The Plant Press

Behind-the-scenes video takes you inside the Botany Digitization Conveyor project [video]

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

A behind-the-scenes video of the Botany Digitization Conveyor project is now available on YouTube  where you can see the conveyor belt in action and hear about the workflows and processes that made the project such a success. After 6 years of digitizing the US National Herbarium, the digitization project is nearly complete. By January 2022, nearly 4 million catalog records of the herbarium’s botanical specimens will have been digitized, each with a high-resolution image. All flowering plants and ferns, lichens, bryophytes, and algae will be represented online (see the online collection portal). 

The behind-the-scenes video was featured during the “Biodiversity Digitization: A Decade of Success” (Biodiversity Digitization 2021 | iDigBio) virtual conference. Co-sponsored by the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), iDigBio, and GBiF, the two-day conference held on September 22 and 23 celebrated the collective successes of mobilization and efforts to digitize the world’s biodiversity data in the US and abroad. Participation by NMNH staff in the conference included six speakers and four virtual tours of the museum’s collections. Over 800 attendees pre-registered for this event.

The virtual conference provided both detailed looks at specific work being done in digitization, as well as a broad outlook on the meaning and significance of digitized collections. The themes for the two-day conference were innovations, community, grand challenges, what’s next, and looking to the future of digitization.

Other behind-the-scenes tours featured at the conference include those of the Entomology Collection, Molluscs Collection, and Cultural Objects. Each video is part of NMNH’s “Natural History for Scientists” YouTube channel.

A behind-the-scenes video of the Botany Digitization Conveyor project features Sylvia Orli and Victor Shields (Picturae) with an introduction by Eric Schuettpelz.

Research & Activities [Video]

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

On May 19, Research Associate John Wiersema presented a webinar entitled, “A Taxonomist’s View on the Essence of Waterlilies that Inspired Claude Monet,” to the membership of Marie Selby Botanical Garden in Sarasota, Florida. In this virtual botanical briefing, Wiersema asked, “What is it about the nature of waterlilies that provided the inspiration for Claude Monet’s gardens and so many of his impressionist paintings?” Wiersema’s webinar examined the role of waterlilies in the aquatic landscape, explored the relationships among the various forms of waterlilies throughout the world, and probed the aesthetic qualities that have made them the ultimate aquatic ornamental. He also spoke about the early history of waterlily hybridization in Europe in relation to the waterlilies available to Monet when Monet established his water garden in Giverny in the late 19th century, with a closer look at those that successfully established on Monet’s estate. Wiersema also finds an appreciation in the sheer beauty and serenity of pristine waterlily settings and a Monet impressionist rendering of it.

In John Wiersema's webinar, "A Taxonomist’s View on the Essence of Waterlilies that Inspired Claude Monet," Wiersema provides a chronology of Monet's paintings and looks closely at the botany behind the artist's inspiration.

Wiersema, a specialist on the taxonomy of the waterlily group, focuses his research on the waterlily genus Nymphaea. He has studied and collected these plants in both temperate and tropical countries on six continents, personally cultivating at least 60 such gatherings for direct observation over the last four decades, and examined thousands of global water lily herbarium specimens. He has discovered and described several new species and has participated in over 30 scientific publications on the group. Retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service after more than 30 years, he now serves as a Research Associate in the Botany Department of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Wiersema gained global standing as a specialist in plant nomenclature, and now has direct editorial involvement with both the botanical and cultivated plant codes of international nomenclature and the international journal Taxon. Over his professional career, he has contributed to some 125 scientific publications.

The presentation is available online at <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxlJQwp0N-U>.

New species of Gesneriaceae named after Funk [Video]

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

- Adapted from Nature India.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, India have discovered a new species of plant in Mizoram belonging to Gesneriaceae.

A newly discovered violet is named Didymocarpus vickifunkiae after American botanist Vicki Funk. (photo by N.S. Prasanna)

The discovery, they say, is the fruit of extensive fieldwork across northeast India and rigorous sifting through plant specimens in herbariums across the world.

The new plant species sheds some light on the unique evolutionary trajectory of flora in the northeastern parts of India. Such findings, the researchers say, are important in designing conservation approaches to protect the fragile ecosystems of northeast India.

Named after the late botanist Vicki Ann Funk from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), the plant (Didymocarpus vickifunkiae) is an endangered species that currently grows in three districts of Mizoram. It grows on moss-covered trees and blooms light pink flowers during the monsoons.

Demissew receives 18th Cuatrecasas Medal [Video]

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

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.

Sebsebe Demissew accepts the 18th José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany during the virtual 18th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium.

This year the 18^th José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany was presented to Sebsebe Demissew.

Professor Demissew earned a B.Sc. in 1977 and a M.S. in 1980 from Addis Ababa University, and his Ph.D. in 1985 from Uppsala University for research on Maytenus, a genus of Celastraceae in tropical Africa and Arabia. His doctoral training was sponsored during the early stages of the Ethiopian Flora Project and he later (from 1996 to its successful completion in 2009) provided leadership of the project involving 91 scientists from 17 countries. This 8-volume work covering 6000 species of ferns and flowering plants with 12 percent endemism, is one of the few finished African floras.

It takes two: A synopsis of a symposium about symbiosis [Video]

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

By Gary A. Krupnick

The 18^th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, co-hosted by the Smithsonian’s Department of Botany and the United States Botanic Garden, was held virtually over two days on May 13 and 14, 2021. The Symposium, “Plant symbiosis: The good, the bad, and the complicated,” was originally scheduled to take place in May 2020 at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, DC, but the coronavirus global pandemic pushed the symposium to 2021. The digital event this year successfully brought together six engaging speakers in a Zoom webinar setting to explore current research in the diversity of plant symbioses, examining the relationships plants have with insects, fungi, bacteria, and even other plants. Invited speakers included botanists, ecologists, microbiologists, and geneticists whose research unravels the complicated relationships that plants have with their collaborators and competitors in the natural world.

Rebecca Johnson delivers opening remarks and spoke about the museum’s strong relationship with the U.S. Botanic Garden and our shared mission to educate the public about plants.

Eric Schuettpelz, Chair of Botany at NMNH, welcomed the virtual audience to the symposium and Rebecca Johnson, Associate Director for Science and Chief Scientist at NMNH, provided opening remarks. Johnson spoke about our strong relationship with the U.S. Botanic Garden and talked about our shared mission to educate the public about plants and their importance to people and the environment. She celebrated the amazing progress that the Botany Department has made in fully digitizing the specimens in the U.S. National Herbarium and the benefits of those digitized specimens to the scientific community. Even though the museum’s doors have been closed, the research still goes on.

Kenneth Wurdack, NMNH Department of Botany, presented the annual José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany to Sebsebe Demissew from Gullele Botanic Garden and Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Demissew accepted the Cuatrecasas Medal from Africa. He expressed his gratitude and encouraged those viewing the symposium to initiate collaboration with Ethiopian botanists.

Sebsebe Demissew accepts the 18th José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany remotely from Ethiopia, Africa.

Summer explorations: Descubre la historia natural [Video]

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 4, October 2020.

Marcos Caraballo Ortiz teaches students how to draw different types of leaves during the five-day Spanish-language virtual program, ¡Descubre la historia natural!

In early August, scientists from the Departments of Botany, Vertebrate Zoology, and Mineral Sciences joined staff from across the museum to participate in ¡Descubre la historia natural!, the last of a three-week-long online Summer Explorations series hosted by the National Museum of Natural History’s Office of Education, Outreach, and Visitor Experience. The Spanish-language program attracted audiences from across North and South America, as well as participants from Europe. The five-day program was led by educators Odalys Lugo-Morales and Juan Pablo Hurtado Padilla. It featured Efrain Tejada (Museum Educator) and Chris Mooney (Insect Zoo) giving an introduction to the museum, Vanessa Gonzalez (Genomics Scientist) on genomics, Hurtado Padilla (Microscopy Educator) on electron microscopy, Adela Roa-Varon (Ichthyologist) discussing what makes a fish a fish, Marcos Caraballo Ortiz (Botanist) exploring the structure of fruits and seeds, and Gabriela Farfan (Mineralogist) on the art and science of creating gems. 

Pages from a student’s personal natural history field book created during the five-day Spanish-language virtual program, ¡Descubre la historia natural!

The program was recommended for students in grades 3-7, but was open to all ages. Science skills were taught through live webinars, recorded videos, and hands-on activities and projects. During the week, participants were encouraged to create their own personal natural history field books and they were invited to share their entries at the end of the program. All lessons have been archived and are available on the program’s website at <https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/natural-history-summer-explorations/descubre-la-historia-natural> and submissions from the participants can be seen at <https://spark.adobe.com/page/WeEqVWMAgvz1F/>.

Video after the jump...

SPNHC and ICOM NATHIST go virtual [VIDEO]

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

by C.L. Kelloff, M. Toner, and L. Palmer

The COVID-19 pandemic has made us rethink how we do business. Many of us are working at home and balancing family needs with work projects. Activities such as concerts, conferences, and all events where people congregate are cancelled or postponed. The joint meeting with the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) and International Committee for Museums and Collections of Natural History of the International Council of Museums (ICOM NATHIST) was scheduled to be held in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2020. Instead of cancelling, a group of committed SPNHC members including Liath Appleton, Andrew Bentley, Emily Braker, Mariana Di Giacomo, Phaedra Fang, Elspeth Haston, Shelley James, Talia Karim, Amanda Lawrence, Paul Mayer, Cindy Opitz, Rebecca Newberry, Deborah Paul, Christel Schollaardt, Barbara Thiers, Debra Trock, Dorit Wolenitz, and Breda Zimkus created a meeting that took place in the digital world. Special thanks to all.

SPNHC and ICOM NATHIST hosted the virtual meeting on 8-12 June 2020 using the Zoom video conferencing platform. The conference was free to members and offered online events to foster conversations across the joint worldwide communities, included a plenary session, symposia, presentations as well as 5-minute specimen spotlights. Total attendance was just under 2,000 participants. Business and committee meetings for the two societies were held via Zoom, allowing members to attend and participate from across the world. Zoom allows for participates to chat with one another during the conference and this allowed for lively real time discussions. With two time-blocks established for the sessions to ensure that the meeting was as globally inclusive as possible, it was deemed a success with the average number of attendees per session well over 200.

Video after the jump...

Earth Optimism Digital Summit gives hope [Video]

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

The Earth Optimism Summit, hosted by the Smithsonian Institution, was originally scheduled to take place in Washington, DC, with concurrent sister events around the world, on April 22-26, 2020, to coincide with the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day. In response to the coronavirus global pandemic, the Summit was moved to a digital event on those days, and it successfully showcased stories of both small and large-scale actions, framing the conversation and demonstrating that success is possible.

The Earth Optimism Digital Summit launched with a film night on Earth Day, April 22, and then continued April 23 and 24. A live broadcast with formal programming online on Facebook Live, Twitter, YouTube and on the Earth Optimism website attracted viewers from around the world, and the digital summit was rebroadcasted through that weekend. More than 100 global leaders shared successful conservation and sustainability strategies being deployed worldwide, and discussed how to scale and mainstream these strategies to achieve transformative change.

Video after the jump...

Children are learning how to press plants at home [Video]

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 3, July 2020.

During the current COVID-19 pandemic, teachers and parents have been looking for creative ways for their children to connect with nature and learn about science. Museum Specialist Erika Gardner and members of the Office of Education & Outreach at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) have recently produced a set of videos, articles, and webinars to teach, inspire, and guide children and adults on the joy and creative process of pressing plants. These activities allow individuals to connect with, learn about, and document the plants growing in their own yards.

The team made a video on how to build your own plant press, which was uploaded to NMNH’s Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube accounts. Smithsonian Voices also published an article, “How to Press Plants from Your Backyard,” which was uploaded to the Smithsonian Magazine webpage. The step-by-step instructions include a list of materials and the processes of assembling a press, drying the plants, and removing the pressed plants. The activity is designed for both younger and older children, and adults can get in on the fun as well.

Several families sent photos of their homemade plant presses to the museum’s Department of Education & Outreach.

Once the plants are dried and pressed, creative activities come into play. In a June 13 video webinar for families, Gardner showed families how to use pressed plants for art projects like greeting cards and bookmarks, and she shared best practices for keeping one’s own pressed plant collections.

Video after the jump...

Vicki Ann Funk, influential Smithsonian botanist, dies at 71

From Plant Press, Vol. 23, No. 1, January 2020.

By friends and colleagues, Department of Botany

Vicki Funk was a Senior Research Botanist and Curator at the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany. She was a world expert on the taxonomy and biogeography of the sunflower family, Compositae, which is the largest family of flowering plants with more than 27,000 species. During her distinguished career, Vicki achieved preeminence in the fields of plant systematics, phylogenetic methods, biogeography, and biodiversity conservation. Vicki’s global research, innovative ideas, and passion for mentoring have had a strong influence on the direction of botanical research and the career development of many colleagues, students and collaborators, both nationally and internationally. Following treatment for an aggressive cancer, Vicki died at her home in Arlington, Virginia on 22 October 2019.

Vicki Funk collecting plants on Volcano Tacna, Chile in 2014. (photo by Mauricio Diazgranados)

Throughout her career, Vicki sustained an outstanding level of productivity, authoring more than 320 peer-reviewed publications and serving as an editor/author of nine collaborative books. The spectacular book Systematics, Evolution, and Biogeography of the Compositae (2009) will be a long-lasting testament to her legacy and impact on the field of plant biology. This nearly 1,000-page collaboration brought together essentially all of the world’s experts and, in an award-winning standardized format, elaborated the evolution and classification of each genus across the entire family. The book is the most authoritative reference for the largest family of plants.

Vicki not only published extensively on the Compositae, but also was responsible for organizing major collaborative projects that generated a range of ground-breaking studies on the systematics and evolution of this large, diverse, ecologically important and taxonomically difficult family. As early as 1980, she was instrumental in pioneering the use and development of modern phylogenetic methods (cladistics) in systematic botany and indeed across biology overall. As well, she recurrently participated in or organized research symposia which generated three seminal works (Funk and Brooks 1981, Advances in cladistics: Proceedings of the first meeting of the Willi Hennig Society; Platnick and Funk 1983, Advances in cladistics: Proceedings of the second meeting of the Willi Hennig Society; Wagner and Funk 1995, Hawaiian Biogeography: Evolution on a hot spot Archipelago). These volumes hastened an avalanche of new analyses on phylogenetics, biogeography and study of island evolution.