The Plant Press

A summer of grape escapes: A field work photo journal

From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 2021.

Jun Wen recently completed two ‘Grape Escapes’—one collecting trip to the southeast United States (August 30 – September 10, 2021) with Sue Lutz, and the other collecting trip to Texas and western Louisiana (September 19-28, 2021) with her long-time collaborator Stefanie Ickert-Bond (University of Alaska, Fairbanks). Wen and her colleagues made important collections and observations throughout the southeast (especially South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, and Kentucky), as well as Texas and western Louisiana, targeting grapevines (Vitis, Vitaceae), hickories (Carya, Juglandaceae), and rattlebox (Crotalaria, Fabaceae).

Jun Wen and Stefanie Ickert-Bond

While in Texas, Wen and Ickert-Bond visited the John Fairey Garden near Hempstead. Having a unique artistic design by its founder John Fairey, the Garden is a hidden treasure with extraordinary collections from Mexico. The collecting team enjoyed getting to know the Garden via an introduction from botanist Adam Black via FaceBook. The team was given a tour by Executive Director Randy Twaddle and horticultural botanist Wally Wilkins.

The two trips were among many recent grape escapes that Wen had led, setting a foundation to wrap up the taxonomic revision of North American grapes. The studies of Carya and Crotalaria are collaborative work with colleagues at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for DNA-based species identification assay development.

A virtual summer experience for natural history interns

From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 2021.

Natural History Research Experiences (NHRE) was a Research Experience for Undergraduates site at the National Museum of Natural History sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Each summer (2010-2021) NHRE welcomed approximately15-18 exceptional undergraduate students from around the United States to the museum for a 10-week-long research project guided by an NMNH scientist. NMNH curators Liz Cottrell (Mineral Sciences) and Gene Hunt (Paleobiology) co-Directed NHRE.

Isabella Schrader

This year, NHRE intern Isabella Schrader worked with Rebecca Dikow, Mike Trizna, and Alex White (Smithsonian’s Office of the Chief Information Officer), Paul Frandsen and Ashlyn Powell (Brigham Young University), as well as Botany’s Eric Schuettpelz, on a project called, “Using machine learning tools to quantify mercuric chloride staining across digitized herbarium specimens.” The goal of the project was to update a machine learning model that identifies mercuric chloride staining on digitized herbarium sheets and apply it to all digitized species housed at the U.S. National Herbarium.

Schrader presented her results at a NHRE virtual research symposium held for Smithsonian staff on August 5, 2021. All 14 NHRE interns presented their e-posters using the Gather.Town app, a platform that allows participants to move and interact freely within a virtual space using an avatar. The symposium was well-attended by NMNH staff, associates, and volunteers.

Reflections on the Botany 2021 virtual meeting

From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 2021.

The Botany 2021 meeting (July 19-23) was held virtually for the second year in a row. The virtual meeting was once again a great success as the virtual platform enabled nearly 2,000 participants from 63 countries to attend the meeting. The 2020 virtual Botany meeting ran smoothly, and the 2021 conference built off of last year’s success by lowering costs, increasing accessibility, and making available more content on-demand for participants. The low registration fees were great for facilitating access to the conference for undergraduate students and researchers from developing countries, many of whom may not have been able to attend the meeting if it was held on-site. This year, half of the attendees to the conference were students and 10 percent were post-doctoral fellows; the student prices were lowered from last year to optimize accessibility. Botany conference organizers and the participating societies are working together to decide how to include positive aspects of the virtual conference format into future in-person meetings.

Several members of the Botany Department (Richie Hodel, Gabe Johnson, Eric Schuettpelz, Laurence Skog, Alice Tangerini, Warren Wagner, Jun Wen, Ken Wurdack, and Liz Zimmer) participated in the meetings. Additionally, other people associated with the National Museum of Natural History or other Smithsonian research centers participated (Eleinis Avila-Lovera, Rebecca Dikow, Bill DiMichele, Simone Evans, Dalila Lara, Melissa McCormick, Isabella Schrader, Andy Simpson, William Taylor, Mike Trizna, and Eranga Wettewa).

One in three tree species face extinction, study finds

From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 2021.

Thirty percent of the world's trees are threatened with extinction, according to the new State of the World's Trees report. The report, compiling work led by the Global Tree Assessment (GTA) and launched by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), is one of the first assessments of the world's threatened trees and is the culmination of five years of research to identify major gaps in tree conservation efforts.

Examining the globe’s 60,000 tree species, it reveals that 30% (17,500) of tree species are currently at risk of extinction. That means there are twice the number of threatened tree species globally than threatened mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles combined. 

The report reveals that globally over 440 tree species are right on the brink of extinction, meaning they have fewer than 50 individuals remaining in the wild. These species are found all over the world, from the Mulanje cedar in Malawi, with only a few remaining individuals on one mountain, to a species of alani (Melicope balloui) found only in Hawai’i that has not recently been sighted in the wild.

The report finds hope for the future, however, as conservation efforts led by the botanical community worldwide are growing. Identifying which trees are at risk and ensuring these are protected is the most effective way to prevent extinction and restore endangered species. The report reveals that at least 64% of all tree species can be found in at least one protected area, and about 30% can be found in botanic gardens, seed banks, or other ex situ collections, but further action is needed.

Biogeography of Tetrastigma fleshes out Asia-Australian floristic exchange history

From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 2021.

- Adapted from Chinese Academy of Sciences.

How did biotic exchange between Asia and Australia occur across the geologically and topographically complex Malesian region in space and time? A new case study published in Cladistics has shed light on this question.

Chen Zhiduan's group from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) and international collaborators, including Jun Wen from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, carried out comprehensive biogeographic analyses with intensive taxon sampling of Tetrastigma (in the grape family Vitaceae) to illustrate the long attractive pattern of Asia-Australian biotic exchange across the Wallacean region.

As dominant climbers in rainforests and subtropical forests from Asia to Australia, the genus represents an ideal model to address the Asia-Australian floristic exchange pattern.

The landscape shows specific habits of Tetrastigma with most species as dominant climbers in rainforests and subtropical forests from Asia to Australia, as pictured by the larger image of a well-conserved rainforest in Balikpapan, Indonesia. The three smaller images illustrate the colorful and fleshy fruits of Tetrastigma, which can attract birds to facilitate their dispersal between Asia and Australia via the Malesian island chains. (image by IBCAS)

Tropical forests in Africa’s mountains store more carbon than previously thought – but are disappearing fast

From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 2021.

-Adapted from University of York.

Scientists studying tropical forests in Africa’s mountains were surprised to uncover how much carbon they store, and how fast some of these forests are being cleared. The international study reported in Nature (596: 536-542; 2021), found that intact tropical montane forests in Africa store around 150 tons of carbon per hectare. This means that keeping a hectare of forest standing saves CO₂ emissions equivalent to powering 100 homes with electricity for one year. 

Montane forest in Rwanda. (photo by Johan Wingborg)

The study found that African mountain forests store more carbon per unit area than the Amazon rainforest and are similar in structure to lowland forests in Africa. Existing guidelines for African mountain forests – which assume 89 tons of carbon per hectare – greatly underestimate their role in global climate regulation. 

The international team, including Smithsonian botanist David Kenfack, also investigated how much tropical mountain forest had been lost from the African continent in the past 20 years. They found that 0.8 million hectares have been lost, mostly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Ethiopia, emitting over 450 million tons of CO₂ into the atmosphere. If current deforestation rates continue, a further 0.5 million hectares of these forests would be lost by 2030.

Lead author Aida Cuni-Sanchez (University of York) said: “The results are surprising because the climate in mountains would be expected to lead to low carbon forests. The lower temperatures of mountains and the long periods they are covered by clouds should slow tree growth, while strong winds and steep unstable slopes might limit how big trees can get before they fall over and die. But unlike other continents, in Africa we found the same carbon store per unit area in lowland and mountain forests. Contrary to what we expected, large trees remain abundant in mountain forests, and these large trees (defined as having diameters over 70 cm) store a lot of carbon.”