Herbarium News University of Reading Herbarium Newsletter Issue No. 45, December 2008. ISSN 0953-0080 URL: www.herbarium.reading.ac.uk INTRODUCTION Welcome to another Christmas Herbarium News. As with every edition we have much to report! During the last year a number of important things have happened, not least the refurbishment of two of our taxonomy laboratories (more details below). We have also changed the name of our building from ‘Plant Science Laboratories’ to ‘The Harborne Building’ to commemorate Jeffrey Harborne, FRS, our late lamented phytochemist. This is in line with University policy to name buildings after people, and the new biomolecular sciences building (behind Chemistry) for our medical and pharmacy researchers will be called the Hopkins Building, after the late Professor Harold Hopkins, sometime Professor in Physics here who developed fibre optics and the endoscope. The Herbarium has been especially busy having now completed the incorporation of the Herbarium from the University of Southampton, again see below. HERBARIUM REVIEW AND STRATEGY Our School of Biological Sciences recently undertook a review of the Herbarium, along with the Cole Museum of Zoology and a number of other issues. Ours was led by Professor Philip John with Professor Martin Bell (Archaeology), Kate Arnold-Foster (Head of the University’s Museums and Special Collections Service and Dr Karen Henderson (Head of Technical Services, Biological Sciences). They were very positive and have recommended that a Herbarium Strategy be drawn up for the next five years, currently in progress. Senate also positively noted the Herbarium’s growing level of engagement with the University and the likely increase in the commercial value of this resource. SOUTHAMPTON UNIVERSITY HERBARIUM AND THE NEW CABINETS We have now acquired the remainder of the Herbarium of Southampton University. In 1999 shortly after the arrival of Professor Frank Bisby from Southampton, we obtained their legume holdings (c. 7000 sheets) and their bryophytes. Most of the legumes comprised collections made by Frank and his team in the Mediterranean and SW Asia and belonged especially to the Vicieae. The bryophytes, some 2000 packets, were almost all collected by Mrs Jean Paton, a former member of staff (as Jean Comyns) and nicely complement the collections of the late Dr Eric Watson, Dr Royce Longton’s bryological predecessor and author of the standard texts. The remaining specimens totalled 6998 and contained important local collections from Hampshire, some of which were historical records from the 19th century. These included Hewlett Cottrell Watson himself and other notables of the Botanical Exchange Club. A specimen of Fritillaria meleagris by Dr Blomfield in 1849 records this from our nearby classic locality at Stratfield Saye where it still grows today with help from Natural England. Foreign material from C. G. Pringle has provided valuable specimens from Arizona, California, New Mexico and Mexico, a region we had lacked any material. Mrs Elinor Frances Vallentin’s (1873—1924) Falkland Islands material were studied in duplicate by Professor David Moore for his Vascular Flora of the Falkland Islands and so this source material was also especially welcome. To accommodate the specimens, we collected eight of their cabinets (large single door, Edinburgh type). Most have been cleaned and painted to match those obtained from the Natural History Museum a few years ago. BRAHMS Ms Viv Rimmer continues to provide us with valuable assistance by inputting herbarium specimen data into our BRAHMS database. We congratulate her on adding another 2000-odd to give a total of 55,447 specimens whose data will shortly be available for searching over the internet through our website. JULIE HAWKINS We send our congratulations to Julie on the birth of her daughter, Melissa, on 3rd June. We hope to see Julie on a regular part-time basis in the School in the New Year. BERKSHIRE FLORA GROUP The Berkshire Flora Group are holding a Conifer and Herbarium day at the University on Sunday 25th January 2009. Alice Fenton ([email protected]), one of our recent MSc graduates, is organising this and needs to know if you would like to come as places are limited. The idea is to get to know some conifers better. The day is being led by Dr Michael Keith-Lucas with Messrs Glover, Jury and Rutherford also on hand. Whiteknights has a substantial collection of conifers, recently added to by some acquisitions following an exchange with Bedgebury National Pinetum, The Harris Garden has also recently obtained a Wollemi Pine (see http://www.reading.ac.uk/about/newsandevents/releases/PR14535.asp) planted by the Friends of the Garden. Dr Alastair Culham now claims we have all current families of conifers represented. Mr Rob Glover has been carrying out a survey and collecting data on the Harris Garden species and will make a Garden trail as part of his final-year Botany undergraduate project. LINNAEUS’ BUST Herbarium News 30 reported on our plaster bust of Linnaeus, recently displayed in the foyer with the Linnean Society’s poster to celebrate the tercentenary of his birth last year. Subsequently, he was taken for safety during the foyer renovations to the bench in the Herbarium. He is by the famous Finnish sculptor Wilhelm Magnus Runeberg (1838—1920, son of the even more famous poet, Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-77), who wrote the Finnish national anthem) and is signed and dated Helsinki 1907. Professor Ahti in Helsinki reports via Professor Per Magnus Jørgensen that Runeberg was commissioned by Helsinki University to do a number of busts of famous scientists just after 1900 and that it is very likely that Linnaeus is one of these. It is one of six plaster casts from an original bronze in Saint Petersberg (Finland was then part of Russia and Runeberg is known to have made a bust of the Czar as well. Identical plaster casts are also present in Helsinki and Lund. We have always suspected that the bust would therefore have some commercial value and on his recent visit to value the University collections, the antiques expert, Adam Schoon, consultant valuer of Tennants of Leyburn and familiar face on the BBC’s Antiques Roadshow confirmed this. Consultations with the University’s Museum of English Rural Life show that we need to obtain a suitable display case for him so he can be returned to the foyer. 2 REFURBISHMENT During the year two of our research labs have been refurbished, as part of a wider refurbishment of labs, foyer and offices in the Harborne Building. Visitors will now see that the foyer has had a very smart makeover with new tables, chairs and comfortable seating, wireless, etc. This was achieved after an expensive asbestos removal. Lab 103 has been transformed from its humble, homely, status to a light and airy dual use lab designed by Sue and Alastair. The perimeter of the lab now houses the Macintosh computers along with workstations for current research students and visitors. The centre of the lab has a purpose built microscope bench which houses the digital dissection microscopes purchased with the CETL- AURS grant awarded last year. This bench has been designed for research and teaching use, with data projector facility to project from the microscope onto a screen. The room also houses teaching materials and herbarium cabinets to store specimens during examination. Lab 106 has undergone a refurbishment, with the perimeter benches being removed and replaced with individual desks. The Macintosh computers have been removed to allow Frank’s team on the Species 2000 Catalogue of Life project to use of the original centre bench. During the refurbishments (which took many months!) Frank’s lab relocated to the Lyle Tower. Lab 109 remains unreconstructed, but now our ‘wet’ lab space where anatomy and histology are undertaken for the School and other users from around the University, including Jonathan Mitchley’s work using the Bryophyte collection. General microscopes are found here along with moss and pollen work. 3 Some of our current MSc students identifying lichens after a class with Dr William Purvis and Dr Pat Wolseley in the refurbished lab. 103 and using one of the new CETL AURS microscopes. TREE PLANTING IN MEMORY OF COLIN GRAYER Friends gathered in the Harris Garden recently to plant a Trochodendrom aralioides in his memory. Colin died earlier this year of cancer, having been a member of the Applied Statistics Department. Afterwards, Renée hosted a tea party which was held in our refurbished foyer and attended . Trochodendron aralioides is the sole species in the family Trochodendraceae and is native to southern Japan, southern Korea and Taiwan. It is sometimes colloquially called The Wheel Tree and is an evergreen tree or large shrub growing to 20 m tall. Trochodendron shares with Tetracentron the feature, very unusual in angiosperms, of lacking vessel elements in its wood. This has long been considered a very primitive character, resulting in the classification of these two genera at the base of the angiosperms. However, the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has shown it to be early in the Eudicots, not the Magnoliids, suggesting the absence of vessel elements is a secondarily evolved character, not a primitive one. 4 CACTUS WORLD My latest (December 2008) copy of Cactus World: The Journal of the British Cactus & Succulent Society came with a great surprise. The cover featured a splendid cartoon by Gerhard Marx of Gordon Rowley (or should I say Professor Nodrog Yelwor?) in his front room office (his ‚boudoir‛). This is a special issue with 16 extra pages featuring Gordon to provide some of the brighter side of life and put a smile back on our faces at this time of deepening gloom and recession. Gordon is still hard at work and has even contributed an article to this journal on an Echeveria hybrid, following on from an earlier Taxon paper.