The Plant Press

Saving Endangered Species Youth Art Contest Recipient Visits Smithsonian

From Plant Press, Vol. 20, No. 3, July 2017.

On May 24, Alice Tangerini hosted a workshop for the winner of the “Saving Endangered Species Youth Art Contest.” Tangerini, along with eight other artists, photographers and wildlife naturalists, were the judges for the national contest, which included all ages in the grades kindergarten through high school and required sifting through the artwork of 60 semifinalists by an online review. A conference call with all nine judges decided the winners in the four grade categories and the top grand prize went to a local Washington, DC native, seven-year-old Sanah Hutchins. Her winning entry, the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee, a species that had just retained status in the endangered species category shortly before the contest deadline. The prize for Sanah was a visit to Tangerini’s office and a private drawing lesson with Tangerini. Sanah, her parents, and grandparents in attendance, walked through the fifth floor hallway, encountering Greg McKee who gave a short and informed talk on botany and collecting.

Alice Tangerini gives painting tips to youth art winner, Sanah Hutchins. (photo by Nabeeha Kazi)

For the lesson, Tangerini supplied photos of bees pollinating, a collection of pinned bees provided by Sean Brady of the Department of Entomology and a sample painting on drafting film of a bee on Echinacea. Sanah, a disciplined young artist, followed directions making her own painting from the photos and even doing some back painting on the film. The family took many photos and posted them on social media sites, and the contest and event even had a feature in a local D.C. newspaper, The Northwest Current. A ceremony and reception took place in the evening at the U.S. House of Representatives Rayburn House Office Building where Sanah received a plaque and many accolades for her artwork.

Bees & Bouquets Featured at 2017 Annual Smithsonian Weekend

From Plant Press, Vol. 20, No. 3, July 2017.

On Saturday, May 13, 2017, botanical illustrator Alice Tangerini, Barbara Ferry and Robin Everly (Smithsonian Libraries), Cindy Brown (Smithsonian Gardens), and Sean Brady (Department of Entomology) participated in a “Bees & Bouquets” tour for participants of the 2017 Annual Smithsonian Weekend, an event of the James Smithson Society. About 120 members of the society participated.

Robin Everly speaks to members of the James Smithson Society about the Smithsonian Libraries’ horticulture collection. (photo by Barbara Ferry)

For the tour, Tangerini brought a selection of her work in different media and historical work from the Botanical Art Collection along with the published illustrations in books. Giving a short 20 minute presentation, Tangerini pointed out the value of keeping historic work not only for its place in the history of botanical exploration, but for the beauty of the work itself using the techniques and materials which are often lost in technological advancement. Tangerini displayed specific pencils that had ceased being produced since the 1980s and found that several in her audience said they knew of those tools and now were prompted to look for them. Questions for Tangerini ranged from her training in botanical illustration to determining what to show in an illustration for the scientist.

Everly and Ferry focused on gardening and their tour featured several books from the Botany and Horticulture Library. Everly spoke about how the horticulture collection came to Smithsonian Libraries, and then moved on to talk about the importance of gardening for biodiversity. She spoke of some of her favorite books published on this theme. Ferry discussed the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) and other projects involving biodiversity at the Libraries.

The Smithson members were enthusiastic and engaged. There always seemed to be more to discuss than time allowed and it was a great way to do outreach for the Department of Botany and the Libraries.

The Buzz About Pollinator Week

From Plant Press, Vol. 20, No. 3, July 2017.

Gary Krupnick, Catherine Werner, and Timothy Beatley discuss “The Buzz About Urban Pollinators” at a June 2017 program at the National Museum of Natural History. (photo by Barbara Stauffer)

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) celebrated National Pollinator Week 2017 in June in an effort to raise awareness of the decline of important pollinator populations. On June 8, Gary Krupnick and Catherine Werner, sustainability director for the City of St. Louis, joined moderator Timothy Beatley, professor at the University of Virginia and founder of the Biophilic Cities Network, for a discussion about projects that are benefiting both people and pollinators in urban environments. The event, “Wild Cities: Connecting People and Nature - The Buzz About Urban Pollinators,” was held in the Q?rius Theater in NMNH, and focused on government and grassroots recommendations for sustaining healthy pollinator populations. A live feed of the event was made available and is archived on Smithsonian Magazine's Facebook page. The program was part of NMNH’s “Anthropocene: Life in the Age of Humans,” a series of discussions exploring human impact on the environment with scholars, artists, and others in an intimate conversational setting.

Krupnick also served as a scientific advisor on the 2017 Pollinator Week poster, “The Monarch Highway.” The poster, designed by Oakland-based artist Stephanie Law, features several native plant species that helps sustain monarch butterfly populations as they migrate from Mexico to Canada and back again. The poster’s website has information about 13 plant species that provide an important food source for the butterfly migration.

Each year the Pollinator Partnership, along with a wide range of partners (including federal agencies, non-profits, and for-profits), design and distribute the educational pollinator posters to promote Pollinator Week, a time to celebrate pollinators and native plants and to spread the word about what you can do to protect them. The posters are one of the most popular outreach material items offered.

Awards & Grants

From Plant Press, Vol. 20, No. 3, July 2017.

Warren Wagner received a “distinguished service” award at the annual American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) banquet in June. The award recognizes Wagner’s service in overseeing the ASPT endowment for more than a decade and improving it to more than $1 million.

Warren Wagner displaying his ASTP Distinguished Service Award

XIX International Botanical Congress

From Plant Press, Vol. 20, No. 3, July 2017.

A good number of our research staff, research associates, and graduate students attended the recent International Botanical Congress held from 23 – 29 July 2017 in Shenzhen, China. It was deeply satisfying to see the department play a prominent role in all aspects of this international gathering. Certainly, the most prominent of our many departmental participants was Jun Wen who was one of the deputy presidents of the organizing committee as well as one of the scientific program committee members. She deserves congratulations and thanks for taking on these important duties. Not content merely to assist in organizing a conference of 7000 participants she also presented a keynote lecture (“Developing integrative systematics in the informatics and genomic era”), helped organize two scientific sessions, co-authored seven papers, and co-authored ten posters presented during the congress. In addition, as co-editor in chief of the Journal of Systematics and Evolution she managed to release days before the congress began an “IBC 2017 special issue: Frontiers in plant systematics and evolution”.

John Kress also gave one of the keynote lectures (“Tropical plant-animal interactions: Coevolution in the Anthropocene”) and co-organized two sessions on DNA barcoding. Vicki Funk likewise co-organized two sessions: one on Compositae and the other on “Systematic Agenda 2050”. Paul Peterson co-organized a single session entitled “Poaceae: Systematics and phylogeny of major lineages” and Warren Wagner, who was unable to attend the congress, organized a session with Marc Applehans, a former postdoctoral student, on “Biogeographic patterns and adaptive radiations in the Pacific”.  A.J. Harris, a Buck Fellow in the Department of Botany, organized two sessions with Research Associate Stefanie Ickert-Bond on “New insights on the assembly and biodiversity of the flora of North America”. Curators Ashley Egan, Eric Schuettpelz, and Elizabeth Zimmer presented papers in one or more of the hundreds of sessions offered during the congress. Similarly, resident Research Associates Konstantin Romaschenko, Robert Soreng, and Carl Taylor also presented papers, as did current post-doctoral fellows Morgan Gostel and Marcelo Pace. Graduate student Matthew Haynsen collaborated with other departmental colleagues on a poster.

International botanical congresses and the ICN (International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants), formerly the ICBN (International Code of Botanical Nomenclature), are intimately associated. This congress was no exception. The Shenzhen Nomenclature Section preceded the congress proper and was held from 17 – 21 July 2017 at the Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS), University Town, Shenzhen. Smithsonian representation at the Nomenclature Section has always been strong and this year was no exception. Four curators (Laurence Dorr, Vicki Funk, Paul Peterson, and Eric Schuettpelz), two resident Research Associates (Konstantin Romaschenko and Robert Soreng), and one non-resident Research Associate (Alina Freire-Fierro) participated in the discussions, debates, and votes. There were no especially contentious issues debated at the sessions of this nomenclature section. Perhaps the most radical change to the ICN was a revision of Division III of the Melbourne Code and the codification of a number of procedures that previous nomenclature sessions adopted by tradition. The Nomenclature Section continues to be ambivalent with respect to registration of names and nomenclatural acts. Registration is required for fungi, but the Shenzhen section created a special committee to report to the next congress on registration for algae and plants.

One of the less easily quantified aspects of participation at a congress of this magnitude is the facility each participant has to meet colleagues and collaborators scattered across the globe while simultaneously meeting new people and hearing or reading about new ideas. It was well worth the effort to send as many staff, associates, and students as we did. It is a wonderful investment in the future.

Foster Receives 15th Cuatrecasas Medal

From Plant Press, Vol. 20, No. 3, July 2017.

Kenneth Wurdack presents Robin Foster with the 15th José Cuatrecasas Medal in Tropical Botany. (photo by Gary Krupnick)

The Department of Botany and the United States National Herbarium present this award to a botanist and scholar of international stature who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany is named in honor of Dr. José Cuatrecasas, a pioneering botanist and taxonomist, who spent nearly a half-century working in the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Botany. Dr. Cuatrecasas devoted his career to plant exploration in tropical South America and this award serves to keep vibrant the accomplishments and memory of this outstanding scientist.

The winner of this prestigious award is selected by a committee made up of four botanists on staff in the Department in consultation with other plant scientists outside of the Smithsonian Institution. Nominations for the Medal are accepted from all scientists in the Botany Department. The award consists of a bronze medal bearing an image of José Cuatrecasas on the front with the recipient’s name and date of presentation on the back. Highlights from past presentations to the recipients are available at <http://botany.si.edu/cuatrecasas/cuatrecasasMedal.cfm>.

Robin B. Foster is the 15^th recipient of the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany. Foster received an A.B. degree from Dartmouth College in 1966 and a Ph.D. from Duke University in 1974 under noted ecologist W.D. Billings. He first joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, and then the Field Museum as a research associate where he has continued his primary affiliation. He has also had appointments in botany and ecology with Conservation International, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. His Ph.D. research relating to the recruitment dynamics (seasonality and seed production) of tropical forest ecosystems in Panama along with early fieldwork in Amazonian Peru set the stage for his continuing research focus on plant communities in those regions. He has published over 120 scholarly articles – garnering over 18,000 citations – along with numerous reports and floristic guides. Additionally, he has been involved in the leadership and boards of several organizations dedicated to tropical biology and, in 2013, was elected an honorary fellow of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC).

Plant Expeditions: History Has Its Eyes on You

From Plant Press, Vol. 20, No. 3, July 2017.

By Gary A. Krupnick

The 15^th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium was held at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG) on May 19, 2017. The symposium, titled “Exploring the Natural World: Plants, People and Places,” focused on the history of plant expeditions. Over 200 participants gathered to hear stories and learn about what motivated botanical explorers of the Western Hemisphere in the 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th centuries. Eight speakers presented talks that took the audience on a trip across the Americas, from Canada in the north to Brazil in the south, and the islands of the Caribbean and the Galápagos.

Speakers, conveners, and award recipients of the 2017 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium at the National Museum of Natural History (from left): Laurence Dorr, Janet Browne, Eliane Norman, Jacques Cayouette, Pamela Henson, Robin Foster, Megan Raby, Daniel Stone, and Javier Francisco-Ortega. (photo by Ken Wurdack)

A day before the talks, several attendees joined behind-the-scenes tours of the Smithsonian Libraries’ Joseph F. Cullman 3^rd Library of Natural History at NMNH. For the Symposium guests, the library displayed a wide selection of publications produced by scientific voyages of exploration. From early Renaissance travels (Belon, Tournefort, and others), through the great age of exploration (Cook, Dumont d’Urville, von Humboldt, Darwin, et al.), to the government-sponsored expeditions across the North American West in the mid- and late 1800s, these books are held for study and research. In addition, there were a few examples of “directions for collecting” that reveal how plants were gathered, prepared, preserved, documented, and transported as specimens (living or dried) in centuries past.

The symposium began with Laurence Dorr (Chair of Botany, NMNH) giving opening remarks. Since the lectures were taking place in Baird Auditorium, Dorr took the opportunity to talk about the theater’s namesake, Spencer Baird. A naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, and dedicated collector, Baird was the first curator to be named at the Smithsonian Institution and eventually served as Secretary of the Smithsonian from 1878 to 1887. Among his successes, Baird dramatically expanded the Smithsonian’s natural history collections by obtaining specimens from the many U.S. exploring expeditions.

Kenneth Wurdack (NMNH Botany Curator and Chair of the Cuatrecasas Medal Committee) presented the 15^th José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany to Robin Foster. This prestigious award is presented annually to a scholar who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. Foster, a Senior Conservation Ecologist at the Field Museum, was commended for his innovative efforts in cataloging the flora of Barro Colorado Island in Panama. Wurdack also spoke of Foster’s explorations of remote regions of Ecuador and Peru. In his acceptance speech Foster expressed his gratitude and thanked numerous mentors, collaborators, support staff, and his rapid assessment teams. He also encouraged field explorers to continue what they are doing.

The morning session began with a series of talks focusing on the 18^th century explorations of Canada and the United States. Jacques Cayouette (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada) presented the first talk, “Moravian Missionaries as Pioneers of Botanical Exploration in Labrador (1765-1954).” He explained that missionaries of the Moravian Church, one of the oldest Protestant denominations, established missions along coastal Labrador in Canada in the late 1700s. The first mission was established in Nain in 1771. Within two years the first plant list, including 37 vascular plant species, was written, most likely by the missionary Christoph Brasen.