The Plant Press

Three Botany staff members retire

From Plant Press, Vol. 26, No. 1, January 2023.

Botany gathered in-person on December 15th to say thanks and farewell to three long standing members of our department. Together, Bernadette Gibbons, Stan Yankowski, and Liz Zimmer have more than 110 years in service to the Smithsonian Institution. Several former fellows and interns joined us in celebrating their impact.

At a Department of Botany retirement party on 15 December 2022, Bernadette Gibbons (left), Stan Yankowski (middle), and Liz Zimmer (right) each receiving a gift from Botany staff in appreciation and celebration of their service to the Smithsonian. (photos by Shruti Dube)

Bernadette Gibbons joined the department as a Secretary in October 1994. For 28 years she was a constant presence in the front office, carrying out an ever-evolving list of administrative functions. She showed incredible dedication in helping not only staff, but also contractors and visitors in navigating the museum and departmental systems. Gibbons further served as a copyeditor for The Plant Press since 2011.

Stan Yankowski joined the department in November 1972 as a Museum Specialist. He jumped right into plant anatomy and was long responsible for the oversight of the anatomy lab in the Department of Botany. He also managed our vast wood collection and was responsible for many aspects of departmental safety. Over the past 50 years, he trained and assisted a huge number of researchers with plant anatomy techniques and has left some big shoes to fill.

Liz Zimmer joined the Smithsonian in June 1990. She was recruited by the National Museum of Natural History to bridge the Department of Botany and the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics at the Museum Support Center, but she later transitioned to the museum. As one of the pioneers in DNA-based molecular phylogenetics, she played a critical role in bringing the department and the museum into the molecular era. She has been honored with the Dobzhansky Prize, conferred by Society for the Study of Evolution (1982), a Radcliffe Fellowship, conferred by Harvard University (2004–2005), an NSF Visiting Fellowship for Women (1993–1995), and a Smithsonian Scholarly Studies Award (2020). She has served as the Editor-in-Chief for the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution since 2018. Her collaborative spirit has had an outsized impact on students, interns, fellows, and staff over the past 32 years.

Botany is grateful to Bernadette, Stan, and Liz for their service to the department, the museum, and the greater scientific community. They are a testament to the great things that can be accomplished in working together. We wish them all the best in retirement.

Staff activities

From Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 4, October 2022.

On September 7, John Kress gave an invited presentation, “Biodiversity exploration, species discovery, and new technologies: Plant humanities in a rapidly changing world,” at the Plant Humanities Conference at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. The conference explored the deep, complex, and asymmetrical relationship between plants and people. Plants are indispensable to our bodily needs­—food, shelter, clothing, medicine—and weave themselves into our experience through ritual, religion, and art. Yet anthropogenic change threatens two out of five plant species with extinction. These pressing environmental challenges make an urgent call for a new dialogue between the humanities and science to point us to vital future directions for scholarship and action. Kress’ presentation was one of three during a panel on the environment and biodiversity. The 3-day event was open to the public and livestreamed.

On August 22, 2022, Alice Tangerini gave a lecture, “Botanical Illustration, Then and Now,” to the Nantucket Conservation Foundation of Massachusetts. She covered a brief history of botanical illustration leading up to present and showing images from the collection of the NMNH Department of Botany. She presented a summary of collecting plants for the herbarium and the drawing process. The audience included gardeners, artists, and architects. After Tangerini explained the use of architectural tools in scientific illustration, one of the architects in attendance offered Tangerini her tools of the trade since she had retired and was looking for an interested party to take them. The next day the architect bicycled to the home where Tangerini was staying and delivered a bag of a variety of leads and holders which Tangerini very much appreciated.

“Our Places” explores connections to nature

From Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 3, July 2022.

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) opened its latest exhibition, “Our Places: Connecting People & Nature,” on July 1, 2022. “Our Places” explores how people form connections to the natural world through the places we live, work, study, and visit. Everyone is shaped by and are shaping their connections to the natural world. Through the exhibit and its accompanying programming, the museum hopes to inspire visitors to identify their special places in nature, reflect on their connections with them, and become more caring about them. Personal stories from Smithsonian scientists, including Jun Wen and Gary Krupnick from the Department of Botany, highlight how their connections with places inspire and enrich their own work.

“Our Places” is an experimental venue for exploring questions to help NMNH better understand museum visitors (how they conceptualize nature, connect with nature and others, and reflect upon these connections), and how different interpretive approaches engage museum visitors and enhance their experience. As such, “Our Places” will be successful if the museum learns something about its visitors and the interpretive approaches that can be used in developing future projects. Museum staff and interns populate the exhibit to interact with visitors, ask for their reactions to what they see, and encourage them to leave behind messages about their own special places. The exhibit intentionally has a “work in progress” look and feel because it will change over time in response to what is learned and as new stories are featured.

The new exhibition, “Our Places: Connecting People & Nature,” explores how people form connections to the natural world through the places we live, work, study, and visit. The exhibit and the online StoryMap features personal stories from Smithsonian scientists, including a story by Botanist Jun Wen.

Where is your special place? The exhibit features an online StoryMap which invites participants to share your special places. You can explore and share stories of connection and inspiration from the comfort of your home, classroom, or cellphone at https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/8237f22e8e52462b83514f21c436928d.

The exhibition will be on view through July 2024.

Departures

From Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 2, April 2022.

John Boggan, Botanical Type Register Manager for the US Herbarium, retired at the end of March 2022. Boggan began his career in the Department of Botany in 1991 as a contractor for the Biological Diversity of the Guianas program, working with Vicki Funk and Carol Kelloff as their data manager. He then went on to become a research assistant for Larry Skog and co-authored several papers on Gesneriaceae, and also worked for Jun Wen.

He became the Type Register Manager in 2003 and was responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the Type collection, which currently numbers around 115,000 botanical Type specimens. He also managed the Botanical Type Specimen Register and added approximately 500-1000 new Type records per year to Botany’s data catalog, making the US Herbarium Type Register one of the finest and most complete in the world. Before retirement, Boggan rearranged the Type Herbarium to reflect the APG IV (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group) conversion ongoing in the general herbarium. Boggan was particularly good at finding a Type designation from a few clues on a specimen, and he was amazing at reading bad handwriting on labels. We will miss his talents and dedication to the collection.

Women support staff of the US National Herbarium 2022

From Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 2, April 2022.

Historically women have had a heavy presence in museum work most notably in illustration, research assistance, and collection management. More recently collections work has expanded to include digitization, outreach, administration, and library and information resourcing, as well as fulfilling everyday department tasks. Today, women comprise 67% of the support staff in the Department of Botany, while holding only 25% of the curatorial positions. During National Women's History month, we highlight the women support staff of the US National Herbarium.

A remembrance of Bill Stern

From Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 1, January 2022.

Illustration of tulip (Tulipa) by Alice Tangerini, for Bill Stern's textbook, Humanistic Botany.

My first acquaintance with Bill Stern came through Edward Ayensu, the Chairman of Botany back in the 1970s. Dr. Stern was looking for an illustrator for his book, Humanistic Botany, which he co-authored with Oswald Tippo. Dr. Ayensu introduced us. In 1975 I had only been a Botany staff member for 3 years, but Bill arranged for me to take on the job as illustrator for the book although I was a complete novice at academic university books. Bill would joke around about topics in botany, and he showed his sense of humor when he allowed me to illustrate the “Names and Naming Chapter” of the book with a horse wallowing among Equisetum culms. It was a learning experience which ended up improving my drawing skills as I had deadlines to meet. Bill always demonstrated his patience with me and encouraged me when I was questioning my ability to finish. We had the most fun going up to New York one weekend to meet the publishers, stopping at the Howard Johnson’s, and going to Carnegie Deli. I will always remember Bill as having a hidden humorous side behind the occasional serious exterior.

- Alice Tangerini

William (Bill) Louis Stern (1926-2021)

From Plant Press, Vol. 25, No. 1, January 2022.

William (Bill) Stern joined the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany in 1960 as the first Curator in the Division of Woods, a newly formed division that soon merged with the Division of Plant Anatomy. He was recruited by the Smithsonian from Yale University where he had been an instructor in the School of Forestry. “Instructor” may be a misnomer since it does not adequately convey the full breadth of his activities at Yale. He taught courses in wood anatomy and identification, tropical forestry, and plant microtechnique; edited the journal Tropical Woods; curated what was at the time the world’s largest collection of wood (the Samuel J. Record Memorial Collection); and conducted research in wood anatomy as it related to angiosperm phylogeny. Also, while at Yale, he made two field trips to the Darien of Panama in 1957 and 1959.

William (Bill) Stern (photograph courtesy of The Washington Biologists’ Field Club)

A significant consequence of Stern coming to the Smithsonian was the concomitant acquisition of "The Archie F. Wilson Wood Collection." While studying for his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, Stern had become acquainted with Wilson (1903-1960), a businessman, research associate of the Field Museum, and principal in the International Wood Collectors Society (IWCS). Wilson’s collection of 4637 wood specimens and its supporting library were arguably the finest private collection of wood and associated library in the world. The friendship and overlapping interests of Stern and Wilson resulted in Wilson's gift to the Smithsonian, at his death in 1960, of his extensive collection. This gift made the Department of Botany’s wood collection the second largest in the U.S.A. and vastly improved its supporting library, now intercalated into the Botany and Horticulture Library. The Wilson wood collection remains the largest single donation from a private collector to our wood collection, which now holds more than 43,000 specimens and ranks among the largest and most significant such resources in the world.

Botany grieves the loss of two cherished plant mounting volunteers

From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 2021.

Rosalie “Roz” Elliott, age 76, a beloved plant mounting volunteer from New York, passed away on August 9, 2021. Elliott had been battling several health issues since 2018. She had to take a break from volunteering, and members of the Botany Department were hoping to see her back in the specimen preparation room when she regained her health. Tragically she was unable to recover from her complications. Botany is deeply saddened to lose such a wonderful, sweet, and cheery person who always had a warm smile and charming story to share. She lived every day to the fullest and she loved quilting and, most of all, her granddaughter and family. Elliott was always scouring the gift shop for her granddaughter and she loved showing off the treasures she had found. Elliott was a talented quilter; she was always eager to share her knowledge about sewing. One time Elliott took Melinda Peters, former Plant Mounter Supervisor, under her wing and offered one-on-one sewing instructions at her home. She was so generous with her time and knowledge. She will be deeply missed, and Botany will always cherish her sweet demeanor and kind spirit.

Kathleen “Kathy” Ann Kowalczyk, age 74, a beloved plant mounting volunteer from Chicago, passed away on August 3, 2021. The best way to describe Kowalczyk in one word would be a “firecracker”! Kowalczyk was a force to be reckoned with. She was boisterous, outspoken, and fierce. She was very passionate about her family, crafts, and politics. Kowalczyk loved to learn about everything under the sun, from history and art, to sports and science. She was a big fan of Carl Linnaeus; so much so, she made a special binder dedicated to interesting facts about him. Kowalczyk loved sports and she especially loved the sports teams from DC and Chicago. Kowalczyk was the life of the party, she always found a reason to celebrate no matter how large or small the achievement. She always remembered everyone’s birthdays and during the holidays she would pass out little special handmade gifts. Kowalczyk was everyone’s mom. She could be often overheard offering advice, usually unsolicited, but she would tell you exactly how she saw things—whether you liked what she had to say or not. She always stood firm on her positions and if you didn’t agree with her, she would listen but never waver from her standpoint. The Botany Department will especially miss her spunky and fiery spirit, but we will continue to celebrate life’s little achievements because that is what she would want us to do in her memory.

Spotlight interview: ForestGEO’s David Kenfack

From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 4, October 2021.

David Kenfack has been involved with the Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) network since 1996 when he began as Field Manager for the Korup, Cameroon Forest Dynamics Plot (FDP). Since 2010 he has been coordinating the ForestGEO Africa Program, and he is currently a co-Principal Investigator of the Korup (Cameroon), Mpala (Kenya), and Ngel Nyaki (Nigeria) FDPs. In 2020 he was elected as a Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. Kenfack’s office is located in the Department of Botany of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. When he’s not discovering and describing new species, he enjoys playing drums and guitar, as well as promoting his traditional culture through Lemou Bafou USA.

David Kenfack studying Grewia flowers at Mpala Forest Dynamics Plot

When did you realize you wanted to be a scientist/work in forest ecology? How did you decide to go down this career path?

I grew up in Bafou, one of the most prosperous villages located in the highlands of the western region of Cameroon. As the son of hardworking farmers, I spent most of my childhood practicing mixed farming in coffee plantations, pruning trees that made live hedges on our properties, and extracting raffia palm wine from the stems of the swampy valley’s monodominant Raphia hookeri. I was therefore very close to nature early in my life, and by the time that I completed high school and moved to the University of Yaoundé, I could easily name most of what remained of the plant and animal diversity in my village. With this background, I didn’t hesitate to choose biology over other disciplines at the university. After my BSc in botany, I carried out a botanical inventory of a small hill in the vicinity of Yaoundé for my “Maitrise Ès Science” and later worked on the revision of the genus Striga for my “Doctorat 3^ème Cycle.” Pursuing a career in forest ecology and botany, therefore, became obvious for me, not only because it involved being close to nature, but also lots of travel, another one of my passions.

What led you down the path to your current job? What has been your biggest challenge in getting to this point in your career?

The short answer will be “luck”. A few months after graduation from the University of Yaoundé, I got a position with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Yaoundé to carry out botanical inventories in southeast Cameroon. Unfortunately, only two months later, the entire program closed because of a disagreement with the government of Cameroon, and I was jobless.

In the process of closing the program, my boss advised me to accompany a consultant named Duncan W. Thomas (currently one of the PI’s of the Korup plot) to carry out a biodiversity assessment of the Tchabal Mbabo in northern Cameroon. I accepted the offer and spent three weeks collecting and documenting the flora of this beautiful mountain. What I didn’t know was that this was in fact an interview. Prior to our departure from Yaoundé, the consultant informed my (WCS) boss that he was looking into recruiting a young biologist for a long-term monitoring program in Korup National Park. When we returned to Yaoundé, Dr. Thomas told me about the 50-ha plot program, and a few months later, in August 1996, I was recruited as Field Manager of the Korup Forest Dynamics Plot.

After completion of the first census of the plot, I took on the positions of Herbarium Curator at the Limbe Botanical Garden, and then, later, Botanist at WWF-Cameroon, while still managing the KFDP field program and attending CTFS [Center for Tropical for Forest Science, now ForestGEO] workshops.

In 2002, I obtained a scholarship for my PhD at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, and later a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. Throughout this time I continued to be involved with CTFS and the KFDP. In 2010, I officially joined the network as postdoctoral fellow and CTFS Africa Program Coordinator, based at the Harvard University. In 2012 I became a STRI Staff Scientist.

Memorial held for Harold Robinson

From Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 3, July 2021.

Harold Ernest Robinson, PhD, born in 1932 in Syracuse, NY, and raised in Winchester, VA, passed away on December 17, 2020, at the age of 88. His ashes were interred on Saturday 26 June 2021 at Mount Hebron Cemetery, Winchester, Virginia, in the family plot next to his mother Mabel, along with his father Ernest, and brother William. His brother Charles Robinson’s ashes, who passed away earlier, were also interred alongside Harold according to Harold’s request.

The cover of the 4-page program provided to guests who attended Harold Robinson’s memorial on June 26, 2021.

He was the youngest child and last surviving member of his generation of the Robinsons of Winchester, believed to be descended from a British soldier captured in the battle of Saratoga in the Revolutionary War, when the Shenandoah Valley was used as a prisoner of war camp.

Harold’s niece, Micki Robinson (St. Petersburg, FL) is a minister and presided over the gathering. Although Harold never married, he had 10 nephews and nieces. All eight of the surviving nieces and nephews attended the memorial along with their spouses and children. Other attendees included staff and affiliates from the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH): Carol Kelloff, Mark Strong, Warren Wagner, Lucy Julian, Larry Dorr, Lisa Dorr, Alice Tangerini, and Ken Wurdack. Phil Recchio (NMNH Development) also attended.

The program was not formal and followed a Quaker style service, requested by Harold, where attendees spoke when they felt moved to speak, sharing remembrances or thoughts about the person, a poem or music. Several of the family spoke about recollections of Harold when they were young, especially that as a babysitter for some of them, he wove fantastic tales which included the most outrageous plants and insects, as well as bizarre human behavior, utilizing Captain Crunch as the leader of these sagas of exploratory expeditions. Harold’s niece, Maggie Robinson (Yarmouth, ME), who is an experienced fiddle player played a beautiful solo of “Ashokan Farewell” written by Jay Ungar (inspired by the Catskill Mountains but made famous from use in Ken Burns Civil War PBS series). Several staff from the NMNH Department of Botany (Dorr, Wagner, Tangerini, and Kelloff) all spoke about interactions with Harold over the many years of working together in the department and about his unique approach to research, in which his theories often had been discounted, but ultimately proved amazingly perceptive in the past couple of decades after molecular phylogenetics proved his micromorphological approach to be correct (for a deeper dive into his research, see Taxon 70: 690-698; 2021 https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12524).

Another part of a Quaker memorial is a space where photographs, awards/citations/certificates, and personal mementos can be shown and appreciated, as people are arriving or after the service itself. After Harold’s memorial at the cemetery nearly everyone went to a lunch at a nearby hotel restaurant where many of Harold’s drawings, collection of toy soldiers and writings, including an unpublished novel were displayed.

- Compiled by Warren Wagner and from memorial program by Frank Vuitch, MD (Dallas, TX)

Harold Robinson’s teenage drawings of fictional plants include highly exaggerated dates into the future. Left: “Symbioticus ventilis”: Symbiotic fern. Spores carry spores of fungi and both germinate together.  Fern gametophyte furnishes food while fungus furnishes moisture.  Fern sporophyte continues to harbor fungus at base of plant. Fungus unable to grow on glabrous petioles of sterile leaves but easily grows on pubescent petiole of sporophyll. Fungus fruits on sporophyll in contact with fern spores and both are released together. 22,000,000 A.D. Right: “Toxis potentis”: Oxidation chamber inside of trunk vaporizes the poisonous excretions of the leaves and returns them to the leaves from which they enter the air. Exceedingly dangerous gases. 22,000,000 A.D.