By Carol Kelloff, Meghann Toner, and Erika Gardner
This year the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) and Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) held a joint conference in Okinawa, Japan, from September 2-6, 2024. The theme was “Enhancing Local Capacity, Elevating Global Standards.” Conducted as a hybrid meeting, the SPNHC-TDWG 2024 included papers and symposia on topics of “Back to Basics” sharing peer-to-peer experiences of the day-to-day curatorial work methodologies often learned through practical experiences. Other presentations focused on how we can elevate the global standards of collections care best practices and how digital technology and standards are becoming an increasingly critical component of natural history collections. Lightning talks, limited to 5 minutes, focused on one specimen in the collection that has a fascinating story to tell. Posters, workshops and demonstrations also occurred throughout the week.
NMNH staff participate in an herbarium discussion group workshop hosted by Kew at the SPNHC meeting in Okinawa, Japan. (photo by Erika Gardner)
Keynote speakers at the conference were Sara Beery, Assistant Professor of AI and Decision Making, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Tom Strang, Conservationist. Beery talked about the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of AI and biodiversity. Strang told how a chance meeting began a 23-year collaboration with Japanese colleagues to transition away from methyl bromide (MeBr) fumigation and the applicability of alternatives to the protection of cultural property.
Department of Botany staff members and affiliates joined colleagues from near and far at the XX International Botanical Congress (IBC) in Madrid, Spain, from July 21-27, 2024.
Botanists participate in the Nomenclature Section of the XX International Botanical Congress where they deliberated on proposals to amend the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants. (photo by Eric Schuettpelz)
Immediately preceding the main program of the XX IBC, the Nomenclature Section of the Congress took place at the central campus of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) in Madrid from July 15-19. This Section was presented by the Congress’s Bureau of Nomenclature as prescribed by the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN). Sandra Knapp (Natural History Museum, London), president of the Bureau of Nomenclature, chaired the session, with expertise and guidance given by the Rapporteur-général, Nicholas Turland (Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin), and the Vice-rapporteur, John Wiersema (Smithsonian Research Associate). The Nomenclature Section deliberated 433 proposals to amend the ICN. Others attending from the Botany Department were Laurence Dorr, Rose Gulledge, Paul Peterson, Eric Schuettpelz, Robert Soreng, Kenneth Wurdack, and Smithsonian Research Associate Morgan Gostel. Important topics that were discussed included proposals on culturally sensitive issues as well as the removal of a significant set of names based on racially offensive terms, and a clear mechanism for the voluntary registration of names and types of algae and plants.
John Kress presented a lecture, "Art meets Science: How artists and botanists capture the essence of Nature through color, composition, and classification," at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC, on June 26, 2024. In his talk, he described how artists and botanists have made unanticipated contributions to both our understanding and appreciation of the natural world for hundreds of years and how it continues today. His talk showed several artworks in the Department of Botany’s art collection, including Bryan Poole’s Heliconia caribaea, and Alice Tangerini’s gingers, including Globba sherwoodiana. Tangerini and her intern, Michelle-Marie Nelson were in attendance, and then following the lecture, Tangerini spoke to several of the attendees about her work at the museum.
In April 2024, Alice Tangerini spent time in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the Springfield Museums as an invited guest through Smithsonian Affiliates to present a lecture on “Botanical Illustration Then and Now” and to teach a class in botanical illustration. From April 4-7, Springfield Museums held a Festival of Flowers at their five museums all centered around a green quadrangle which featured sculptures of characters in the Dr. Seuss stories. Three of the museums displayed amazing flower arrangements in front of art pieces that were the inspiration for the designs. Other museums displayed floral arrangements in front of dioramas of animals and prehistoric life. One museum held activities for children and flower arranging for adults. Tangerini worked with Clarissa Leverich, the Museum School and Lecture Coordinator, to organize the class. Participants created layered graphite and watercolor flower portraits using prints and live flowers for subjects. It was a unique method for students to learn and each student came away with a finished piece.
On April 18, in celebration of Earth Day 2024, alumni of the National Museum of Natural History’s Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellowship program presented short talks related to their own science journeys in the symposium, “Life on a Sustainable Planet: Exploring and Understanding Our Natural World”. The symposium offered an opportunity for the Smithsonian science community and the public to hear from science leaders of the future on how their work is contributing to exploring and understanding our natural world. Among the speakers, Richie Hodel presented, “Machine learning applications with digitized herbarium specimens reveal the hybrid origin of the cherry/plum genus,” and Manuela Dal Forno presented, “Preserving the past, exploring the future: Insights from historical lichen collections.” All of the talks were recorded and are available for viewing on the museum's YouTube channel.
Richie Hodel presents, “Machine learning applications with digitized herbarium specimens reveal the hybrid origin of the cherry/plum genus”:
Manuela Dal Forno presents, “Preserving the past, exploring the future: Insights from historical lichen collections”:
When most of us in the Natural History community think of botanical collections, our first thought is of herbaria and the critical role they play in documenting and preserving the rich diversity of plants and lichens on Earth. Indeed, herbaria play an increasingly important role in advancing botanical science and are arguably the single most important scientific resource available to confront and overcome the biodiversity crisis for plants and lichens. However, another resource plays a key role in advancing plant science, conservation, and education – the diverse collections stored in botanic gardens worldwide. The history of botanic gardens and herbaria is inextricably linked. Despite the parallel role of these institutions, their connections faded throughout the 20th century. According to Index Herbariorum, there are currently 3,567 herbaria worldwide, and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) estimates there are more than 3,000 botanic gardens and arboreta. Although the aim and scope of herbarium is often distinguished from botanic gardens, a significant historical component of these institutions is linked through their role in facilitating research, notably taxonomy and systematics (see Dosmann 2006). One individual who saw enormous potential for herbarium and botanic garden collections to grow together was Vicki Funk. Funk’s impact and legacy in phylogenetic theory, biogeography, and plant systematics and evolution – particularly in the daisy family, Compositae – are enormous and widely recognized. Perhaps less well-known, however, is the great collections-based legacy she left for botanic gardens.
Vick Funk (second from left) collecting with interns Sara Gabler, Asia Hill, and Kristen van Neste (left to right) at the U.S. Botanic Garden. (photo courtesy U.S. Botanic Garden)
Ten years ago, in 2014, Funk was motivated to explore the role that botanic gardens might play in advancing collections-based research, particularly in the genomic era. To Funk, the crux of this motivation was a fervent belief that botanic gardens are in a unique position to facilitate plant collections-based research, yet surprisingly the living collections that gardens maintain and the dedicated staff who grow them were increasingly disconnected from herbaria and the broader research community. According to Funk, botanic gardens held vast collections of diverse living plants that were underutilized for research. Throughout her career, Funk was an ardent advocate for the importance of scientific vouchers and the critical role of natural history collections as foundational institutions for biological science. Encouraging botanic gardens to rediscover their historical connections to herbaria and more actively collect scientific vouchers could lead to an untapped wellspring of botanical knowledge.
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.
A living collection of Polyscias diversifolia from Singapore growing in the Botany Research Greenhouses. (photo by Carl Johnson)
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.
The Department of Botany is pleased to welcome three new members to the department. In December 2023, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed between the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) and the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) Plant Protection and Quarantine division (PPQ). The three new scientists (two botanists and one technician) joining the department hail from National Identification Services (NIS) within PPQ. The focus of NIS is to provide rapid identification of plants and plant pests in support of the USDA’s regulatory programs. NIS includes specialists in the fields of botany, entomology, malacology, and mycology, and they serve as the final taxonomic authorities for PPQ’s identification programs. While the missions of PPQ and NMNH are separate and distinct, both provide information and scientific services to a wide array of researchers, customers, and stakeholders in the public and private sectors.
The Plant Protection and Quarantine Botany Lab, now in the NMNH Botany Department, includes a a fruit and seed collection of over 6,000 accessions. (photo by Gary Krupnick)
According to the MOU, NMNH will provide space to PPQ/NIS scientists, technicians, and affiliated individuals (e.g., visitors, fellows, interns, contractors) in return for PPQ's performance of collection curation activities. This arrangement will allow PPQ, in conjunction with NMNH and other USDA employee scientists, to effectively perform pest identifications in support of agricultural quarantine inspection, pest detection, emergency and other PPQ programs. PPQ scientists have now joined the NMNH’s Department of Botany and Department of Entomology curating specific taxa within the NMNH botanical and entomological collections. In Botany, they are focused on Asteraceae, Fabaceae, and other plant families with large numbers of federal noxious weeds or other taxa encountered in trade, while in Entomology, the focus is on Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Hemiptera. The NMNH collections will also grow with the addition of officially identified PPQ botanical and arthropod specimens obtained from port-of-entry interceptions and from other PPQ programs, with specimens originating from locations throughout the world. The PPQ Botany Lab, now fully moved to the NMNH Botany Department, also includes a small reference library as well as a fruit and seed collection including over 6,000 accessions.
Smithsonian Botany postdoctoral fellow, Alicia Talavera, shared research on North American grapes during a bilingual 'Expert Is In' session in the Hall of Mammals at the National Museum of Natural History on Friday, December 29. She aimed to convey these key messages to the visitors: (1) Natural history museums play a vital role in discovering new species, providing crucial information for understanding and protecting nature, and enhancing our crops and food; and (2) Technological advancements allow us to extract abundant information from specimens in museums. This essential information helps us understand grape diversity, and enables us to adapt and improve cultivars in response to new challenges like climate change, and for the conservation of nature.
Botany postdoctoral fellow, Alicia Talavera, shares research on grape diversity at an Expert Is In session in the Hall of Mammals, NMNH. (photo by Arthur H. Earle)
Jun Wen visited the production facility of the United States Botanic Garden on December 12 to check the Tetrastigma (Vitaceae) living collections. Tetrastigma species are host plants of parasitic Rafflesia (Rafflesiaceae), which have the largest flowers in the world.
Theobroma cacao, a tropical plant collected from Brazil in 1979, preserved in the collection of the U.S. National Herbarium in Washington, DC.
Plant diversity in nature is generally highest in tropical regions around the equator, with decreasing diversity closer to the poles. Xiao Feng (Florida State University), Daniel Park (Purdue University), and a team of more than 50 authors from 39 countries (including Sylvia Orli from Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History) showed that the plant specimens housed in herbaria in Europe and North America are more comprehensive and diverse than the collections housed in the countries with more natural plant diversity.
By comparing modern finds with collection specimens, researchers can examine how a species has changed over time.
“People can’t travel back in time to observe what plants look like 100 years ago, but herbaria collections give us a way to examine the past,” Feng said. “If you’re a researcher from Brazil, for example, and you want to study what native plants were like a century ago, you may have to travel to another country to examine certain species.”
A specimen is a single plant that can be used as an example of a particular species to be examined by scientists, historians, and artists. Botanists collect specimens to assist in current research, aid in future research, or fill in a botanical blackhole. A botanical blackhole is when there is a location that is largely undocumented or unstudied.
Scientists are not the only ones who can collect specimens. Citizen scientists describe anyone collecting specimens in a non-professional capacity. They may collect to fill a gap in the botanic record, aid in research that is being conducted by a scientist, or for their own personal collection!
Citizen science is a great way to increase scientific knowledge and engage more of the public in the scientific community. If a citizen scientist has a collection of flora and they have received approval from the Department of Botany’s collection manager, they are welcome to send their specimens to the Smithsonian to be mounted and added in the US National Herbarium. For the specimens to be accepted by the museum, the collector must have permission from the landowner to collect, must supply copies of permits, and must provide a formal signed and dated Deed of Gift. The plant should not be on any threatened, endangered, or rare list. Plant apps, such as SEEK and iNaturalist, can be used to obtain an identification in the field.
Please keep in mind the Smithsonian’s botanical collection is exceptionally large and sending in a specimen does not guarantee it will be used for research immediately.
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