The Plant Press

Art by Alice Tangerini: Aframomum angustifolium (Sonn.) K.Schum.

From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 4, October 2023.

This illustration by Alice Tangerini was completed in 1995 and based on living specimens in the Botany Research Greenhouse grown from collections by John Kress. Tangerini visited the greenhouses a number of times to make dissections and illustrate the flowers and habit. It was one of her early drawings of Zingiberales and included details of the flowers with cross sections of the ovary and anthers. Aframomum angustifolium is an endemic species from tropical Africa and was collected by Kress in Madagascar. The drawing was exhibited at the 4^th International Symposium on the Family Zingiberaceae held at the Singapore Botanical Gardens in July 2006 attended by Kress. Along with several other of Tangerini’s illustrations of gingers, it was framed and admired by many of the attendees. In an effort to have all the drawings in Botany imaged and databased, the framed illustration was turned over to intern Erin Ellis for scanning. Ellis’ expertise in scanning as well as cleaning dust and stray pencil lines resulted in a high-quality reproduction of the original.

Staff Activities

From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 4, October 2023.

Alice Tangerini teaching a drawing class at Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF) in Upperville, Virginia. (photo by Danielle Eady, Oak Spring Garden Foundation)

On July 18, 2023, Alice Tangerini traveled to Oak Spring Garden Foundation (OSGF) in Upperville, Virginia, to teach an afternoon drawing class. She had been approached by Danielle Eady, OSGF Director of Art and Residential Programs, to lead a practical demonstration on botanical illustration in pen and ink techniques to students in the Rare Book School in the University of Virginia (UVA). The Rare Book School and OSGF had partnered to host a short course titled Six Hundred Years of Botanical Illustration, led by Roger Gaskell (UVA) and Peter Crane (OSGF). Tangerini naturally focused on the last 50 years. In addition to the class, she presented a talk, “Illustrating at the Museum.” The gardeners provided living material including Rudbeckia, Dahlia, and Echinacea and had made prints of the flower heads to expedite the drawing process. Tangerini received such positive feedback that she has been invited to teach for next year's class.

Between July 20 and August 26, 2023, Robert Soreng traveled to Turkey visiting the following herbaria: ISTE, ISTF, NGBB (in Istanbul), NAKU (in Tekirdağ), ANK (in Ankara), and VANF (in Van). He worked on the genus Poa (Poaceae) for revision of the genus for Turkey, and Poeae, subtribe Coleanthinae genera for Aybüke Demir’s dissertation. Travelling with Dr. Evren Cabi (NAKU) and his PhD students Aybüke and Ogün Demir, Birçin Çingay (NGBB), and Marina Olonova (TK), they collected grasses mainly in eastern Anatolia, in Ağrı, Ardahan, Artvin, Bitlis, Kars, Riza, and Van provinces. Collecting was focused on the following genera: Catabrosa, Catabrosella, Colpodium (syn. Zingeria), Hyalopoa, Hyalopodium (formerly Paracolpodium araraticum & colchicum), Poa (syn. Eremopoa), and Puccinellia. About 370 numbers were collected. Sets will be deposited at NGBB and distributed to US and other herbaria.

While in China this summer, Jun Wen gave an invited presentation, “Biodiversity discovery in the new age of big data, case studies in the Himalayan and Hengduan Mountain region,” at the International Symposium on the Frontiers of Plant Diversity and Conservation Research in the Pan-Third Pole Region, held in Kunming, Yunnan, on August 28-31, 2023. She also gave invited seminars on “Advances in plant systematics in the new age of big data and discovery,” while visiting three institutions: South China Botanical Garden in Guangzhou on August 14, Southwest Forestry University in Kunming on September 4, and Shenzhen Agricultural Genomics Institute in Shenzhen on September 6.