Botany Profile

New Series - Vol. 5 - No. 4 October-December 2002

The Plant Press

Department of Systematic Biology - Botany & the U.S. National Herbarium

With Liberty and Justicia for AllBy Robert DeFilipps

Justicia is an attractive genus in thedicot family Acanthaceae. It isnamed for James Justice (1698-1763),

an early tulipomaniac and the first personin England to grow a pineapple to thefruiting stage. All botanists and horticul-turists, and numerous other visitors tothe tropics, are familiar with the �shrimpplant,� an evergreen shrub with archingspikes having conspicuous, copperybronze, overlapping bracts resembling thecarapace of a large shrimp. The technicalname of this widely cultivated plant, onceendemic to Mexico, is Justicia bran-degeana Wasshausen & L.B. Smith. Thejoint authors of the species, Dieter C.Wasshausen (Acanthaceae and Begonia-ceae specialist) and Lyman B. Smith(Bromeliaceae and Begoniaceae special-ist, deceased) have remained associatedin a number of ways by mutual botanicalinterests over the years.

Dieter Carl Wasshausen, curator in theUnited States National Herbarium (US),was born in Jena, Germany in 1938. Afterthe Second World War, his father, aneminent German rocket scientist, settledthe family in New Jersey. Later, DieterWasshausen joined the U.S. Army tospend six months in Greenland testing therate of movement of nuclear falloutradiation on the Greenland Icecap. Histhree degrees were earned at GeorgeWashington University (Washington,D.C.): B.S. in 1962; M.S. in 1965 with athesis on Acanthaceae for C.L. Lundell�sFlora of Texas; and Ph. D. in 1972 with adissertation monograph of the genusAphelandra (Acanthaceae). The majoradvisor for his degrees was Lyman Smith,

curator in the Smithsonian Institution�sDepartment of Botany.

Wasshausen began working in Smith-sonian Botany on May 20, 1962, as atechnician with Velva Rudd, the Fabaceaeexpert. In a span of 14 years, he workedupwards from technician to the position ofChairman of the Botany Department, whichhe assumed in 1976 and held until 1982.Prior to that he had been an associatecurator from 1969 to 1976, and later becamea full curator from 1982 to the present time.A great affinity for field collecting andexploration pervades his botanicalinterests, and one early influence was hisopportunity to peruse the vast collectionsthat had recently been brought back fromAmazonian Peru by J.J. Wurdack. At nearlythe same time it was realized that Emery C.Leonard (1892-1968), an Acanthaceaespecialist at the Smithsonian, had abruptlyleft behind eight herbarium cases of TexasAcanthaceae, and Lyman Smith suggestedthat Wasshausen might want to examinethem. This led to his master�s study as atreatment for Lundell�s Flora of Texas, andwas the genesis of a lifelong interest in theNew World Acanthaceae.

In the 1980s he diverged slightly tocollaborate with L.B. Smith and R.M. Kleinin a study of the taxonomically difficultgrass family (Poaceae) for the FloraIlustrada Catarinense, a flora of the stateof Santa Catarina, Brazil, resulting in 998pages of text. Wasshausen�s excursionsinto the taxonomy of begonias (Begonia-ceae) also began with the stimulus ofSmith, and their first joint paper on thesubject was on begonias in Ecuador(1979), followed by a treatment for the

Flora of Ecuador in 1987. In addition tothose previously mentioned, Wasshau-sen has contributed family taxonomictreatments of Acanthaceae for the floraof Texas by Correll & Johnston, and ofthe Galapagos Islands, Dominica, Picodas Almas (Bahia, Brazil) and VenezuelanGuayana, as well as for checklists orcatalogues of the family in the threeGuianas (Guyana, Suriname, FrenchGuiana), French Guiana (edited byCremers & Hoff), and Peru.

Among his numerous begoniapublications is a treatment of the familyfor the Flora of Venezuela (1989), andthe world-scope treatment in the defini-tive Begoniaceae, Edition 2, Part I:Annotated Species List; Part II: Illus-trated Key, Abridgement and Supple-ment, by J. Golding and D.C. Wasshau-sen, which recently appeared in Contrib.U.S. Nat. Herb. 43: 1-289 (2002); itsprecursor (ed. 1) appeared in Smith-sonian Contrib. Bot. 60: 1-584 (1986), ofwhich Wasshausen was a co-author withL.B. Smith, J. Golding and C.E. Kare-geannes.

Altogether, Wasshausen hasdescribed approximately 247 newspecies in various families, and

five new species have been named forhim, including the composite Vernoniawasshausenii S.B. Jones from Brazil; themelastome Tibouchina wasshausenii J.J.Wurdack from Peru; and Vellozia wass-hausenii L.B. Smith & E.S. Ayensu fromBrazil. Many of the new species in bothcategories have been collected duringhis strenuous field work of the past

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Travel

Head of BotanyW. John Kress(kress.john@nmnh.si.edu)

EDITORIAL STAFF

Co-EditorsGary Krupnick(krupnick.gary@nmnh.si.edu)Robert DeFilipps(defilipps.robert@nmnh.si.edu)

Circulation ManagerShirley Maina(maina.shirley@nmnh.si.edu)

News ContactsMaryAnn Apicelli, Robert Faden, EllenFarr, George Russell, Alice Tangerini, andElizabeth Zimmer

The Plant Press is a quarterly publicationprovided free of charge. If you would like to beadded to the mailing list, contact Shirley Mainaat: Department of Systematic Biology -Botany, Smithsonian Institution, PO Box37012, NMNH MRC-166, Washington, DC20013-7012, or by e-mail: maina.shirley@nmnh.si.edu.

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

The Plant Press

New Series - Vol. 5 - No. 4

V i s i t o r s

Vicki Funk traveled to Urbana, Illinois(7/1 � 7/3) to attend the annual meeting ofthe Society for the Study of Evolution(SSE); to Madison, Wisconsin (8/2 � 8/8)to attend the annual meeting of theAmerican Institute of Biological Sciences(AIBS) and to collect Asteraceae forresearch; to Patras, Greece (9/11 � 9/16) toattend the Sixth International Congress onSystematic and Evolutionary Biology(ICSEB-VI); and to London, U.K. (9/17 � 9/23) to conduct herbarium work at the RoyalBotanic Gardens, Kew.

Laurence Skog traveled to Costa Rica(7/14 � 7/23) to conduct field work andherbarium studies; to Scotland (9/23 � 10/2) to participate in the Gesneriaceae work-shop at Royal Botanical Gardens in Edin-burgh; and to Tampa, Florida (10/12 � 10/16) to visit Selby Botanical Garden and toselect materials for loan.

W. John Kress traveled to Panama (7/28 � 8/4) to attend the annual meeting ofthe Association for Tropical Biology; and

to Miami, Florida (9/20 � 9/22) to attend thebiannual symposium of the Coalition forExcellence in Tropical Biology (CETroB).

Paula DePriest traveled to Hartford,Connecticut (7/25 � 7/28) to attended theAmerican Bryological and LichenologicalSociety meeting at the University ofConnecticut.

Maria Faust traveled to Madison,Wisconsin (8/4 � 8/7) to attend the annualmeeting of the Phycological Society ofAmerica (PSA).

Warren Wagner traveled to Madison,Wisconsin (8/4 � 8/8) to present a talk atthe annual meeting of the BotanicalSociety of America (BSA).

Liz Zimmer traveled to Madison, Wis-consin (8/4 � 8/8) to present a poster at theannual meeting of the Botanical Society ofAmerica (BSA); and to Cambridge, Massa-chusetts (8/21) to discuss collaborativeopportunities.

Paul Peterson traveled to Madison,Wisconsin (8/4 � 8/8) to present a talk onChloridoideae (Poaceae) at the annualmeeting of the Botanical Society ofAmerica (BSA); and to Mexico (9/15 � 10/20) to collect grasses.

Robert Faden traveled to London, U.K.and Nairobi, Kenya (8/4 � 8/25) to study

collections of Commelinaceae at the RoyalBotanic Gardens, Kew and East AfricanHerbarium, National Museum of Kenya.

Laurence Dorr traveled to Caracas,Venezuela (8/8 � 8/29) to collect plantspecimens in the Teta de Niquitao-GuirigayNational Monument and the GuaramacalNational Park and use the herbarium inGuanare; and to Bronx, New York (9/24 � 9/27) to visit the New York Botanical Gardenand to work on Taxonomic Literature II,Supplement F-G.

Pedro Acevedo traveled to Puerto Rico(8/15 � 9/7) to continue a survey on thevascular plant flora of karst limestoneareas; and to Bronx, New York (9/27 � 9/28)for a visit to the New York BotanicalGarden.

Gary Krupnick traveled to Patras,Greece (9/12 � 9/17) to co-chair a sympo-sium and present a paper at the SixthInternational Congress on Systematic andEvolutionary Biology (ICSEB-VI).

Dan Nicolson traveled to Bronx, NewYork (9/24 � 9/30) to visit the New YorkBotanical Garden and to work on Taxo-nomic Literature II, Supplement F-G.

Mark and Diane Littler traveled toPanama (10/8 � 10/22) to conduct researchon coral reefs in Bocas del Toro.

Katherine Smith, Private researcher; Peru-vian plants (7/17).

Katharine Lofdahl, University of Guam;Tree ferns (8/14 - 8/16).

Jeff Saarela, University of Alberta,Canada; Bromus, Brachyelytrum (Poa-ceae), Acorus (Acoraceae) (8/16 - 8/17).

Michael Tamessar, University of Guyana,Georgetown; Biological Diversity of theGuianas Program (8/18 - 8/28).

Roger Troutman, Sprint Corporation(retired); Independent research (8/26 - 9/8).

Susan Grose, University of Washington,Seattle; Asteraceae (8/27 - 9/7).

Patricia Tester, Team Leader, Lower FoodDynamics and Plankton Ecology, NationalMarine Fisheries Service, NOAA; Biodi-versity of dinoflagellates and copepods incoral reef-mangrove ecosystems (9/6).

Robert Raguso , University of SouthCarolina; Pollination biology (9/5 - 9/6).

Jerrold Davis, Department of Botany, Cor-nell University; Puccinellia (Poaceae) andPhytolacca (Phytolaccaceae) (9/12 - 9/13).

Hestor Bell, Rancho Santa Ana BotanicGarden, California; Poaceae (9/16).

Frederica Bowcutt, The Evergreen StateCollege; Lithocarpus (Fagaceae) (9/18).

Terry Macfarlane, Department of Conser-vation and Land Management; Poaceae,DELTA (9/18 - 9/19).

Gerrit Davidse, Missouri BotanicalGarden, St. Louis; Identification of grassescollected by Paul Peterson (9/24 - 10/14).

Tarciso Filgueiras, Instituto Brasileiro doGeografia y Estatística, Brazil (IBGE);Identification of grasses collected by PaulPeterson (9/28 - 11/19).

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Chair

With

A

View

W.John

Kress

Natural History Exploration: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

The rush to discover new species of plants andanimals began during the Great Age of NaturalHistory Exploration in the 1700s and 1800s.

Although local species had been described and namedfor centuries before that time, it wasn�t until the majorexploring expeditions set out on voyages around theworld that a concept of global biodiversity began toemerge. As biologists, when we think of the greatexplorers, the names that come to mind are CaptainCook, Joseph Banks and the Forsters, von Humboldtand Bonpland, Charles Darwin and Alfred RussellWallace.

Most of us do not think about the explorationefforts of the young United States of America as itentered the international scientific arena. In the early1800s scientists in the newly established capitol ofWashington formed the Columbia Institute for thePromotion of Arts and Sciences. Chartered by Congressin 1818, the Institute started the first botanical gardenon the nation�s Mall and established the beginnings ofa national herbarium with specimens from local natural-ists William Darlington and Alexander McWilliams.Although the Institute went defunct in 1837, it providedthe impetus for the first U.S. international exploringexpedition.

In 1828 Congress approved the United States SouthSeas Exploring Expedition, especially through theefforts of John Cleves Symmes of Ohio, who believed inthe �Holes in the Poles� theory that the Earth washollow and could be entered through cavities at the twopoles. Part of the mission of this expedition, which hadcommercial, diplomatic, and scientific objectives, was tofind these entrances to the center of the Earth and claimtheir rights for the newly developing country. Ten yearslater in 1838 the expedition actually began when Lt.Charles Wilkes set sail from Virginia in the flagshipVincennes with a fleet of six vessels. The Wilkes Expe-dition, as it was to be called, cost $928,000, lasted fouryears, covered nearly 87,000 miles, and visited most ofthe continents of the world, including a significanteffort in the exploration of the coast of Antarctica.

Nine �scientifics� were on board representing all ofthe major natural history disciplines. William Bracken-ridge and William Rich were the botanists. Asa Gray,America�s foremost botanist at the time, was originallyslated to go on the voyage, but declined at the lastminute in order to take a position as professor ofbotany at the University of Michigan. He eventuallyassisted in preparation of the Expedition volumes onplants.

When the Expedition finally returned at the end offour years, over four thousand animal specimens, fiftythousand plant specimens (both living and preserved),thousands of anthropological artifacts, and thousandsof minerals, gems, and fossils had been amassed. These

collections comprised the largest number of naturalhistory objects that young America had accumulated,and represented specimens native to our own countryas well as regions throughout the world. They formedthe basis for the beginning of two of the greatscientific institutions now based in Washington: theSmithsonian Institution and the United States BotanicGarden.

After the demise of the Columbia Institute, theremainder of that establishment merged with theHistorical Society of Washington in 1841 to form theNational Institute for the Promotion of Science. Thenatural history collections as well as the gardenplants were placed under custody of the NationalInstitute. With the return of the Wilkes Expedition in1842 with its thousands of specimens, Congressauthorized the formation of the Smithsonian Institu-tion to serve as a National Museum for the advance-ment and diffusion of knowledge.

Almost simultaneously Congress authorized theconstruction of a botanical garden on the Mall and in1856 it was officially named the �United StatesBotanic Garden� under the jurisdiction of the JointCommittee on the Library. Thus began the nearly 150year history of the Department of Botany at theSmithsonian Institution and the U.S. Botanic Garden.

The publication of the discoveries of the Expedi-tion was the responsibility of Wilkes who eventuallypublished 19 volumes over the course of 30 years. Forthe botanical discoveries Asa Gray and Wilkes arguedover the publication of the new plant taxa. Interest-ingly they first disagreed over the extent of the Latindescriptions of the new taxa. Secondly, Wilkes wantedthis work to be an entirely American �enterprise�without any assistance from foreigners while Grayinsisted that proper identifications and descriptionsof the new species were dependent on makingcomparisons to specimens found only in Europeanherbaria. Eventually Gray won the day by distributingduplicates of the collections to the major Europeanherbaria and obtaining assistance from foreign plantspecialists in making proper determinations. Grayfundamentally established botany as a recognizedscience in our country and brought American botanyinto the international arena.

Today the U.S. Botanic Garden continues to be afreestanding institution under the administration of

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StaffR e s e a r c h

Pedro Acevedo presented a plenary talkentitled �Caribbean Botany� at the 2002Caribbean Botanic Gardens for Conserva-tion Meeting, held at the Fairchild TropicalGarden during 15-18 May. At the meeting,Acevedo was presented an award from theconsortium for contributing to the knowl-edge of Caribbean botany, specifically forthe publication of Flora of St. John, U.S.Virgin Islands.

With funding from NSF, John Clarkconducted a one-month field trip to Boliviato collect and study Gesneriaceae. Aninteresting discovery was the presence ofresupinate flowers in Alloplectus bolivi-anus. It took two weeks (equivalent of 50to 60 hours of walking) to find this species.It was collected on the Mapiri trail in theYungas region of Bolivia. He recentlyreturned from Europe, where he studiedherbarium specimens at Paris (P), Brussels(BR), London (BM), Kew (K), and Edin-burgh (E).

Robert Faden traveled to U.K. and Kenyaon 4 - 26 August to continue his researchon Flora of Tropical East Africa (FTEA)Commelinaceae, especially the genusCommelina. At the Royal Botanic Gardens,Kew he focused on specimens from Paris(P), Geneva (G) and Brussels (BR) that hadbeen borrowed on his request. A type fromG and numerous Madagascan collectionsfrom P enabled him to finally confirm that aspecies from Kenya and Tanzania is indeedundescribed. In Nairobi, at the East AfricanHerbarium, National Museums of Kenya,Faden was able to clear up a number ofmisidentifications among the numerousEast African Commelina species and wasable to check the details of many of hisdescriptions made from Kew specimens.Other studies added data to the recentlycompleted Research Training Programsummer intern research paper, and otherongoing projects. Two day-trips in theNairobi area allowed the observation andcollection of several uncommon species,including a cultivated plant of a recentlydiscovered, new species of Coleotrype:just the fourth species from mainlandAfrica and not closely related to the other

two FTEA species. A cutting of the latter isgrowing well in the Botany ResearchGreenhouse.

Dan Nicolson and Laurence Dorr traveledto New York Botanic Garden from 24-27September to begin work on the nowreorganized Taxonomic Literature edition2 (TL-2) masterfiles deposited there byFrans Stafleu. They aim to write the finalsupplement for authors whose namesbegin with F & G. TL-2 began in 1976 withVolume 1 covering A-G being donewithout support and, with this 1,136 pagepublication in hand (TL-1 of 1967 was 556pages), Richard Cowan and Frans Stafleuwent to NSF for support that enabled amajor increase in coverage. They estimatedthat using the final standards of H-Z wouldrequire at least two additional volumes tobring A-G to the same standard. Whilecompiling material, with support for NSF,for volumes H-Z, they compiled material forA-G. After completing H-Z, Stafleu and EricMennega began mining the TL-2 master-files to create a supplement for A-G thatwould bring it to the same standard as H-Z.They generated the supplements A-E (insix volumes) before both of them died,leaving F-G in limbo. Nicolson and Dorrwere pleasantly surprised to find that EricMennega had hand-written a number of F-G treatments. Basil Stergios and MiquelNiño, botanists from UNELLEZ, HerbarioUniversitario (PORT), Guanare, Venezuela,accompanied Nicolson and Dorr to NewYork. Stergios and Niño are working withDorr on a Flora of Guaramacal in theVenezuelan Andes.

In July, Laurence Skog visited theNational Museum (CR) in San Jose and theInstituto Nacional de Biodiversidad(INBio) in San Jose, Costa Rica, to examinespecimens of Gesneriaceae. He also visitedthe Organization for Tropical Studies(OTS) Field Stations at La Selva and PalosVerdes to collect samples for molecularresearch, as well as visiting the new La PazWaterfall Gardens in Alajuela province foradditional samples.

Skog also traveled to Edinburgh,Scotland from 25-28 September to partici-pate in the three and a half day Gesneria-ceae Workshop at the Royal BotanicGarden. He gave an invited lecture as partof the Taxonomy�Large Scale Pattern:New World portion of the program entitled�The Changing Relationships within the

Gesnerioideae, Particularly the Gloxinieae�(co-authored with Eric Roalson, JohnBoggan, and Elizabeth Zimmer). Othersattending from US and presentingcontributed papers were ChristianFeuillet �Lampadaria and Cremersia �Two New Genera from the Guianas� (co-authored with Laurence Skog), and JohnClark �A Preliminary Phylogeny ofAlloplectus: Implications for TaxonomicCircumscription and Evolution of FlowerResupination.� Skog visited the herbariaat Edinburgh and Kew during his week (23September-2 October) in the UnitedKingdom.

Staff Activities

John Boggan traveled to Morristown,New Jersey (2-7 July) to attend thenational convention of the AmericanGloxinia and Gesneriad Society, where heserved on the board of directors as anoutgoing director and as chairman of thebotanical review committee, and also as acontributing editor to the society�smagazine, The Gloxinian. Laurence Skogattended the same convention as aninvited speaker, and served as the newlyappointed chairman of the researchcommittee.

Robert DeFilipps traveled to Haiti (1-8August) with Beverly Wolpert, graduatestudent at George Washington University,to assist her collecting medicinal plantsused locally as anthelmintics (vermifuges)to expel intestinal parasitic worms.Specimens were obtained from practitio-ners at a voodoo temple (Peristyle deMariani) near Port-au-Prince, as well asfrom various herb sellers and markets, andfrom an akee (Blighia sapida) plantationnear Croix-des-Bouquets. Although Haitihas no formally established botanicalgarden, DeFilipps and Wolpert werepleased to learn that plans for the estab-lishment of three botanical gardens areunderway. They will be at Djode near CapHaitien, under auspices of the FondasyonAyizan Velekete; at Kenscoff, on a portion

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of the Wynne Nature Preserve Center; andin Port-au-Prince at Habitation Leclerc, the30-acre garden estate of famous dancerand choreographer Katherine Dunham,once the home of Pauline Bonaparte,Napoleon�s sister.

John Kress and Mike Bordelon traveledto Thailand and Myanmar in July. The firststop was Khon Kaen University inThailand to attend the 3rd InternationalConference on the Family Zingiberaceae.Kress delivered the keynote addresspresenting his new classification of thegingers (co-authored by Linda Prince andKyle Williams) and Bordelon presented hisslide show on the gingers of the BotanyResearch Greenhouses (with Burmesemusical accompaniment). After the meet-ing, they traveled to Yangon, Myanmar fordiscussions with the Forest Departmentand the Botany Department at the Univer-sity of Yangon, concerning the finalrevisions on the soon-to-be-published�Checklist of the Trees, Shrubs, Herbs,and Climbers of Myanmar.� They alsospent several days in the field north ofYangon on the eastern slopes of theArakan Yoma near Pye. After Yangon, theywent back to Thailand to attend the meet-ing of the Heliconia Society Internationalin Pataya at the Noon Nooch BotanicalGarden. The subject of that conferenceincluded heliconias, gingers, prayer plants,and cannas.

Alice Tangerini attended the annualnational meeting of the Guild of NaturalScience Illustrators (GNSI) held at theUniversity of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansasfrom 4-10 August. Lawrence is the home ofAllen Press, one of the major publishers ofscientific journals in the U.S. and asponsor of this year�s meeting. The GNSIorganizers arranged for half day tours ofthe Allen Press facility. Members viewedtheir design and scanning rooms and thelarge printing area where issues of Brit-tonia could be seen running through thepresses. Workshops on scanning andprinting illustrations given by the staff ofAllen Press were well attended by guildmembers. One of the great discoveries forTangerini was how many different ap-proaches can be used in scanning artwork.Although her methods differed from thedesigners at Allen the results were aboutthe same for black and white images wherethe most important concern is resolution.

The Allen staff prefers illustrators to learnhow to scan their own work and sendelectronic files if possible. Color scanningis another matter and Allen�s $50, 000 colorscanner is able to scan images with muchbetter color output than most desktopmodels. Several members brought colorwork and the Press staff demonstratedmaking color adjustments to their scannedpieces.

Also featured during the week ofmeetings were workshops and lectures ontraditional techniques (watercolor, scratch-board, mixed media and pen and ink) anddigital media (Photoshop, Illustrator,PowerPoint and 3D programs). Tangerinigave a pen (and brush) and ink workshopon botanical illustration during the Tech-niques Showcase: a round table format inwhich many styles of traditional illustrationwere demonstrated. The GNSI AnnualExhibit was displayed in the University ofKansas Natural History Museum where itshared space with the dioramas of stuffedbears, wolves and other local fauna.Tangerini had her pen and ink drawing ofXenophyllum staffordiae, one of VickiFunk�s Andean comps, included in theexhibit.

Alice Tangerini also participated in theannual meeting of the American Society ofBotanical Artists (ASBA) on 4-5 October,held at the U.S. Botanic Garden and theHoliday Inn in SW Washington, DC.Tangerini organized a behind-the-scenestour at the Renwick Gallery for a group ofillustrators. The tour, given by EllenMyette, operations facility manager,included some ceramic and glass collec-tions with botanical influences and motifs.An opening reception for the ASBA juriedshow was held at the Botanic GardenConservatory on Friday evening alongwith awards for outstanding work byparticipating artists. Holly Shimizu, directorof the Garden, was in attendance ashostess and as one of the jurors of theexhibit. Saturday�s agenda featuredportfolio sharing and half-day workshopson techniques of design and on paintingconcepts.

Elizabeth Zimmer attended the annualBotanical Society of America (BSA)meeting from 4-7 August, in Madison,Wisconsin, and presented a poster entitled�Origin and Biogeography of PacificMelicope.� Co-authors were Gery Allan,

Andrew Medina-Marino and WarrenWagner. On 8 August, she stayed over inMadison and participated in the �DeepGene� group discussion sponsored by anNSF RCN program grant. Later in themonth, on 21 August, Zimmer visited PeterDel Tredici at the Arnold Arboretum andElena Kramer at Harvard University inorder to discuss collaborative opportuni-ties.

John Clark obtained a Doctoral Disserta-tion Improvement Grant from the NationalScience Foundation to finish his researchon Alloplectus (Gesneriaceae) for hisPh.D. dissertation. Clark will continue topursue this research in conjunction withPatrick Herendeen at George WashingtonUniversity and Elizabeth Zimmer andLaurence Skog in Botany. Funding fromthis grant will allow Clark to expand hisdoctoral dissertation and monographicrevision of Alloplectus (Gesneriaceae) toinclude morphological and molecularstudies on the biology of resupination(upside down flowers) in Alloplectus.

On 11 October, Ruth Schallert, Botanylibrarian, received a Distinguished ServiceAward for excellence in achievement fromLuther College in Decorah, Iowa, whereshe completed her bachelor�s degree.Schallert received the award at a classreunion and homecoming ceremony.

Awards &Grants

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Searching for Lichens Where the Reindeer PlayPaula DePriest and Sue Lutz traveled

to northwestern Mongolia in June toconduct research on lichens of the Tsaatanreindeer herding grounds. Mongolia, ahigh plateau bordered on the north byRussia and the south by China, is wellknown for its Gobi Desert and grassysteppes. However, it also has highmountains with Siberia-like larch forest andalpine meadows. The Sayan Mountains, inthe extreme northwest, bordering onRussian Tuva and Siberia, are home to theremaining wild and domesticated reindeerof Mongolia. This small region at the head-waters of the Yenisei River may be the areawhere reindeer were originally domesti-cated 2,000 � 3,000 years ago. Both thedomesticated and wild reindeers of thisarea are southern disjuncts from the largereindeer herds of northern Siberia; globalclimate warming may threaten theirsurvival. The goal of the trip was to studythe lichen flora of the seasonal feedinggrounds of domesticated reindeer in thisarea.

A group of U.S. and Mongolian anthro-pologists and botanists traveled to thesummer reindeer feeding grounds of theTsaatan. The Tsaatan (literally, �reindeerpossessing people� in Mongolian) are

nomadic hunter-gatherers who use rein-deer for transportation, milk and cheese,and, only rarely, meat and leather. NomadicTsaatan, fewer than 200 individualsrepresenting around 30 family groups, livein summer camps to the east and west ofthe Darkhat Valley near the famousHovsgol Lake. Together the camps herdapproximately 700 reindeer (Rangifertarandus). The summer feeding grounds inthe alpine tundra and the winter feedinggrounds in the larch taiga are covered bylichens, providing year-round food for thereindeer. A Tsaatan guide, Sanjin, was ableto distinguish and provide traditionalnames for eleven dominant lichen speciesin the summer feeding ground, demonstrat-ing that traditional lichen taxonomy in thisculture is sophisticated and in line withlichenological taxonomy.

In addition to the scientific benefits ofthe expedition, DePriest and Lutz had theadventure of a lifetime. During the expedi-tion they traveled by airplane, Russianjeep, and horseback to reach the remotecamp near the Russian border. On the waythey visited numerous sites with BronzeAge deer stone monuments, one of whichwas cast by members of the expedition,

Paula DePriest (second from left) examines the reindeer mount of a youngTsaatan girl with her grandfather, Tsaatan Herder Sanjin, and an interpreter.(Photo by Sue Lutz)

Carolyn Thome and Paul Rhymer, modelersin SI Exhibits Central, for display in thespecial exhibition �Modern Mongolia:Reclaiming Genghis Khan.� The groupmade a side trip to Hustai National Park tosee the reintroduced Przewalski�s horses,the only remaining species of wild horsethat is native to Mongolia. In the capitolUlaan Bataar they visited herbaria at theAcademy of Sciences and MongolianState University, the Migjed JanraisigBuddhist Temple and the Black Market. Amissed airline connection in Beijingallowed them to tour the Forbidden City.

The trip was part of a larger project tostudy this most southern reindeer herdingculture, led by William Fitzhugh (NMNHAnthropology), and the ancient empires ofMongolia by Dan Rogers and Matt Gallon(NMNH Anthropology). Botanists andbiologists on the trip included SteveYoung (Center for Arctic Studies, Ver-mont), Ts. Tsendeekhuu (Mongolian StateUniversity) and O. Sukhbaatar (ChinggisKhan University). The group plans totravel to the Tsaatan camp again nextsummer.

Cladonia rangiferina is called �Tsaahag,� literally �reindeer lichen,� by theTsaatan. (Illustration by Wm. KeithHarrison)

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Over the last decade significant newbiodiversity discoveries and advances inthe plant sciences have been made in thetropical areas of Southeast Asia throughthe collaborative efforts of local andforeign scientists. Exploration in manyremote and poorly surveyed regions insuch countries as Laos, Cambodia, andMyanmar isuncoveringnew taxa ofplants andanimals andexpanding theinventory ofbiodiversity. At the same time in China,Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia innova-tive field and laboratory investigationshave led to great strides in our under-standing of the ecological complexity ofhabitats as well as the evolutionary historyand genetic diversity of plants in thisregion. Despite these innovations theincreasing rate of destruction of pristineenvironments necessitates rapid conserva-tion action.

The 2003 Smithsonian BotanicalSymposium, entitled �Botanical Frontiersin Southeast Asia: from the Discovery ofthe Earliest Flowering Plants to theSequencing of the Rice Genome,� willexplore the numerous new developmentsin our knowledge of plant diversity inSoutheast Asia by bringing togetherbotanists from around the world fordiscussion and exchange. Topics willinclude recent fossil discoveries of theearliest angiosperms, ethnobotanicalsurveys, systematics and floristics, foreststructure, conservation, and break-throughs in genome technology.

This Symposium, to be held 28-29March 2003 at the National Museum ofNatural History in Washington, D.C.,follows the first two highly successfulSmithsonian Botanical Symposia hostedby Botany. The 2001 conference, entitled�Linnaean Taxonomy in the 21st Century,�addressed the fundamental question ofhow we name plants and animals in light ofrecent advances in understanding theevolutionary relationships of organisms.The 2002 conference, entitled �TheConvention on Biological Diversity: The

Globalization of Natural History Science,�addressed the impact of the CDB onscientists and its ramifications for under-standing the natural world.

The third José Cuatrecasas Medal inTropical Botany will be awarded at theSmithsonian Botanical Symposium. Thisprestigious award is presented annually to

an interna-tional scholarwho hascontributedsignificantlyto advancingthe field of

tropical botany. The award is named inhonor of Dr. José Cuatrecasas, a pioneer-ing botanist who spent many yearsworking in the Department of Botany atthe Smithsonian and devoted his career to

The 2003 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, 28-29 March, isSet to Explore the Botanical Frontiers in Southeast Asia

plant exploration in tropical South America.The Symposium will include a day of

invited speakers followed by a keynoteaddress, and is being sponsored by theNational Museum of Natural History, theCuatrecasas Family Foundation, theInternational Association for PlantTaxonomy, and the United States BotanicGarden.

Two associated exhibits are planned toopen to coincide with the symposium. Atthe National Museum of Natural History,�A Passion for Plants: Contemporary Artfrom the Shirley Sherwood Collection� willopen in March. �Traditions in Elegance�will open in January at the U.S. BotanicGarden.

For more information and registration,visit <http://persoon.si.edu/sbs/> or call202-357-2534.

Completing the D.C. Flora ChecklistThe D.C. Flora Checklist Project is

pleased to announce that the second partof the checklist of the flora of the Wash-ington-Baltimore area is now available inpdf format at <http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/projects/dcflora/checklistproject.htm>.

The aim of this project has been torevise completely Frederick J. Hermann�smuch outdated and long out-of-print AChecklist of Plants in the Washington-Baltimore Area (ed. 2), published in 1946in duplicated form. The publication of theAnnotated Checklist of the VascularPlants of the Washington-Baltimore Area,the new revision by Stanwyn Shetler andSylvia Orli, has now been completed withthe release of Part II, Monocotyledons (95p.), on 30 August. Part I, Ferns, FernAllies, Gymnosperms, and Dicotyledons(186 p.), was issued 21 March 2000. It ishoped that the revised checklist willbecome the basis for preparing a com-pletely new manual of the flora of theWashington-Baltimore Area, to replace the1919 Flora of the District of Columbia andVicinity of A.S. Hitchcock and P.C. Stand-ley.

The Checklist includes all native andnaturalized species of vascular plants(ferns and fern allies, conifers [gymno-

sperms], flowering plants [angiosperms])known to occur in the Washington-Baltimore area. The new Checklistincludes a total of 2,794 species � 1,801native species and 993 introduced species.Of the total, 2,001 species (1,220 native,781 introduced [39%]) are in Part I, and793 species (581 native, 212 introduced[27%]) are in Part II.

Page 8

By Gary A. Krupnick

The Conservation Column

The fields of biological diversity andconservation were at the forefront at theSixth International Congress of Systematicand Evolutionary Biology (ICSEB VI) held9-16 September at the University of Patrasin Patras, Greece. The theme of the confer-ence was �Biodiversity in the InformationAge� and several symposia focused onconservation research.

Among the keynote addresses, twowere highly significant for conservation-ists. James Edwards of the Global Bio-diversity Information Facility (GBIF), inDenmark, presented �Biodiversity Infor-matics as a Megascience: Fully ExploitingBiodiversity Data,� giving attendees aclear understanding of how GBIF plans tooperate. Daniel Janzen of the University ofPennsylvania presented his views on the�gardenification� of wild areas in his talk�Conserving Tropical Wildland Biodiver-sity through Non-Damaging Develop-ment.�

Several symposia of invited speakersfocused on biodiversity and conservation.Global change, biogeography, GBIF, andthe ALL Species Foundation were thetopics of a few symposia. Two otherslooked at global biodiversity and the useof natural history resources in conserva-tion assessments. The former was thefocus of �Life, the Universe and Every-thing,� a symposium organized by VickiFunk and Dennis P. Gordon of theNational Institute of Water and Atmo-spheric Research, New Zealand. Thesymposium investigated how far taxono-mists have come in our efforts to under-stand the history of life. Seventeenspeakers attempted to cover all of themajor clades of life. Each speaker had beenasked to address three questions withrespect to his/her group: Where are we inour attempts to determine the phylogenyand sister group relationships of thisgroup?; How can these results be inter-preted in the light of the history of Earth?;and, Where do we go from here? Thesymposium ended with a presentation ofthe current phylogeny of life in graphicform.

A separate symposium addressed hownatural history collections have been andcan be used in conservation work. �Using

Natural History Resources for Conserva-tion Assessment� was the title of asymposium organized by John Kress andGary Krupnick. Speakers of the sympo-sium addressed the strengths and weak-nesses of several classes of information,used to assess levels of species diversityand distribution for conservation pur-poses. These classes of biologicalinformation range from a complete inven-tory of all organisms on Earth, to collectedbiological specimens, to expert opinion. Allclasses of information comprise theresources found in natural history institu-

Staff on the Move

Cameron Cooley, a Smithsonian MinorityInternship fellow, spent June and Julyworking with Elizabeth Zimmer andWarren Wagner on a molecular phylog-eny of the Hawaiian composite genusRemya. Cooley now is a first year graduatestudent in the Botany and Plant PathologyDepartment at Purdue University.

On 1 September, Rose Gulledge trans-ferred from the Smithsonian�s MuseumSupport Center (MSC) in Suitland,Maryland, to join Botany at the NationalMuseum of Natural History as LaurenceDorr�s half-time assistant. This is atemporary assignment until the vacant full-time assistant position that reports to Dorris advertised. Gulledge has been settling inand learning new inventorying proce-dures, botanical terms, and trying not toget lost in the herbarium. She began heremployment at the museum in 1990 aftercompleting a master�s degree in biologicaloceanography (phytoplankton nutrientwork) at North Carolina State University.Initially she was a Trust Fund employee atthe Smithsonian Oceanographic SortingCenter (SOSC) at MSC. A few months laterGulledge became a Federal employee withBotany working half-time with MariaFaust on tropical benthic dinoflagellatesand half-time with Rafael Lemaitre, thenwith SOSC, on deep-water hermit crabsand other decapods. In May 1992, how-ever, SOSC was dissolved and Lemaitre

joined the Department of InvertebrateZoology (IZ) - Section Crustacea whereshe followed as his half-time assistant.Gulledge still continues to work half-timefor Lemaitre in IZ on various projects, oneof which is the Decapod Guide of theIndian River Estuary (via SMS - FortPierce, Florida). She will continue toalternate weekly with IZ and Botany.

tions and botanical gardens.Held every four to six years, ICSEB is

the primary meeting of systematists andevolutionary biologists worldwide.Currently, the Congress is held under theauspices of IOSEB (International Organiza-tion for Systematic and EvolutionaryBiology), which was created at ICSEB V inBudapest. The aim of the Organization isto embrace all relevant aspects of system-atic and evolutionary biology includingsubjects ranging from molecular to global,and from descriptive to theoretical.

Page 9

Progress on theCatalogue of NewWorld Grasses

Botany is host to two visitors over thenext two months who are working ontreatments for the Catalogue of New WorldGrasses (CNWG). Gerrit Davidse (fromMissouri Botanical Garden, MO) is visitingfrom 24 September to 14 October, andTarciso Filgueiras (from Instituto Brasileirodo Geografia y Estatística, IBGE, Brazil) isvisiting from 28 September to 19 Novem-ber. They are working on the treatments ofthe Aristidoideae, Arundinoideae, Dantho-nioideae, Centotheceae, and Andropo-goneae for CNWG. Fernando Zuloaga andOsvaldo Morrone (SI, Argentina) visitedBotany this spring to work on CNWGPaniceae. The CNWG editors (includingPaul Peterson, Emmet Judziewicz [UWSP],and Robert Soreng) and collaborators areworking toward full coverage of names,protologues, types, taxonomy, synonymy,higher classification, and distribution forNew World grasses from Greenland toTierra del Fuego. All the work is preparedin a database format and is available at<http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/nwgc.html>.

The group plans to publish accounts ofthe Pooideae, Panicoideae and smallerPACC clade subfamilies in 2003, in theContributions from the U.S. NationalHerbarium, as was done for Chloridoideae

(vol. 41, 2001), and Anomochlooideae,Bambusoideae, Ehrhartoideae, and Pharo-ideae (vol. 39, 2000). Manuscripts for theprinted volumes are produced directly fromthe database. The CNWG Web site is adynamic one that makes all data immedi-ately available to users as the data isentered into TROPICOS (in St. Louis orfrom remote locations via Telnet). Inaddition to the detailed data on New Worldgrasses, Old World grass names can beaccessed through the database. Althoughcoverage for the Old World is less com-plete, new data is entered on a regularbasis. In addition to basic nomenclaturaland types data, many cross-references totheir usage in monographs, revisions,floras, and checklists, images (includingtype photos), and specimens and maps(data presently primarily from MO) areavailable through the website. Currentlythe database contains information on some77,000 names for grasses worldwide.

Riddled by Botany

This is the first in a new series of occa-sional columns, in which we will presentvarious tidbits of botanical varia for youredification. We invite curators to searchthe upper registers of their minds for itemsof interest. Meanwhile, here is our firstchallenge: a thorny piece from Dan H.Nicolson.

An old botanical riddle: Who or whatare these five strange brothers?

Quinque sumus fratres, et eodemtempore nati,

Sunt duo barbati, duo sunt barbaabsque creati,

Unus et e quinque non estbarbatus utrinque.

There are many versions of this poemin Latin, English and German, testifying toits being transmitted from person toperson from the Middle Ages.

Fünf Brüder sind�s, zu gleicherZeit geboren,

Doch zweien nur erwuchs einvoller Bart,

Zwei andern bleib die Wangeunbehaart,

Dem fünfte hat den halben Bartbloss.

Still not getting it?

Five brethren of one birth are weAll in a little family,Two have beards, and two have

noneAnd only half a beard has one.

The five brothers are, in short, the fivesepals of Rosa canina and other dog-roses. The manner in which the parts ofthe calyx are disposed within an unopenedflower is constant for whole groups ofplants and is technically known as aestiva-tion. There exist various types. The kind ofimbricate or overlapping aestivationoccurring in Rosa and other genera withfive sepals is called quincuncial. Here twoof the five are completely outside theothers and, in R. canina (and most otherroses), have appendages or beard alongboth edges; two with plain unappendagededges are completely overlapped along the

edges by other sepals, the fifth has oneedge outside and appendaged, its otherside inside and plain, in other words it hasonly half a beard!

Thus the keen-witted medieval authorof the riddle of the five brethren touchedon an interesting matter of floral organiza-tion.

Source: Stearn, W.T. 1965. The fivebrethren of the rose: an old botanical riddle.Huntia 2: 180-184.

The Botany lecture series took a breakover the summer. The series resumed on 10September with Paula T. DePriest present-ing �Examining Symbiosis and Coevolu-tion in Lichen Systems.� Botany curatorswill continue delivering research seminarseach month for the remainder of the year.

Staff LectureSeries Continues

Page 10

decades. In addition to work in Texas, hehas collected in an astonishing array ofplaces: Puerto Rico; Dominica; Trinidad(Mt. Aripo); Tobago; Brazil (states ofGoias, Minas Gerais); Peru�s CordilleraVilcabamba, Rio Urubamba, TambopataValley and other Amazonian areas; theBahamas (Abaco, Exuma, Rum Cay, SanSalvador); French Guiana; Queensland,Australia; Bolivia (Chuquiasca, Santa Cruz,Cochabamba, La Paz); northern Argentina(Jujuy, Salta, Misiones); and two trips(1987, 1990) to observe and collect theendemics of Madagascar with the incom-parable Werner Rauh (University ofHeidelberg). Additionally, required libraryresearch has led him to visit foreignherbaria too numerous to mention.

In 1979, Wasshausen received theWilldenow Medal during the TercentenaryCelebration of the Botanic Garden, Berlin.It was awarded in recognition of hissignificant assistance in rebuilding thegeneral collections of the Berlin Herbarium,which had been severely damaged duringWWII. At present he has a number of

WasshausenContinued from page 1

the Architect of the Capitol and is uniquelysituated at the heart of the U.S. Govern-ment at the base of Capitol Hill. This majorbotanical exhibition center positioned onthe National Mall includes the Conservato-ries, the future National Garden, andBartholdi Park as well as an extensive 25-acre propagation nursery facility with85,000 square feet of glass house spaceoutside of Washington. The strength ofthe USBG lies in its clear ability to suc-cessfully display and exhibit plant diver-sity to the over 750,000 visitors per year.

At the same time, the Department ofBotany at the Smithsonian has developedinto an international research and educa-tion center in the botanical sciences,especially plant taxonomy and classifica-tion. The Department is one of the largestbotanical centers in the world and servesas a magnet for hundreds of students,visiting researchers, and enthusiasticvolunteers. The Department operates theU.S. National Herbarium containing 4.6million preserved plant specimens from allareas of the globe.

In consideration of the strengths of thetwo institutions, the plant exhibition andpropagation capabilities of the USBGrichly complement the research, profes-sional training, and conservation programsof the NMNH Department of Botany. In2000 the USBG and the NMNH signed aMemorandum of Understanding to greatlyincrease their interactions and enhance theoverall mission of each institution througheffective collaborations. The research, fieldexploration, training, and conservationcomponents provided by the Departmentof Botany, in combination with thehorticultural and public display elements atthe U.S. Botanic Garden, formed a new andhighly significant botanical consortium inthe Washington area and the Nation.

Already many activities are underwayas a result of this collaboration. We arejointly developing a permanent botanyexhibit at the Botanic Garden whileresearch plants collected by NMNHbotanists are on display in the conservato-ries. The two institutions also co-sponsorthe Smithsonian Botanical Symposiumheld at NMNH each spring. The first jointtemporary public program supported byTwinings Tea Co. will be �Traditions in

Elegance,� an exhibition celebrating thehistory and enjoyment of tea, which willopen at the botanic garden in late January2003. The public collaboration will con-tinue with the exhibition, �A Passion forPlants: Contemporary Art from theSherwood Collection,� which will open atthe NMNH in March 2003. Featuring anextraordinary presentation of botanicalpaintings, the exhibition will explore theinterplay between art and science from theperspective of style, form, purpose, use,and content.

In the future we plan to initiate a jointseminar series on botany and environmen-tal conservation in the new educationalcenter to be constructed at the NationalGarden, pursue programs on horticulturalconservation of endangered plants,develop web links, and, perhaps mostimportantly, promote both our goalsthrough fundraising efforts.

Who would have thought that thekernel of an idea of a national herbariumand a national botanical garden planted in1818 at the Columbia Institute would beblossoming today in 2002 through a newcollaboration between Botany at theSmithsonian and the United States BotanicGarden. Botanical exploration continuesinto the 21st century.

ChairContinued from page 3

Botanical TypeCollection on theWeb

The Type Imaging Project continues tomake progress and has now completed atotal of 22,910 specimen images (up fromthe 10,000th previously reported in PlantPress 5(2): 6. 2002). The project has beendesigned to create a high resolution digitalimage of each specimen in the UnitedStates National Herbarium�s Type Register.

Types chosen for the project arecurrently selected in one of three ways.Firstly, all type specimens being sent onloan are being digitized prior to shipment.Secondly, special projects or requests

made by staff and visitors are considered.Thirdly, entire families are chosen fordigitizing.

Future plans include providing close-ups of critical features and three-dimen-sional views of bulky fruits and other largeparts. A list of digitized type material isavailable by visiting <http://rathbun.si.edu/botany/types/>.

Page 11

Publications

Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. and M.S. Ferrucci.2002. Averrhoidium dalyi (Sapindaceae), anew species from western Amazonia. Brit-tonia 54: 112-115.

Bruna, E.M. and W.J. Kress. 2002. Habitatfragmentation and the demographicstructure of an Amazonian understory herb(Heliconia acuminata). Conserv. Biol. 16:1256-1266.

Clark, J.L. and L.E. Skog. 2002. NovaeGesneriaceae Neotropicarum VIII: Allo-plectus grandicalyx, a new species fromColombia and Ecuador. Novon 12(2): 173-178.

Faust, M.A. and R.A. Gulledge. 2002.Harmful Marine Dinoflagellates. Multime-dia Interactive Software on high-qualityillustrations of species and taxonomicinformation on the world�s biologicaldiversity. The World Biodiversity Database CD-ROM Series. UNESCO.

Feuillet, C. 2002. A new series and threenew species of Passiflora subgenusAstrophea from the Guianas. Brittonia 54:18-29.

Golding, J. and D.C. Wasshausen. 2002.Begoniaceae, Edition 2. Part I: AnnotatedSpecies List. Part II: Illustrated Key,Abridgement and Supplement. Contribu-tions from the United States NationalHerbarium 43: 1-289.

González Elizondo, M.S., I.L. LópezEnriquez and W.L. Wagner. 2002. Mega-corax gracielanus (Onagraceae), a newgenus and species from Durango, México.Novon 12: 360-365.

Liu, A.-Z., D.-Z. Li, H. Wang and W.J.Kress. 2002. Ornithophilous and chi-ropterophilous pollination in Musaitinerans (Musaceae), a pioneer species intropical rain forests in Yunnan, SW China.Biotropica 34: 254-260.

Nicolson, D.H. and K.N. Gandhi. 2002.Cecil John Saldanha (1926-2002). Taxon51(3): 585-587.

Roalson, E.H., A.E. Senters, L.E. Skog andE.A. Zimmer. 2002. A morphologicalcladistic analysis of the neotropicalflowering plant genus Gasteranthus

(Gesneriaceae). Systematic Botany 27(3):573-591.

Robinson, H. 2002. Holoschkuhria, a newgenus of the Hymenopappinae (Helenieae)from Peru. Comp. Newsl. 38: 48.

Robinson, H. 2002. Symphyopappusuncinatus, a new species from MinasGerais, Brazil (Asteraceae: Eupatorieae:Disynaphiinae). Comp. Newsl. 38: 52.

Skog, L.E. and L.P. Kvist. 2002. NovaeGesneriaceae Neotropicarum IX: Cremo-spermopsis, a new genus from Colombia.Novon 12(2): 262-269.

Soreng, R.J. 2002. Poa. Pp. 593-595, 597.In: Baldwin, B.G. et al. (eds.). The JepsonDesert Manual: Vascular Plants ofSoutheastern California. University ofCalifornia Press, Berkeley.

Stancik, D. and P.M. Peterson. 2002. Twonew species of Festuca from SouthAmerica (Poaceae: Loliinae: Sect. Subu-latae). Sida 20: 23-30.

Strong, M.T. and R.H. Simmons. 2002.Noteworthy Collections: Maryland.Castanea 67: 120-121. [Cyperus difformis;Rhynchospora oligantha]

projects going on simultaneously, andvariously in press, such as treatments ofthe Acanthaceae for the Vascular Flora ofthe Southeastern United States and theFlora of the Guianas; a revision ofBrazilian Begonia with Smith; comprehen-sive treatments of the acanths for thefloras of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia; andfloristic studies of the Begoniaceaeoccurring in the Guianas, Brazil and Peru.

Although Wasshausen has covered somuch territory and contributed greatlytowards our understanding of the tax-onomy and systematics of the Acantha-ceae and Begoniaceae, he indicates thatthere still remains much to be investigated.We can make some mental extrapolationsfor ourselves based on his comments. Hehas noted, for example, that originally therewere 120 species of acanth known fromBolivia, but after three field trips he wasable to increase that number by one-fourthmore, to around 160 species. Perhaps evenmore startling is his remark that during justthree weeks collecting in the Apurimacregion of Peru, he discovered 37 species ofAcanthaceae new to science, just bywalking and boating within a 25-mileradius: there, every valley has its ownassemblage of acanth species. Detailedwork on pollinators and pollen morphol-ogy are still desirable goals for futureworkers.

Currently as busy as ever, work hasbeen finished on two chapters in the forth-coming Botany book on conservation ofplant biodiversity being edited by W.J.Kress and G.A. Krupnick, and for a treat-ment of Acanthaceae in Scott Mori�s (NY)book on Flowering Plant Families of theAmerican Tropics. For the next three years,Wasshausen�s projects will include writingspecies descriptions for a marvelous set ofbooks depicting in color photographs theAcanthaceae and Begoniaceae of Brazil, tobe published by the Brazilian Harri Lorenzi.In 2003, if all permissions are granted, he isplanning a collecting trip to the state ofMato Grosso, Brazil. A move to Southport,in coastal North Carolina, is also antici-pated for this veteran botanist.

Justicia fortunensis and J.readii Daniel & Wasshausen,

Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 46: 289-297 (1990) are new species

of Acanthaceae confined tocloud forest in Panama.

Both species were recentlycollected, J. fortunensis by

T. Daniel in Chiriquí, vicinityof the Fortuna Dam, and J.readii by our former staff

member Robert Read in theCerro Jefe. They are showy

shrubs with conspicuousdark pink to drying dark red

bracts and calyx lobes andwhite to pale pink or laven-

der corollas. J. fortunensis isknown only from the Pacific

slopes of the CordilleraCentral in western Panama(north-central Chiriquí) inthe watershed of the Río

Chiriquí at elevations fromabout 1025-1250 meters. J.

readii is found in the cloudforest of eastern Panama at

elevations from 500-1300meters.

Justicia fortunensis and J. readii Daniel & Wasshausen

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

Official BusinessPenalty for Private Use $300

Art by Alice Tangerini