The Plant Press

Art by Alice Tangerini: Oenothera riskindii W.L. Wagner

From Plant Press, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2016.

The U.S. National Herbarium has begun a rapid digitization project, starting with the digitization of plants specimens in the family Onagraceae (evening primrose). Onagraceae has developed over the past half century as a model system for the study of plant evolution. At present, systematic revisions are available for virtually the entire family of 660 species in 22 genera. Molecular phylogenetic analyses have resulted in a major new classification of the family with a comprehensive monograph completed in 2007 by Warren Wagner and collaborators. Once imaged and databased, the herbarium’s collection will provide more than 25,000 specimen records across the family to be utilized in tandem with ongoing research projects world-wide. Over 130 species are rare or endangered, including the narrowly endemic Oenothera riskindii, known only from montane open oak woodland in Rincón de María and adjacent Serranias del Burro in northern Coahuila, Mexico (Syst. Bot. 30: 332-355; 2005). The published plate of Oenothera riskindii consisted of four separately inked drawings assembled in Photoshop. The drawings were displayed at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona from April 2006 - May 2007 for the exhibit, “Botany Beautiful: The Tradition Continues.”

A Year of Ferns

From Plant Press, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2016.

By Spencer Goyette
-Adapted from Smithsonian Libraries Unbound

The Department of Botany’s fern collection was highlighted several times last year. It was the main focus of the annual Smithsonian Botanical Symposium and was extended to a full week in June as "Next Generation Pteridology - An International Conference on Lycophyte & Fern Research", and now is a central part of the rapid capture digitization project to digitize and make accessible online the entire fern herbarium.

When I started as an intern and contractor in the Department at the beginning of 2015 I had no idea of the scale of diversity and richness that existed within this distinct plant lineage. My previous knowledge of ferns was elementary at best. In college, most of my professors glossed over the identification and ecology of ferns, opting instead to focus more lesson time on the seed plants.

As a contractor I helped prepare the collection for the digitization that is currently taking place within the herbarium. Most of the work was rote and mundane: replacing species covers, relabeling and making genus folders, moving cabinets of genera to reflect their more accurate phylogeny. Not exciting work but necessary. A definite perk of being around so many different genera and species was witnessing the global diversity of this group that was represented within our collection: from the diminutive tree fern that inhabits the tops of South American Tepuis, to the devastatingly simple-looking but incredibly speciose Tongueferns (Elaphoglossum), to the obscure Grammitids whose names possess a certain mellifluous indelibility (Melpomene and Terpsichore were among my favorites).

Like many staff and herbarium visitors, I decided to explore the resources available in the Botany and Horticulture Library in order to learn more about the life histories of these plants, and to help ready myself for a two week fern-collecting trip to Puebla, Mexico with a team of pteridologists led by Eric Schuettpelz, Curator of Pteridophytes at the National Museum of Natural History. I thought finding a book to read on the subject would be an easy way to build on the little knowledge I had built up over the past few months and prepare me for what turned out to be one of the most interesting adventures of my life.

While any volume focused on the ferns of southern Mexico could be considered “niche” by even the most eclectic of readers, I was pleased to discover a copy of Oaxaca Journal by Dr. Oliver Sacks in our library. Coincidentally, I read Oaxaca Journal around the same time as the week-long, fern-focused Botany Symposium. Only on rare occasions are the people who populate the pages of our books presented in three dimensions, yet there they were. At this conference were some of the very same people mentioned in Sacks’ book. Although in retrospect it seems inevitable, as the world of serious fern-lovers is not exactly a large one.

New Mendoncia Species Honors Hollenberg

From Plant Press, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2016.

A new species of Acanthaceae, Mendoncia hollenbergiae Wassh., has been named in honor of Linda Hollenberg whose career was spent in energetic and passionate care of the plant collections in the U.S. National Herbarium. The new species was discovered after the family treatment for the Flora of Ecuador (Wasshausen, D. C. 2013. Acanthaceae. pp. 1-329. In C. Persson and B. Stahl, eds. Flora of Ecuador. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.) had already been published. The new species was collected in the highly diverse, lowland riverside vegetation of the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador.

Presently, the new species is known only from the holotype and one other more recent collection by Nancy C. Garwood. The new species is morphologically similar to Mendoncia sericea Leonard ex Wassh., a more widespread species in Amazonian Ecuador and possibly Peru. The new species was recently described by Emeritus Research Botanist Dieter Wasshausen in an article published in the Journal of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (9: 81-88; 2015).

Recipient of 2015 Cuatrecasas Fellowship Award Visits NMNH

From Plant Press, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2016.

Manuel A. Luján Anzola, a doctoral student at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Claremont Graduate University, visited the U.S. National Herbarium for two weeks in November on a 2015 Cuatrecasas Travel Fellowship Award. 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.

Hosted by Pedro Acevedo, Luján studied plant specimens of the genus Clusia. He took photographs of 4,282 specimens representing about 250 different taxa of Clusia. He carefully examined a number of specimens that might represent the conspecific complement of taxa that have been described only from staminate or pistillate material, and took tissue samples of them for further analysis. He annotated 21 specimens to reflect modern taxonomic changes and identified a number of types in the general collection that will be filed in the Type Collection.

Luján also had the opportunity to work with Laurence Dorr on a study of Clusia collections from the Flora of Guaramacal National Park project. He worked with Vicki Funk and Carol Kelloff to establish a future collaboration for the study of Clusia specimens from the Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Program. Additionally, he studied with Kenneth Wurdack to learn about the genetic basis of the resin production system in Malpighiales. Some species of Clusia produce resin as a reward for pollinators.

Botanists Call for a New Global Biodiversity CyberBank

From Plant Press, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2016.

By Marc S. Appelhans

In the November 2015 issue of Journal of Systematics and Evolution, Jun Wen, Stefanie Ickert-Bond, Marc Appelhans, Laurence Dorr and Vicki Funk published the paper “Collections-based systematics: Opportunities and outlook for 2050” (J. Syst. Evol. 53: 477-488). Wen et al. evaluated the current state of systematics and natural history collections and provided an outlook for the discipline for the upcoming decades. The paper highlights the important role of natural history collections as the core of biodiversity studies and calls for actions that need to be taken to ensure a robust future for our discipline, as well as the sustainability of herbarium and museum collections.

Vision of the Biodiversity CyberBank, an ambitious global community-wide cyberinfrastructure (from Wen et al. 2015).

The paper proposes that the systematics community needs to reorganize to form a World Organization of Systematic Biology in order to formulate and execute a strategic plan for systematics and natural history collections. In a time with major advances in areas of bioinformatics and genomics, the field of systematics also changes rapidly. In order to make use of these advances and to make our studies highly integrative and accessible for the public and other scientific fields, Wen et al. propose a global cyberinfrastructure, the Biodiversity CyberBank, that brings together all data for a specific taxon, i.e. genetic, ecological, paleontological, morphological and conservation data, but with the collections data as the core. Wen et al. argue that collections are no longer the objects of specimens; they represent vitally important big data in the 21^st century biodiversity science.

The envisioned CyberBank is comparable to GenBank for genetic data, and is crucial for the future of biodiversity sciences. Similarly, floras, monographs and revisions should make use of all the available data in the bioinformatics and genomic era. Specifically these treatments should not only contain interactive keys, descriptions and notes on ecology and distribution, but also make full use of (1) the increasing amount of digitized collections to model distributions (past, current and future); (2) the vast genetic data to test species delimitations and phylogenetic relationships; and (3) the wide array of digitized literature and herbarium type specimens to link all information related to original species descriptions. A new framework of taxonomic monographs is outlined.

As the future of our discipline is largely dependent on a next generation of systematists as well as the general public, the paper also highlights that collections-based systematists must teach systematics as a stimulating and integrative discipline with collections as its core. Systematists must also try to engage and excite the general public whenever possible with cutting-edge technology in biology, and involve them in various citizen-science projects.

The Quest for the Wild Kidney Bean

From Plant Press, Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2016.

By Ashley N. Egan

♫ Beans, beans, the magical fruit
the more you eat, the more you… ♬

... or was that musical… not magical….

A ripe pod of the North American wild kidney bean, Phaseolus polystachios. (Photo by Ashley N. Egan).

Whichever it is for you, beans can definitely be both musical and magical. I had the great opportunity of searching for a bean this autumn that may hold magic in its genes. The North American wild kidney bean, also known as the thicket bean, Phaseolus polystachios (L.) Britton, Sterns, & Poggenb., of the legume family (Fabaceae), is the only native bean species with a (once upon a time) widespread distribution across the eastern half of the United States, from Texas to Connecticut. This perennial vine prefers open areas where it can twine on thickets or climb on slopes with southern or southeastern exposures, but can also be found rarely in forests with open or shallow canopies where it often climbs its way to the top. Unfortunately, urbanization, agricultural development, and habitat destruction have caused a decline in populations, leading to widely varying estimates of conservation status across its distribution.

So what makes Phaseolus polystachios so special? While I think all plants are special (ok…I’m biased), this bean is special by association. The North American wild kidney bean is a wild relative of the cultivated Phaseolus lunatus L., commonly known as the Lima bean, which was domesticated from wild ancestors in Meso- and South America. Crop wild relatives are vital reservoirs of genetic diversity, often holding hidden potential as sources for crop improvement in disease resistance, yield, quality, and adaptation to climate change or other ecological or pathological stresses. One such stressor is white mold (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum), a ubiquitous pathogen and a major problem for nearly 400 plant species, especially legumes. White mold co-occurs with Phaseolus polystachios throughout its native range in the eastern and southeastern United States. Through coevolution in its natural habitat, P. polystachios may have acquired white mold resistance – and therein lays its potential magic.