Chinese colleagues.

New Faces

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.

Kenneth Wurdack stands tall with Joannesia princeps (Euphorbiaceae) in the Department greenhouse. Photo by Leslie Brothers.

Kenneth J. Wurdack recently joined the Department as an Assistant Curator. He received his Ph.D. in 2002 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was laboratory manager for the Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies at the New York Botanical Garden before coming to the Smithsonian as a post‑doctoral fellow and a Research Associate in molecular systematics. Wurdack’s research interests are on the systematics and evolution of Euphorbiaceae, a large group of angiosperms noted for rubber (Hevea brasiliensis), cassava (Manihot esculenta), poinsettias (Euphorbia pulcherrima) and castor bean (Ricinus communis). He has also done research on the order Malpighiales to which euphorbs belong, Thymeleaeceae, horizontal gene transfer, and ant‑plant interactions. Wurdack’s research and botanical career will be highlighted in the next issue of the Plant Press.

Departures

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.  

Paula DePriest has moved from the Department to take a position as Deputy Director of the Smithsonian Center for Materials Research and Education at the Museum Support Center (MSC) in Suitland, Maryland. DePriest had made many contributions to lichen research and collections activities in the Department as well as during her term as Special Advisor to the Under Secretary for Science over the last two years. 

The Rainforest Gathering: Has Tropical Forest Conservation Succeeded?

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.

In early September, over 200 participants convened at the Eden Project in Cornwall, United Kingdom, for a discussion on the present status and future prospects of rain forest conservation. Cosponsored by the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (headquartered at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History), the conference, entitled The Rainforest Gathering, brought together people with exceedingly diverse backgrounds and perspectives, including botanists, zoologist, foresters, ecologists, ethnobotanists, climatologists, meteorologists, chemists, horticulturists, anthropologists, economists, investment bankers, representatives of the private sector, industry and government, musicians, TV producers, administrators, students, and teachers. This list is not complete and many participants could be easily categorized into more than one group. The Rainforest Gathering constituted one of the most diverse bodies of thinkers about rain forest biology, utilization, and conservation that I have ever encountered. The Eden Project was the perfect venue for this discussion and is to be highly commended, especially Don Murray, for conceiving of and carrying out this conference.

The conference was divided into seven themes that encompassed tropical forest ecosystem processes and services, forest regeneration, the utilization, valuation, and exploitation of tropical forests, climate change in tropical environments, the rain forest pharmacy, and tropical forest indigenous peoples and communities. The habitats described spanned the globe from Africa to Asia to the Americas, although a heavy emphasis was placed on the Amazon. Throughout the three days I heard many facts, opinions, old ideas, new ideas, and passionate pleas and expressions of concern for the future of tropical forests and the people who live in them. Some were hopeful of success; others where not.

Botanists Swarm Vienna at the XVII International Botanical Congress

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.

Department staff members were conspicuous participants at the XVII International Botanical Congress (IBC) in Vienna, Austria, 17-23 July. This meeting was the second IBC to be held in Vienna, the first one convened there 100 years ago. 

Immediately preceding the main program of the XVII IBC, the Nomenclature Section of the Congress took place at the University of Vienna, from 12-16 July. This Section was presented by the Congress’s Bureau of Nomenclature as prescribed by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature. Dan H. Nicolson, president of Bureau of Nomenclature, chaired the session. Attending from the Department were Nicolson, Paul Peterson, Laurence Dorr, Vicki Funk, Laurence Skog, Robert Soreng, and Warren Wagner. Important topics that were discussed include the elimination of illustrations as types beginning in 2007, the defeat of the proposals to conserve names below the rank of genus and species, the defeat of the proposal to conserve names across ranks, and the approval of the moving of the type of Acacia from a paraphyletic grade in Africa to a smaller monophyletic group centered in Australia. Recommendations for electronic publication were also passed although the date of publication will remain the date of hard copy publication. Currently eight flowering plant families have two names (e.g., Compositae and Asteraceae; Palmae and Arecaceae); the proposal to eliminate that option for seven of those families was defeated in the mail ballot and was not discussed on the floor.

The Congress was opened with a reception at the Vienna Town Hall attended by thousands of participants and the program began on Monday, 18 July, with an opening talk by Peter Raven. The congress focused on the newest developments in the botanical sciences worldwide and included plenary talks, general lectures, symposia, and poster sessions. All aspects of basic and applied botanical research were included. More than 4,000 participants of XVII IBC 2005 attended from 97 countries making this Congress a truly international event.

Highlights of the Congress included keynote addresses by scientists from the National Museum of Natural History:

• John L. Clark, “Phylogenetic relationships and patterns of diversification in Gesneriaceae subfamily Gesnerioideae,” with Eric H. Roalson, Laurence E. Skog, John K. Boggan and Elizabeth A. Zimmer;
• Vicki A. Funk, “Evolution of the Compositae: the big picture,” with R.J. Bayer, L. Watson, B. Gemeinholzer, C. Oberprieler, N. Garcia-Jacas and A. Susanna;
• Conrad C. Labandeira (Department of Paleobiology), “The Mesozoic context for the origin of angiosperm plant-insect associations and floral syndromes;”
• Cristián Samper, “Implementing the global strategy for plant conservation: challenges and opportunities;”
• Robert J. Soreng, “Phylogenetic structure of Poaceae (R. Br.) Barnhart subfamily Pooideae Benth. based on sequence data of four chloroplast-encoded genes (matK, ndhF, ndhH, and rbcL),” with J.I. Davis;
• Warren L. Wagner, “It is not just a flora anymore;”
• Kenneth J. Wurdack, “Progress in Malpighiales phylogeny: new insights from eight genes,” with C.C. Davis.

Other departmental members and research associates who presented talks and posters during the scientific sessions were H. David Clarke, Susan Grose, Pat Herendeen, Vivian Negron-Ortiz, Paul Peterson, Karen Redden, Harold Robinson, Laurence Skog, Chelsea Specht, Anna Weitzman, and Jun Wen. Co-authors of talks and posters who could not attend the meeting were John Boggan, Robert Faden, W. John Kress, and Elizabeth Zimmer.

In addition to the talks and posters, there were also specialized workshops, small group meetings, and ad-hoc discussions. Several were organized by members and affiliates of the Department including the International Compositae Alliance (V. Funk), Flora Neotropica (P. Acevedo) and the Legume working group (P. Herendeen), OSU systematics group (V. Funk), New York Botanical Garden group (P. Acevedo), International Association of Plant Taxonomy business meeting (W. Wagner), Species Plantarum Project (W. Wagner and V. Funk) and others.

The next congress will be in July 2011, in Melbourne, Australia.

Contributed Presentations

L. Bohs, S. Knapp, M. Nee, D. Spooner, J. Bennett, L. Walley and J. Clark: The Solanum PBI project: taxonomy in the electronic information age;

P. Catalán, A. Quintanar, L. Gillespie, L.A. Inda, J.G. Segarra-Moragues, A. Archambault, J. Müller, M. Olonova, R. Soreng and S. Castroviejo: Evolutionary analysis of the Poaceae subfamily Pooideae tribal complex Aveneae-Poeae: systematic and biogeographic implications;

D. Clarke: Biogeography of plants of the Guiana Shield: Inferences from seven florulas from Northern South America;

S.O. Grose and R.G. Olmstead: Evolution of mammal dispersed fruits: morphology and anatomy of fruits in Crescentieae (Bignoniaceae);

P.S. Herendeen, G.P. Lewis and A. Bruneau: Reproductive structures of Leguminosae: phylogenetic and paleobotanical utility;

N. Hoffmann and P.T. DePriest: Unexpected genetic diversification in morphological uniform taxa and exceptional morphological diversification in Cladia and closely related lineages;

P. Hoffmann, K.J. Wurdack, H. Kathriarachchi, R. Samuel and M.W. Chase: Systematics of Euphorbiaceae s.l. lineages;

P. Karis, V. Funk, R. Chan, R. McKenzie and N. Barker: Small tribes, but a large challenge: clades and grades of Arctotideae and Liabeae;

H. Kathriarachchi, R. Samuel, P. Hoffmann, K.J. Wurdack and M.W. Chase: Phylogenetic relationships in Phyllanthus and relatives (Phyllanthaceae): evidence from nuclear ITS and plastid matK sequences;

S. Knapp, L. Bohs, M. Nee, D. Spooner, J. Bennett, J. Clark and L. Walley: Taxonomy as a team sport: PBI Solanum or how to monograph a monster;

P.M. Peterson, S.J. Pennington and R.J. Soreng: Biogeography and classification of New World Pooideae (Poaceae);

H.R. Robinson, S. Keeley and R. Chan: Progress in understanding Vernonieae evolution;

J.M. Saarela, P.M. Peterson and S.W. Graham: Phylogeny and biogeography of Bromeae;

C.D. Specht and W.J. Kress: Pollination syndromes and diversification rates in the tropical Gingers (Zingiberales);

A.L. Weitzman and C.H.C. Lyal: The Biologia Centrali-Americana Centennial: a vision for digital access to taxonomic information;

J. Wen: Patterns of morphological differentiation among intercontinental disjunct plants in the Northern Hemisphere.

Contributed Posters

L. Bohs, M. Nee, S. Knapp, D. Spooner, J.R. Bennett, J. Clarke and L. Walley: The PBI Solanum project - an international collaboration to monograph Solanum;

H. Dempewolf, T.J. Motley, D.H. Lorence and W.L. Wagner: Biogeographic patterns and affinities of the Pacific island genus Oparanthus (Coreopsideae: Asteraceae);

F. Eggens, M. Popp, M. Nepokroeff, W.L. Wagner and B. Oxelman: The origin of the Hawaiian endemic Silene species;

T.M. Evans, C.R. Hardy, R.B. Faden and R.F. Bode: A combined molecular phylogenetic analysis of Commelinaceae; evidence from rbcL, ndhF, and 26S nuclear ribosomal sequences;

L.J. Gillespie, A. Archambault and R.J. Soreng: Partial incongruence between nuclear ribosomal ITS and chloroplast trnT-trnF phylogenies of the bluegrass genus Poa and allied genera: new insights into reticulate evolution in Poaceae;

L.J. Gillespie, A. Archambault, R.J. Soreng, S.W.L. Jacobs and H. Ma: A close phylogenetic relationship detected between Poa subg. Andinae of Patagonia and Hookerochloa and Festucella of Australia (Poaceae, Pooideae, Poeae): evidence from nuclear and chloroplast DNA sequences and morphology;

L.A. Inda, J.G. Segarra-Moragues, P.M. Peterson, J. Müller and P. Catalán: Phylogenetic studies and the radiation of the New and Old World festucoids (Loliinae, Pooideae, Poaceae);

D.H. Lorence and W.L. Wagner: Vascular flora of the Marquesas Islands;

V. Negron-Ortiz and L.I. Strittmatter: Characterizing polyploidy in the Caribbean Consolea Lem. (Cactaceae): chromosomes, cytomixis and pollen grain size;

K.M. Redden and P.S. Herendeen: Morphology, diversity and phylogeny of Paloue, Elizabetha, Heterostemon and related Caesalpinoid legumes from northeastern South America;

N.F. Refulio-Rodriguez, J.T. Columbus and P.M. Peterson: Systematics of Dissanthelium Trin. (Poaceae: Pooideae);

T.M. Rehse, W.J. Kress and P.S. Manos: Appendages matter, again: Phylogenetics and the classification of Curcuma L.;

W.L. Wagner, P.C. Hoch and P.H. Raven: A new classification for Onagraceae.

Identifying Panamanian Dinoflagellates

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.

During August, Maria A. Faust examined the marine dinoflagellate flora of Bocas del Toro, Panama, at the invitation of Rachel Collin, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). Faust was part of a workshop that surveyed the benthic dinoflagellates, diatom microalgae, and soft bottom meiofauna of the Bocas Research Station. Marine dinoflagellates are microscopic marine plants, known as phytoplankton, that drift within shallow coastal ocean currents and are responsible for the majority of the flux of organic matter to both higher trophic levels and the ocean. Morphologically dinoflagellates are miniscule cells and their identification particularly taxonomically challenging. Often the most difficult hurdles for scientists studying the ecology of marine organisms are the identification of species. The morphology and ecology of dinoflagellates are virtually unknown in the regional tropical waters at Bocas del Toro.

In previous workshops, scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and collaborations between taxonomists from the different units within the Marine Science Network as well as from outside the Smithsonian have surveyed the ecology and taxonomy of macro‑invertebrate fauna within the oceanic coastal mangroves of Bocas del Toro. Interestingly, the Bocas region has a much higher diversity of soft sediment habitats and proportionally new and endemic species to the rest of the widespread Caribbean fauna.

Faust’s samples yielded rich flora of greater than 100‑150 benthic, planktonic, red‑tide forming, and toxic dinoflagellates species of great topological diversity present in plankton, mangrove embayment, patch reefs, and sea grass beds. This material will be used to create a species lists of locations in which they occur including a reference collection of preserved material. An identification guide of dinoflagellates is planned to illustrate in photographs of digitized images, each with a brief description of species‑specific distinguished characteristics. The identification guide of dinoflagellates will be available through STRI’s Web page.

The taxonomy‑based workshop of dinoflagellates in turn will benefit the laboratory in Bocas del Toro in several ways. Primarily it will provide STRI scientists, students, and visitors studying the organismic ecology of Bocas del Toro with a taxonomically up‑to‑date list of species that commonly occur near the laboratory, and a partial list of locations in which they occur. The availability of such information makes it easier for researchers to plan field trips as well as allowing identification of marine unicellular plants by marine biologists who are not necessarily trained experts. Lastly, the workshop encourages further taxonomic work in the region. In addition, accurate identification of organisms is necessary to make informed conservation decisions.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Panax quinquefolius

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.

Panax quinquefolius L. is the highly prized American ginseng, sometimes known as the “essence of man.” Its root often has a human shape and the medicinal value of the plant is still highly debated. Phylogenetically it forms a clade with Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer (true ginseng) and Panax japonicus C.A. Meyer (Japanese ginseng). Ginseng and American ginseng are not really sister species, although they were the first species group recognized with a wide-ranging classical biogeographic disjunction between eastern Asia and eastern North America, back in 1716.

Awards and Grants

From Plant Press, Vol. 8, No. 4 from October 2005.

Dan H. Nicolson (right) receives the Stafleu Medal from Pieter Baas during the 17th International Botanical Congress in Vienna, Austria. Photo by Alice C. Nicolson.

The Stafleu Medal of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy was awarded to Dan Nicolson and the late F. Raymond Fosberg for the publication of "The Forsters and the Botany of the Second Cook Expedition." The Stafleu Medal recognizes excellence in publications dealing with historical bibliographical or nomenclatural aspects of plant systematics. The Medal was presented to Nicolson on 15 July, during the 17^th International Botanical Congress in Vienna, Austria.

W. John Kress, with colleagues from Columbia University and the University of Maryland, entered the third year of a grant from the National Science Foundation’s Information Technology Research (ITR) program for “An Electronic Field Guide: Plant Exploration and Discovery in the 21^st Century.”

Rusty Russell received a Collections Care Grant from the Associate Director for Research and Collections (ADRC) at the National Museum of Natural History to conduct an assessment of the physical state of the U.S. National Herbarium Type Collection. Work will include specimen minor repairs, adding new covers and microchamber folders where necessary, isolating severe conservation problems, and reconciling the specimens with both the Type Register data base and the online images.

Jun Wen received a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, “Building Capacity for Biodiversity Research, Conservation, and Education in Eastern Himalaya” (PI, Jun Wen with two co-PIs: Greg Mueller and Rick Ree); and grant from the National Science Foundation, systematic biology section, “Revisionary Syntheses in Systematics (REVSYS): Phylogenetic, Biogeographic and Revisionary Taxonomic Studies in Prunus (Rosaceae)” (co-PI with Dan Potter and Joey Shaw).