Botany Profile

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Department of Botany & the U.S. National Herbarium

The Guiana Shield: 20 Years and CountingBy Vicki A. Funk

The Biological Diversity of theGuiana Shield (BDG) programhas operated in the National

Museum of Natural History for over 20years and although the program interactswith many departments and bureausacross the Smithsonian Institution, it isclosely associated with the Departmentof Botany. The goals of BDG are 1) todocument, study, and preserve the bio-diversity of the Guiana Shield, 2) toprovide the opportunity for excellentscientific research, and, 3) to makeinformation generated by these studiesuseful for conservation and education.

The Guiana Shield is a distinct geo-logical unit that underlies the northeast-ern corner of South America andincludes much of the area east and southof the Orinoco River and east and northof the Rio Negro and Rio Amazonas. Thearea includes Bolívar, Amazonas, andDelta Amacuro states in Venezuela; mostof Guyana, Surinam, and French Guiana;parts of northern Brazil; and parts ofsoutheastern Colombia. The area hasmany unusual ecosystems including thefamous tepuis of Sir Arthur ConanDoyle’s “The Lost World” and the unique“Greenheart” forests of Guyana, all ofwhich have high endemicity.

The Shield’s igneous-metamorphicbasement was laid down in several eventsfrom 3.6 to 0.8 billion years ago. Thisgranitic basement is easily observed inthe many black “hills” of granite that dotthe landscape across the Guiana Shieldand is also exposed on some of themountains and massifs. Between 1.6 and1 billion years ago, sedimentary covers

of sand were successively laid down andcemented during thermal events. Theresulting quartzite and sandstone rocksare known today as the Roraima forma-tion. Some recent work has suggested thatthe eastern rocks are the oldest; thiswould make the Pakaraima Mountains ofGuyana and the eastern parts of Venezuelaolder than the remainder of the Roraimaformation.

The area is dotted with tepuis, thesteep-walled table mountains prominentlyfeatured in photos and films, many ofwhich support a unique flora and fauna.The easternmost peaks reach heightsaround 2,000 meters and include Mt.Ayanganna and Mt. Wokomung in Guyana.The highest tepui, Sierra de la Neblina,exceeds 3,000 meters and is located inthe western part of the Shield on theborder of Venezuela and Brazil. Manyother tepuis have summits between 2,000and 2,400 meters. A large, mid-elevation,sandy plateau between 400 and 1,500meters, the Gran Sabana, occupies south-eastern Venezuela and adjacent parts ofGuyana (where it is named the RupununiSavanna) and Brazil and there are alsovariously-sized areas of lowland white-sand savanna scattered throughout theGuiana Shield (e.g., Berbice Savannas ofGuyana).

There are well-known floras for only afew parts of the Guiana Shield, such asMount Roraima (Venezuela, Guyana,Brazil), the Iwokrama-Mabura Hill areaand Kaieteur (Guyana), Tafelberg (Suri-nam), and Saül (central French Guiana).Most areas, such as the lowland forestsand tepui slopes, are very poorly known.

Likewise faunal studies are in shortsupply so while birds and mammals havebeen studied in a number of places, thevast majority of the Shield remainsunder explored.

BDG is a field-oriented programthat has been operating since1983 (federally funded since

1987). Originally confined to botanyand Guyana, the least well-known, mostbiologically diverse of the threeGuianas, the program has since beenexpanded to include faunal studies andfield work in the other parts of theShield. From 1986-1998 the BDGmaintained full-time plant collectors inGuyana and each year approximately sixmajor expeditions were organized, andother expeditions, involving a total of20-30 visiting scientists took place. Thecontinued budget cuts of the 1990smade it impossible to continue thepractice of full-time field work, and theprogram shifted to sending residentcollectors to Guyana for 4-6 monthseach year or having a series of targetedexpeditions. In recent years there havebeen resident collectors for butterfliesand moths, ants, birds, and plants.

In many ways modern day field workresembles the legendary trips of old.For although it is easier on both ends ofthe trip (e.g., airplanes) and we collectnew types of data (e.g., DNA samples,GPS coordinates), the major part offield work is essentially the same as itwas during the time of Humboldt (1799-1804) and Spruce (1849-1864): a lot of

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Chair of BotanyWarren L. Wagner(wagnerw@si.edu)

EDITORIAL STAFF

EditorGary Krupnick(krupnickg@si.edu)

News ContactsMaryAnn Apicelli, Robert Faden, EllenFarr, Shirley Maina, Rusty Russell, AliceTangerini, and Elizabeth Zimmer

The Plant Press is a quarterly publication providedfree of charge. If you would like to be added to themailing list, please contact Dr. Gary Krupnick at:Department of Botany, Smithsonian Institution, POBox 37012, NMNH MRC-166, Washington, DC20013-7012, or by E-mail: krupnickg@si.edu.

Web site: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany

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New Series - Vol. 10 - No. 2New Series - Vol. 10 - No. 2New Series - Vol. 10 - No. 2New Series - Vol. 10 - No. 2New Series - Vol. 10 - No. 2

Visitors

Travel

Wenying Wu, Philipps University,Germany; Nolana (Solanaceae) (2/28/06-2/27/08).

Hui Ren, South China Botanical Garden;Vitaceae (5/7/06-4/1/07).

Konstantyn Romaschenko, NationalAcademy of Science of Ukranie; Poaceae,Stipeae (11/30/06-5/30/07).

Oscar Vargas, Universidad de los Andes,Colombia; Diplostephium (Asteraceae)(12/9/06-1/13/07).

Ki-Oug Yoo, Kangwon National Univer-sity, South Korea; Coryloideae andVitaceae (12/12/06-12/11/07).

Cody Hinchliff, Washington StateUniversity; Cyperaceae of Guianas andUnited States (1/1-1/7).

Jim Cohen, Cornell University; Litho-spermum (Boraginaceae) and relatedgenera (1/2).

Niki Papavramidou, University ofThessaloniki, Greece; Greek medicinalplants of antiquity, Historia Plantarumcollection (1/5-2/28).

Matthew Cimino, Salisbury University;Soil sampling of herbarium specimens (1/7).

Erik Krause, Emory University; KevinGress, University of Texas, Arlington;Josh Propp, University of Texas, Austin;Medicinal plants of antiquity (1/8-1/12).

Daniel Stancik, Charles University,Czech Republic; Festuca (Poaceae) (1/8-2/8).

Charlotte Riggs, Wesleyan University;Plant conservation (1/8-2/20).

Mary Stensvold, National ForestService; North American Botrychium(Ophioglossaceae) (1/9; 1/12).

Doug Ripley, US Air Force retired;Image processing (1/10).

Carl Taylor, National Science Founda-tion; North American Dryopteris(Dryopteridaceae) (1/12).

Jorge Perez, Universidad Nacional deColombia; Neotropical Prunus (Ro-saceae) and Colombian Rosaceae (1/21-3/23).

Tamara McKimmie, Marcia Sprulesand Leslie Valenza, Earthwatch Institute;Medicinal plants of antiquity (1/22-1/26).

Ling Zhang, Xishuangbanna TropicalBotanic Garden (XTBG), ChineseAcademy of Sciences; Instant Identifica-tion System (1/22/07-1/21/08).

Mary Byrne, Bureau of Land Manage-ment; Seeds of Success ExchangeProgram (1/23).

Lisa Leno, George Mason University;Internship interview (1/23).

Nancy Mulry, Independent researcher;Volunteer interview (1/25).

Monica Reardon, George MasonUniversity; Mexican ethnobotany (1/29).

John Page Cotton, Jeffrey Leon, SamRaker and Bryan Randolph, GeorgeWashington University; Medicinal plantsof antiquity (1/29-6/30).

Dylan Burge, Duke University; Recentand fossil Paliurus (Rhamnaceae), paleo-botany of type specimens (2/13-2/16).

Ihsan Al-Shehbaz, Missouri BotanicalGarden; Brassicaceae (2/13-2/16).

Nick Turland, Missouri Botanical Gar-den; Flora of China (2/13-2/16).

Peter Lowry, Missouri Botanical Gar-den; Araliaceae (2/16).

Steffi Ickert-Bond, University of Alaska,Fairbanks; Altingiaceae (2/19-3/1).

Four Seasons Garden Club, Washing-ton, DC; Tour of Botany greenhouses (2/24).

Lawrence Stritch, United States Depart-ment of Agriculture; Endangered PuertoRican trees (3/1).

John Mitchell and Susan Pell, NewYork Botanical Garden; Anacardiaceae (3/1-4/1).

Lei Xie, Chinese Academy of Sciences;Clematis (Ranunculaceae), Circaea andFuchsia (Onagraceae) (3/1/07-2/1/09).

Maureen Murphy, University of MaryWashington; Wilkes project (3/5-3/9).

Chang Liu, Idaho State University;Myodoraceae (3/9-3/14).

Yaowu Yuan, University of Washington;Verbenaceae (3/9-3/14).

Tom Wendt, University of Texas; Po-lygala (Polygalaceae) (3/12-3/14).

Pedro Acevedo traveled to Raleigh,North Carolina (2/1 – 2/2) to attend thedissertation defense of graduate studentAlexander Krimps at North Carolina StateUniversity.

Laurence Dorr and Dan Nicolsontraveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts (2/20 – 2/28) and to Bronx, New York (3/25

– 3/28) to conduct library research on thefinal supplements to Taxonomic Litera-ture, edition 2 and to use the herbarium.

Robert Faden traveled to London,England (2/23 – 3/24) to conductresearch on African Commelinaceae atthe Royal Botanic Garden Kew.

Vicki Funk traveled to Guyana (2/24

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Editor’s NoteEditor’s NoteEditor’s NoteEditor’s NoteEditor’s Note

Gary Krupnick, Editor

– 3/4) with Carol Kelloff, CristiánSamper, and Hans Sues to look at fieldsites and review the progress of theBiological Diversity of the Guiana ShieldProgram; and to Harlingen, Texas (3/26 –3/29) to collect ethnobotanical collec-tions from Mexico.

W. John Kress traveled to Bronx,New York (1/7 – 1/9) to attend a DNAbarcode workshop at the New YorkBotanical Garden; and to Toronto, Canada(2/5 – 2/6) to meet with DNA barcodingcollaborators at Guelph University.

Gary Krupnick traveled to Irvine,California (3/8 – 3/12) to attend a NSF-sponsored workshop “Project Baseline”at the University of California at Irvine.

Mark Littler, Diane Littler, andBarrett Brooks traveled to Carrie BowCay, Belize (3/14 – 3/27) to conducttaxonomic and ecological research on thereef system.

Paul Peterson traveled to Peru andBolivia (2/28 – 4/10) to collect grass

specimens throughout the two countries.Rusty Russell traveled to Baltimore,

Maryland (2/2) to conduct libraryresearch at the Maryland HistoricalSociety; to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2/9) to conduct research on the WilkesProject at the Academy of NaturalSciences; and to Cambridge, Massachu-setts (3/1 – 3/3) to attended the Earth-watch Conference as co-principalinvestigator on the Plants and PeopleThrough the Ages project.

Stanwyn Shetler traveled to Rich-mond, Virginia (3/3) to chair the annualworkshop of the Virginia Native PlantSociety at the University of Richmond.

Laurence Skog traveled to Sarasota,Florida (1/15 – 1/23; 3/5 – 3/10) toconduct research on Gesneriaceae at theMarie Selby Botanical Gardens.

Alice Tangerini traveled to SanMiguel d’Allende, Mexico (3/18 – 3/25)to conduct artistic studies on endangeredplants at the El Charco del Ingenio

Botanical Garden.Alain Touwaide and Emanuela

Appetiti traveled throughout Australia (2/17 – 3/9) to conduct research and makepresentations; and to Miami, Florida (3/22 – 3/25) to attend the annual meeting ofthe Renaissance Society of America.

Warren Wagner traveled to Kaua‘i,Hawaii (1/25 – 2/6) to conduct researchand to serve as moderator for an ethno-botany summit held at the NationalTropical Botanical Garden, Kaua‘i; and toMiami, Florida (2/23 – 2/28) to make apresentation on the McBryde ScienceProgram for Hawaiian and Pacific plantstudies at the National Tropical BotanicalGarden board meeting.

Jun Wen traveled throughout Mada-gascar (3/19 – 4/12) to conduct fieldresearch on the Vitaceae.

Elizabeth Zimmer traveled to Balti-more, Maryland (3/30) to present aresearch talk to the Department ofBiology at Johns Hopkins University.

In my research on conservation biology, I utilize and analyzedata from herbarium specimens on a daily basis. Knowingthe “who, what, where and when” of collected specimens

allows me to assess the conservation status of many species.One aspect of the specimens that I often overlook is the “why.”

Many of the specimens in the U.S. National Herbariumwere collected simply because they exist in nature. Yet many ofthese species were collected because they are quite valuable tohumankind. We have your everyday plant species that make lifebearable, like chocolate and vanilla (which recently generatedmany a smile during a tour of the herbarium for my son’s pre-Kclass). But the herbarium also houses specimens of plantspecies used in cultures far beyond what can be found in aWashington, DC, neighborhood grocery store. Not only arethese plants valuable in today’s societies, but they have beenused for generations and generations.

In this issue of the Plant Press, we feature several storiesabout ethnobotany: the study of the relationship between plantsand people. Plants have been used by humans since the dawn ofhumankind. Ancient texts can tell us quite a bit about whichplants were used when. On page 8, Alain Touwaide andEmanuela Appetiti give us insight into their research on thehistory of ethnobotany. They study the use of medicinal plantsin the cultures that flourished around the Mediterranean Seafrom Antiquity to the 17th century A.D. Current findings in theirfascinating research program tell us much about when food andmedicinal plant species were introduced from the New Worldinto the Old World.

Moving up in time, we have a brief story about a new exhibitwhich recently opened at the National Museum of Natural

History (page 7). Using botanical and anthropological collec-tions, the exhibit tells six stories that describe the manner inwhich local cultures from the Southwest United States andMexico used specific plants more than 100 years ago. Thisexhibit draws on the research of Rusty Russell’s group, whichwas featured in the Plant Press in 2006 (Vol. 9, No. 4).

With today’s environmental crisis, not only are we losingplant species at an alarming rate, but cultures are quicklydisappearing too. Ethnobotany can provide some of thesolutions towards sustainable living. This focus was the topicof the Ethnobotanical Summit held at the National TropicalBotanical Garden in Kaua‘i at the beginning of the year. Thegroup of ethnobotanists and associated scientists attending themeeting, including our Chair of Botany Warren Wagner, issueda statement, “The Kaua‘i Declaration,” about the importance ofethnobotany is today’s world, and it is printed here on page 10.

In other news, Vicki Funk provides a 20-year review of theMuseum’s research program cataloging the biodiversity ofSouth America’s Guiana Shield (front page). The BiologicalDiversity of the Guiana Shield program has been tremendouslysuccessful in discovering and describing new species of plantsand animals, identifying important regions for conservation,and building and expanding the botanical and zoological collec-tions at the University of Guyana. It will be exciting to see theresults of their hard work when the final large checklists arepublished and the database is completed over the next fewyears.

Plants, Science, and People, Oh My!

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Awards &Awards &Awards &Awards &Awards &GrantsGrantsGrantsGrantsGrants

StaffStaffStaffStaffStaffResearch &Research &Research &Research &Research & Activities Activities Activities Activities Activities

New FacesNew FacesNew FacesNew FacesNew Faces

In February, Emanuela Appetiti traveledthroughout Australia. In Sydney, sheworked with Alex Barlow on Aboriginalterritorial issues, including the alimentaryand therapeutic uses of plants. In Uluru,she conducted fieldwork on medicinalplants used by the local Aboriginal com-munities. In Alice Springs, she visited theDesert Park where she spent the day withthe local Aboriginal Curator for Medici-nal Plants. At the Center for Arid ZoneResearch of the CSIRO she met with thelibrarian and the Program Officer. Shevisited the Olive Pinks Botanic Gardenand did fieldwork at Stanley Chasm.Appetiti delivered a lecture “MedicinalPlants in Antiquity – Ethnobotany of theOld World,” at the Queensland Herbariumlocated at the Botanic Garden Mt Coot-tha, Brisbane. With Alain Touwaide, shevisited the Marks Hirschfeld Museum ofMedical History of the Medical Schoolof the University of Queensland, and theAustralia Zoo and hospital created by thelate “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin.

Touwaide delivered four lectures inAustralia in February. In Sydney, he pre-sented “Venoms and Poisons in Antiquity”at the Research Seminar of the Depart-ment of Classics, University of Sydney;“What Did Ancient Greeks Know AboutRenal Diseases?” at the New South WalesRenal Group; and “Being Cured andTreated in Classical Antiquity,” for theannual Ben Haneman Memorial Lectureheld at the New South Wales State Librarysponsored jointly by the Library and theNew South Wales Society for the Historyof Medicine. In Brisbane, he made apresentation at the Medical School of theUniversity of Queensland on “Epidemiol-ogy of Antiquity.”

On 15 March, Touwaide delivered atalk “The Modern Middle Ages: Manu-scripts and Diseases, from West to East”at Georgetown University, College ofArts and Sciences, Medieval StudiesProgram.

Robert Faden worked on African Com-melinaceae at the Royal Botanic GardensKew 23 February to 24 March. His goal

was the completion of the account of thegenus Cyanotis for the Flora of TropicalEast Africa, and he succeeded. In additionto the usual problems of working withdried specimens of this family (poorlypreserved flowers and lack of capsulesand seeds), the flowers, capsules andseeds of this genus, even when available,have few taxonomically useful charactersfor species differentiation. In contrast,the underground parts of Cyanotisspecies are very significant, yet they areoften left in the ground by collectors.Species of Cyanotis tend to be under-collected in part because their succulentleaves are difficult to dry. Faden alsoworked on Commelinaceae for a Flora ofAngola checklist that is being prepared inLisbon (LISC). Herbarium specimenswere checked at Kew and the NaturalHistory Museum for records of Angolanplants.

On 17 January, Gary Krupnick presenteda talk about plant conservation and gave atour of the U.S. National Herbarium to agroup of first-year undergraduate fellowsvisiting from Elon University, NorthCarolina.

On 8 – 11 March, Krupnick attendedthe “Project Baseline” organizingworkshop at the University of Californiaat Irvine. Project Baseline is a nation-wide collaborative effort to gather, freezeand store seed from contemporary plantpopulations to study evolutionary genet-ics and global warming.

On 20 March, Krupnick gave a pre-sentation on “Vanishing Pollinators” tothe second- and third-grade classes ofBurning Tree Elementary School inBethesda, Maryland.

Dan Nicolson led his spring wild-flowertrip to Bear Island (along the PotomacRiver) on 31 March, for the BotanicalSociety of Washington.

On March 3, Stanwyn Shetler chairedthe Annual Workshop of the VirginiaNative Plant Society at the University ofRichmond, Richmond, Virginia. The topicwas: “Discovering Virginia, 1607-2007:Bushwhackers, Botanists, and Pioneers.”About 100 persons attended. This is oneof the ways in which the society is con-tributing to Virginia’s year-long celebra-tion of the 400th anniversary of thefounding of Jamestown.

Rob Soreng gave a talk entitled “On theSteppes of Kyrgyzstan,” to the BotanicalSociety of Washington in November, andthe Bureau of Land Management office inDC in January, about his collecting trip tothe Tien Shan mountain range in August of2006.

Jorge A. Pérez-Zabala (HerbarioMEDEL, Universidad Nacional deColombia, Sede Medellín) was a Cuatre-casas Travel Award Fellow at the U.S.National Herbarium from 21 January until23 March. During his 7-week visit hefocused on studying the collections ofRosaceae deposited in U.S. NationalHerbarium. He examined almost 700specimens of Neotropical Prunus and

Vinita Gowda, graduate student of W.John Kress, received a $500 HeliconiaSociety International grant for her pro-posal titled “Nectar study of two nativeCaribbean heliconias (Heliconia: Heli-coniaceae) pollinated by sexually dimor-phic Purple-throated Carib Humming-birds.” Gowda will be working in the fieldfrom 9 March to 4 April in St.Kitts,Dominica and St.Vincent to continue herresearch on Caribbean Heliconia-hummingbird adaptive interactions.

The Smithsonian Institution Women’sCommittee (SIWC) has provided fundingto Rusty Russell for continued work onthe plant collections of the United StatesExploring Expedition, 1838-1842 (theWilkes collection). These funds($34,400) will support continued pro-cessing of the collections, research toenhance specimen data, and the develop-ment of a web presentation on the Botanywebsite.

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Cuatrecasas Travel Award FellowJorge A. Pérez-Zabala.

Announcement ofthe CuatrecasasFellowship Award

The Smithsonian Institution’s Depart-ment of Botany announces the Cuatre-casas Fellowship Award. This annual com-petition will usually result in 1-2 awards,each one not to exceed US$3000. Theaward is to support work in the spirit ofthe research of the late José Cuatrecasas,a long time associate of the U.S. NationalHerbarium. Priority will be given toscientists from Latin America or fromelsewhere who work on tropical plants.Funds are to be used to study specimenshoused in the U.S. National Herbarium.

To apply for the award, please submit ashort curriculum vitae, a proposal and twoletters of support; it is suggested, but notrequired, that one of the letters be from ascientist at the Smithsonian Institution.Proposals should not exceed two pages inlength and should include the following:name and address of applicant, date sub-mitted, specific objective of trip, overallresearch project, date of trip, and budget.Complete applications should be sent viae-mail, fax, or airmail to Dr. V.A. Funk,Department of Botany Smithsonian Insti-tution, PO Box 37012, NMNH MRC 166,Washington DC 20013-7012 USA; fax:202-786-2563; e-mail: funkv@si.edu. E-mail is preferred and you should receive areply confirming that we have receivedyour application. Applications shouldarrive no later than 1 June 2007 andapplicants will be notified of the commit-tee decision no later than 15 June 2007.

Anyone wishing to make a contribu-tion to the José Cuatrecasas Award Fundshould send a check to the Chairman ofthe Department of Botany.

Ashlei Cooke, William and Mary Col-lege; Jessica Hull and Amy Storbakken,Earthwatch Institute; Christine Regan,University of Delaware; Cris Salas,Eastern Kentucky University; CarolynPorrata, University of Texas; PacificIslands ethnobotany (3/12-3/16).

Elizabeth Finn, Antioch University;Edward Palmer project (3/12-3/23).

Anderson Oliveira, State University ofRio de Janeiro, Brazil; Invasive plants ofBrazil (3/13-3/16).

Chris Puttock, Hawaiian Native PlantConservation Alliance; Hawaiian Acan-thaceae (3/14).

Scott Hoover, New England BotanicalConservatory; Harry Wiriadinata, Her-barium Bogoriense, Indonesia; IndonesiaPlant Program (3/16).

Antonia Posada, Universidad de Antio-quia Colombia; Molecular techniques (3/16-3/18).

Meg Warren, Earthwatch Institute; “Livefrom the Field” Program (3/23).

Antonio De Natale, University of Na-ples, Italy; Diplostephium (Asteraceae)(3/26).

Emily Caven and Matt Cimino, Salis-bury University; Southeast Asian desertplants (3/26-3/28).

Brenda Murdock, Judy Schmidt andPeggie Wormington, Earthwatch Insti-tute; Medicinal plants of antiquity (3/26-3/30).

VisitorsContinued from page 2

CelebratingOrchids

On 3 March, the Smithsonian Insti-tution’s Horticulture Services Divisionand the U.S. Botanic Garden sponsored afamily festival at the National Museum ofNatural History in conjunction with theexhibition, Orchids: Take a Walk on theWild Side. Visitors enjoyed an array ofactivities for the whole family includingcoloring botanical prints, taking ascavenger hunt with binoculars, watching

around of 1,000 specimens of Rosaceaeof Colombia and adjacent countries. Thisresearch visit gave him a better view ofthese groups as he worked toward hisultimate goals of preparing a taxonomictreatment of Prunus for the FloraNeotropica project (hopefully a Ph.D.project) and preparing the catalogue ofColombian Rosaceae.

In January, Ling Zhang began a one-yearSmithsonian postdoctoral fellowshipunder the sponsorship of W. John Kress.She is working on the development of anelectronic field guide, or Image Identifi-cation System (IIS), that will make itpossible for botanists to determine theidentity of specimens through automatedvisual search. Zhang proposes to movebeyond the current data sets to address amore challenging domain: the tropicalwoody flora of Barro Colorado Island, therainforest preserve of the SmithsonianTropical Research Institute in Panama.Zhang is an associate professor within theEcology and Evolution of Plant-AnimalInteraction Research Group at theXishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden(XTBG), the Chinese Academy ofSciences (CAS). She received her Ph.D.from Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB),CAS in June 2006. Her doctoral thesiswas “Biosystematics and EvolutionaryEcology of Taccaceae.”

orchid-potting demonstrations, askingexperts how to grow orchids at home, anorchid murder mystery storytelling andmore. Nearly 5,000 visitors participated.Alice Tangerini participated by doingdemonstrations of orchid drawing. Tat-toos of Tangerini’s orchid images wereprinted for the visiting children. BethPage, Annie Ceccaraini, Barbara Faust,and others from the Horticultural Ser-vices Division planned the many activitieswith the assistance of Hal Banks in theNMNH Office of Guest Services.

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Drawing Plants inMexico

Alice Tangerini was part of a groupof 12 botanical artists from the Washing-ton, DC, area who traveled to San Migueld’Allende, Mexico, 18-25 March, for a

Alice Tangerini draws a cactus at El Charco del Ingenio Botanical Garden.(Photo by Marcia DeWitt)

week of fun and artistry. One of theobjectives of the trip was to visit a localbotanical garden to photograph and sketchendangered cactus species. Tangerini hadmade arrangements for the artists to takea two-hour tour of El Charco del IngenioBotanical Garden located on the outskirtsof San Miguel.

Giving the tour was Mario Mendoza,horticulturist for the garden. Mendozafocused on endangered cactus speciesthat are listed on a national list of endan-gered plants of Mexico and on the IUCNRed List of Threatened Species. After thetour the artists photographed, sketchedand painted the cactus species. The artiststook many photographs in order tocontinue their work back in the UnitedStates. Mendoza also introduced the DCartists to local San Miguel botanicalartists who indicated they would like tocollaborate in the future on teachingclasses in botanical art at El Charco.

The artists who participated in the tripwere students and teachers of a certificateprogram in botanical art at the CorcoranSchool of Art; Tangerini represented theSmithsonian Institution. The artistsillustrated the cactus species for possibleinclusion in a traveling show titled,“Losing Paradise, Endangered PlantSpecies Here and Around the World,” tobe presented by the American Society ofBotanical Artists (ASBA). The exhibit is

US AcquiresNebraska Collection:Who Says You Can’tGo Home Again?

In the summer of 2004 Robert Kaulfrom the University of Nebraska con-tacted Vicki Funk to see if the USNational Herbarium would be willing toaccept specimens from China and thePhilippines that had been sent to CharlesBessey. The Nebraska herbarium haddecided to concentrate on the Midwestand wanted to find an appropriate homefor these collections. With RustyRussell’s agreement and the BiologicalDiversity of the Guiana Shield Program(BDG) taking care of the specimens, sheaccepted the offer and 9,610 mountedspecimens arrived over the next severalmonths. Funk then had to decide whichspecimens would stay at US, and whichspecimens would be shipped to otherherbaria.

Nearly all of the specimens wereidentified. Carol Kelloff arranged all thespecimens by family, and the largestgroups were the ferns, Moraceae, Euphor-biaceae, Fabaceae, Rubiaceae, Poaceae,and Meliaceae. Other families had fewerspecimens—for instance specimens ofthe Compositae filled only three bins of aherbarium cabinet.

Many specimens will remain at US.Using the Compositae as an example, 60-70% will remain, with five specimensbeing types. Most of the material in theCompositae was originally from the“Canton Christian College Herbarium”(now Zhongshan University in Guangzhou,also formerly Lingnan University) andwas collected by C.O. Levine (1887-1928). Prior to this donation, US had onlyabout half of Levine’s collections. TheIndex Herbariorum – Collectors volumesays that Levine collected mainly inKwangtung (now known as Guangdong,1916-1928). They list A (Arnold Arbore-tum) as having 3,500 specimens and thatCANT (South China Agricultural Univer-sity, Guangzhou) may have the original;US is not listed as having any specimens.A web search turned up only one mentionof Levine papers (at Harvard) and theseneed to be checked. The donation also hadmany collections by A.D.E. Elmer (1870-1842), mostly from the Philippine

Islands. According to the Index Herbari-orum – Collectors volume, Elmercollected around 12,000 numbers in thePhilippines (1903-1917) and US received4,200. He died in a prison camp in Maniladuring WWII. Additional collectorsinclude a few specimens by Clements,Wenzel, Merrill and some others.

The final totals were 923 duplicatesheets to be sent to PE (Beijing) to helpbalance our trade deficit, and 3,370 to beheld for exchange to PNH (Manila). Theremaining 5,317 specimens have beenstamped and filed into the US NationalHerbarium except for most of the 700 orso types which are waiting to be databasedand imaged. The Department is grateful tothe staff at US who worked on some oftheir favorite families and to Funk andKelloff for their coordinating skills. BDGcontractors Marilyn Hansel, Sara Alex-ander, and John Dodge stamped sheets,checked the herbarium for duplicates, andfiled specimens. This project was a groupeffort by the Department and the her-barium has benefited from it.

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How Did theWorld’s LargestFlowers Evolve?

Species of Rafflesiaceae possess theworld’s largest flowers (up to 1-meter indiameter in Rafflesia arnoldii), yet theirprecise evolutionary relationships havebeen elusive as the plants are holopara-sites and highly modified for this lifehistory. These Southeast Asian plants areembedded inside their hosts, Tetrastigmaspecies (vines in the grape family, Vita-ceae), and rarely put forth their massivebizarre flowers that stink of rotting fleshto attract pollinating flies. Phylogeneticplacement of these parasites has provendifficult because of the highly modifiedmorphology and anomalous molecularevolution, including increased rates ofchange and the loss of the chloroplastgenes usually used for constructing plantphylogenies.

A recent cover story in Science,“Floral gigantism in Rafflesiaceae” byKenneth Wurdack and a team led byCharles Davis of Harvard University, haspresented the precise phylogenetic place-ment of Rafflesiaceae. They analyzed 8genes and ca. 11,500 base-pairs of DNAsequence data and surprisingly foundRafflesiaceae grouped with Euphorbia-ceae, Wurdack’s specialty family.

Since most euphorbs have tiny flowers(sometimes reduced to a single stamen asin the spurges, Euphorbia), the authorswere then able to estimate floral sizeincreases. Their estimates indicated a ca.73-fold increase in flower diameter hadto occur on the stem lineage of Rafflesi-aceae. This floral gigantism is one of the“most dramatic cases of size evolutionreported for eukaryotes.” This study is anextension of previous work Davis andWurdack published in Science (305: 569,30 July 2004; and see the Plant Press7(4), Oct-Dec 2004) which showed thatRafflesiaceae have obtained genes fromtheir hosts by horizontal gene transfer. AsWurdack noted, “These are bizarre plantswhere anything is possible, but I neverexpected them to land at my feet. This

Rafflesia, one of the three genera of Rafflesiaceae, was named by Robert Brownfor Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826), a British colonial administratorin Sumatra and later founder of Singapore. The type species Rafflesia arnoldiicommemorates physician and naturalist Joseph Arnold (1782-1818) who died ofmalaria on the 1818 collecting trip with Raffles during which time the time theplant was discovered in Bengkulu, Sumatra. The taxon was published in “Anaccount of a new genus of plants, named Rafflesia” read on 30 June 1820 andpublished in the Transactions of the Linnean Society in 1821. The originaldescription was copiously illustrated with drawings by famed botanical artistFranz Bauer, in part based on unfinished life drawings done by Arnold. The handcolored plate 15, etched by James Basire, is shown here. This plate is part of theextensive rare book collection in the NMNH Cullman Library that also incorpo-rates the rare books formerly held in the Department of Botany. (Courtesy ofSmithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, DC)

New EthnobotanyExhibit at NMNH

In February, with guests from theCultural Institute of Mexico and theSmithsonian Institution Latino Center inattendance, Cristián Samper unveiledthe new North Lobby Research Case inthe National Museum of Natural History.Entitled “Ethnobotany of the SouthwestUnited States and Mexico,” this newexhibit results from three years of workby Rusty Russell, Bill Merrill and JamieWhitacre to organize and prepare thedata from more than 30,000 Botany andAnthropology specimens, personaljournals, and archives materials. Using

will open new doors to thinking about theevolution of both Rafflesiaceae, as wellas, my own group the Euphorbiaceae.”

scheduled to open in May 2008. It ishoped that the paintings of these endan-gered plants will help bring awareness tothe public of the need to preserve theserare species.

these collections, the bi-lingual exhibittells six stories that describe the mannerin which local cultures used specificplants more than 100 years ago. It alsochronicles the work of Edward Palmer,whose collections of both plants andcultural objects have contributed signifi-cantly to the study of ethnobotany inNorth America.

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History of Botany and Ethnobotany of the AncientMediterranean World

Datura, from “Trattato della historia,natura, et virtu delle Droghe Medicin-ali, & altri Semplici rarissimi, chevengono portati dalle Indie Orientaliin Europa ...” by Cristóbal Acosta. InVenetia, Presso à Francesco Ziletti,1585. (Courtesy of Smithsonian Insti-tution Libraries, Washington, DC)

In 2002, Alain Touwaide and EmanuelaAppetiti joined the Department as Re-search Associate and Scientific Collabo-rator, respectively, to launch a researchprogram dealing with the history ofbotany, ethnobotany and ethnopharmacol-ogy of the ancient Mediterranean world.The main focus of the program consistedof preparing a Flora of Classical Antiq-uity for which they have been collectingmaterial for more than 30 years. Oneaspect of their research—the therapeuticuses of plants—was funded in 2002 bythe National Center for Complementaryand Alternative Medicine of the NationalInstitutes of Health. The MedicinalPlants of Antiquity program aims atmaking the ancient documentation—dulytranslated into English and analyzed—available to botanists, pharmacologistsand historians through Web site presenta-tions.

However rich they might be, ancienttexts need to be complemented by othersources as they are not as explicit as

contemporary researchers would wish. Tocompensate for this limitation, a comple-mentary program was launched onRenaissance herbals. Supported by theEarthwatch Institute, research wasconducted from 2003 to 2006 at theNational Library of Rome and in 2006 atthe Library of Padua, in the most ancientRenaissance botanic garden. The researchconsisted of making a census of theherbals and of their content, reproducingplant representations in a digital form, andanalyzing all of the material from ahistorical and a botanical viewpoint. Allgathered material will be searchable on aSmithsonian Institution Libraries Website, which is currently in development.

In spite of their apparent diversity, allof these programs have the same objec-tive: bringing light to the documentationof botanical knowledge of the Old Worldfrom Antiquity to the Renaissance, andadding new data to the knowledge ofplants and their uses before the develop-ment of modern botany, particularly fromLinnaeus on. The research programcomplements current botanical researchby explaining its origin, including Latinterminology. Furthermore, by analyzingthe history of botany in the differentcultures that flourished around theMediterranean, the research programfollows the continuous transmission ofknowledge from the most remoteantiquity to the birth of modern science.

The research program has alreadyreached several significant conclusions.Among others, Datura stramonium,supposedly introduced into the Old Worldfrom the New World, seems to be de-scribed in a chapter of the most importantmanual on medicinal plants of Antiquity,De materia medica by Dioscorides, fromthe first century A.D. Similarly, archeo-logical explorations have led to the dis-covery of a mosaic with a representationof a basket full of fruits, one of whichlooks like a pineapple. A scientist from aPompeii archeological site recently iden-tified pineapple fiber in a fabric from thecity buried under the ashes of Vesuvius in79 A.D. It is generally agreed that pine-apple was introduced into the Old Worldafter the 1492 discovery of the NewWorld. Such findings will impose the

revision of historical plant introductions.No less interesting are the statistics

on the plants used therapeutically inAntiquity. The number of different plantnames appearing in the 62 treatisesascribed to Hippocrates (5th - 4th centuryB.C.), the so-called Father of Medicine,reaches 380 units. It would be wrong,however, to conclude that ancient Greekphysicians used all these plants in thesame way. Half of the ca. 3,500 formulasfor the preparation of medicines in thisseries of writings are made of only 44plants. Furthermore, none of these 44different species are rare or particularlydifficult to find. They include, amongothers, hellebore, leek, lineseed, garlicand, to quote but a few, pomegranate, beetor cabbage. This means that the medicinalresources of ancient physicians were theplants at hand, growing in the backyard oftheir patients.

A final example comes from the studyof a Latin book on medicinal plants hand-written in the 10th century probably inSouthern Italy and now preserved at theState Library of Lucca in Italy. The

Touwaide’s research of manuscript296 of the State Library of Lucca, Italy,which was recently published, showshow ancient texts about the uses ofplants were transmitted. (Photo byEmanuela Appetiti).

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Alain Touwaide and Emanuela Appetiti (front) with George Washington Univer-sity students (L to R): John Cotton, Jeff Leon, Sam Raker, and Bryan Randolph.(Photo by Marjorie Knowles)

A Greek specimen of Centaurea laure-otica from the US National Herbarium,collected in 1886 in the region sur-rounding Athens by Georg Heldreich,a German botanist who specialized inthe study of Greek ethnobotany.

Touwaides show that the book was in achain of information that transmittedancient botanical knowledge from Anti-quity (Greece and Rome) to the West.Contrary to a widely diffused opinion, thebook was not written by monks whodeteriorated the texts contained in it, butprobably by physicians who updated theinformation from a medical viewpoint andmade it compatible with the culture andsociety of that time.

The Touwaides do not limit theirinvestigations to ancient material, but alsowork with specimens in the US NationalHerbarium. They have located anddigitized plant specimens from theMediterranean to compare ancient plantrepresentations to actual plants. Suchactivity is not only theoretical, but has apractical value: it complements theknowledge of plant species by means ofpre-Linnaean data, and it provides usefulinformation for new therapeutic applica-tions.

Such multifaceted research relies on awide variety of sources, from ancienttexts and books to archeological material.Thus it requires a cross-disciplinaryassociation with scholars from ancienthistory to high-tech pharmacology. TheTouwaides have created and continue todevelop a net of research centers andlaboratories throughout the world,

including the National Library of Rome,the Service of Antiquites of Pompeii, theHerbarium of Istanbul University, theGoulandris Museum of Natural History inAthens, the Istituto Filosofico per gliStudi Filosofici of Naples, Italy, and theDepartment of Natural and Complemen-tary Medicine at the Southern CrossUniversity in Australia.

Research progress has been possiblethanks to the collaboration of a largenumber of individuals and institutions.Earthwatch Volunteers and SmithsonianInstitution Behind-the-scenes Programvolunteers have helped process anddigitize the materials. Many volunteersare now familiar with ancient botanicalknowledge and are currently performing awide range of tasks contributing to thefinal goals of the program. These tasksinclude locating specimens in the U.S.National Herbarium, developing computerapplications necessary to process thesheer quantity of data and studying thepharmacological applications of plants.

This research program is also devotedto the formation of the next generation ofscientists. An agreement has recentlybeen signed with the Department ofClassics at The George WashingtonUniversity, making it possible forstudents to study the history of ancientbotany. Undergraduate students will

conduct personal research that will leadto the writing of an end-of-term paper. Asimilar agreement will make it possiblefor visiting students from the Universityof Victoria in Canada to receive anintensive training in the history of botany,ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology ofthe ancient Mediterranean world.

University scholars from all over theworld come to complete their educationand to conduct research. Niki Papavrami-dou from Greece recently spent twomonths in the Department. Two scientistsfrom China will soon visit to study theinfluence of Greek medicine on Chinesemedicine and to compare the uses ofplants in ancient Greek medicine tocontemporary traditional Chinesemedicine.

Scholars may also come to consult themany resources gathered in the HistoriaPlantarum Collection (more than 12,000books devoted to the subject). Internsjoining the program in the summer willconduct personal research and will betrained in the methods of the history ofbotany, ethnobotany and ethnopharmacol-ogy developed by the Touwaides over thepast years.

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Ethnobotany: A Declaration from Kaua‘iWarren Wagner joined a group of 43

people from ethnobotany and associateddisciplines in an Ethnobotanical Summitat the National Tropical Botanical Gardenin Kaua‘i on 27-30 January 2007. Consid-ering the grave environmental crisisfacing the world today, the loss of biodi-versity and the loss of culture, the groupdecided to issue a statement to stress theimportance of ethnobotany for providingsome of the solutions towards moresustainable living.

The initial draft of the resulting‘Kaua‘i Declaration’ is being shared hereto bring it to a wider audience. The finaldeclaration text, along with a white paper,will be submitted for publication soon.

The Kaua‘i Declaration

Ethnobotany is the study of the inter-actions and relationships between plantsand people over time and space. Thisincludes the uses, knowledge, beliefs,management systems, classificationsystems and language that both modernand traditional cultures have for plants andtheir associated terrestrial and aquaticecosystems. If plants did not exist, humanlife would not be possible. All membersof the human family depend on plants fortheir survival in myriad different ways.Today we also depend on them for manyof our opportunities to improve thequality of human life in the future. Plantsare fundamental to the functioning of allhuman societies and to the operation ofall ecosystems. Along with the photosyn-thetic bacteria and algae, plants are re-sponsible for the formation of almost allof the energy that we consume. In termsof the energy from biomass that we are soactively seeking to develop now, they alsoprovide the hope for energy supplies inthe future. Yet despite their central impor-tance, plants are often poorly appreciated.

Ethnobotany, along with the relateddisciplines of ethnobiology and ethno-ecology are of central importance forunderstanding and improving the sustain-ability of our relationships with the livingworld. The greatest resource that peoplehave is their ability to innovate, and thatability is shared with all groups of humanswho live or have lived on the Earth. Wealso stress here that we consider thesurvival of individual human cultures

important in and of itself, since we haveso much more to learn from thesecultures as living societies rather thanfrom descriptions and images of thosesocieties that might be left behind oncethey have disappeared forever. Further, webelieve that cultures have a right to existand that we should respect and facilitatethat right to the extent that it is feasible.This capacity to innovate has beenexpressed in creative ways by differentgroups of people faced with variedenvironmental and social challenges; wemust attempt to understand those ways forour individual and common benefit.Combining concepts derived from thedisciplines of anthropology, linguistics,agriculture, archaeology, biochemistry,genetics, horticulture, ecology, conserva-tion biology, and botany, the field of eth-nobotany holds extraordinary promise forhelping us build a better future.

Sustainability is defined as the use ofresources at a rate slower than that atwhich they are being created. Buildingsustainability depends not only on our useof the environment, but also on cultural,political, and economic considerations.

Our collective management of the world’sresources is unsustainable at present.Rapidly rising population levels, therunaway growth of individual consump-tion, the continued use of inappropriatetechnologies and the erosion of tradi-tional knowledge are progressivelylimiting the options for the future, and thekind of world that our descendants willinhabit. The application of ethnobotany isa possible way of breaking free of ourpassive approach to the world and dealingwith this seemingly overwhelming set ofchallenges in a positive way.

Such vital environmental resources asthe air we breathe, the quality of the waterwe drink, the topsoil upon which ouragriculture depends, the relatively stableglobal climate we have enjoyed untilrecently, and the global stock of biodiver-sity are all being degraded rapidly. Con-currently, the diversity of human culturesis being eroded rapidly everywhere. Forexample, hundreds of the approximatelyremaining 7,000 languages are being losteach decade and it is likely that over 50%will be lost in the next 50 years. Yet eachof these represents a distinct philosophi-

Randy Thaman, an expert in Pacific Island biogeography and ethnobotany, fromthe University of the South Pacific in Fiji, presents the results of one of theconference breakout-groups on Indigenous Pacific island perspectives onpriorities for ethnobotany. The other break-out groups (not shown) includedglobal ethnobotanical hotspots and the role that botanical gardens and universi-ties should play in ethnobotany. (Photo by Janet Leopold)

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cal and pragmatic approach to the organi-zation of our lives which means we arelosing our cultural heritage at a rate thatwill seriously diminish our opportunitiesto achieve sustainability in the future.

To reverse these trends, we need torespect the wisdom of the diverseapproaches to nature that exist in everysociety. This knowledge is central to thepreservation of the integrity of thecultures that possess it, and important forus all to understand, record, and, whenappropriate and helpful, apply in othersituations. The capacity to innovate and toshare lessons learned is a quintessentialhuman characteristic, and one that wehave a special need to exercise well in thechallenging times that face us now.

The strong links between biologicaland cultural diversity uniquely positionethnobotany to help us craft effectivelocal solutions to many of the globalissues that confront us as a species. Someof the most challenging of these issuesare food security, deforestation, pollu-tion, the maintenance of human health, thequality of human life, and resourcedepletion of all kinds. The concepts andpractices of ethnobotany accord well withthe “land ethic” of the great conservation-ist Aldo Leopold, which he describes aschanging “the role of Homo sapiens fromconqueror of the land-community to plain

member and citizen of it.”Ethnobotany can strengthen our links

to the natural world. It is of centralimportance for understanding the collec-tive experience of humankind in a seriesof exceedingly diverse environments andusing those experiences to meet thechallenges that we face. It makes itpossible for us to learn from the past andfrom the diverse approaches to plantsrepresented by the different humancultures that exist today. Ethnobotany is atonce a vital key to preserving the diversityof plants as well as to understanding andinterpreting the knowledge by which weare, and will be, enabled to deal with themeffectively and sustainably throughout theworld. Thus ethnobotany is the scienceof survival.

Participants in the workshop whoendorsed the declaration: Kamaui Aiona,Michael J. Balick, Bradley C. Bennett,Kim Bridges, David A. Burney, LidaPigott Burney, Robert A. Bye, Liloa Dunn,Eve Emshwiller, Mary Eubanks, TrishFlaster, David L. Lentz, Edelmira Linares,David H. Lorence, Will McClatchey,Heather McMillen, Mark Merlin, JamesS. Miller, Daniel E. Moerman, Ghillean T.Prance, Anne E. Prance, Diane Ragone,John H. Rashford, Pat Raven, Peter H.Raven, J. R. Stepp, Namulau’ulu G. Tavana,Randy Thaman, Michael B. Thomas,

Tamara Ticktin, Thomas Urban, Peter VanDyke, Warren Wagner, W. Arthur Whis-tler, Charles R. Wichman Jr., Hau’oliWichman, Kawika Winter, James Wise-man, Michael Wysong, Brian Yamamoto.

Local Hawaiian cultural practitioner Sabra Kauka speaks to summit partici-pants about the importance of wauke (Broussonetia papyrifera) as a source offibers to Pacific Islanders. (Photo by Janet Leopold)

Botanical PartnersLecture Series

Jane Smart, Head of the SpeciesProgramme at IUCN, continued theBotanical Partners Lecture Series bypresenting “Plants in Danger: What DoWe Know “ on 18 January at the UnitedStates Botanic Garden (USBG) Conserva-tory. The Botanical Partners LectureSeries is a collaboration between theDepartment and USBG, designed to bringtogether the Washington scientific com-munity interested in botanical studies.Invited speakers have been chosen toattract participants from a broad spectrumof the local community who are inter-ested in the botanical sciences. Informalreceptions after the talks were hosted topromote discussion and exchange ofideas. If you have suggestions for futurespeakers, please contact Gary Krupnick atkrupnickg@si.edu.

DNA Exhibit Opensat U.S. BotanicGarden

A new exhibit, DNA Identification ofPlants—Reading the Hidden Barcode,has opened at the U.S. Botanic Gardenexploring how DNA from plants can beused to develop a rapid and accuratemethod of species identification. Co-sponsored by the NMNH Department ofBotany, Nature’s Barcodes is on displayat the USBG Conservatory through June10.

In devising a natural barcode, scien-tists study an organism’s unique DNAsequences, which can be easily extractedfrom tissue samples and then analyzed.Conceivably, this could be done for everyspecies on the planet. The new exhibittracks the progress of an ongoing jointproject to develop such genetic “bar-codes” for plants, as well as barcode“readers.” The project uses medicinalplants as a pilot study, also co-sponsoredby the Botanic Garden and NMNH.

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Future FemaleScientists Program

The National Museum of NaturalHistory’s Office of Guest Servicessponsored the first Smithsonian FutureFemale Scientists Program, a two-day

program for 23 local high school girlsthat took place 8-9 March. The goal of theprogram was to highlight the many back-grounds, academic paths, and roles offemales in science at the NationalMuseum of Natural History, for studentsinterested in pursuing science in collegeand as a career. The program was coordi-nated by Mollie Oremland and AmyBolton of Guest Services and fundedprimarily through a Smithsonian’sWomen’s Committee grant, with addi-tional support for food provided by Coca-Cola.

Cristián Samper welcomed thestudents to the program and provided anoverview of the Museum and his scien-tific background. Students then spent twodays behind-the-scenes of the Museumlearning about the work done here. Smallgroups of 2-3 students were matched withscientist “sponsors” to learn about theirwork, based on student interests. Studentsalso participated in hands-on activities,demonstrations, and tours at NMNH andat Smithsonian’s Museum Support Center(MSC) with additional female staffmembers. Several staff members partici-pated in a panel discussion about the manypathways to a career in science, intro-duced by Associate Director for ExternalAffairs and Public Programs, ElizabethDuggal. At the conclusion of the first dayof the program, a reception was held inthe theater lobby for student participants,

Paloue sp. nov. from the Pakaraima Mountains. (Photo by Karen Redden)

time is spent walking, paddling a canoe,cutting trail, dragging supplies in and outof boats and setting up camp in the rainand heat or rain and cold—all of this inorder to collect and preserve biologicalspecimens so that we can understand andconserve diversity.

From the start of the BDG, all collec-tions were databased and geo-referenced.This decision has been central to theprogram and is true for all types oforganisms collected. Furthermore,beginning in the early 1990s, the BDGbegan to database specimens held by theNational Museum of Natural History andmost this work has been completed. Theresult is a great legacy of data that we

their parents, teachers, and SmithsonianWomen’s Committee members. NancyNewkirk of the Smithsonian Women’sCommittee, and Carole Baldwin ofFishes, then introduced the film Galápa-gos 3D to the attendees, and Baldwin tookquestions afterward.

Over 40 female staff from Researchand Collections were involved in theevent. Maria Faust, Vicki Funk, CarolKelloff, Ida Lopez and Alice Tangerinirepresented Botany. Elizabeth Zimmerrepresented the Laboratories of Analyti-cal Biology (L.A.B.)

Discovery of RareHawaiian Species

A recent discovery of an extremelyrare new plant species in Hawaii wasmade in the context of a collaborativeeffort between the Department and theNational Tropical Botanical Garden(NTBG) to discover, describe, andunderstand plant diversity of the PacificIslands. This effort is critical at this timeto conserving the diversity of islandecosystems. Known from only fourindividuals, the plant species, Labordialorenciana, is among ca. 120 otherextremely rare Hawaiian species that arelimited to less than 50 individuals. It iscurrently being cultivated for conserva-tion at NTBG.

Labordia lorenciana is described andillustrated from the Hawaiian Island ofKaua’i. This new species, named forDavid H. Lorence, Director of Science atNTBG, who has made many valuablecontributions to Pacific botany and to thestudy of the large tropical family Rubia-ceae (coffee family), most closelyresembles the O’ahu endemic species,Labordia kaalae. The new species isdescribed in a paper published in System-atic Botany by Warren Wagner and twocolleagues.

Labordia (Loganiaceae: Gentianales)is one of 31 currently recognized vascularplant genera completely restricted to theHawaiian Islands. It is closely related tothe Pacific genus Geniostoma. Labordiacomprises 16 species, with 11 speciesbeing single-island endemics and theremaining five species occurring onseveral islands. Three species and twovarieties are currently listed as FederallyEndangered under the Endangered SpeciesAct. Recent field research by Ken Woodof NTBG within the northwestern canyonregion of Kaua‘i (i.e., Kawai‘iki Valley),has documented another new speciesknown from only a few remaining individ-uals and critically in need of protection.

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Kaieteur Falls, Guyana, in the Guiana Shield. (Photo by Carol Kelloff)

have only recently begun to analyze.In addition to collecting and research,

the BDG Program has helped build theinfrastructure necessary for housingGuyana’s own natural history collectionsvia the construction and enlargement ofthe “Centre for the Study of BiologicalDiversity” located on the campus of theUniversity of Guyana; funded by theRoyal Bank of Canada and USAID. BDGhas also helped in the training of studentsand scientists both in the US and Guyana,assisting them in their research, andestablishing or maintaining their collec-tions. The Centre has organized trainingclasses for Amerindian guides, providedlectures to the public, taught short intensetaxonomy classes on various groups,helped organize the first internationalscientific meeting held in Guyana in re-cent memory, and started its own journal.

With a few exceptions, such as citiesalong the Río Orinoco (Venezuela), theRupununi savanna (Guyana), and thecoastal areas of the Guianas, the GuianaShield has benefited from its isolationand low population density, and much ofthe vegetation is still relatively undis-turbed by human activities. Unfortunately,the pace of disturbance has acceleratedbecause of logging by Asian and localcompanies, gold and diamond mining byCanadian and local outfits, oil drilling,bauxite mining, dams for hydroelectricpower, wildlife trade, burning, grazing,and agriculture. If these trends continue,the Guiana Shield will lose its place aspart of one of the three remaining“tropical wilderness” areas in the world(Conservation International).

Efforts to conserve this unique regionvary according to country: Venezuela hasset up seven national parks, 29 naturalmonuments, and two biosphere reservescovering 142,280 km² which comprisesalmost 31% of the Shield that lies inVenezuela and about 15% of the country.Guyana has only one major national park,the expanded Kaieteur National Park (627km² or about 3% of the country). Surinamhas 12 conservation areas encompassing20,000 km²; 12% of the country. FrenchGuiana has no designated protected areasbut there are 18 proposed sites that total6,710 km² and make up 7.5%. However,an indication on the map of a park orreserve does not mean that the area willactually be protected. As with manycountries, areas in the Guiana Shield that

are designated as parks are often only“paper” parks, and lack the infrastructureand financial backing necessary for effec-tive protection. Each of the five countriesof the Guiana Shield has a differentadministrative structure and officiallanguage(s), and there are a number ofborder disputes. The borders are generallyporous to drug, gold, and wildlife traffick-ing, and there are serious political andenvironmental issues in regards to thenative peoples of the region. All of theseproblems will have to be dealt with inorder to design and maintain a viablereserve system for the Guiana Shield.

The efforts of the BDG program areimportant as a major part of the processof gaining an understanding of the floraand fauna so that informed decisions canbe made on critical areas with a highpriority for conservation, and so data canbe collected from areas that may ulti-mately be degraded. Also, because thisregion was long neglected by biologists,it is often an area of “missing informa-tion” for many biological analyses. TheBDG program is designed to providespecimens and data to address biodiver-sity questions across many groups. Theassembled information is being used toproduce checklists, vegetation maps,floristic and faunistic studies as well as toaddress the more theoretical aspects ofspatial biodiversity models.

By far the most important activity wasbuilding and expanding of the Centre for

the Study of Biological Diversity(CSBD), at the University of Guyana (paidfor by the Royal Bank of Canada and aUSAID grant). The herbarium was movedinto the new addition and is now fullyfunctional. The zoology collections havebeen re-organized and are waiting addi-tional shelving to finish their expansion.The biggest remaining problems are thatthe library needs to be moved into thenew space and the small hut next to theCentre needs to be renovated into a dryingroom for plants. The Centre currentlyhouses 45,000 collections of plants, ca.10,000 animals, and ca. 22,000 insects.

The symposium “The Biodiversity ofGuyana: A Global Perspective for theFuture” was held in Georgetown, Guyanafrom 7 – 10 October 2001. It was co-hosted by BDG and the University ofGuyana (UG). For many years, institu-tions and research organizations inGuyana and around the world, includingthe Smithsonian Institution, have beenworking in Guyana collecting plant andanimal data, discussing conservationstrategies, and evaluating areas forpreservation. In 1999 the CSBD and itscollaborators decided that the time hadarrived to evaluate the level of ourknowledge of the biodiversity of Guyanaand to use those data to address questionsuch as “What do we know about thediversity of various groups of organismsin Guyana?”, “How does the diversity

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The Centre for the Study of Biological Diversity, University of Guyana,Georgetown, Guyana. (Photo by Carol Kelloff)

compare regionally and globally?”, “Howcan it be conserved?”, and “How mightconservation efforts affect the people ofGuyana?”

In 2002 the CSBD decided to publishits own peer reviewed journal that wouldfocus on biodiversity issues of the GuianaShield and provide a forum for selectedsenior theses to be published. The BDGprogram has been actively involved inboth the editing and reviewing processand in 2003 the first volume was issued.The Contribution to the Study of Bio-logical Diversity journal is currentlydistributed to the major institutionsworldwide that have had an interested inthis region of South America. Twovolumes have been published and a thirdone is nearly finished.

The Checklist of the Terrestrial Verte-brates of the Guiana Shield was pub-lished in 2005. It contains all known ter-restrial vertebrates (and their distributionon the Shield) and so has chapters onbirds, mammals, herps, and reptiles.Edited by Hollowell and Reynolds, thechapter authors are from Canada, Venezu-ela, Brazil, and the USA and the Directorof NMNH, Cristián Samper, wrote theforward. The only missing part of thevertebrates is the fishes and a project isunderway to synthesize the Checklist ofthe Freshwater Fishes of South andCentral America. BDG now has a list of3,507 fishes from the Guiana Shield. Thischecklist should be finished during 2007and at that point all known vertebrates

from the Guiana Shield will be listed.Currently, the total number of plant

records held by the BDG program is125,387, which consist of 49,527 BDGcollections, 71,136 plant specimens fromthe US National Herbarium, and 4,724miscellaneous collections, all of whichhave been databased and most have beenbarcoded. Other databases includeapproximately 4,302 records of birds(plus 5,923 bird tissue samples), 9,000spiders, 8,235 Lepidoptera, 75,000 ants,23,000 aquatic insects, 450 termites,3,388 amphibians and reptiles, and 1,300mammals. The BDG could not functionwithout the collaboration of over 300scientists from around the world. Thesecolleagues collect and identify speci-mens, send books and supplies to Guyana,prepare specimens to be returned to thehost countries, and train students.

In 2000 we began publishing theSmithsonian Plant Collections, Guyanaseries starting with our first collector.The main purpose of this publicationseries is to make the results of the fieldwork widely available to botanical andconservation communities. These publi-cations describe and discuss the collect-ing trips and list all identified collectionsby number and by name. Three have beenpublished so far (Pipoly, Gillespie, Mc-Dowell) and two are just about ready tosend out for review (Clarke, Miscella-neous Collectors).

The BDG program has a website and anumbered publication series for paperssupported by BDG funds, staff, andspecimens. To date there are over 200publications and the website lists them

and provides some copies <www.mnh.si.edu/biodiversity/bdg>. In addition, anumber of synthetic papers have beenpublished using the BDG data. Topicsinclude, predicting plant and animaldistributions, identifying survey gaps, anddetermining areas of species richness.

The Checklist of the Plants of theGuiana Shield is in press. It covers allvascular plants known to occur in theGuiana Shield region of northeasternSouth America. It was done in collabora-tion with the Missouri Botanical Garden.This checklist along with the TerrestrialVertebrates and the Fishes publicationsrepresent a new research and conservationresource which highlights three criticalfacets of taxonomic work: research,collections, and expeditions.

Training has always been a big compo-nent of the BDG. The first intern fromGuyana arrived at the Smithsonian in1987 and over the years there have been29 summer interns (12 from Guyana), 14Guyanese visitors, eight masters students(six from Guyana), and 15 doctoralstudents (four from Guyana). Outside ofthe more formal education programs theprogram has sponsored several bird andplant workshops for students at theUniversity, Amerindian training in classesand in the field, and hundreds of localparticipants in field trips.

In February 2007, NMNH DirectorCristián Samper and the AssociateDirector for Research and Collections,Hans Sues, visited Guyana to learn moreabout the BDG. They spent a week visitingfield sites, including a flight over some ofthe table top mountains of Guyana, andone day in Georgetown meeting withUniversity officials and the US Ambassa-dor to Guyana.

The University of Guyana has been thehome base since the beginning of theprogram. Beginning with George Walcottand continuing down through a series ofVice Chancellors, Deans, and Head ofDepartments, to the current Dean, PhilipDaSilva, and the Manager of the Centre,Calvin Barnard, the program has beenfortunate to work with many kindridspirits. Currently the University is doingan excellent job fund raising and adminis-trating the Centre and the collections arein great shape.

As always, BDG thanks the Office ofthe Director at NMNH for continuedfunding (and of course to Congress for

Page 15

PublicationsPublicationsPublicationsPublicationsPublications

Davis, C.C., M. Latvis, D.L. Nickrent,K.J. Wurdack and D.A. Baum. 2007.Floral gigantism in Rafflesiaceae. Science315(5820): 1812.

Faust, M.A. 2006. Creation of the sub-genus Testeria Faust subgen. nov. Proto-peridinium Bergh from the SW AtlanticOcean: Protoperidinium novella sp. nov.and Protoperidinium concinna sp. nov.Dinophyceae. Phycologia 45: 1-9.

Feuillet, C. and J.M. MacDougal. 2007.Passifloraceae, pp. 270-281. In K. Ku-bitzki, ed. The Families and Genera ofVascular Plants, vol. IX. Springer, Berlin.

Funk, V.A., R. Chan and A. Holland. 2007.Cymbonotus (Compositae: Arctotideae,Arctotidinae): an endemic Australiangenus embedded in a southern Africanclade. Bot. J. Linn. Soc. 153: 1-8.

Funk, V.A., H. Robinson and M.O.Dillon. 2007. Liabeae (Asteraceae), pp.

175-180. In K. Kubitzki. The Familiesand Genera of Vascular Plants. Vol. VIII.Springer Verlaf, Berlin.

Ireland, R.R., G. Bellolio, R. Rodriguezand J. Larrain. 2006. Studies on the mossflora of the Bio-Bio Region of Chile.Trop. Bryol. 28: 64-81.

Strong, M.T. 2006. Rhynchosporaguaramacalensis, una nueva especie deRhynchospora sección Paniculatae (Cy-peraceae) de Venezuela. Acta Bot. Venez.29(2): 207-210.

Strong, M.T. 2006. Scleria tropicalis(Cyperaceae), a new species from north-ern Andean South America. Harvard Pap.Bot. 11(2): 199-201.

Touwaide, A. 2006. Botany, pp. 117-118.In Medieval Islamic Civilization. AnEncyclopedia.

Touwaide, A. 2006. Horticulture, pp.328-330. In Medieval Islamic Civiliza-tion. An Encyclopedia.

Touwaide, A. 2007. Byzantine hospitalsmanuals (Iatrosophia) as a source for thestudy of therapeutics, pp. 147-173. In B.Bowers, ed. The Medieval Hospital andMedical Practice (AVISTA Studies in theHistory of Medieval Technology, Scienceand Art, volume 3). Ashgate, Aldershot.

Wen, J. 2007. Leeaceae, pp. 221-225. InK. Kubitzki, ed. Families and Genera ofVascular Plants, vol. 9. Springer, Berlin.

Wen, J. 2007. Vitaceae, pp. 467-479. In:K. Kubitzki, ed. Families and Genera ofVascular Plants, vol. 9. Springer, Berlin.

Wood, K.R., W.L. Wagner and T.J.Motley. 2007. Labordia lorenciana(Loganiaceae), a new critically endan-gered species from Kaua‘i, HawaiianIslands with comments on its conserva-tion. Syst. Bot. 32: 195-199.

Zhou, S.-L., T. Funamoto, P.-H. Huang andJ. Wen. 2006. Discovery of Abeliaspathulata (Caprifoliaceae) in easternChina. Acta Phytotaxon. Sin. 44: 467-470.

Zhu, Y.-P., J. Wen and Z.-Y. Zhang. 2006.Evolutionary relationships and diversifi-cation of Stachyuraceae based on se-quences of four chloroplast regions andnuclear ribosomal ITS region. Taxon 55:931-940.

Vicki Funk, Cristián Samper, and Hans Sues do their best jacana immitationwhile visiting Karanambu, Guyana, in February 2007. (Photo by Carol Kelloff)

the Global Change money many yearsago). Also, the Program could not runwithout the help of Carol Kelloff, theAssistant Director of BDG. On the downside, Tom Hollowell, Data Manager fornine years, left in November 2005 and theprogram has not been able to replace him.His departure has slowed our ability tosynthesize the data.

In 2005 BDG was reviewed by anexternal committee. The report was posi-tive and was approved by the Office of theDirector and the Associate Director forScience. There were several importantrecommendations including finishing thedatabase, putting the data online, andfinishing the synthetic work. They alsorecommended soon ending the BDGprogram and they suggested a competitionso that the funds could be used to work inanother area of the world or on anothergroup in the same area. Further study ofthis topic is underway.

Finally, it is my belief that the BDGprogram fulfills the goals of the Smithso-nian Institution by gathering new informa-tion and distributing it to those who use itto produce checklists, floras and faunasof a relatively unknown area, by supplyingdata for the identification and preserva-tion of biologically diverse areas forconservation activities, by providingspecimens that are used in systematic

studies both within the Institution andthroughout the world, by building infra-structure in the host countries, and byproviding training for university studentsand Amerindians. I think it is somethingwe can all be proud of and I thank every-one who has helped along the way.

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Known only fromKaieteur Falls, Guyana,Graffenrieda irwinii is awhite-flowered shrubwith yellow stamens.

Graffenrieda has aspecies-density center

in the Roraima-formation tepuis, withseven Guianan species

confined to north-western Guyana. Alice

Tangerini illustrated G. irwinii for John

Wurdack’s treatmentof Melastomataceae

for the Flora of theGuianas (1993).

Graffenrieda irwinii Wurdack

Department of BotanyPO Box 37012NMNH, MRC-166Washington DC 20013-7012

Official BusinessPenalty for Private Use $300

Art by Alice TangeriniArt by Alice TangeriniArt by Alice TangeriniArt by Alice TangeriniArt by Alice Tangerini