Department of Botany & the U.S. National Herbarium The Plant Press
New Series - Vol. 21 - No. 2 April-June 2018 Botany Profile Using Big Data to Ask Big Questions: Why Are There So Many (Damn) Daisies? By Robert Edwards or those who have had Saturday scape with plenty of previously unoccu- OpenRefine, ArcMap, and Biodiverse. afternoons in the field happily key- pied niches. The Compositae are particular Collection records were collated from Fing out wildflowers rudely stymied adept at colonizing a vast array of niches, the three largest publically available by yet another Damn Yellow Comp, the including those generally considered envi- databases for North American biologi- question “why are there so many dai- ronmentally challenging and apparently cal specimen data—GBIF, iDigBio, and sies?!” may have sprung to mind (possi- inhospitable to many other plant groups, BISON. While much is shared between bly not quite so politely). An answer: that and during this time underwent several these repositories they are not entirely the environment plays a primary role in large and relatively rapid radiations. As overlapping and the quality of data can driving the generation and distribution of such they make a perfect group for using vary markedly between them. In fact, plant diversity and community composi- Big Data to test whether extremes in the decision to use all three despite high tion, will have occurred to many, and is particular environmental factors may be redundancy allowed us to: a) scrape all hardly a novel concept. Yet due to a lack responsible for driving species diversity possible data available at the time; and of data at sufficiently broad scales our at large scales. My colleagues and I have b) cross-reference between supposedly ability to identify continent-wide patterns chosen 14 tribes within the Compositae duplicate data from all three servers to and fundamental relationships between with predominantly North American dis- identify issues or errors. Curation of the ecology and diversity has until recently tributions to study, allowing us to compare data behind-the-scenes can be rather been limited to mostly descriptive work and contrast patterns across lineages. opaque and this approach allowed us to or studies of small numbers of taxa. The greatest challenge facing the identify and compare different taxono- Within the last decade however, advanc- harnessing of large and agglomerated mies between databases (or even within ing computer power and storage, coupled data-sets is assessing and dealing with a database) including outing an over- with museum digitization initiatives, has (often poor) data quality. The time con- zealous GBIF synonymization algorithm begun to open up huge repositories of sumed cleaning data is almost always that was merging related taxa with the data to research that can be used to start underestimated, and while there are as-is same generic first letter, species name, tackling questions on a grander scale. statistical analysis packages that aim to and author initial (eg. Helianthus atro- Almost one in ten flowering plants tie many common tasks together in a rubens L. with Hebeclinium atrorubens on the North American continent is from relatively accessible way (see various R Lemaire). the daisy family (Compositae) with packages – a programming language for An initial data-dump of close to unusually high diversity in southwestern statistical computing and graphics), these 2 million records was reduced by United States and northern Mexico; how- never cover all contingencies, with dif- three quarters before analysis. Many ever, the exact origins of this diversity ferent issues unique to every dataset and removed records were straight dupli- remain unclear. It has been proposed that question. cates; however, a surprising number a cooling and drying trend since the mid- were para-duplicates – records with Eocene has allowed smaller herbaceous or our work we engineered a data small inconsequential differences such plants to thrive at the expense of woodier acquisition, cleaning, and analysis as differently rounded geo-coordinates, species, with more recent shuffling and Fpipeline using a variety of com- present or absent collector initials, etc. mosaicism of communities during glacial puter programs, including R, Excel (still The remaining records were scrubbed for ups-and-downs over the last 25,000 years one of the most useful tools for screen- weeds, garden-grown collections, gross ing, merging, and wrangling data), exposing a highly heterogeneous land- Continued on page 12 Travel Gabriel Arellano traveled to Puerto Warhol and Hibiscus,” at the Marie Selby polyploid Isoetes revealed with PacBio Rico (1/11 – 2/14) to assess the damage of Botanic Garden, and to meet with the DNA sequencing” and “The Isoetes flac- Hurricane Maria at the El Verde Research scientific staff and conduct herbarium cida complex in the southeastern United Station in El Yunque National Forest. research. States: unrecognized species diversity in Marcos Caraballo travelled to Mexico Ashley Egan traveled to Provo, Utah southern Georgia and northern Florida” at (2/12 – 2/28) to attend an IUCN meeting (3/15 – 3/30) to visit Utah herbaria for the the Association of Southeastern Biologists on Agave, to visit the MEXU herbarium, Flora of North America treatment. annual meeting. and to collect samples of mistletoes; and David Kenfack traveled to Kenya Laurence Skog traveled to Sarasota, to the Cayman Islands (3/14 – 3/19) to (3/3 – 3/27) to initiate the re-census of the Florida (1/22 – 1/25) to continue his collect samples of mistletoes and other Mpala ForestGEO plot. research on Gesneriaceae for Flora Meso- parasitic plants. W. John Kress traveled to London, americana at the Marie Selby Botanical Stuart Davies traveled to Panama England (1/28 – 2/1) to present an invited Gardens. (2/20 – 3/3) to attend the annual fellow- lecture on the Earth BioGenome Project at Robert Soreng traveled to Colom- ship symposium at the Smithsonian Tropi- the Wellcome Trust Workshop on Bio- bia (2/3 – 3/8) to teach a 4-day class on cal Research Institute with Lauren Krizel diversity Genomics; to New York, New grass identification at the Universidad and David Kenfack, and to meet with Mi York (2/16 – 2/18) to attend the national Pedogógica y Tecnológica de Colombia in Ambiente to discuss a new plot in Camino meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Tunja with Steven Sylvester from Royal de Cruces National Park in Panama; and Association to participate in a panel dis- Botanic Gardens Kew, visit COL, FMB, to Singapore (3/10 – 3/31) to teach a forest cussion entitled, “Our Plant/Ourselves”; HUA, JAUM, MEDEL herbaria in prepa- ecology course at the Asian School of the and to San Jose, Costa Rica (3/5 – 3/12) ration for a revision of the genus Poa for Environment – Nanyang Technological to participate in the annual meeting of the the country, and visit three paramo vegeta- University (ASE-NTU), co-organize a Assembly of Delegates of the Organiza- tion sites, finally joining a Royal Botanic workshop on forest ecology, and meet col- tion for Tropical Studies (OTS) as the Gardens Kew/Instituto de Investigación leagues at ASE-NTU to promote Smithso- Smithsonian representative and the OTS de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von nian-NTU partnership. Board of Directors meeting as Chair. Humboldt expedition to collect grasses Laurence Dorr traveled to Sarasota, Gary Krupnick traveled to Edgewater, in the paramos above Chiscas, Boyaca, Florida (3/13 – 3/16) to present an invited Maryland (3/14 – 3/16) to participate in a with the expedition and grass course being lecture, “Variations on a theme: Andy retreat of the Working Land and Seascapes sponsored by the Newton Fund. program of the Smithsonian Conservation Warren Wagner traveled to Chicago, The Plant Press Commons at the Smithsonian Environ- Illinois (3/18 – 3/21) to participate as mental Research Center. a collaborator in a meeting of the NSF New Series - Vol. 21 - No. 2 Marcelo Pace traveled to Costa Rica Dimensions of Biodiversity grant to the Chair of Botany (2/3 – 2/10) to collect plants at the La Chicago Botanic Garden on plant family Laurence J. Dorr Selva Reserve. Onagraceae; to Irvine, California (3/23 ([email protected]) Melinda Peters traveled to Raleigh, – 3/29) to participate in an NSF-funded North Carolina (1/25 – 1/26) to pick up a team meeting on the endemic Hawaiian EDITORIAL STAFF specimen of coco-de-mer (Lodoicea mal- plant lineage Schiedea at the University of divica) that was on display at the North California at Irvine; and to Kauai, Hawaii Editor Carolina Botanical Garden; and to Fre- (3/29 – 4/18) to attend the National Tropi- Gary Krupnick ([email protected]) mont, North Carolina (1/26 – 1/27) to train cal Botanical Garden board meeting and and deliver specimens to staff mounter to collaborate on a research project on the Copy Editors Annie Johnson. flora of the Marquesas Islands. Robin Everly, Bernadette Gibbons, and Peter Schafran traveled to Myrtle Kenneth Wurdack traveled to St. Rose Gulledge Beach, South Carolina (3/28 – 3/31) to Louis, Missouri (3/15 – 3/19) to conduct The Plant Press is a quarterly publication pro- present a paper and a poster co-authored herbarium research at the Missouri Botani- vided free of charge. To receive notification of with Elizabeth Zimmer and Carl Taylor cal Garden. when new pdf issues are posted to the web, please subscribe to the listserve by sending a message titled, “Unexpected genetic diversity in to [email protected] containing only the following in the body of the text: SUBSCRIBE Visitors PLANTPRESS-NEWS Firstname Lastname. Replace “Firstname Lastname” with your name. Xu Su, Qinghai University, China; Trit- Caroline Andrino, Universidade de São If you would like to be added to the hard-copy iceae (Poaceae) (12/31/16-3/1/18). Paulo, Brazil; Paepalanthus (Eriocaul- mailing list, please contact Dr. Gary Krupnick at: Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution, aceae) (12/5/17-1/5/18). PO Box 37012, NMNH MRC-166, Washington, Yuan Xu, South China Botanic Garden, DC 20013-7012, or by E-mail: krupnickg@ China; Androsace (Primulaceae) (4/1/17- Steven Sylvester, Royal Botanic Gardens si.edu. 3/31/18). Kew, United Kingdom; Poaceae (12/11/17 Web site: http://botany.si.edu/ - 1/10/18). Continued on page 5 Page 2 What’s Going On Chair s much as I enjoy writing, I know I would as more than physical curation or herbarium man- never make it as a newspaper columnist. I have agement and we are beginning to see the potential trouble meeting deadlines. I wait for inspira- for applying machine learning to large digital A datasets to answer more compelling evolutionary tion or for a clever hook. Then the words flow rela- With tively easily through a dozen or more drafts. If neither questions. To this end, we were pleased to receive inspiration nor metaphorical fishing tackle save me, support from both OCIO and the Institution’s then I struggle. I have written a fair number of these Scholarly Studies program to recruit a two-year columns, some confessional and others sermon-like. A post-doctoral student who begins this September A few I knowingly structured as telegraphed messages: I and who will tackle some very interesting questions laid out what I planned to do as chair to make a select about the distribution of morphological characters few employees understand what I wanted to accom- and plant family discrimination. It is also, as best View plish. I have discarded almost as many drafts of this we can tell, the first joint OCIO-NMNH postdoc- column as I have completed. I have an extensive folder toral fellowship. of scrunched up and discarded word processing docu- With all our moving and shaking it only seemed ments, the electronic equivalent of paper balls tossed logical to initiate a series of interrelated projects toward the trash can. to update our filing systems to reflect current ideas L.J. The activities of the department are something that about phylogenetic relationships. The Pterido- Dorr I have not devoted much time to describing in these phytes were reorganized when they were prepared columns. For this, I am perhaps remiss. We have been for digitization, and are now organized according busy the last few years and we have devoted enormous to the recently published Pteridophyte Phylogeny resources (planning, staff time, and money) to improv- Group (PPG I, 2016) scheme. We have begun to ing the U.S. National Herbarium. I hope the results are reorganize the Angiosperms according to the most beginning to be visible. To begin with, there has been recent Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG IV, a physical overhaul of the herbarium. We converted 2016) scheme. This is a little more challenging: our four compactor-bays from electrical to mechanical the Angiosperm collection is much larger than the assist controls. We have gone from endless malfunc- Pteridophyte one and it is on three separate floors tions to almost none, and some of us are getting more of the herbarium rather than one. There will be a lot exercise in the bargain. We have added over 200 new of shifting. A related and ongoing project to curate herbarium cabinets, many of them replacements for the grass herbarium, reorganizing its filing scheme older substandard wooden cabinets and yet others con- and replacing and standardizing the folders, has structed to address the needs of special collections such helped make a huge dent in the reorganization of the as our bulky bamboos. These new cases permit some Angiosperms. This past week we also received sup- expansion but more importantly allow decompression port to reorganize our Bryophyte collection, which of sections of the herbarium where specimens now are we will store as loose packets of specimens in boxes too tightly packed. Our goal is to remove and replace in cases rather than as packets glued or pinned to all of the substandard cabinetry in the herbarium. sheets. This will facilitate and make more efficient We also have mostly decluttered our common space the handling and curation of these materials. although we still have far too much Botany material We have consciously tried to become more stored in the attic. (Yes, there is an attic in the Natural responsive to external requests by implementing History building). a new internal tracking system. Interestingly, not With generous financial support from the Smithso- only can we now determine how long it takes to satisfy an external nian’s Digitization Program Office (DPO), Office of the request, but we also are beginning to have data on the nature of our Chief Information Officer (OCIO), and from the Sant external requests. We still receive large numbers of loan and destruc- Director of the National Museum of Natural History tive sampling requests, but we have also noticed a significant number of (NMNH) we have digitized more than 1.5 million her- digitization requests. These last will certainly disappear when we have barium specimens, including not only capturing images the entire collection digitized, but we had not previously appreciated but also transcribing label data. We have accomplished their volume. this while continuing to operate the herbarium as What are some of the continuing challenges? We are still struggling normal. In other words, we have been able to do this to figure out the optimal system or systems for managing a fully digi- without closing sections of the collection. It is difficult tized collection. Staff and visitors have been very cooperative. Unfortu- to convey to those who only visit us electronically the nately, for those of us who began in the non-digital era it is still difficult enormous behind-the-scenes preparation involved in to accept we cannot rearrange a collection on the fly but need to submit our digitization project, but it exists and one of the less specimens to others to update name changes or reimage. Another major obvious benefits of digitation is that we are improving Continued on page 12 the physical curation of the entire collection. We have always thought of our digitization project
Page 3 Departures Recipients of the
Melinda Peters, a staff member of the 2018 Travel Awards Core Collections Management team, The Department of Botany recently will be leaving the National Museum of awarded five recipients with 2018 travel Natural History to take a position at the awards. Three awards were funded U.S. National Arboretum as the volunteer through the Jose Cuatrecasas Fund, one manager for the Friends of the National from the Harold Robinson Fund, and one Arboretum. Peters joined the Department from the Ruth & Lyman Smith Fund. The of Botany in 2013. Peters filled many roles dates of their visits are subject to change. during her short tenure here. She took over the volunteer mounting program and Cuatrecasas Fund greatly expanded it. There are now 22 Juan Fernando Carrión Rodríguez volunteers mounting plants on a regular from Universidade Estadual de Feira de schedule and 20 intermittent volunteers. Santana, Brazil, for his project, “Phy- Over the 5-year period, her volunteers logeny and biogeography of Bernardia mounted over 90,000 specimens. She was (Euphorbiaceae), with a synopsis of the a mentor to several interns and conducted South American species.” His proposed plant mounting courses for interns across dates are May/June 2018. the museum each summer. Peters was Israel Lopes da Cunha Neto from involved as a Botany representative with University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, for his exhibit planning and with policy initia- project, “Nyctaginaceae: Diversity and tives affecting the department. She became evolution of the vascular system.” His pro- a scientific scuba diver and was part of a posed dates are August/September 2018. collecting expedition in Hawaii. She con- Cassiano Aimberê Dorneles Welker stantly managed and reduced the backlog from Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, of specimens for mounting and exchange. Marcos Caraballo-Ortiz Brazil, for her project, “Taxonomic revi- Her efforts made a significant contribu- sion and phylogeny of Eriochrysis P. ceous mistletoes in the Neotropic. Cara- Beauv. and Schizachyrium Nees (Poaceae tion to the role the herbarium plays for the ballo-Ortiz obtained his Master’s degree at department. – Andropogoneae).” Her proposed dates the University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras are January/February 2019. Laura Tancredi, a staff member of the on pollination ecology, and his doctoral Information Management team, will be degree at The Pennsylvania State Univer- Robinson Fund leaving the National Museum of Natural sity on the taxonomy, phylotranscriptom- Vivian Oliveira Amorim from Uni- History to take a position at the National ics, and ecology of Caribbean mistletoes. versidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Museum of American History as a His research also includes taxonomy, Brazil, for her project, “Phylogeny of an museum specialist in the Exhibitions and botanical explorations, natural history, endemic clade (Eupatorieae, Asteraceae) Collections Management Office. Tancredi propagation, and ecology of Neotropi- from Espinhaço Range, Brazil.” Her pro- began at Natural History in 2012 and cal plants, especially from the Caribbean posed dates are September 2018. Islands. joined the Department of Botany in 2016. Ruth & Lyman Smith Fund Within a short period of time, she learned This past Fall and Winter, Caroline Kittle Susy Juanita Castillo Ramon from and embraced the upkeep and manage- worked as a data intern with the adminis- Universidad Nacional Mayor de San ment of the digitized collection data, and trative offices of ForestGEO at the Natural Marcos, Peru, for her project, “Updating created documentation of the Botany data History Museum. She primarily collected taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography entry workflow, policies and standards. life history information for species present of Gentianella from Peru.” Her proposed Tancredi was also in charge of all Smith- in two of the network’s 65 forest research dates are October 2018. sonian Transcription Center botany proj- plots, which together represent every ects, and hosted a number of interns under forest type worldwide. Her work contrib- Awards & a “Digitization Strategies” internship. uted to the refinement of new ForestGEO website. Kittle is continuing her journey Grants New Faces with ForestGEO as a member of the 2018 re-census crew for the plot at the Smith- Research Associates Joseph H. Kirk- Marcos A. Caraballo-Ortiz joined the sonian Conservation Biology Institute in bride, Jr. and John Wiersema and Smithsonian Botany Department in Janu- Front Royal, Virginia. co-authors Piero Delprete (Institut de ary as a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow Recherche pour le Développement) and under the supervision of Jun Wen and Alan Franck (University of South Florida) Pedro Acevedo. His research is focused have been awarded the 2017 Richard and on exploring the phylogenetic relation- Minnie Windler Award for Systematics ships and organelle structure of lorantha- from the Southern Appalachian Botanical Page 4 Gustavo Ramos, Universidade Estadual Lauren Pile, U.S. Forest Service; Pinus de Feira de Santana, Brazil; Aldina (Pinaceae) (3/1). (Fabaceae) (1/19 - 2/19). Sterling Keeley, University of Hawaii, Jie Yu, Southwest University, China; Plant Manoa; Compositae (3/6 - 3/11). DNA Barcoding (1/22/18 - 1/4/19). Joy Winbourne, Brown University; Plant Phil Banks and 39 conference attendees, DNA Barcoding (3/6 - 3/7). Weed Science Society of America; Her- barium tour (1/29). Sandra Knapp, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom; Solanaceae Susan Pell, U.S. Botanic Garden, and (3/16 - 3/18). Emily Warschefsky, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden; Mangifera (Anacar- Raymund Chan, Independent researcher, diaceae) (2/13). Singapore; Compositae (3/26 - 3/31). Spermacoce latifolia. A. Plants growing Emily Smith, Randolph College; Sydney Justin Williams, University of Colorado in Jumping Gully Conservation Area, Boulder; Hawaiian Haplostachys, Sten- Pasco County, Florida. B. Detail of Parkinson and the Endeavour Voyage (2/23). ogyne, and Phyllostegia (Lamiaceae) (3/26 distal nodes with flower in anthesis. - 3/28). (photos by Alan Franck; image from Castanea) Linda Hollenberg (1953-2018) Society. They received the award for their published article “A new weed in Florida, As this issue of The Plant Press was ing Committee before becoming chair of Spermacoce latifolia, and the distinction going to press, we were saddened to learn the Archive Committee. She served as between S. alata and S. latifolia (Spermac- that Linda Ann Hollenberg passed away Archivist for SPNHC for 11 years. She oceae, Rubiaceae)” in the journal Casta- on 21 April 2018 in Silver Spring, Mary- was also active in several local native nea (82: 114-131; 2017). land. Hollenberg was born on 6 May 1953 plant societies and volunteered as an usher in the District of Columbia. She joined the for lectures sponsored by the Smithsonian Graduate student Peter Schafran received Smithsonian’s Department of Botany in Resident Associates and for performances funding from the Washington Biologists’ 1979 as a Museum Specialist. Hollenberg at Arena Stage and Shakespeare Theatre. Field Club to collect members of the had been responsible for a number of criti- Hollenberg is survived by her spouse Isoetes riparia complex from the upper cal core functions within the Department, Addison Wynn. Potomac and Delmarva Peninsula. including overseeing all Botany collections at the Museum Sup- Visitors port Center, collections space in Continued from page 2 the herbarium, administrative, Jonathan Flickinger, Fairchild Tropical budget preparation, fund alloca- Botanic Garden; Caribbean Myrtaceae tion, collections conservation (1/3 - 1/5). issues, and special projects. She retired from the Smithsonian in Victoria Crisci, Colegio Nacional Rafael 2014. Hernandez, Argentina; Internship (1/4). Hollenberg was an inte- Matthew Cicanese, National Geographic gral part of the Society for the Explorer; Collections visit (1/9). Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) council Elizabeth O’Brien, Villanova University; since 2005, first as a co-chair Guyana Shield plant diversity (1/9 - 1/15). on the Education and Train- Dave Gammon and 8 students, Elon Uni- versity; Plant conservation and herbarium In 2015, Emeritus Research tour (1/11). Botanist Dieter Wasshausen honored Linda Hollenberg Genise Somner, Universidade Federal by naming a new plant Rural do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Paullinia species Mendoncia (Sapindaceae) (1/12 - 2/11). hollenbergiae Wassh. This Ronaldo Vinicius da Silva, Universidade species in the Acanthaceae Federal de Viçosa, Brazil; Bambusoideae was first collected from the (Poaceae) (1/13 - 2/13). lowland riverside vegetation of the Yasuni National Park, Qing-Jun Li, Yunnan University, Kun- Ecuador. ming, China; Zingiberaceae (1/15 - 1/19). Page 5 Tangerini Botanical Artists (ASBA) and USBG, the exhibition includes 46 original contem- Illustrations porary botanical artworks, juried from a field of over 200 entries. On 18 May, the Featured in Three Worldwide Day of Botanical Art, USBG Exhibitions will host three programs for visitors; a lecture, Botanical Art Worldwide: 6 Botanical illustrations by Alice Continents, 25 Countries, 1 Worldwide Tangerini are currently on view in three Project; a public program, Meet the Art- different exhibitions. Tangerini shows her ists: Botanical Art Worldwide: America’s mixed media (graphite and watercolor Flora; and a reserved program, Behind- Druse phytoliths (center) surrounded on drafting film) ofCamellia sasanqua the-Scenes: Botanical Art Worldwide: by needle-like calcium oxalate raphides in an exhibition of botanical and land- America’s Flora. The exhibit will remain extracted from basal petiole tissue scape art, “The Spirit in Bloom 2018,” on view at USBG through October 2018, taken from the Chinese taro, Alocasia at the Washington National Cathedral in and then travel through the end of 2019. cuculata. (photo by Juan Pablo Hurtado Washington, DC. The show, sponsored by The exhibit website can be viewed at Padilla) the All Hallows Guild, opened on 15 April https://www.usbg.gov/botanical-art-world- 2018. Artworks on display are by artists of wide-americas-flora. Forensic Botany: the Cathedral Community and the Botani- Tangerini’s illustration of Vernonia cal Arts Society of the National Capital echioides received a “Highly Com- Delicious or Deadly Region (BASNCR), of which Tangerini mended” award in the 2018 Margaret Each Thursday evening between 25 is a member. A number of staff members Flockton Award contest held yearly at the January through 22 February, Gabriel from Smithsonian’s Botany Department Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, Australia. Johnson, Elizabeth Zimmer, Melinda were present at the opening reception. The The Margaret Flockton Award commemo- Peters, Erika Gardner, Shruti Dube, exhibit closes 18 May 2018. rates the contribution Margaret Flockton Peter Schafran, Steven Canty (Smith- Tangerini’s pen and ink illustrations made to Australian scientific botanical sonian Center for Marine Conservation), of Pentagramma glanduloviscida and illustration. This contest invites illustrators Colleen Popson, Benjamin Taylor, Juan Hibiscadelphus stellatus are included in from around the world to submit scientifi- Pablo Hurtado Padilla, Nichole Webster the exhibit, “Botanical Art Worldwide: cally accurate drawings that accompany (NMNH Department of Education & Out- America’s Flora,” a juried exhibition of the published taxonomic description of the reach) and Lee Coykendall (U.S. Botanic artworks of native plants, staged in the plant, and are highly detailed black and Garden) taught an introductory Botany Conservatory Gallery of the U.S. Botanic white drawings primarily undertaken in class to 26 local high school students. Garden (USBG) opening 4 May 2018. A pen and ink, pencil, or digitally rendered. The course was called “Forensic Botany: collaboration of the American Society of The Maple Brown Family and the Founda- Delicious or Deadly.” The first class tion & Friends of the Botanic opened with Gardner leading a tour of Gardens sponsor this annual, the herbarium. The second class included international award for excel- a lesson about the nature of collections- lence in scientific botanical based research. illustration. Illustrations are on On the third week, the students took display at the Royal Botanic a field trip to theU.S. Botanic Garden to Garden Sydney from 21 April key-out the various Araceae in the Palm to 6 May 2018, and travel to House and to determine which species The Australian Botanic Garden were edible in the Hawaii House. The Mount Annan (May–July 2018) students learned how to make plant collec- and to The Blue Mountains tions, and they pressed herbarium speci- Botanic Garden Mount Tomah mens of six different edible aroids. They (August–September 2018). The were taught how to mount their specimens exhibit website is https://www. and prepare a herbarium label. rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/science/ The students also dissected leaves and botanical-illustration/the- corms to learn plant anatomy and to test margaret-flockton-award-2017. for anthocyanins and protienase activ- ity. They learned how to observe raphide Vernonia echioides by and druse phytoliths under polarized light Alice Tangerini received microscopy as well as observe them on a “Highly Commended” a pre-prepared stub on the Q?rius SEM award in the 2018 scope. For the final class, each student Margaret Flockton Award prepared a DNA extraction of one of the contest at the Royal six edible aroids and observed the DNA in Botanic Gardens, Sydney. gel electrophoresis. Page 6 Native Tree Ranges and Exotic Plant Expansions are Tracked Using LeafSnap By Carlos Garcia-Robledo In a recent paper in BioScience (http:// dx.doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biy019), botanists W. John Kress and Ida Lopez (Smithsonian Institution), Carlos Garcia- Robledo (University of Connecticut), Katharine Wilson (Smith College), computer scientists David Jacobs (Uni- Location of users of LeafSnap who are identifying trees around the world. Three versity of Maryland), João Soares, and years after the release of this app, users on 5 continents and in 181 countries Peter Belhumeur (Columbia University) recorded over 3,056,684 leaf images. joined efforts to identify range alterations LeafSnap was released to the public by expert botanists at the U.S. National of native trees and the expansion of exotic in 2011. In the first 3 years of release, the Herbarium at the Smithsonian Institution. plants across the United States using app has been downloaded more than 1.5 These records were used to map the geo- data provided by citizen scientists. Plant million times by users on five continents. graphical distribution of native and exotic identifications and their geolocations were Users from 181 countries have recorded species at a scale previously unachievable submitted by users of the mobile iPhone over 3,056,684 leaf images (see map without this technology and without the app Leafsnap. This app is designed for the above). The high levels of accuracy of aid of citizen scientists. Some tree species automatic identification of 220 tree species Leafsnap identifications were confirmed demonstrated northerly migrations, south- from the Northeastern United States. erly migrations, or changed little from their estimated distributions in the 1950s (see figures to the left). LeafSnap data also can be imported to Google Maps. Images recorded by citizen scientists at each location can be visualized by clicking on each data point (see images to the left). When users col- lected data close to roads, it is possible to zoom in on the tree where the image was recorded. These results suggest that this tool carried on the phones of millions may potentially collect invaluable data that can be used to monitor the effects of climate change and exotic species on tree distributions at broad geographic scales. Moreover, the widespread use of digital photography and image sharing platforms will allow biologists to collaborate with citizen scientists to acquire the appropri- ate images for these field guides. The authors of the article predict that the construction of a unified core recognition technology will enable the creation of dozens of “LeafSnaps” for a wide range of plants, animals, fungi, and maybe even LeafSnap data can be imported to Google Maps to visualize in some cases the microorganisms. In the future, a single tree where distribution and identification data were collected (A-C). Using these “LifeSnap” tool may allow citizen scien- records, the researchers tracked the distribution of native and exotic trees all over tists to identify and record the presence of North America. Both Acer rubrum and Ailanthus altissima are shown as examples species across all domains of life. (D-E). Page 7 Ancient Grape Lineage Discovered By Kayleigh Walters When Marcelo Pace and Stan Yankowski gave a tour of the National Museum of Natural History’s wood collec- tion to Andrew Rozefelds, no one antici- pated that it would lead to the publication of two new papers (including a recent paper in the Journal of Systematics and Evolution
Top: External appearance of the permineralized stem of the fossil Austrovideira dettmannae. Note tessellate bark with vertically oriented fissures, similar to modern grape vines. Bottom: General view of the perfectly preserved wood and bark anatomy of the fossil Austrovideira dettmannae. Liana anatomy is evident by the wide and narrow vessels combined (vessel dimorphism) and wide rays. Stratified phloem with alternating bands of fibers and dilating rays are typical of the Vitis clade. Page 8 30 Years of the (Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and parts of Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil) Biological Diversity and five languages. The Shield includes a wide variety of habitats including the of the Guiana Shield unique “Lost World” tepuis and towering Program greenheart forests as well as savannas, lowland and montane forests, and coastal The Biological Diversity of the Guiana mangrove areas each of which has a com- Shield Program (BDG) recently cel- plex interaction of plants and animals. ebrated its 30th anniversary. This dynamic BDG has worked to explore this rich program seeks to document, study, and diversity and to make the information preserve the biological diversity of the available and useful to the public and a Guiana Shield. The Shield is a natural variety of agencies. Although based in Modern riverbank grape vine (Vitis area occupying the northeast corner of the Department of Botany at the National riparia) native to northeastern USA South America and has a rich and poorly Museum of Natural History, the program displays a very similar anatomy to the explored biodiversity. Understanding has interacted with scientists in almost ancient fossil, with vessel dimorphism, diversity in the area is complicated by the all of the Natural History biodiversity wide rays and stratified phloem. fact that it encompasses six political units Continued on page 10 botanists and fossil plant researchers. This discovery teaches us more about the ancient Australian environment. By comparing the Austrovideira to related modern plants, we know the vine likely had broad leaves, and other fossils at the site tell us it was part of a complex sea- sonal rainforest environment. These rem- nants of the past allow scientists to paint a more detailed picture of the environmental history of Queensland and the northeastern Australian site where it was found. Today, this area is dominated by dry, drought resistant vegetation - sharply different from the rainforest of 30 million years ago. Due to this discovery, we have one more piece of evidence that provides far- reaching insights into how environments have changed on our planet over time. Austrovideira demonstrates the poten- tial for discovery sitting in vast museum collections. When the fossilized vine was initially discovered, it was stored away and not fully identified—a potential scien- tific discovery waiting for a researcher. “Sometimes you can discover just as much in the collections as you can in the field,” Pace said. “You need to look at those plants that nobody could identify; they’re probably special. Many times, they are new species.” In museum collections as large as the Smithsonian and Queensland’s, who knows how many more discoveries are waiting to be found?
Kaieteur Falls, Guyana. (photo by Carol L. Kelloff) Page 9 Guiana Shield Continued from page 9 departments as well as the National Zoo, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and the Smithsonian Conservation Biol- ogy Institute. To accomplish its goals, BDG has a worldwide network of collaborators. In fact, the program has worked with over 850 people in research, education, train- ing, and outreach. These efforts have resulted in tens of thousands of new col- lections that have been used to address a variety of questions from the basic “What is it?” and “Where does it live/grow?” to synthetic ones, such as “What is it related to?”, “What are the levels of endemism?”, “Are there adaptive radiations?”, “Where are the highest areas of species richness and endemism?”, “Where should future expeditions go?”, and others. Erin Tripp exploring near an unnamed black water falls, Kamakusa expedition Over the life of the program BDG has 2012. (photo by Kenneth J. Wurdack) collected, databased, barcoded, and geo- the Shield area include 6,290 specimens Training and education have involved referenced over 60,000 new plant collec- (3893 skins, 1939 skeletons, 821 tissue in the local people as well as traditional tions. In addition, BDG has databased and fluids, 5 eggs, 2 nests), ca. 9,000 spiders, academic activities. Over the years, BDG barcoded over 121,000 specimens already 8,235 Lepidoptera, 75,000 ants, 23,000 has sponsored Amerindian training and housed in the U.S. National Herbarium aquatic insects, 450 termites, odonates, parataxonomy courses, had numerous totaling over 152,000 plant collections and cockroaches, ca. 3,388 amphibians students, postdocs, and have frequently in the database. All collection data will and reptiles, and ca. 1,300 mammals. hosted visitors. In 2011, BDG collabo- become available via the online Botany Over 1,100 papers have been published rated on an exhibit in NMNH titled More Specimen Catalog at
Burmannia bicolor Mart. (Burmanniaceae) from the 2012 Kamakusa Tipui expedition, Guyana. (photo by Kenneth J. Wurdack) that they have time to accomplish their final goals. Over the next few years BDG has two overarching goals: 1) To publish 3-4 papers that provide a synthesis of biodiversity patterns on the Shield and 2-3 monographs that cover the remaining collector volumes as well as collections of papers related to the Shield; and 2) To complete processing of the remaining specimens and other biodiversity docu- mentation (e.g., images), and to make sure all BDG data are in EMu and available on-line. In summary, the BDG staff seeks to make public all information and ideas, and to leave no backlog of specimens and archives for others to deal with. BDG has labeled this effort, “No Plant Left Behind”. How Did Renaissance People Dye Easter Eggs? By Kayleigh Walters Clockwise from top left: Springtime brings Easter and the joy • Painted Easter eggs from the District of Neresnice-on-the Terešva (Slavic and of dyed eggs. Even though Easter was on East European Collections, The New York Public Library. 1926. “a-h) Id”. April 1 this year, our interest in the botani- Retrieved from http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-a4d7-a3d9- cal history of egg dyeing is still piqued. In e040-e00a18064a99) an age before packets of color tablets were • Turmeric (Curcuma longa) rhizome from the Botany Research Greenhouses available from grocery stores, or drops of • Red Cabbage (retrieved from Wikimedia Commons) food dye was mixed with vinegar, people • Onion (Allium sp.) (photo by R.A. Howard) Page 11 Easter Eggs tures. It was precisely this affinity to the in 1996 looking for this elusive plant, Continued from page 11 unusual displayed by the nearly worldwide but regrettably without success,” com- genus that inspired Neil Snow (Pittsburg ments Snow on his attempt to encounter plentiful in Renaissance households. In State University), his co-authors Paul Diplachne gigantea in its natural sur- order to dye eggs (counterintuitively) blue, Peterson and Konstantin Romaschenko roundings. “Given the widespread poten- eggs may have been soaked in the water (National Museum of Natural History) and tial habitat in the Okavango, it seems odd left over from boiling purple cabbage. Bryan Simon (Queensland Herbarium) to the species is collected so infrequently, but Onion Skins (Allium cepa) – Red delve deeper in a dedicated monograph it may well be that it is quite rare.” Onions, for being common, are one of published in the open access journal Snow’s colleagues at the Smithsonian the earliest domesticated vegetables. In PhytoKeys. Insitution, Peterson and Romaschenko, addition to being a cold hardy abundant Occurring widely on all continents included a molecular phylogenetic crop which would have stored well during except Antarctica, Diplachne fusca, one of analysis of 21 individuals of Diplachne, the refrigerator-less Renaissance, yellow the two known species, is by far not just which indicated that while the genus is onion skins were boiled in a pot with eggs another grass species, with two of its four monophyletic, some accessions of the four to produce varying shades of red. subspecies displaying high salt tolerance. subspecies of D. fusca are in fact poly- Traditions can have deep roots – even Even more intriguing is the discovery phyletic. those as whimsical and brightly colored by a German research team that found as a basket of Easter eggs. When looking that some populations from southern Asia Chair with a View through the ethnobotanical collections of harbor a nitrogen-fixing bacterial species, Continued from page 3 the U.S. National Herbarium, we can see which when described was new to science. challenge for us is figuring out how to pressed and dried plant specimens col- “The combination of nitrogen-fixing lected from the wild alongside cultivated increase our capacity to mount, or prepare, bacteria and high levels of salinity toler- herbarium specimens. We have one full- specimens that we adapted for our own ance is unknown in others grasses, at least use. time employee, numerous volunteers, and that I am aware of”, explains Snow. various contractors. However, with several Thanks to Jennifer Heise’s deep dive “The high tolerance for growing in hundred thousand unmounted specimens into the history of egg dyeing in her saline soils suggests the plants may have in our backlog we need to become cleverer article, “Eggs dyed with period dyestuffs” untapped potential for the reclamation of in how we increase our capacity.
Hymenoxys ambigens (S.F. Blake) Bierner var. neomexicana W.L. Wagner
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).
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