The Plant Press

Notes from the Plant Mounting Room

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 4, October 2013

By Melinda Peters

Specimen US 3656200 is a gourd collected in 1959 with georeferenced data

As we enter the fall season, the Plant Mounting Program is in full swing and we have been recruiting a few new volunteers to help with the preparation of specimens. Some volunteers are back from vacation while others are still enjoying their adventures, but we are gearing up for the fall. During this quarter, with many people away, we were still able to contribute some 2,267 mounted specimens to the permanent collection. The plant mounting volunteers also helped with the preparation of 111 specimens for the Q?RIUS center, the new learning center set to open at the National Museum of Natural History in November. These specimens will be available to the public and provide a way to experience what it is like “behind the scenes.”

The new acquisitions in this quarter have been a smattering of material, much of it for curators and the rest of it from geographic areas of interest. We have also been incorporating backlog specimens into the current queue of mounting, which is very exciting to see some older specimens make their way into the collection.

For this quarter’s noteworthy specimens, I am featuring two specimens from families that are economically important. As we enter the fall harvest, it is a good reminder to think about how much we benefit from plants, and it seemed appropriate to highlight two specimens that are in families we recognize often during this time of the year. One is a recently mounted member of the Cucurbitaceae and the other is in the Lauraceae family.

A Day with US: The Herbarium that Keeps on Giving

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 4, October 2013

By Julian Campbell

When James Smithson endowed an “establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge among men,” how could he possibly have imagined the pleasant place that the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany and Herbarium has now become? Located on the 4^th and 5^th West Wing floors of that massive National Museum of Natural History building, I have been coming here to study every year or two or three since 1982. Almost like going ‘through the looking glass’ one walks up through the exhibit or ascends on the elevator to the secure door, swiping one’s visitor pass for entry. A magical world awaits!

For readers who may not be so familiar with the visiting experience, let me outline highlights of a day recently spent here, checking on some botanical records from Kentucky, where I have been working on an atlas of the state’s vascular flora since about 1990. There are many important old collections of plants from Kentucky at US (the official acronym for this herbarium). Particularly important are the collections of Lucy Braun (1889-1971), who, almost single handedly, documented the flora and vegetation of Kentucky during 1920-1950. I continually maintain a list of collections to check at major herbaria, attempting to verify obscure records or to clarify identifications. My list for US has now gotten down to a handful of really problematic cases, but it will probably never go to zero—since taxonomic issues are never-ending!

Congressional Night at the Museum

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 4, October 2013

“Congressional Night at the Smithsonian” was held at the National Museum of Natural History on the evening of July 24, 2013. The event was attended by 1,800 Congressional staff and their families, as well as 20 Members of Congress. The event encouraged Congressional staff to meet members of the museum’s research staff, engage in educational activities, and visit the museum’s exhibit halls. The evening also included the successful and dynamic debut of Q?rius – the museum’s new learning center. Sponsorship by Nissan North America, Inc. provided support and refreshments.

Reflections on a Shutdown

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 4, October 2013

By Gary A. Krupnick
Editor of The Plant Press
Head of the Plant Conservation Unit

This issue of The Plant Press, originally scheduled to be published during early October, is seeing a late release due to the U.S. government shutdown. The enforced shutdown was due to a lack of appropriations for fiscal year 2014. It occurred during the first 16 days of October and resulted in the closing of the Smithsonian Institution, all of its museums and the National Zoo. The majority of the federal staff was furloughed. The effect of the shutdown was significant on the activities of the U.S. National Herbarium and the livelihood of its workforce

A view from Twitter, as the National Museum of Natural History announces a temporary closure as a result of a U.S. government shutdown. All of the employees of the U.S. National Herbarium were furloughed for 16 days.

Most Department staff members were sent home in a non-duty and non-pay status. Due to the Anti-Deficiency Act, we were specifically instructed not to conduct work at our workplace or any alternative worksite. We were not permitted to continue our research as an unpaid volunteer, and thus all of our studies were halted. Federal employees were not permitted to use or access any Smithsonian system including email, and we could be subjected to fines and legal actions for doing so. Employees were prohibited from using all Smithsonian issued equipment, including mobile devices, smartphones, tablets, and laptops. Visiting researchers who had planned to work in the herbarium suddenly found their research brought to a halt.

Frondly Focused on Ferns

From Plant Press Vol. 16 no. 4, October 2013

By Gary A. Krupnick

Eric Schuettpelz, in this self-portrait, joined the staff of the Department of Botany as Research Botanist and Assistant Curator of Ferns in August 2013.

The Department of Botany recently hired two new curators. Eric Schuettpelz, a systematic biologist recognized for his work on fern diversification, has joined the staff as Research Botanist and Assistant Curator of Ferns, and Ashley N. Egan, a systematic biologist with expertise in phylogenomics and bioinformatics, has been appointed as Research Botanist and Assistant Curator of Legumes. They both started in August 2013. The fern and legume holdings at the U.S. National Herbarium are large and significant. New curation and research will be highly beneficial. Egan and the legume collection will be profiled in a future issue of the Plant Press, while Schuettpelz and the fern collection are profiled here.

The fern collection at the U.S. National Herbarium currently totals approximately 275,000 specimens and is thought to be the largest fern collection in the new world. Known for having an especially rich collection of types—just under 5,500 catalogued type specimens—the collection results from a long history of pteridological research at the Smithsonian Institution. Remarkably, the collection has had continuous curation for over 100 years.