The Plant Press

Three Botany staff members retire

From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2023.

Botany gathered in-person on December 15th to say thanks and farewell to three long standing members of our department. Together, Bernadette Gibbons, Stan Yankowski, and Liz Zimmer have more than 110 years in service to the Smithsonian Institution. Several former fellows and interns joined us in celebrating their impact.

At a Department of Botany retirement party on 15 December 2022, Bernadette Gibbons (left), Stan Yankowski (middle), and Liz Zimmer (right) each receiving a gift from Botany staff in appreciation and celebration of their service to the Smithsonian. (photos by Shruti Dube)

Bernadette Gibbons joined the department as a Secretary in October 1994. For 28 years she was a constant presence in the front office, carrying out an ever-evolving list of administrative functions. She showed incredible dedication in helping not only staff, but also contractors and visitors in navigating the museum and departmental systems. Gibbons further served as a copyeditor for The Plant Press since 2011.

Stan Yankowski joined the department in November 1972 as a Museum Specialist. He jumped right into plant anatomy and was long responsible for the oversight of the anatomy lab in the Department of Botany. He also managed our vast wood collection and was responsible for many aspects of departmental safety. Over the past 50 years, he trained and assisted a huge number of researchers with plant anatomy techniques and has left some big shoes to fill.

Liz Zimmer joined the Smithsonian in June 1990. She was recruited by the National Museum of Natural History to bridge the Department of Botany and the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics at the Museum Support Center, but she later transitioned to the museum. As one of the pioneers in DNA-based molecular phylogenetics, she played a critical role in bringing the department and the museum into the molecular era. She has been honored with the Dobzhansky Prize, conferred by Society for the Study of Evolution (1982), a Radcliffe Fellowship, conferred by Harvard University (2004–2005), an NSF Visiting Fellowship for Women (1993–1995), and a Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Award (2020). She has served as the Editor-in-Chief for the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution since 2018. Her collaborative spirit has had an outsized impact on students, interns, fellows, and staff over the past 32 years.

Botany is grateful to Bernadette, Stan, and Liz for their service to the department, the museum, and the greater scientific community. They are a testament to the great things that can be accomplished in working together. We wish them all the best in retirement.

A special herbarium visit by the Dugand family

From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2023.

By Virginia Vélez Thaxton, horticulturist with the Smithsonian Gardens

As a Smithsonian Gardens employee who loves working with plants, visiting a herbarium is always a treat. In the fall I was lucky to be part of a very special visit to the United States National Herbarium, with some special guests from afar, which I coordinated with Gary Krupnick (National Museum of Natural History).

Gary Krupnick, Beatriz Dugand, David Visbal, and Orlando Visbal examining specimens collected by Armando Dugand. (photo by Virginia Vélez Thaxton)

The guest were representatives of three generations of descendants of Armando Dugand, a Colombian botanist, who collected almost 3,000 specimens from the late 1930s to the 1960s. The specimens are housed at the US National Herbarium and the guest also happen to be my relatives!

The short and emotional visit took place on the morning of October 13. During a visit to Washington DC, my cousin Beatriz Dugand, Armando’s granddaughter, her son Orlando Visbal, and her grandson David Visbal, got the opportunity to see in person some of the plants collected and described by their relative years ago.

The botanist Armando Dugand Gnecco (1906-1971) was an important scientist in his native Colombia during the 20th century. From 1940 to 1953, he was director of the Institute of Natural Sciences of the National University of Colombia, and in 1940 he co-founded the scientific journal Caldasia. He was a member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) and the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT). He is author to many taxonomical names in the Colombian flora, with 242 names published according to IPNI (International Plant Names Index).

Progress in taxonomy and evolution of the licorice family

From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2023.

-Adapted from the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Plants in the genus Glycyrrhiza (Fabaceae) are an important biological resource and one of the bulk of traditional Chinese medicinal materials. Its medicinal functions have been known in many countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe since ancient times. The medicinal licorice species of this genus contain a variety of secondary metabolites, among them glycyrrhizic acid and liquiritin, which have the effects of eliminating phlegm and relieving cough. Glycyrrhiza and Glycyrrhizopsis make up the tribe Glycyrrhizeae. At present, the classification of this tribe is controversial, which affects its application to a certain extent.

Flower and fruit morphologies of three varieties of Glycyrrhiza glabra. Flowers (upper left) and fruits (upper right) of Glycyrrhiza glabra var. glabra; fruits of G. glabra var. uralensis lower left); and fruits of G. glabra var. inflata (lower right). (image from J. Syst. Evol. doi: 10.1111/jse.12902)

In a newly published study, researchers extracted low-copy nuclear genes from genome shallow sequencing data, built trees together with chloroplast genome and ribosomal DNA, and combined morphological and specimen image recognition technologies for classification and phylogenetic research. The study found that the genus Meristotropis endemic to Central Asia should be merged into the genus Glycyrrhiza, so the genus contains 13 species; while its sister group Glycyrrhizopsis is endemic to the West Anatolian Plateau and only contains two species.

Pollinators take spotlight at the NAPPC 2022 Conference [Video]

From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2023.

The 22^nd Annual International Conference of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) was held at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) on 18-20 October 2022. NAPPC's mission is to encourage the health of resident and migratory pollinating animals and the plants they service in North America. Co-hosted by Pollinator Partnership, the meeting brought together NAPPC partners in-person and virtually from throughout North America and beyond.

The NAPPC Conference included keynote speakers, member updates, research reports, and task force breakout sessions. Task Forces are cross-discipline, short-term, project-oriented groupings designed to accomplish specific tasks. Since 1997, the 170+ members of NAPPC have made advancements for pollinators, people, and the planet.

Thoughts, impressions, and observations at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties (COP15), Montreal, 6-19 December 2022

From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2023.

By W. John Kress

The Fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal was held on 6-19 December 2022. I spent the first week physically in Montreal as an Observer at COP representing both the Earth BioGenome Project and the DSI Scientific Network, and the second week monitoring the conference virtually. Below are my notes and impression of the proceedings.

Report on first week

The contact group on digital sequence information (DSI). The group meet during the first week of COP15 in Montreal, Canada. (photo by W. John Kress)

These first days have been packed with plenaries, regional meetings, contact groups, friends of the co-chairs, summits, side events, focus groups, presentations, informal discussions, and outside protests. With over 1,800 participants representing 193 countries, the venue is bursting. It is clear that one thing is on everyone’s mind: biodiversity. The four goals of the CBD are the conservation of biodiversity, the sustainable use of biodiversity, the equitable access and benefit sharing of biodiversity (especially genetic resources and digital sequence information), and the identification of adequate financial resources for implementation. Swirling around these four core goals are issues of climate change, protected areas, the global public good, capacity building, indigenous peoples and local communities, genetic resources, digital sequence information, business and finance, and on and on. Of course, everyone has an opinion and a position on each issue.

This first week is about information sharing, staking out positions, and building allies. Those of us who are “Observers” are primarily trying to provide the necessary information for the national delegates to make informed decisions when the hardcore negotiations take place next week. All options seem to be on the table right now with regards to many of the 20+ targets under consideration.

An expression of protest at the 15th Conference of the Parties in Montreal, Canada. (photo by W. John Kress)

I am here in Montreal representing “Academia and Research” as an Observer for the Earth BioGenome Project (EBP), an international initiative aimed at generating genomic information for all species currently on Earth, about 1.8 million species. Most of my time is being spent in discussions on figuring out the best means to access genetic resources around the world, generate digital sequence information (DSI) from those samples, share the genomic data in an open and free system, and ensure that benefits (both monetary and non-monetary) flow back to the regions where those genetic resources originated. It is not clear at this point what the solution will be. From the scientific perspective, open access and multilateral regulation with free public data sharing is by far the best course of action. But many viewpoints prevail.

U.S. National Herbarium appears on the shortlist for Apollo’s Digital Innovation of the Year award

From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2023.

The United States National Herbarium made a surprise appearance on Apollo magazine’s shortlist for their annual awards. In the "Digital Innovation of the Year" category, the herbarium was recognized for completing its seven-year project to digitize its plant collections and making the comprehensive digital data catalogue of images of specimens and transcribed labels fully accessible to the public. Working with the Smithsonian Digitization Program Office, the herbarium digitized and transcribed more than 3.8 million specimens.

The United States National Herbarium recently completed a seven-year project to digitize and transcribe more than 3.8 million botanical specimens, landing the achievement on Apollo magazine’s shortlist for "Digital Innovation of the Year" award. (photo by Ingrid Lin)

Founded in 1925, Apollo is one of the world’s oldest and most highly respected international magazines on the visual arts. The magazine has been recognizing major achievements in the arts for over 30 years, bestowing honors in the following categories: personality of the year, acquisition of the year, exhibition of the year, book of the year, museum opening of the year, digital innovation of the year, and artist of the year.

Sylvia Orli, the herbarium's digitization lead, commented, “We were quite tickled to be nominated for this award. We understand the value of the herbarium specimens to botanists around the world, but we did not realize that the art world was also paying attention to our efforts.”

Apollo announced its shortlists for each category on November 25, 2022, with the U.S. National Herbarium joining ArtCentrica, Ars Publicata, Art UK Sculpture, Artwrld, and Factum Foundation on the shortlist for "Digital Innovation of the Year." While Art UK Sculpture was the eventual winner at an Apollo Awards ceremony on December 6, the U.S. National Herbarium was honored to receive such recognition.

It's #BragFriday. So here we go: Apollo, the international art magazine, released its shortlist today for their annual awards and in the "Digital Innovation" category we're proud to say our Botany Department made the cut. 👏https://t.co/uxZyleI5l4 pic.twitter.com/WquhzZvfAs

— Smithsonian NMNH (@NMNH) November 25, 2022