Oxford Systematics With news from University Herbaria (OXF and FHO), Department of Plant Sciences, Oxford

OPS 24 June 2018 Foreword

Herbaria are slices through plant diversity in Contents time and space, and long-term scientific investments with unexpected cultural value. Foreword Until recently in Oxford University Herbaria Stephen A. Harris …………………………………………………………..……….. 2 that slice was about 400 years. Through his research on a collection of specimens News overlooked for over a century, Sandy Awards and appointments, staff retirement and Blue Plaque unveiled to George Hetherington has extended that slice to about Claridge Druce ……………………………………………………………………… 3 400 million years. Using the earliest-known Polynesian sweet potato specimen (housed in Publications 2017 ……………………………………………………………………. 3 the Natural History Museum London), Pablo Muñoz Rodríguez and colleagues have Expeditions and visits …………………………………………………………….…. 4 determined the likely age of this important crop plant and reopened discussion of human Roots in the Palaeobotanical Collection migration patterns around the Pacific. Alexander J. Hetherington and Liam Dolan …………………………….……….… 4 George Claridge Druce, the Oxford-based pharmacist, politician and natural historian, What did the Garden grow? amassed a herbarium of several hundred Stephen A. Harris ……………………………………………………….………….. 5 thousand specimens; a snapshot of British plant diversity before 1930. Serena Marner Painting by numbers presents an outline of this controversial Rosemary Wise ……………………………………………………………….….…. 7 figure’s contribution to British field . His specimens contribute to baseline date George Claridge Druce’s career as a botanist upon which change in the British flora can be Serena K. Marner ………………………………………………………………..…. 8 investigated, as outlined by Keith Kirby. For herbaria to be records of current plant Some are born rare, some have rareness thrust upon them diversity in the future, new specimens must Keith Kirby …………………………………………………………………….….. 10 be acquired. High-quality plant collections, such as those made by John Wood during Is there no end to it? exploration of Bolivia, are essential. In the John .I. Wood …………………………………………………………….……… 11 seventeenth century, the first keepers of the Oxford Botanic Garden made herbarium News from the Herbaria - Fielding-Druce (OXF) and Daubeny (FHO) specimens to support the lists of the Serena K. Marner …………………………………………………………………. 12 they were growing; greatly increasing the James Ritchie ……………………………………………………………….…….. 13 scientific value of their lists. Voucher specimens remain vital in modern plant Abstracts of systematic theses submitted in 2017: sciences research if data are to be objectively Completing the global inventory of plants – species discovery and diversity assessed by future researchers. Zoë Goodwin ………………………………………………………………….…... 13 Researchers applying modern technologies to address specimen-based questions need Do hotspots of species endemism promote novel lineage diversity? ready access to both herbarium specimens Cicely A.M. Marshall …………………………………………………….….……. 14 and their associated metadata. Denis Filer and Andrew Liddell explain how BRAHMS Ecological and evolutionary significance of Crassulacean Acid Metabolism in v8 integrates all types of natural history the montane genus Puya (Bromeliaceae) collections to enhance data accessibility. Juan D. Beltrán ……………………………………………………….…………... 14 Application of advanced technologies means pigments used in one of the Student reports: University’s greatest botanical treasures, Evolution of Ipomoea in the Neotropics Ferdinand Bauer’s Flora Graeca Tom Carruthers …………………………………………………….………….…. 14 watercolours, can be investigated. Rosemary Wise describes her role in this research, Plants as indicators in the UK countryside together with the methods Bauer probably Claudia Havranek ……………………………………………………………..…. 15 used to create his botanical masterpieces in eighteenth-century Oxford. Systematics of Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato) and its closest relatives Collectors who contribute specimens to Pablo Muñoz Rodríguez ………………………………………………………..… 15 herbaria have many different reasons for doing so. Yet once their specimens are Systematics of Stictocardia Hall.f. accessible within collections they start to be Alex Sumadijaya …………………………………………………………….….… 15 used in manners far removed from what original donors envisaged. As many of the BRAHMS: management of natural history articles in this year’s edition of Oxford Plant Denis Filer and Andrew Liddell ………………………………………….…...….. 16 Systematics show, the importance of an individual specimen may only become Department of Plant Sciences, , South Parks Road, Oxford, apparent decades after it was originally OX1 3RB, U.K. Tel. +44 (0) 1865 275000 collected. Oxford Plant Diversity Research Group website: http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk Stephen A. Harris Curator of Oxford University Herbaria Oxford University Herbaria at: http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/oxford

2 Oxford Plant Systematics OPS 24 June 2018 News Staff retirement Publications 2017 Anne Marie Catterall retired in September 2017, after 35 years as the Librarian of the Awards and appointments Sherardian Library of Plant . Soon after her arrival in Oxford Anne Marie Biju, P., Josekutty, E.J., Rekha D., Wood, recognised the intimate link between the Many congratulations are due to the J.R.I. (2017). Strobilanthes jomyi library collection and specimens housed in following: (Acanthaceae), a remarkable new species Oxford University Herbaria, yet the library from South India. Phytotaxa 332(1): 075- was on long-term loan to the Bodleian Pablo Muñoz Rodríguez, D.Phil. student, 080. Library, following decisions taken in the has received this year’s Social Impact Award 1950s. Anne Marie’s considerable work to from Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience, Harris, S.A. (2017). Oxford Botanic reunite the library and plant specimens Doctoral Training Partnership, for the Garden & Arboretum. A brief history. transformed the value of both collections to publication of his recent paper on the origin Oxford: Bodleian Library. visitors; researchers could have the personal of the sweet potato: herbaria and libraries of some of Oxford’s Muñoz-Rodríguez, P., Carruthers, T., Wood, Muñoz-Rodríguez, P., Draper Munt, D., most illustrious botanists side by side. J.R.I., Williams, B.R.M., Weitemier, K., Moreno Saiz, J.. (2017). Global strategy Among the manuscripts in the library were Kronmiller, B., Ellis, D., Anglin, N.L., for plant conservation: inadequate in situ those of Professor John Sibthorp (1758-96), Longway, L., Harris, S.A., Rausher, M.D., conservation of threatened flora in Spain. third Sherardian Professor of Botany, and the Kelly, S., Liston, A., Scotland, R.W. (2018). Israel Journal of Plant Sciences. Special watercolours of Ferdinand Bauer (1760- Reconciling conflicting phylogenies in origin Issue: New Thinking and Conceptual 1826), which were used to produce the Flora of sweet potato and dispersal to Polynesia. Advances in Plant Conservation 63(4): 297- Graeca (1806-1840). The Flora is the Current Biology 28 (8): 1246-1256. 308. University’s botanical treasure, and one of the world’s rarest botanical books. Anne Alexander (Sandy) J. Hetherington has Pennington, T.D. & Wise, R. (2017). The Marie has been instrumental in making this been presented with the Irene Manton Prize genus Sloanea (Elaeocarpaceae) in America. work more widely available to people than from the Linnean Society of London for the 432pp. David Hunt. ever before. In 1999, she organised a best Ph.D. thesis in botany examined in a UK Bodleian Library Exhibition on the Flora institution for an academic year. His thesis Wood, J.R.I., Vasconcelos, L.V., Simão- that transformed our perceptions of this was entitled ‘Evolution and morphology of Bianchini, R., Scotland, R.W. (2017). New work, and ensured the collections were lycophyte root systems’. He studied under species of Ipomoea () from digitised and made available on the web. the supervision of Professor Liam Dolan, Bahia. Kew Bulletin 72(8): 1–20. Through her concerns about access and Sherardian Professor of Botany in the accessibility, Anne Marie transformed the Department of Plant Sciences. His research Wood, J.R.I. & Scotland, R.W. (2017.) Sherardian Library from a relatively poorly involved studying fossil lycophyte (club- Misapplied names, synonyms and new known collection to an internationally moss) roots in collections, including those species of Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) from important research library. Academic found in Oxford University Herbaria (see the South America. Kew Bulletin 72(9): 1–26. researchers have benefited from Anne article on pages 4-5). Sandy is currently a Marie’s detailed knowledge of the collection, “Fellow by Examination” at Magdalen Wood, J.R.I. & Scotland, R.W. (2017). whilst students and visitors have been able to College, Oxford. Notes on Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) from glimpse some of the University’s botanical the Amazonian periphery. Kew Bulletin riches through exhibitions organised by On successfully completing her D.Phil. 72(10): 1–18. Anne Marie. Anne Marie’s dedication and thesis, Cicely Marshall, has been appointed knowledge of the Sherardian Library shows to a Junior Research Fellowship at King’s Wood, J.R.I., Nuraliev, M.S., Kuznetzov, the University’s specialist librarians at their College, Cambridge. This will be taken up at A.N., Kuznetzova, S.P., Scotland, R.W. very best. We wish Anne Marie all the best the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, (2017). Strobilanthes barbigera for her retirement. starting in October 2018. Cicely will be (Acanthaceae), a new species from Vietnam. testing evolutionary theories used to explain Kew Bulletin 72(28): 1–5. plant endemism hotspots in tropical Africa, for example by testing whether extinction Blue Plaque unveiled to Wood, J.R.I. & Scotland, R.W. (2017). A and speciation happened at different rates, or George Claridge Druce new species of Strobilanthes (Acanthaceae) at different periods, inside and outside The Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board from western Thailand. The Natural History hotspots. promotes recognition and awareness of Bulletin of the Siam Society 62(1): 29–34. people, places and events that have been of http://www.siam- Stephen Harris, Curator of Oxford lasting significance, especially in the life of society.org/pub_NHB/download_062_1f.ht University Herbaria, has been awarded the Oxfordshire, with eminence in the wider ml title of Associate Professor in the Department public domain. The botanist, pharmacist and of Plant Sciences. Mayor of Oxford, George Claridge Druce Wood, J.R.I., Buril, M.T., Scotland, R.W. (1850-1932) was chosen for this honour. A (2017). Remarkable Disjunctions in plaque was unveiled to him on 28th April Ipomoea species (Convolvulaceae) from NE Front cover image: 2018 at 118 High Street, Oxford, on the wall Brazil and Central America and their Watercolour of Fritillaria meleagris L. of his former chemists shop. George Claridge taxonomic implications. Kew Bulletin painted by Rosemary Wise using a Druce has especial significance for Oxford 72(44): 1–10. colour-code system, and pigments University Herbaria and the University, not identified in Bauer’s watercolours and least for the bequest of his herbarium and Wood, J.R.I. & Scotland, R.W. (2017.) recreated according to traditional library collections as well as funds for Notes on Ipomoea L. (Convolvulaceae) in eighteenth-century recipes. curation and research on the collections. See Cuba and neighbouring islands with a Painting © Rosemary Wise article on pages 8-9 which was based on a checklist of species found in Cuba. Kew speech made by Serena Marner at the Blue Bulletin 72(45): 1–16. Plaque ceremony. Typesetting and layout of OPS by Serena Marner

Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford 3 Wood, J.R.I., Degen de Arrua, R., Roots in the In our research we aim to characterise the Scotland, R.W. (2017). El género Ipomoea key steps during the evolution of rooting L. (Convolvulaceae) en Paraguay. Rojasia Palaeobotanical systems. Rooting systems were one of a suite 16: 9–22. of key adaptions that diversified enormously Collection during the Palaeozoic, allowing early land Wood, J.R.I., Muñoz-Rodríguez, P., plants to explode in size and colonise drier Degen, R., Scotland, R.W. (2017). New regions of the continental surface. The 115 species of Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) from The oldest plant specimens in the University thin sections in the Palaeobotanical South America. Phytokeys 88: 1–38. of Oxford Herbaria are over 400 million Collection became the backbone of the work years old, much older than any of the of AJH’s D.Phil. under the supervision of specimens collected during the 400 years of LD, and are now proving to be a central Expeditions and visits botanical research and teaching at the resource for AJH’s Fellowship by University. These ancient plants form the Examination at Magdalen College, hosted in Palaeobotanical Collection, housed in the LD’s lab. The exceptional preservation of John Wood made a two-day visit to the Paris Fielding-Druce Herbarium (OXF; Fig. 1). plants preserved in the thin sections have Natural History Museum in March 2017 to The collection consists of 115 palaeo- allowed us to identify defining features of see type specimens in the Lamarck botanical thin sections, originally purchased rooting systems from the Palaeozoic. herbarium. He also made a one-month visit in the early twentieth century as a teaching Despite rooting systems being frequently to Bolivia in June-July 2017 to collect collection for botany students, but can preserved in the fossil record the poor Convolvulaceae and report on Ipomoea accessed by anybody through the Oxford preservation of the vast majority of fossils research to counterparts in Bolivia. Herbaria database obscures the identification of the sole (https://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/palaeob defining feature of roots, the development of Caroline Pannell’s visits last year were to otox). a root meristem with a root cap. Rooting Java, Thailand, Edinburgh and Leiden. She systems had been described for well over 100 gave a presentation at the Third South East years from the coal balls of the Lancashire Asian Gateway Evolution meeting, 28th and Yorkshire coalfield but a root meristem August to 1st September 2017, and visited had never been found. During AJH’s D.Phil. Kebun Raya, Bogor Botanic Gardens and he discovered the first fossilised root Kebun Raya, Cibodas, to see their living meristem – preserved on thin section 81 collections of Meliaceae. A field trip to (OXF). This root meristem (Fig. 2), provided Mount Gedeh was followed by four days at the first opportunity to compare a fossil root Bogor herbarium to work on determination meristem with the root meristems of extant of their holdings of Aglaia. She made a plants. By comparing the structure of this preliminary exploration into resolving the meristem with the root meristems of extant complex species, Aglaia elaeagnoidea plants we discovered that this 310 million (A.Juss.) Benth., a project in which she is year-old root meristem was distinct from all collaborating with Ph.D. student, Lizzy Figure 1. The Palaeobotanical collection housed known root meristems of extant plants Joyce, from James Cook University, Cairns, in the Fielding-Druce Herbarium (OXF). (Hetherington et al. 2016). Our findings Queensland. From 10th September to 7th Photograph © John Baker. therefore revealed previously unknown October, Caroline determined the entire diversity of roots in the Carboniferous holdings of Aglaia in Bangkok herbarium The majority of the thin sections in the period. and continued working on the account of the collection were made by two of the leading Alongside work on the plants from the genus for the Flora of Thailand. This visit palaeobotanical thin section manufacturers Carboniferous we have also been studying included field trips to Khao Khieo Wildlife of the late nineteenth and early twentieth rooting structures from the Devonian Period Sanctuary, Khao Ang Rua Wildlife century J. Lomax and W. Hemingway. The by examining the thin sections of the 407 Conservation Area, Khao Soi Dao and Kang sections contain fossil plants from the million year old Rhynie chert. The Rhynie Krachan National Park. She gave the Biology Paleozoic Era (540-250 million years ago). chert is the oldest preserved terrestrial Week lecture for Royal Society of Biology This was the stage in Earth history when land ecosystem and the thin sections in the and County Armagh Wildlife Society, plants first colonised the continental surface. collection provide a glimpse onto the entitled 'Wallace's Line and the bio- Within 100 million years extensive forest structure of early vascular plants prior to the geographical contrasts between SE Asia and ecosystems had developed. The thin sections evolution of leaves or roots. Despite lacking Australasian rainforests'. She visited RBG were made primarily from two-world famous roots, all plants in the Rhynie chert Edinburgh herbarium from 30th October to British fossil localities: 1) the earliest developed some form of rooting system. The 4th November, to commence work on the preserved terrestrial ecosystem, the 407 rooting systems of the majority of plants remainder of the Meliaceae for the Flora of million year old Rhynie chert; and 2) the consisted of masses of hair-like cells termed Thailand. From 30th November to 9th Lancashire and Yorkshire Carboniferous rhizoids that increased the surface area for December, she visited the Naturalis herb- coal field that preserves a record of the water and nutrient uptake and anchored the arium in Leiden, the Netherlands, to begin to tropical coal swamp forests that clothed plants to the sediment. Despite these rooting resolve complex species of Aglaia from Britain just over 300 million years ago. These cells being tiny in size the exceptional Indonesia and to search for additional two very different fossil assemblages are preservation allows us to examine these material of new species that are known only separated by almost 100 million years but rhizoids and the regions of the axes from from single collections or from sterile have one striking thing in common. Plant where they developed. By examining these specimens. This is for a project in fossils are preserved with exceptional rhizoid-based rooting systems we identified collaboration with Professor Alexandra cellular preservation in both the silica-rich shared features common between all species. Muellner-Riehl and Dr Jan Schnitzler of Rhynie chert and the calcite-rich nodules In rhizoid-based rooting systems the Leipzig University. “coal balls” from the Lancashire and development of rhizoids led to a modification Yorkshire coalfield. This exceptional of the cylindrical axis leading to the Rosemary Wise was invited to be the annual preservation provides a unique window into formation of an axis with bilateral symmetry guest on a contemporary art residency in plant life in the Palaeozoic and allows us to (Hetherington and Dolan 2018). This break Mexico, spending one week in Tlayacapan ask research questions that would not be in symmetry of the rooting regions had not and a second week in Oaxaca city possible from any other early fossil locality. been identified as a unifying feature of early

4 Oxford Plant Systematics OPS 24 June 2018 example, the genus Rosa is distinct within the British flora and can be readily identified from even fragmentary botanical specimens or crude drawings but separating Rosa canina from its close relatives requires a specialist botanist and carefully collected specimens. Natural history collections are known to be replete with misidentifications (Goodwin et al., 2015). Plant lists are likely to suffer Figure 2. similar problems since there is no reason to 310 million year-old suppose identifications based on herbarium fossilised root meristem discovered specimens are poorer than those based on on thin section 81 of living plants. Herbarium specimens therefore the OXF become essential for interpreting plant lists, Palaeobotanical and making objective comparisons among Collection. such lists. Ultimately, plant identifications Photo © Oxford are hypotheses refuted by examining University Herbaria specimens named by the person responsible for putting together a species list. Identifications based solely on lists of names, and lacking voucher specimens, rely wholly on the authority of the list compiler. Early modern plant lists complemented by herbarium specimens are very rare, whilst identification based on pre-Linnaean polynomials has been characterised as rooting systems before. The Rhynie chert What did the Garden 'interpretation rather than an equation' thin sections in OXF were essential for (Harvey, 1972). In the case of the drawing this new conclusion. grow? seventeenth-century Oxford Physic Garden, Collectively studying thin sections from the a collection of plant lists and specimens is Carboniferous coal balls and the Devonian available (Harris, 2018). Rhynie chert we are gradually building up a Our desire to understand plant diversity is clearer picture of the early steps involved driven by curiosity but often justified in during the evolution of rooting structures. terms of the economic, social and There is however a sobering lesson to be environmental benefits we derive from learned from the Palaeobotany Collection in plants. Biological collections, amassed by OXF. The entire collection was almost lost networks of individuals connected by mutual when the collection was assigned to the skip. interests, correspondence and specimen Fortunately, Professor Stephen Harris was exchange, are central to understanding able to rescue the box of thin sections biological diversity. In sixteenth-century preserving this exquisite collection. We hope Europe, as global exploration increased and the work described here acts as a testament to humanist ideas took root, collections of the importance of conserving natural history living and preserved plants evolved from collections. Many new insights and being pleasure gardens and cabinets of discoveries can be gained from asking new expensive curiosities into today’s scientific research questions from old collections and collections (Morton, 1981; Ogilvie, 2006). we hope that continued work with the Collectors of living or preserved plants who Palaeobotany Collection will produce new wished others to know what they possessed insights into the evolution of roots. published and circulated lists of names. Some lists were illustrated but most were References unadorned, e.g. Robert Morison’s Hortus Regius Blesensis (1669), James Sutherland’s Hetherington, A.J., Dubrovsky, J.G., Dolan, Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis (1683) and L. (2016). Unique cellular organization in Simon Warton’s Schola Botanica (1689). the oldest root meristem. Current Biology Names, as flags, confer identity that enables 26: 1629–1633. information to be catalogued, stored and (doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.04.072) transmitted in time and space. However, for maximum use a name should be applied Hetherington, A.J. & Dolan, L. (2018). unambiguously so that it means the same to Bilaterally symmetric axes with rhizoids Title page of the first catalogue of plants growing everyone. The correct application of plant in the Oxford Botanic Garden, and published in composed the rooting structure of the names therefore has direct scientific, 1648. Photo © Sherardian Library common ancestor of vascular plants. economic and social consequences. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Correctly naming a living or preserved plant Planting started in the Oxford Physic Society B Biological Sciences 373: is a complex process dependent on the Garden in the 1642 following the 20170042. (doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0042) quality of the specimens being named and the appointment of Jacob Bobart the Elder as comparative material available, together with Keeper (Harris, 2017). Building the Garden’s Alexander J. Hetherington, Post Doctoral an individual’s experience of, and plant collection continued under Bobart’s Researcher & Liam Dolan, Sherardian competency at, naming plants. Furthermore, son, also called Jacob. Together these men Professor of Botany groups of plants vary in the features that are contributed to three plant lists of the Garden important for their identification. For

Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford 5 in the seventeenth century. In 1648, an personal library, e.g., Gerard’s Herball With limited resources to run the Garden, anonymous catalogue, Catologus Plantarum (1633) and Parkinson’s Paradisi in Sole the Bobarts had to be content with modest Horti Medici Oxoniensis, was published; Paradisus Terrestris (1629) and Theatrum collection expeditions and enlisting personal traditionally, the author is identified as Jacob Botanicum: The Theater of Plants (1640), contacts across Europe to fill it. However, Bobart the Elder. In 1658, the Oxford-based were resorted to when herbarium specimens they undertook collecting trips in academics Philip Stephens and William proved insufficient. As identifications Oxfordshire and surrounding English Browne wrote a second edition of the became more remote from the Bobarts, or counties. For example, Bobart the Younger Catologus. A manuscript list of plants relied on descriptions or illustrations in the grew a white-fruited bramble he had spotted growing in the Botanic Garden, dated 1676, early modern literature, confidence in the near Oxford, and a specimen of Cynoglossum in Jacob Bobart the Younger’s hand, appears association between Linnean bionomials and germanicum was grown which was ‘bought to be a draft for another edition of the Bobartian polynomials declined. from Reading, where it was shewed us by Mr Catologus. There are 4,369 polynomials in In total, 2,435 polynomial names, Watlington’. Internationally, the Bobarts the three Garden lists. representing at least 1,311 Linnaean taxa, were in contact with in were reported from Oxford Physic Garden , Paulo Boccone in Sicily and between 1648 and 1676. However, Guy-Crescent Fagon in Paris. Eventually, approximately a fifth of the polynomials Jacob Bobart the Younger was able to call remain unidentified to species rank. There upon the extensive botanical network of the are numerous reasons for this including loss law student he mentored in Oxford, William or destruction of specimens, essential parts Sherard. for reliable identification being absent or Using herbarium specimens labelled by the perhaps specimens were never collected. Bobarts it has been possible to match When Henry Danvers established the rigorously polynomials with Linnaean Physic Garden in 1621 his intention was that binomials, and reinterpret plant lists from the it should grow and display medicinal plants seventeenth-century Oxford Physic Garden. for teaching purposes. In practice, only about The Garden the Bobarts filled was closer to a quarter of the plants growing in the Garden John Evelyn’s concept of a ‘Philosophico- were medicinal. Necessity meant the Bobarts Medical Garden’ than a collection of plants had to concentrate on horticultural focused on medical training (Ingram, 2001). productivity. Consequently, favourite The vast majority of the plants were of ornamentals of the period, e.g., Anemone botanical interest only. They show some of hortensis (at least 36 types) and Narcissus (at the plant diversity imported into seventeenth- least 32 types), and food plants, e.g., century Britain and were the raw material for Brassica oleracea (at least nine types) and research into plant classification, cultivation Lactuca sativa (at least five types), were well and physiology. represented in the Garden’s stock. However, most plants in the Garden could not be conveniently grouped as medicinal, Specimen of the medicinal plant Digitalis ornamental or culinary; they appear to have purpurea L. collected by Bobart the Younger in been grown for their curiosity value, e.g., the mid seventeenth century sensitive and variegated plants. (Acc. No.: BJr-04-021). Most of the species in the seventeenth- Photo © Oxford University Herbaria century Garden were Eurasian introductions. However, among the 526 native British Objective interpretation and comparison of species, 436 were Oxfordshire natives, which the polynomials in the lists was only possible is over half the native flowering plants because three, mid- to late-seventeenth- recognised in Oxfordshire today (Killick et century herbarium collections, directly al., 1998). associated with the Bobarts, have been As might be expected for a fledgling garden preserved: Bobart the Younger's Hortus in an academic institution the garden’s Siccus; Bobart the Elder's Herbarium; and the contents changed between 1648 and 1676. Morisonian Herbarium. Bobart the Younger The living collection increased through the also contributed large numbers of specimens, acquisition of species not previously grown and annotations, to the herbaria gathered by or new forms of species already growing. the diplomat and the East The collection decreased when species died Indian Company cashier-general Charles because of pest and diseases or the discovery Dubois. Together these pre-Linnaean that conditions were inappropriate for them collections comprise approximately 49,000 to flourish. Approximately six years after specimens (Clokie, 1964). Specimens of Primula auricula L. cultivars raised Jacob Bobart the Elder took charge, over 890 Matching between polynomial list names by Bobart the Younger and grown in the Botanic species were growing. A decade later, there and modern Linnean names was done using Garden in the mid seventeenth century were over 1,100 species but nearly twenty (Acc. No.: BJr-05-214-1). a laborious comparison process. All years after that, Bobart the Young recorded Photo © Oxford University Herbaria polynomials were compared with herbarium fewer than 800 species. Throughout this specimens labelled by either of the Bobarts, period, 513 species were grown most usually Jacob Bobart the Younger. continuously, which included 208 medicinal References Published classification systems (those of plants. Surprisingly, Viscum album was Robert Morison and ), directly or reported in 1648 but not later lists, whilst Clokie, H.N. (1964). An account of the indirectly associated with the Bobarts, and among the more unusual, and less surprising, Herbaria of the Department of Botany in the the unpublished manuscript of William 1658-list species that did not survive were the University of Oxford. Oxford University Sherard's Pinax helped establish likely African/Indian Tamarindus indica and the Press, London. polynomial synonyms. Standard, early North American Toxicodendron radicans. modern illustrated works from the Bobarts’

6 Oxford Plant Systematics OPS 24 June 2018 Painting by numbers second trip from March 1794 to May 1795! The professor’s health was failing by then and he died in 1796, leaving a considerable fortune and instructions that the paintings Imagine a botanical artist being invited to should be published in ten folio albums and accompany an academic from this University entitled Florae Graeca. James Sowerby, to record the plants overseas. In my long assisted by family and friends, produced career as the botanical artist in the copper plate engravings of the paintings and Department of Plant Sciences (I started in 30 sets were printed and carefully hand- 1965) this has fortunately happened to me on coloured. Only 25 copies of the Flora many occasions. Besides the usual travel Graeca Sibthorpiana were published, it requisites, I pack my pad of watercolour remains to this day one of the most expensive paper, my compact box of Winsor and Floras ever produced. Bauer’s sketchbooks Newton paints, a notebook, my hand lens and from this first expedition, the herbarium and a small pouch containing pencils, rubber specimens and the original paintings and ruler and sometimes a plant press. I get comprise some of the greatest botanical the airport bus from Oxford and then a flight treasures of Oxford University. to the chosen destination. I can be working Dr Richard Mulholland has spent several in places as far away as Papua New Guinea years researching the pigments that Bauer within two days of leaving home, well-rested used for these wonderful paintings. Using after a comfortable flight. the latest techniques of Raman spectroscopy But think back to 1780s Oxford. John and hyperspectral imaging, paintings have Sibthorp had by then succeeded his father been examined and pigments have been Humphrey to the Sherardian chair of botany. recognised. Bauer seems to have had a En route to study the little-known flora of the limited palate, using possibly no more than a Variegated Solanum dulcamara L., labelled by eastern Mediterranean, he stopped off in Bobart the Younger and probably collected from dozen colours. An exhibition in the Weston Vienna. Here he was able to study a copy of the Garden in the 1680s Library in summer 2017 highlighted the Dioscorides’ Codex Vindobonensis, a first- (Acc. No.: BSn-D06r-02). result of this research. century account of plants from the central Photo © Oxford University Herbaria My work is always varied and exciting but and eastern Mediterranean. But, more never had I been asked to produce an important, he was introduced to the botanical Goodwin, Z.A., Harris, D.J., Filer, D., illustration demonstrating Bauer’s method of artist Ferdinand Bauer (1760–1826) and Wood, J.R.I. and Scotland, R.W. (2015). working. Richard appeared in my studio in invited him to accompany him. They left Widespread mistaken identity in tropical the Department of Plant Sciences one Vienna on March 6th 1786. Poor guy, his plant collections. Current Biology 25: 1066- morning with a large selection of ground-up relationship with Sibthorp was certainly not 1067. pigments, all mixed with supermarket runny good, he was treated as a servant and he had honey, decanted into mussel shells and left little or no command of the Greek or English Harris, S.A. (2017). Oxford Botanic Garden for a week to solidify. With the help of a languages. Travel would have been long and & Arboretum. A brief history. Bodleian sealant gun, we attached these shells to a arduous, by coach from Vienna to Trieste and Library Publications: Oxford. square of plywood and the strange new paint then onwards into Italy most probably on box was ready for use. My idea was to show horseback. They also had stormy seas to Harris, S.A. (2018). Seventeenth-century several stages in just one illustration, my own cope with. During their exploration over the plant lists and herbarium collections: a case colour code, a detailed pencil drawing with following 21 months, visiting Sicily, western study from the Oxford Physic Garden. numbers relating to the code and parts of the Crete, some of the Aegean islands, Turkey Journal of the History of Collections 30: 1- illustration painted. Deciding on a suitable and eventually Greece, Bauer produced very 14. plant took a while but the obvious choice was detailed pencil drawings of almost 1,000 snake’s head fritillary (Fritillaria meleagris plant species and colour-coded them. But Harvey, J. (1972). Early gardening L.), the designated flower for Oxfordshire with so little known of the Mediterranean catalogues: with complete reprints of lists and, with grateful thanks, obtained from the flora, they soon found that summer was not and accounts of the 16th-19th centuries. Oxford Botanic Garden. the best time for plant collecting, most of the Phillimore, London. Then my attention turned to the paints. I was plants at low altitude would have long since fascinated with the names, the ingredients finished flowering. The majority of Bauer’s Ingram, J.E. (2001). Elysium Britannicum, and even more so, the historic aspects. exquisite masterpieces feature mountain or the Royal Gardens. University of Madder, a red dye made from boiling the plants. Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. roots of Rubia tinctorum L., has been By this time Winsor and Newton were detected in linens found in the tomb of producing pans of paint but a classically Killick, J., Perry, R. and Woodell, S. (1998). Tutankhamun and in Norse burials. Another trained artist such as Bauer was almost The Flora of Oxfordshire. Pisces red, vermillion, was originally produced by certainly still grinding his own pigments. Publications, Newbury. grinding the mercury-rich mineral cinnabar The actual paintings were executed back in to a powder. An alternative ‘Dutch method’ Oxford several years later and Stephen Harris Morton, A.G. (1981). History of botanical was formulated in the seventeenth century has suggested that each painting took Bauer science: an account of the development of when mercury and melted sulphur were on average a day and a half to complete. botany from ancient times to the present mixed and heated, resulting in crystals of Bauer was able to compare his colour-coded day. Academic Press, London. mercuric sulphide being formed by sketches with the pressed material from the condensation. Washing these crystals in a trip and he also had access to plants grown Ogilvie, B.W. (2006). The science of strong alkali, prior to grinding, removed the from seed in the botanic garden. I think he describing. Natural history in Renaissance sulphur content. Both methods produced an had to have had a remarkable memory of Europe. University of Chicago Press, extremely poisonous pigment. A rich reddish colours and textures besides his code, which Chicago. brown dye produced by boiling up the sadly no longer exists. heartwood of various species of Caesalpinia It seems obvious to me why Bauer declined Stephen A. Harris from the East Indies has the intriguing name an offer to accompany John Sibthorp on his Curator of Oxford University Herbaria Brazilwood. Early Portuguese explorers also

Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford 7 found this genus growing in South America these ‘scale insects’ are gently brushed off George Claridge and named the country after it. Ancient the pads, dried in the sun and ground to form Britons made use of a native plant, Isatis the dye. Druce’s career as a tinctoria L., to produce their own blue dye, I must admit I was very surprised when I the legendary woad. We can see that Bauer found that I could do the whole Fritillaria botanist frequently made use of white, contemporary painting using only three colours: gamboge botanical artists shy away from the more (yellow); indigo (dark blue); and cochineal dense, body-colours, preferring the (red). Bauer certainly used these. All the transparency of watercolours. He would greens were possible using different have had access to both barium white and the combinations of yellow and blue with very poisonous lead white, which was only touches of red to tone down where necessary. banned and taken off sale in the UK in 1994. The maroon colour was obtained perfectly Formerly used not only in paints but also using indigo and cochineal and all the soft cosmetics, this pigment caused many deaths. grey tones for the shadows on the white Gamboge is obtained by grinding the fritillary were a combination of all three. Of orange-brown resin tapped from the bark of course, with this very limited choice it would trees in the family Clusiaceae, mainly not have been possible to recreate violets, Garcinia from the Far East. Indigo is mauves or purples, had I chosen a different extracted from another plant source, the species. On a technical note I found the legume genus Indigofera. The earliest pigments easier to use than I had expected recorded use of this dark greenish-blue dye but had to be aware of one little thing. dates back to Peru in 4,000 B.C. The name Botanical illustrators build up colours with a indigo is thought to have originated from the series of washes and I was aware that the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilization, an drying times were slightly slower than when area stretching across modern-day north east using my usual paints. The difference was Afghanistan, Pakistan and northern India. probably not more than two seconds, but Cochineal dye is insect based. Last summer enough to make me hesitate before applying I was very fortunate to be on a working trip another layer of colour. We had hoped to to Mexico and had the opportunity to visit a obtain a sheet of paper similar to that which cochineal farm. Cladodes (pads) of species of Bauer would have used but this proved Portrait of G.C. Druce © Department of Plant the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia) are cut off difficult and I resorted to my preferred Sciences and placed upright in large trays of moist surface, the French “Arches” (grain satiné). sand in long, light sheds. The aphid-related This exercise gave me a far greater George Claridge Druce (1850-1932) was a Dactylopus coccus insects, are introduced to understanding and total admiration of the self-taught botanist but a pharmacist by trade. little woven baskets, commonly called work of my predecessor, Ferdinand Bauer, He was able to recognise 400 species of Zapotec nests, which are wired to the pads. very possibly the greatest botanical illustrator plants by the time he was 16, though he did After fertilisation, the wingless females leave ever (certainly so in my estimation). not know their names. He was further the baskets and sink their mouthparts into the inspired in botany as it was one of the fleshy pad, cover themselves in a powdery subjects he took in his final pharmaceutical coating – and never move again (the winged Rosemary Wise exams in 1872. It was at the age of 22 (in the males die after a few days). After 90 days, Botanical Artist middle of a night when he could not sleep) he made the decision to collect plants he found on his rambles and form a herbarium, so he could name the plants and record their distributions. He had the intention of writing a Flora of his native county Northamp- tonshire. His first publication was on Northamptonshire plants published in the Journal of Botany in 1877, followed by another in the Botanical Exchange Club Report for 1878; forerunners to the Flora he later compiled. Frank Bellamy, the Oxford astronomer, was a friend of Druce and said he was ‘a man of energy’ when he arrived in Oxford in 1879 and already experienced in field work in natural history. He was eager to acquire knowledge, make friends and publicise the botanical information he had learnt. Oxford was a good place to access libraries, mix with people from the academic scientific community and within easy access of the countryside. These early beginnings led to Druce becoming the most prominent British amateur botanist of the first three decades of the twentieth century. He had an enormous influence on a large number of amateur botanists. He had ambition. Druce is well known for almost single-handedly running A palette made by Richard Mulholland using eighteenth-century recipes and traditionally presented the Botanical Exchange Club of the British in mussel shells. Isles from 1903. This was the forerunner to

8 Oxford Plant Systematics OPS 24 June 2018 the present day Botanical Society of Britain For his botanical work and publications an adjacent piece of land in 1904 known as and Ireland (BSBI). He increased Druce received an Honorary doctorate from Hurst Copse to add to it. In 1916 the Ruskin membership considerably. One of the ways St Andrews University in 1919, he was made Reserve was transferred to the ownership of he did this was to write to people - amateurs, an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College the National Trust and today is managed by professional botanists, the ‘great and the and received a D.Sc. on his publications and English Nature. For the last twenty years of good’ - inviting them to join. However by examination from the University of his life Druce served on the council for the sometimes he did this a little too often and Oxford in 1924. Druce also became a Fellow Society for the Promotion of Nature received rather curt responses, as seen in a of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1927; an Reserves. few letters in the Druce archives in the amazing achievement for an amateur. Druce was still writing and publishing Department of Plant Sciences (University of Druce’s desire to find new plants to add to books in his 80s. His last book, the Comital Oxford)! One of the people he invited to join the list of British plants was something that Flora of the British Isles (1932), was the Northamptonshire Natural History was the driving force in his field work for his published just a month before he died. It Society was Charles Darwin from whom he entire life. One of his most exceptional finds recorded the distribution of every British received a courteous letter declining the was a grass which had been sitting in the across the country. Druce told invitation. On field excursions with other herbarium of Dillenius for almost 200 years the reader he had visited all the counties of people Druce provided abundant and unnamed and unknown in Britain. He visited Great Britain and Ireland. This wide-ranging valuable botanical information and this was the locality in Somerset where Dillenius had familiarity of the distribution of British enriched by his ‘cheery mood’ which made collected it and found spikes of it, also in plants and their discovery by botanists of the the ‘walk a pleasant one’, as Bellamy other localities nearby at Brean Down. He past was unmatched by anyone else at the records. In this way he kept up the profile of proceeded to name the species Koeleria time. The work contributed greatly to field botany. He was always enthusiastic in splendens (Pourr.) Druce (now called K. knowledge of the biogeography of the British helping and encouraging young people. vallesiana (Honck.) Bertol. ex Schult.). Flora. Druce ends the preface to his book Apart from writing most of the yearly Other discoveries of his included the grass paying homage to all his friends and fellow accounts for the Botanical Exchange Club Bromus interruptus (Hack.) Druce, a British helpers and recalling wonderful visions of reports, which were very voluminous, and endemic which is now extinct in the wild, a habitats visited while looking for plants. He papers and notes, Druce published several pondweed in the River Loddon that was must have felt his fieldwork days were over county Floras, those of Oxfordshire (1886), named by Alfred Fryer as Potamogeton as he ends with the words ‘Hail and Farewell’ Berkshire (1897), Buckinghamshire (1926), drucei Fryer (now recognised as P. nodosus written in Latin. Northamptonshire (1930), Zetland (Shet- Poir.), and the common spotted orchid land) (1922) and West Ross (1929) along Orchis fuchsia Druce, which is now References with three other books. He added a historical Dactylorhiza fuchsia (Druce) Soó. Druce dimension to his accounts. These books were was the first person in Britain to discover and Allen, D.E. (1986). The discoveries of very well received and they provided him recognise the very rare thistle broomrape, Druce. The Scottish Naturalist 1986: 175- with much desired acclaim in the academic Orobanche reticulata Wallr. This he found in 189. world. north-east Craven in 1908. He loved to be In 1895 Druce was appointed as Special able to discover and name new varieties of Bellamy, F.A. George Claridge Druce. A Curator of the Fielding Herbarium in the plants but unfortunately most of the new memoir of his botanical life. From an Department of Botany in the University of names he described are not valid or current unpublished manuscript. Sherardian Oxford, which was then housed within the today, although it did highlight many taxa of Library: Druce Archive Box 47: 01. Botanic Gardens. As a botanist he was the ecological or geographical interest. His first person to take curation of the herbarium methods of the naming of new species were Druce, G.C. (1932). The comital Flora of collections seriously in the University. thought controversial by his ‘intellectual the British Isles. T. Buncle & Co., During his curatorship, Druce carried out the superiors’; he did not always adhere to the Arbroath. re-arrangement of about a quarter of a million generally accepted rules! He had a long- specimens including naming, at least to running feud with James Britten, who Harris, S.A. (2007). Druce and Oxford genera, those undetermined plants and those worked at the Natural History Museum in University Herbaria. Oxford Plant from the pre-Linnean collections. Today the London, as some of his new finds had been Systematics 14: 12-13. collections would not be in the orderly state attributed to others by Britten who also had they are but for him. The Fielding Herbarium criticized Druce over his Flora of Berkshire. Serena K. Marner of worldwide plants is still in the general Even after the death of Britten, Druce still felt Herbarium Manager arrangement Druce placed it in, which made offended by it. After all, Druce just wanted the collections useable by researchers. He to please people and to be thought of in a also had a great interest in the holdings of respectable light especially amongst his historic collections. Together with Professor peers. Vines (the Sherardian Professor of Botany Druce lived through times of change in from 1888 to 1919), he published two books, attitudes to collecting; rather than collecting one on the herbaria of plants like stamps, conservation was (1907) and one on Robert Morison’s becoming a concern. Studies of ecology, collections (1914), both of whom were physiology and genetics were beginning to former Professors of Botany in the come to the fore; they were interesting times University. On his death Druce left his own botanically. An awareness of disappearing herbarium and library to the University and a prime localities and the importance of bequest of money, the bulk of his fortune, for preserving habitats for future generations had curation and research on the collections. struck him. A good friend of his, Charles This bequest continues to make a Rothschild, who was a pioneer of nature contribution to the maintenance of the conservation in Britain had established the Herbaria. The herbarium bequeathed by first nature reserve in the UK at Wicken Fen Druce, consisting mostly of British plants, in 1899. He possibly had an influence on comprises 200,000 specimens and is one fifth Druce. Druce became a trustee of of Oxford University Herbaria’s entire Oxfordshire’s first nature reserve at Cothill, The illustrated front page of Druce’s ‘Book of collection. known as the Ruskin Reserve, and purchased Prescriptions’ (1871) from the Druce Archives

Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford 9 Some are born rare, some have rareness thrust upon them

Someone working in a wood for three to five years, the length of a typical D.Phil. project, will probably not notice much change in The Orchid Trail at plant species presence or abundance. Yet the Gait Burrows reserve vegetation is in a state of flux, which Photo © Keith Kirby becomes apparent when longer recording runs are available. Since the first recording of the Dawkins plots in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire, in 1974 we have seen bramble (Rubus fruticosus L. agg.) go from a widespread dominant over large areas; to an almost insignificant contribution to the ground flora structure in the 1990s; before recovering to start to becoming a trip hazard Surrey’s woods were greatly affected by the Its location was closely wardened over the again by 2012. The grass Brachypodium 1987 storm, with many trees and large summer flowering-period. In the herbarium sylvaticum (Huds.) P.Beauv. was scarce in branches brought down in the Godalming there are fourteen specimens collected the 1970s but is now locally dominant. area. Searches were organised to see if the between 1799 and 1928, from at least six What about on even longer timescales? gaps and disturbance might have encouraged sites. Castle Eden Dene, in Durham seems to Were the plants that are rare now, also rare in buried seed of C. depauperata to come back have been a popular collecting spot: six of the the past and if not what has thrust rareness on to life. In 1992 a single plant was found in a sheets come from there. A note on one states them? The specimens in the Fielding-Druce place where it had been seen once before ‘plentiful in parts of the dene but seldom Herbarium provide some insights to this prior to 1970. It was directly under a gap flowering except in open places‘. Again, question. In his Surrey Flora, Lousley (1976) formed when a large branch had broken off a conservation efforts have been rewarded: the commented that starved wood-sedge ( lime tree in the storm. It was still there in wild plant was crossed with garden depauperata Curtis ex With.) had been fairly 2017 in a small patch of about six square specimens and young plants have been plentiful in woods that had just been felled or metres. Seed from it has been re-introduced planted back into former haunts. At one of coppiced. The Fielding-Druce Herbarium in to another former site to make its revival in these, the Gait Barrows reserve in Lancashire Oxford contains fifteen different specimens Surrey less vulnerable. Several other there are now signs to the orchid trail; a far from the Godalming area, collected between woodland rarities, more common in the past, cry from the secrecy of the 1980s. 1840 and 1940 and another five from the seem to have declined as our woods have This Lady’s-slipper was targeted by plant’s Somerset stronghold. With the become more shaded through lack of collectors, the sort of action that led Arthur decline of coppice as a common management management. Church (1922) to complain that people would practice, the sedge’s fortunes sank. By 1976 ‘devastate hedges and woodland, grabbing Lousley thought it was perhaps extinct in all available specimens of rarer flowers of Surrey; it survived in Somerset but at one aesthetic value for alleged decorative stage the sole English colony in the wild may purposes’. He accused collectors of showing have consisted of just one plant (Rich and no compunction about taking rare plants for Birkinshaw, 2001). their herbaria or to exchange with other botanists. Giving the locality for a rare or interesting plant might be to sign its death warrant. Other species may be rare in Britain because they are on the edge of their European range. The 32 specimens of the Italian lords and ladies (Arum italicum Mill.) come from a scatter of sites across southern England, reflecting its current distribution but with climate change it might become more abundant. The red helleborine (Cephalanthera rubra (L.) Rich.) has probably always been largely restricted to the western Cotswolds around Stroud (seven specimens collected between 1799 and 1902) where it still just manages to hold on. There are five sheets of the yellow sedge (Carex Cypripedium calceolus from the Druce flava L.), three from its current stronghold at Herbarium, the left-hand specimen from Castle Roudsea Wood, Cumbria. Other relatively Eden Dene, the top specimen from Yorkshire and the bottom-right specimen collected from the stable species appear to be coralroot orchid Lake District in 1865. Photos © OUH (Corallorhiza trifida Châtel) (19 specimens from eastern Scotland and northern England, By the 1980s the Lady’s-slipper orchid 1833-1916); and spiked rampion (Phyteuma (Cypripedium calceolus L.) similarly spicatum L.), 19 specimens (1831-1927), Specimen of Carex depauperata collected by survived at only one site in the wild in Britain almost all from Sussex. With climate change G.C.Druce in 1907 from Godalming, Surrey. (plus a few British-origin plants in gardens). we might see some of the southern rarities

10 Oxford Plant Systematics OPS 24 June 2018 expanding while the northern species may come under more pressure. Herbarium specimens may incidentally give insights into the social side of the collecting in the accompanying notes. Then as now, trips to see a rare plant might be frustrated because the instructions on where it was to be A good day’s work found were not quite right (George Druce’s collecting first attempt to see Cephalanthera rubra in the Cotswolds); or when a site is found but Photo © Maria then destroyed ̶ an immense colony of Tatiana Martinez Cardamine impatiens L. near the Clifton Suspension Bridge was afterwards ‘cleared by gardeners’. The finding of Cynoglossum germanicum Jacq. in Wychwood was more successful, in the company of Lady Margaret Watney, Lady Isabel Gordon and Lady Edward Grey – could a modern expedition match this clutch of titles? theless, it was only this year after a visit to Travelling with two local botanists Maira Paraguay and the collection of authentic I. Martinez and Gina Aramayo the journey References chondrosepala that we have been able to began interestingly enough in the Chaco confirm that some of the plants we have been region where we refound Ipomoea lilloi Church, A. H. (1922). Introduction to the calling by this name appear to be the little- O’Donell and demonstrated that its tubers plant-life of the Oxford District. Oxford known species from Paraguay Ipomoea (correctly storage roots) can rival those of I. University Press. subalata Hassl., which is distinguished by its batatas (L.) Lam.. However, it was later, on winged stems and large corolla, which is the descent to Pampa Negra in the hot dry Lousley, J. E. (1976). The Flora of Surrey. indistinctly pubescent on the exterior. inter-Andean valleys to collect material of I. Newton Abbott, David and Charles. juliagutierreziae in leaf that we came across some good populations of a distinctive new Rich, T. and Birkinshaw, C. (2001). species. It clearly belongs to a large South Conservation of Britain's biodiversity: American radiation centred on the Parana Carex depauperata Curtis ex With. region but is distinguished by its dimorphic (), Starved Wood-Sedge. leaves and proliferating shoots, in which the Watsonia 23: 401-412. apical leaves are clearly bracteate in form. This is the usual situation in erect species but Keith Kirby highly unusual in climbing species such as Woodland Ecologist this. It is hoped the new species will be published later this year. My last few days of fieldwork were spent in Is there no end to it? the Yungas of La Paz. I was fortunate to be accompanied and guided by the doyen of Bolivian botany and founder of the La Paz herbarium, Dr. Stephan Beck. We began by In 2015, Wood et al. (2015) published a descending the Death Road, but I have to revision of Ipomoea in Bolivia, in which we confess it is not as deadly as it once was as a recognized 102 species. Perhaps thinking the Above: Ipomoea lilloi with a root to rival the new road now carries most of the traffic. We task was done, I did not visit Bolivia at all in sweet potato. Photo © Maria Tatiana Martinez survived the experience but found no 2015, the first year I had not been in the country for twenty-two years. However, a visit to Arizona revealed an undiscovered new species amongst collections loaned to the late Dan Austin from Missouri Botanical Garden. The result was Ipomoea diminuta J.R.I.Wood & Scotland published as new in John collecting the 2017 (Wood & Scotland 2017). Then new species above fieldwork in 2016 revealed Ipomoea Pampa Negra volcanensis O’Donell grew in Bolivia as well as in Argentina where it had previously been Photo © Maria Tatiana thought to be endemic. Martinez 2017 brought new records for the outstandingly interesting species Ipomoea lactifera J.R.I.Wood & Scotland and I. juliagutierreziae J.R.I.Wood & Scotland, the former the first newly discovered Crop Wild Relative of the Sweet Potato for a hundred years and the latter a weird liana with flowers The total number of species recorded for ipomoeas. The next day we headed for the at the tips of its leafless branches and sister to Bolivia thus crept up to 106 but there had Serrania de Bella Vista, a ridge enveloped in the clade of tree ipomoeas. And the discovery been no new species since 2015 before a visit moist cloud-covered hill forest (Bosque of flowering and fruiting material of Ipomoea early this year, funded unexpectedly by a montano humedo), which I had visited with chondrosepala Hallier f. hinted that our last-minute grant, came up trumps. Dieter Wasshausen twenty years before to concept of that species was wrong. Never- look for Acanthaceae. We did not go

Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford 11 unrewarded. Soon after entering the forest News from the Herbaria illustrated and described in publications. The (and crucially before entering the clouds), we material shown from the Sherard Collection saw large white flowers decorating the tops in the Library included H.A. van Rheede of the forest trees up to 20 metres in height. Hortus Indicus Malabaricus Part 1 (1678), R. Stopping the car and peering upwards, it was Fielding-Druce (OXF) and Morison Historia Plantarum Universalis clear we had found another species I could Daubeny (FHO) Oxoniensis (1680) and J.J. Dillenius Hortus not identify. Many activities happen behind the scenes in Elthamensis with a selection of seventeenth, the Herbaria in order to make the collections eighteenth and nineteenth century more easily accessible, easy to locate and specimens. W. Roxburgh’s Plants of the available to researchers and general visitors. coast of Coromandel (1795) and J.D. The collections have to be kept in order, in Hooker’s Illustrations of Himalayan Plants good repair and information on their (1855) were also shown with corresponding collection details and identifications are herbarium material. being added to BRAHMS, the herbarium The Herbaria were asked to show students, database, continuously. There is no end to taking part in a number of courses, relevant the work of curation staff with a million material for their studies. This included specimens to maintain! students from the Institute of Historical We are always pleased to see visitors and Research, University of London on a course researchers who are interested in the focused on the History of Gardens. Garden collections. 2017 saw another record number plants and plant introductions from the mid- The new Ipomoea from the Yungas © John Wood of visits (see below). sixteenth century to the mid-seventeenth century were highlighted from the rich Collecting a specimen was not so easy. The resources available in the Sherardian Library slopes are precipitous and densely covered in Visitors 2017 310 visits were made which included 18 of Plant Taxonomy and Oxford University forest. Once inside the forest you can see Herbaria. A new batch of Oxford Sconal nothing. Two methods led to success. The groups, individuals and just over 100 Oxford University students who were introduced to Library trainees also came for a session first involved spotting a tree covered in the focusing on the links between the herbarium Ipomoea from below, clambering through the the collections. Two thirds of the University students were post graduates attending collections and the archives of manuscripts forest in near obscurity, climbing the tree to and published works in the Sherardian a height where the stem of the Ipomoea was courses with the Doctoral Training Centre and on the Bioscience Doctoral Training Library. 15 students taking part in a relatively free and then pulling hard. workshop on nature printing, organised by Eventual success was achieved when Partnership, while the remaining third were undergraduates studying Biological the Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt flowering shoots came down through the tree Arboretum, were shown examples of nature branches. The second involved finding a Sciences. A number of different groups visited in 2017 with specialist interests and printing from the collections. Apart from landslide and climbing up the unstable slope seventeenth and eighteenth century examples and entering the forest when reaching the were shown relevant collections in OXF and FHO starting with some local groups. found in the early herbaria, Thomas Moore’s same level as the Ipomoea. The third The Ferns of Great Britain and Ireland landslide we struggled up yielded success as 14 members of a local Natural History Society were interested in how the (1855) showing the use of herbarium we found plenty of accessible material where specimens to create a printing plate was a tree had fallen. understanding of the history of the Oxfordshire flora came about. Examples displayed. A manuscript volume of nature Back in the herbarium in La Paz, we found prints made in Edinburgh in the mid- we had not been the first to collect the plant. from Botanic Garden catalogues and the various Oxfordshire Floras published from nineteenth century which used dried plants A specimen had been collected in 1981 but directly for printing onto paper was also had remained unidentified because there 1648 to 1998, including ten publications, were shown along with original plant shown. As in previous years we were were no flowers. This fruiting specimen delighted to welcome students from Dr Sarah complemented ours nicely as it will enable material collected by the authors. The importance of the link between the written Simblet’s Oxford summer-school course on the preparation of a complete description of botanical drawing at the Ruskin School of what is a spectacular new species, possibly record and the physical plant specimen was emphasized when interpreting precisely what Fine Art to view Sibthorp and Bauer’s Flora one that climbs higher than any other known Graeca materials. species. And, searching through the was being grown and where it was collected. Several members of the Oxford U3A visited 14 members of the RHS Orchid Committee undetermined material in the herbarium I also visited while attending a meeting in came across flowerless material of another for an introduction to the history of the collections. A selection of recently collected Oxford. Other special groups included a visit species of Ipomoea, I. lindenii M. Martens & by the University’s Chancellor’s Court of Galeotti, which constitutes the 109th species material and recent publications from the Plant Diversity Research group was also Benefactors and representatives from the of Ipomoea known from Bolivia. Is there no Botanic Gardens of Toyama, Japan. end to new records? highlighted to indicate current work. 15 members of the University’s ChemBioPlants A number of individuals made visits of more than one day to study specific References network (drawn from the Departments of Biochemistry, Chemistry, Geology and Plant collections. A doctoral student from Xiamen Sciences) were introduced to the research University, China, visited in connection with Wood, J.R.I., Carine, M.A., Harris, D., her taxonomic studies on the genus Mallotus Wilkin, P., Williams, B., Scotland, R.W. potential of the botanical collections held. Richard Mulholland’s study of the pigments (Euphorbiaceae). A post-doctoral visitor, (2015). Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) in based at De Montfort University Leicester, Bolivia. Kew Bulletin 70 (31): 1 – 124. used by Ferdinand Bauer in the original watercolours made for the Flora Graeca was for a year (originally from CSIR North East used to highlight the role played by analytical Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, Wood, J.R.I & Scotland, R.W. (2017). India) consulted the collections in relation to Notes on Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) from chemistry in his work (see OPS 21: 11-12 (2015). ethno-medicinally important taxa in the the Amazonian periphery. Kew Bulletin 72 family Ericaceae. Sian Bowen, Professor of (10): 1–18. A group of 15 scientists from the UK Nitrogen Fixation Centre (including many Drawing, Arts University Bournemouth and from India) were shown a display focusing Leverhulme Research Fellow, came to John R.I. Wood examine Indian historical collections related Research Associate on legumes and Indian specimens, several

12 Oxford Plant Systematics OPS 24 June 2018 Abstracts of systematic theses submitted in 2017

The following D.Phil. theses were submitted and successfully defended in 2017:

Completing the global inventory of plants – Species discovery and diversity Specimens of Marchantia polymorpha from the Dillenian Herbarium of the Historia Muscorum (1741) Zoë Goodwin Department of Plant Sciences, University of to the Hortus Malabaricus and specimens plants, therefore making useful additions to Oxford from the Dubois herbarium. Two the collections. A few Acanthaceae descendants of the botanist William specimens collected in Peru were also sent as Supervisors: Professor Robert Scotland Williamson Newbould (1819-1886) visited a gift from MO and a few Fabaceae (Oxford) and Dr David Harris (Royal to look at letters, references and herbarium collections were received from Kew. Botanic Garden Edinburgh) specimens related to their ancestor. Just over 300 specimens of Convolvulaceae Newbould had been a friend and correspond- specimens were sent as gifts from Missouri To complete an online world Flora by 2020 ent of George Claridge Druce and had been Botanical Garden Herbarium, Colorado rapid progress is required towards of much encouragement to him. University Museum of Natural History understanding the taxonomy and Herbarium and the Herbarium at the distributions of the world’s plants. This Loan material University of Brasília and will be added to ambitious target set by the Global Strategy During 2017 several loans of Stictocardia OXF. 100 miscellaneous named vascular for Plant Conservation is hampered by two (Convolvulaceae) were received for the plants collected in Japan were also received facts; first, many species of seed plant remain studies of Alex Sumadijaya. Five additional from the National Museum of Nature and poorly known and second, the process of loans of Convolvulaceae, mostly of the genus Science, Tsukuba, Japan, as exchange improving taxonomy and discovering species Ipomoea, were received for the monographic material for OXF. is not well understood. Here I investigate in studies of John Wood. A loan of detail the taxonomy and process of species Blepharocalyx (Myrtaceae) was received Serena K. Marner discovery in a genus of tropical plants, from Kew for study by a visiting researcher, Herbarium Manager Aframomum by examining specimens, Carolyn Proença. During the same period, taxonomic literature and authors of specimen 138 sheets of Convolvulus were returned to determinations. I demonstrate that >50% of the University of Texas Herbarium. Under the supervision of Professor Hugh Aframomum specimens did not have the 193 specimens from six loans were returned Dickinson, I have been trained to maintain correct name prior to a recent comprehensive to OXF and of these sheets, 20 percent of the Department of Plant Sciences’ Scanning revision, that the number of specimens in them were documented as types. An Electron Microscope (SEM), and to use herbaria doubled between 1970 and 2000, additional four loans consisting of 99 techniques such as critical point drying and and that these results are also found in other specimens were also returned to FHO, which sputter coating. Maintaining the SEM and taxa. I deconstruct the process of ‘species included three new types. ensuring that it is always in working order discovery’ by identifying four key events: Internet loans of digital images were made has been challenging but enjoyable. I have Initial collection, publication, conservation of specific material requested. These were also had the opportunity to pass my assessment, and distribution mapping. The posted online on the BRAHMS/Oxford knowledge of the equipment and techniques time lags between the initial collection and University Herbaria website for individual on to others. In addition, I have learnt to completion of a) an accurate conservation researchers, many of the specimens being operate the ultra-microtome, and have made assessment (101 years) and b) a potential types. We welcome requests of this sections of the liverwort Marchantia comprehensive distribution map (115 years) sort and appreciate the return of polymorpha L. for viewing under a demonstrate that many seed plant species determinations so that names are kept up to Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). I published in the last 100 years are not fully date in the database and on specimen sheets. have used these techniques to look at the understood. This is partly due to the fact that Approximately 15% of the whole of Oxford morphology of fern spores from herbarium most species protologues (>90%) cite too University Herbaria collections have so far material. Working with this equipment has few specimens at publication to produce an been databased, so there is a very large been very insightful to the other research that accurate conservation assessment. amount of material not as yet online. goes on in the Department and how it can link Furthermore, I explore variation in species’ Therefore we advise researchers, as well as to the work of the Herbaria. distribution patterns over time, taking looking online, to email with requests for I have also been involved with digitising the account of specimen misidentification. particular material. Acanthaceae in Oxford University Herbaria, Taken together the thesis identifies the lack which has put into perspective the sheer size of taxonomic capacity to efficiently deal with New accessions of the collections here at Oxford. Acanth- the tremendous influx of specimens since aceae makes up less than 0.5% of the entire 1970, the poor current state of taxonomic To add to the FHO holdings of specimens collection. This is part of a programme to knowledge of many taxa, and three from Malawi, Dr Joachim Thiede from make the whole of Oxford’s herbarium significant time lags in the process of species Hamburg, Germany, kindly sent 98 collections available online. discovery. Focused taxonomic effort is photographs of miscellaneous species from required for the successful completion of a the Flora of Malawi. The photos of the world online Flora with conservation plants, all determined, have label data as James Ritchie Herbarium Technician assessments to meet the 2020 GSPC target. specimens and comprise mostly non-woody

Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford 13 Do hotspots of species Areas with relatively stable climates during common ancestor of Puya was a cold- endemism promote novel periods of past climate change have been resistant plant. This is suggested to explain hypothesised to show high modern the prevalence of Puya at high elevations. lineage diversity? endemism as the result of increased The evolution of CAM was correlated with Cicely A. M. Marshall speciation in isolated refugia, and/or a lower changes in the climatic niche, and occurred Department of Plant Sciences, University of rate of extinction within the refugia. Two multiple times in Puya. These multiple Oxford dated phylogenies are estimated for African origins were not independent because the magnoliids and Rubiaceae species, which common ancestor of Puya was likely to be a Supervisors: Professor Stephen Harris and show that most of Upper Guinea’s globally weak CAM plant (based on a diagnostic Dr William Hawthorne (Oxford) rare species are young, vicariant species, Arg679 residue in the PEPC sequence). It is although at least one species is likely to be a likely that populations of P. chilensis Molina This thesis documents patterns in plant paleo-endemic, supporting both hypotheses. gained CAM by introgression from P. species distribution across tropical Africa. Areas with historically stable climates alpestris Poepp.) Gay ssp. zoellneri (Mez) Geographic patterns in the distribution of showing present day climatic or topological Zizka et al.. Weak CAM photosynthesis and globally rare plants within Upper Guinea are isolation explain areas of high global cold resistance allowed Puya to colonise the emphasised, and correlates with these endemism in tropical Africa, although the Andes from south to north, and in the process patterns are investigated. This thesis argues introduction of a high disturbance regime can constitutive CAM and C3 evolved. The later- that globally rare species can and should be remove this pattern. A conservation strategy evolving species in the genus are suggested emphasised in conservation strategy. which promotes the protection of globally to have lost their capacity for CAM as they Approximately 3.7 million global rare species in tropical Africa is feasible, radiated into more mesic habitats during their occurrence records of 28,803 tropical given what we now know of the African colonisation of the northern Andes. mainland African vascular plant species are flora, and is wise, at least given the success compiled into a database framework. The of the Ghanaian programme over 20 years. database is used to propose an updated biogeographic framework for tropical Africa, Student reports which is sympathetic to previous Ecological and Evolutionary chorological frameworks but maximises Significance of Crassulacean rd regional endemism within quantitatively Tom Carruthers (D.Phil., 3 defined boundaries. A definition of Upper Acid Metabolism in the year) Evolution of Ipomoea in Guinea as the forests of West Africa between Montane Genus Puya the Neotropics Sierra Leone and Ghana is recovered. (Bromeliaceae) The concentration of globally rare species Juan D. Beltrán Supervised by Professor Robert Scotland in the tropical African flora (bioquality as (Oxford). Funding: NERC. measured by the GHI) is calculated and Supervisors: Professor Andrew Smith and mapped at one degree square and half degree Professor Stephen Harris (Oxford) Over the past year, I have focussed on square resolution, revealing high bioquality estimating divergence times within Ipomoea. of the horn of Africa. Bioquality is calculated Little is known about the evolution and A particular motivation for this has been to by categorising the global area of occupancy ecology of crassulacean acid metabolism determine whether key events in the of all tropical African taxa into a Star rating, (CAM) in the genus Puya Molina. CAM is a evolution of the sweet potato (Ipomoea with the result that a bioquality score can photosynthetic pathway typified by nocturnal batatas L.Lam.) are likely to have occurred now be calculated at a local scale anywhere CO2 fixation and is regarded as a water- in pre-human times. The results of these in tropical Africa to inform conservation saving mechanism. Puya is one of the largest analyses were published in a recent Current strategy. genera in the pineapple family (Bromel- Biology article “Reconciling Conflicting At the local scale, variation in bioquality is iaceae), with 226 species distributed across Phylogenies in the Origin of Sweet Potato modelled in two areas of high global the Andes, Costa Rica and the Guiana Shield, and Dispersal to Polynesia” (see News item endemism within Upper Guinea: the Nimba and from sea level to 5000 m. About 21% of page 3). In addition to investigating Mountains and SW Ghana. Disturbance is the Puya species are CAM and at least 10 of divergence times in the context of Ipomoea, only significant variable retained in both these CAM species occur above 3000 m. The I have also been focussing on a number of models, and shows a strong negative main aim of this thesis was to uncover new theoretical issues relating to divergence time relationship with bioquality. Bioquality evidence to understand the ecophysiology estimation. These include the difficulties of scores in forest reserves of SW Ghana are and evolution of CAM in the montane genus divergence time estimation where there is a shown to have been stable over 20 years, Puya. The prevalence of CAM and C3 highly incomplete fossil record, and where although our perception of the global rarity species in Puya was estimated from carbon- there is genome-wide molecular evolutionary and identity of species within the area has isotope values of 161 species. The climatic rate variation. altered substantially. This finding supports niche of constitutive CAM species and C3 I will continue to develop these themes over the GHI as a metric of conservation priority species of Puya was modelled using the next year. Further, I will also focus in the face of partial information. georeferenced herbarium records and increasingly on estimating diversification At half degree square resolution, 55% of climatic variables to evaluate the differences rates and the evolution of ecological traits in tropical African cells are estimated to have between their niches. The evolution of CAM the context of molecular phylogenies. This less than 2.5% of their likely species richness in Puya was investigated by reconstructing work will be carried out in the context of documented. A regression tree model is used the ancestral photosynthetic pathway on an Ipomoea, for which our group has now to interpolate bioquality scores for cells AFLP phylogeny and by studying positive constructed a robust and well-sampled lacking species distribution data, making use selection in the genes encoding the key phylogeny. Given the size of Ipomoea and its of a range of modern climatic, paleo climatic, enzyme phosphenolpyruvate carboxylase distribution in a range of different habitats, geographic and biogeographic variables, (CAM). The cold resistance and thermal this may provide unique insights into the found to be predictive of bioquality scores. lability of PEPC was investigated for high- determinants of plant diversification in large Areas showing the most stable climates over and low-elevation CAM species of Puya to tropical clades. In addition, I will also focus the past 21,000 years are shown to have the explore the potential molecular adaptations on more general theoretical issues relating to highest modern-day bioquality across of CAM plants in high-elevation environ- estimation of diversification rates and tropical Africa. ments. The present study concludes that the evolution of ecological traits. Overall, this

14 Oxford Plant Systematics OPS 24 June 2018 will allow me to address the overall question chloroplast genome and 600 nuclear genes sweet potato was the only standing biological of my thesis: what can we learn about the from 400 specimens of sweet potato and all evidence of these alleged contacts. evolution of Ipomoea from a robust its CWRs. This is by far the most Our results using genomic data contradict phylogenetic framework? comprehensive genomic dataset of this group the traditional hypothesis and indicate that of plants to date. sweet potato most likely arrived in Polynesia by natural long-distance dispersal in pre- Claudia Havranek (D.Phil., 4th human times, which negates the need to year) Plants as indicators in invoke ancient human-mediated transport and questions the existence of pre- the UK countryside Columbian contacts across the Pacific. As part of this research, we had the opportunity Supervised by Professor Stephen Harris to sequence and study an iconic sweet potato (Oxford). Funding: Oxford-HDH Wills specimen collected by Joseph Banks in 1769, 1965 Charitable Trust Graduate Scholarship during the Captain Cook voyage on the Endeavour. This specimen, the oldest sweet Thesis submitted in spring 2018. potato collection from Polynesia, provided an insight into the timescale of sweet potato colonisation of the Pacific. Pablo Muñoz Rodríguez The findings presented here are the result of (D.Phil., 3rd year) Systematics three years of collaborative work of the of Ipomoea batatas (sweet members of Professor Robert Scotland’s potato) and its closest group at Oxford Department of Plant Sciences with colleagues from the relatives International Potato Centre in Lima (Peru) and Oregon State and Duke Universities Supervised by Professor Robert Scotland (United States). Our recent publication in the (Oxford) and Dr Steve Kelly (Oxford). journal Current Biology has received much Funding: Interdisciplinary Bioscience attention from the scientific community and Doctoral Training Programme, BBSRC. has been covered by the media around the world (more than 50 newspapers worldwide Three years of sweet potato Ipomoea trifida, the progenitor species of the in different languages, including interviews research sweet potato, growing in a greenhouse at the in the New York Times, The Guardian and Despite being one of the most important International Potato Center in Lima, Peru Nature), which highlights the broad impact crops in the world, there was much Photo © J.R.I. Wood and general nature of this research. uncertainty surrounding the origin of the sweet potato when I started my DPhil three We have spent the last three years using this years ago. Some unanswered questions large amount of genetic data to investigate Alex Sumadijaya (D.Phil. 2nd included: did the sweet potato have a single the evolutionary history of the sweet potato or a multiple origin? Did it evolve from a and finally provided answers to most pending year) Systematics of single ancestor or from a hybrid origin, and questions: we revealed that the sweet potato Stictocardia Hall. f. what wild species were involved? When did had a single origin by autopolyploidy from it originate? A prerequisite to answer these Ipomoea trifida (Kunth) G.Don., hence Supervised by Professor Robert Scotland questions is to understand the evolutionary ruling out the hypothesis of a hybrid origin. (Oxford). Funding: LPDP (Indonesia relationship between the sweet potato and its We also discovered that the sweet potato Endowment Fund for Education). most closely related wild species, known as originated well before humans, at least Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs). These wild 800,000 years ago. These results indicate that Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae) is a species-rich species share a common evolutionary history humans possibly found and cultivated a genus of more than 800 species. Various with the crop, and for that reason constitute sweet potato plant that already had a storage phylogenetic studies have suggested that potential sources of genetic variability of root, and therefore this is not a trait of Ipomoea is not monophyletic due to the interest for crop improvement; however, domestication, but rather a pre-adaptation presence of several other genera nested their utilisation requires a good under- that predisposed this taxon to domestication. within it. One of the nested genera is standing of the phylogenetic relationship Finally, we identified an ancient Stictocardia, a poorly known collection of 9 between the crop of interest and its CWRs. hybridisation event of the sweet potato with to 12 species distributed mainly in the Old In the last decades, multiple studies have Ipomoea trifida that generated two distinct World Tropics. Stictocardia is taxonomically tried to answer the questions outlined above. sweet potato lineages, and the varieties used problematic at the species-level as well as the However, these studies provided only in modern breeding research belong to one or fact that several of its species are more incomplete, often contradictory results, and other of these lineages. These results have closely-related to species of other segregate the relationship between the sweet potato and important implications in our understanding genera such as Turbina, Lepistemon, and its CWRs remained poorly understood. of sweet potato evolution and its Lepistemonopsis. This investigation based on Ultimately, this lack of knowledge hinders domestication and open the door to the use of morphological and molecular data has the use of wild species in breeding CWRs in breeding programmes. identified: 1) several distinctive species with programmes, and thus sweet potato In addition, we addressed one further clear taxonomic boundaries and 2) species improvement is restricted to using the genetic question: how did the sweet potato, a plant of with unclear boundaries that form species diversity held within the crop. American origin, come to be widespread in complexes. Increased levels of molecular The aim of my DPhil research was to Polynesia by the time Europeans first sequence data are required to resolve species conduct a comprehensive phylogenetic study arrived? This question has been a source of boundaries and understand the phylogenetic of the sweet potato and its wild relatives and controversy for centuries, and the relationships between species. The goal of address the questions that remained predominant hypothesis was that humans this project is to assemble a comprehensive unanswered. To overcome previous limit- transported it, which implies the existence of monograph of Stictocardia and other relevant ations, we designed our sampling to be as human contacts across the Pacific before the species based on the principles of monophyly complete as possible: we obtained the whole European Age of Exploration. Importantly, and diagnosability.

Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford 15 The good news is that all of this and more has now been achieved – a new fully modular BRAHMS has been developed and extended to manage all natural history collections. Despite the B and the H in BRAHMS not being quite right for this broader system, we opted to keep the same name. BRAHMS New information technology often seems version 8 will be available for distribution designed to puzzle even the most computer- from August 2018. To see more of how it savvy amongst us. I liked the old system just looks and runs, many of the new functions fine … why change it? and features are described with screens and About four years back, we decided that, video clips on despite Visual FoxPro’s faithful service over https://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/brahms/ The module for living collections management is a the last quarter century, the BRAHMS software/v8. botanical database had to move to new key focus for BRAHMS v8 with mobile technology. With a bewildering range of technology a high priority for the next phase of Denis Filer and Andrew Liddell development. tech-options to choose from, key decisions Independent Research Fellows had to be taken. Would BRAHMS remain a desktop application or become more web based? What sort of data storage to use? How to develop something that would work equally for the itinerant researcher as well as BRAHMS brings the world’s largest museums. Should it together data for collections management remain a ‘botanical research and herbarium and research, increasing management system’ or branch out more outputs and productivity. widely for natural history? Each module can be used The initial specifications were certainly independently or as part demanding. We envisaged a desktop of a more fully integrated application but one that could easily be management system. extended with web-based interface Data can be selectively components. The data storage had to be published online. entirely separate from the software allowing users to select how and where to store their data. We wanted that could run on high capacity servers but also on simple memory sticks. We saw no reason to restrict this new system to herbaria, botanic gardens and seed banks. The wish list began to grow. We needed a system where users could extend their database by adding their own storage fields, for example ‘exoskeleton colour’, ‘USDA Zone’ and the like. We also wanted very flexible data transfer links between Excel and BRAHMS. And, as well as storing data in different character sets, a must was that the entire system should be translatable into any language. Finally, in the early planning stages, we dreamt of a system where data could be dynamically associated with maps, ideally something built into BRAHMS itself, thus avoiding complicated GIS installations – the kind of thing where you could click on a dipterocarp in the sea to BRAHMS v8 has an Office-like user interface with intuitive menus and toolbars. Multiple tables, forms locate and edit the record in the database. and calculation windows can be opened simultaneously across multiple monitors. Direct links are provided between the data and in-built ArcGIS mapping.

16 Oxford Plant Systematics OPS 24 June 2018