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Oxford Plant Oxford Plant Systematics With news from Oxford University Herbaria (OXF and FHO), Department of Plant Sciences, Oxford OPS 25 June 2019 Foreword Contents This is the twenty-fifth issue of Oxford Plant Systematics to be published since it was first Foreword produced in 1993; we missed one year when Stephen A. Harris 2 the Herbaria were being refurbished. Three striking things are obvious looking back over News these issues. First, research methodologies Funding for digitisation; new appointments; capacity building for the use of crop wild may have changed but similar fundamental relatives to enhance sweet potato varieties; Herbarium exhibition room; and Oxford questions are being asked. Second, most Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum Florilegium 3 users of the collections are researching questions other than plant taxonomy or Expeditions and visits 3 ecology. Third, herbarium specimens are being used in ways that could not have been Publications 2018 4 predicted in the early 1990s. Moreover, the collections are enjoying something of a Reflections on the first-year Biological Sciences BA field trip to Pembrokeshire, Wales golden age as application of the technology Claudia Havranek 4 of rapid specimen digitisation has the potential to make biodiversity data, In Humboldt’s tracks: reflections on an undergraduate field course in Tenerife stewarded by the Department of Plant Stephen A. Harris 5 Sciences over nearly four centuries, available to all. The early eighteenth-century Ghost forests, fire and sleeping beauties/ Convolvulaceae herbarium of Thomas Shaw, one of the John R.I. Wood 6 poorly known historic collections, is highlighted as a candidate for digital access. Degrees of nativeness Inadvertently, a theme that runs through his Keith Kirby 6 year’s OPS is reflection on current and past activities. There are articles on two Towards a taxonomy of taxonomists undergraduate field courses, one to South John R.I. Wood 9 Wales and the other Tenerife, both of which have been long-term successes. Based on Thomas Shaw’s eighteenth-century Levantine and Barbary plants long experience, John Wood reflects on Stephen A. Harris 10 categories of taxonomists, whilst Keith Kirby asks us to think about what we mean when News from the Herbaria – Fielding-Druce (OXF) and Daubeny (FHO) plants are described as native, exotic or Serena K. Marner 12 invasive in particular places. John also highlights a curious phenomenon in Bolivian Abstract of systematic thesis submitted in 2018 and student reports: Convolvulaceae, and raises a pertinent Systematic studies of the sweet potato and its wild relatives question about apparent rarity in the family. Pablo Muñoz Rodríguez 14 There is more to OPS than reflecting on the past. Most importantly, there is the future, Evolution of Ipomoea in the Neotropics which is highlighted through the diverse Tom Carruthers 14 activities of the D.Phil. and M.Sc. students, postdocs, and research fellows, the specimen An investigation into the factors that influence the distribution of rare endemic plant digitisation programme that is now well species of the Japanese flora underway in the Herbaria and the long- Ben Jones 14 awaited release of BRAHMS version 8 (https://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/). Predicting botanical hotspots for tropical forest management I hope you find this year’s OPS of interest. Gail Stott 14 Stephen A. Harris Systematics of Stictocardia Hall.f. Curator of Oxford University Herbaria Alex Sumadijaya 14 Joining the hunt for the sweet potato’s (Ipomoea batatas) wild relatives Front cover images: Tom Wells 15 Photographs from the undergraduate field course in Tenerife: top left - Advances with BRAHMS mapping Echium wildpretii H.Pearson ex Denis Filer and Andrew Liddell 15 Hook.f. in flower in the caldera of Las Cañadas; top right - the sea of cloud Oxford Botanic Garden and Harcourt Arboretum Florilegium 16 surrounding Tenerife from the Pico del Teide; bottom right - immature fruit of Euphorbia canariensis L.; bottom left - xerophytic vegetation at the Malpaís de Department of Plant Sciences, University of oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, Güímar. See article on page 5. OX1 3RB, U.K. Tel. +44 (0) 1865 275000 All images © Stephen A. Harris Oxford Plant Diversity Research Group website: http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk Typesetting and layout of OPS by Serena Oxford University Herbaria database at: http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.u k/bol/oxford Marner 2 Oxford Plant Systematics OPS 25 June 2019 News us to collaborate on a project to DNA Expeditions and visits barcode their living collection of sweet potato wild relatives, so that correctly Funding for digitisation identified material from 600 accessions can John R.I. Wood The Herbaria received a substantial donation be made available to sweet potato breeders. During March-April, John visited Bolivia from Clive Gilmore to digitise all pre-1796 In summary, the aim of my project is to and Paraguay, funded by a BBSRC GCRF- specimens, South and Central American and design a set of molecular markers to facilitate IAA grant. The purpose of the trip was to African specimens in OXF. It is estimated the identification of the sweet potato and its investigate wild relatives of the sweet potato that the images and metadata from 250,000 closest wild relatives. I will then provide and raise awareness of their importance. specimens will be made available online over accurate identifications for the core Various talks were given and field work the next two years. We would like to thank collection of wild relatives at the CIP resulted in the discovery of two new species Mr Gilmore for his great generosity in germplasm bank. This project is funded by and several new records of Ipomoea for funding this digitisation initiative. the University of Oxford Global Challenges Bolivia. Research Fund. One month’s field work in June-July was New appointments Pablo Muñoz-Rodríguez undertaken in remote parts of Eastern Bolivia Martina Boatfield and Alistair Orr joined the Post Doctoral Researcher jointly with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Herbaria team in April 2019 as digitisation Kew’s TIPA project and with financial technicians. Their activities are focused on Herbarium Exhibition Room support from the Weedon Foundation. The imaging and metadata capture, which will The Herbarium Room was opened at the visit resulted in new records for Kew and the substantially increase the accessibility and Oxford Botanic Garden in July 2018. The Ipomoea project, as well as new discoveries security of the collections in Oxford room, which was part of the Department of for Bolivia. University Herbaria. Botany before the early 1950s, has been decorated with prints from Johann Dillenius’ Serena Marner Capacity building for using Hortus Elthamensis (1732). One of the In October, Serena attended a Symposium in crop wild relatives to enhance room’s functions is as a temporary public Albany, Western Australia, entitled sweet potato varieties exhibition area for items from the Herbaria ‘Collecting the West – histories of natural collections. The first exhibition was entitled Sweet potato is one of the world’s most history collections & collecting’ organized ‘The Bobarts: building botany at Oxford’. important root crops. Grown in over 100 by the University of Western Australia and countries, it is a significant food, particularly associates. She gave a talk on the history of for the rural poor, with high levels of Oxford Botanic Garden and William Dampier’s botanical collections production in China, Nigeria, Tanzania and Harcourt Arboretum made in 1699 from ‘New Holland’. The Ethiopia. The crop is highly adaptable, Florilegium Symposium brought together a mix of growing in a wide range of agro-ecological With sixteen enthusiastic illustrators I feel curators and researchers from varied conditions, from sea level to 3000 m above that we have now reached our original target. collections including maritime, geological, sea level. Sweet potato produces the highest The collection of art work is looking zoological, botanical and maritime amounts of edible energy per hectare of all impressive with over eighty pieces accepted. archaeology, as well as Traditional Owners major food crops. Orange-fleshed varieties It is particularly pleasing to see some line with indigenous knowledge of natural contain high levels of beta-carotene, a drawings and works in coloured pencils and history. Outings in Menang Country, led by precursor of vitamin A, the deficiency of graphite in progress, besides the more usual a guide from a Menang family, and one by a which affects millions of children watercolours. conservation biologist, informed us of how worldwide. Despite the adaptability of the For the first few years we met once a month Noongar Aboriginal people used the natural sweet potato to a range of agro-ecological either in the Botanic Garden or the environment for gathering food and conditions, there are large yield-gaps due to Arboretum and took far too long selecting medicines. a range of biotic and abiotic constraints, plants! Members then took their plants home especially sweet potato viral disease and to work on. But it works far better now that Caroline Pannell sweet potato weevils. In addition, lack of we have two consecutive days each month, Caroline visited New York Botanical Garden drought resistance in high beta-carotene based in Plant Sciences, when the whole Herbarium (NY) and Harvard University sweet potato varieties has led to their group works together and the enthusiasm is Herbaria (A) in February 2018. She spoke at cautious and slow uptake. very contagious. Clare Kelly, from the the ATBC (Association for Tropical Biology Crop wild relatives (CWR) are the wild Garden, and I collect together which takes far and Conservation) meeting in Kuching, species most closely related to the crop. less time. Sarawak in July and visited SAR (Sarawak), These plants are recognised for their Through the winter we again had sessions SING (Singapore) and BO (Herbarium potential to contribute viable traits to on line drawing techniques and the group Bogoriense) with Elizabeth Joyce, a Ph.D.
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