The Plant Press

Outside of the cabinet and into the garden: Vicki Funk’s extraordinary legacy in botanic gardens

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 3, July 2024.

By Morgan Gostel

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 20^th 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.

Abstracts from the speakers of the 21st Smithsonian Botanical Symposium

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 3, July 2024.

The 21^st Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “Advancing Plant Conservation Through Horticulture,” was held on 17 May 2024. The invited speakers included botanists, horticulturalist, conservation biologists, and scientific curators. Below are the abstracts from the papers that were presented by the invited speakers.

Carlos Magdalena
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
“The many facets of botanical horticulture”

In this talk, Carlos will draw on his 20 years of experience in botanical horticulture and recount some highlights of his career. In doing so, it will become apparent that the term “botanical horticulture” encompasses far more than meets the eye. While plant cultivation in a botanic garden is at the core of most botanical horticulturists’ job description, the range of skills and activities involved in conservation surpasses this. To safeguard species in a holistic manner, the emphasis cannot and should not be solely on single species conservation, but also consider the wider context that the work is set in. This includes but is not limited to local flora, habitat restoration efforts and practices, and engagement with local partners. Carlos’ talk will challenge what you understand botanical horticulture to be and explore the interdisciplinary links in plant conservation.

Jennifer Cruse-Sanders
State Botanical Garden of Georgia
“From dwarf sumac, Rhus michauxii, to turkey beard, Xerophyllum asphodeloides (and other species in between): How conservation horticulture has helped to preserve imperiled species in the southeastern U.S.”

Globally, plant species diversity is fundamental for supporting ecosystem function, landscape resilience, and food security. And yet, plant species diversity is threatened with some of the highest rates of extinction in our world. It is imperative that conservation horticulture methods for propagation and restoration of species are not only developed widely, but are also shared generously to meet the pressing grand challenges we face. As one example, the southeastern U.S. is a global biodiversity hotspot, recognized as such for high rates of endemism and perceived threats to natural ecosystems. The state of Georgia, in the southeastern U.S., with some of the highest numbers of plant species diversity in the U.S., has more than 700 plant species that are imperiled and facing significant conservation challenges. Even more significant are diverse plants considered common species that are not tracked through conservation programs but are nearly disappearing before our eyes. This program will share highlights from our efforts to conserve rare species through horticultural interventions and our efforts to make common plants even more commonly available for essential conservation needs that anticipate a growing need in our communities.

Colin Khoury
San Diego Botanic Garden
“Distributions, conservation assessments, and conservation action for crop wild relatives”

Crop wild relatives - the wild progenitors and cousins of agricultural crops - are valuable genetic resources used by plant breeders to increase pest and disease resistance, stress tolerance, nutritional value, and other traits critical to productivity, quality, and sustainability. Many of these species are threatened in their natural habitats and are under-represented in seedbanks and other ex situ conservation repositories, limiting the portfolio of useful plant diversity that may be available to present and future generations. In this presentation, I detail efforts at local to global scales to better understand the distributions and conservation status of the wild relatives of important crops, and to take action to address conservation concerns.

Dustin Wolkis
National Tropical Botanical Garden
“Applied seed conservation biology to support seed banking”

Seed banking provides the most efficient means of ex situ plant conservation. Conventional seed banking practices involve desiccating seeds to low moisture contents and storing them at a specific temperature below freezing. However, not all species can be conserved by conventional seed banking methods. Although many species produce desiccation tolerant seeds, some cannot be dried and even some desiccation tolerant species are sensitive to long-term freezing stress. Besides problems with desiccation tolerance and short life spans in conventional storage, other challenges to the ex situ conservation of seeds include the inability to acquire seeds, and the failure of viable seeds to germinate. Collectively, species exhibiting one or more of these traits have been termed “exceptional.” The flora of the Hawaiian Islands harbors 90% vascular plant endemism, yet globally has experienced the highest number of contemporary plant extinctions. Using the Hawaiian flora as a model system this presentation will explore some of the mechanisms underlying species defined as exceptional and discuss methods in which to overcome obstacles to ex situ seed banking. The applied projects presented will be broadly relevant beyond seed science including species and land managers and to the field of conservation horticulture.

Abby Meyer
Botanic Gardens Conservation International
“Conservation horticulture capacity at botanic gardens”

Conservation horticulture refers to the skills and knowledge required to maintain plants of conservation concern in ex situ living collections. This is a fundamental and expanding area of expertise that is often and uniquely manifested through the work of botanic gardens. As we face major environmental and social crises around the world, the conservation and outreach work of botanic gardens is becoming more and more imperative. Specialists in conservation horticulture are more important than ever as the plant conservation community scales-up our collective efforts to halt species extinction. This presentation will describe the current state of conservation horticulture in botanic gardens globally and provide examples of how BGCI is working with partners to promote awareness of and capacity for this critical area of expertise.

 

Acknowledgments

The success of the Symposium was due to the significant time and efforts of the following people:

Symposium Organizing Committee: Amy Bolton, Eric Calhoun, Joy Columbus, Laurence Dorr, Rose Gulledge, Carl Johnson, Gary Krupnick, Susan Pell, Eric Schuettpelz, Warren Wagner, and Kenneth Wurdack

Symposium Support: Emir Ali, MaryAnn Apicelli, Tiara Boyd, Nancy Khan, and Sue Lutz

Symposium Sponsors: José Cuatrecasas Botanical Fund, Mellon Foundation, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Gardens, and United States Botanic Garden

Peter F. Stevens receives the 21st Cuatrecasas Medal

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 3, July 2024.

The José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany is named in honor of Dr. José Cuatrecasas, a pioneering botanist and taxonomist, who spent nearly a half-century working at the National Museum of Natural History. Cuatrecasas had a distinguished career devoted to systematic botany and plant exploration in tropical South America, especially in the Andes, and this award serves to keep vibrant his accomplishments and memory. The Department of Botany and the U.S. National Herbarium present this award at the Smithsonian Botanical Symposium to a botanist and scholar of international stature who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The award consists of a bronze medal bearing an image of José Cuatrecasas on the front with the recipient’s name and date of presentation on the back.

This year the 21^st José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany was presented to Peter F. Stevens, an accomplished scientist, botanist, and author.

Peter F. Stevens (right) accepts the 21st José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany presented to him by Laurence Dorr. (photo by Ken Wurdack)

Stevens most recently held joint appointments as a Professor of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis and Research Curator, Missouri Botanical Garden. After receiving a B.S. from Oxford University, he went to Edinburgh where he received a Ph.D. in 1971. His dissertation was simply titled Taxonomic studies in Ericaceae, but it was deceptively influential in influencing subsequent research on that family.

His first professional post was as a Forest Botanist in Papua New Guinea. There he collected plants mostly in the highlands, gained further experience with tropical Ericaceae, and developed interests in other primarily tropical families such as the Clusiaceae. His three years in New Guinea were influential in fostering his interests in plant families, identification, and tropical botany in general.

Leaving New Guinea, Stevens moved half-way around the globe to accept an appointment as an Assistant Curator at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, which had a long-standing interest in Asian (and Malesian) botany. Eventually, he became a tenured professor at the university. While at Harvard he also had teaching responsibilities and served as principal advisor to a number of graduate students interested in tropical plant systematics. He also began publishing on aspects of systematic philosophy, especially examining the conflicts between morphological character states and phylogenetic hypotheses.

Moving half-way across the continent to St. Louis in the late 1990s, Stevens continued his research and teaching but also was one of the principal architects in constructing the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website, which continues to be a remarkable and valuable tool for anyone interested in up-to-date information on the 400 plus families of flowering plants. Without doubt, Stevens has contributed in innumerable ways to advancing the field of tropical botany.

Planting for the future: Conservation horticulture blossoms at symposium [Video]

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 3, July 2024.

By Gary A. Krupnick

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) Department of Botany, the United States Botanic Garden (USBG), and the Smithsonian Gardens held the 21^st Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “Advancing Plant Conservation Through Horticulture,” on May 17, 2024. The hybrid event brought together five engaging speakers who presented their research to both an in-person and a virtual audience from around the world. Scientists and horticulturalists from botanic gardens and conservation organizations spoke about how they maintain diverse and wild-collected ex situ plant collections, care for plants of concern in situ, provide plants for population augmentation and repopulation, and support conservation education and advocacy.

The symposium’s speakers participate in a panel discussion (from left): Abby Meyer, Dustin Wolkis, Colin Khoury, Jennifer Cruse-Sanders, and Carlos Magdalena. (photo by Ken Wurdack)

Eric Schuettpelz, NMNH Curator of Botany, welcomed the audience to the symposium. Rebecca Johnson, the CW Whitney Chief Scientist and Associate Director for Science at NMNH, highlighted the mission of the Smithsonian as well as the immense collections housed in the museum and especially the U.S. National Herbarium. She particularly gave praise to the work of digitizing all pressed specimens in the herbarium and the many benefits of having that data online. Susan Pell, USBG Executive Director, also provided opening remarks and gave an orientation to the USBG, including its history, a description of the living collections, their scientific research, and their scientific and conservation partnerships.

Rebecca Johnson, Associate Director for Science at NMNH (left), and Susan Pell, USBG Deputy Executive Director (right), deliver opening remarks welcoming everyone to the National Museum of Natural History. (photos by Ken Wurdack)

Art by Alice Tangerini: Asteraceae achenes

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 2, April 2024.

Many of the urgent identifications that botanists of the National Identification Services (NIS) perform are of Asteraceae achenes, as these are common contaminants of cargo shipments. The botanists must rule out the presence of a Federal Noxious Weed (FNW) species, and many of the designated FNWs are in Asteraceae. Illustrated here are Asteraceae achenes of (150) Bebbia juncea, (151) Tridax procumbens, (152) Dyscritothamnus filifolius, (153) Dimeresia howellii, (154-155) Coreopsis lanceolata, and (156) Bidens pilosa. In 1980, Alice Tangerini illustrated these achenes for Harold Robinson using a technique of polycarbonate pencils on drafting film. The depth of shading with the pencils defined the intricate ridges and hair types of the achenes and provided the best media for publication in Smithsonian Contributions to Botany, No. 51 (1981). She remembers the most laborious part of the illustration was cutting amberliths (silhouettes) around each achene to drop out the gray background—a process no longer necessary with current printing methods.

New faces

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 2, April 2024.

Karina Alves

Karina Alves, a 2023 Cuatrecasas Travel awardee, conducted research in the U.S. National Herbarium in March 2024. She is a Brazilian PhD student in Botany at the Postgraduate Program of Biological Sciences - Tropical Botany, of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi and the Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia in Pará, Brazil. Her thesis is focused on the Systematics and Evolution of Rhynchospora section Pauciflorae Kük. (Cyperaceae), a misunderstood group of sedges, unrevised since its creation in 1949, and enigmatic even among the Cyperaceae specialists. The U.S. National Herbarium houses a large collection made by the Flora of the Guianas project, one of the diversity centers for the species of section Pauciflorae, and the contributions of Mark Strong, one of the world's leading Rhynchospora scholars. The U.S. herbarium also has important collections from Australia and Asia, including types, where some species of the focused section occur. During her visit, Alves could consult ca. 400 specimens, describe new species, consult important type specimens for the group, and collect samples of leaf tissue for DNA extraction to perform with the phylogeny, especially from the Australasian specimens, that are not available for her research in Brazil. The studies will contribute to the comprehension of the diversity of section Pauciflorae, its evolutionary history, and the relationships with the other sections of Rhynchospora, one of the largest genera of Cyperaceae, with high diversity levels in the Neotropics.

Ian Medeiros

Ian Medeiros joined the Department of Botany as a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow in February 2024. He is working under the supervision of Eric Schuettpelz to investigate species boundaries in southern African Xanthoparmelia, the most speciose genus of lichen-forming fungi in the Greater Cape Floristic Region. Medeiros recently completed his PhD at Duke University under the supervision of François Lutzoni, which included work on the systematics of the fungal classes Lecanoromycetes and Eurotiomycetes and the green algal genus Trebouxia. He is broadly interested in the systematics, genomics, ecology, and biogeography of ascomycete fungi involved in symbioses with photosynthetic organisms—primarily lichens, but also fungal endophytes and bryophilous (moss- and liverwort-inhabiting) fungi.

Department of Botany travel award recipients announced

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 2, April 2024.

Named awards are presented annually to support the study of collections in the United States National Herbarium. This year, a total of eight awards were made. Each of the 2024 awardees will visit for approximately one month over the course of the next year.

Harold E. Robinson & Vicki A. Funk Award

Danielle Remor
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (Brazil)
Systematic studies in the Stilpnopappus alliance (Asteraceae: Vernonieae)

Fabiula Moreno Arantes
Uberlândia Federal University (Brazil)
Systematics and floral evolution of Wunderlichioideae, an endemic subfamily of South America

José Cuatrecasas Award

Ana Gabriela Martínez Becerril
National Autonomous University of Mexico
Unraveling the systematics of a tropical fern clade in the megadiverse genus Elaphoglossum (Dryopteridaceae)

Andrés Fonseca Cortés
Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (Brazil)
Systematics of Macropsychanthus (Leguminosae): phylogeny, biogeography and taxonomic revision

Atiles Reis Junior
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Systematics of the neotropical Diplazium cristatum complex

Rosa María Villanueva Espinoza
South China Botanical Garden
Taxonomy and phylogeny of the genus Justicia (Acanthaceae: Justicieae: Justiciinae) in Peru

Yeison Londoño Echeverri
University of Antioquia (Colombia)
Taxonomic synopsis of the family Rutaceae Juss. (Sapindales) in Colombia: diversity, endemism, new species, and conservation status

Lyman B. & Ruth C. Smith Award

María Fernanda Valencia Escalante
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Systematics of the "Sodiroa" group within Guzmania Ruiz & Pav. (Bromeliaceae: Tillandsioideae)

News from the Botany Research Greenhouse

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.

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.

New studies from ForestGEO emphasize the importance of biodiversity

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 2, April 2024.

Forest biodiversity seen in ForestGEO’s Huai Kha Khaeng Forest Dynamics Plot, western Thailand. (photo by Christian Ziegler)

In the past few months, ForestGEO published three papers in major science journals, each discussing the importance of biodiversity and how it impacts forest community structure and relationships. The Hülsmann, et al. (2024) paper in Nature (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07118-4) shows how trees perform better when they are surrounded by varied (rather than the same) species, especially in tropical forests, which highlights how critical it is to maintain a diverse species population. The Kalyuzhny, et al. (2023) paper in Science (https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adg7021) further supports this idea, describing how a tree is more likely to survive when surrounded by different species with different resource needs, diseases, and herbivores, leading to greater distances separating trees of the same species. This helps explain why tropical forests have such high diversity. Lastly, the Medina-Vega, et al. (2024) paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-023-02298-0) dives deeper into functional diversity by exploring how the distribution and abundance of ectomycorrhizal-associated trees are independent of soil quality. The three papers demonstrate why biodiversity is essential for a healthy forest.

Weniomeles, a new genus in the rose family named in honor of Jun Wen

From Plant Press, Vol. 27, No. 2, April 2024.

By Bin-Bin Liu and Richard G.J. Hodel.

A new genus, Weniomeles B.B.Liu, was recently described by former Botany fellow Bin-Bin Liu in honor of Smithsonian Botany Curator Jun Wen, in recognition of her substantial contributions to botany. The genus Weniomeles is in the apple tribe, Maleae, within the rose family, Rosaceae. Wen’s extensive dedication to research and promoting collaboration has significantly advanced the field of botany, particularly in fostering Sino-American scholarly exchange within the plant systematics community. The international scientific partnerships she has worked to establish have broadened our collective botanical knowledge. Her influence and mentorship have inspired many researchers, leaving a lasting legacy in the botanical sciences.

Morphological characteristics of Weniomeles (type species W. bodinieri) and comparison with its close relatives Stranvaesia and Photinia. I, Weniomeles bodinieri (photos by Bin-Jie Ge); (a-b) a complete and partial inflorescence; (c-d) top view of a single flower (unopen vs. open); (e) bottom view of young flower; (f) longitudinal-section of ovary; (g) stamens; (h) cross-section of ovary; (i) pistil; (j) flower dissection; (k-l) infructescence; (m) fruit; (n) cross-section of fruit. II, thorns on the stems of Weniomeles bodinieri (photo by Bin-Bin Liu). III, Stranvaesia lasiogyna (photo by Long-Yuan Wang). IV, Photinia serratifolia (photo by Xin-Xin Zhu).

This new genus was recently described in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2023.107914), in a collaborative paper by Ze-Tao Jin and Jun Wu of Nanjing Agricultural University, Richard G.J. Hodel of the Smithsonian Institution (Botany Department and Data Science Lab), Bin-Bin Liu, Dai-Kun Ma, and Chao Xu from the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hui Wang and Shui-Hu Jin from Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Guang-Ning Liu from China National Botanical Garden, Chen Ren from South China National Botanical Garden, Bin-Jie Ge from Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, and Qiang Fan from Sun Yat-sen University.

The new genus Weniomeles occupies a range from central and southern China to northern Vietnam and Indonesia. It is distinguished from other genera of the apple tribe by its purple-black fruits, thorny tree trunk and branches, and a distinctive fruit core anatomy characterized by multilocules separated by a layer of sclereids and a cluster of sclereids at the top of the locules.