Notes from the Plant Mounting Room

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 2

By Melinda Peters

Kermadecia sp. (US 3653808 )

The plant mounting room at Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History is buzzing with productivity. It has been a pleasure getting to know the dedicated volunteers, contractors, and staff plant mounters who help prepare the specimens for our research programs. These are treasures of the US collection. We are working on current exchange material for curators while also incorporating specimens from the backlog. The plant mounters have unique backgrounds and are a delightful group to work with. I am also happy to report that two new volunteers, Joan Carpenter and Traute Bushley, have joined the mounting crew, are learning the protocol, and are contributing to this wonderful group. For the first three months of 2013, we have mounted 3,362 specimens for the collection.

I am working on incorporating “learning moments” for the volunteers who are interested in botany and encourage curators and visitors to stop by the mounting room to share any plant knowledge or stories. Many of these volunteers have been coming to work on this project for years and it just shows that they enjoy contributing to our nation’s collection and find it a rewarding experience.

Learn about three noteworthy newly mounted acquisitions below the fold...

Specimen US 3653808 (above) is an unidentified species of Kermadecia (Proteaceae) from New Caledonia given to us through our exchange program with the Missouri Botanical Garden. It is one of the first specimens I have mounted for US and highlights what we can do with bulky material. We use more stitching to secure the base and inflorescence, while incorporating linen straps over leaf tips and stems.

Specimen US 3653822 is a new record for Maryland of Gonolobus suberosus (L.) R.Br. var. suberosus collected by R. H. Simmons with Chris Frye, Wes Knapp, and Caroline Haynes on 13 June 2009. We received it as a gift and it will be deposited in the D.C. Herbarium. Due to its rarity, we only acquired a small sample and a photo. To protect the specimen fragment, a clear archival film encloses the specimen, highlighting another mounting method used at the US National Herbarium.

Gonolobus suberosus (L.) R.Br. var. suberosus (US 3653822)

Specimen US 3639503 is an ethnobotanical specimen of Carica papaya L. from Micronesia. The specimen was sent to us on exchange from the New York Botanical Garden. The label includes instructions on how to cure an infected cut: “Take the tuber, pound and wrap in a piece of cloth. Squeeze on the wound.”

Carica papaya L. (US 3639503)