P
LANT
S
CIENCE
Bulletin
Summer 2013 Volume 59 Number 2
In This Issue..............
PLANTS Recipients excel in
botany ......p. 15
Dr. Thomas Ranker and
others elected to serve the
BSA.....p. 35
The BSA awards many for their
contributions.....p. 36
1st Place
Triarch Botanical Images
Student Travel Awards
Ricardo Kriebel
The New York
Botanical Garden
Flower of
Miconia arboricola
(Melastomataceae:
Miconieae) in late anthesis
From the Editor
Summer 2013 Volume 59 Number 2
PLANT SCIENCE
BULLETIN
Editorial Committee
Volume 59
-Marsh
Elizabeth Schussler
(2013)
Department of Ecology &
Evolutionary Biology
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-1610
eschussl@utk.edu
Christopher Martine
(2014)
Department of Biology
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA 17837
c
hris.martine@bucknell.edu
Carolyn M. Wetzel
(2015)
Department of Biological Sci-
ences & Biochemistry Program
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
Tel. 413/585-3687
Lindsey K. Tuominen
(2016)
Warnell School of Forestry &
Natural Resources
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30605
lktuomin@uga.edu
Daniel K. Gladish
(2017)
Department of Botany &
The Conservatory
Miami University
Hamilton, OH 45011
gladisdk@muohio.edu
Every year this is one of my favorite issues of
Plant Science Bulletin because we get to recognize
the accomplishments of some of our most worthy
members. The Merit Awardees have been elected
to the most select group of professional botanists in
North America. Begun at the Fiftieth Anniversary
meeting, 55 years ago, the Merit Award recognizes
individuals for their outstanding contributions to the
mission of the Botanical Society. These are people
whose names we recognize from their publications,
presentations, and service to the society. They are
leaders at their own institutions, in the Botanical
Society and in other scientific organizations.
What I find more interesting, though, are the
younger members being recognized for their
potential. These are graduate students beginning
to make their mark in botanical research and being
invested with the opportunity to help direct the
evolution of the Society. They are also undergraduates
being recognized by their mentors for their initiative,
enthusiasm and drive to make discoveries and share
their love of plants with others. There is excitement
here that can drive the Society forward through its
second century.
Particularly striking are two trends apparent in our
Young Botanist awardees. The first was originally
identified by Victor Gruelach in the first issue of
Plant Science Bulletin. He noticed that while large
research universities produced 29% of undergraduate
botanists, liberal arts colleges were next at 23%.
Some things haven’t changed much in the past 60
years! It’s also evident that individual mentors have
a major impact on students. Again, there is nothing
new here—Past-President Neil Stevens noted this in
1944 (Agronomy Journal 36: 324-336). Nevertheless,
the lesson for us is that we can all make a difference
—lets do!
34
Society News
Letter to the Editor
To Engage, Challenge, and Excite all of our Students
Your statement in the Spring 2013 Plant Science Bulletin (http://issuu.com/botanicalsocietyofamerica/
docs/psb_59_1_2013, p. 2) that our task is to engage, challenge, and excite all of our students is a point
well taken. It is likewise important to recognize those successes and avenues toward achieving that goal.
Efforts to provide opportunities for underrepresented groups in the American professoriate include those
offered by the Ford Foundation Fellowship Program. This Program offers predoctoral fellowships in a
national competition administered by the National Research Council (NRC). Awards recognize superior
academic achievement, a commitment to teaching and research at the college or university level, the
promise of scholarly achievement, and ability to use diversity as a resource for enriching the education
of all students. Among the criteria for selection are membership in an underrepresented group in the
American professoriate, sustained personal engagement with underrepresented groups, and likelihood of
using the diversity of human experience as an educational resource.
Ms. Jessica Orozco, Graduate Student in Botany at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, was recently
awarded one of the predoctoral fellowships in this highly competitive program. Jessica will study the
evolutionary history and diversity of culturally significant plants and describe the relationships between
Native Americans and the native flora. This knowledge will be used to further conservation efforts.
We should celebrate the successes of students like Jessica, a Native American recognized by a Ford
Foundation Fellowship. We can also celebrate the commitment of the Ford Foundation for lending
a helping hand to those from underrepresented groups who will come after her. Our task has been
accomplished: she is engaged, challenged, and very excited about her research and career prospects.
---G.D. Wallace, Research Associate, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Claremont, CA
35
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Looking to the Future
Congratulations to the new officers of the
Botanical Society of America
President -Elect
Thomas Ranker
Treasurer
Joe williams
Student
Representative
Jon Giddens
Council Chair
Cindy Jones
Director-at-Large
Publications
Sean Graham
36
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Award Winners
The Botanical Society of America Merit Award is the highest honor our Society bestows. Each year, the
Merit Award Committee solicits nominations, evaluates candidates, and selects those to receive an award.
Awardees are chosen based on their outstanding contributions to the mission of our scientific society.
The committee identifies recipients who have demonstrated excellence in basic research, education, public
policy, or who have provided exceptional service to the professional botanical community, or who may
have made contributions to a combination of these categories. Based on these stringent criteria, the 2013
BSA Merit Award recipients are:
Dr. Lucinda McDade is a scholar, teacher, and leader of
scientific institutions. She is currently Director of Research
at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, where she has also
recently stepped in as Interim Director of the Institution. At
RSA she is also curator of the herbarium, a post that she
previously held at the University of Arizona and at the Academy
of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. At all three institutions,
her energy and dedication were effective in modernization and
development of the collections. Dr. McDade has published on
a wide range of topics but may be best known for her work on
detecting hybridization in phylogenetic analysis, and for her
career of studying the systematics of Acanthaceae. Her research
is noted for its care and rigor. She has also had considerable
impact as an educator. For seven years, she was Scientific
Coordinator for the Organization for Tropical Studies and as
such coordinated the educational programs in Costa Rica. In
addition, she has taught extensively at the undergraduate and
graduate level throughout her career. In her nomination letter,
however, the role that appears again and again is her skill as a
mentor to all her colleagues and students. She has provided encouragement and direction. One former
student noted that “[i]t is Lucinda’s generosity that I am left with …” Finally, her service to the community
has been extensive and varied, with too many contributions to list in this short space. To quote again from
the letter of nomination, “what sets Lucinda apart... is her sense of community, and her tireless labor on
project that benefit the greater good.”
Dr. Lucinda McDade
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
37
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Dr. Charles Beck is a distinguished paleontologist
who has made remarkable discoveries in the history
of land plants. He discovered that the fern-like leaves
of the genus Archaeopteris were in fact borne on a tree
(Callixylon) with the anatomy of a gymnosperm. This
showed clearly that see plants must have been derived
from free-sporing plants, and led to the identification
of the progymnosperms, a group now included with
gymnosperms and angiosperms in the larger clade, the
lignophytes. One of the people who nominated Dr. Beck
for the award quoted Henry Andrews in saying that this
discovery “blazed a rough trail through a dark forest
where no recognizable path existed before.” In addition,
Dr. Beck is a skilled anatomist. After he “retired” from his
position as Professor of Botany at University of Michigan,
he continued research. In addition, he wrote a textbook,
An introduction to plant structure and development, now in its second edition. Dr. Beck has also served as
Chair of his department, Director of the Museum of Paleontology, and as President of the International
Organization of Paleobotany, and as Chair of the Paleobotanical Section of the BSA.
Dr. Charles Beck
University of Michigan
By linking paleontology and neontology, Dr. Pat Herendeen,
Co-Director of the Division of Plant Science and Conservation
at the Chicago Botanic Garden, has made significant
contributions to our understanding of the evolutionary history
of the angiosperms, particularly the Leguminosae. He has
edited three symposium volumes on the family, in addition
to producing a steady stream of careful publications on fossil
and extant legumes. In addition to his steady productive
research, Dr. Herendeen has developed a truly remarkable
career of service to the field of botany. He has been Chair of
the Paleobotanical Section of BSA, Editor of the Bibliography
of American Paleobotany, and chair of the BSA Publications
Committee. For four years he was Managing Editor of
Systematic Botany, and served another four years as Editor-in-Chief. He took over the editorship at a time
when the journal was facing considerable challenges; his efforts to steer the journal to calmer waters were
largely behind the scenes but ultimately completely successful. Most recently he has become Editor-in-
Chief of the International Journal of Plant Science. In addition, he is in his second term as Program Chair
for the ASPT, a group that constitutes nearly half the attendees at the BSA meeting each year; thus Pat’s
efforts are seen every summer in the success of the annual meeting. As one of his nominators noted, “…
there can be few research active and well-respected plant scientists who have given as much service to the
Botanical Society of America and to the broader botanical community…”
Dr. Patrick Herendeen
Chicago Botanic Garden
38
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Bessey Award
Dr. Shona Ellis
University of British Columbia
Dr. Shona Ellis, Professor of Teaching and Associate
Head of Biology, Botany Department, University of
British Columbia (UBC). Shona has been faculty
member in the Botany Department since 1994
teaching courses from Freshman Biology through
upper division and graduate-level Plant Anatomy. She
is active in the scholarship of teaching and learning
with numerous publications and presentations in
both basic botany (predominantly bryophytes and
phytochemistry) and botanical education. She was
twice awarded the Killam teaching award, UBC’s
highest teaching commendation, as well as an award
from the Society of Canadian Women in Science
and Technology for her efforts promoting women in
STEM. She has developed many online resources for her courses and for the general public (see http://
www.botany.ubc.ca/bryophyte). In cooperation with the UBC Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth
and the Science Centre for Learning and Teaching, she has developed an e-portfolio project for students.
As all good teachers, she leads by example.
2013 J. S. KARLING GRADUATE
STUDENT RESEARCH AWARD
Recipient
Gregory W. Stull
Florida Museum of Natural
History and
the University of Florida
Integrating genomic,
morphological, and fossil data for
phylogenetic and biogeographic
reconstruction in the basal lamiid
family Icacinaceae
39
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
2013 BSA Graduate Student
Research Award Recipients
Rafael E. Arévalo B., University of Wisconsin
- Madison - Advisor, Dr. Kenneth M. Cameron,
Phylogeny, Flower Micro-Morphology, and Floral
Fragrances in Mormolyca (Orchidaceae)
Angelita Ashbacher, University of California
Santa Cruz - Advisor, Dr. Bethany K. Zolman,
Effects of climate change on California wildflower
community composition: The role of plant-
pollinator interactions
John H. Chau, University of Washington
- Advisor, Dr. Richard Olmstead, Molecular
phylogenetics, inflorescence evolution, and
historical biogeography in the genus Buddleja L.
(Scrophulariaceae)
Hanna E. Dorman, Mississippi State University
- Advisor, Dr. Lisa Wallace, Geographical variation
in rhizobia associated with the Partridge Pea,
Chamaecrista fasciculata (Fabaceae)
M. Kate Gallagher, University of California,
Irvine - Advisor, Dr. Diane Campbell, Global
climate change induced shifts in abiotic resources
may alter pollination success: A test with Mertensia
ciliata (Boraginaceae)
Richard Hodel, University of Florida - Advisors,
Drs. Pamela and Douglas Soltis, Phylogeography
and Conservation Genetics of Neo-tropical
Mangroves (Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia
racemosa and Rhizophora mangle)
Susan Yvonne Jaconis, University of Cincinnati
- Advisor, Dr. Theresa M. Culley, Susceptibility
of Plants to Diesel-Generated Particulate Matter
in the Environment: Effects on Plant Growth,
Ecophysiology and Reproduction
Carrie Kiel, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden/
Claremont Graduate University - Advisor, Dr.
Lucinda A. McDade, Pollinator Mediated Trait
Evolution and Floral Diversification of Neotropical
Justicia (Acanthaceae)
Rob Massatti, University of Michigan - Advisor,
Dr. Tony Reznicek, Montane plant diversification
on a continental scale: A dynamic barrier’s influence
on the montane floras of Asia and North America
Kelly Matsunaga, Humboldt State University
- Advisor, Dr. Alexandru M.F. Tomescu, The
Beartooth Butte Formation flora of Wyoming: A
window into Early Devonian plant diversity and
basal lycopsid evolution
Theresa Melhem, Northwestern University
and Chicago Botanic Garden - Advisor, Dr. Nyree
Zerega, The Diversity and Origins of Jackfruit
(Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) in the Western
Ghats of India
Diego F. Morales-Briones, University of Idaho
- Advisor, Dr. David C. Tank, Phylogeny and
systematics of the genus Lachemilla (Rosaceae) in
the Andes
Meagan F. Oldfather, University of California,
Berkeley - Advisor, Dr. David Ackerly, Demographic
stability in the trailing edge of a California alpine
species
Audrey C. Ragsac, University of Washington -
Advisor, Dr. Richard Olmstead, Is it easier to move
or evolve? Assessing the role of biome conservatism
in Bignoniaceae diversification
Angela J. Rein, Oklahoma State University
- Advisor, Dr. Mark Fishbein, Enigmatic Non-
Twining Vines: Evolution and Systematics of
Matelea subgenus Chthamalia (Gonolobinae,
Apocynaceae)
Marisol Sánchez-García, University of Tennessee
- Advisor, Dr. Edward E. Schilling, Systematics
and evolution of the tribe Leucopaxilleae (Fungi:
Agaricales)
Brandon T. Sinn, Ohio State University -
Advisor, Dr. John V. Freudenstein, Species of A New
Generation: The Integration of Next Generation
Sequencing, Morphological and Distributional
Data for Species Discovery, Delimitation, and
Reproductive Biology Characterization
Sally Marie Stevens, Purdue University -
Advisor, Dr. Nancy C. Emery, Testing for Local
Adaptation and Dispersal Limitation in a Plant
Species Endemic to the Appalachian Mountains
Maria Wang, Northwestern University and
Chicago Botanic Garden - Advisor, Dr. Nyree
Zerega, The Diversity and Origins of Chempedak
(Artocarpus integer, Moraceae)
40
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Vernon I. Cheadle Student
Travel Awards
(BSA in association with the Developmental and
Structural Section)
This award was named in honor of the memory
and work of Dr. Vernon I. Cheadle.
Sarangi Athukorala, University of Manitoba -
Advisor: Dr. Michele Piercey-Normore - Botany
2013 presentation: Quantitative comparison of
morphology and gene expression of Cladonia
rangiferina during the interaction with compatible
and incompatible algae” Co-authors, E. Huebner
and M.D. Piercey-Normore
Julien Massoni, University Paris Sud - Advisor:
Hervé Sauquet - Botany 2013 presentation: “Fossil
calibration of Magnoliidae: thorough background
research significantly improves reliability of
molecular age estimates” Co-authors, Maria von
Balthazar, Laetitia Carrive, Thomas Couvreur,
Juerg Schoenenberger, Yannick Staedler and Hervé
Sauquet
Kelly Matsunaga, Humboldt State University
- Advisor: Dr. Alexandru M.F. Tomescu - Botany
2013 presentation: “Early Devonian Drepanophycus
from the Beartooth Butte Formation of Wyoming”
Co-author, Alexandru M.F. Tomescu
Stephanie Ranks, University of California,
Berkeley - Advisor: Dr. Cindy Looy - Botany 2013
presentation: “Autorotating winged seeds: what
they tell us about tree height in extant and fossil
conifers” Co-authors, Dori Contreras, Charles R.
Marshall and Cindy V. Looy
Triarch “Botanical Images”
Student Travel Awards
This award provides acknowledgment and travel
support to BSA meetings for outstanding student
work coupling digital botanical images with
scientific explanations/descriptions designed for
the general public (see front cover and p. 43).
The BSA Undergraduate
Student Research Awards
The BSA Undergraduate Student Research
Awards support undergraduate student research
and are made on the basis of research proposals
and letters of recommendation. The 2012 award
recipients are:
Gemma Dugan, Bucknell University - Advisor,
Dr. Chris Martine, Insect selection of dioecious
Australian Solanum
Anna Freundlich, Bucknell University - Advisor,
Dr. Chris Martine, Effects of Invasive Species on
Riparian Communities in the Susquehanna
Alexandra Boni, Bucknell University - Advisor,
Dr. Chris Martine, Genetic variation within and
among populations of dioecious Solanum in
Northern Australia
Margarita Hernandez, University of Florida
- Advisor, Dr. Pamela S. Soltis, Phylogeny
Reconstruction and Character Mapping in
Leptosiphon
Caitlin Maraist, Portland State University -
Advisor, Dr. Mitch Cruzan, Phenotypic plasticity
in functional traits related to water use between
native and invasive populations of Brachypodium
sylvaticum (false brome)
Theresa Ann Barosh, Willamette University
- Advisors, Dr. Susan Kephart and Kathryn
Theiss, Herbivory and Pollination: Examining
the relationship between galling and pollinator
visitation in Camassia (Agavaceae)
41
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
The BSA Young Botanist Awards
The purpose of these awards is to offer
individual recognition to outstanding
graduating seniors in the plant sciences and to
encourage their participation in the Botanical
Society of America. The 2013 Certificate of
Special Achievement award recipients are:
John T. Bickel, James Madison University -
Advisor, Conley K. McMullen, Ph.D., FLS
Hillary M. Karbowski, Central Michigan
University - Advisor, Anna K. Monfils, Ph.D.
M. Madeleine Ray, Ohio University - Advisor,
Jared L. DeForest, Ph.D.
Krystal Payne, Campbell University - Advisor, J.
Christopher Havran, PhD.
Jaclyn Parker, Weber State University - Advisor,
Ron Deckert Ph.D.
Emily Becks, University of Florida - Advisor,
Pamela S. Soltis, Ph.D.
Maria Beatriz Cortez, University of Florida -
Advisor, Pamela S. Soltis, Ph.D.
Tyler McCann, University of Florida - Advisor,
Pamela S. Soltis, Ph.D.
Laurel Hoffman, Humboldt State University -
Advisor, A. Mihail Tomescu
Casey A. Jones, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
- Advisor, Don Drake
Dylan Davis, University of Hawai’i at Manoa -
Advisor, Don Drake
Talaya Rachels, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
- Advisor, Don Drake
Kobey Tokigawa, University of Hawai’i at
Manoa - Advisor, Don Drake
Arianna C. Goodman, Oberlin College -
Advisor, Michael J. Moore
Spencer Wight, Oberlin College - Advisor,
Michael J. Moore
Lila Leatherman, Oberlin College - Advisor,
Michael J. Moore
Rebecca Mostow, Oberlin College - Advisor,
Michael J. Moore
Jacob Edwards, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville - Advisor, Dr. Joseph H. Williams
Adam Ramsey, University of Tennessee,
Knoxville - Advisor, Dr. Joseph H. Williams
Teresa M. Byrd, Willamette University -
Advisor, Dr. Susan R. Kephart
Erin Banks Rusby, Willamette University -
Advisor, Dr. Susan R. Kephart
Anne Kathleen Johnson, Duke University -
Advisor, Dr. Kathleen Pryer
Stephanie Fong, University of California, Los
Angeles - Advisor, Dr. Ann M. Hirsch
Genetics Section Student
Research Awards
These awards provide $500 for research funding
and an additional $500 for attendance at a future
BSA meeting.
Richard Hodel, University of Florida - Graduate
Student Award - Advisors: Drs. Douglas and Pamela
Soltis, for the proposal titled “Phylogeography and
Conservation Genetics of Neo-tropical Mangroves
(Avicennia germinans, Laguncularia racemosa and
Rhizophora mangle)”
Sandra Mardonovich, Miami University -
Masters Student Award - Advisor: Dr. Richard
C. Moore for the proposal titled “Investigation
of natural populations of Carica papaya’s
morphological and genetic structure throughout
Mesoamerica”
Genetics Section Student Travel
Awards
Daniel Gates, University of Nebraska - Advisor,
Dr. Stacey Smith, for the paper “Anthocyanin
regulating MYB transcription factor evolution in
four Solanaceous species” Co-author: Stacey Smith
Christine McAllister, Saint Louis University-
Advisor, Dr. Allison Miller, for the paper
“Environmental Correlates of Cytotype Diversity in
Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii)” Co-authors:
Russell Blaine, Paul Kron, Brent Bennett, Anna
Glotzbach, Jennifer Kidson, Heidi Garrett, Blanda
Matzenbacher and Allison Miller
42
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Pteridological Section &
American Fern Society Student
Travel Awards
Anthony Baniaga, University of Arizona -
Advisor, Dr. Mike Barker, for the paper “Genomics
of Allopolyploidy and Hybridization in Selaginella
subg. Tetragonostachys” Co-authors: Nils Arrigo
and Michael Barker
Laura Klein, Saint Louis University - Advisor,
Dr. R. James Hickey, for the paper “Morphology
and Introgressive Hybridization in North American
Diphasiastrum”
Fernando Matos, New York Botanical Garden
- Advisor, Dr. Robbin C. Moran, for the paper
“Systematic Studies of Elaphoglossum section
Polytrichia (Dryopteridaceae)” Co-author: Robbin
Moran
Tai-Chung Wu, National Taiwan University
- Advisor, Dr. Wen-Yuan Kao, for the poster
“Stomatal response in leaves of Marsilea crenata, an
amphibious fern” Co-author: Wen-Yuan Kao
Ecology Section Student
Travel Award
Melissa Ha, University of Massachusetts,
Amherst - Advisor, Dr. Lynn Adler, for the paper
“Pollinator-mediated interactions between
Clarkia unguiculata and its neighbors are context-
dependent” Co-author: Christopher T. Ivey
Robert Harbert, Cornell University - Advisor,
Dr. Kevin Nixon, for the paper “Climate niche,
invasiveness, and allopolyploidy: The case of
perennial Glycine (Leguminosae)” Co-author: Jeff
Doyle
2013 PLANTS Grant Recipients
• Richard Shawn Abrahams, University of
Florida, Dr. Stuart McDaniel
• Dayvis Blasini, Northeastern Illinois
University, Dr. Pamela Geddes
• Laquita Bolden, Cleveland State University,
Dr. Barbara K. Modney
• Bianca Bonilla, Florida International
University, Dr. Bradley Bennett
• Joyce Chery, Cornell University, Dr. Melissa
Luckow
• Jessel Gutierrez, Texas A&M International
University, Dr. Jim Cohen
• Elizabeth McWilliams, Oregon State
University, Dr. Richard Halse
• Livingstone Nganga, University of Missouri-
St. Louis, Bethany K. Zolman
• Angelica Nunez, University of California-
Riverside, Louis Santiago
• Crista O’Conner, University of Idaho, Dr.
David Tank
• Anthony Parson, Humboldt State University,
Dr. Jacquelyn Bolman
• Hevony Rodriguez, Texas A&M International
University, Dr. Jim Cohen
• Angel Rogers, Howard University, Dr.
Hemayut Ullah
• DeAna Smalls, Howard University, Dr.
Hemayut Ullah
• David Sycle II, Central Michigan University,
Dr. Brad Swanson
43
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Triarch Student Travel Awards
Established by Dr. Paul Conant, and supported by TRIARCH INCORPORATED, this award provides
acknowledgement and travel support to BSA meetings for outstanding student work in the area of creating
botanical digital images. and combing with scientific explanations or descriptions designed for the general
public. See the front cover for this year’s 1st place winner!
2nd Place
Meriel Melendrez
University of California -
Berkeley
Beautiful Strangler–
A strangler fig wrapping around
its host
Even amid the teeming tropical diversity of a
Costa Rican cloud forest, the strangler fig (Ficus
tuerckheimii) stands out as striking and strange. It has
an exclusive partnership with its pollinator, in which
a wasp species spends nearly its entire life cycle within
the fig. This fruit grows so abundantly that it merits
the title “keystone species” for all of the animals
it feeds. The animals disperse the seeds high in the
canopy of another tree, and the strangler fig spends
the next several hundred years slowly choking its host
to death (as in the picture). The cycle begins again.
Bizarre natural history aside, I became interested in
where these trees grow. A local observation/legend
purported that they tend to grow in clusters, so off
I went with GPS and camera in hand. Several weeks and miles of transect later, I compared stranger
fig occurrence to a random spatial distribution. The trees did not grow significantly clustered together
within the Monteverde valley. However, I observed that they did not grow above 1750m in elevation,
where the “Elfin Forest” began. High winds off the mountain crest may prevent germination of the figs,
or even the arrival of their tiny pollinators. A different ficus species grew on the other side of the ridge.
Furthermore, I noted many strangler figs standing in pastures, spared by the ranchers’ chainsaws for their
filigree beauty and function of shading cows. If pastures reverted to secondary forests, as in the 1970s,
the mature stranglers would stand out among the saplings and appear “clustered” to the casual observer.
44
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Lacking garish flowers, ferns seldom gain the
aesthetic notoriety of flowering plants. However,
members of the Hawaiian endemic fern genus
Sadleria (Ama’u) may counter this trend. The extreme colors displayed in this 3-foot frond of Sadleria
cyatheoides result from the presence of pigments called anthocyanins, which function as a sunblock for the
plant, absorbing harmful wavelengths of ultraviolet-B radiation. However, this brilliant show does not last
long, limited to the tender stages of cell division as the frond unfurls. In this image, the display draws to a
close, as the earliest portions of the frond that unfurl harden and flush chartreuse green. This trait equips
Sadleria for colonizing open, UV-stressed environments such as recently hardened lava flows or upland
tangle-fern prairies, like this one–fringing the world’s highest bog, the Alakai Swamp of Kauai.
3rd Place
Jeff Benca
University of California,
Berkeley
Where Red Ferns Grow
Unfurling frond of Ama’u,
found at the world’s highest
bog (the Alakai Swamp, Kauai
)
To see the complete gallery of all photographic art
submitted for the 2013 Triarch Awards see the website at:
http://www.botany.org/plantimages/ConantSTA2013.php
45
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
PLANTS Students and mentors at Botany 2012 in Columbus, Ohio
PLANTS Program Encourages
URM Students to Become Part
of the Scientific Community
Science will not thrive unless it is equally
accessible to students from all backgrounds,
including those from groups that are currently
underrepresented. Access involves knowing about
the discipline, understanding the culture of science,
feeling welcome as a participant in scientific
endeavors and as a member of the scientific
community, and understanding job opportunities
in the area. With the generous donation of time,
energy, and commitment of many society members
who serve as mentors, the current NSF-funded
PLANTS (Preparing Leaders and Nurturing
Tomorrow’s Scientists) program continues to carry
on the tradition begun ten years ago to diversify
the pool of undergraduates attending the BOTANY
meetings.
The PLANTS program is an outgrowth of the
National Science Foundation Undergraduate
Mentoring in Environmental Biology award led
by Karen Renzaglia (PI) and Jeff Osborn (Co-
PI), which brought underrepresented minority
students to the BOTANY 2003-2008 meetings
(UMEB: Increasing Diversity at the Annual
Botanical Society of America Meetings, NSF DEB-
0227696). The BSA felt that the results of that grant
were so significant and important to the future
of the Society and to the botanical sciences that
the Society used its own funds to support a small
cohort of undergraduates to attend BOTANY 2010.
In 2011, the BSA was awarded a five-year grant
from the NSF (PLANTS [Preparing Leaders and
Nurturing Tomorrow’s Scientists]: Increasing the
diversity of plant scientists, NSF DEB-1137471)
with Ann Sakai (University of California-Irvine)
and Ann Hirsch (University of California-Los
Angeles) as Co-PIs.
The PLANTS program funds up to 12
undergraduates a year from a diversity of
backgrounds to attend the annual joint meetings
of the Botanical Society of America (BSA) and
other participating organizations. The goal
of this program is to increase the number of
undergraduates from underrepresented (URM)
groups who attend these meetings, and to increase
their level of academic excellence and motivation
to pursue advanced degrees in the plant sciences.
At the core of PLANTS is a mentoring program
that assigns two mentors to each student, one peer
mentor (advanced undergraduate or graduate
student), and one senior mentor (postdoc, faculty,
or equivalent). Mentors contact students before
the meeting, attend social activities and scientific
46
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
graduate student fellowships.
We are beginning to see the lasting impact that
the program has had on the PLANTS undergraduate
participants who were juniors and seniors when
they participated in the program in 2011. At least
eight of the nine 2011 PLANTS recipients have
gone on to pursue graduate degrees and careers in
the plant sciences. They are also excelling. Several
alumni of the PLANTS program (Kate LeCroy,
2010; James McDaniel, 2011; Jon Richey, 2011;
Clayton Visger, 2011) were recently awarded NSF
Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF
GRFP) awards in 2013. The GRFP provides three
years of support for the graduate education of
individuals who have demonstrated their potential
for significant achievements in science and
engineering research. Another PLANTS recipient,
Irma Ortiz (2011), was awarded a prestigious Ford
Foundation Fellowship.
As we enter Year 3 of the PLANTS program,
we encourage all BSA members to welcome these
students (identified by their PLANTS ribbon) at
the BOTANY conference this summer. Consider
attending the Diversity Luncheon on Tuesday, July
30 in New Orleans at BOTANY 2013 where Dr.
Muriel Poston will be our special invited speaker.
Look for more updates on the PLANTS program in
future issues of the Plant Science Bulletin.
-Submitted by Dr. Ann Sakai and Heather Cacanindin
Congratulations to BSA members
Lindsey Tuominen & Kate LeCroy
on receiving BSA Public Policy Awards to
attend BESC Congressional Visits Day
talks with them, and help the students network
with other students and faculty at the meeting.
In general, the mentors point out the broader
relevance and application of the discipline to
the students, encourage involvement, and pass
on genuine intellectual excitement generated by
attending scientific sessions together.
All students are required to attend a PLANTS
orientation meeting and mixer and a PLANTS
debriefing meeting at the end of the conference.
They also attend a professional development
workshop on how to apply to graduate school
and the graduate school experience, the Student
Involvement in Botany luncheon, the Enhancing
Scientist Diversity in Plant Biology talk and
luncheon (with mentors), the Plenary Lecture (with
mentors), the All Society mixer (with mentors), and
the All Society banquet (with mentors). A critical
part of the program is attendance and discussion
of scientific presentations by the students with their
mentors. Optional events include the student/new
member mixer, individual society dinners, and field
trips.
Before and after the BOTANY meetings,
PLANTS participants have their own private
Facebook group where they can share information.
BSA staff, the PLANTS mentors, and the PIs of the
grant keep in touch with the students as much as
possible. In many cases, PLANTS students have
continued to receive mentoring as they apply for
47
BSA Science Education
News and Notes
Society Initiatives and
Members in Action
Congratulations, Shona Ellis!
The Charles Edwin Bessey Teaching Award,
recognizing substantial contributions to botanical
education, is among the Society’s highest honors.
Our congratulations this year go to Shona Ellis,
Teaching Professor at the University of British
Columbia. Please see the Awards section in this
issue for biographical information and read more
about Shona’s work in her blog (http://blogs.ubc.ca/
shonaellis/).
Life Discovery-Doing
Science Conference
“Improving Science Education
is Not Rocket Science. It’s a LOT
Harder.” Jay Labov introduced
humor along with key recent
education reports and research
in his keynote address at the
inaugural Life Discovery-Doing
Science Conference in March. The
conference complements the digital
library developed in collaboration
with the Botanical Society of
America, Ecological Society of America, Society for
the Study of Evolution, and Society for Economic
Botany.
The innovative active-learning approaches
shared at the conference were suitable for high
school to college classrooms as well as out-of-
school and online learning environments. BSA
members were well represented among the
attendees and presenters. For example, Lena
Strewe shared about the online campus flora
project that involves Rutgers students documenting
the local flora and contributing to the Consortium
of Northeastern Herbaria. Steve Saupe and two
undergraduates demonstrated how to create time-
lapse videos of plant for the classroom. Kathleen
BSA Science Education News and Notes is a quarterly update about the BSA’s education efforts and the
broader education scene. We invite you to submit news items or ideas for future features. Contact: Claire
Hemingway, BSA Education Director, at chemingway@botany.org or Marshall Sundberg, PSB Editor, at
psb@botany.org.
Shea described a range of questions students could
ask about carbon accumulation, biomass, and
ecology using a permanent plot project. Stokes
Baker presented examples of using digital image
analysis, particularly with fluorescence, to integrate
mathematics into laboratories. Kara Butterworth
was a panel speaker about Building Pathways and
Partnerships between K-12 and College.
If you missed the March 2013 conference,
slides from the keynote, workshop, and
session presentations are available at:
http://www.esa.org/ldc/program/presentations/.
PlantingScience
As the Spring session closes, the PlantingScience
team wishes to add our thanks to the many
scientists who shared their passion and expertise
with the 20 participating middle and high school
classes. You make a difference to how students
experience science! Just consider these comments:
Student responses:
Thank you very much for helping us with
our project. we were very lucky to have such
an awesome mentor. honestly I hope we have
another project like this in the near future :)”
-Greater Nanticoke Area High School Student
48
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Thank you for your help with our experiment! We
really appreciate your knowledge on plants... I
will definitely consider plant biology as a possible
career.” -Springfield Central High School Student
“We just wanna say thank you for all your help
and comments! We’ve enjoyed working together!
We’re sad that this project is finished.” -Bonhoeffer
College Student
Teacher responses:
Student: “Mrs. Parfitt could we do a secondary
experiment because we wonder what would happen
if….” That’s what I’m talking about! -Mrs. Parfitt
“Thanks for all of your help; this has been the best
session yet for brainstorming and interaction
between student teams and mentors…. Some
students moaned when I told them this would
be the last week for PS. Thank you for taking
time to work with my students.” -Mrs. Indriolo
“…Know that I truly appreciate all you have done
to challenge, question, and excite my students. This
is a group of inner city kids who have never done
anything remotely like functioning in a sterile lab
environment, so the experience and the foundation
we have laid for them in the scientific process is
something they would never have received anywhere
else in my District.” -Mr. Kosmoski
This spring we hosted a number of
videoconferences for classes and several mentors.
We also offered a star project award for teams with
exemplary aspects of their projects. Team members
receive a certificate and t-shirt. Check out winning
star projects from nominations this spring at http://
tinyurl.com/caktwtb
Recent Publications and
News Around the Nation
Scientific Societies Supporting
STEM Faculty
What do we know about how STEM faculty
programs offered by scientific societies are
structured and their effectiveness? That question
is addressed in The Role of Scientific Societies in
STEM Faculty Workshops report, which expands
on the 2012 conference that brought together
leaders of seven programs and two education
researchers. Comparisons across the biology,
geosciences, chemistry, engineering, mathematics,
and physics programs are informative, as are the
future directions and advice for other disciplinary
societies.
http://www.aapt.org/Conferences/newfaculty/
upload/STEM_REPORT-2.pdf
Perspectives on the Broader
Impacts Criteria
Have you written or reviewed proposals
submitted to the National Science Foundation
lately and noticed the 2012 changes to the Broader
Impact Criterion? Perhaps you wondered just what
kinds of broader impact activities were proposed
under the original view of Criterion 2 and what
the new view of the broader impact criterion might
mean.
Two recent publications offer perspectives. In
the February 2013 issue of Frontiers in Ecology
and the Environment, Nadkarni and Stasch call for
new mechanisms to make grantees accountable
for broader impacts activities and pathways for
positive feedback (http://www.deepdyve.com/lp/
ecological-society-of-america/how-broad-are-
our-broader-impacts-an-analysis-of-the-national-
science-685vxS1nkD). Their analysis of projects
funded by the NSF Ecosystems Studies Program
(2000-2010) revealed that most proposed to reach
audiences close to academics through teaching
and training activities. In the March 2013 issue
of BioScience, Frodeman and colleagues pick up
that thread and exhort individual scientists and
collaborative groups to view the new broader
impact criteria as an opportunity to go beyond
supporting graduate students and developing
websites (http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1525/
bio.2013.63.3.2?af=R&). What are your views on
effective broader impacts and how they can be
developed and sustained?
49
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Monday
• Public Participation in Scientific Research:
Emerging Resources for Botany, Symposium
organized by Austin Mast, Sarah Newman
• Herbarium Digitization for Research, Teaching,
and the Public, Symposium organized by Eric
Ribbens
• Yes, Bobby, Evolution is Real, Symposium
organized by Marshall Sundberg, Joseph
Armstrong
Tuesday
• Broadening Participation – Recruiting and
Retaining Outstanding Scientists in the Botanical
Sciences, Symposium organized by Anna Monfils,
Ann Sakai
• Enhancing Scientist Diversity in Plant Biology
Luncheon (ticketed event)
• Changes in the STEM Classroom. What do we
need to do? Roundtable organized by Phil Gibson
And, of course, there will be the Teaching Section
presentations and posters, PlantingScience mixer.
Check the website for schedule updates.
Final Next Generation Science
Standards Released
After extensive community comment and
review, the Next Generation Science Standards
(NGSS) have been released in their final form. The
executive summary describes reasoning behind
a major design shift to organize the standards
around the dimensions of Disciplinary Core
Ideas, Scientific and Engineering Practices, and
Cross Cutting Ideas: coupling science practices
with content gives the learning context. And it
reflects how science is actually practiced. For more
background behind the standards and to download
PDFs of the standards arranged by Disciplinary
Core Ideas, visit http://www.nextgenscience.org.
Upcoming Opportunities to
Enhance Teaching and Learning
Attend the Society for the Advancement of
Biology Education Research 2013 National
Meeting, July 11-14 in Minnesota.
http://saber-biologyeducationresearch.
wikispaces.com/home
Join the PULSE community of educators
working toward change in undergraduate life
science education.
http://www.pulsecommunity.org
Don’t miss BOTANY 2013:
Celebrating Diversity!
July 27-31 in New Orleans
http://www.botanyconference.org
An excellent line-up of education, outreach, and
training offerings awaits:
Sunday
• Workshops on genomics, visual learning,
botanical art, citizen science, virtual herbaria,
graduate school and beyond, writing, publishing,
and more.
• Restoring the Bayou, Botany-in-Action
Service Project
• Celebrating diversity in the understanding of
science: Botanists as ambassadors to a spectrum
of humans, Plenary Address by Nalini Nadkarni
50
Editor’s Choice Review
Transformation is Possible if a
University Really Cares.
Mervis, J. 2013. Science 340: 292-296.
You may remember the “Regional Botany Special
Lecture: Science Education for the 21st Century:
Using the tools of science to teach science” during
the Botany 2008 meeting at the University of
British Columbia (PSB 54(3): 95) http://botany.org/
plantsciencebulletin/psb-2008-54-3.php#news2)
.
In that presentation Carl Wieman, Nobel laureate
in Physics, offered some of the “tricks of the trade”
he had been experimenting with to improve student
learning. In this introduction to a Special Section on
“Grand Challenges in Science Education,” Mervis
describes Wieman’s efforts to convince universities
(faculty, departments, and administrators) to start
being scientific about STEM education. Those of
you following “The History of Botanical Education
in the U.S.” know this “Vision” is an old story (PSB
57(4): 134-158; 58(3): 101-131), but “Change” hasn’t
happened yet! Wieman is trying hard to change
that. If you’re still teaching your courses the way
you were 10 years ago, I challenge you to read this
article as a scientist, skeptically, but considering the
evidence. Then follow your conclusion. As Susan
Singer is quoted in the article, “…we should stop
doing STEM talent selection and start doing STEM
talent development….” For more information on
Wieman’s educational efforts, see:
http://www.cwsei.ubc.ca/.
Keeping a Digital Eye on Nature’s
Clock: Students Use Digital Cam-
eras to Monitor Plant Phenology.
Magney, T., K. Eitel, J. Eitel, V. Jansen, J.
Schon, R. Rittenburg, and L. Vierling. 2013.
The Science Teacher 80: 37-43.
Tracking the emergence of leaf flush, flowering,
or other phenological variables has been a part of
plant studies for centuries. New tools and citizen
science projects allow students to participate in
phenological studies. This article outlines how
high school students have used digital cameras and
ImageJ software to study seasonal changes in leaf
color. It could easily be adapted to younger or older
students.
Integrating Inquiry-Based Teach-
ing with Faculty Research.
Kukami, T. 2013. Science 339: 1536-1537.
Opportunity knocks – in this case, re-design of the
introductory biology laboratory courses presented
the author with the chance to involve students in
research on ecological interactions among Mimulus
aurantiacus, its pollinators, and the microoganisms
that inhabit its nectar. A Science Prize for Inquiry-
Based Instruction, this essay illustrates how to
include local resources and your research interests
into laboratory courses in ways that enhance
student learning and departmental offerings.
http://www.sciencemag.org/
content/339/6127/1536.full?sid=ace97844-fcee-
4140-a74c-6d644e5faf7d
Seed Storage Proteins as a System
for Teaching Protein Identification
by Mass Spectrometry in Biochem-
istry Laboratory.
Wilson, K. A. and A. Tan-Wilson. 2013. Bio-
chemistry and Molecular Biology Education
41: 79-86.
The authors describe a laboratory designed for
undergraduates to identify soybean seed storage
proteins by mass spectrometry and to deduce
post-translational modifications that occurred
on germination. Online mass spectral data and
tutorials supplement the laboratory module.
51
ANNOUNCEMENTS
In Memoriam
Dr. Rivka Dulberger (Tel Aviv University) was
a leading expert on the reproductive biology of
flowering plants, particularly those with sexual
polymorphisms. Sadly, her life ended on December
7, 2012 in Tel Aviv after a long and productive
career. She was a scientist, teacher, wife, mother,
grandmother, friend and mentor who throughout
her career maintained a fascination for the biology
of flowers. Here, we provide a short account of her
scientific contributions and remarkable life. We are
grateful to her son Dan for providing information
about her early life and wartime experiences.
Rivka was born on May 7, 1922,
in the village of Briceni, Moldovia (formerly
Romania).
She attended high school in the city
of Czernowitz, in southwestern Ukraine.
In July
1941 the Nazis took over Czernowitz from the
Soviets and established a ghetto from which 50,000
Jews were deported. In October 1941, together
with hundreds of thousands of other Jews, Rivka
and her family were forced to walk 250 km from
Czernowitz to Bersad, a notorious camp with little
food or shelter.
Rivka endured 27 months of extreme
physical and mental hardship in the camp and lost
family members. While managing to survive under
the most cruel and inhumane conditions, Rivka
met another prisoner – Ascher Dulberger – who
would later become her husband. The two were
Rivka Dulberger
1922-2012
partners until his death in 2006.
In March 1944
Bersad was liberated by the Red Army and, of
the approximately 21,000 people who entered the
Nazi camp, 18,000 perished. Although this horrific
experience shaped many aspects of Rivka’s identity
and gave her a strong and independent personality,
like many survivors she rarely spoke about her
wartime experiences. After WWII, Rivka and
Ascher lived in Bucharest where she completed her
first degree in biology. In 1950 they married and
immigrated to Israel and are survived by their son
Dan and grandchildren
Itay and Tair.
Rivka received her Ph.D. in 1967 from the Hebrew
University in Jerusalem. The thesis “Pollination
Systems in Plants of Israel” was conducted under
the guidance of the renowned plant evolutionist
Professor Daniel Zohary. In 1951 Rivka started
working in the Tel Aviv Biological-Pedagogical
Institute, which five years later served as the basis
for the Faculty of Life Sciences in the newly formed
Tel Aviv University.
Rivka remained at Tel Aviv
for the remainder of her career and was known
as a passionate teacher of classes in morphology,
taxonomy and systematics for 40 years.
During
this time
she published over 30 papers and
book chapters, many of which were in top-tier
journals. Rivka’s publications were imaginative and
characterized by a careful attention to detail that
often revealed important insights on reproductive
mechanisms. In particular, her training in structural
botany and skills in microscopy resulted in many
novel observations that allowed her to relate floral
form to function. She trained a handful of graduate
students at Tel Aviv and provided valuable advice to
many others, both in Israel and overseas. All valued
her detailed knowledge of the morphology and
physiology of flowers and her willingness to freely
share her ideas.
Rivka Dulberger is most well known for her
studies of the floral polymorphism heterostyly.
Populations of heterostylous plants contain
two or three style morphs (mating types) that
differ reciprocally in stigma and anther height.
Her major contribution to this area, based on
experimental studies of Linum and members of
the Plumbaginaceae
1,2
, was to focus attention on
the important role of physical and biochemical
interactions between pollen grains and stigmatic
papillae in governing incompatibility reactions.
She proposed that topographical complementarity
between these structures’ functions to promote
compatible crosses and reduce incompatible
52
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
pollinations. Her work on heterostyly was
novel because it integrated morphological,
developmental and physiological facets of the
polymorphism in an effort to understand the
adaptive significance of ancillary pollen and stigma
characters in the syndrome. Her review on the
functional significance of floral polymorphisms
3
represents the major synthesis on this topic and
should be required reading for anyone interested in
heterostyly.
In addition to working on heterostyly, Rivka also
made important contributions to our understanding
of several other problems in floral biology. These
included the genetic basis of gender polymorphism
in Silene
4
(with Auguste Horovitz), pollination
mechanisms in various legumes, including Cassia
5
,
and the function of andromonoecy in Solanum
6
.
She was also the first to discover late-acting
ovarian incompatibility in dimorphic Narcissus
7
.
This finding made during her thesis research and
subsequently published in Evolution set the stage
for much subsequent work by other laboratories
on floral polymorphisms in the genus. In the mid
1970s, Rivka spent a productive research leave at
the University of California, Berkeley working with
Professor Robert Ornduff on the problem of the
function of mirror-image flowers (enantiostyly).
Their publications on the South African genera
Wachendorfia
8
and Cyanella
9
stimulated later work
on this intriguing floral polymorphism. Indeed, it
is notable that Rivka was often the first to identify
interesting reproductive systems, and her studies
frequently provided basic information that became
the foundation for subsequent work by others.
According to her son Dan, plants were Rivka’s
great love and all the pictures in the family home
were botanical in nature. However, she also had a
passion for literature and music and impressively
spoke seven languages (Hebrew, Russian, German,
Yiddish, English, French, and Romanian). We
both had the great pleasure to get to know Rivka
personally at important stages in our careers and
these interactions were influential. SCHB was a
graduate student at Berkeley when Rivka visited.
Earnest discussions on the function of traits in the
heterostylous syndrome left a lasting impression
and led to Rivka’s sabbatical at the University
of Toronto with him in the late 80s. LMW was
a postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University
in Jerusalem in the mid 1990s and during this
period interacted with Rivka frequently to discuss
science as well as life in Israel. These discussions,
sometimes arguments, could be very challenging
as Rivka loved to question orthodoxy and had an
unswerving directness that one rarely encounters
in North American culture. Nevertheless, a verbal
jousting match with Rivka about science or politics
was never personal and she was an enduring friend
and generous mentor to us both. We will miss
her greatly, and botany in Israel has lost one of its
earliest and most valued pioneers.
Literature Cited
1. Dulberger, R. 1987. Fine structure and
cytochemistry of the stigma surface and
incompatibility in some distylous Linum
species. Annals of Botany 59, 203-217.
2. Dulberger, R. 1975. Intermorph structural
differences between stigmatic papillae and
pollen grains in relation to incompatibility
in Plumbaginaceae. Proceedings of the Royal
Society of London Series B. 188, 257-274.
3. Dulberger, R. 1992. Floral polymorphisms
and their functional significance in the
heterostylous syndrome. In: Evolution and
function of heterostyly (ed. S.C.H. Barrett).
Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
4. Horovitz, A., & Dulberger, R. 1983. The genetic
basis of gender in Silene vulgaris. Heredity 51,
371-376.
5. Dulberger, R. 1981. The floral biology of
Cassia didymobotrya and Cassia auriculata
(Caesalpiniaceae). American Journal of Botany
68, 1350-1360.
6. Dulberger, R., Levy, A. & Palevitch, D. 1981.
Andromonoecy in Solanum marginatum.
Botanical Gazette 142, 259-266.
7.
Dulberger, R. 1964. Flower dimorphism
and self-incompatibility in Narcissus tazetta.
Evolution 18, 361-363.
8. Ornduff, R., & Dulberger, R. 1978. Floral
enantiomorphy and reproductive system of
Wachendorfia paniculata (Haemodoraceae).
New Phytologist 80, 427-434.
9. Dulberger, R., & Ornduff, R. 1980. Floral
morphology and reproductive biology of 4
species of Cyanella (Tecophilaeaceae). New
Phytologist 86, 45-56.
-Lorne M. Wolfe, Georgia Southern University
-Spencer C. H. Barrett: University of Toronto.
53
Personalia
Congratulations to Kate LeCroy and James McDaniel, Jon Richey, Clayton Visger, all BSA members
who are winners of the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Award! These are past PLANTS program
participants and we are extremely proud of them.
Kate LeCroy
I plan to study how climate warming may disrupt the
dynamics of pollination communities. How will climate
change alter insect pollination? This question has not
been fully empirically answered from a community
perspective. Plant species with overlapping phenologies
may indirectly interact via shared pollinators, and these
interactions can have negative (competition -,-; e.g.
for pollinator visits or increased heterospecific pollen
transfer) or positive (facilitation +,0; +,+; e.g. simultaneous
facilitation or sequential facilitation) effects. Disruption
of these interactions can have consequences for quantity
and quality of pollen received and thus could affect
reproductive fitness. Previous research also projects altered
pollinator phenology or pollinator loss, which could further
exacerbate disruption of these interactions. I will analyze
pollination quantity and quality in manipulated plant
communities that reflect projected scenarios of climate
warming for plants and pollinators. This research will be
conducted in the serpentine seep communities of northern California, an ecosystem type that is highly
vulnerable to biodiversity loss. My experimental work will answer the call to solve outstanding questions
concerning how climate change will affect plant phenological overlap, plant-pollinator interactions, and
plant fitness.
James McDaniel
As a graduate student in Ken Cameron’s lab at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, I have started collecting preliminary
data on the genus Porroglossum within the orchid subtribe
Pleurothallidinae. My original intent was to work with the
genus Zootrophion; however, I have quickly discovered that
the rarity of this genus in the wild and cultivation makes it
impractical to work with. As a result, I have switched gears to
the genus Porroglossum, which is more accessible in regards to
gathering data. Porroglossum is fascinating because the plants
have an active labellum that, when stimulated by an insect, snaps
shut. This mechanism allows Porroglossum to entrap insects as
a means of ensuring that pollination occurs. Of the 48 species
in the genus, I have DNA from ca. 75% of them from which I
have successfully amplified three gene regions: nrITS, trnL-F and
ycf1. My plan is to construct a fully resolved phylogeny for the
entire genus using Maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods.
From there, I will use the phylogeny to address ecological and evolutionary questions. Ultimately, I plan to
discover the mechanism(s) responsible for active movement in the labellum, shed light on pollinator-plant
relationships, characterize floral fragrance profiles using GC/MS, and test clade hypotheses set forth by
Carl Luer in his monograph Icones Pleurothallidinarum IV.
54
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Jon Richey
My research interests are carbon cycle perturbations,
variations in atmospheric CO
2
throughout Earth’s history,
climate sensitivity, and the use of fossil plants to explain
aspects of the carbon cycle. I am using a botanical method
known as Stomatal Index (SI) to look at variation in CO
2
at the Albian-Cenomanian Boundary. Stomatal Index is the
proportion of epidermal cells that are stomata (gas exchange
pores) in the leaves of plants. SI varies inversely with CO
2
levels because at high atmospheric CO
2
levels,
an individual
plant can maintain a high level of photosynthesis while
minimizing H
2
O loss by having fewer stomata. Epidermal
cells and stomata are counted in modern materials, such
as fossil, subfossil, and herbarium specimens, which are
then compared to known CO
2
levels from when they were
collected, and plants subjected to greatly elevated CO
2
levels
in growth chambers. From these data, a graph of changes
in SI vs. changes in atmospheric CO
2
is produced and an
equation is generated that describes this relationship. I
have recently obtained fossil cuticle (the waxy covering
of the epidermis of leaves which is highly decay resistant
and can be recovered in rock dating back to the first land
plants) from the only continental rock sequence currently known to preserve Ocean Anoxic Event 1d,
a carbon cycle perturbation event that marks the Albian-Cenomanian Boundary. I will calculate SI in
this fossil cuticle, which will be plugged into the equation derived from modern material to infer CO
2
levels throughout this event. The late Cretaceous is thought to be an analog for Earth’s future climate
given current climatic trends. In addition, Ocean Anoxic Events have been relatively common during hot
climates of the geologic past such as the Cretaceous, and Ocean Anoxic Event 1d is analogous in some
ways to the current injection of large amounts of CO
2
to the atmosphere by humans. Due to these facts, my
research will yield important data to assist in the fight against climate change.
Clayton Visger
For my dissertation I will be exploring the evolutionary
consequences of whole genome duplication within the Pacific
Northwest genus Tolmiea (Saxifragaceae). Tolmiea appears
to have undergone a single autopolyploidization, which
resulted in a primarily allopatric distribution of the diploid T.
diplomenziesii and autotetraploid, T. menziesii. To assess
the role autopolyploidy has played in this natural speciation
event differences in niche, physiology, and gene expression
between the diploid progenitor and tetraploid derivative will
be evaluated.
55
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Dr. Bruce Kirchoff Wins First
Ever American Society of Plant
Taxonomists Innovations in
Plant Systematics Education
Prize
UNCG Biology Professor, Dr. Bruce Kirchoff,
was recently awarded the first ever “Innovations in
Plant Systematics Education” prize by the American
Society of Plant Taxonomists. Dr. Kirchoff won
for his “innovative application of research in
cognitive psychology to teach plant identification
skills” and his “record of pedagogical research
and use of technology to interact with students.”
The award letter goes on further to say his work
“is an exceptional example of combining science
and education effectively. It is a wonderful model
for our membership in this inaugural year of the
award.” Dr. Kirchoff will be honored at the annual
American Society of Plant Taxonomists banquet at
the BOTANY 2013 meeting.
Dr. Kirchoff sees tremendous value in visual
learning, and he helps his students harness its
power
to learn biology.
Here is an example: In his plant diversity class,
students must master the intricate life cycles of the
algae, fungi and land plants. Instead of having his
students memorize the details of these cycles, he
has created standardized ways of representing them
visually, and software to teach these representations.
“Don’t memorize – picture the life cycle,” he tells his
students. The picture is a schema that summarizes a
large amount of information.
Trying to memorize the individual parts of the
cycle can drive students nuts, he says. Where does
the gametophyte go? The archegonium? What
about the carposporophyte? And this is just the
beginning. Visual learning provides a better way.
In some ways his software is like using flashcards
to help memorize and learn—but it’s much more
effective.
“I am teaching my students to think visually,” he
says, to build up and see patterns in their minds
eye. When they can “see” the pattern, they can work
back to the facts. The pattern is a visual summary
of the facts.
With research centering on plant structure and
development, and on visual learning, Kirchoff has
been a member of UNCG’s biology faculty since
1986.
His work with visual learning has led him to
become an entrepreneur. The UNCG Office of
Innovation and Commercialization advised him
on starting a company around his proprietary
software. The UNCG Teaching and Learning
Center (now the FTLC) funded some of its initial
development. As a result, the software technology
is offered free to any course at UNCG. Any faculty
member who’d like more information may contact
him at kirchoff@uncg.edu, and more information
is available at http://www.metisllc.com/.
In another class he has created a version of the
software that teaches plant recognition. “You learn
to identify plants using the same part of your brain
that you use when you look at faces,” Kirchoff says.
Students can see and learn the plants at home, on
their own time. They come to class prepared to
learn at an advanced level, and they do better on
their exams.
The software can be used in any class, wherever
visual learning is appropriate.
Classes at the Wagga Wagga campus of Charles
Sturt University in Australia use the software.
Medical residents in neuropathology at Stanford
Medical School use it. Dr. Catherine Matthews
(Education) and Ann Somers (Biology) are
developing a version as part of their NSF-funded
HERP project. Leaders of a Science Olympiad
team in Honolulu are using it. UNCG chemistry
professor Dr. Mitchell Croat is developing a version
for organic chemistry, and using it in his classes.
These techniques also have use outside the
sciences. Kirchoff asks, is a work of art—even
an abstract piece—to be seen as a whole, or as
composed of parts? “The answer is… both.” The
parts interact to create the whole, but they are
only parts—they only have their form and place
in the work—because they are “of the whole.” This
is the part–whole relationship in art. The same
relationship occurs in organisms.
The great German poet and scientist, Goethe,
saw this clearly, and it influenced all of his work. He
coined the term “morphology,” which is the study
of the structure of living things, and Kirchoff’s field
of study. Goethe basically said that organisms are
like works of art. There is an integral wholeness to
the organism. They are composed of parts, but they
are not just the parts.
Is what he teaches like the visual expertise
described in the book “Blink”? Yes, the first
chapter of that popular book dovetails with what
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
he is hoping to achieve. The idea is to be able to
be both quick and accurate, with one look. Visual
experts do this, and he is teaching his students to
do it too. “Using the software, we can get the instant
recognition effect with only a short amount of
training.”
-Used with permission By Campus Weekly
Stan Kosmoski,
K-12 classroom member.
Stan took home 1st place at the Hillsborough
County, Florida, Tech Fair for an exhibit about
the Planting Science project online this spring
and with Edith and Arjan in the Netherlands. The
prize is an indefinite loan of a Windows 8, HP
Elite Pad 900 for classroom use. He reports that
he has been asked to write a lesson plan for the 10
middle schools in the STEM initiative for Planting
Science this summer and he is looking for partner
schools to do mirror modules (although the actual
experimental design may be different) so sister
schools can Skype when completed to share their
research. Note: Sibling schools need not be in a
different country (although that is really fun!!!!)
Please contact Stan at skosmoskijr@yahoo.com
if you, or a middle school teacher you know, are
interested in becoming a sibling school so he can
add you to the lesson plan this summer.
Karl Niklas Named Weiss
Presidential Fellow
Karl Niklas has been named a Stephen H.
Weiss Presidential Fellow at Cornell. The Weiss
Presidential Fellowship is awarded for excellence in
teaching and advising undergraduates. The award
is named for Stephen H. Weiss ’57, former chair of
the Cornell Board of Trustees. The recipients will
be honored by the Cornell Board of Trustees in the
Spring of 2013.
57
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
MISSOURI BOTANICAL
GARDEN PROGRAM ANNOUCES
COLLABORATION WITH
L’HERBORETUM
Partnership Allows Sacred Seeds
Program to Expand to Europe
(ST. LOUIS): Sacred Seeds, an international
non-profit that supports plant conservation and
addresses the rapid loss of biodiversity and cultural
knowledge, has extended its reach to Europe
through collaboration with L’Herboretum whose
international headquarters are in Saint-Ay, France.
Sacred Seeds is a network of plant gardens devoted
to preserving plants of medicinal and cultural
significance. The program is administered by the
Missouri Botanical Garden’s William L. Brown
Center.
Sacred Seeds also works to foster the traditional
uses and knowledge of these treasured plant
species, honoring their sacred roles in indigenous
communities. Currently, the program connects 28
gardens in 13 countries on six continents.
“L’Herboretum is one of the leading forces in
international plant conservation, and its garden
in Saint-Ay is a treasure of French ethnobotany,”
said Thomas Newmark, founder of Sacred Seeds.
“L’Herboretum is the first European partner in
the Sacred Seeds network, and we are thrilled to
be collaborating with the visionary leaders of this
great association.”
“The staff at L’Herboretum clearly has a passion
for ethnobotanical knowledge on both a local and
global level. They make an ideal European hub for
sharing the need to preserve threatened knowledge
and plants, and for celebrating the innovation and
dedication of conservationists around the world,”
said Ashley Glenn, a research specialist at the
William L. Brown Center.
L’Herboretum, through The Herboretum
Network of gardens, is the leading botanical
association in France and is dedicated to conserving
medicinal, cosmetic and sacred plants. It maintains
a 22-acre garden on the heart of the Loire Valley
and is an historic landmark. Leading scholars and
business leaders have joined in The Herboretum
Association, and it enjoys the patronage of The
Alban Muller Group, a leading specialist in natural
extracts in France. Alban Muller, President of The
Alban Muller Group, expressed his enthusiastic
support for the collaboration with Sacred Seeds.
“Sacred Seeds has an exceptional international
network of Sacred Seeds Sanctuaries, and together
with L’Herboretum’s network we will have
participating gardens around the world. Both
organizations feel the deep responsibility to protect
the biodiversity of life, and we have pledged to share
knowledge, skills, and resources to more rapidly
achieve our shared missions.”
Sacred Seeds is managed at the William L. Brown
Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden, one of the
largest and most active botanical research institutes
in the world. Visit www.sacredseedssanctuary.
org to learn more. The William L. Brown Center of
the Missouri Botanical Garden is dedicated to the
study of useful plants and the relationships between
humans, plants and the environment. Scientists
strive to conserve plant species for the benefit of
future generations.
The Missouri Botanical Garden is one of
the three largest plant science programs in the
world. The Garden’s work focuses its work on
areas that are rich in biodiversity yet threatened
by habitat destruction, and operates the world’s
most active research and training programs in
tropical botany. Garden scientists collaborate with
local institutions, schools and indigenous peoples
to understand plants, create awareness, offer
alternatives and craft conservation strategies. The
Missouri Botanical Garden is striving for a world
that can sustain us without sacrificing prosperity
for future generations, a world where people share
a commitment to managing biological diversity for
the common benefit. Learn more at www.mobot.
org.
58
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
A PLANT ANATOMY
DICTIONARY OF LAST RESORT
One of the refreshing surprises of teaching a
specialty course is to cross paths with a student who
is coming from a different place and who provides
a...well, novel perspective. Don Casadonte is a
doctoral student in music whose interest in what
makes a good clarinet reed brought him to Plant
Anatomy. After hearing snickers from students
all quarter from his area of the lab, I confronted
him and he fessed up to having compiled a list of
“informal” definitions of terms from an outsider’s
point of view. What follows are some of the more
printable and less groanable of his creations,
including his snappy preamble. The responsibility
for all the groans that remain is strictly his, as I, the
teacher, just played the part of the straight man.
We offer for your perusal a selection from the
previously unavailable (indeed unwritten) book
Knock Wood: A Plant Anatomy Dictionary of Last
Resort. One may wonder why this is a dictionary of
last resort, but after a quick scanning of its contents,
we’re sure you’ll agree with us that this is indeed
the last place to go to resolve your anatomical
difficulties. Nevertheless, we hope that you enjoy
this excerpt and remember the famous words of the
plant, which exclaimed on seeing its first fly, “That
looks like `a gnat to me’...”.
-Contributed by Fred Sack, University of British
Columbia
• Phyllotaxis What you’re required to do
every year by April 15.
• Siphonostele An activity a gasoline thief
engages in.
• Idioblast A party thrown the night before
a final exam.
• Rhytidome The opposite of a Leftidome.
• Auxin The city where the University of
Exas is located.
• Eukaryotic What you say to an otic when
you want them to transport something.
• Stone Cell A drunk tank.
• Plastichron
TM
A rubber clock for those
hurried people who wish they could stretch
time just a bit.
• Anomalous secondary growth Razor
stubble.
• A-pical cells Extra large cells that taste
good on hamburgers.
• Mesophyll Opposite of mesoempty.
• Bulliform cell The place to lock up people
who think they’re Teddy Roosevelt.
• Callus The most often used word by the
director of the Plant Follies of 1942. See
also Don’t Callus...
• Phellogen A “manly” drink. Opposite of
Galogen.
• Storied wood A tree that’s heard it all.
• Slime body Noun. See also mud wrestling.
• Axillary “Bud” The C.B. nickname for
the first person to be inducted into the
Truck Driver’s Hall of Fame.
• Casparian strip What the friendly ghost
does before taking a shower.
• Companion cell Tonto’s tent.
• Diarch What you do after being hit by
lightning.
• Pistillate The usual reason why people
lose gun fights.
• Prop roots Scenery for Tarzan.
• Sapwood A really stupid tree.
59
class culture. While scholars of botany and scholars
of 19th-century gift books and annuals attribute
floral imagery and floral gift books as a sentimental
continuation per usual of this period (1825-1865),
there is a manifestation of popular botanical
culture (botanical literature) within the identity
of gift books that is overlooked by this assertion.
Furthermore, this botanical literature is a valuable
component for connecting the target audience of
gift books (young women) to botanical study as
much as allowed by their “delicate sensibilities.”
Key words: American Antiquarian Society; annual;
botanical history; botanical literature; gift book;
Library of Congress; popular botany; women in
science; 19th-century botany
The United States experienced the wildly popular
literary phenomenon of “gift books” and “annuals”
between 1826 and 1865. These mass-produced
books were usually comprised of an attractive
collection of sentimental (highly emotional) short
stories, sketches, poems, essays, illustrations,
and songs. Gift books and annuals were typically
Early 19th-century expressions of
popular botany through sentimen-
talism in American gift books and
annuals
Kathryn A. LeCroy
Departments of Biology and English
Birmingham-Southern College
Birmingham, AL 35254
E-mail:
KAL142@pitt.edu
DOI: 10.3732/psb.1200001
Submitted 22 October 2012.
Accepted 22 April 2013.
ABSTRACT
Through my study of 19th-century American gift
books and annuals, I conclude that botany, the first
socially acceptable science for American women’s
study, permeated media beyond traditionally
assumed origins such as textbooks, field manuals,
and lectures, but that it was embedded in the
sentimental language of gift books written for
young women in early middle- and upper middle–
Reports
Figure 1. Photographs of American gift books and annuals 1825-1865, used with permission from the Library of
Congress (A, B, D, E) and the American Antiquarian Society (C, F). (A) Front cover, The Iris, est. 1820-1840.
(B) Frontispiece of The Iris, est. 1820-1840. (C) Colored plate. (D) Front cover, The Hyacinth, 1846. (E) Frontis-
piece, The Young Lady’s Companion, 1844. (F) Presentation page, The Lady’s Book of Flowers & Poetry, 1842.
60
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
and educators who asserted the goodness of
botany. Communications that praised the benefits
of studying plants have been termed “botanical
literature” (Keeney, 1992). This botanical literature
pervaded many outlets of media, including but
not limited to newspapers, children’s textbooks,
sermons, university courses, visiting lecturers,
and essays. The messages in botanical literature
emphasized the important reasons for botanical
study: gentility, utility, and piety. Botanical literature
championed these aspirations and was pervasive in
the popular media. Indeed, from an account of
14,200 Americans who were highly active in the
botanical community from 1800 to 1850, 11,000
identified themselves as “cultivators,” meaning
those who pursued botany for other reasons beside
scientific progress (Keeney, 1992). The results
of this survey suggest this “botanical literature”
that championed the goodness of botanical study
reached a large audience and impacted American
education and culture, emphasizing the importance
of botanical study concomitant to the reason of
scientific advancement.
CULTURAL ASPIRATIONS BEHIND
BOTANY AND GIFT BOOKS:
GENTILITY, UTILITY, AND PIETY
Both Elizabeth Keeney, a historian of science, and
gift book scholar Richard Thompson respectively
credit the increase in attractiveness of practicing
botany and the growing market for gift books to the
overwhelming American drive to create a cultural
identity of a refined, pious, and accomplished
people. In particular, gift books and botany largely
targeted women audiences. Gift book scholars
consider these books an important symbol of a
cultural aspiration that championed refinement and
good taste by affirming clear lines between class,
race, religion, and gender; these poems, essays,
sketches, stories, and embellishments were all
snapshots of current American perspectives of the
beautiful, the right, and the good (Bushman, 1992),
and they could be easily placed on the parlor table
for any visitor in the home to see. In The Refinement
of America, historian of
19th-century America
Richard Bushman notes that although “the contents
of gift books were hardly distinguished, giving a gift
book the title ‘Gems of Prose and Poetry’ implied
the giver’s commitment to refinement through
literature and a presumption of the recipient’s taste
for the pleasures of mental culture” (p. 284).
printed on high-quality, hand-gilded paper and
bound with leather or cardboard, and embossed
with handmade, gilded imprints on the covers
and endpapers to complete the look (Faxon, 1973)
(Figure 1). Cindy Dickinson describes in her 1996
article “Creating a world of books, friends, and
flowers: gift books and inscriptions” that while the
writings “were meant to engage the mind and heart,
the physical presentation was intended to captivate
the eye” (p. 54). These books took on personal
meaning for the recipient as a gift: it gave the
reader an object of good taste meant for refinement
and self-improvement through its sentimental and
intellectual contents.
Whereas gift books consisted of contributed
works from many writers that were often written
for the specific gift book, annuals were compilations
of previously published pieces in magazines and
periodicals of the time, rarely with new works. Both
gift books and annuals were meant to serve as gifts
for special occasions such as birthdays, Christmas
presents, and tokens of gratitude for teachers from
their students (Faxon, 1973). Because gift books
and annuals served the same purpose in this culture
and do not differ significantly in content, I will refer
to both gift books and annuals as gift books.
Along with gift books, another growing
phenomenon during this period of the early 19th-
century was popular botany. Elizabeth Keeney’s
The Botanizers: Amateur Scientists in Nineteenth-
Century America gives a highly detailed account of
how botany developed throughout 19th-century
America, which is marked by two groups that
initially shared a common passion but diverged by
the beginning of the 20th century. These groups
were “botanizers” and “professionals.” “Botanizers”
enjoyed botanical study as a pastime and used it for
means of social reform and personal improvement.
“Professionals” contributed to the increasing
wealth of information needed to understand the
complexity of botany. Modern historians view the
botanical culture of the botanizers as a religious
and valuable practice for positively cultivating the
mind and soul, while they define professionals
as those who focused on correspondence with
other scientists and publishing new findings in
professional journals (Keeney, 1972). The 19th-
century practice of the botanizers was popular at
the same time of the gift book–publishing era of
1825 to 1865.
Botany caught America’s attention by the
traveling lecturers, social reformers, ministers,
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
library, but the objects of the science are scattered
over the surface of the earth, along the banks of the
winding brooks, on the borders of precipices, the
sides of mountains, and the depths of the forest” (p.
14).
According to Keeney, botany was a method
for improving gentility, utility, and piety, and in
consequence the practice of botany fashioned a
more polished community (Keeney, 1972 p. 60). I
argue that this incredibly powerful 19th-century
idea of personal improvement that Thompson,
Bushman, and Keeney discuss is present in
botanical literature in both practicing botany and
reading gift books.
These two trends of gift book readership and
botanical education experienced most of their
popularity between 1825 and 1865. The participants
of both were literate, came from the upper half of
American society, valued gentility and culture,
and had some means of education (Thompson,
1936, pp. 3-4; Keeney, 1972, pp. 11-13). Another
elemental component of both enterprises was their
suitability and attractiveness to women and the
new opportunities they gave to women’s activities.
In female private schools, catalogs from 1825 to
1860 show an increase in the amount of botany
courses offered, and a survey from pre-1830 and
In the same way, developing refinement could
be achieved by what popular botany inherently
demanded—meticulous, diligent observation and
critical thinking skills—and what it inspires in
the intellectual and the “cultured” mind: a poetic
sensibility for the gentler aspects of nature, a sense
of order, appreciation of God in general terms
of protestant natural theology, exercise, and an
appropriate scientific endeavor for young women
(Keeney, 1992). Indeed, botany addressed the
common and overwhelming 19th-century concerns
of female invalidism, which was the thought that
women have unusually delicate health and are
more prone to illness than men (Wood, 1973).
In a culture where being outside was considered
hazardous for women, botany opened once-closed
doors to explore nature in a socially acceptable
manner (though women often traveled with a male
supervisor to assist in collecting field specimens)
(Keeney, 1992). In her Familial Lectures on Botany
(1845), Almira Lincoln Phelps emphasized its
suitability for females in this sense:
“Botany seems peculiarly adapted to females;
the objects of its investigation are beautiful and
delicate; its pursuits, leading to exercise in the open
air, are conducive to health and cheerfulness. It is
not a sedentary study which can be acquired in the
Figure 2. Engraved plates. (A) Plate titled “The Passion Flower” from The Young Botanist, a botany manual
from 1835. (Image in public domain.) (B) Plate titled “Kate in the Fields” accompanying story “Emily’s New
Pastime” in the gift book The Dahlia, 1842. (Used with permission from the Library of Congress.)
62
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
History, botanical historian Beverly Seaton (1995)
details in part how flower language has developed
throughout the 19th-century. Seaton discusses the
context of “flower books,” which includes a portion
of gift books devoted to flower meanings. These
flower books contain many illustrations and poems
about certain flowers. The author emphasizes
the sentimentality and purpose of these flower
books, even quoting an advertisement for The
Rural Wreath; or Life Among the Flowers: “It is not
pretended… to treat upon the science of Botany…
it is designed… as a Table Book for the Parlor, of
a sentimental character…” (Seaton, 1995, p. 19).
Seaton uses this advertisement to suggest that gift
books and practicing botany were in two different
spheres: the flowers have been historical objects of
sentiment, and this new scientific study of plants
will not change its sentimentality or perception by
its readers.
Although Seaton uses an important primary
resource to show how gift books and botany
use flowers in different contexts, I think there is
unexplored territory where botanical literature
resides in gift books. This is where Seaton emphasizes
the supposedly impassable line of sentimentality
and downplays the overall impact of pure botany
past the language of flowers and their traditional
use in story imagery and general ornamentation. I
would argue that women botanizers walked in and
out of these two areas of sentimentality and science,
and they created a space of their own to consume
botanical culture inside of gift books.
From my survey of gift books and annuals, I found
plenty of short stories, essays, and illustrations
that show what I see as the interplay between a
new botanical culture and the sentimental nature
of gift books. I conducted my research in 2011
and 2012 through the online resources of the
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) and through
Google Books (www.books.google.com) and in
physical libraries at the American Antiquarian
Society Library in Worcester, MA, USA and at
the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
USA. I read 222 gift books available through these
services and documented 50 gift books with the
use of botanical literature in at least one of its short
stories, essays, engravings, songs, or poems. Table
1 presents a summary of all titles with examples
of botanical literature. With a total of 977 titles
published in the United States between 1826 and
1865, Figure 3 demonstrates the rise and fall of gift
book publishing and contextualizes the portion
post-1830 course offerings for female seminaries
and girls’ schools show an especially high increase
in the percentage of these schools offering botany
courses (Keeney, 1972, pp. 54-55). Plates from both
botanical textbooks and gift books often portray
young women actively engaging in botany (Figure
2).
After a preliminary search through an annotated
bibliography of gift books, I found that there are an
abundance of gift books that incorporate various
writings about plant life. Looking from an aesthetic
lens, many gift books have flowers, trees, and leaves
found on bindings, titles, inscription pages, and
embellishments throughout its contents. According
to Ralph Thompson’s index of gift books, many
of the books were dedicated to flowers. There are
approximately 50 gift books found that are devoted
to floral themes of the beauty of flowers and their
meanings (Thompson, 1936, p. 6). However, many
more gift books also have titles simply of plant
names, including The Magnolia, The Hyacinth, The
Lily of the Valley, The Rose Bud, The Iris, and The
Evergreen. I found approximately 130 titles of gift
books from the 469 titles (books often republished
under the same titles, totaling 977 books) listed
in the Indices that were plant related, with most
of them named after wildflowers. However,
this ornamentation of title is not necessarily as
botanically enriching as the stories about the
morals of studying botany and embarking into
botanical culture.
BOTANICAL CULTURE AND
BOTANICAL LITERATURE
The popular botanical literature of the botanizers
used non-scientific language in its writing and
used the common American early 19th-century
literary style of sentimentalism to assert the virtues
of botanical study. Sentimentalism is characterized
by its emphasis of emotion over reason and action;
it uses moral tales that juxtapose good and bad
characters (both often children or young women)
by rewarding the good character with true love or
happiness while punishing the bad character with
a doomed ending; and there is often a concluding
statement written directly to the reader to
emphasize the morality and applicability of the tale
to the reader’s own life (Gutjahr, 2001). I argue that
historians of botany have not recognized botanical
literature when it is shrouded in this sentimental
language and thereby miss an important connection
to women’s botanical immersion in the works of gift
books. For example, in The Language of Flowers: A
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Table 1. Summary of botanical literature in gift books and annuals, 1826-1865. Of the 222 gift books that
were analyzed, 50 gift books contained examples of botanical literature. Titles are sorted into representative
expressions of botanical literature. The multiple dates of The Atlantic Souvenir represent different, individual
instances of botanical literature and do not represent re-published material.
Example of botanical
literature within
contents
Number of
gift books
with example
Titles
Depiction of young girl(s) who
practice(s) or begins to practice
botany as a hobby, written as
heroine(s) of tale, may uplift a
male downtrodden character by
introducing him to botany
14
The Lily (1831), The Child’s Annual
(1834), The Week-Day Book (1835), The
Violet (1937), The Dahlia (1842), The
Lady’s Book of Flowers and Poetry (1842),
Rose of Sharon (1844), The Parlor Book
(1845), The Hyacinth (1846), The Moss
Rose (1850), The Amaranth (1850), The
Young Ladies’ Oasis (1851), The Lily of
the Valley (1858)
Description and image of a
plant or garden with a statement
encouraging botanical study
14
The Parent’s Cabinet (1832), Flora’s
Interpreter (1839), Floral Emblems
(1845), Boudoir Annual (1846), The
Juvenile Gem (1846), The Lady’s Book
of Flowers and Poetry (1846), Boudoir
Botany (1847), The Literary Annual
(1948), The Youth’s Sketch Book (1849),
The Hyacinth (1851), The Lady’s
Companion (1851) The Gift (1854),
Book of Gems (1858), The Floral Offering
(1859), Parlor Book (no date)
Sermon, poem or essay about
the goodness of observing and
studying plant life
11
The Book of Flowers, (1836), The Laurel
(1837), The Parlor Book (1838), The
Young Lady’s Companion (1839), The
Charleston Book (1845), The Poetry of
Flowers (1845), Love’s Garland (1848),
The Winter Bloom (1850), The Magnolia
(1847), The Hyacinth (1845), The Pearl
(1853), The Ladies’ Keepsake (no date)
Positive account of a historical
figure or protagonist of story,
explicitly states studying botany as
one of his/her accomplishments
11
The Atlantic Souvenir (1827, 1828,
1829, 1830, 1859), The Casket (1829),
The Pearl (1829), The Gift (1840), The
Opal (1849), The Odd-Fellows’ Offering
(1852), The Amaranth (1855)
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
Rosalie brought her herbier (plant press) to
the market in her village, and women stopped by
exclaimed over the botanical “treasures.” A wealthy
father employs Rosalie to teach his daughters how
to preserve wildflower specimens. Their father slips
a large sum of money into her plant press, and at
the conclusion of the story, Rosalie finds the money
and “stood, with burning cheeks, down which tears
of gratitude and joy rapidly followed one another”
(The Lily, 1831, p. 227). Sentimentality and the
rewards of botanical interest are here in plain sight.
A second example is from The Hyacinth: or
Affection’s Gift. A Christmas, New-Year’s, and
Birthday Present from 1846. From the preface, this
gift book’s chief object is “intellectual and moral
improvement” (The Hyacinth, 1846, p. ii). In a
short story called “A Visit to the Botanic Garden of
St. Vincent,” the Maxwell Children visit the “West
Indies” with their family. Jane and Susan Maxwell
are 10 and 12, and another family, the Pophams
and their children, are also scheduled to visit at
the same time. However, these Popham children
are not as well behaved as the Maxwells, with their
parents missing the most important part of their
education, which was “teaching their children the
of gift books of which I read and searched for
botanical literature. The elements of this botanical
literature—still couched in an arguably required
tone of sentimentality—fully recognizes the values
of natural history and reflects upon young women’s
increasing participation in botany.
CASE SCENARIOS OF BOTANICAL
LITERATURE
One example of botanical literature within gift
books is a story from The Lily, published in 1831,
with a story titled “Rosalie” by Derwent Conway.
The character Rosalie has a passion for collecting
and preserving plants:
“…Neither was Rosalie’s pursuit the collection of
insects—she was too tender-hearted for this; for, if
she caught a beautiful insect, it was with the light
touch of gentleness, only to admire its purple wing
and let it go. Rosalie’s pursuit was, to gather and
preserve wild flowers, which she dried in so perfect
a manner, that almost every charm remained with
them but, beside this Rosalie had found the art of
taking such perfect impressions from them, upon
silk… that the grace—the tints of freshness—the
fragrance of the flowers… continued to live in these
impressions” (The Lily, 1831, p. 222).
Figure 3. The rise and fall of gift books and annuals, 1826-1865. Data gathered from Faxon, 1973. There
were 977 titles published over this time period, and this figure shows the number of gift book and annual
titles published each year.
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author thanks the following people for
supporting her endeavors with this project at
Birmingham-Southern College: Dr. M. Schantz, Dr.
C. E. Clifford, Dr. G. Smith and Dr. P. Van Zandt.
The author is thankful for the useful comments
from anonymous reviewers of earlier drafts of this
work. The author also acknowledges the Harrisons
Honors Scholars Program of Birmingham-
Southern College for funding travel to Washington
D.C. and Worcester, MA, and thanks the staffs at
the Library of Congress and American Antiquarian
Society for their helpful comments and direction.
LITERATURE CITED
BUSHMAN, RICHARD L. 1992. The refinement of
America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
DICKINSON, CINDY. 1996. Creating a world
of books, friends, and flowers: gift books and
inscriptions, 1825-60. Winterthur Portfolio
1231: 53-66.
FAXON, FREDERICK W. 1973. Literary annuals
and gift books, 1823 - 1903. Middlesex, England:
Private Libraries Association.
GUTJAHR, PAUL C. 2001. Popular American
literature of the 19
th
century. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
THE HYACINTH: OR AFFECTION’S GIFT.
A CHRISTMAS, NEW-YEAR’S, AND
BIRTHDAY PRESENT. 1845. Ed. Unknown.
Philadelphia: Henry F. Anners.
KEENEY, ELIZABETH B. 1992. The botanizers:
amateur scientists in nineteenth-century
America. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of
North Carolina Press.
THE LILY: A COLORED ANNUAL FOR
MDCCCXXXI. 1831. Ed. R. Schoyer. New
York: n.p.
PHELPS, ALMIRA L. 1845. Familiar lectures on
botany. New York: Huntington and Savage.
SEATON, BEVERLY. 1995. The language of flowers:
a history. Charlottesville, VA: The University
Press of Virginia.
THOMPSON, RALPH. 1936. American literary
annuals and gift books 1825–1865. New York:
H. W. Wilson Company.
WOOD, ANN D. 1973. “The fashionable diseases”:
women’s complaints and their treatment in
nineteenth-century America. The Journal of
Interdisciplinary History 4: 25-52.
virtues of obedience, truth, self-denial, humility,
and gentleness” (p. 179).
These badly behaved Popham girls named
Lucy and Harriet (the same ages as the Maxwell
children) are invited by the Maxwells to tour the
St. Vincent Botanic Garden with Mr. Elliot, the
head botanist. They scoff, reacting to the Maxwell
girls’ invitation “with stupid surprise… as if the
Popham girls could have said ‘what fun is there
in hearing Mr. Elliot talk about plants?’” (p. 189).
This story then demonstrates through their actions
that the Popham girls are not cultivated enough
to understand the value of learning new things,
especially about the natural world. The Popham
girls instead sneak off to eat mangoes, staining their
new beautiful dresses, like badly behaved children
in the 19th century would (p. 193). The Popham
girls were indignant at touring with a botanist: “…
[T]he daughters thought that the Maxwells could
not play; but they were quite mistaken—they could
enjoy a game of fun as much as any boy or girl, but
they had also a strong thirst for knowledge, and
that, combined with true good-breeding, taught
them that going off to play at such a time would
have proved them to be very silly” (p. 193).
The author concludes, “I can assure you my…
readers, that neither talent nor genius of any
description can ever be put to their best use without
good principles and industry” (p. 197). There is
a fitting resolution to where Harriet and Lucy
Popham go and race in their flamboyant frocks and
pale blue shoes in the mud, whereas Jane and Susan
wear their humble white frocks and economic
black shoes while obediently staying with their
father mother and listening to conversation with
Mr. Elliot the botanist (p. 196). Sentimental justice
is served upon those who do not listen to botanists
and subscribe to meaningful activities.
These are just two examples within 50 published
titles where I observed botanical literature that
asserts the goodness of botanical study and at times
demonstrates the moral downfall of those who do
not have the good judgment to recognize botany as
a valuable activity (Table 1). With this manner of
close inspection, we can find that there is indeed
a space where gift books and botanical literature
coincide.
66
but not searchable. As the DVD-ROM opens, a
menu appears with the plants organized into five
classes: Lycopsida, Psilotopsida, Marattiopsida,
E q u i s e t o p s i d a , a n d Po l y p o d i o p s i d a .
The gymnosperms are accidentally grouped under
the Polypodiopsida, and the higher classification of
these plants is in a perpetual state of revision, but
neither of these detracts from the ease with which
the slide collection is used. Orders are listed within
each class, and clicking on an order opens a list of
the families and the genera available. Clicking on
an individual genus provides up to three choices:
sporophyte anatomy, sporophyte morphology, and
gametophytes, depending on what is available.
Each choice then leads to thumbnails of the images
available in the category. Only 12 thumbnails are on
a page, so if there are more, one must open the next
page of thumbnails. It is easy to navigate from image
to image, from menu to menu, and from genus to
genus. Furthermore, the authors encourage users to
save and copy the images for educational purposes.
While I was excited to review this DVD-ROM, I
was also a little hesitant. Images for teaching are
available from so many sources that I wondered
whether this collection really would offer
something different and worth the money. I was
not disappointed. The gross morphology images
are good, and for the most part, not unique to
this collection. However, the anatomical images
and gametophyte images make it a gem. They
show some of the most meticulously prepared and
Book Reviews
Developmental and Structural
Images of the Morphology and Anatomy of Seedless Vascular Plants
and Gymnosperms ............................................................................................................66
The Life of a Leaf .............................................................................................................67
Ecological
The World of Northern Evergreens, 2nd ed. .....................................................................68
Economic Botany
The Beauty of Houseplants ..............................................................................................69
World Economic Plants: A Standard Reference, 2nd ed. .................................................69
Medicinal Plants and the Legacy of Richard E. Schultes .................................................70
Ethnobotany
Ginkgo: The Tree that Time Forgot ...................................................................................72
Systematics
Hardy Cypripedium: Species, Hybrids and Cultivation ...................................................74
Developmental and Structural
Images of the Morphology and
Anatomy of Seedless Vascular
Plants and Gymnosperms
R. Larry Peterson, Dean P. Whittier, and
Lewis H. Melville
2011. ISBN-13: 978-0-9877172-0-7
DVD. Can$34.95
Canadian Science Publishing, NRC Research
Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Many of us have built up impressive slide collections
through our careers. We have photographed plants
in our travels, we have prepared specimens both
as part of our research and our teaching, and we
have exchanged photographs with colleagues.
Larry Peterson and Dean Whittier have gone a
step further by making their personal collections
available to a broader audience. They teamed
with Lewis Melville to produce a DVD-ROM of
their own images, supplemented minimally with
photographs of slides from others. The collection,
Images of the Morphology and Anatomy of Seedless
Vascular Plants and Gymnosperms, is published by
Canadian Science Publishing and available for less
than $30.00 from Amazon.
The collection spans the diversity of these
plants with a catalog that is very easily browsable,
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
excellently prepared sections I have ever seen. As
these images are all of gymnosperms and seedless
vascular plants, the utility of this collection is more
suited to a typical comparative morphology or
anatomy course than a systematic botany course or
a broad survey of all botanical diversity, but it has
gems to offer nearly all organismal botany courses.
Many of the captions note how they were stained
(usually phloroglucinol-HCl or Toluidine Blue
O), and a large portion of images have arrows and
letters indicating the location of specific structures.
There are even a few SEM images.
There are a few weaknesses with the DVD, but they
only minimally detract from it. Most specimens are
identified to species, but a few are only identified to
genus, and none of the field images note locality. A
further weakness is a lack of scale on many images.
Additionally, some might find the coverage to be a
bit sporadic. For example, within the ferns, there are
many images of stem cross sections, but relatively
few of sporangia. And while nine genera of cycads
are represented, there are anatomical images of
only Cycas and Zamia. These weaknesses are all
understandable, noting the origin and purpose
of the collection itself, and I doubt any of them
are particularly problematic for most practicing
botanists.
Overall, this is an excellent collection of images
to use for teaching diversity and anatomy. The
specimens are very well prepared, especially the
anatomical sections, and I highly encourage anyone
to consider using this as a supplement to their own
slide collection or as an atlas for students to use in
their study.
–Douglas P. Jensen, Converse College, Spartanburg,
South Carolina, USA
The Life of a Leaf
Steven Vogel
2012. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-85939-2
Hardcover, US$35.00. 293 pp.
The University of Georgia Press, Athens,
Georgia, USA
The title of this book is misleading. The dustjacket
cover shows an unrolling crozier of a fern, yet
ferns are never mentioned (and other herbaceous
plants only rarely). And this is not a book devoted
to the developmental life of a leaf. However, it is
a very readable book about many aspects of the
physiological life of a plant. The life of the leaf itself
comprises a small part of the many explanations of
the inner workings and environmental interactions
of the mostly woody plants that they are attached
to. Vogel clearly enjoys explaining such mechanical
and physio-chemical interactions of the plant with
the world as they ultimately affect the leaf, and he
succeeds in offering a fascinating view of many of
the physical processes that are necessary for leaf
function.
This book was not light reading for me as I had
left physics formulas and experiments behind in
my freshman year of college to pursue the wider
world of plant ecology. However, for a botanist,
plants can be used to provide insights into how
physics control function. Vogel explains it all
quite lucidly despite unavoidable references to the
various laws and formulas of physics such as Fick’s
law (diffusion) or the Hagen-Poiseuille equation
(flow through pipes). Vogel thoughtfully relegates
the more mathematically challenging details to
footnotes, and makes the concepts come alive with
illustrations and a series of images and diagrams of
experiments and simple “do it yourself” projects.
Vogel starts with light, and then talks about the
various interactions of the plant with gases, water,
and temperature (both hot and cold).
Most often he addresses the subject through
questions that a keen plant observer may have
thought about but not known how to answer—such
as why maple saps run in the spring or what the
ultimate limit in height for a tree is and why, or
why aspen leaves quake, or why there are so many
different leaf shapes and folding patterns, or why
very rounded droplets of water form on some leaves
but not others, or why some trees fall in a storm
while others are uprooted. Of particular interest
to those who work in hurricane-prone areas is a
chapter on the various ways that woody plants and
their leaves deal with wind, including descriptions
of wind tunnel experiments (very challenging to do
with large plants). He also provides several physical
explanations for how plants combat herbivory.
Undergraduates in a botany course would
certainly benefit from several of the explanations
and illustrations of subjects often only briefly
mentioned in basic texts, and the whole book
would be an excellent supplement to the usually
much drier textbooks used in plant physiology
courses. But I also think that structural engineering
students would benefit from reading this book, as
it provides living examples of so many elements of
our built environment.
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
In his introduction, Vogel says that the book is
about the interactions of a plant with the physical
world—“a world that limits them, one that they
can’t much alter, but of which they can take all
sorts of subtle advantages.” It reads as though the
author of a book called “Life of the Human” were to
describe the lives of people living on an upper floor
of a very tall apartment building by describing all
of the physical processes that result in their being
able to survive in that habitat, such as the design
of the windows for light access, how the cooling
and heating systems work, how water and energy
are brought up, why the building doesn’t blow
over, what the transportation and digestion of food
entails, and how wastes are carried down through
the building and away. After reading and learning
so much from Vogel’s book about the plants I’ve
studied for so long, I’d look forward to a similar
book by structural engineers using humans as the
lens through which to view physical processes.
–Joanne Sharpe, Sharplex Services, Edgecomb,
Maine, USA
Ecological
The World of Northern Evergreens,
2nd ed.
E. C. Pielou
2011. ISBN-13: 978-08014-7740-9
Paperback, US$19.95, 168 pp.
Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York,
USA
The World of Northern Evergreens is a guide to the
natural history of the boreal conifer forests of North
America. Conversational but botanically accurate,
complete but not overladen with scientific trivia, it
is meant for the naturalists in all of us. Indeed, these
days, it is a rare thing to find a professional botanist
who can actually see the forest for the trees, so very
specialized are we all.
This handy paperback is not really a classical
field guide in the sense of having color plant
identification photos with telegraphic descriptions
and a waterproof binding. No, it is meant for those
who yearn for a more holistic view of the northern
evergreen forest, and want to see both the forest and
the trees. How did the boreal forests come about
during the Ice Age? What kinds of conifers make up
the forests? How do conifers live and grow? What
sorts of the broadleaved trees can you also find in
these forests? These topics form the focus of the
first six chapters of the book.
I have to confess that I was excited to find the
answer to a question that has plagued me all of my
botanical life. While I can still recite the reasons for
the upward pull of water in tracheids that I learned
in Intro Botany—root pressure, capillary action,
water-molecule cohesion, and transpiration—these
factors seem to come up short next to the majestic
heights attained by conifers. (The tallest tree in
Canada is a 95-m high Sitka spruce in Carmanah
Walbran Provincial Park.) Pielou finally satisfied my
curiosity with a more detailed explanation from the
point where plant science meets molecular physics.
After a germinating seed pulls up water a short
distance by capillary action from the soil through
its root hairs, the water column continues to flow
upwards through each of the new, lengthening
tracheids as an unbroken column, staying intact by
intermolecular attraction as the tree grows. Ah, I
said to myself, another mystery of the natural world
solved.
Seriously, though, what is I find particularly
pleasing about Pielou’s approach in guiding the
reader through the boreal forest is how the conifer
trees take their rightful place as the major players
in this northern biome.
Angiosperms, fungi,
parasites, insects, mammals, birds, and even fire
are explained in reference to the trees and forest.
These subsidiary topics make up the second part of
the book, along with concluding chapters on forest
biogeography in northern North America, and on
global warming and its effect on the boreal forests.
E. C. Pielou is one of the great plant scientists
of our time, a mathematical ecologist who has
produced six scholarly textbooks on numerical
ecology, ecological diversity, and biogeography,
as well as several popular books. The World of
Northern Evergreens is actually the second edition
of the original that was published in 1988 and can
take its place proudly on the bookshelf alongside
other popular books written by Pielou on glaciated
North America, the naturalist’s guide to the Arctic,
freshwater, and the energy of nature. This second
edition of The World of Northern Evergreens differs
from the first by describing the contrast between
conifers and angiosperms in the boreal forest and by
broadening the book’s scope with discussions about
the forest floor, the geographical extent of different
forest ecosytems, and the dire consequences of
logging and climate change on northern conifers.
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
I think that most botanists may find The World of
Northern Evergreens a bit too “lite,” but Pielou aims
to explain forest ecology to “naturalists, hikers,
backpackers, canoeists, cross-country skiers,” as she
says in the preface. Still, I can also see how the book
can be put to good use as supplementary reading
in a non-majors botany or biology course. Even for
a majors course, The World of Northern Evergreens
would do a good job of integrating botanical and
ecological information on plants, trees, and forests
to end up with something that is more than the sum
of its parts. For all readers, accompanying Pielou on
her tour of the natural history of the boreal forest
will be instructive and interesting, and, as depicted
on the book’s cover, as stirring and refreshing as
a walk among the giant evergreens when the sun
breaks through the early morning mist.
–Carole T. Gee, Steinmann Institute, Division of
Paleontology, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Economic Botany
The Beauty of Houseplants
Tom Gough and David Longman
2011. ISBN-13: 978-1-889878-30-0
Cloth, US$22.95. 118 pp.
Botanical Research Institute of Texas, Fort
Worth, Texas, USA
The Beauty of Houseplants is an attractive coffee
table book with nice quality photographs of
houseplants that will be familiar to most readers.
The common and scientific names are given for
approximately 70 houseplants, along with a single-
page description of the proper care and optimal
conditions for growing each particular species. Data
on the geographic origin and the natural history are
also provided, and the information on each plant
species seems to be accurate. There is also a section
on choosing plants for each room of the typical
home and another section on common pests that
includes recommended treatments for pests and
diseases. A history of how these houseplants were
discovered as well as information on propagation
make this book interesting. I found this attractive
book fun to read and believe it will be useful to
amateur botanists, gardeners, and anyone who uses
plants to decorate the home.
–John Z. Kiss, Department of Biology and Graduate
School, University of Mississippi, Oxford, Missis-
sippi, USA
World Economic Plants: A Standard
Reference, 2nd ed.
John H. Wiersema and Blanca León
2013. ISBN-13: 978-1-4398-2142-8
Cloth. US$149.95. 1300 pp.
CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca
Raton, Florida, USA
The first edition of World Economic Plants, published
in 1999, provided basic reference data for over 9500
vascular plant taxa of commercial importance. This
second edition provides additional data on a total
of 12,235 economically important vascular plants.
Levels of detail vary from entry to entry, but for the
majority of the taxa the most common synonyms,
common names in up to 20 languages, economic
importance, and geographical distributions are
provided. Native, naturalized, adventive, and
cultivated distribution ranges are distinguished.
Most of the included taxa are used as ornamentals
(5361), medicinal plants (2997), gene sources
(1907), food (1725), timber (1253), and animal
food (929). About 18% (2136 taxa) are classified as
weeds and about 13% (1589) as vertebrate poisons.
Not only economically useful but also economically
harmful species are included (e.g., 22 species of
Cuscuta and 10 species of Orobanche). An index
of common names in English and, to some extent,
in 26 other languages represents almost half of
the volume (562 pages). Nearly 200 taxonomists
and agricultural specialists reviewed entries for
individual families. Taxonomy and nomenclature
are up-to-date. For example, Acer is in Sapindaceae,
Sambucus in Adoxaceae, and the widespread weedy
taxon usually called Lantana camara L. is correctly
named as L. strigocamara R. W. Sanders.
How complete is this reference? To get an idea, I
looked at two large genera, Acacia and Pinus. A
total of 53 Acacia species are included, 12 of them
correctly classified as weeds. There are 23 Australian
Acacia species currently recognized as invasive
(spreading in areas where they were introduced
by people; Richardson and Rejmánek, 2011). Six
of them are not among the 53 species treated in
this reference. The coverage for pines is much
better: all 24 Pinus species currently recognized as
invasive are included among 81 species covered in
this volume. From 25 naturalized Melastomataceae
(Meyer and Medeiros, 2011), only 12 are included.
However, the omitted species are, in general, not
common. There are two general shortcomings I can
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
think of: First, it would be useful to add a short life
form characteristic for each taxon. Some of the taxa
are not very common, and one can only guess their
life form from characteristics of their economic
importance. Second, the distinction between
“naturalized” and “adventive” is not explained.
This would be desirable because the second term
may have several meanings (Pyšek et al., 2005).
Also, references to particular monographs where
individual cultivars are described would be very
helpful (e.g., Auders and Spicer, 2012). One may
argue about minor details in the geographical
distribution characteristics (Abutilon theophrastii
may be native, not naturalized in China; more is
currently known about original distributions of
Chrysophyllum cainito and Cocos nucifera; Petersen
et al., 2012; Gunn et al., 2011), but, in general,
distributional data seem to be accurate.
Several dictionaries and checklists of economic
plants were available before the publication
of this volume. The amount of information in
this reference, however, supersedes all previous
attempts. It is a monumental achivement, and I am
sure that it will be heavily used for many years to
come.
–Marcel Rejmánek, University of California, Davis,
Davis, California, USA
Literature Cited
AUDERS, A. G., and D. P. SPICER. 2012. Royal
Horticultural Society Encyclopedia of Conifers. A
Comprehensive Guide to Cultivars and Species.
Two Volumes. Royal Horticultural Society,
Kingsblue Publishing Limited, Nicosia, Cyprus.
GUNN, B. F., L. BAUDOUIN, and K. M. OLSEN.
2011. Independent origins of cultivated coconut
(Cocos nucifera L.) in the Old World Tropics.
PLoS ONE 6(6): e21143.
MEYER, J.-Y., and A. C. MEDEIROS. 2011.
Melastomes. In: D. Simberloff and M. Rejmánek
(eds.), Encyclopedia of Biological Invasions, 458–
462. University of California Press, Berkeley,
California, USA.
PETERSEN, J. J., J. M. PARKER, and D.
POTTER. 2012. Origin and close relatives of
a semi-domesticated Neotropical fruit tree:
Chrysophyllum cainito (Sapotaceae). American
Journal of Botany 99: 585–604.
PYŠEK, P., D. M. RICHARDSON, M. REJMÁNEK,
G. WEBSTER, M. WILLIAMSON, and J.
KIRSCHNER. 2005. Alien plants in checklists
and floras: Towards better communication
between taxonomists and ecologists. Taxon 53:
131–143.
RICHARDSON, D. M., and M. REJMÁNEK. 2011.
Trees and shrubs as invasive alien species: A
global review. Diversity and Distributions 17:
788–809.
Medicinal Plants and the Legacy of
Richard E. Schultes
Bruce E. Ponman and Rainer W. Bussmann,
eds.
2012. ISBN-13: 978-0-9848415-2-3
Paperback, US$24.95. 138 pp.
The William L. Brown Center at the Missouri
Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
This short volume comprises the proceedings of
the Society for Economic Botany’s “Botany 2011
Symposium Honoring Dr. Richard E. Schultes”
held at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Presuming
that being at the symposium would have been more
enjoyable and more interesting that simply reading
about it, I guess this little book is the next best
thing to having been there. I agreed to read and
review the book because I was aware that Richard
E. Schultes had been a prominent ethnobotanist,
but I knew little more than comments I had heard
from the late Dr. Bernard Lowy, a mycologist and
ethnobotanist in the Department of Botany at
Louisiana State University. I now regret having
missed the original symposium, but am delighted
with having agreed to review the book. The eleven
papers include two that do not deal with Schultes
per se, but rather with directly related topics.
One deals with stand protocol for gathering
ethnobotanical data and socioeconomic variables,
and the other with biodiversity as a resource. In the
context of the symposium, these were appropriate
additions, but the real importance of this book is
found in the papers, which provide a glimpse into
the life, career, and personality of Schultes.
The symposium was the first to honor Schultes and
was held on the 10-year anniversary of his death,
which is very appropriate; however, as soon as I
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Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
read the wonderful preface by Rainer W. Bussmann,
I was struck with the notion that I wished there
had been a similar symposium honoring Schultes
during his lifetime. I wished this not only because it
was immediately clear that Schultes deserved such
an honor while he was alive to enjoy it, but also
because presumably more of his colleagues would
have been alive and physically able to participate
in the event. It is sad that there had not been an
earlier symposium, and it is equally sad that some
of the authors allude to Schultes’s important and
impressive collections sitting “all but neglected in
some attic at Harvard.” Alas.
Jumping back to the topic, the real importance of
this book is getting to know Richard Evans Shultes.
All of the authors who discuss Schultes offer
similar “pictures” of the man. Because Schultes
was the focus of the symposium and this book,
here are some examples (all taken from the book)
of how he is described by those who knew him
and worked with him: “one of the most important
ethnobotanists of the 20th century”; “most iconic
colleague”; “was the first ethnobotanist to step
off the academic cloud and to respect and value
the deep traditional knowledge his indigenous
counterparts held”; “a most unusual person, a
great thinker, and an individual who viewed life
as an opportunity to carry out the dreams of his
early youth”; “he could read, write, or speak 10
languages including two Amazonian languages”;
“[a] great man, whose intelligence, courage, sense
of humor, vision, and accomplishments were so
inspiring”; “well known for insisting on the correct
spelling and pronunciation of Latin, Greek, and
any other language”; “perfectly groomed”; “always
conservatively and correctly dressed, rather more like
a Victorian professor”; “[he] propelled ethnobotany
and economic botany to resolve concrete
problems”; “lifelong mentor and continuing
source of inspiration”; “highly supportive”; “a
field botanist and a Harvard man through and
through”; “one of the ‘last Victorian explorers’”;
“a complex scientist”; “an ethnobotanist…plant
taxonomist, an economic botanist, a conservation
botanist, and an ethnopharmacologist”; “incredibly
supportive of his students”; “the great man”; and
“a walking encyclopedia.” His colleagues noted
his “inspiration, discipline, and vision”; “humility,
sense of humor, respect for indigenous peoples,
love for Amazonia and Columbia”; and “his dry
sense of humor.”
This book is a wonderful first encounter for those
people who, like me, did not know much about
Schultes. An added delight of the book is reading
the wonderful excerpts from letters written to
Schultes by his mentor Dr. Oakes Ames. Not only is
it interesting to read some of the fatherly advice that
Ames offered, but reading his satirical description
of how many students choose their topics and
develop their theses or dissertations is a true
delight. Less amusing are the frequent comments
on the lack of concern for the preservation of the
tropical forest in particular and biodiversity in
general. Similarly, the unnecessary loss of Schultes’s
rubber tree seed collection at a time when disease is
once again threatening natural rubber production
is a painful example of how the value of collections
is ignored until those lost collections are truly
needed. Similarly, there is an all too true reference
to the loss of trained botanists despite the fact that
the importance of plants to humankind remains
undiminished from that day, long ago, when green
algae conquered the land and gave rise to the
land flora upon which we and kindred animals
all depend! Despite these unpleasant truths duly
reported in some of the papers, this is a wonderful
little book because Richard Evans Shultes was a
wonderful person. I strongly recommend it and
am happy to report that it won a James A. Duke
Excellence in Botanical Literature Award from the
American Botanical Council in February 2013.
The wonderful preface by Rainer W. Bussmann
(mentioned above) includes a poem in Spanish
written for the symposium in spring 2011 by
Isidoro Cabrera (who had been a field assistant
for Schultes in the 1950s). I thought a translation
might have been provided for those us who have
not mastered as many foreign languages as did
Schultes. My colleagues, Dr. Juan Manuel Lopez-
Bautista of the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa,
and Dr. Joseph V. Ricapito of Louisiana State
University, Baton Rouge, and I offer our translation
to close this review:
TO RICHARD EVANS SCHULTES
IN MEMORIAM
EXCELSIOR
Indefatigable explorer
Of the extensive Amazonia
Who worked with passion
Studying its harmony.
72
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
His life, truly endangered,
In torrential rivers
With its impetuous twists and turns
In winters and summer times.
Wise, with strong character
Subjected to many trials
Challenging even death
Gave to science new plants.
He recorded his experience
With sound observations
For the scientists
Of future generations
Under the deep jungle
Which enclosing its secrets
Unknown and fertile
Covers part of the earth.
He wrote his history
Forever into the future
And on his glorious pedestal
Remains unharmed and safe.
–
Russell L. Chapman, Professor Emeritus and
Founding Dean, School of the Coast and Environ-
ment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, USA
Ethnobotany
Ginkgo: The Tree that Time Forgot
Peter Crane
2013. ISBN-13: 978-0-300-18751-9
Hardcover, US$40.00. 384 pp.
Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecti-
cut, USA
Ginkgo is an artifact of the prehistoric past,
noteworthy for its symbolism, e.g., endurance,
survival, persistence. Inspired by the historic ginkgo
that has thrived at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
since the 1760s, distinguished botanist Sir Peter
Crane explores the evolutionary history of ginkgo
from its origin through its spread, drastic decline,
and eventual resurgence.
Motivated to prepare this volume by his appreciation
for the portraits of economically important
plants by economic botanist Charles Heiser in an
accessible style of science writing for the popular
audience (references cited below), Sir Peter Crane
highlights the cultural and social significance of
Ginkgo: its medicinal and nutritional uses, its power
as a source of artistic and religious inspiration, and
its importance as one of the world’s most popular
street trees. Sir Peter Crane—Missouri Botanical
Garden Trustee, former Head of Kew Gardens,
and current Head of Forestry at Yale—stated in his
presentation about Ginkgo at the Ridgeway Center,
Missouri Botanical Garden on 11 March 2013, that
his position at Yale School of Forestry influenced
his choice of topic. Writing began while Sir Peter
Crane was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew, continued at the University of Chicago, and
was completed at Yale; much of the writing was
prepared in Seoul in the summers of 2009, 2010,
and 2011, surrounded by Ginkgo trees.
In his prologue, Sir Peter Crane calls the book a
biographical sketch. His narrative incorporates
botany, medicine, and geological sciences, crossing
the globe culturally and historically. Weaving his
life experiences, his observations of Ginkgo during
his travels, his career at Kew, visits to the New York
Botanical Garden, journeys in East Asia (China,
Japan, South Korea, etc.), this volume popularizes
botany for serious lay readers as well as informing
botanist colleagues.
One can’t help but write about Ginkgo using clichés:
a most distinctive tree… unique among seed
plants… the earth’s oldest… unchanged for more
than two hundred million years… a living fossil…
73
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
link to the age of dinosaurs… it survived the great
ice ages as a relic in China… beloved for its elegant,
fan-shaped leaves with veins radiating out into the
leaf blades, often gilded for jewelry… appreciated
for its edible nuts, and venerated for its longevity.
Ginkgo is an ancient Chinese tree—sacred to the
Chinese and Japanese and grown for centuries in
their temple courts—that has been cultivated and
held sacred for its health-promoting properties. A
long-lived shade tree, it is resistant to fungus disease
and insect pests that afflict most other ornamental
trees. Once thought to be extinct, Ginkgo was re-
discovered in China in the mid-1700s, and is now
dispersed throughout the world, having lived on
earth for over 150 million years.
Coverage of the ethnobotany of Ginkgo will appeal
to a diverse readership. It draws from a wide range
of sources, reflecting the author’s broad experiences.
We learn that the Department of Plant Sciences of
Cambridge University chose a logo that surrounds
a ginkgo leaf with a stylized double helix of DNA,
reflecting the site of the old Cavendish Laboratory
where the structure of DNA was first worked out;
we welcome a well-deserved tribute to Weimar,
Germany, one of the historic preservation centers
of cultural Ginkgo memorabilia; Frank Lloyd
Wright, whose architecture used natural forms that
blended with the environment, built his own home
and studio in Chicago’s Oak Park around a Ginkgo
tree; the architect worked around it as he extended
his home, and that house museum today features a
Ginkgo bookshop.
Despite the fact that this book will have popular
appeal, the treatment is far from superficial.
The volume features a 27-page bibliography, 20-
page index, and an additional 50 pages of notes
supplementing the text. Illustrations that enrich
the book are unique, e.g., a Buddhist shrine at the
base of an ancient Ginkgo; a stylized ginkgo leaf
carved into the planks of a wooden bridge and
painted yellow, marking the way to the great ginkgo
at Yongmunsa Temple, South Korea; the portrait of
Ginkgo painted on board made from Ginkgo wood
and framed with young Ginkgo branches, made by
C. Kato for Tokyo University in 1878; stalactite-
like outgrowths bound with prayer ribbons
demonstrating the Ginkgo’s link with fertility. Each
chapter opens with a select proverb, verse, or text
written by a noted naturalist, shedding light on the
author’s personal philosophy.
Some readers might wish that the ethnopharmacology of
Ginkgo biloba L. was described more exhaustively.
There is substantial experimental evidence to
support the view that G. biloba extracts have
neuroprotective properties under conditions such
as hypoxia/ischemia, seizure activity, and peripheral
nerve damage, as reviewed by Smith et al. (1996).
One of the components of G. biloba, ginkgolide B, is
a potent platelet-activating factor (PAF) antagonist.
Although the terpene fraction of G. biloba, which
contains the ginkgolides, may contribute to the
neuroprotective properties of the G. biloba leaf, it
is also likely that the flavonoid fraction, containing
free radical scavengers, is important in this respect.
Taken together, the evidence suggests that G. biloba
extracts are worthy of further investigation as
potential neuroprotectant agents. Extracts of ginkgo
leaves contain flavonoid glycosides (myricetin
and quercetin) and terpenoids (ginkgolides,
bilobalides) that have been used pharmaceutically,
exhibiting reversible, nonselective monoamine
oxidase inhibition.
It was tantalizing to find sesame listed in the
Appendix, “List of Common Plant Names Used in
the Text and Latin Equivalents” (pp. 279–283), but
since that entry was not included in the index, it left
this reader disappointed to search unsuccessfully
for those relevant passages.
–Dorothea Bedigian, Research Associate, Missouri
Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Literature Cited
HEISER, C. 1993. The Gourd Book. University of
Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, USA.
HEISER, C. 1969. Nightshades: The Paradoxical
Plants. W.H. Freeman, San Francisco,
California, USA.
HEISER, C. 1976. The Origin and Development
of the Cultivated Sunflower. University of
Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, USA.
HEISER, C. 1992. Of Plants and People. University
of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, USA.
HEISER, C. 1990. Seed to Civilization: The Story
of Food. Harvard University Press, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA.
SMITH, P. F., K. MACLENNAN, and C. L.
DARLINGTON. 1996. The neuroprotective
properties of the Ginkgo biloba leaf: A review of
the possible relationship to platelet-activating
factor (PAF). Journal of Ethnopharmacology
50(3): 131–139.
74
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
with line drawings, paintings, and about 100 small
(and not always good) color photographs. The
book under consideration here is the first to cover
Cypripedium in a large, lavishly illustrated format
that is as pleasing to the eye as it is satisfying to the
orchid lover, instructive to potential growers, and
informative for the scientist.
Many orchid books contain sections on history and
orchid biology. These sections are often shallow,
repetitive from book to book, and unnecessary.
In this book, the introduction (pp. 1–15) covers
these topics, but here the information is fresh, new,
necessary, and informative because so little of it is
known and/or has been collected in one place. In
places the information is qualified by “probably,”
but this is inevitable and should serve as a challenge
to orchid scientists and graduate students. There is
much in need of research in this genus. Grab it!
Most of the book is devoted to taxonomy of
species (pp. 16–113) and natural (pp. 114–117)
and artificial (pp. 118–427) hybrids. Descriptions
include nomenclature and information about size,
distribution, and habitat. Habitats are indicated
by red areas on dark gray maps. High-quality
photographs of entire plants, immediate habitats,
and flowers accompany every description.
Unfortunately, no data are provided about the
magnification factors of photographs.
Carson Whitlow, an American orchid grower, was
the first to register a Cypripedium hybrid in 1987. He
was followed by Werner Frosch (a retired German
civil engineer specializing in telecommunications),
one of the authors of this book who made his first
hybrid in 1989 and produced many more after that
(pp. 118–120 and http://www.w-frosch.de).
Only eight pages (pp. 139–146) are devoted to
cultivation and propagation. The information
presented on these pages is entirely sufficient to
be instructive for anyone who may wish to grow
these orchids. Unfortunately, the only information
about a culture medium for seed germination is
that it contains “high levels of various sugars.” This
is completely insufficient, a very serious omission,
and a major fault of the book because temperate
terrestrial orchids are not easy to germinate from
seed and propagate clonally from explants taken
from mature plants. If media have been formulated
for seed germination and micropropagation of
Cypripedium they should (no, not “should,” but
“must”) be published in detail.
Pages 147–148 are devoted to a glossary that is
Systematics
Hardy Cypripedium: Species,
Hybrids and Cultivation
Werner Frosch and Phillip Cribb
2012. ISBN-13: 978-1-84246-464-9
Hardcover, US$74.00. 156 pp.
Kew Publishing, Royal Botanic Gardens,
Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom
Cypripedium flowers are every bit as beautiful
as those of the related diandrous genus,
Paphiopedilum—possibly more so. However, they
are not common in orchid collections because
they have a reputation of being difficult to grow
(perhaps), are not easy to obtain from legal sources
(yes), may be hard to hybridize (no), and have not
attracted enough attention (certainly).
One of five genera of so-called slipper orchids,
Cypripedium is circumboreal in distribution and
extends from Alaska to as far south as Guatemala
in the New World; from Siberia to the Himalayas,
southwestern China, and Japan in Asia; and from
Northeast England to the Urals in Europe.
The genus Cypripedium consists of 46 species, 32 of
which are found in China and about 12 in North
America. Current classification divides the genus
into 13 sections. Two of these sections, Aculia
and Californica, consist of a single genus each, the
North American C. acaule and C. californicum,
respectively. The largest section, Cypripedium,
contains 19 species with the type being C. calceolus.
The first color illustration of a species in the
genus (of C. calceolus) is by Conrad Gesner (who
was also the first to draw orchid seeds), whereas
the earliest description of a slipper orchid is by
Rembet Dodoens (1568). However, the genus
has received limited attention over the years.
What may be the first taxonomic treatments of
the group were by Ernst Hugo Heinrich Pfitzer
(1846–1906) in 1889 and 1903, and Robert Allen
Rolfe (1855–1921) in 1896. Two books published
at about the same time and now primarily of
historical interest treated Cypripedium as a genus
that combined Paphiopedilum and Cypripedium
(Desbois, 1888; Pucci, 1891). An extensive book-
length consideration was published 100 years later
(Cribb, 1997). This review of the genus, although
informative, suffers from being illustrated mainly
75
Plant Science Bulletin 59(2) 2013
sufficient, but contains an error of omission. It
fails to mention that “pod: commonly used term
referring to a seed capsule” may be common, but
is wrong.
No book is free of typographical errors. A glaring
one in this book is Cypripedium×colombianum,
which should be Cypripedium×columbianum
because the name refers to British Columbia in
Canada, not the country of Colombia.
Altogether this is a beautiful and informative
book that deserves to be highly recommended.
Cypripedium plants are not easy to find. Legal,
artificially propagated, well-grown plants are
available from very few reliable and legal sources.
One source that I visited for several (very cold)
days and can vouch for is Hengduan Mountains
Biotechnology Ltd. in Sichuan, China (http://
hengduanbiotech.com/, holger.perner@gmail.
com). It is operated in Chengdu, Sichuan, by the
German Cypripedium expert Dr. Perner Holger and
his wife Wenqing.
–Joseph Arditti, Department of Developmental and
Cell Biology, University of California, Irvine, Irvine,
California, USA
LITERATURE CITED
CRIBB, P. 1997. The genus Cypripedium. Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United
Kingdom, and Timber Press, Portland, Oregon,
USA.
DESBOIS, F. 1888. Cypripedium, Selenipedium,
and Uropedium. Imprimerie F. Meyer-van Loo,
Ghent, Belgium.
PFITZER, E. 1889. Cypripedilinae. Page 82 in A.
Engler and R. Prantl (eds.), Die Natuerlichen
Pflanzenfamilien, Vol. II, 6. W. Engelman,
Leipzig, Germany.
PFITZER, E. 1903. Cypripedium. Pages 28–42 in
A. Engler (ed.), Das Pflanzenreich, Vol. IV, 50,
No. 12, Orchidaceae Pleonandrae. W. Engelman,
Leipzig, Germany.
PUCCI, A. 1891. Les Cypripedium et genres affines.
Imprimerie L. Niccolai, Florence, Italy.
ROLFE, R. A. 1896. The Cypripedium group. Orchid
Review 4: 327–334, 363–367.
76
Alfred Russel Wallace’s 1886-1887 Travel Diary: The North American Lecture
Tour.
Smith, Charles H. and Megan Derr (Eds.) 2013. ISBN 978-0-9567795-8-8 (Paper
£21.00) 258 pp. Siri Scientific Press, 2 Progress Street, Rochdale, OL11 3BH, United
Kingdom.
American Herbal Products Association’s Botanical Safety Handbook, 2nd Edition.
Gardner, Zoë and Michael McGuffin (Eds.). 2013. ISBN 9781466516946 (Cloth
US$119.95) 1072 pp. CRC Press. 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300 Boca
Raton, FL 33487.
Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians. McKnight, Karl B., Joseph R.
Rohrer, Kisten McKnight Ward & Warren J. Perdrizet. 2013. ISBN 9780691156965
(Paper US$24.95) 392 pp. Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, NJ,
08540-5237.
Florida Wildflowers: A Comprehensive Guide. Taylor, Walter Kingsley. 2013.
ISBN 978-0-8130-4424-5 (Paper US$29.95) 567 pp. University Press of Florida, 15
NW 15
th
St., Gainesville, FL 32611-2079.
Freshwater Diatom Floristics of the late Eocene Florissant Formation, Clare’s
Quarry Site, Central Colorado, USA. Benson, Mary Ellen and J. Patrick Kociolek.
2012. ISBN 978-3-443-57049-1 (Paper €69.00) 136 pp. J. Cramer, Gebrüder
Borntraeger, Johannesstrasse 3A, 70176 Stuttgart, Germany.
The Hunter-Gatherer Within: Health and the Natural Human Diet. Brock, Kerry
G. and George M. Diggs, Jr. 2013. ISBN 978188987840-9. (Paper US$19.95)260 pp.
Botanical Research Institute of Texas Press, 1700 University Drive, Fort Worth, TX
76107-4441.
Plant Organogenesis.
De Smet, Ive (Ed.) 2013, ISBN 978-1-62703-221-6 (Cloth
US$139.00) 356 pp. Humana Press,
233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013.
Plants of the Kampong: A Guide to the Living Collection. Schokman, Larry M.
2012. ISBN 0-915809-06-0 (Spiral US$49.95) 385 pp., National Tropical Botanical
Garden c/o The Kampong, 4013 S. Douglas Road, Coconut Grove, Florida 33133.
Stress Biology of Cyanobacteria: Molecular Mechanisms to Cellular Responses.
Srivastava, Ashish Kumar; Amar Nath Rai, Brett A Neilan (Eds.). 2013. ISBN
9781466504783 (Cloth US$159.95) 394 pp. CRC Press 6000 Broken Sound Parkway
NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487.
Virus-Induced Gene Silencing: Methods and Protocols. Becker, Annette (Ed.).
2013. ISBN: 978-1-62703-277-3 (Cloth US$119.00) 221 pp. Humana Press, 233
Spring Street, New York, NY 10013.
Books Received
Plant Science Bulletin
Featured Image
1st Place Triarch Botanical Images
Student Travel Awards
Ricardo Kriebel
The New York Botanical Garden
Flower of Miconia arboricola
(Melastomataceae: Miconieae) in late
anthesis.
Among high elevation shrubs and trees of the family Melastomataceae
in Central America and the Andes, a group comprised of species in
Miconia section Cremanium tend to have small white flowers with
broad anther pores. After observing these plants in their habitat it
became apparent that the flowers in this example species Miconia
arboricola start with the stamens erect and as time passes the stamens
bend inward and fall on or near the stigma. This image was helpful to
document the strong angle in the middle of the filaments that appears
to allow for this to happen. In addition, the image documents the
relatively short style and the broad anther pores. Most Melastomataceae
have yellow anthers with small anther pores, exerted styles and are buzz
pollinated. It is possible that species such as M. arboricola have evolved
totally white flowers with shorter styles, filaments that bend inwards
and broad anther pores to allow for self pollination, assuring seed
production in the absence of bees. Indeed it is known that there are
fewer bee species at high elevations and flies and butterflies have been
observed visiting relatives of M. arboricola with very similar flowers.
Short styles are not as uncommon as is thought in the Melastomataceae
and in technical terms they represent the loss of herkogamy. Herkogamy
is the separation of sexual parts (stamens and stigma) in space within
flowers. As fascinating as this sounds, because styles are usually white
and skinny they continue to be overlooked and thus herkogamy or its
loss also continues to be overlooked. I hope that this image, which is the
first to my knowledge of a Scanning Electron Micrograph of a whole
flower in the family Melastomataceae, will call attention to a reality:
plants have style!
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Plant Science
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Summer 2013 Volume 59 Number 2
Incoming President
Botanical Society of
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Dr. Pamela Diggle
University of Colorado in
Boulder
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University of Utah
Regional Botany Lecture
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Loyola University New Orleans
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