Special Symposium Issue continued on page 7 Department of Botany & the U.S. National Herbarium The Plant Press New Series - Vol. 15 - No. 3 July-September 2012 Botany Profile Letting the Phylogeny Genie Out of the Bottle By David Erickson n April 20-21, the Department of marine diversity through a network of phylogenies, particularly as the volume Botany at the Smithsonian Insti- marine research stations. of data vastly expands in the genomic Otution convened the 10th Smith- Following Coddington’s whirlwind era. This is in contrast to methods that sonian Botanical Symposium, hosted by tour of the take a the Department of Botany in collabo- diversity of “total data” ration with the United States Botanic research at approach Garden. This year’s symposium titled the insti- and hope “Transforming 21st Century Compara- tution, the correct tive Biology using Evolutionary Trees,” Lawrence phylo- examined the development and applica- Dorr then genetic tion of phylogenetic methods in light of introduced signal is the massive advances in sequencing and the recipient of the 10th José Cuatrecasas contained within as a kind of average genomic technology. Warren Wagner, Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany. among the data. Edwards’ presentation Chair of the Department of Botany, This year’s winner was Walter S. Judd, served as the perfect introduction to get opened the symposium by welcoming a Professor of Botany at the University the audience thinking about how we speakers and guests. He then provided of Florida at Gainesville. Judd is one of build phylogenies, and how thinking an introduction into the Department of the world’s experts in the Ericaceae, has carefully about data analysis remains a Botany and background on symposium a strong interest in the Melastomataceae, critical question as we may be tempted subjects in the past. Wagner acknowl- and has been one of the principals in the to assume that genome scale data will edged the critical and ever-growing “Generic Flora of the Southeastern United intrinsically solve all phylogenetic ques- importance that phylogenies play in States” project. Judd was pleased and tions. modern biology. honored to accept the award and spoke Following Edwards was Charles Del- Jonathan Coddington introduced the about his many enjoyable times climbing wiche from the University of Maryland, scope of investigation at the Smithsonian the mountains of the West Indies. whose work has indeed sought to tackle Institution to the many guests and speak- some of those big questions in phylo- ers. He covered tremendous territory enneth Wurdack then convened genetics and plant biology – namely the highlighting the diversity of research at the symposium introducing the origin of plants from their algal ances- the Institution with special emphasis on Kdesire by the organizing com- tors. The incredibly deep divergences Institution wide projects. These projects mittee to showcase how phylogenetic and the loss of lineages through extinc- include the Global Genome Initiative methods have changed, and also how the tion have made elucidation of the most (GGI) which seeks to collect and curate increasingly powerful phylogenies are direct ancestors of plants a challenge. one representative of all living genera, being applied to answer hypothesis driven Delwiche, however, showed that modern the Smithsonian Institution Global Earth questions. First in the list of speakers was genomic data has indeed contributed Observatories (SIGEO) which is a global Scott Edwards from Harvard University. to our understanding of the evolution network of long-term, large-scale forest Edwards effectively threw down the of modern land plants, particularly by research plots and an international group gauntlet asserting that the traditional meth- identifying components of land plant of scientists dedicated to the study of ods for analyzing data to infer phylogenies physiology that are shared with algae – tropical and temperate forest function was inadequate to answer the most chal- thus providing a functional genomic link and diversity, and its marine counterpart lenging of questions. Edwards forcefully between the groups. Marine Geo which seeks to quantify advocated methods that employ coalescent approaches to investigating multigene Continued on page 10 Travel Pedro Acevedo traveled to Mayaguez, town, West Virginia (4/13 – 4/16) to meet fornia Academy of Sciences; to Gaines- Puerto Rico (6/22 – 6/29) to participate in with staff at the West Virginia University ville, Florida (5/28 – 5/30) to participate in a workshop on the red listing of the flora Herbarium; to New Haven, Connecticut a workshop on digitization workflows for of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. (6/10 – 6/16) to attend the annual meet- the iDigBio Program; and to New Haven, Walter Adey traveled to Newfound- ing of the Society for the Preservation of Connecticut (6/10 – 6/16) for the annual land, Canada (5/26 – 5/30) to present a Natural History Collections (SPNHC); meeting of the Society for the Preservation paper on corallines and climate archives to and to Queens, New York (6/23 – 6/24) of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) the Geological Association of Canada. to assist the Biological Diversity of the to present a paper and moderate a session David Erickson traveled to Manaus, Guiana Shield (BDG) program in getting on archives and special collections. Brazil (6/4 – 6/12) to attend a workshop supplies, equipment, and plants to the US Laurence Skog traveled to New on Tropical Amazonian Biodiversity spon- National Herbarium. Haven, Connecticut (5/11 – 5/12) to visit sored by the Center for Tropical Forest W. John Kress traveled to Keshena, the herbarium at Yale University (YU) Science (CTFS). Wisconsin (5/2 – 5/4) to meet with col- to examine and annotate specimens of Robin Everly traveled to Montreal, laborators at the College of Menominee Gesneriaceae, especially collections of Canada (6/26 – 6/29) to present a talk and Nation to determine the next steps in Charles Wright from Cuba. serve as Board President at the 44th Annual designing and implementing the Indig- Alain Touwaide and Emanuela Meeting of the Council on Horticultural enous Global Earth Observatories project Appetiti traveled to Kenmore and Seattle, and Botanical Libraries (CBHL). for biodiversity and cultural monitoring; Washington (5/14 – 5/23) to give semi- Linda Hollenberg traveled to New to Dominica (5/17 – 5/28) to conduct field nars, classes, and public lectures on the Haven, Connecticut (6/10 – 6/17) to attend work on Heliconia and their hummingbird history of medicine, ethnobotany and the annual meeting of the Society for the pollinators; and to Bonito, Brazil (6/13 – ethnomedicine at Bastyr University, to Preservation of Natural History Collec- 6/23) to attend and coordinate the annual visit the University of Washington (UW) tions (SPNHC). meeting of the Association for Tropical Medicinal Garden and the UW Health Sci- Carol Kelloff traveled to Morgan- Biology and Conservation as Executive ence Library, and to meet with faculty of Director. the UW Department of Classics. The Plant Press Paul Peterson and Robert Soreng Kenneth Wurdack traveled to traveled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (5/1 Georgetown, Guyana (5/5 – 6/23) to col- New Series - Vol. 15 - No. 3 – 7/11) to collect grasses and other plant lect plants; and to Davis, California (6/27 Chair of Botany materials throughout the country. – 7/4) to conduct Euphorbiaceae research Warren L. Wagner Rusty Russell traveled to San Fran- related to the University of California at ([email protected]) cisco, California (5/15 – 5/19) to present at Davis herbarium collections and the work a workshop on citizen science at the Cali- of the late Grady Webster. EDITORIAL STAFF Visitors Editor Gary Krupnick Carlos García-Robledo, Smithsonian Audrey Wilde, McLean, Virginia; DC ([email protected]) Fellow; Plant-herbivore interactions Flora internship (1/9-8/1). (7/20/10-7/20/12). Copy Editors Colleen Allen, University of Durham, Robin Everly, Bernadette Gibbons, Rose Ying Meng, Kunming Institute of Botany, United Kingdom; U.S. Exploring Expedi- Gulledge, Dail Laughinghouse China; Polygonaceae (1/9/11-8/31/12). tion (3/20-4/19). News Contacts Iliana Lang, Bethesda, Maryland; Plant Rodrigo de Stefano, Centro de Inves- MaryAnn Apicelli, Robert Faden, Rusty conservation internship (9/12/11-5/18/12). tigación Científica de Yucatán, Mexico; Russell, Alice Tangerini, and Elizabeth Pithecellobium (Fabaceae) (4/1-4/8). Zimmer Liu Qiuqun, Huazhong Agricultural Uni- The Plant Press is a quarterly publication pro- versity, China; Vitaceae (9/15/11-9/15/12). Thomas Haug, U.S. Coast Guard; Her- vided free of charge. To receive notification of barium tour (4/6). when new pdf issues are posted to the web, please Yoomi Park, Konkuk University South subscribe to the listserve by sending a message to [email protected] containing only the Korea; PacificPeperomia (Piperaceae) Dean Papavassiliou, World Bank; following in the body of the text: SUBSCRIBE (10/1/11-8/31/12). Ancient Greek medicine (4/10). PLANTPRESS-NEWS Firstname Lastname. Replace “Firstname Lastname” with your name. Suzanne Nagi, University of Illinois at Xiuqin Ci, Xishuangbanna Tropical If you would like to be added to the hard-copy Urbana-Champaign; Trientalis (Myrsi- Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy mailing list, please contact Dr. Gary Krupnick at: Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution, naceae) (11/1/11-6/30/12). of Sciences; DNA barcoding internship PO Box 37012, NMNH MRC-166, Washington, (4/10-6/10). DC 20013-7012, or by E-mail: krupnickg@ Rubens Coelho, State University of si.edu. Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil; Sapindaceae Andrew Henderson, New York Botanical Web site: http://botany.si.edu/ (11/14/11-11/14/12). Garden; Arecaceae (4/13). Continued on page 5 Page 2 Getting Better All The Time Editor’s Note n a 100 degree Monday afternoon in D.C. this summer, Lauren Scan- Ogarella is comfortably ensconced in a fifth floor office inventorying and curat- ing Hawaiian specimens.