Special Symposium Issue continues on page 13 Department of Botany & the U.S. National Herbarium The Plant Press New Series - Vol. 21 - No. 3 July-September 2018 Botany Profile Turn Back Time: Plant Fossils Find a Way By Kayleigh Walters and Gary A. Krupnick his year’s Smithsonian Botani- major overhaul of the National Fossil Hall, updated theory on seed ferns. He pre- cal Symposium explored the which is scheduled to open to the public in sented a new understanding of the origin Tdeep time of botany with the June 2019. of angiosperms based on his research of theme, “Plants in the Past: Fossils and Before the speakers’ talks began, Ken- fossils collected from the Early Creta- the Future.” Seven speakers presented a neth Wurdack presented the José Cua- ceous in Mongolia. He explained that whirlwind of information over the course trecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical the origin of the outer integument and of a day, focusing heavily on the benefit Botany to Alan Graham, a paleobotanist the carpel are two key questions for brought by developing technologies to from the Missouri Botanical Garden. understanding the origin of angiosperms. the field of paleobotany. The symposium, Graham recalled He argued that held on 18 May 2018, convened at the his time as a post- the curvature Warner Bros Theater at the National doctoral fellow at responsible Museum of American History, a change Harvard University for the second in scenery from past symposia as Natural and his “first social integument in History’s Baird Auditorium undergoes responsibility” in angiosperms has renovations. hosting a dinner for José Cuatrecasas and deep evolutionary roots. He explained Before the symposium began, the his wife. He was honored to be able to do that the origins of this curvature could be Joseph F. Cullman 3rd Library of Natural that then, and now 56 years later, thrilled seen in diverse seed plants of the Meso- History opened its doors to attendees for to be receiving an award in Cuatrecasas’ zoic, such as Caytonia, corystosperms, special tours of the library’s paleobotany name. and similar plants. Curvature results books. The Library put on display a wide from the curvature of a seed-bearing selection of publications that highlight ir Peter Crane opened the sym- axis that sometimes also bears modi- fossil plants, from Boccone’s Recherches posium with a talk on the origin fied bracts. Sir Peter explained that in (1674), through the editions of Scheuchz- Sof flowering plants called “The pre-angiosperm seed plants, this curva- er’s Herbarium diluvianum (1709, 1723), Enigmatic ‘Mesozoic Seed Ferns.’” He ture might be associated with a flotation to Brongniart’s works in the 19th century, introduced the complexity of studying based pollination mechanism involving and more. Attendees learned the tale of the topic by discussing how the field saccate pollen, which appears to be basic Johann Beringer, a professor in 1725 of paleobotany has changed in recent in all but the very earliest diverging seed who was made a fool when two of his decades. In the 1970s, paleobotany was a plant lineages. He concluded that many colleagues planted fake fossils for him to field that was literally frozen in stone due of the seed-plant lineages we now treat find and research. Fortunately, this was to a lack of high-quality fossils and tools as independent may be closely allied. the only fakery of the day. to study them. Sir Peter demonstrated how The next speaker was Andrew Leslie, The symposium began with opening far the field has come when he showed a who gave a talk on the evolution of remarks by Kirk Johnson, Sant Direc- digital reconstruction of a fossilized flower cones called “Biotic Seed Dispersal, tor of the National Museum of Natural “bloom” for the crowd. Technology such Growth Architecture, and the Evolu- History and Laurence Dorr, Chair of as this allows scientists to study internal tion of Conifer Cone Diversity.” He the Department of Botany. Johnson was structures of fossilized plants. hypothesized what the first cones may pleased with the theme of the symposium Having demonstrated the advantages have looked like, and why present cones this year, as the symposium coincides conferred by recent advances in technol- look like the often spiky objects we are with the development of the Natural His- ogy and their impact on paleobotanical familiar with today. By examining the research, Sir Peter launched into his tory Museum’s Deep Time exhibition, a Continued on page 16 Travel Pedro Acevedo traveled to São Paulo, Ashley Egan traveled to Spokane, W. John Kress traveled to Guadeloupe Brazil (4/11 – 5/14) to teach a class on Washington (4/30 – 5/10) to work on a (5/21 – 5/29) to conduct fieldwork on neotropical lianas at the University of collaborative project on Phaeolus polys- Heliconia-hummingbird interactions as São Paulo and to collect Sapindaceae and tachios (Fabaceae) at the University of part of a long-term NSF-supported project; climbing plants in other families in Brazil. Washington. to Cambridge, Massachusetts (5/7 – 5/9) Marcos Caraballo traveled to Phila- Vicki Funk traveled to Ecuador (3/28 to give an invited talk, “Species interac- delphia, Pennsylvania (5/9) to study speci- – 4/28) for field work with Mauricio tions in the Anthropocene: Coevolution in mens and types of mistletoes in Loran- Bonifacino (MVFA) and Alina Freire- a rapidly changing world,” at the Harvard thaceae in the herbarium of the Philadel- Fierro traveling up and down the spine of Plant Biology Symposium – Natural His- phia Academy of Sciences; to Cambridge, the Andes collecting composites from the tory Collections in the Anthropocene; and Massachusetts (6/14 – 6/15) to study snow line to the cloud forests; to Vienna, to New York, New York (6/20 – 6/21) to specimens in the herbarium of Harvard Austria (5/15 – 5/25) to attend the Global participate as co-chair of the Earth BioG- University; to Chicago, Illinois (6/18 – Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN) enome Project in a workshop and meeting 6/19) to study specimens in the herbarium meeting and to work in the herbarium of held at the Flatiron Institute. of the Field Museum; to Carbondale, the Natural History Museum in Vienna Sylvia Orli traveled to Bronx, New Illinois (6/21 – 6/22) to study specimens (W); and to Honolulu, Hawaii (6/1 – 6/10) York (4/18 – 4/20) to attend the Axiell in the herbarium of the Southern Illinois to work on a paper with Sterling Keeley, North American EMu User conference at University; and St. Louis, Missouri (6/25 – and to present an invited departmental the New York Botanical Garden. 6/29) to study specimens in the herbarium seminar at the University of Hawaii. Peter Schafran traveled to Texas (5/5 of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Morgan Gostel traveled to Vienna, – 5/10) to collect Isoetes with research- Manuela Dal Forno traveled to Austria (5/20 – 5/25) to attend the 2018 ers from Old Dominion University, Sam Jamaica (4/9 – 4/20) to collect lichens, Global Genome Biodiversity Network Houston State University, and the Texas including important types collected by conference to present on behalf of the Parks and Wildlife Department, which Olof Swartz, in the Blue Mountains of Global Genome Initiative for Gardens included the discovery of a new county Jamaica; and to Graz, Austria (5/9 – 5/25) (GGI-Gardens); and to Anaheim, Cali- record of I. melanopoda in Newton to work on lichen microbiome analy- fornia (6/3 – 6/8) to attend the annual County; to Columbus, Ohio (6/1 – 6/4) ses and to learn techniques in culturing meeting of the American Public Gardens to present a lightning talk, “Unravel- lichens. Association where he organized and lead a ing reticulate evolution of quillworts in symposium for GGI-Gardens. eastern North America,” at the meeting The Plant Press Carol Kelloff and Mark Strong of the Society of Systematic Biologists traveled to McBee, South Carolina (4/17 at the Ohio State University; and from New Series - Vol. 21 - No. 3 – 4/27) to collect genomic material for the Virginia to Louisiana (6/7 – 6/29) to col- Chair of Botany Global Genome Initiative (GGI) in sand lect longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) across Laurence J. Dorr hill ecosystems of the Carolina Sandhills its range ([email protected]) National Wildlife Refuge, Sugarloaf John Wiersema traveled to Hokkaido, Mountain (Sandhills State Forest), and Japan (6/10 – 6/17) to attend the annual EDITORIAL STAFF Hudsonia Flats (Cheraw State Forest), meeting of the International Seed Testing where some of the priority taxa for the Association in Sapporo as Chair of their Editor Global Genome Biodiversity Network Nomenclature Committee and to collect Gary Krupnick ([email protected]) (GGBN) and GenBank were collected and observe native populations of Japa- including three species of pitcher plants nese Nymphaea with Norio Tanaka of Tsu- Copy Editors (Sarracenia), sandhills bean (Phaseolus kuba Botanical Garden, National Museum Robin Everly, Bernadette Gibbons, and sinuatus), white wicky (Kamia cuneata), of Nature and Science, Tsukuba, Japan. Rose Gulledge zenobia ( Zenobia pulverulenta), san- Kenneth Wurdack traveled to Bronx, The Plant Press is a quarterly publication pro- dhills pyxie-moss (Pyxidanthera brevifo- New York (5/31 – 6/2) to conduct research vided free of charge. To receive notification of lia), southern bogbutton (Lachnocaulon in the herbarium at the New York Botani- when new pdf issues are posted to the web, please subscribe to the listserve by sending a message beyrichianum), and the pygmy spiderlily cal Garden. to [email protected] containing only the (Hymenocallis pygmaea). following in the body of the text: SUBSCRIBE PLANTPRESS-NEWS Firstname Lastname.