The Plant Press

Ruth F. Schallert, 90, Botany/Horticulture Branch Librarian

From Plant Press, Vol. 13, No. 3 from July 2010.

Ruth Schallert in 2007 (Photo by Chip Clark)

Born in Whitehall, Wisconsin to Roy A. and Leila Fortun, Ruth Schallert developed her interest in the sciences at an early age helping her father around the family pharmacy after school and during holidays. A favorite recollection of those times was scooping orange-pineapple ice cream for customers, oranges and pineapples being a rare treat in those Northern climes.

She received her bachelor's degree at Luther College, Decorah, Iowa. After obtaining her library degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, she took a position at the Art Library, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Her next two library positions were with the Pacific Salmon Investigations Library of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in Seattle, Washington and with the Naval Oceanographic Office Library in Washington, D.C. While in Seattle, she and husband, William Schallert had two daughters, Karla and Lisa.

After a brief period at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Entomology Branch Library, in 1966 she became the Smithsonian Botany Branch Librarian and in March 2003 the Smithsonian's Botany/Horticulture Branch Librarian. In June of 2003, the Council of Botanical and Horticultural Libraries (CBHL) awarded her the Charles Robert Long Award of Extraordinary Merit.

Schallert received the CBHL Award in honor of her professional library service since 1966 in the Natural History Museum as well as in recognition of her many collaborative activities with members of the American Library Association, the Special Libraries Association, the Society for the History of Natural History, the European Botanical and Horticultural Libraries group, and CBHL. She was a past-president of CBHL and was instrumental in designing the original bylaws for this Council. Some of Schallert's other honors include an alumni award in 2002 by Luther College and the naming of a new plant species in 1982 by Christine Burton, Hoya schallertiae, in recognition that the library research assistance Schallert gave her was "far beyond the call of duty."

Schallert's publications included two articles in professional journals:

• Churgin, S. and R.F. Schallert. 1980. History of the Smithsonian Libraries, with special emphasis on natural history. Journal of the Society of the Bibliography of Natural History 9(4): 593-606.
• White, J.J. and R.F. Schallert. 1986. Illustrations in the Contributions from the U.S. National Herbarium, 1890-1974. Huntia 6(2): 147-163.

After living in the woods of Accokeek, Maryland for many years and upon the passing of her husband Bill, Schallert moved to Arlington, Virginia to be closer to work and family. With great reluctance, Schallert retired from the Botany/Horticulture Branch Library after 41 years of service in 2007. Later in 2007 she moved to Philadelphia to The Watermark at Logan Square retirement community in Center City to be near her younger daughter. Once settled, she volunteered two days a week at the Free Library of Philadelphia almost next door. A born librarian, she also took over voluntary management of the Watermark Library.

While on vacation in Cape May with her daughter, Lisa, she took a fall, fracturing her hip. She subsequently had several strokes and lapsed into a coma, dying in her sleep on June 2, 2010. Schallert is survived by her daughter Lisa, and sons-in-law Alan MacBride and Robert Farrall.

A memorial fund is being set up to in Ruth’s name to honor her many years of service as the Botany Branch Librarian. A check can be made out to “Smithsonian Institution Libraries” and mailed to Rachelle Hardy, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, NHB Room 26mz, MRC 154, PO Box 37012, Washington DC 20013-7012, or donated online through the SIL website at http://donate.sil.si.edu/v/Donate.asp. Please indicate in your correspondence you are remembering Ruth Schallert.

A Fresh Perspective on a Botanical Puzzle Box

From Plant Press, Vol. 13, No. 3 from July 2010.

By Jimmy Triplett

Bamboo. The very name evokes a wealth of imagery: a symbol of grace and beauty, a feast fit for a panda, or perhaps a villainous weed, breaching property lines. Whatever the association, everyone knows bamboo. And yet, what is a bamboo? From a botanical perspective, few such “well-known” plants have harbored so much mystery: How many species are there? For that matter, how many genera?! Why do they wait so long to flower? And where are they from, anyway?

In the years since molecular evidence has entered the botanists’ toolbox, phenomenal progress has been made in our understanding of bamboos, including their relationship with other grasses, their diversity, and their natural history. We now know that bamboos are in the core of the grass family (Poaceae), sister to rice and bluegrass, and not primitive cousins as once thought. Molecular data have also revealed overlooked species, including one in the Southeastern U.S. (hill cane, Arundinaria appalachiana) and a multitude of taxa in Central and South America, Asia, and Africa. Yet despite this progress, countless puzzles remain, especially as we look closer at relationships among species.

Awards and Grants

From Plant Press, Vol. 13, No. 3 from July 2010.

Vicki Funk, as lead editor of the book Systematics, Evolution, and Biogeography of Compositae, was selected to receive the Stebbins Medal for 2007-2009 from the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT). The medal is given for “an outstanding article or book on plant systematics and/or plant evolution.” Funk will receive the award on August 3, 2010, at the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) banquet at the Botany 2010 meeting in Providence, Rhode Island.

Mark Littler received the 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award from Ohio University’s College of Arts and Sciences. The award ceremony will take place September 24, 2010. Preceding the ceremony, Littler will mentor and advise students in the Department of Environmental and Plant Sciences.

Planting a Garden with the First Lady

From Plant Press, Vol. 13, No. 3 from July 2010.

Smithsonian Research Associate Christopher Puttock met with the First Lady of the United States Michelle Obama and several dozen Congressional spouses and students to plant of a native butterfly garden at the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center on April 29, 2010. The Monarch Biodiversity Garden was designed by Puttock, who is also Executive Director of Chesapeake Natives, Inc., Chief Botanist for the Natural Partners Monarch Sister Schools Program, and leader of the Rotary District 7620 Environmental Conservation Committee. These three organizations were integrally involved with the supply, preparation, and delivery of this outdoor classroom.

Christopher Puttock planted a native butterfly garden with first lady Michelle Obama at the Marie H. Reed Community Learning Center on April 29, 2010.

Chesapeake Natives, Inc. <http://www.chesapeakenatives.com> is a Maryland-based non-profit organization that strives to preserve, propagate and promote plants that are native to the Chesapeake watershed. By protecting and restoring native plants, Chesapeake Natives is helping to sustain the regions local fauna, including its pollinators (including butterflies), and in sustaining the local flora aesthetic that makes the Chesapeake watershed unique. Chesapeake Natives’ activities make native plants available to school and community projects in the DC, Baltimore and Annapolis area.

Chesapeake Natives works closely with the Monarch Sister Schools Program <http://www.monarchsisterschools.org> which is an initiative of the nonprofit Natural Partners to involve school children across North America in the protection and restoration of the habitat of the Monarch butterfly, including its threatened winter habitat in the highlands of central Mexico and its disappearing milkweed habitat along its migratory flyway from Mexico to Canada. The Program provides the support that schools need to plant and sustain a Monarch Biodiversity Garden in their schoolyard (habitat restoration), create an outdoor classroom (STEM education) and establish a relationship with a sister school in Mexico (cultural exchange). The program is currently working with more than 20 schools in the D.C. metro area.

The Environmental Conservation Program of Maryland/DC Rotary District 7620 is a part of the Rotary Preserve Planet Earth Program that started in 1990. Rotarians of Rotary Clubs in District 7620 are actively engaged in supporting elementary schools both financially and with volunteer service hours to sustain Monarch Biodiversity Gardens. In addition to the Monarch Sister School Program, almost all 70 Rotary clubs in the D.C. and Maryland area engage in numerous environmental activities in the District and across the world.

In addition to taking an active role in planting the garden Obama and the Congressional spouses painted butterflies on the mural during this community service afternoon. The butterfly murals that now surround Monarch Biodiversity Garden at Marie H. Reed Learning Center were designed by Loretta Thompson of the Sitar Center for the Arts. The event was coordinated for the First Lady by Lynsey Jeffries of Higher Achievement.

New Faces

From Plant Press, Vol. 13, No. 3 from July 2010.

The Smithsonian Institution has awarded fellowships to twelve accomplished artists from the United States and abroad to conduct research at Smithsonian museums and research facilities as part of the 2010 Smithsonian’s Artist Research Fellowship (SARF) Program. This pan-Institutional program provides artists with financial support to conduct research for a two-month residency period, offering them access to special collections and to the diverse areas of expertise at the Smithsonian. The awarded artists for 2010 include Jocelyn Chateauvert, an artist who expresses the natural world through her jewelry, sculpture and installation artworks from the plant-based papers she makes by hand. Chateauvert is intrigued by the physical adaptability of plants: their ability to dominate their environment, exploiting and expanding around obstacles like water, rocks and even other plants. She is participating in field research at the NMNH's Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield and then consulting the specimen and botanical illustration collections at NMNH, working with Vicki Funk, Alice Tangerini, and Curator of Art Jane Milosch from the Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture. On her travels to the Guianas Chateauvert will document, through sound, drawings and photography, plant life for its sculptural qualities and organic architecture en masse. Chateauvert will also record observations of plants textural record of survival evidenced through scarring, insect predation and wind influence.

This summer, the National Museum of Natural History launched a new internship program, the Natural History Research Experiences (NHRE). Hundreds of applications were received and 18 were selected by an ad hoc committee. Maddie Brown, freshly graduated in Anthropology at Brown University, is one recipient. Interested in ethnobotany and classical culture, Brown is working with Alain Touwaide and Emanuela Appetiti on a program on the diet of ancient Rome. Their hypothesis is that the Romans of classical antiquity chose their diets based on identifiable nutritional principles and guidelines. In order to test their hypothesis, Brown will examine Classical texts for literary references to important agricultural and food plants, in order to gain a solid foundation of which sorts of plants the Romans of the 1^st century AD were interested. She will combine this textual evidence with botanical data from both regional flora guides and the herbarium’s collections in order to determine with greater certainty which plant species the Romans were probably consuming. This information will allow her to reconstruct how ancient Roman diets changed throughout the seasons as well as to ascertain the nutritional properties of their diets as a whole. 

Another NHRE intern is Heidi Wollaeger, a Biology major with a minor in Studio Art at Wittenburg University in Ohio. While working with Liz Zimmer this summer, Wollaeger will examine genetic variation among populations of the cucumber magnolia, Magnolia acuminata. There have been previous suggestions that the species includes subspecies found in different geographic regions in the eastern United States. She will be amplifying and sequencing DNAs from over 80 samples for three to four chloroplast DNA spacer regions that have been useful in differentiating populations of other plant species. Wollaeger is interested in doing graduate work in Botany and possibly in Museum Studies. She previously has done volunteer work at the Cleveland and Hollandia Botanical Gardens and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History; at the latter she used anatomical techniques to study fossil plants.

A Personal View of the Grand Challenges

From Plant Press, Vol. 13, No. 3 from July 2010.

By V. A. Funk

The Directors for the four Consortia that reflect the Grand Challenges of the Smithsonian’s Strategic Plan have been announced and things may change quickly. So, it seems like a good time to pause and take a look at the ideas behind the Grand Challenges and the expectations of at least one member of the Strategic Planning Committee, me!

Last year I had the wonderful experience of serving as the Co-Chair of the Smithsonian’s Strategic Planning Committee. When I was first asked to take on this responsibility I found the whole concept to be a bit overwhelming. It did not help that we had two sets of consultants and a committee of over 20 people, many of whom were Directors or Assistant Directors or other experienced high-ranking administrators. I was fortunate to have as my Co-Chair Kevin Gover, the Director of the National Museum of the American Indian, who had a great deal of experience with committees and managing large groups of sometimes independent minded individuals; indeed he was far better than I was at dealing with some of the problems that arose. We were ably assisted by Pherabe Kolb, from the Office of the Under Secretary for Finance and Administration. In fact, Pherabe saved the day many times during the process. We quickly realized that one meeting per month would not move us along very fast so we started a Monday “lunch bunch” that anyone on the Steering Committee could attend and it was there that much of the work was done. After the Committee finished their work the actual Strategic Plan document was written by Carole Nevis and the staff of the Office of Policy and Analysis along with the unit directors, the Under Secretaries, and, of course, it was all carefully watched and commented on by the Secretary. There were many stages to the process but this article is not about the process but about the vision, or at least my view of the vision.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Sinarundinaria walkeriana (Munro) CS Chao & Renvoize

From Plant Press, Vol. 13, No. 3 from July 2010.

The temperate bamboos are a complex group in Asia, Africa, Madagascar and North America. The bamboo illustrated here is from Sri Lanka and was originally described in Arundinaria (now a North American endemic), but its closest relatives remain a mystery. “Sinarundinaria,” like so many bamboo names, is something of a taxonomic way station. New molecular evidence is providing an improved understanding of bamboo evolution, including their phylogeography and the recurring role of lineage reticulation, as described in this issue of The Plant Press. This illustration originally appeared in Soderstrom and Ellis (1988; Smithson. Contrib. Botany 72: 1-75).

Gramneas de Zacatecas, Mexico

From Plant Press, vol. 13, No. 3 from July 2010.

Paul Peterson and fellow scientists Yolanda Herrera Arrieta and Armando Cortés Ortiz have produced a taxonomic treatment of the grasses from the Mexican state of Zacatecas. Published in Sida, Botanical Miscellany, this treatment includes 284 species in 91 genera with six subspecies, 30 varieties, and four forms. Written entirely in Spanish, this publication contains keys for determining the taxa, descriptions, illustrations (at least one per genus), distribution maps, and specimens examined. Zacatecas is centrally placed in México (bisected by the Tropic of Cancer) located primarily east of the Sierra Madre Occidental and west of the Sierra Madre Oriental with nearly 75% of the state between 6000−8000 feet in elevation (10,501 ft on the tallest mountain).

In 1546, the Basque, Juan de Tolosa, made a major strike of silver in Zacatecas in the rough, arid mountains deep in Chichimec territory. Ciudad Zacatecas still harbors Mina El Edén, an active silver mine on top of Cerro del Grillo. Today much of the high plateau between the two Sierras is covered with C₄ grasslands that include xerophilous shrubs, pinyon−juniper, and oak woodlands.

This important study, supported by CONABIO (Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad) and the Smithsonian, will be used by land managers, ranchers, ecologists, scientists, and plant enthusiasts who need to identify grasses throughout Zacatecas and surrounding states. Peterson will be traveling with Jeffery Saarela (Canadian Museum of Nature and former Smithsonian Research Training Intern) this fall, and together, with Herrera Arrieta and Cortés Ortiz, they will begin working on a grass flora of San Luis Potosí.