The Plant Press

Connecting Content at the US National Herbarium

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

By Sylvia Orli, guest contributor
IT Manager

The latest buzz term in natural history is “connecting content.” We see the term used officially in certain contexts, such as the California Academy of Science’s collaborative initiative to digitize natural history field notes and connect them to natural history collections and Biodiversity Heritage Library publications. But connecting content can also refer to projects which connect concepts in various content areas. In the US National Herbarium, we are using our KE EMu (Electronic Museum) data system to store different types of content, such as specimen data, photo images, mapping coordinates, and genetic voucher details, which connect to each other and to outside content. To date, we have nearly 1.2 million specimen descriptive records, 300,000 geocoded collection localities, and 185,000 specimen images and live plant images in EMu and available online. With these resources, we can illustrate botanical taxonomic and geographic checklists with both live images and plant specimen images, create locality maps of our collections, and connect our botanical research to our herbarium collections through the use of online tools.

The original 1856 botanical illustration of “Echinocactus (Sclerocactus) whipplei” drawn by Paulus Roetter, above, is housed at the National Museum of Natural History, whereas the type specimen is at the herbarium of the Missouri Botanical Garden.

Sometimes the merits of connecting our botanical content into one data storage system are shown to us in surprising ways. For example, this year we will be importing our botanical art images into EMu. Alice Tangerini, our botanical illustrator, discovered that the Department of Botany has most of the original botanical illustrations from the Report of the Expedition of the 35^th Parallel, “Explorations and Surveys of a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean,” published in 1856. The exploration was funded by the U.S. Secretary of War and led by A.W. Whipple of the Corps of Topographical Engineers and accompanied by botanists, George Engelmann and J. M. Bigelow of St. Louis. The expedition was part of an initiative of the U.S. government to find a railroad route from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean.

If the Department of Botany had the original report drawings, shouldn’t we also have the specimens from the expedition? The notion of combing the herbarium for specimens from this expedition to match the drawings seemed daunting, as 70 percent of the herbarium specimens are not inventoried. But Botany has also embarked on the Historical Collections project, an effort to document the botanical explorations in the US National Herbarium and digitize the collections associated with the expeditions as part of the Global Plants Initiative (GPI). By querying the name of the expedition in our EMu system, we were able to retrieve 71 records and specimen images for the Whipple expedition and match many of them to the original illustrations. A score for both the Whipple Expedition illustrations and specimens! We could now digitally connect the illustrations to their voucher specimen records.

10 Botanical Treasures Exemplify Herbarium

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

By Gary Krupnick

trea·sure (noun \ˈtre-zhər, ˈtrā-\): 2. something of great worth or value
- Merriam-Webster

United States National Herbarium

Just under 5 million specimens are housed in the U.S. National Herbarium, placing it among the world's largest and most important. The plant collections of the Smithsonian Institution began with the acquisition of specimens collected by the United States Exploring Expedition (1838-1842). These formed the foundation of a national herbarium.

Among the collections are botanical specimens that hold a unique, and rather subjective, value to those who study them. These are some of the treasures of the U.S. National Herbarium. What makes a specimen a treasure? Is it because if its size, age, or rarity? Or perhaps it is due to the circumstances on where, when, or how it was collected.

The staff of the Department of Botany was asked earlier this year to list what they feel are the herbarium treasures—any specimen that is particularly interesting in some respect or aspect. The herbarium has a variety of impressive collections, from the type specimen collection (nearly 110,000 types, including almost 20,000 holotypes) to the 250,000 fern collections, the largest number of these plants in any institution in the Western Hemisphere. Only individual specimens, however, and not collections were considered for this list.

This list of 10 specimens was chosen based on having scientific, taxonomic, aesthetic, representative, historic, and/or cultural value.

The following people contributed to the treasure stories: Barrett Brooks, Carol Kelloff, Nancy Khan, Ingrid Lin, Greg McKee, Rusty Russell, Mary Sangrey, Warren Wagner and several interns.

The 10 Botanical Treasures of the US National Herbarium:

1. Wilkes collection type specimen: holotype of Argyroxiphium macrocephalum (US 59690).
2. Historical collection: Mexican Boundary Survey. Castilleja lanata (US 93751).
3. Lichens as biological monitors: Flavoparmelia baltimorensis (US Barcode 00536547).
4. New Hawaiian species: Hibiscadelphus woodii (US 3313194)
5. Local extirpation: Zizania aquatica (US 2313301)
6. Deepest photosynthetic marine algae: Undescribed species in the order Corallinales (Rhodophyta)
7. New fern species: Hecistopteris kaieteurensis US 33760054).
8. Champion tree: Taxodium distichum (US w42707)
9. World's largest seed: Lodoicea maldivica (US 3609441)
10. New Compositae species: Fulcaldea stuessyi (US 3580444)

Botanical Treasure #10. New Compositae species: Fulcaldea stuessyi (US 3580444)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

The tenth botanical treasure is a specimen of Compositae artistically illustrated.

Botanical Treasure #9. World's largest seed: Lodoicea maldivica (US 3609441)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

The ninth botanical treasure comes from a palm tree that produces the largest seeds in the world.

Botanical Treasure #8. Champion tree: Taxodium distichum (US w42707)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

This specimen of Taxodium distichum (US w42707) was once ranked as the fifth oldest living tree in the world and the overall state champion in Florida before it was destroyed by an arsonist on January 16, 2012.

Botanical treasure number 8 once stood as tall as a senator.

Botanical Treasure #7. New fern species: Hecistopteris kaieteurensis US 33760054)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

The seventh botanical treasure is Earth's second smallest terrestrial fern.

Botanical Treasure #6. Deepest photosynthetic marine algae: Undescribed species in the order Corallinales (Rhodophyta)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

On the deck of the submersibles mother ship the R/V Johnson, Mark and Diane Littler hold a crustose coralline growing attached a rock substrate collected from a depth of 268 meters off the northern border of San Salvadore Island, Bahamas, in October 1983.

Botanical treasure number 6 dives deep to find photosynthesis in extreme conditions.

Botanical Treasure #5. Local extirpation: Zizania aquatica (US 2313301)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

Botanical treasure number 5 is a species once found in Washington, DC.

Botanical Treasure #4. New Hawaiian species: Hibiscadelphus woodii (US 3313194)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

Botanical treasure number 4 is a rare and possibly extinct species from Hawaii.

Botanical Treasure #3. Lichens as biological monitors: Flavoparmelia baltimorensis (US Barcode 00536547)

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

 

Detail of the rock greenshield lichen, Flavoparmelia baltimorensis (US Barcode 00536547).

The third botanical treasure demonstrated a relationship between lichen growth and air pollution.