From Plant Press, Vol. 20, No. 2, April 2017.
By Gary A. Krupnick
As the Smithsonian Institution strives to meet its mission of "the increase and diffusion of knowledge," how does botany stack up against this objective? The three cornerstones of any natural history museum are research, collections, and exhibits. In terms of research, the Department of Botany has an excellent track record. In 2016, department staff published approximately 110 peer-reviewed scientific papers and described 99 new species of plants, fungi, and lichen. Regarding the collections, the U.S. National Herbarium has grown to over 5 million plant specimens and new specimens are added daily. Recent digitization efforts have yielded over a million imaged specimens that have been databased and shared online.
Botany’s role in exhibitions, however, has a varied history at the National Museum of Natural History. The largest exhibit halls are currently devoted to dinosaur fossils (currently under renovation), mammal skins, animals of the deep blue ocean, human evolution, and the Hope Diamond and other gemstones. While the Museum does not currently have a hall devoted entirely to botany, plants are displayed alongside pollinators in the “Butterflies + Plants: Partners in Evolution” exhibition. The exhibition, which opened in 2008, gives visitors the opportunity to not only observe the ways in which butterflies, plants, and other animals have evolved, adapted, and diversified over tens of millions of years, but to also walk through an enclosed, climate-controlled, tropical garden and interact with both the foraging plants and the butterflies as they flutter around the pavilion.
Past exhibitions that have featured botany have primarily been delegated to temporary showings. Most prominent has been the annual orchid show. Alternating years between the U.S. Botanic Garden and the Smithsonian Institution, the orchid display has been hosted at the Natural History Museum and co-hosted by Smithsonian Gardens for over a decade. In 2017, the show moved to the Hirshhorn Museum. Previously, the Natural History Museum hosted “Orchids: Interlocking Science and Beauty” in 2015, “Orchids of Latin America” in 2013, “Orchids – A View from the East” in 2011, “Orchids through Darwin’s Eyes” in 2009, “Orchids: Take a Walk on the Wild Side” in 2007, and “The Orchid Express” in 2005.
In the past 20 years, botanical artwork was featured in three exhibitions, each emphasizing the unique intersection between art and science. In 1999, the traveling exhibition, “Margaret Mee: Return to the Amazon,” documented the life and work of Margaret Mee (1909-1988), a British botanical artist. The exhibit bridged the worlds of art and natural science while confronting the global issues of rainforest destruction and preservation. Mee’s botanically accurate watercolors were featured alongside her field sketches, diaries, and a large model of a bromeliad with many of the organisms dependent on it for their existence. The exhibit sought not only to present to the visitor the beauty and scientific accuracy of her art, but also to educate the public about the conservation of irreplaceable ecosystems, and the biodiversity, pollination mechanisms, botanical research and other current scientific efforts in the Amazon.
In 2003, “A Passion for Plants: Contemporary Art from the Shirley Sherwood Collection,” displayed 100 works by 67 artists from the collection of Shirley Sherwood, an independent scholar and collector of botanical watercolors and paintings. The exhibition addressed the history of botanical art. Also on view were botanical specimens from the U.S. National Herbarium to highlight aspects of scientific observation.
In 2010, the traveling exhibition, “Losing Paradise? Endangered Plants Here and Around the World,” showcased 44 botanical illustrations from renowned artists, along with live plants and specimens from the Museum’s collection. Focusing on global conservation, stories of endangered, threatened and extinct plants were featured. A companion website to the exhibition included a study of the illustrations paired with digitized herbarium specimens and a discussion of how conservation assessments are made.
Other past exhibitions featuring botanical specimens were those that combined objects and specimens from several research departments. For example, in the 2010 exhibition, “Since Darwin: The Evolution of Evolution,” specimens including fossils, insects, plants, dog skulls, goat horns, mice and birds, along with documentation of ongoing research at the museum, illustrated the importance of evolution as a scientific foundation, and how knowledge of evolution has evolved. The exhibition, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his groundbreaking On the Origin of Species, displayed seven books and 80 specimens from the museum’s collections. The panels discussed how new discoveries influence evolutionary theory and how the research and inquiry processes that Darwin promoted continues today. One discovery on view was a new species of Heliconia that was named in honor of former Museum Director Cristián Samper.
In our ongoing effort to bring plant science to the public, in 2016 the Department of Botany opened a public display outside the doors to the U.S. National Herbarium. Currently on view, “Botany in a New Era of Discovery” explains the variety of methods that new species are discovered, from traditional field work and laboratory work, to discoveries in the collection and discoveries in a busy marketplace. Specimens from the Herbarium are featured and are presented in four display cases and panels.
Encouragingly, plants will be further showcased in two new exhibits this year. The first is the exhibition, “Objects of Wonder: From the Collections of the National Museum of Natural History.” Opened in March, this gallery shares the objects, science and stories behind the Museum’s 145.3 million specimens and artifacts—including on display more than 1,000 unique, valuable, beautiful and strange specimens. As the welcome panel says, these items “reflect our amazing world, inspire wonder, and form the foundation for scientific discovery.” Some specimens from the U.S. National Herbarium get top billing standing solo in display cases where stories of their global significance are shared, while others are paired with specimens from other departments revealing shared themes.
One specimen that stands alone on display is the Coco de Mer, Lodoicea maldivica, the plant species that produces the world’s largest seed. The specimen in the exhibit weighs 16 pounds, but the double coconut palm can produce fresh seeds weighing over 60 pounds. The species is native to the Seychelles Islands, historically known from five islands but now occurring naturally on only two islands. With a limited distribution, slow growth rate, and illegal harvesting in the wild, this species has been assessed as Endangered in the IUCN Red List.
