The Plant Press

Art by Alice Tangerini: Distichophyllum cuspidatum (Dozy & Molk.) Dozy & Molk. and Leskeodon brevicuspidatus (E.B. Bartram) B.C. Tan & H. Rob.

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019.

"Distichophyllum cuspidatum (Dozy & Molk.) Dozy & Molk. and Leskeodon brevicuspidatus (E.B. Bartram) B.C. Tan & H. Rob." illustrated by Alice Tangerini

In a 1990 monograph in Smithsonian Contributions to Botany (Number 75), Benito Tan and Harold Robinson reviewed the Philippine taxa of Hookeriaceae. Their treatment looked at 11 genera and 36 species in this family of mosses. Alice Tangerini illustrated 15 species for this publication, including Distichophyllum cuspidatumi, a widespread species from Malesia and Oceania, and Leskeodon brevicuspidatus, from Papua New Guinea and Mindanao, Philippines. Tangerini worked on the moss drawings in the spring of 1988 using material from the bryophyte collection. She also inked some sketches of cell drawings made by Tan.

Staff Activities

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019.

Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour and Maggy Benson (Education & Outreach) interview lichenologist Manuela Dal Forno during a broadcast of “Exploring the Amazing World of Lichens” on Smithsonian Science How. (photo by Jennifer Renteria, NMNH)

On 28 March, Manuela Dal Forno participated in two video broadcasts of “Exploring the Amazing World of Lichens” on Smithsonian Science How, a free, interactive, live video webcast that takes questions from students while introducing them to science concepts and practices through the lens of Smithsonian research and experts. In the video, archived at <https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/distance-learning/exploring-amazing-world-lichens-manuela-dal-forno>, Dal Forno takes students on an exploration of the world of lichens, helping them to realize that lichens are living all around us—from forests to city streets. She explains what lichens are and how the lichen symbiosis works. Classes across the country had the opportunity to see Manuela’s student interns in action extracting DNA from lichens in one of the Smithsonian’s labs. Throughout the live broadcast, Dal Forno took questions from students via text chat. In addition to the archived video, companion worksheets and answers with the theme, “Exploring Lichens,” are available.

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Gary Krupnick engages with teens in a conversation about the importance of pollination and food security. (photo by Christian Lilakos, NMNH)

On 16 March, more than 130 local teens participated in the third annual Teen Earth Optimism event in Q?rius, the science education center at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. A collaboration with the Smithsonian Conservation Commons, the event focused on the ethics, nutrition, culture, and innovation of food. Experts from multiple Smithsonian units, teen leaders, and local non-profits participated. Teens engaged with scientists at several conservation stations that ranged in topics from composting and the history of food to bird-friendly coffee and the sustainable management of fisheries. Gary Krupnick spoke with teens about the role of pollination in food security and the steps individuals can take to support the health of pollinator populations. With a couple minor exceptions, all of the waste from the program was recycled or composted, resulting in a near-zero waste event!

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Visitors participate in drawing orchids at the Open Studio Botanical Art Event at the National Museum of American Art. (photo by Alice Tangerini)

On 15 March, Alice Tangerini participated in the Open Studio Botanical Art Event as part of the Orchid Show in the Kogod Courtyard at the National Museum of American Art (NMAA). Tangerini provided her drawings of orchid flowers, in pen and ink and then digitally colored, which previously were signage for the NMNH Orchid Show in 2007. Organizers made hundreds of copies of the drawings as handouts and provided art materials for the visitors. Over 200 visitors came to the Open Studio event between 1:00 and 5:00 pm, often filling all 16 tables arranged in the Courtyard. Smithsonian Gardens had staff on hand to provide information on the orchids. Tangerini and Jill Galloway, NMAA’s local art instructor, provided advice and instruction on drawing or coloring the orchids in pencil and watercolor.

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National Museum of Natural History participants honor International Women’s Day. (photo by Lucia RM Martino and James Di Loreto, Smithsonian Institution)

On 8 March, scientists, research associates, students, and contractors from the Department of Botany joined other women from the National Museum of Natural History to participate in a group photo honoring International Women’s Day. The photo gives tribute to all the past, present, and future generations of women in STEM.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Dryopteris macropholis Lorence & W.L.Wagner

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019.

Asexuality, in the form of apomixis, may help ferns colonize islands more readily, but little is known about the incidence of asexuality across the group. Dryopteris macropholis is an endangered fern endemic to the Marquesas Islands. Recent analysis of spores from the type specimen revealed that it is an apomict (see article, "Asexuality as a detour, not a dead end"). Alice Tangerini began this illustration in Kauai at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens in September 2005. She was on a two-week assignment illustrating Marquesas Island ferns for Warren Wagner. Tangerini penciled the drawings at NTBG using collections from Wood 10489. She later inked them in 2009 for the publication.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Trichomanes pedicellatum Desv.

From Plant Press, Vol. 21, No. 4, October 2018.

Smithsonian botanists have trained a deep learning model to identify fern genera of specimens on herbarium sheets with an average of 90.5 percent accuracy (see cover story in this issue of The Plant Press). For the genus Trichomanes, the model is 92 percent accurate. Trichomanes pedicellatum is a South American fern found in eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. Alice Tangerini drew this illustration for a 1991 paper by David Lellinger (Amer. Fern J. 81(1): 24-36) to highlight the great diversity in frond and pinnae form within T. pedicellatum.

Artwork of Emily Dickinson Plants to Be Displayed outside Chair’s Office

From Plant Press, Vol. 21, No. 4, October 2018.

A metalpoint drawing of Rosa carolina by Kandy Phillips. The drawing was inspired by the poems of Emily Dickinson.

A selection of metalpoint drawings by local artist Kandy Vermeer Phillips will be on display beginning October 10 outside the Department of Botany Chair’s office on the fourth floor of the West Wing, National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. These illustrations are the culmination of Phillips’ yearlong project to illustrate the plants associated with Emily Dickinson’s poetry. All of Phillips’ artwork represents specimens from the US National Herbarium collections with attention to choosing those in the area and time of Dickinson’s poetry.

Phillips’ work was supported by an Educational Grant from the American Society of Botanical Artists. The drawings are a generous donation by Phillips to the Botanical Art Collection in the Department of Botany.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Alpinia modesta F.Muell. ex K.Schum.

From Plant Press, Vol. 21, No. 3, July 2018.

At the 2018 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “Plants in the Past: Fossils and the Future,” fossilized Zingiberales was among the many plant groups discussed. As part of the Zingiberales program at the Smithsonian spearheaded by Curator John Kress and colleagues, Alice Tangerini was sent to the Harold L. Lyon Arboretum in Hawaii in July 1997 to make preliminary drawings from living specimens of plants in the Zingiberales, including Alpinia modesta. It was a summer of sporadic rains so drawing in the Arboretum always meant bringing a large plastic tarp to throw over her work when a shower came. The floral details were illustrated at the education building in the evenings. Tangerini made additional sketches from specimens at the Smithsonian Botany Greenhouses the following summer.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Hymenoxys ambigens (S.F. Blake) Bierner var. neomexicana W.L. Wagner

From Plant Press, Vol. 21, No. 2, April 2018.

Reported from southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, Hymenoxys ambigens is comprised of three local varieties. Variety neomexicana is known from the rocky slopes of the Animas and Peloncillo Mountains of New Mexico, and is ranked as imperiled (T2, NatureServe status). In the cover story in this issue of The Plant Press, Robert Edwards finds that soil pH is a strong environmental variable that is uniquely correlated with diversity in the tribe Heliantheae. Tangerini illustrated this variety for Warren Wagner in his treatment of the species in Brittonia (51: 79-86; 1999).

Tangerini Illustrations Featured in Three Exhibitions

From Plant Press, Vol. 21, No. 2, April 2018.

Botanical illustrations by Alice Tangerini are currently on view in three different exhibitions. Tangerini shows her mixed media (graphite and watercolor on drafting film) of Camellia sasanqua in an exhibition of botanical and landscape art, “The Spirit in Bloom 2018,” at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC. The show, sponsored by the All Hallows Guild, opened on 15 April 2018. Artworks on display are by artists of the Cathedral Community and the Botanical Arts Society of the National Capital Region (BASNCR), of which Tangerini is a member. A number of staff members from Smithsonian’s Botany Department were present at the opening reception. The exhibit closes 18 May 2018.

Tangerini’s pen and ink illustrations of Pentagramma glanduloviscida and Hibiscadelphus stellatus are included in the exhibit, “Botanical Art Worldwide: America's Flora,” a juried exhibition of artworks of native plants, staged in the Conservatory Gallery of the U.S. Botanic Garden (USBG) opening 4 May 2018. A collaboration of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) and USBG, the exhibition includes 46 original contemporary botanical artworks, juried from a field of over 200 entries. On 18 May, the Worldwide Day of Botanical Art, USBG will host three programs for visitors; a lecture, Botanical Art Worldwide: 6 Continents, 25 Countries, 1 Worldwide Project; a public program, Meet the Artists: Botanical Art Worldwide: America's Flora; and a reserved program, Behind-the-Scenes: Botanical Art Worldwide: America's Flora. The exhibit will remain on view at USBG through October 2018, and then travel through the end of 2019. The exhibit website can be viewed at https://www.usbg.gov/botanical-art-worldwide-americas-flora.

Vernonia echioides by Alice Tangerini received a “Highly Commended” award in the 2018 Margaret Flockton Award contest at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.

Tangerini’s illustration of Vernonia echioides received a “Highly Commended” award in the 2018 Margaret Flockton Award contest held yearly at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Australia. The Margaret Flockton Award commemorates the contribution Margaret Flockton made to Australian scientific botanical illustration. This contest invites illustrators from around the world to submit scientifically accurate drawings that accompany the published taxonomic description of the plant, and are highly detailed black and white drawings primarily undertaken in pen and ink, pencil, or digitally rendered. The Maple Brown Family and the Foundation & Friends of the Botanic Gardens sponsor this annual, international award for excellence in scientific botanical illustration. Illustrations are on display at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney from 21 April to 6 May 2018, and travel to The Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan (May–July 2018) and to The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah (August–September 2018). The exhibit website is https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/science/botanical-illustration/the-margaret-flockton-award-2017.

Art by Alice Tangerini: Dryopteris macropholis Lorence & W.L. Wagner

From Plant Press, Vol. 21, No. 1, January 2018.

Fern diversity is high on the Marquesas Islands in the southern Pacific. On a recent trip to two islands, Ua Pou and Hiva Oa, researchers from the Smithsonian Institution, National Tropical Botanical Garden, and French Polynesia encountered 82 of the 99 indigenous pteridophyte species (see cover article). Among them was Dryopteris macropholis, an endangered species restricted to the mountains of Ua Pou and Hiva Oa, as well as Nuku Hiva, Ua Huka, and Tahuata (also in the Marquesas). Alice Tangerini illustrated this species from the type specimen and field photographs for a 2011 publication (PhytoKeys 4: 5-51) in which 11 new fern species were described from the Marquesas Islands. This plate was illustrated primarily in pen and ink, but additional stippling was added and parts were rearranged in Adobe Photoshop. The frond and stipe (too large to fit in with the details) appeared on a separate plate.

Hidden Inca Treasure: Remarkable New Tree Discovered in the Andes

From Plant Press, Vol. 21, No. 1, January 2018.

-Adapted from Wake Forest News

Hidden in plain sight – that’s how researchers describe their discovery of a new genus of large forest tree commonly found, yet previously scientifically unknown, in the tropical Andes.

Botanist Kenneth Wurdack from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and Wake Forest University graduate student William Farfan-Rios detailed their findings in a study just released in the journal PhytoKeys.

Habit, with paired branching and staminate inflorescences, of Incadendron. (photo courtesy of Jason Houston)

Named Incadendron esseri (literally “Esser’s tree of the Inca”), the tree is a new genus and species commonly found along an ancient Inca path in Peru, the Trocha Unión. Its association with the land of the Inca empire inspired its scientific name.

So how could a canopy tree stretching up to 100 feet tall and spanning nearly two feet in diameter go undetected until now?