From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 2, April 2024.
Research botanists at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) occasionally come across plants in the field that they cannot identify, and so they bring the living plant back to Washington, DC, for further study. The living collections are then cared for in the Botany Research Greenhouses, located in Suitland, Maryland, at the Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center (MSC), where the plant may one day reach flowering stage for easier identification.
Such is the case of an unidentified plant specimen collected by Jun Wen a few years ago in Singapore. While Wen could identify it to Araliaceae, the plant needed to grow to flowering size to get a positive species identification. There are two specimens of this plant growing in the greenhouses, and with the horticultural expertise of Carl Johnson, both specimens began flowering in January 2024. With flowers at hand, the plants have now been identified as Polyscias diversifolia, a species that grows in wet tropical forests from Indo-China to west and central Malesia. In addition to the positive identification, Wen was able to take cuttings of the mature plants, which will be used to make herbarium vouchers.
This contribution of plant material from the greenhouse to the herbarium is a great example of the Department of Botany's greenhouse facility and the U.S. National Herbarium working in tandem with Smithsonian Gardens to facilitate research goals. As a collaboration between Smithsonian Gardens and NMNH, the goal of the greenhouses is to bring together shared botanical and horticultural resources, passions, and missions.
While the well-known herbarium has a collection of over 5 million dried, pressed plant specimens, the greenhouses maintain an impressive collection of just under 2,000 living plants. The new greenhouse facility, recently on the move from one location at MSC to another, is expected to open in its new location in June 2024.
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