The Plant Press

Herbarium specimen conservation project: Agnes Chase and Albert Hitchcock’s 1908 field expedition

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019.

By Shannon Hicks and Erika Gardner

Tucked away in the US National Herbarium’s mounting preparation room is a specimen conservation cabinet that temporarily holds specimens in need of repairs. Many specimens are in need of simple repairs, but in some instances, the specimens require a major overhaul. One bundle awaiting repairs is a stack of 55 Poaceae specimens collected by Agnes Chase and Albert S. Hitchcock. The original herbarium paper and specimen label was acidifying and extremely brittle. With time, the plant material on the sheet would be compromised and eventually succumb to shattering with the slightest bump. It was pertinent to get these specimens remounted and filed back into the main collection as soon as possible for scientific use. Shannon Hicks, Botany summer volunteer, worked to get these specimens fully conserved.

Agnes Chase, born Mary Agnes Meara in 1869 in Illinois, was a pioneer for women in botany. In 1903, Chase began work as a botanical illustrator in the National Herbarium for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Chase was a self-taught botanist; she would often stay late at the herbarium so that she could learn as much as possible about botany. Since her highest level of formal education was grammar school, her years as a botanical illustrator served as her primary form of education. She became very passionate about Poaceae, the grass family, later saying that, “Grass is what holds the earth.”

After a few years as a botanical illustrator, Chase’s enthusiasm and aptitude for botany was noticed by agrostologist Albert S. Hitchcock. Chase and Hitchcock worked together for many years, and she later succeeded him as Senior Botanist in charge of systematic agrostology at USDA in 1936. In 1937, Chase became in charge of the grass section of the National Herbarium, gaining the title of Custodian. Throughout her career, Chase traveled worldwide to study grasses; she often funded her own trips with the help of several women’s rights organizations she was a part of because the government would not pay for her to travel on other expeditions. In 1922, Agnes Chase’s First Book of Grasses was published, intended to demystify the study of grasses. By the end of her career, Chase had over 70 publications describing and classifying America’s grasses and had contributed 12,000 grass specimens to the herbarium.

This summer, Hicks conserved specimens from a 1908 field trip that Chase took with her mentor, Hitchcock, for the book they coauthored, The North American Species of Panicum. The specimens were mainly from Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho. The grasses collected were primarily from the genus Poa, a very common group of grasses.

Specimen before and after restoration. Left: Signs of brittle paper crumbling is found near the bottom left corner of the sheet. Tears and rips would continue to occur if specimen is left in this condition on acidic paper. Right: All restored specimens are mounted on paper products that are pH neutral and museum archival quality. The original label is kept with the specimen.

Origin and diversification of the sunflower family

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019.

A study that explores the origin and diversification of Asteraceae, the sunflower family, was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903871116). Asteraceae, composed of an estimated 25,000-30,000 species, accounts for nearly 10 percent of all flowering plants. Global in distribution, the family occupies nearly every type of habitat on Earth and is marked by a complex inflorescence exemplified by the North American sunflower, in which individual flowers are clustered to mimic a single, large flower to lure pollinators. The origins, migration routes, and patterns of diversification that led to the family's ecological success remain unclear.

Floral diversity of tribes in the Asteraceae family. A recent study suggests the family originated in the Late Cretaceous Period in South America and later migrated to Africa where it diversified rampantly. (A) Barnadesieae; (B) Famatinantheae; (C) Stifftieae; (D) Mutisieae; (E) Hecastocleideae; (F) Pertyeae; (G) Cardueae; (H) Vernonieae; and (I) Heliantheae. (Image courtesy of PNAS)

Using phylogenetic analysis of nearly 1,000 genomic locations in around 250 species, Jennifer Mandel (University of Memphis) and colleagues, including Vicki Funk (Smithsonian Institution), found that the family likely originated around 83 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous Period in southern South America. The earliest diversification out of South America may have occurred around 50 million years ago, during a period of dramatic climate change. Subsequently, the family rampantly diversified during the middle-to-late Eocene epoch, 42-37 million years ago, a period marked by global cooling, resulting in more than 95% of existing species.

Biogeographical analysis suggests that the family migrated to North America, south and central Africa, and Asia, with ancestral range estimates suggesting different possible dispersal routes out of South America. Regardless of the route, the family's prolific diversification and global colonization likely began once it reached Africa around 42 million years ago.

According to the authors, the findings illuminate the evolutionary processes underlying the wide reach and vibrant diversity of a major group of flowering plants.

-Adapted from EurekAlert

New publication highlights the Guiana Shield plant collections

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019.

Report from Guyana, June 1994: Having just flown into Kaieteur National Park, Carol Kelloff, Paula DePriest, and Mike Tamessar (University of Guyana) realize that Eric Christenson, who had flown in with them, is missing. Christenson is found at the airstrip, with camera and gear unpacked, focused on a Vanilla bicolor Lindl. vine in bud. “Christenson had only seen an illustration of this flower and was questioning whether the subtle colors of blue and pink that were “painted” on the original drawing were the true colors. He […] was willing to camp out under the vine not to miss the opportunity. […] The next morning the flowers opened, and Christenson was very pleased to see that the artist’s rendering of the colors was correct.”

Eric Christenson on the trail from Kaieteur Falls to Tuiket, June 1994. (photo by Carol L. Kelloff)

Carol Kelloff, Vicki Funk, and Sara Alexander have published “Smithsonian Plant Collections, Guiana Shield: 1985–2014, Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Collectors” (2019, Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Contributions to Botany), which covers the collections of 36 collectors. This volume is intended as a reference for herbaria holding collections made during collection trips sponsored by the Biological Diversity of the Guiana Shield Program (BDG), and as an aid to botanists and taxonomists interested in the region. Part I contains expedition narratives and maps of teams’ routes; part II lists collection localities by collector, with collection number ranges, habitat descriptions, geographic coordinates, and assisting collectors; part III lists collections in numerical order with identifications; and part IV lists collections ordered by determined taxonomic name; followed by four plates of color photos. It also includes a dedication to Tom Hollowell, data manager of the BDG from 1996 to 2005. The publication is available as a free pdf download at https://opensi.si.edu/index.php/smithsonian/catalog/book/210.

Designing a state-of-the-art taxonomic research workstation

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019.

As botanists develop more knowledge the science of taxonomy becomes increasingly complex. Between 1753 and 2016, the number of known plant species has risen from about 6,000 to 390,000, an average increase of nearly 1,500 species each year. Over 2,000 new species were discovered in 2015. The number of specimens held globally in herbaria has also increased. There are now over 3,000 herbaria around the world holding nearly 400 million specimens.

A large number of specimens are still being collected and these all need to be identified, digitized and included in revisions, with some undoubtedly being new species. (photo by Elspeth Haston)

Any taxonomist working now therefore has an immense and expensive task of gathering information about the species that they are studying, involving travel to various herbaria or the risk of damage or loss to specimens if they are sent on loan. With about 10-20 percent of flowering plant species still to be described, it is estimated that about half of these have already been collected and are held in herbaria around the world.

Scientists need to find solutions to making collection information more widely accessible in order to speed up the research process given the scale of the challenges they are facing. In many cases, a high-resolution digital image of the specimen with electronic collection data attached will enable researchers to carry out much of the basic work. By digitizing botanical collections, herbaria can provide these resources to taxonomists in every part of the world.

Ernani Guingona Meñez (15 August 1931 – 01 May 2019)

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019.

Ernani Guingona Meñez was born on 15 August 1931, in Manila, Philippines. He finished his secondary schooling at Mapa High School in Manila and his undergraduate degree (BA in Botany) at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. At UP, he worked with Gregorio T. Velasquez, considered the father of Philippine phycology, as a student assistant-laboratory instructor. Velasquez introduced him to Maxwell Doty, phycologist at the University of Hawaii and recommended him to be Doty's field assistant on his project of Caulerpa, Gracilaria and Eucheuma species around the Philippines. 

Ernani Meñez

In 1958, he left the Philippines to pursue further studies at the UH while at the same time working as Doty’s assistant under the sponsorship of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the National Science Foundation. He finished an MS in Botany in 1962. He was offered an assistantship by Robert Scagel, foremost Canadian marine phycologist at the University of British Columbia.

In 1964, Elmo Yale Dawson (foremost American phycologist), curator in the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, invited him to supervise and fill a vacant position in the Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center. At SOSC, Ernani worked as botanist and was appointed as director in 1988 to 1998. He retired from the Smithsonian as Botanist Emeritus. While at the Smithsonian, he got time off to finish a PhD (major in Botany) at the University of New Hampshire.

Meñez was author and co-author of more than 20 publications on algae, specializing on the order Ceramiales (Polysiphonia and Tiffaniella), and seagrasses. He published extensively on the seaweeds of the Philippines, Tunisia, the Mediterranean, and Libya. Among his notable publications was a monograph on seagrasses with Ronald Phillips (Smithson. Contrib. Mar. Sci. 34: 1-104; 1988). He also scientific illustrated of four books (Scagel, R., et al. 1967. An Evolutionary Survey of the Plant Kingdom; Scagel, R. 1967. Guide to the Common Seaweeds of British Columbia; Scagel, R., et al. 1969. Plant Diversity; Hale, M. 1969. How to Know the Lichens).

Editor’s Note: “The search for Santessonia continues”… continues

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019.

In the January 2019 issue of The Plant Press (Vol. 22, No. 1), Julia Beros reported on an interesting mystery in the article, “The search for Santessonia continues.” Harold Robinson told Beros a story about Mason Hale’s discovery of the highly unusual lichen, Santessonia namibensis, and when Robinson and Beros went to examine the type specimen, they found the specimen missing. According to the original 1978 publication describing the species, two isotypes were sent to Lund and Uppsala, and the holotype was sent to the Smithsonian.

A specimen of Santessonia namibensis collected from the Skeleton Coast National Park, Namibia, by Mason Hale in 1986. (photo by G. Krupnick)

Almost four months after the search began, motivation dwindling, a message of hope appeared in Robinson and John Boggan email inboxes. The only hint revealed in the subject line: “Santessonia namibensis type.”

Patrik Frödén, an assistant curator at Lund University in Sweden, read about the missing type and took it as a call to action. After checking the database and the herbarium he found no inkling of the isotype that they were supposedly housing. He then checked with the herbarium at Uppsala, and they replied: no isotype to be found. After going through the accession catalogue Frödén noted as well that between 1977-1984 (in the timeline of the publication of the genus) there does not appear to be any record of African material sent from the Smithsonian.

It is possible that the isotypes were never distributed, and after Hale’s death, were not well accounted for and could have been lost to disorganization. The new genus was described by both Hale and Gernot Vobis in Botaniska Notiser v.131, so it is also possible that the missing specimen is associated with Vobis’ name. There are multitudes of slight errors or misplacements or mislabeling that could have led the isotypes astray.

It is, however, reassuring to know that when a question is put forth, our international botanical community will respond! Though as the plot thickens, the search quiets again….

“Someday. Somebody. Somewhere,” Robinson sighs, “the type will show up.”

Knapp Receives 17th Cuatrecasas Medal

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019.

The Department of Botany and the United States National Herbarium present the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany to a botanist and scholar of international stature who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The award 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.

Sandra Knapp

The 17^th recipient of the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany is Sandra D. Knapp. She earned a B.A. from Pomona College in 1978 and her Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1986, focusing on Solanum sect. Geminata under the guidance of Solanum expert Michael D. Whalen. In 1992, Knapp joined the Natural History Museum in London, initially to manage the large Flora Mesoamericana project and presently as Head of the Plants Division. Knapp has received the Peter Raven Outreach Award (2009) from the American Society of Plant Taxonomists and the Linnean Medal for Botany (2016) from the Linnean Society of London, the world’s oldest biological society (founded in 1788); she was elected President of the latter society in 2018. Knapp has been very active in the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, where she has served as President of the Nomenclature Section. She has written extensively about the rules governing the naming of organisms and has authored or coauthored over 150 scientific research publications (garnering over 15,000 citations), in addition to books and numerous reviews and opinion pieces. Knapp’s non-technical books have focused on the history of botany and plant exploration, including on noted tropical explorer Alfred Wallace, who was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and founded the field of biogeography.

The Cuatrecasas Medal selection committee took special note of Knapp’s many accomplishments as a scientist, tropical botanist, and educator. Of special relevance to this year’s Smithsonian Botanical Symposium is her long interest in the Solanaceae, and in particular, putting order to the challenging genus Solanum, with over 1500 species, including such staples as potatoes, tomatoes, and eggplants, and stunning Andean diversity. In her decades of neotropical research, Knapp has described over 75 new plant species and has advocated strongly for the importance of floristics and collections. Knapp has been a champion of conserving biodiversity and exploring the relationships between plants and people, noting the importance of the “cultural, societal, economic, and nutritional aspects of our relationships with crop plants, as well as our use and knowledge of the genetic diversity stored in their wild relatives.” She has written extensively on the challenges and opportunities for 21^st century botanists, as well as the changing roles of taxonomy, collections, and field research in a world with declining biodiversity.

The past recipients of the Cuatrecasas Medal are Rogers McVaugh from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2001); P. Barry Tomlinson from Harvard University (2002); John Beaman from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003); David Mabberley from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney (2004); Jerzy Rzedowski and Graciela Calderón de Rzedowski from Instituto de Ecología del Bajío, Michoacán, Mexico (2005); Sherwin Carlquist from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and Pomona College (2006); Mireya D. Correa A. from the University of Panama and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (2008); Norris H. Williams from the Florida Museum of Natural History and the University of Florida, Gainesville (2009); Beryl B. Simpson from the University of Texas at Austin (2010); Walter S. Judd from the University of Florida at Gainesville (2012); Ana Maria Giulietti Harley from the Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Brazil (2013); H. Peter Linder from Zurich University (2014); Paulo Günter Windisch from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil (2015); Kamal Bawa from the University of Massachusetts Boston (2016); Robin B. Foster from the Field Museum (2017); and Alan K. Graham from the Missouri Botanical Garden (2018).

Abstracts from the Speakers of the 17th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019.

The 17^th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “What Darwin Couldn't Know: Modern Perspectives on Crop Plant Origins,” was held 17 May 2019. The invited speakers explored contemporary research into the domestication of crops and their wild relatives. Below are the abstracts from the papers that were presented by the invited speakers.

Allison Miller
Saint Louis University and Missouri Botanical Garden
Opening keynote: “What Darwin couldn’t know: Modern perspectives on crop plant origins and why it matters for the future of food”

Charles Darwin regarded domesticated plants and animals as powerful models for understanding variation and evolution by selection. In the first chapter of his 1859 work The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (“Variation Under Domestication”) together with his subsequent book The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868), Darwin described several themes related to the origin of crop plants. First, I review some of Darwin’s key contributions to understanding crop origins, including first steps in cultivation, geographic origins of crop plants, variation among cultivated varieties, rapid and dramatic evolutionary change in crop plants in response to artificial selection, and hybridization in crop evolution, among others. Second, I share modern perspectives on a subset of these topics using a crop that Darwin addressed in his work, the grapevine (Vitis vinifera). Third, I highlight three contemporary challenges for which Darwin’s evolutionary perspective is directly relevant: conservation of crop wild relatives, improvement of contemporary crops, and the development of new crops. In summary, Darwin established a strong foundation for understanding of crop plant origins and evolution, and much progress has been made in recent years; future work can use this foundation to enhance food and ecosystem security in a changing climate.