The Plant Press

Botany Round-Up

From Plant Press, Vol. 15, No. 3 from July 2012.

By Emily Hunter and Rusty Russell, Field Book Project

Adapted from the Field Book Project Blog <http://nmnh.typepad.com/fieldbooks/>

Botany field books in National Museum of Natural History library stacks, photo by Anna Friedman

Last summer, Field Book Project staff and interns began to catalog the hundreds of field books that are in the care of the Department of Botany. This summer, the Field Book Project has reached a significant milestone. As of this writing, the final collection of Botany field books is being cataloged – at least for now. “At least for now” because while the current cache of Botany field books has been documented they, like all of the collections at the National Museum of Natural History, grow and diversify. Field books are still being “found”, and some day current staff will contribute their own field books. For now, the Field Book Project only catalogs the field notes of inactive collectors.

The numbers are far greater than the original estimates. To date the Field Book Project has cataloged 1,018 botanical field books created by 168 field biologists. Many of these field books have received special conservation attention from experts at the SI Archives, and now exist in a more controlled environment. We’ve created consistent records and access points that ultimately make the field books and their content more accessible to researchers. The short version? You will have an easier time finding and using these field books.

In 1980 former Botany Librarian Ruth Schallert prepared an inventory of field books being stored in the Botany Library. For more than two decades, this listing was the only electronically available field book resource on the NMNH website. In the course of cataloging, however, we have found that some of the field books were missing. Their current storage in the Natural History Library improves our ability to maintain and preserve the Botany field books. The task of digitally scanning field books has begun, and soon researchers will be able to locate field book items through the catalog by several access points (dates, creator, locality, and others) and be able to see and read the individual field book pages.

Field books are the original source of information for collecting activities and the resulting collections. They are, therefore, even more important than specimen labels. The impact of reaching this milestone in Botany is significant in terms of improved access to this critical data, all of which bodes well for research and collections programs in the Department.

Abstracts from the Speakers at the Smithsonian Botanical Symposium

From Plant Press, Vol. 15, No. 3 from July 2012.

The 10^th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “Transforming 21^st Century Comparative Biology using Evolutionary Trees,” was held 20-21 April 2012. The invited speakers covered a wide range of organisms and topics to illuminate how molecular phylogenetics can be used to understand evolutionary and ecological processes. Below are the speakers’ abstracts from the papers that were presented.

Field Book Project and YES!

From Plant Press, Vol. 15, No. 3 from July 2012.

The Field Book Project welcomed 25 students from the Smithsonian YES! (Youth Engagement through Science) summer program into the National Museum of Natural History Main Library stacks to view field books from the Department of Botany. During their internships, YES students will create their own field notes while working with a variety of Smithsonian scientists.

Field Book Project field book lesson plan served as one major resource for Forensic Anthropology Lab Educator Nicole Webster, who developed an introduction to the concept of field notes for the students and activities involving photocopied examples of exemplary field notes. The purpose of the YES students’ visit was to now see original examples of field notes that reinforced the concepts they had learned in their introduction from the previous day.

Students explored nine original field books created between 1897 and 1946, each field book highlighting different aspects of note taking such as format (journals, lists, photos) and types of information like physical characteristics, localities, environmental and contextual information, co-occurrence, and cultural. Botanists whose field books were on view included Charles Boynton, Raymond F. Fosberg, David Griffiths, William J. Fisher, Edmund Sheldon, Edward Palmer, and André Goeldi.

Chair With A View: Getting Better All The Time

From Plant Press Vol. 15, No. 3 from 2012

The 2012 summer interns hosted by the Department of Botany

On a 100 degree Monday afternoon in D.C. this summer, Lauren Scangarella is comfortably ensconced in a fifth floor office inventorying and curating Hawaiian specimens. Emmie Miller and Julia Quigley are in the Botany Library researching historical expeditions. Kelly Friend is peering into a microscope to collect character data on Commelina. And Catherine Cox is leaning over the Zeutschel scanner making digital images of Ray Fosberg’s field books. However, beating the heat is the last thing on their minds.

Every year, hundreds of college undergrads and graduate students apply to participate in activities in the Department of Botany that are aimed at every aspect of our collections, research and outreach programs. Choosing among them may be one of the most difficult things we do. These students are consistently competent, highly intelligent, and motivated. They bring a youthful enthusiasm that is lacking most of the rest of the year. For three months every year, the energy level in the Department spikes to unreal heights. And by the end of the summer, the cumulative product of their work contributes to Botany’s goal of “getting better” vs. “getting by”—in every program. But this doesn’t happen by chance.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Pedicularis furbishiae S.Watson

Pedicularis furbishiae S.Watson by Alice Tangerini

From Plant Press Vol. 15, no. 3 from 2012

The diversity of Pedicularis (Orobanchaceae) in China’s Hengduan Mountains was the focus of Richard Ree’s talk at the 10^th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium. Alice Tangerini illustrated the North American endangered Furbish lousewort (Pedicularis furbishiae) for the cover of Endangered and Threatened Plants of the United States by E.S. Ayensu and R.A. DeFilipps (1978; Smithsonian Institution and World Wildlife Fund, Inc.). This critically imperiled species is endemic to the Saint John River Valley of northern Maine and adjacent New Brunswick, where threats include ice scouring, flooding, gravel extraction, forestry, and invasive species.

Letting the Phylogeny Genie Out of the Bottle

From Plant Press Vol. 15, No. 3 from 2012

By David Erickson

Kenneth Wurdack (symposium convener; left) and Warren Wagner (Chair of Botany; second to left) join the speakers of the 2012 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium (left to right): Scott V. Edwards, James W. Horn, Charles F. Delwiche, Richard Ree, David D. Ackerly, Karen Osborn, and Michael Donoghue. (Photo by Elaine Haug)

On April 20-21, the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian Institution convened the 10^th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, hosted by the Department of Botany in collaboration with the United States Botanic Garden. This year’s symposium, titled “Transforming 21^st Century Comparative Biology using Evolutionary Trees,” examined the development and application of phylogenetic methods in light of the massive advances in sequencing and genomic technology. Warren Wagner opened the symposium welcoming speakers and guests and provided an introduction into the Department of Botany and background on symposium subjects in the past. Wagner acknowledged the critical and ever-growing importance that phylogenies play in modern biology.

Wagner was followed by Jonathan Coddington who introduced the scope of investigation at the Smithsonian Institution to the many guests and speakers. He covered tremendous territory highlighting the diversity of research at the Institution with special emphasis on Institution wide projects. These projects include the Global Genome Initiative (GGI) which seeks to collect and curate one representative of all living genera, the Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatories (SIGEO) which is a global network of long-term, large-scale forest research plots and an international group of scientists dedicated to the study of tropical and temperate forest function and diversity, and its marine counterpart Marine Geo which seeks to quantify marine diversity through a network of marine research stations.

Awards & Grants

From Plant Press, Vol. 15, No. 3 from July 2012.

Walter Adey was awarded the Darbaker Prize by the Botanical Society of America and the Phycological Society of America. The award was established by Leasure K. Darbaker who bequeathed funds to the Botanical Society in 1952 to recognize individuals working in the area of "Microscopical Algae."

Judd Receives 10th Cuatrecasas Medal

From Plant Press Vol. 15, No. 3 from 2012

Walter Judd, Professor of Botany at the the University of Florida at Gainesville, accepts the 2012 José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany from Laurence Dorr (Chair of the Cuatrecasas medal selection committee). (Photo by Ken Wurdack)

The Department of Botany and the United States National Herbarium present this award to a botanist and scholar of international stature who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany is named in honor of Dr. José Cuatrecasas, a pioneering botanist and taxonomist, who spent nearly a half-century working in the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Botany. Dr. Cuatrecasas devoted his career to plant exploration in tropical South America and this award serves to keep vibrant the accomplishments and memory of this outstanding scientist.

The winner of this prestigious award is selected by a committee made up of three botanists on the staff of the Department in consultation with other plant scientists outside of the Smithsonian Institution. Nominations for the Medal are accepted from all scientists in the Botany Department. The award consists of a bronze medal bearing an image of José Cuatrecasas on the front with the recipient’s name and date of presentation on the back. Highlights from past presentations to the recipients are available on the Symposium Archives at http://botany.si.edu/events/sbsarchives/.

The 2012 Cuatrecasas Travel Fellowships

From Plant Press Vol. 15, No. 3 from 2012

This year the Department of Botany was fortunate to be able to offer support to six Latin American students to come and use the U.S. National Herbarium for their research between now and May 2013. The award is intended to support work in the spirit of the research of José Cuatrecasas and it is open to all who would benefit from studying tropical plants in the collection. The following six students were selected this year:

• Italho Coutinho, Federal University of Viçosa, Brazil, “Leaf anatomy as an additional tool to the taxonomy of the genus Chamaecrista (Leguminosae – Caesalpinioideae)”
• Bruno Amorim, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil, “Myrcia (Myrtaceae) of the Atlantic Forest in northeastern Brazil”
• Fabián Medina, National University of Colombia, Colombia, “Ficus subgenus Urostigma (Moraceae)”
• Jorgé Pérez-Zabala, University of California at Davis, “The diversification of the New World evergreen species of Prunus: Linking form, function and environment through evolutionary time”
• Jefferson Carvalho-Sobrinho, Feira de Santana State University, Brazil, “Systematics and biogeography of Bombax-group and taxonomic revision of Pseudobombax Dugand (Bombacoideae, Malvaceae)”
• Carolina Guerreiro, Darwinion Botany Institute, Argentina, “New insights on woody bamboos from southern South America”