THE JEPSON GLOBE a Newsletter from the Friends of the Jepson Herbarium

THE JEPSON GLOBE A Newsletter from the Friends of The Jepson Herbarium

VOLUME 28 NUMBER 2, Fall 2018

Director’s Column: Taking Dig- TED Comes to the Herbaria itization to a New Level at the By Carl Rothfels University and Jepson Herbaria Carl Rothfels (UC/JEPS), Cindy By Brent D. Mishler Looy (UC Museum of Paleontology), The University and Jepson Her- and two collaborators (Nathalie Naga- baria (UC/JEPS) has been fortunate to lingum of the California Academy of receive a number of grants in the last Sciences and Michael Sundue of the decade focused on making data from University of Vermont) have received specimens digitally available, as I dis- funding from the National Science cussed in an earlier article (“Herbaria Foundation for an ambitious project ex- data go mainstream” The Jepson Globe amining vascular plant evolution. Their 21(2&3): 1–4, 2011). This funding in- goals are to determine the relationships cluded Mellon Foundation grants for among the major lineages of all vascular digitizing type specimens and a series plants that have ever lived (including of National Science Foundation grants those that are now extinct) and generate through the Advancing Digitization a timescale of their evolution. of Biodiversity Collections (ADBC) Fossil Osmunda pinnules from the This project will build on tech- program covering vascular plants of Eocene-Oligocene (34 million year-old) niques that scientists use to infer when California, bryophytes, lichens, mac- Badger’s Nose locality in the Warner past evolutionary events occurred. First, rofungi, macroalgae, and microfungi. Mts., Modoc Plateau, California (UCMP by studying similarities in the DNA Just when it seemed this funding stream 393085). Photo by Diane Erwin, UCMP. of different species, researchers can estimate how closely related they are was winding up, we were pleasantly 1.76 million fossil and extant specimens and they can use this information to overwhelmed this summer to find that of ferns, lycophytes, and their free- reconstruct the branching patterns of we had received three more ADBC sporing relatives, and unite these data the “tree of life.” Second, by incorporat- grants! [These are in addition to the in a novel portal that allows study of ing information from fossils, they can new NSF mistletoe grant announced in diversity through time. Thirty-eight add a temporal dimension to the tree, the previous Jepson Globe 28(1): 6–7, institutions are involved from across inferring when the branching events 2018, which also includes digitization the United States and UC/JEPS will occurred. These evolutionary time- activities!] coordinate the overall project. This is lines are extremely powerful—they The three new ADBC grants in- an unprecedented neo-paleo integra- allow researchers to study patterns of clude the first in which we are the lead tive approach providing a deep-time biodiversity and the impact of major institution for a national consortium. perspective on the origins and diver- environmental or evolutionary events This grant is titled “The Pteridological sification of lycophytes, ferns, horse- in Earth’s history. Collections Consortium: An integra- tails, and their extinct spore-dispersed Traditional methods for inferring tive approach to pteridophyte diversity relatives—groups responsible for the (Continued on page 5) over the last 420 million years” and formation of terrestrial ecosystems as the lead PI is Carl Rothfels (UC/JEPS) we know them. ALSO IN THIS ISSUE with two co-PIs, Cindy Looy and Diane The second new ADBC grant is a New Faces in the Herbaria Erwin (both from the UC Museum of collaboration among members of the 2018 Year in Review Paleontology). The goal is to image over (Continued on page 4) New faces in the University and Jepson Herbaria

Keir Wefferling grew up in calibrated with fossil data), Washington State, in Seattle and on cytogeographic (chromo- Lopez Island in the San Juan Islands. some counts, flow cytom- He is joining the Rothfels lab as a post- etry), and taxonomic. This doctoral fellow funded by a National work documented multiple Science Foundation Postdoctoral Re- allododecaploid origins of search Fellowship in Biology, focus- Caltha leptosepala with re- ing on the utilization of biological col- ciprocal hybridization be- lections. Before coming to Berkeley, tween currently allopatric Keir studied with Dr. Sara Hoot at the hexaploid progenitors C. University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, biflora and C. chionophila. working on the systematics, cytogeog- While working as a post- raphy, and phylogeography of several doc in the Rothfels lab, he Ranunculalean clades—moonseeds is studying the cytogeog- and buttercup relatives mostly. Here in raphy, biochemistry, and Keir feeling pretty excited to find Cornus suecica on Berkeley, he is diving into the wonder- systematics of Pentagram- the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Photo by Kier. ful world of seed-free plants. ma (Pteridaceae)—the xeric-adapted, genetic distance between parents that His doctoral dissertation work fo- western North American farinose is optimal for formation of evolution- cused on disentangling reticulate goldback and silverback ferns—across arily “successful” offspring; i.e., that a evolution in the subalpine marsh their geographic range, and assess- goldilocks zone exists, at least within marigolds (Caltha spp., Ranuncula- ing the polyploid “spectrum” (i.e., the a particular lineage. He will also take ceae) using a number of approaches: range between the extremes of auto- every chance he can get to botanize, phylogeographic (plastid and nuclear and allopolyploids). He aims to test gawk, and ramble in the surrounding DNA sequence data, chronograms the hypothesis that there is a particular hills and mountains.

Carrie Tribble is a Ph.D. can- While at UC Berkeley, Carrie has tion projects, including an educational didate in the Rothfels lab studying continued to develop her interests in video series (Science IRL) on phylogenetics and the evolution of evolutionary processes. During her plant collecting with fellow graduate underground morphology in the order Ph.D. research, she hopes to describe student Joyce Chery! Liliales, which includes lilies. Carrie’s morphological variation in under- early forays into botany began while ground morphology, particularly in researching the ethnobotany of wild tropical geophyte taxa like Bomarea medicinal plants in the Peruvian An- (Alstroemeriaceae). She also hopes to des. There, she fell in love with tropi- further develop comprehensive models cal alpine environments and gained of evolution to better understand how a deep appreciation for underground morphological variation is connected parts of plants; many of the medicinal with diversification and adaptation. plants she worked with were collected Furthermore, her interests in ethno- for their roots and other underground botany have led her to the fascinating parts. world of domestication in understudied Carrie also completed a senior crops, such as the tuberous Bomarea honors thesis project in Luana Maroja’s edulis. lab at Williams College on the popula- In addition to her research, Carrie tion genetics of a disjunct distribution also works to increase the accessibility of a circumboreal plant particularly of scientific research to underrepre- vulnerable to climate change. To- sented groups. In particular, she has gether, these experiences shaped her co-founded Project SAFE (Safety and early interest in elevational gradients, Field Equity) to decrease the incidence Carrie poses with a beautiful example of tropical botany, and the processes of of sexual harassment and assault in the the inflorescence and tubers of Bomarea acuminata near the Cuericí Biological evolution that drive diversification and field. She has also participated in sev- Research Station, Costa Rica. Photo by adaptation. eral science outreach and communica- Mauricio Bonifacino. 2 Dori Contreras is a plant evo- Thereafter, she went on to UC the next couple years she will be work- lutionary biologist who will be join- Berkeley to complete her Ph.D. in In- ing with a team of people to generate a ing the Rothfels lab as a postdoctoral tegrative Biology in Dr. Cindy Looy’s total evidence analysis of vascular land researcher this fall. Dori grew up in Paleobotany and Paleoecology lab. Her plants. When not “science-ing” directly, Texas with a love for trees and spend- dissertation work focused on the evolu- she enjoys spending time with her fam- ing time immersed in the woods. After tion of plant communities in warm wet ily in Davis and getting outdoors as a detour working in auto finance and climates following the rise of flowering much a possible! property management, she returned to plants. For this, she reconstructed the school to complete a B.S. in Biology diversity and community structure of a with an emphasis on botany at Texas 74 million year old forest that was pre- State University, San Marcos. During served in an extensive ash fall deposit. those formative scientific years, she had The flora turned out to be incredibly fairly divergent research experiences diverse and one of the earliest leaf floras that shaped her interests and ongoing documented in which flowering plants agenda. Specifically, she joined Dr. were the most abundant group across Gary Upchurch’s Paleobotany and the landscape. She has continued her Paleoclimatology Lab and eventually work with conifers, using new fossil completed an honors thesis describing descriptions of Jurassic and Cretaceous an extinct species of redwood from species, morphological phylogenetic the Late Cretaceous. Simultaneously, analyses, and ancestral trait reconstruc- she delved into tropical plant ecology tions to understand the systematics and working on variability in leaf functional morphological evolution of conifers traits of tropical trees at La Selva Bio- through deep time. logical station in Costa Rica for two Dori’s interests consequently range summers, initially through the NSF from the organismal to community REU program. These experiences set levels, encompassing both morphology in motion a drive to understand plants and ecology. She has a slight obsession Dori holding a fossil of a conifer shoot and their communities through deep with incorporating fossils into the evo- that she cracked open during field work time, relying on the interplay between lutionary tree of living plants, which has in New Mexico, while she was collecting structure and function to interpret fos- translated into a postdoctoral position from a Permian plant locality. Photo by sils through an ecological lens. with Carl Rothfels and Cindy Looy. For Cindy Looy.

Joyce Chery is a Ph.D. candidate nold Arboretum of Harvard University ing the public in science. For example, in Integrative Biology, jointly advised as the Curatorial Fellow, focusing on most recently, she gave a science talk at by Dr. Rothfels and Dr. Chelsea D. the Alnus and liana collections devel- a bar in Oakland through the NerdNite! Specht of Cornell University. Joyce’s opment. In 2014, she joined the Specht Joyce currently resides in San research focuses on the evolution and Lab as a Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellow Francisco, where she enjoys spending development of vascular cambial vari- and NSF Graduate Research Fellow. In quality time with her fiancé and pug ants in the stems of a large genus of Sap- addition to her research, Joyce enjoys and frolicking through the city. indaceae lianas, Paullinia. These lianas outreach, public speaking, and engag- (i.e., wood vines) show an incredible Below: cross section of stem of Paullinia diversity of wood development that de- pinnata from Barro Colorado Island, viate significantly from erect plants (i.e., Panama, collected and photographed trees and shrubs). Joyce’s dissertation by Joyce. Right: Joyce at Arnold Arbo- combines traditional wood anatomical retum of Harvard University. Photo by Kyle Port. techniques with a molecular phylogenetic framework to uncover how these plants’ strange wood anatomy evolved through time. Joyce is a native of New York and graduated with her B.S. in Plant Sci- ences from Cornell University in 2013. Upon graduating, she worked at the Ar- (New Faces continued on page 4) 3 (New Faces, continued from page 1) Ixchel acknowledges all Ixchel González-Ramírez is plants are beautiful and in- a Ph.D. candidate in the Mishler Lab. teresting, but she has always Ixchel grew up in Mexico and, coming had a non-angiospermous from a rural background with a biolo- plant preference. Therefore, gist father, she was early exposed to the for her Ph.D., she intends wonders of plants. Her biology training to focus her research on and several field courses in the tropics liverworts, a wonderful made her fall in love with botany. She group of plants that has not completed her undergraduate Biology received enough attention, and Master’s degrees in the Univer- particularly in Mexico. She sidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico also expects to acquire a (UNAM). For her Master’s, she stud- deeper understanding of ied Cretaceous conifers from southern liverwort biology and to Ixchel admiring a rock with fungi and bryophytes at Los Mexico. This work was the perfect op- take advantage of being in Tecajetes park, Xalapa, México, known for its gigantic portunity for her to deeply understand a diverse place such as the tree ferns. Photo by Ana Isabel Pérez. the challenges and joys that systematic University and Jepson Herbaria and One of her favorite activities is to work offers. In 2015, Ixchel started to Department of Integrative Biology to hang out with other botanists and identi- teach botany in her alma mater univer- answer exciting ecological and evolu- fy plants in the field. Outside academia, sity UNAM. Teaching quickly became tionary questions that will arise while Ixchel’s favorite activities are to pet one her favorite activities because of studying liverworts. She hopes to return dogs, watch or play basketball games, the rewards of the job, and at the same to Mexico to study bryophyte diversity and travel to any destination, where she time she found it to be a good way to at different scales, from floristic studies always tries to taste traditional food, repay society for all the opportunities to addressing ecological, biogeographi- learn from the culture, and, of course, she received during her education. cal, and evolutionary topics. to look at the beautiful native flora.

(Director’s column, continued from page 1) for use in research and conservation stitution is New York Botanical Garden Consortium of California Herbaria activities involving the California flora. (Matthew Pace, lead PI), with the role (CCH) and is entitled: “Capturing Cali- (2) CCH2 will contain data from all of UC/JEPS (Bruce Baldwin, campus fornia’s Flowers: Using digital images groups of plants and fungi anywhere in PI) being to digitize about 90,000 of its to investigate phenological change in a the world, drawn only from members specimens in the 14 targeted flowering biodiversity hotspot.” The lead institu- of CCH. Its main use will be for data plant families throughout their world- tion is Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (Jenn management activities and facilitating wide range. Yost, lead PI), although UC/JEPS (with phenology scoring within the general Working on all these projects at me as campus PI) has a large role to play Symbiota framework. [We’ll present a once will be challenging, but rewarding on the informatics side and will also im- longer discussion of these developments in many ways. It demonstrates the value age many of our California specimens. in CCH in a later Globe.] of UC/JEPS within the university’s in- Twenty-two herbaria are participating The third new ADBC grant is to ternal political environment, supports and the goal is a massive effort on the another national consortium, with 17 our increasing “big data” research and California flora that will image, data- collaborating herbaria, entitled “Digi- conservation efforts involving speci- base, georeference, and score pheno- tizing ‘Endless Forms Most Beautiful mens, and maintains our leading role logical traits on ~900,000 specimens. and Most Wonderful’: Facilitating in biodiversity informatics in the world CCH will add an additional data portal Research on Imperiled Plants with community. to facilitate this effort, resulting in a Extreme Morphologies.” The quote pair of portals with distinctly different in the title is a famous line of Charles on t orget to e aims: (1) CCH1 will contain only vas- Darwin from the last sentence of the D ’ F R - cular plant specimen data for Califor- Origin of Species, indicating the goal new Your Membership! nia, drawn from members of CCH and of this project which is to digitize infor- Current Friends of the Jepson Her- from other data providers around the mation from approximately 2,000,000 barium receive a one week win- world. As the continuation of the cur- specimens of angiosperm groups such dow of priority registration when rent single portal, it will remain highly as cacti and orchids that have both the weekend workshop schedule curated and integrated with the Jepson extreme morphologies and many rare is announced in the fall. eFlora and be the recommended portal and endangered species. The lead in- 4 (TED, continued from page 1) phological data for extinct and living Jepson Herbarium Resources evolutionary timelines suffer from plants. Some of the exciting outcomes & Projects related to the some technical problems. In particular, of this project will include an updated California flora they rely on the ability of researchers display about plant evolution in the The Jepson Herbarium includes ap- to assign fossils correctly to particular herbaria atrium and a series of online proximately 400,000 plant specimens branching points in the tree, which educational videos. from California. is difficult or some- Brent D. Mishler times impossible. Director: California Phylodiversity Project Fortunately, newly Systematics and ecology of Syntrichia developed “total-evidence dating” (TED) Jepson Curator: Bruce G. Baldwin methods avoid this Jepson eFlora problem by inferring Systematics and evolution of Calif. tar- the position of the weeds and relatives (tribe Madieae, fossils directly from Compositae), Chaenactis (Chaenac- their morphological tidieae, Compositae), and Collinsia traits. Thus, the posi- (Plantaginaceae). tion of the fossils, the Curator of Ferns and Lycophytes: patterns of morpho- Carl Rothfels logical evolution, and Divergence and hybridization in Califor- the timescale of the nian ferns and lycophytes (especially tree are all inferred Notholaena, Cystopteris, Isoëtes). simultaneously from Curator of W. N. American Botany: the available data, re- Barbara Ertter, Flora of Mount Diablo ducing dependence on and flora of the East Bay, North Ameri- the judgments of indi- can Potentilleae vidual researchers. Asst. Director for Development & This project will Outreach: Staci Markos, Jepson eFlora, apply TED methods CCH, and Globe editor to a particularly con- Biodiversity Informatics Manager: tentious, long-stand- Jason Alexander ing problem: the time- Collections Staff & Plant Identifi- line for vascular plant cation: Kim Kersh, Ana Penny, and evolution. Vascular Margriet Wetherwax plants—the group that includes lyco- Archivist and Librarian: Amy Kasa- phytes, ferns, coni- meyer fers, flowering plants, Public Programs: Allyson Greenlon and their relatives— Membership, workshop enrollment, form the foundation and Globe design: Edith Summers of nearly all terrestrial Staff Research Associate: Bridget ecosystems and have Wessa a rich fossil record; Jepson Videos: Staci Markos, Allyson when they came to A hypothetical total-evidence timeline of selected fos- dominate land is con- sil and extant vascular plants, showing major lineages, Ayalon, Amy Kasameyer troversial. In addition possible relationships, and divergence times. Outgroups Trustees: to providing a robust comprise the three extant bryophyte lineages. Vertical Vice Chancellor Emeritus Beth Burn- timeline for vascular gray lines mark the 100-million-year intervals; dashed side; Professor Emeritus Russell Jones; plant evolution, this red lines mark the end-Cretaceous and end-Permian Professor Emeritus Paul Licht; Profes- mass extinctions. Time period abbreviations follow stan- project will promote sors John Taylor and Brent D. Mishler dard IUGS names. Tree topology, fossil ages, and diver- (ex officio) future research by gence times are synthesized from the literature, partic- creating a large pub- ularly Wikström et al. (2001), Taylor et al. (2009), and Constancea: UC Publications in Botany lic database of mor- Rothfels et al. (2015). (online)

5 Tucker Curator of Lichenology 2018 Workshop Year In Review University Herbarium Photos, facing page, clockwise from The University Herbarium is seek- top left, by Allyson Greenlon except ing applications for the Tucker Cura- where noted: the happy group smiles tor of Lichenology, a position funded big at their excitement about botaniz- by an endowment established by Dr. ing at almost 13,000 ft, Summit Lake, Shirley Tucker, a distinguished scholar Mt. Evans, Colorado Rocky Moun- whose accomplishments in lichenol- tains; three taxa of cacti in flower in ogy, as well as other areas of botany, Cataviña, Baja California, Mexico: have been widely recognized. Myrtillocactus cochal, Lophocereus The successful candidate will Friends of the Jepson Herbar- schottii var. schottii, and Pachycereus pringlei (the giant cardone!); work- conduct research on the systematics ium 2018 Members’ Night of lichens, lichenicoles, and/or allied shop participants scanning intertidal fungi in California and beyond, will Join us as we celebrate this milestone! zone for nudibranchs during the early participate in outreach and educational Saturday, September 22, 2018 morning (photo by Alison Young); the activities involving lichens, and be re- The Courtyard of the adorable flammulated owl camouflag- sponsible for the continued growth and Valley Life Sciences Building ing perfectly with the bark of the oak it curation of the lichen collection at the University of California, Berkeley sits on, seen while botanizing in Kings University Herbarium. Canyon N.P. (photo by Aaron Sims); For more information, see studying grasses up close during our Questions may be sent to Brent ucjeps.berkeley.edu/workshops/ D. Mishler, Director, University and annual Poaceae workshop; and inves- Jepson Herbaria (bmishler@berkeley. This is a ticketed event. tigating the flora of a wet meadow in edu). Please RSVP Sequoia National Forest.

Support the Herbaria Name(s) ______Amount $______Visa __ Mastercard __ Address ______Card # ______City, State Zip ______Signature ______Telephone/ Email ______Exp. Date ______Friends of the Jepson Herbarium U0840 Basic Membership ($45 individual, $60 family) Basic members receive The Jepson Globe and discounts on Weekend Workshops. Sustaining Membership ($200) Receive basic membership benefits plus acknowledgment in the Jepson eFlora. Lifetime Membership ($5,000 total, or pledge a minimum of $250/year) Demonstrate your dedication and commitment to the Jepson Herbarium with a lifetime membership. Gain recognition for your support in The Jepson Globe and the Jepson eFlora. Share your ideas with the Direc- tor and Curator at special, invitation-only events. Herbaria Futures Endowment 14891 Support the infrastructure and care of the collections.

I prefer to receive my copy of The Jepson Globe electronically (no paper copy). This gift is ___ in honor of, OR ___ in memory of, ______My or my spouse’s employer will match this gift. (Please enclose company form.) Please send me information about including the Herbarium in my will or estate plan. Please make your check payable to the UC Berkeley Foundation, charge your gift, or give online at: give.berkeley.edu/fund/?f=FU0840000 Jepson Herbarium, 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building #2465, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2465 Thank you for supporting the Herbaria!

6 2018 Workshops Year in Review

7 The Jepson Globe, Vol. 28 No. 2 Nonprofit Organization Friends of the Jepson Herbarium U.S. Postage PAID University of California, Berkeley 1001 Valley Life Sciences Building # 2465 University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2465 Berkeley

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Space is still available in the following workshops!

Sep 29-30 GIS for Botanists Oct 13-14 Lichens II: Introduction to Microscopy

Right: Photo of Hastings Natural His- tory Reservation in Carmel Valley, the venue for the upcoming GIS workshop. Hastings is part of the University of Cali- fornia Natural Reserve System, whose field stations have hosted our workshops all over the state. Photo credit Hastings Reserve.

Don’t forget to renew your membership this fall before the new workshop season is announced, and you will receive one week priority registration. Some of our workshops fill up in the first couple weeks, so this means that you, as a member, will have a chance to get into the workshops you want before they fill! Your membership expiration date is noted above your name on the mail label.

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