The Plant Press

Friedrich Vierhapper and the serendipity of Facebook

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

By Sylvia Orli

For several years, the Department of Botany’s Information Technology team has been reviewing transcriptions of specimen labels returned from the digitization company Picturae and fixing the records that are incorrectly transcribed. Many specimen labels have terrible handwriting. One kind of label consistently puzzled the team. The label is slightly pinkish with a legible taxonomic name, but every other word is written in an unreadable script. Because the team could not read these labels, we imported these records on to the online catalog as “illegible” with the hopes of one day correcting the record.

I posted examples of these labels in the Facebook page “Herbarium Junkies” with the hopes that crowdsourcing might solve the problem. Herbarium Junkies was created in 2012 by Museum Specialist Erika Gardner when she was in graduate school. She made the page as a bit of a joke, dedicated to herbarium devotees like herself, to post funny and interesting items about herbaria. The Facebook group has since ballooned to over 2,000 members, and has a global membership of botanists, herbaria workers, and plant enthusiasts. Group members post confusing labels, interesting herbarium specimens, images of field work, and all sorts of topics related to herbaria.

My illegible label post caught the eye of Clemens Pachschwoll, doctoral student at the University of Vienna, who verified that the label was written in the Kurrentschrift script, a Germanic cursive script popular in pre-WW2 Germany. He also verified that the collector was Friedrich Vierhapper Sr. Vierhapper (1844-1903) and his son, Friedrich Karl Max Vierhapper (1876-1932), were prominent Austrian botanists of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. The Vierhappers specialized in the Flora of Austria and other European countries. Vierhapper Jr. has the genus, Vierhapperia, named after him. Clemens put me in touch with Michael Hohla of Austria, who specializes in the Flora of the Innviertel (the western part of Upper Austria). Amazingly, he and his colleagues had published a monograph of the Vierhappers, “Father and son Vierhapper – two lives dedicated to Botany” in 2019 (Stapfia 110: 1-202), and Hohla was delighted to see these inscrutable labels.

A specimen of Luzula silvatica Gandich collected in Austria, May 1887, by F. Vierhapper. Prof. Michael Hohla transcribed this location as “Wälder am Hausruck bei Eberschwang”.

A deep look at American ginseng at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

Since 1967, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival has celebrated the power of culture, creativity, and community on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Although this year’s plans were upended by the coronavirus global pandemic, the Smithsonian remains committed to making space for sharing ideas, food, and music.

The Folklife Festival went “Beyond the Mall” this year with digital programming on June 24 through July 5. Artisans and experts from the United Arab Emirates, Northeast Brazil, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, and the Smithsonian’s Conservation Commons were featured. Many of these sessions explored how communities draw upon their cultural practices to address and adapt to environmental challenges, foster empathy, and create a more equitable world. Programs on June 24, July 2, and July 5 highlighted the work that the Festival has been doing in conjunction with the Earth Optimism initiative. Archived versions of the programs are available for viewing at https://festival.si.edu/schedule/archived-events.

American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) served as a focal point during one of the projects presented during the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. (photo by R.A. Howard)

Digital programming began even before the two weeks of “Beyond the Mall.” On May 14, one program featured the research project, American Ginseng: Local Knowledge, Global Roots. The program brought together three women involved in ginseng conservation and can be viewed at https://youtu.be/p8h7evFzgCc. As the participants reported, American ginseng faces many threats such as encroaching suburban sprawl, extraction industries, and the environmental impact of global warming. Conservation efforts—protection by government agencies, education on good stewardship, cultivation in forest settings, and research into accelerating its propagation—help ensure American ginseng for future generations.

The blog, “Asian and American Ginseng: A Plant’s Migration Around the World,” written by project intern Shirly Chang, discusses how the research group headed by Jun Wen (Smithsonian’s Department of Botany) is exploring the mysteries of the disjunction of Asian ginseng (Panax ginseng) and American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius). Asian ginseng naturally occurs along the border of China, Russia, and North Korea while American ginseng is found in the wild in the Appalachian Mountains of North America. Among Wen's conclusions is that the ancestor of American ginseng dispersed from Asia approximately 14.65 Ma (million years before present) across the Bering Bridge. Wen’s research continues as she dives deeper into the evolutionary story of ginseng.

Other articles, videos, and activities centered around American ginseng can be found on the Festival’s blog. The project team is currently working on a web site with profiles of ginseng experts and a space for people to post their own experience with the plant. It is hoped that if the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is able to be presented in person on the Mall next summer, visitors will be able to learn even more about American ginseng through demonstrations, discussions, and hands-on activities directly from those with years of traditional knowledge about the many wonders of American ginseng.

SPNHC and ICOM NATHIST go virtual [VIDEO]

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

by C.L. Kelloff, M. Toner, and L. Palmer

The COVID-19 pandemic has made us rethink how we do business. Many of us are working at home and balancing family needs with work projects. Activities such as concerts, conferences, and all events where people congregate are cancelled or postponed. The joint meeting with the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) and International Committee for Museums and Collections of Natural History of the International Council of Museums (ICOM NATHIST) was scheduled to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2020. Instead of cancelling, a group of committed SPNHC members including Liath Appleton, Andrew Bentley, Emily Braker, Mariana Di Giacomo, Phaedra Fang, Elspeth Haston, Shelley James, Talia Karim, Amanda Lawrence, Paul Mayer, Cindy Opitz, Rebecca Newberry, Deborah Paul, Christel Schollaardt, Barbara Thiers, Debra Trock, Dorit Wolenitz, and Breda Zimkus created a meeting that took place in the digital world. Special thanks to all.

SPNHC and ICOM NATHIST hosted the virtual meeting on 8-12 June 2020 using the Zoom video conferencing platform. The conference was free to members and offered online events to foster conversations across the joint worldwide communities, included a plenary session, symposia, presentations as well as 5-minute specimen spotlights. Total attendance was just under 2,000 participants. Business and committee meetings for the two societies were held via Zoom, allowing members to attend and participate from across the world. Zoom allows for participates to chat with one another during the conference and this allowed for lively real time discussions. With two time-blocks established for the sessions to ensure that the meeting was as globally inclusive as possible, it was deemed a success with the average number of attendees per session well over 200.

Video after the jump...

Earth Optimism Digital Summit gives hope [Video]

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

The Earth Optimism Summit, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution, was originally scheduled to take place in Washington, DC, with concurrent sister events around the world, on April 22-26, 2020, to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day. In response to the coronavirus global pandemic, the Summit was moved to a digital event on those days, and it successfully showcased stories of both small and large-scale actions, framing the conversation and demonstrating that success is possible.

The Earth Optimism Digital Summit launched with a film night on Earth Day, April 22, and then continued April 23 and 24. A live broadcast with formal programming online on Facebook Live, Twitter, YouTube and on the Earth Optimism website attracted viewers from around the world, and the digital summit was rebroadcasted through that weekend. More than 100 global leaders shared successful conservation and sustainability strategies being deployed worldwide, and discussed how to scale and mainstream these strategies to achieve transformative change.

Video after the jump...

Children are learning how to press plants at home [Video]

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, teachers and parents have been looking for creative ways for their children to connect with nature and learn about science. Museum Specialist Erika Gardner and members of the Office of Education & Outreach at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) have recently produced a set of videos, articles, and webinars to teach, inspire, and guide children and adults on the joy and creative process of pressing plants. These activities allow individuals to connect with, learn about, and document the plants growing in their own yards.

The team made a video on how to build your own plant press, which was uploaded to NMNH’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube accounts. Smithsonian Voices also published an article, “How to Press Plants from Your Backyard,” which was uploaded to the Smithsonian Magazine webpage. The step-by-step instructions include a list of materials and the processes of assembling a press, drying the plants, and removing the pressed plants. The activity is designed for both younger and older children, and adults can get in on the fun as well.

Several families sent photos of their homemade plant presses to the museum’s Department of Education & Outreach.

Once the plants are dried and pressed, creative activities come into play. In a June 13 video webinar for families, Gardner showed families how to use pressed plants for art projects like greeting cards and bookmarks, and she shared best practices for keeping one’s own pressed plant collections.

Video after the jump...

The importance of genomics in preventing pandemics

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a major impact on human health and the global economy this year. To address future pandemics, scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), University of California at Davis (UCD), and University of Guelph (UG) recently wrote an opinion piece about the importance of genomics in facilitating preemptive strikes and developing rapid responses to global outbreaks to come. The commentary appears in the June 23, 2020 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (117: 13852-13855; http://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2009508117). In the article, authors W. John Kress (NMNH), Jonna Mazet (UCD), and Paul Hebert (UG) argue for the establishment of a global, genomic-based biosurveillance platform to detect pathogens that pose a threat to humans and other species. Such a “pandemic interception system,” they explain, would be of immense value to saving lives as well as global biosecurity, biodefense, and the world’s economy.

Chestnut blight caused by the fungus Cryphonectria parasitica devastated the American Chestnut tree more than a century ago. Photo by Joseph OBrien, USDA Forest Service / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)

The authors discuss in detail how three major global research programs are ready to lead the way in supporting this platform: BIOSCAN (directed by Hebert), the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP; co-chaired by Kress), and the Global Virome Project (GVP; lead by Mazet). These global programs, which are currently developing approaches in comparative genomics, aim to be able to detect all pathogens hosted by birds and mammals that can be transferred to humans. But beyond protecting our own species, the authors stress that protecting other species is just as important in maintaining a healthy planet. Viruses and fungal pathogens have caused similar pandemics in cattle, amphibians, bats, honeybees, and many species of trees.

By understanding the causes and processes behind pathogen transfers, a biosurveillance platform can work proactively to prevent future infections. Kress, Mazet, and Herbert write, “now is the time to use the full power of science through cooperative efforts among initiatives such as BIOSCAN, GVP, and EBP to advance our understanding of the complex web of interactions that span the domains of life.”

ForestGEO network adapts in response to COVID-induced changes

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

On March 11, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak a global pandemic. Since then, daily life around the world has drastically changed, and physical distancing, face masks, and a surge in teleworking have become a way of life for many. Fieldwork at Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) sites around the world has been severely impacted, with many unique long-term monitoring projects on hold. Decades-long studies of flowering and fruiting patterns of trees, foraging behavior of primates, dynamics of insect populations, and the 40-year census of the Barro Colorado Island (BCI) plot are now stopped. These interruptions are going to have lasting effects on our ability to understand how the world's forests are responding as climate changes. Alongside the disappointment and uncertainty that COVID-19 has introduced, a spirit of flexibility, a willingness to adapt and rise to the occasion wherever possible, has also emerged. Below, ForestGEO staff share how members within the ForestGEO network have found opportunities amid the disruption.

Cliffson Idigel and Joseph Kua, field crew members at the Wanang 50-ha plot (photo from Wanang’s first census). (photo by George Weiblen)

Although physical distancing precludes field crews from embarking upon Wanang’s third census, colleagues at ForestGEO's partner institution, the New Guinea Binatang Research Center, have been able to continue with research throughout the coronavirus pandemic. Vojtech Novotny, a principal investigator (PI) of the Wanang plot in Papua New Guinea, frames travel restrictions and their fallout on scientific research “as a test on the rhetoric of ‘capacity building’ within tropical countries,” noting that “if a sudden interruption of international travel causes tropical research to stop, then it is a sign that the capacity building has not been really robust.”