The Plant Press

Art by Alice Tangerini: Bahiana occidentalis K.Wurdack

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 4, October 2024.

Bahiana occidentalis K.Wurdack (PhytoKeys 219: 121-144; 2023) was first collected 40 years before it was described based on an accumulation of 35 collections from the seasonally dry tropical forests of northern Peru. Since none of those collections was flowering – sterile, young buds, or fruits – it had lain in herbaria as an unidentified member of Euphorbiaceae that had stymied years of euphorb-specialist scrutiny. The keys to its recognition came with genetic data and the shared morphological feature of unusual spiny stipules that linked it to Bahiana, a genus that had just been described in 2022 based on a second species in eastern Brazil. The illustration by Alice Tangerini began as pen and ink drawings that were digitized and then shaded. This taxon is being included in Kew’s PAFTOL (Plant and Fungal Trees of Life) project, about which Ken Wurdack gave an overview at the XX International Botanical Congress (IBC) of its recent findings for Euphorbiaceae.

By the Numbers: Collections Edition

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 4, October 2024.

U.S. National Herbarium
By the Numbers
* Collections Edition *

A volunteer in the Department of Botany carefully mount plant specimens to herbarium sheets. (photographer unknown)

16,042

Specimens digitized/imaged in FY24

 

6,109

New specimens accessioned into the collection in FY24

 

6,027

Specimens mounted in FY24

 

1,140

Specimens loaned out in FY24

 

A volunteer in the Department of Botany carefully mount plant specimens to herbarium sheets. (photo by Erika Gardner)