davIS botanIcal socIety LASTHENIA LASTHENIA, the Newsletter of the Davis Botanical Society, is published in collaboration with the staff of the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory UPCOMING EVENTS and Center for Plant Diversity. We have two great events coming up this winter, and we need Editor: Kate Mawdsley our members to spread the word! Issue Contributors: E. Dean, R. Norris, A. Yip, E. Sandoval, K. Mawdsley, M. Starbuck, E. Agruss, A. Ayalon, P. First, on Saturday, February 2, from 1-4 pm, the Botanical Berry, C. Loughran Conservatory and Herbarium will be part of a free Museum Design: Susan Gloystein Day in the Sacramento Region. At UC Davis, six campus sci- Layout: Ellen Dean ence museums will have open houses, activities, and displays; DBS OFFICERS, 2012-2013 children of all ages can have their museum passport stamped to President: Joe DiTomaso show where they have been! President-elect: Marie Jasieniuck Membership Vice President: Pat McGuire & Kate Mawdsley Second, on Wednesday, February 27, from 4-6 pm, we will be Secretary: Susan Nichol celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Beecher Crampton Treasurer: Robert Rhode Herbarium. Please come to the only Herbarium Tea of 2012 to Past President: Marcel Rejmanek help us celebrate this momentous occasion! Members at Large: Tim Metcalf, Valerie Layne Student Member at Large: Daniel Park Ex officio: Dan Potter, Ernesto Sandoval, Ellen Dean, Jean Shepard D: BTNY BTNY D: I Mail Davis UC Davis, CA 95616 95616 CA Davis, University of California California of University One Shields Avenue Avenue Shields One Plant Sciences Mail Stop #7 Stop Mail Sciences Plant Center for Plant Diversity Diversity Plant for Center 8 No. 38 Summer 2012 LASTHENIA NEWSLETTER OF THE DAVIS BOTANICAL SOCIETY SPURGE EXperts take ON THE HERBARIUM A spurge frenzy took place in the herbar- In addition, Dr. Scott Armbruster and ium for two weeks in late June and early his student Rachael Hall flew in from July. As part of our National Science the University of Portsmouth, England, Foundation grant that focuses on the to help us in April. Scott stayed in Napa legacy of Dr. Grady Webster (previous County at the Wantrup Reserve so that Director of the herbarium and global he could make field observations on spurge expert), five spurge taxonomists the genus Collinsia (including Chinese arrived and got straight to work. houses) while working on Euphorbi- June 20, Dr. Paul Berry and his post- aceae in our herbarium. doc, Jess Peirson, traveled from the Uni- Our grant focuses on making versity of Michigan herbarium; Dr. Ken available (on our website) electronic Wurdack, from the Smithsonian, arrived resources related to the spurge family several days later. We also hosted two (Euphorbiaceae), and these six spurge Master’s students who came to work taxonomists helped us select well- alongside Paul and Ken. They were identified specimens for imaging in the Hoover’s prostrate spurge (Euphorbia Manuel Lujan Anzola of the Instituto genera Dalechampia, Euphorbia, Croton, hooveri) is a rare vernal pool endemic. Photo: P. Berry Jardín Botánico de Mérida, Venezuela, and Phyllanthus. Once the specimens and Otávio Marques of the Instituto de are imaged and posted to our website, images as a reference collection for iden- Botânica do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil. people worldwide will be able to use the tifying those species. It is our hope that this reference collection will help others continue Dr. Webster’s work. INSECTS AND ORCHIDS: THE rewards OF While going through our specimens, MANIpulatION AND DECEIT! the spurge experts curated them, alert- ing us to species name changes. We then had help from volunteers and students Unnoticed by most passersby, the emerald to produce annotation labels with the haven of the UC Davis Botanical Conserva- correct names and glue them to the tory houses a beautiful collection of orchids. specimens. In particular, Kate Mawdsley, The orchid family, with its dizzying diversity our volunteer curator/filer/librarian, was reflecting its endless recapitulation of similar a huge help, as were Elizabeth Chao, themes in flower form and growth habit, is an excellent tool for discussing the wonder- continued on page 4 ful interactions of flora and fauna. With close to 23,000 species in the family (depending on who’s counting), the amazing IN THIS ISSUE orchid collection at the UC Davis Botani- Spurge herbarium visit ................... 1 cal Conservatory will always be an ongoing effort. The species acquired and maintained Botanical Conservatory orchids ...... 1 must balance the plant’s educational and Society Profiles................................ 3 aesthetic value. And, given our greenhouse Field Trips ....................................... 5 A bucket orchid (Coryanthes mac- conditions, the ease of culture of the plant rantha). Photo: E. Sandoval often becomes a large factor in determining Baja Plant Guide ............................. 6 continued on page 2 Student Grants ................................ 6 1 Conservatory ORCHIDS (CONT. FROM page 1) what will persist in our collection for the discovery of the orchid’s pollinator, a years to come. species of Madagascan hawk moth, Dar- Finding something novel to marvel win had predicted that the only insect at among the orchids isn’t that diffi- capable of doing the deed of pollination cult. From the monsoonal climates of would have to have a proboscis as long Southeast Asia to the high-elevation as the spur to access the nectar rewards forests of Brazil, the microclimates of of the flower. The moth was discovered an environmentally-tempered glass- 40 years after Darwin’s death and his house can create suitable conditions for hypothesis was vindicated. It’s also a wide variety of representatives from interesting to note that nectar spurs vary this amazing plant family. The recent widely in the genus, and the lengths of removal of some heating pipes in one of spurs are specific to an individual hawk the cool rooms will make it possible to moth pollinator with a proboscis of an grow cool climate plants in a corner of appropriate length the Conservatory where we also reorga- Commonly referred to as the “Bucket nized and modernized the benches to Orchid,” Coryanthes macrantha flow- benefit both users and plants. ers exude enticing scents to attract the Just as every living organism visitation of male euglossine bees. In manages to find its niche in the ecologi- a frenzied state of intoxication from cal habitat, every type of orchid finds a the fragrance, the excited male bee niche in ways to attract insect pollina- inevitably falls into the bucket-shaped tors to pollinate its flowers. Though the labellum (a highly modified petal) that The long-spurred Darwin’s orchid (Angrae- mutualism between plants and insects is filled with a liquid secreted by the cum sesquipedale) is pollinated at night by flower. Just short of being drowned, the hawk moths. Photo: E. Sandoval bee tries to climb out, wet wings and all, only to find that the only exit is a has been demonstrated that a species of tiny escape hatch in back of the flower, wasp prefers the orchid’s scent to that of where, coincidentally, the pollen is lo- their own females. We hope to acquire cated. The pollen conveniently adheres a specimen of this genus in the near to the bee’s back as the bee exits and is future. carried to another flower. In comparison, flowers in the genus A similar pitfall trap is utilized in Trichoceros also rely on pseudocopula- the Lady’s Slipper orchids, subfamily tion for pollination, but they mostly Cypripedioideae. In this case, the visual rely on flies. Extreme mimicry in both advertisement of bold colors lures the Ophrys and Trichoceros demonstrates insect. Once trapped in the slipper-like how selection can operate to such a high pouch, the insect is forced to collect or degree that insects can be deceived into deposit pollinia when leaving the flower. performing sexual acts without reward. The female spider-hunter wasp is de- It is fascinating to ponder these ceived into thinking the flowers of the parallels in plant and insect coevolution genus Brassia are delectable prey and, and the possible ways that these pol- in an attempt to “wrestle” its victim, lination syndromes might have begun. gets pollen stuck to its head. The pollen New studies suggest that this mutualism The flowers of the orchid Trichoceros anten- is then transported to fertilize another was not always so – bees may not have nifer mimic a fly. Photo: E. Sandoval flower when the wasp makes another been dependant on the orchids they is nothing new, orchids and insects have less-than-optimum choice in picking pollinate and have been around for only coevolved some very complex rela- prey. part of the orchids’ evolutionary history. tionships that have led to the success Ophrys is a genus that hails from the In short, the luring of bees by scent is a of both parties. Here I will introduce Mediterranean; these orchids are notable precarious strategy, since many orchids some of the orchids that can be found for their ways of employing sex-starved do not produce nectar rewards for their at the conservatory and discuss some bees to their advantage. The plant pollinators. Protecting the pollinators in of the details of their associations and produces pheromones similar to virgin an ecosystem plays a key role in mitigat- mechanisms behind these pollination female bees, and because the males ing the negative impacts on struggling syndromes. emerge before the females, these novice orchid populations. Angraecum sesquipedale, famously lovers unknowingly and effectively called “Darwin’s Orchid,” provided “self-stimulate” on the flowers thinking A. Yip, Charles Darwin with some ideas about that they are fertile females. Though evolution. The night-pollinated, ghostly the floral mimicry is quite convincing Alan Yip has been helping to curate the white flowers have nectar spurs that can to us at first glance, it is only second- Botanical Conservatory orchid collection for be a foot long or more.