Plant Science Bulletin
The Plant Science Bulletin (Print:
ISSN 0032-0919, Electronic: ISSN 1537-9752) is an informal communication
published four times a year, with information on upcoming meetings,
courses, field trips, news of colleagues, new books, and professional
opportunities. It provides a means of advertising items or materials
wanted. It also serves as a forum for circulating BSA committee
reports, for distributing innovative teaching approaches and methods,
and for discussing issues of concern to Society members such as
environmental policy and educational funding.
54-4 AS A PDF |
SEARCH ALL ISSUES |
ANNOUNCEMENTS |
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES |
LAST ISSUE - FALL, 2008
WINTER 2008
Table of Contents
» Botany in Pakistan
» Tom Croat, Plant Collector at the Missouri Botanical Garden
News from the Society:
» Meet the new staff in the BSA office
» News from the Annual Meeting
» » Awards
» » Women in botany Luncheon
» BSA Science Education News and Notes
» » Editor’s Choice
» News from the Sections
» » BSA Historical Section
Announcements:
In Memoriam
» Lazarus Walter (Walt) Macior (1926-2007)
Personalia
» Eshbaugh Honored for Outreach Efforts
» Donation of the Graham Palynological Collection to the Smithsonian Institution
» Missouri Botanical Garden Awards Highest Honor to Renowned Ecologist
» 2008 ESRI User Conference Features Keynote Address by Dr. Peter H. Raven
» Professor Dedicated To Study Of Plant Use By Native Americans Will Receive William L. Brown Award
Courses/Workshops
» Experience in Tropical Botany
» Chicago Botanic Garden and Northwestern University Create Doctorate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation
Positions Available
» M.S. Student
Position: Analysis of patterns of gene flow in Maryland populations
of Harperella (Ptilimnium nodosum)
Other News
» Brooklyn Botanic Garden and New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Sign Breakthrough Conservation Initiative
» Rare Book Exhibition Focuses on Children's Books about Plants Lenhardt Library, November 28, 2008 through February 1, 2009
» Missouri Botanical Garden Mounts Milestone Six Millionth Herbarium Specimen
» Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden on Display in Olympic Venues
» The Elastic Stability of Palms
» Wind load analysis for trees
Books Reviewed
Books Received for Review
This issue brings an end to 2008 and what an exciting year it’s
been for plant science and the Society. We are living our motto
of “Leading Scientists and Educators since 1893” in many ways,
not the least of which is PlantingScience.org. As you will read
inside, six other plant-science societies have now formally joined
us in this effort as we lead the grass roots effort to engage
school-age students in learning about, appreciating, and researching
plants. The efforts of the Society, however, are not restricted
to the United States. Our lead article, Botany in Pakistan, is
the second in a series from the Society’s International Affairs
Committee focusing on Botany and Plant Science in developing countries
around the world. Our goal is to strengthen ties between individuals
and institutions in the U.S. and around the world. Our second
article focuses on Tom Croat, plant collector extraordinaire,
who was recently celebrated by the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Tom provided PSB with a slightly expanded transcript of the address
he presented at the celebration recognizing the 6 millionth mounted
specimen added to the MoBot herbarium. What an interesting story!
But the thing that really caught my attention is at the beginning
of his second paragraph. What got Tom interested in Botany?
His college botany professor, Jack Carter. Jack, now retired
in Silver City, NM, is a long time BSA member who was active in
the BSA teaching section when I first joined the society. Jack
could not only inspire his students, he inspired young professionals
to continue the tradition. As you read Tom’s story, I hope you
are inspired to renew your dedication to proselytize for botany
whenever an occasion arises. - the Editor
Botany in Pakistan
by Anitra Thorhaug
The Islamic Republic of Pakistan has a spatial extent of 796 100 km2 (latitudes
24 and 27° N and longitudes 61 and 75° E). The boundaries include
The Arabian Sea on the south, India to the east, Afghanistan on
the north-west, Iran on the west; Russia and China on the north.
The land mass is divided into three main geographical regions:
1.) Mountains occupying northern and western parts of the country.
The northern mountains are the termination of the Himalayan range
(with a number of peaks above 6 000 m permanently clad with snow).
The sub-mountainous areas are extensive, forming a number of plateaus
and valleys. The western mountains are not very high with plateaus,
semi-arid valleys and plains, much of which land is unproductive;
2.)The Indus plain is the western part of the Indo-Gangetic plain
that forms one of the most prominent and extensive physiographic
features of the subcontinent. The plain is believed to be more
than one thousand meters deep and is formed by large quantities
of alluvial material deposited since time immemorial by the Indus
and several of its tributaries. The land is fertile and heavily
populated. The original agricultural civilization of this region
was thought to begin here more than 5000 years ago; 3.)The coastal
zone is a narrow fringe bordering the Arabian Sea. It includes
also the Indus delta and saline marshes. The climate of the country,
which lies in the subtropical region, is varied due to the wide
range of altitude and distance to sea. In the mountain regions
of the north and west, temperatures fall below freezing during
winter; in the Indus Valley area, temperatures range between about
32° and 49° C in summer and the average about 13° C in winter.
The geology is recent dating from the event of the Indian subcontinent
bumping into the Asian land mass. The mountains in the western
and northern areas uplifted during the late Tertiary and early
Quaternary. During that time the present-day plains were still
under sea. The plains came into existence as a result of gradual
accumulation of silt brought down by rivers during the upper Tertiary
period.
Climatically the country can be divided into arid (largest part),
sub arid (secondary) and humid area (smallest) (5”-10”- over 50”
rainfall in the north). The mean monthly temperature in summer
in plains is 37.7oC (100oF). The extreme maximum temperature rises
above 47.2o C. In northern and north western mountains the temperature
remains low and the areas are snow bound until April. Part of
the precipitation in the high hills is received in the form of
snow. Lower down, the annual rainfall averages between 750 and
900 mm, decreasing progressively to the west and south to as low
as 125mm in certain areas.
The climate is considerably influenced by monsoon winds that
come from the south-east in summer and by cyclonic disturbances
that originate in the Mediterranean Sea during winter. About 70
percent of the average precipitation is received from June to
September. The difference in temperature between the seasons is
relatively high. Most of the hilly area is denuded and has little
soil left. Sub-mountainous plateaus and the adjoining plains have
well drained alluvial soils and part of the corresponding agriculture
land is very fertile. The Indus plain is composed of silt, sand,
clay and, rarely, gravel. Much of the land in this basin was desert
and has been developed by irrigation. Due to arid conditions,
evaporation exceeds precipitation and this may result in the accumulation
of salt in the soils, rendering them less productive ( FAO, 2008).
The General Organizational Structure of Botany in Pakistan.
There is a Pakistan Botanical Society which has 600 members and
there is additionally a Society of Biology and Pharmacology, Pakistan
Society of Physiology, and a Wheat Society of Pakistan. Botany
is taught in a series of Universities: Karachi University ( where
high quality research is being carried out in different fields
of plant sciences such as phycology, mycology, ecology, taxonomy,
physiology, biochemistry, plant tissue culture, molecular biology
, genetics and natural products); Punjab University (special emphasis
on molecular genetics, pathology, physiology and biotechnology)
; Agha Khan University Karachi ;Quaid I Azam University Islamabad
; Balochistan University ;Peshawar University; NIAB ;NIBGE ;PARC
.
There is PAKISTAN-US SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COOPERATIVE PROGRAM
in the United States Department of State. In 2003, the Ministry
of Science and Technology of the Government of Pakistan and the
United States Department of State signed a comprehensive Science
and Technology Cooperation Agreement that established a framework
to increase cooperation in science, technology, engineering and
education for mutual benefit and peaceful purposes between the
science and education communities in both countries. In 2005,
the United States Agency for International Development joined
with the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Higher Education
Commission of Pakistan to support the joint Pakistan-US Science
and Technology Cooperative Program. This program, which is being
implemented by the US National Academy of Sciences on the US side,
is intended to increase the strength and breadth of cooperation
and linkages between Pakistan scientists and institutions with
counterparts in the United States.
Scientific Journals
The leading journals are: Pakistan Journal of Botanical Society,
Pakistan Journal of Marine Sciences, Pakistan Journal of Biological
Sciences, Pakistan Journal of Biology and Biotechnology, Biologia,
and the Pakistan Journal of Forestry.
The Ecological Zones of Pakistan
Uniregional elements - Irano-Turania, Sino-Japanese,
Saharo-Sindian, Indian, Euro-Siberian, Mediterranean 45.6%,10.6%,
9.1%, 4.5%, 1.3%, 0.5% respectively.
Bi- or Pluriregional elements - Irano-Turanian,
MediterraneanSino-Japanese, Irano-Turanian Tropico-Subtropical,
Euro-Siberian, Irano-Turanian Boreal-Subboreal, Indo- Malayan,
Saharo-Sindian, Indian Saharo-Sindian, Irano-Turanian, Saharo-Sindian,
Mediterranean. All others: Euro-Siberian, Sino-Japanese, Euro-Siberian,
Mediterranean, Subcosmopolitan, Boreal-Tropical, Boreal-Subtropical
5.2%, 5.07%, 4.5%, 3.5%, 2.6%, 2.03%, 1.5%, 0.9%, 0.9%, 2.1%.
Phytogeographical Analysis of The Percent of Phanerograms
in Pakistan and Kasmir. (Zaida, 2008)
1.) The Saharo-Sindian Region. This region extends
from the Atlantic coast of N. Africa through entire Sahara, Sinai
peninsula most of Arabia, part of Syria, S. Iraq, S. Iran, most
parts of Pakistan, S. Baluchistan, Sind & Punjab– Rajasthan–India
.The area is very dry, has an average rain/fall between 15-30
cm. Greater part of the country belongs to this region but the
flora is represented by 10.6% Saharo-Sindian element. Some plants
which represent this region are the following: Representing the
Arab-African north— Anastatica hierochuntica, Asteriscus pygmaeus,
Astragalus hauarensis, Astragalus schimperi, Citrullus colocynthis,
Eremobium aegyptiacum, Fagonia glutinosa, Gymnarrhena micrantha,
Gymnocarpos decander, Helianthemum lippii, Launaea nudicaulis
Lycium shawii, Moricandia sinaica, Neurada procumbens, Panicum
turgidum, Psoralea plicata, Rumex vesicarius, Salvia aegyptiaca,
Savignya parviflora, Trigonella anguina, East- West Blepharis
ciliaris, Calotropis procera, Capparis cartilaginea, Capparis
deciduas, Caralluma edulis , Cassia italica, Cocculus pendulus,
Cornulaca monacantha, Cymbopogon olivieri, Fagonia bruguieri,
Fagonia indica, Grewia tenax. 
2.) The Irano-turanian region. This region is
characterized by extreme range of temperature both diurnal and
annual ,low precipitation, hot and dry summers, cold and harsh
winters. The region is dominated by Chaemophytes and Hemicryptophytes.
It has the highest percentage (45.6%) of species of phaerograms.
Some species found in this regions are the following: Haloxylon
persicum, Salsola richteri, S. tomentosa, Convolvulus erinarius,
Astragalus chivensis, Leptorhabdos parviflora, Haploplyllum bungei,
Perovskia abratanoides, Nepeta glomerulosa, N. praetervisa, Gagea
dshungarica, G. capusi, G. olgae, G. stipitata, G. gageoides,
Canlligonum leucocladum, Suaeda arcuata, Cousinia schugnanica,
C. multiloba, Eremurus persicus.
3.) The Indian Region. This area is not continuous.
Its characteristics are the following: 1.)The eastern part of
Punjab and extreme southern part of Sindh are included in this
region; 2.) The area is characterized by real monsoon; 3.) It
is represented by 4.5% of the total number of species; 4.) Many
of these elements extend to Saharo-Sindian region.
4.) Sino-Japanese Region. Characteristics are
the following: 1.) This region is characterized by high rainfall
(180cm); 2.)Part of Kashmir, Swat and Kaghan are included in this
region; 3.)The flora is one of the richest particularly in tree
species 4.)10.6% of flora belongs to this region.
Conservation and Sustainability
No red data list is yet available. Only 14 species have been recorded
as threatened which includes 2 species as endangered, 2 vulnerable,
5 rare and 5 of uncertain status (IUCN, 1998).Only 0.3% of the
total flowering species are considered as threatened as compared
to 12.5% flora of the world which is considered threatened. Two
species have become extinct: Scaveola frutescens (Mill.)
Krause and S. plumieri (L.) Vahl . Obviously,
more work and research is necessary in this area. There is one
biosphere reserve in Pakistan. There are 714 nature reserves and
protected areas up from 205 in 2003.
The Flora of Pakistan
Due to its great diversity in habitat, a great many species are
found in Pakistan. This plus the excellent level of botanical
knowledge and research has allowed a great deal of botanical information
to be obtained. The Flora of the Pakistan project was started
by Professor E. Nasir (RAW) & Prof. S.I. Ali (KUH) in late 1960
through separate projects submitted to USDA. The best available
herbarium was at Gordon College Rawalpindi with a rich collection
of Stewart. Monumental work of Stewart An Annotated Catalogue
of Vascular Plants of Ecological zones of Pakistan: tropical desert
in green, cross-hatched green for temperate mountains, tan for
subtropical steppe, pink for tropical shrubland, yellow for barren,
light green cross hatched for temperate mountains. (Courtesy
of FAO. Data sets from U. Maryland and USGS EROS data center.)
Pakistan and Kashmir (published in 1972) provided the
basis for Flora of Pakistan. Prof. Nasir & Prof. Ali continued
to edit Flora of Pakistan jointly from 1970 to 1989, until the
former editor migrated to Canada. From 1995 till to date Prof.
Ali & Qaiser have continued working on this. This was difficult
best with problems from the beginning of Independence. Not a single
comprehensive book was available at the time of creation of Pakistan
which could identify the plants of the whole country. The only
Flora available was that of J.D. Hooker’s Flora of British
India (1872-97). It also did not include Baluchistan and
major part of the NW Frontier Province. Some regional Floras and
check lists were also available. At this time the information
about Pakistan’s plant wealth was scattered, incomplete and out
dated. The basic aim in producing the Flora was to provide a base
line information which could be used for proper identification
of all the plants of Pakistan. Correct identification of every
plant is of utmost importance. Plant names were the key to the
literature (Vansteenis, 1957). At the time of independence the
following resources for the Pakistan flora were available. 1.
Hooker, J. D. 1872-1894 Flora of British India; 2. Boissier
E.1867-1884 Flora Orientalis; 3. Parker, R. N. 1928,
Flora of the Punjab and Delhi; 4. Cooke, T.1904-1908
The Flora of Bombay Presidency; 5. Kashyap, S. R. 1936
Lahore District Flora, Punjab; 6. Talbot, W. A. 1909-1911
Forest Flora of Bombay Presidency; 7. Blatter, C., E.
McCann, and Sabnis, T.S. 1927-1929 Flora of Indus Delta.
Plant collection was started as early as 1820. The conditions
for complining a Flora of Pakistan were far from Ideal. 1.) Most
of the collection was done by the British with a few other Europeans
; 2.) The historical collections were in British Herbaria like
Kew, British Museum and Edinburgh or Indian Herbaria like Calcutta
(Kolkata) and Dehra Dun ; and 3.) Only few odd duplicates were
present in RAW. Thus the writing of the Flora of Pakistan by a
Pakistani team was difficult. Punjab University Herbarium. Three
or 4 mini Herbaria were present in Pakistan at the time of its
creation except R.R. Stewart Herbarium at Gordon College Rawalpindi
(RAW) which had about 55000 specimen - who had collected all over
Pakistan for 50 years. The Stewart collection ( 1910- 1960) formed
the basis for writing the Flora of Pakistan. Some new herbaria
were also established afterward.
The herbaria in Pakistan. Location(abbreviation), Number
of specimens, Date
1. Herbarium, Biological Sciences Dept.,Quaid-i- Azam University,
Islamabad, (ISL) 175000 1974
2. Herbarium, Botanical Sciences Division,Pakistan Museum of Natural
History,Islamabad (PMNH) 60500 1981
3. National Herbarium, PARC,Islamabad (RAW) Formerly StewartHerbarium,
Gordon College,Rawalpindi. 75000 1912
4. Herbarium, Botany Department ,Karachi University, Karachi (KUH)
150000 1953
5. Herbarium, University of the Punjab,Lahore (LAH) 50000 1918
6. Herbarium, Botany Department,Islamia College, Peshawar (ICP)
12000 1920
7. Herbarium, PCSIR, Peshawar (PES). 13000 1958
8. Herbarium, Pakistan Forest Institute,Peshawar (PPFI). 20000
1947
9. Herbarium, Botany Department,Peshawar University, Peshawar
(PUP).40000 1952
The Publication of The Flora of Pakistan Group and Date
1 Flacourtiaceae 1970
210 Asteraceae – Part II (Inuleae, Plucheeae and Gnaphaleae) 2003
211 Asphodelaceae 2005
212 Hemerocallidaceae 2005
213 Convallariaceae 2005
214 Hyacinthaceae 2005
215 Liliaceae 2007
216 Asteraceae - Part III (Mutisae and Senecioneae) in press
Editors of the Flora of Pakistan and numbers of families produced
during their editorship.
Years Families Editors
1970-1989 190 E. Nasir &
S. I. Ali
1989-1991 3 S.
I. Ali & Y. J. Nasir
1995-to date 22 S. I. Ali & M. Qaiser
Families 215+1 (parts I&II)
Genera 1388
Species 4758
Plates 1286
Illustrated Taxa 2874
Printed Pages 6813
7.6% species are endemic with 405 species belonging to 43 families
and 169 genera, Most of these are in the central area in the mountains.
Forests and Forest Plantations in Pakistan
Pakistan is deficient in forest resources. The natural forest
cover area in 1990 was 1 855 000 ha constituting 2.4 percent of
the land area. Most of the forest cover belongs to Hill and Montane
forest formations (FAO, 1993). In terms of plantations, the Forestry
Sector Master Plan (FSMP 1992) estimates the total forest area
of the country, including plantations and scrub forests, at 4
220 000 ha. Plantations, with the exception of nearly 100 000
ha do not legally constitute forests (Siddiqui, 1997). Plantations
in Pakistan were initially established in 1866 in the plains of
Punjab and Sindh provinces to produce fuel wood for the railways.
Due to the arid and semi-arid climate of the region, these plantations
had to be irrigated through a network of canals and are referred
to as “irrigated plantations”. Their size varies between 2 000
ha to 10 000 ha (FAO, 1981 and MFA, 1981). These plantations are
now managed to produce wood for industrial purposes.
During the five year plan from 1977 to 1982, 39 872 ha of regular
plantations and 16 200 km of linear (row) plantations were established,
mainly in Punjab. During the same period 50 825 ha of plantations
were established in watershed areas, mainly in North West Frontier
Province (MFA, 1984). The total annual planting was on the order
of 20 000 ha during that period. Many trees have also been planted
in farmlands and this constitutes a major portion of the wood
supply. Dalberergia sissoo has been the main species
in the irrigated plantations. It produces high quality timber
as well fuelwood. Other species subsequently introduced were Morus
alba for sporting goods and Acacia nilotica for
the mining industry (MFA, 1981). In farm forestry plantations,
Dalbergia sissoo, Acacia nilotica, Eucalyptus
spp., Populus spp., Bombax cieba and Melia
azedarach are popular species. Pinus roxburghii
is planted in subtropical regions.
What is the Future of Botany in Pakistan?
Obviously, the flora of Pakistan needs to be completed. Relatively
less explored areas should be botanized such as: North and South
Waziristan ;Kurram Agency; Sulaiman range; Khirthar range; Deosai
plateu. More material and information is now available. First
fascicle of Flora of Pakistan appeared 34 years before. Flora
now has to be revised in light of recent advances in Botany.
Conservation strategies have to be developed. At minimal red
data lists must be prepared. Over exploitation of our plant wealth
has to be discouraged.
Criterion for the classification of threatened plants has to
be developed because every county has different conditions and
the criteria differ for endangered and threatened plants. Narrow
endemics have to be given first preference followed by such endemics
which are found in more than one locality.
The Forestry Sector Master Plan (FSMP, 1992) proposed to increase
the forest area of the country from the existing 4.8 percent to
9.8 percent in 25&nmbsp;years (1993-2017), mainly through plantations.
The plan envisages establishing 3 900 000 ha of plantations on
new areas of which 3 600 000 ha will be on private lands - 2 070
000 ha on farmlands and 1 530 000 ha in watershed areas. The irrigated
plantations will be expanded by only 50 000 ha. ( FAO, 2008)
Tom Croat, Plant Collector at the Missouri Botanical
Garden
Two milestones were reached simultaneously at the Missouri Botanical Garden
in October 2008—the MO herbarium mounted its 6 millionth specimen, and
this specimen was veteran plant collector and Curator Tom Croat's 100 thousandth
plant collection. To know Tom is to admire him for his passion for botany and
his adventurous spirit. This is his story, in his own words….
I was raised on a small farm in Iowa and came to know plants by their common
names, mostly as weeds in our corn and bean fields. My father had died when
I was 11, leaving my mother, my six siblings, and me on a heavily mortgaged
farm. We began a dairy business because nothing else seemed to bring in a steady
or reliable income, but it was an endless cycle of milking, hauling manure,
and making hay. After high school I joined the 10th Mountain Division in Germany
because in my county if you could walk, you were eventually drafted anyway.
I trained as a radar repairman and was stationed in Bavaria. The Russians had
invaded Hungary, and shortly after I arrived they launched the satellite Sputnik,
which alarmed our government into making funds available for science education.
So after returning home to operate the family farm, I also went to nearby Simpson
College in Indianola, Iowa. During the summers I ran the farm and worked full
time on construction jobs, including working on the roadbed of Interstate 35
and later on the paving crew that added the concrete.
One of my professors at Simpson, Jack Carter, had been a student of Bob Thorne
then at the University of Iowa. Carter was a systematist and impressed me with
what he knew about naming plants, and I enjoyed learning the Latin names. I
became hooked on botany, but my first official collections were made while I
later taught high school in the Virgin Islands near Puerto Rico. I was impressed
with the colorful tropical trees that were so prevalent there. I dried the specimens
in my apartment oven.
The next summer after school was out, I loaded up an army duffle bag with a
change of clothes, a sleeping bag, and 75 rolls of film, then traveled 23,000
miles by boat, plane, bus, and truck throughout the West Indies and South America,
often sleeping in parks and sometimes in jails. The entire trip cost me $525!
While I took a lot of pictures of plants and visited botanical gardens along
my route, I was not equipped to collect or dry herbarium specimens. I returned
home, worked on the Rock Island Motor Freight dock at night unloading and unloading
18 wheelers, then taught a semester of high school biology in Knoxville, Iowa,
before entering the University of Kansas in Lawrence to get my Ph.D. in botany.
At Kansas I took one of the first Organizational for Tropical Studies courses,
in 1965 in Costa Rica, where I collected plants as well. On returning to Kansas
I married Pat Swope, who was teaching calculus at the university. She helped
me through my course in Biological Statistics taught by Sokal and Rolf, using
their as-yet-unpublished textbook.
Most of my first 4000 plant collections were made in the Great Plains of North
America, from Saskatchewan and Montana south to Oklahoma, when I worked with
Solidago (Compositae/Asteraceae) for my Ph.D. thesis. I dried these plants with
the heat from my 1962 VW bug engine by propping the press on the bumper and
under the hood cover.
In 1967 I came to the Missouri Botanical Garden to work on the Flora of Barro
Colorado Island in the Canal Zone of Panama. The next 12,000 numbers were collected
on Barro Colorado Island and other areas in Panama up until 1972. Then work
began in Central America, later in 1975 in Madagascar and Kenya.
It was in Madagascar, the third largest island in the world off the eastern
coast of Africa, that I first decided to dry plants in my vehicle so that I
would be free to continue collecting without long return trips to Tananarive.
I collected all over the southern half of the island. Most of the terrain was
eroded and dry with only isolated human populations. The massive vistas allowed
me to see where I would be at the end of a day’s drive. I was driving
a long-bed Land Rover, which belonged to John Buetner-Janish, an anthropologist
who lived in New York City. I built a large wooden dryer in the rear of the
truck and slept beside the dryer.
As the bundles began filling up the back of the Land Rover, I slept on top of
them. The only serious problem was that the dryer occasionally caught fire,
and I had to put it out by reaching into the box to throw the smoldering materials
outside where I could snuff out the fire with sand. I did not have enough water
to waste putting out fires, since drinking water was scarce.
Three weeks later I reached Tulear. Due to the terrible roads,
I had ruined one tire and had no spare. Two other tires were in
bad condition, so I flew back to the capitol with all my plants.
I left the plants at the botanical institute where I was headquartered,
bought two tires, and secured a car to take me back to Tulear.
The car allowed me to complete this trip, but no additional public
transportation was possible for the next 3 weeks. I could continue
to drive the Land Rover, but because I was supposed to be in a
hotel by dark, I had to be very secretive, camping far away from
cities. One night I camped along the Indian Ocean near Finaransoa,
and my camp light was seen by the authorities. They sent soldiers
to escort me to a military base.
On another occasion I was stopped at a military checkpoint. After
the soldier said he would take me in for interrogation, I raced
off and hoped that he would not take a shot at me.
My arms were covered with scratches from spiny plants. They had
become infected, perhaps owing to malnutrition. I visited an American
Lutheran mission hospital, and the doctor thought it might be
an endemic disease requiring amputation of each area of infection—fortunately
an antibiotic cured the condition.
Since no scheduled flights were exiting the country, it was difficult
to leave. I received help from the Charge des Affairs at the American
Embassy, a St. Louis native. He got me on an unscheduled flight
to Paris. I sorted and boxed up my plants only to discover that
the Land Rover would not start. We rounded up a group of young
men to push it far enough to start it. 
I delivered my huge crate of dried plants to the Marine guard at the door of
the American Embassy and sped to the airport, barely making the flight. Four
months later, my crate containing 4000 valuable collections arrived by sea under
an Embassy Customs permit, never having been opened by the authorities.
In Central America I used a specialized camper that I constructed with a built-in
dryer, which allowed me to collect 5000 numbers in 9 weeks' time. Learning from
my fires in Madagascar, I added baffles to prevent flames from reaching any
part of the press and an automatic fire-extinguishing system.
It was not until 1980 that I made my first official collecting trip to South
America—beginning in Ecuador, then Peru, and Colombia—but it was
back in Panama where I collected my 50,000th number. In 1981 I took an extensive
collecting trip to Australia, New Guinea, Philippines, Malaysia, and Nigeria.
In 1982 I collected in Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Trinidad, and Venezuela.
In 1983 and 1984 I collected again in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; in 1985 in
Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico. I made repeated trips to all
of these areas and more over the course of the next 15 years, collecting in
all parts of South America. If you took me blindfolded into nearly any forested
part of South America, I would recognize the area or be able to tell you where
I was, based on the species composition of the forest.
As you might imagine, I enjoy collecting plants despite all the trials and
tribulation, as well as the many injuries I have received. During one week in
Madagascar I collected 1246 numbers, and during a single day in Panama on Cerro
Pirre I collected 225 numbers.
My 100,000th collection was made in October of last year in Ecuador near Volcán
Pichincha, in an area that had been well collected by the Jesuit botanist Luis
Sodiro, at the end of the 19th Century. He had collected and described over
250 species of Anthurium, most of them in the region of Volcán Pichincha,
so I was not expecting anything new to science. I was collecting with my student,
Monica Carlsen, and Dan Levin, a former President of the International Aroid
Society. On the day that I approached the magic number of 100,000, I decided
that I must be in an area where there were at least some interesting Araceae
(the group of plants in the Philodendron family that I work on). The day before
I had been in a rather weedy area near Esmeraldas, so we drove to Puerto Quito
to begin collecting the next morning. October 16th was to be our last day in
the field, so I knew that we had to push. We needed only 66 collections, but
we did not have a way of keeping track of the total collections, so we just
kept collecting. The first stop was near the Endesa Reserve, but I did not have
a permit to collect there so we collected in an interesting area along the entrance
road. Then we drove to Mindo, taking the old road that leads down to Tandayapa,
then on to Nono and finally Quito. This old road was once the major route to
the coast for Quito. I had collected this road before and did not expect to
find anything new, but on our second stop along a steep road bank covered with
aroids, I spotted a huge Anthurium leaf near the top of an almost vertical road
bank 25 feet high. I climbed through the fence into a pasture above the bank,
then jumped down the bank to get to the plant. It had a stem 8 cm in diameter
and stood well over 2 meters high. Because it was much lower on the bank than
the edge of the pasture and yet so far down to the road, I had to heave it back
into the pasture, then with considerable difficulty haul myself out of the hole.
I managed to haul the beast back to the road without ripping a leaf, and on
closer inspection found that it was a new species. Since it was my 100,000th
collection, I named it Anthurium centimillesimum! The plant was so large that
it required 7 sheets of herbarium paper to mount it, and one of these seven
sheets bears the MO-6,000,000 number.
I am glad that I was able to play a role in this significant achievement of
acquiring, processing, and mounting the 6 millionth herbarium specimen for the
Missouri Botanical Garden. Many people at the Garden are involved in this process
in one way or another by collecting plants, typing labels, filing specimens,
or determining plant material. We are all proud to be a part of this great occasion.
Now let’s set our sights on the next million!
News from the Society
Meet the new staff in the BSA office
Heather Cacanindin, Director of Membership & Subscriptions
Heather joined the BSA team in August 2007 after
8 years as Program Director at the United Soybean
Board. With a background in association
management and governance, she enjoys the
ongoing work in strategic planning and board/
committee development. Joining with the efforts of
Wanda Lovan and Bill Dahl, she has helped to
increase BSA membership to a record high of over
3050 members. Heather also launched an effort to
survey and track members’ opinions and trends in
order to better meet your needs. She is keenly
aware of the special “community” aspect of the BSA
and is working to foster more ways for members to
interact. Heather also works with the American
Journal of Botany editorial staff to find more avenues
to market our top-notch journal. Reaching out to
current and past AJB subscribers, Heather’s goal
is to stop the slow but steady decrease in institutional
subscriptions to the AJB. From her office at the BSA
World Headquarters in St. Louis, Heather is eager
to talk to all of our members. -
hcacanindin@botany.org
Richard Hund, Production Editor, American Journal of Botany
Richard joined the BSA in January 2008 as the
Production Editor of the American Journal of Botany.
He spent 5 years as a production editor of medical
textbooks for Elsevier and 4 years as a project
manager for SPi (a full-service compositor) before
coming to the AJB. Rich has been working closely
with Managing Editor Amy McPherson and Editorin-
Chief Judy Jernstedt to increase the AJB’s impact
factor and visibility in both the scientific and general
community, and the team recently launched AJB
Advance Access, which allows for the publication of
articles ahead of print. - rhund@botany.org
Jennifer L. Potratz, Education and Outreach Coordinator
Since May 2008 Jennifer has been helping
PlantingScience maintain its present position and
move into the next phase of complex program
delivery, including; improved educational/
instructional materials and expanded automation
to reach more students, more efficiently. Jennifer
has an interdisciplinary Masters in Conservation
Biology and Political Science with a strong
background in Environmental and Outdoor
Education having worked as a naturalist, guide,
ranger, and wilderness emergency trainer in Alaska,
Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Missouri. -
jpotratz@botany.org
News from the Annual Meeting
Awards
Michael Cichan Award
Dr. Maria A. Gandolfo, Cornell University
For her paper: “Fossil Nelumbonaceae from the La
Colonia Formation (Campanian-Maastrichtian,
Upper Cretaceous), Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina.”
Co-author on the paper is N. R. Cuneo
The Isabel Cookson Award
Cyrille Prestianni, Universite de Liege, Géologie
For the paper entitled “”Xenotheca” and
Pseudosporogonites: two Belgian acupulate
seeds?.” Co-authors were Jason Hilton and Philippe
Gerrienne.
The Darbaker Prize
The two Darbaker prize winners for 2008 are
Debashish Bhattacharya and Virginia (Ginger)
Armbrust
Dr. D. Bhattacharya was nominated on the basis of
his contributions to an international tree of life project and phylogeny papers published on a wide
range of algal groups during the years of 2006 and
2007, particularly Li, S., T. Nosenko, J.D. Hackett,
and D. Bhattacharya. 2006. Phylogenomic analysis
provides evidence for the endosymbiotic transfer of
red algal genes in chromalveolates. Mol. Biol. Evol.
23:663-674.
Dr. V. Armbrust was cited for several notable
research contributions on the biology of diatoms in
2006 and 2007, including the following: Oudot-Le
Secq, M.-P., J. Grimwood, H. Shapiro, C. Bowler, E.
V. Armbrust and B R. Green. 2007. Chloroplast
genomes of the diatoms Phaeodactylum
tricornutum and Thalassiosira pseudonana:
comparison with other plastid genomes of the red
lineage. Molecular Genetics and Genomics
277:427-429.
The Katherine Esau Award
Alana Oldham, Humboldt State University
For her paper “Height-Associated Variation in
Sequoia sempervirens (Coast Redwood) Leaf
Anatomy: Potential Impacts on Whole-Tree Carbon
Balance.” Her co-authors were Stephen Sillett and
George Koch.
The Gleason Award
xx
Lawrence Memorial Award
The Lawrence Memorial Award for 2008 goes to Mr. Dylan O. Burge, a student of Professor Paul Manos at Duke University. The proceeds of the award will help support his travel for field and collections-based work in an integrative research study of the genus Ceanothus.
The Margaret Menzel Award
Michael Barker, University of British Columbia
For the paper “Evolutionary genomics of
hybridization: Detecting ancient hybridization and
introgression by the inference of intrologs in plant
genomes.” Co-author was Loren H. Rieseberg.
The Maynard Moseley Award
Eric Madrid, University of Colorado
For his paper “Female Gametophyte Developmental
Evolution in Piperales. ” His co-author was Ned
Friedman.
Ecological Section Best Student Presentation & Poster Awards
Iman Sylvain, of Howard University, for her poster,
“Comparison of Seedling Fitness in the
Hyperaccumulator, Alyssum murale Waldst and
Kit. (Brassicaceae) in Soils With and Without Nickel.”
Genetics Section Graduate Student Research Award
Renate Wuersig, Purdue University (PhD student)
Historical Section Emanuel D. Rudolph Award
Sarah Kelsey, Rutgers University
for her poster: “The Establishment and Persistence
of Plants Introduced to New Jersey by Solid Ballast on Ships.” Co-authors were Sasha Eisenman and
Lena Struwe.
Physiological Section Li-COR Prize
Uromi Manage Goodale, Yale University, for her talk
“Physiological acclimation of pioneer species to
changing light environments.” Her co-authors were
Graeme P. Berlyn, Mark S. Ashton, and Kushan U.
Tennakoon.
Physiological Section Best Student Presentations
Nicole Hughes of Wake Forest University, for her
poster entitled, “Coordination of anthocyanin decline
and photosynthetic maturation in juvenile leaves of
three deciduous tree species.” Her co-authors are
Christianna Morely and William Smith.
Women in Botany luncheon
The first of many Women in Botany luncheons took
place during Botany 2008 in Vancouver. The event
was well attended with well over 90 participants.
Karen Renzaglia, Pam Soltis and Muriel Poston
moderated a discussion about the strategies for
women to succeed in science. We began with a
brain-storming session that focused on the positive
attributes women bring to science. We then turned
to ideas on how to make our professional
environment supportive and responsive to the needs
of women. The interactions were lively and
insightful......creativity abounded.
The event provided an excellent means for women
at all stages of their career to network and share
experiences. We will host a second luncheon in
Snowbird during Botany 2009. It is hoped that more
than one man will attend the luncheon. The input
and collaboration of men in botany are essential to
the success of their female counterparts.
note: The Botanical Society of America's "Women in
Botany" networking Listserv is now operational. To join
the list, please go to http://lists.botany.org/mailman/listinfo/womeninbotany_lists.botany.org and/or contact Amy
(amcpherson@botany.org) or Heather
(hcacanindin@botany.org) at the BSA office for details.
BSA Science Education News and Notes
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.
PlantingScience — BSA-led student research
and science mentoring program
Planting Science continues to grow by leaps and
bounds! The fall 2008 session again broke our
previous record of number of students, teachers,
and scientists partnering in the online mentored
inquiry projects. We are delighted to welcome
scientists from the new societies as mentors. Seven
Scientific Societies are now partnering in the
program: American Society of Agronomy,
American Bryological & Lichenological Society,
American Fern Society, American Society of Plant
Biologists, American Society of Plant
Taxonomists, Society for Economic Botany and,
of course, the Botanical Society of America.
Plant IT — BSA-led Plant IT Careers, Cases, and
Collaboration project collaborates with Dr. Biology.
Last July Charles Kazelik, aka Dr. Biology, modeled
science interview techniques and podcast
technology for students and teachers participating
in the Plant IT Summer Institute for Teachers and
Student Career Camp held at Texas A&M University.
Charles’s podcast with Forensic Palynologist Dr.
Vaughn Bryant is online at the Ask a Biologist
website of the Life Sciences Department of Arizona
State University.
Pollen Podcast Interview http://askabiologist.asu.edu/podcasts/content_logs/vol42_log_aab_podcast.html
Web article http://askabiologist.asu.edu/research/pollen/index.html
Pollen gallery http://askabiologist.asu.edu/research/pollen/gallery.html
Check out also the Investigative Case resources
Ethel Stanley and Margaret Waterman prepared for
Summer Institute teachers to explore pollen and
remote sensing, and some of the pollen images
and case materials developed by teachers. http://www.bioquest.org/myplantit-2008/
Spotlight on BSA Member Contributions to Science Education
In this segment I highlight the communal effort of
BSA members to take botanical education to the
national science education meetings. BSA
members were well represented at the 2008
National Association of Biology Teachers meeting
(Oct. 15-18) in Memphis: Beverly Brown, Kim Sadler,
Steven Saupe, Ethel Stanley, Kumkum Prabhakar,
Phil Gibson, Gordon Uno, James Wandersee, Linda
Weinland. Look for your colleagues’ contributions in the program guide. http://www.nabt2008.org/sites/S6/index.php?p=573
And consider building the botanical presence at the
2009 NABT meeting in Denver or the 2009 NSTA
meeting in New Orleans. The BSA will again host
a booth exhibit and distribute information about the
BSA-led PlantingScience and Plant IT projects. We
welcome your engaging booth ideas and interest in
contributing.
Science Education in the News
High School Graduates Score Lowest in Science—
The 2008 ACT College Readiness Report of 1.42
million high school graduates indicate stable scores
across years in math, reading, and science. The
disturbing news is that only 28% of the high school
graduates taking the test met or surpassed the ACT
College Readiness Benchmarks for science. Math
was the next lowest content area, yet 43% of the high
school graduates me or exceeded the ACT
benchmarks. http://www.act.org/news/releases/2008/crr.html
Cultural Constrictions on the Math Pipeline
— How does US culture derail youth with high math
aptitude? In a comprehensive analysis of decades
of data on students identified with high math aptitude,
the authors document that the majority of top
mathematicians in the U.S. were born elsewhere
and identify influences that have deterred U.S. youth
from career trajectories in the mathematical
sciences. They also use the rich database to tackle
the controversial idea that girls lack the intrinsic
aptitude to excel in math.
Andreescu, T., Gailian, J.A., Kane, J.M.,
Mertz, J.E. 2008. Cross-Cultural Analysis of
Students with Exceptional Talent in Mathematical
Problem Solving. Notices of the American
Mathematical Society. 55. (10). 1248-1260 http://www.ams.org/notices/200810/fea-gallian.pdf
The Science Education Interactive Timeline Project
—The University of Arkansas’s Program to Advance Science Education
has launched a website designedas a snapshot of the evolution
of science education in the U.S. Links to events and documents
noted in the timeline provide further information about the events.
http://coehp.uark.edu/pase/itseusa/Widget/Widget.htm
Editor's Choice
Franklin, Wilfred. Investigating Effects of
Invasive Species on Plant Community Structure. 2008. American
Biology Teacher 70(8): 479– 482.
“Can’t see the trees for the forest?” Franklin describes a series
of activities she uses to introduce basic plant ecological sampling
and use it to answer some questions about invasive species. She
is lucky to have a small forest on campus nearby but the exercises
could easily be adapted to an urban landscape. The effectiveness
of the activities in combating “plant blindness” (see Schussler
below)is indicated by students frequent spontaneous use of their
cell phones to document their plant identifications.
Jensen, Philip A and Randy Moore. Students’
Behaviors, Grades & Perceptions in an Introductory Biology Course.
American Biology Teacher 70(8): 483-487.
For the last several years Randy and his colleagues have been
quantitatively examining many of the “truisms” about introductory
science students most of us who teach have come to accept. There
are not a lot of surprises for experienced teachers, however,
as Jensen and Moore suggest, it may be more effective in promoting
change in student behaviors if we can present actual data supporting
our contentions, such as, “It’s important to attend every class”
than for us to simply say it! In this paper they present data
on attendance, homework, extra credit, help sessions, and student
expectations.
Schussler, Elisabeth E. and Lynn A Olzak. It’s
Not Easy Being Green: Student Recall of Plant and Animal Images.
2008. Journal of Biology Education 42(3) summer: 112-118.
Remember plant blindness? (PSB 47[1]:2-9) In this paper Schussler
and her colleague provide additional substantiation that the phenomenon
is real and, in fact, has a gender component – women are less
“plant-blind” than men. The most discouraging finding, however,
is that students enrolled in a botany course did NOT differ significantly
from control students taking psychology! Clearly we have some
work to do.
Flannery, Maura. 2008. Biology Books for Young
People: Plants and Invaders. BioScience 58: 880- 881. Text and
illustrations of nine books introducing plant content to audiences
aged 4 to 12 are reviewed. Jordan, Nicholas R., Bawden, Richard
J., and Bergmann, Luke. 2008.
Pedagogy for Addressing the Worldview Challenge in Sustainable
Development of Agriculture. Journal of Natural Resources and Life
Sciences Education 92-99. Critical civic debates and classroom
conversations about the rapid shifts in agriculture and increasing
emphasis on production of ecological services in farmed landscapes
are the focus of this article.
Dyer, William E. 2008. Inhibitors of Fatty Acid
Synthesis and Elongation. Herbicide Discovery and Screening. Journal
of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education. The first of
these Web Lessons/Learning Activities provides an overview of
fatty acid synthesis and elongation and explains how herbicides
inhibit the pathway. The second web lesson describes historical
and current approaches to identify herbicides.
Stark, L. 2008. Plant movements revealed. CBE
Life Sciences Education 7(3): 284-287. A review of websites, including
the familiar Roger Hangarter’s Plants in Motion and the new YouTube
Quick Time movies, for teaching and learning about biology with
a focus on plant movement and carnivorous plants. http://www.lifescied.org/cgi/content/full/7/3/284?etoc
Dolan, E.L., Lally, D.J., Brooks,
E., and Tax, F.E. 2008. PREPing students
for authentic science. The Science Teacher 75(7): 38-43. An overview
of the Partnership for Research and Education in Plants program,
a partnership among high school students and teachers and plant
scientists, which provides students with authentic science opportunities
to identify noteworthy phenotypes of Arabidopsis thaliana
mutants.
News from the Sections
Historical Section
We are writing to encourage those of you that are interested in the history
of plant biology to consider becoming part of the Historical Section
of Botanical Society of America. To those of you that have already
indicated affiliation through your BSA registrations and emails
we say - Thank You.
Botany meetings are always a time to catch up with old friends,
to meet new people, and to discover what is happening in the various
fields of plant biology. The meeting in Vancouver, Canada was
a great success and as always the talks and posters were excellent.
Those who ventured away from the UBC campus, either on field trips
or on your own, surely found that the sub-alpine and timberline
plant communities, the botanical gardens, and the beautiful beaches
were worth the trip. This year, the Historical Section had three
outstanding posters. As you passed by the registration desk we
hoped that you had time to meet and talk with some of these young
students.
Next year, the annual Botanical Society of America meeting will
be back at Snowbird, Utah. We look forward to seeing you and invite
and encourage you and/or your students to consider presenting
a paper or poster in the Historical section.
You may recall that The Emanuel Rudolph Award was established
in 2006, at the Historical Section annual meeting in Chico, CA
for the best student paper on a historical subject in botany.
The qualifications were revised in 2007 to reflect and highlight
excellence in the area of historical presentations at the Botanical
Society of America meetings. Students presenting historical papers
in any section or symposium are eligible for this award. The first
award was given in 2007 to students organizing "A
Symposium in Honor of Sherwin Carlquist." This year's
award was given to a student, who co-authored a poster on "The
Establishment and Persistence of Plants Introduced to New Jersey
by Solid Ballast on Ships." The award recipients
are announced in the Plant Science Bulletin and on the BSA website.
We encourage your comments and thoughts about the types of lectures
or symposia you would like our section to sponsor and we look
forward to a great session at Snowbird, Utah – Botany 2009. Our
email addresses are listed below and our contact information is
on the BSA Website: http://www.botany.org/governance/sections.php#Historical
Sincerely,
Carol Kelloff, Secretary/Treasurer
KELLOFFC@si.edu
Lee B. Kass, Section and Program Chair
lbk7@cornell.edu
Marissa Jergenson, Co-Chai
mcjernegan@eiu.edu
Announcements
In Memoriam
Lazarus Walter (Walt) Macior (1926-2007)
Lazarus Walter (Walt) Macior passed away on October 5, 2007
after a long illness with Parkinson’s disease. Walt (Walter Aloysius
Macior, Jr.) was born on August 26, 1926 in Yonkers, New York.
He received his first degree from Columbia University before enlisting
in 1945 to serve in the United States Army as a Japanese linguist
during the final months of World War II. After his war service,
he received a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University.
Walt then entered a Catholic seminary, becoming a priest in 1956
as a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Assumption BVM Province
(taking the religious name Lazarus). He completed a Ph.D. in 1959
from the University of Wisconsin. In 1960, the results of his
dissertation were published in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical
Club 87(2): 99–138, title: “The tetrakaidecahedron and related
cell forms in undifferentiated plant tissues.” His first college
teaching position (1960 to 1962) was Instructor of Biology at
St. Francis College in Burlington, Wisconsin and it is here that
he began his life-long investigation of pollination mechanisms.
In the summers of 1960 and 1961 and from 1962 to 1964, he was
a lecturer at Marquette University. Between 1965 and 1967, he
was Assistant Professor of Biology at Loras College in Dubuque,
Iowa. In 1967, he came to the University of Akron where he continued
his research of Pedicularis and remained as Professor Emeritus
beyond his retirement in 2000. He also held visiting and adjunct
positions at various times during his career. From 1966 to 1968,
he was a Visiting Research Assistant at the Institute of Arctic
and Alpine Research (University of Colorado); between 1971 and
1973, he was an Adjunct Faculty Research Associate at Ohio State
University Institute of Polar Studies; and during a sabbatical
leave in 1984, he was a Faculty Research Associate in the Department
of Entomology at the University of California in Davis. During
his career, he published over fifty research articles. Although
his research interests were in the field of pollination biology,
he was by training and avocation a botanist and taught Plant Morphology,
Plant Anatomy, and Plant Development while at the University of
Akron in addition to Evolution and Bioethics. During his tenure
at the University of Akron, he was named a Distinguished Professor
of Biology and was given the honor of Outstanding Teacher by the
Alumni Association in 1990. He also established two scholarships
for graduate study in botany: the Lazarus Walter Macior Graduate
scholarship in Botany and Plant Sciences, and the Alice and Walter
Macior Award in Plant Sciences for students, which is named in
honor of his parents.
Walt’s earliest papers concentrated on the pollination dynamics
of herbs of deciduous forests, alpine zones, and tundra. He showed
an early interest in buzz-pollinated flowers with vibratile anthers
(Dodecatheon and Solanum), which provided him insight into his
later, major work on Pedicularis. With his training as a plant
morphologist, he understood the significance of adaptive modifications
to floral structures. His fieldwork took him throughout the Northern
Hemisphere to the Yukon Territory, Japan, India, Kashmir, and
China. I once asked him why Pedicularis and he related to me that
he came upon it quite by accident. One day while he was studying
the pollination of Aquilegia, he discovered that all the bumblebees
ignored it in preference for P. canadensis, “Having nothing to
study that day, I turned my attention to the curious little lousewort
plant that was stealing the pollinators from my subject plant
and I’ve been hooked ever since.” Thus began his research focus
and he often relayed this story to his students to remind them
of the importance of serendipity in science. Walt was a stickler
for making carefully conducted field studies and had little patience
for those who assumed a mechanism merely based upon extrapolation
of a pollination syndrome. He took pride in proving them wrong
with actual data. A case in point is his study of Pedicularis
groenlandica. An earlier investigator had assumed that its flowers
had nectar because its bumblebee pollinators entered the flower
in an upright position, but when Walt presented his data at a
symposium, revealing that the flowers are nectarless and the bees
collect pollen by buzzing, this investigator took great umbrage
refusing to speak to Walt for several years! In fact Peter Bernhardt,
a close friend and colleague of Walt, portrayed his approach as
forensic, “Walt didn’t believe that the mere, repeated presence
of an animal on a flower made it a true pollinator or even a prospective
pollinator. He wanted and got hard evidence to back it up each
time. When he captured an insect he noted where pollen was deposited
on its body, removed it and identified grains under the microscope
by matching it to the grains produced by the host flower. Walter
called this protocol “pollen load analysis.” In this way, he presented
some of the earliest hard data on the fidelity (faithfulness)
of foraging insects to a particular plant species. He also understood
that if anthers repeatedly deposited pollen on a bee’s head, then
the head of a true pollinator must repeatedly contact the receptive
stigma of another flower of the same species, so important in
his studies of the bizarre, elephantnose Pedicularis groenlandica
and P. attollens. Walter’s papers typically contain a Table analyzing
the pollen load contents carried by dozens of flower visitors.
Even today, very few field workers recognize the value of cross-referencing
a pollinator specimen with its pollen load.” With his attention
to detailed field analysis, he also revealed that some Pedicularis
of China with extremely long corolla tubes do not contain nectar
as had been assumed. Rather than being a vessel for nectar, Walt
suggested that the long, nectarless tube elevates the distal petals
above surrounding vegetation to enhance their display. Walt was
also the first botanist to study the federally endangered Furbish’s
lousewort (Pedicularis furbishiae) in the 1970’s. His reports
and publications about its life-cycle, habitat, and distribution
helped save the plant from extinction because he showed that the
major population would not survive flooding if a proposed dam
was built on the site. To conduct his studies in remote areas
in North America, Walt owned a medium sized Airstream travel trailer.
He stocked it with all the necessary field and laboratory equipment,
and it served as his mobile field station, mess hall, and sleeping
quarters. One of his favorite pieces of equipment was a still
camera modified to take close-up stereo photographs that he used
to discern the precise fit of pollinator to flower. To reveal
floral patterns only visible under ultraviolet illumination, he
had another camera outfitted with a quartz lens. He was also an
accomplished cinema photographer and accumulated many hours of
film documenting pollinator behavior on Pedicularis flowers. In
later years even as his health started to decline, he made several
field study trips to China, and Walt would be pleased to see that
many of his Chinese colleagues have since taken up the study of
Pedicularis pollination.
Walt’s teaching influenced many students. He was a keen observer
of nature and used many examples in the classroom and on field
trips. His style of teaching was to pose a problem or question
and then let the class attempt to answer before giving a detailed
explanation. Exams were often done the same way; he expected you
to synthesize knowledge learned in lecture and lab by posing novel
questions for the student to answer. On field trips, he often
presented open ended questions that sometimes inspired laboratory
investigations. I once asked if he knew the answer and he replied,
“Nope, just wanted to see if anyone would take the initiative.”
He always had time to talk to his students about any topic. One
student recollects of a time when, after failing a test, he went
to Dr. Macior’s office. “I well recall Dr. Macior’s posted office
hours being followed by the words ‘or gladly by appointment.’
Would he really be glad to see me? To my surprise, he was! As
I found out in subsequent years, Dr. Macior was glad to see all
such poor fish that washed up at his door.” His door was also
open to others as well. As he also taught evolution class, sometimes
creationists would take up their cause with him. Not suspecting
that he was also a Franciscan priest whose views of science and
faith were perfectly compatible, they would quote scripture to
him to prove their point. Walt soon had them squirming by posing
theological, philosophical, and scientific questions to which
they had no answer. His approach, however, was never mean-spirited
and his final reply to them would be, “Sometimes doubt is good
for the soul.” Among his graduate students, Walt expected investigative
thoroughness. I remember one student who spent many hours sectioning
and staining Pedicularis haustoria and then taking great lengths
to explain its detailed anatomy only to have Walt exclaim, “Well,
you forgot one very important aspect. How is the anatomical structure
of the host affected? Report back to me when you figure that out.”
Walt also took time to answer all letters from inquiring graduate
students and young scientists and indeed a colleague described
him as an old fashioned ‘Man of Letters’. He recalls exchanging
many correspondences with Walt while working on his Masters, “Walter
was willing to read and critique my Masters thesis even though
he was not on my graduate committee and his early intervention
saved me valuable revision time. In later years, I soon learned
to recognize his style when a refereed manuscript came back from
a journal. Walter’s critiques were always invaluable because he
knew how to itemize problems in a paper in a clear and progressive
manner. He never made the author feel stupid because his critiques
were like road maps. He pointed you in the right direction starting
at A and ending at Z.”
Not only was Dr. Macior an extraordinary teacher, scientist,
and mentor, he was a good friend as well. Over the years that
I knew him, we had many great discussions about science, philosophy,
religion, and life in general. His greatest legacy to his students,
colleagues, and friends is that he made you think! We have lost
a great pollination ecologist, botanist, teacher, mentor, and
humanitarian. He influenced many students’ careers and will be
missed by all.
Bruce W. Robart, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biology
The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (UPJ)
Johnstown, PA 15905
robart@pitt.edu
Personalia
Eshbaugh Honored for Outreach Efforts
W. Hardy Eshbaugh, Miami University professor emeritus of botany, received the Peter H. Raven Award for his outreach in the areas of public education and conservation. Presented by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists during its conference this summer, the award recognizes a plant systematist for exceptional outreach efforts to nonscientists.
Eshbaugh's public education outreach includes giving public lectures, leading field trips and ecotourism trips throughout the world and writing papers on natural history for various publications.
His conservation outreach at the international and national level has encompassed serving on the boards of the Nature Conservancy (Ohio), National Audubon Society, Atlantic Salmon Federation, St. Mary's River Association (Nova Scotia) and Hawk Mountain. Locally, he has served on the boards of Audubon Miami Valley, the Avian Research and Education Institute and Three Valley Conservation Trust.
In 2007, Eshbaugh was recognized with the Herbert Osborn Award from the Ohio Biological Survey and the Distinguished Economic Botanist Award, the highest honor given to professionals by the Society for Economic Botany. He was elected President of the Botanical Society of America in 1988 and received the Society’s Merit Award in 1992 and both the Centennial and Bessey Awards in 2006. He was elected President of the American Institute of Biological Sciences in 1995.
Eshbaugh was a member of Miami's faculty from 1967-98, including positions as chair of the department and director of Miami's W.S. Turrell Herbarium.
 Donation of the Graham Palynological Collection to the Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama is proud to announce
that it has received the donation of the best collection of neotropical pollen
in the world, the Graham Palynological Collection, thanks to the generosity
of Alan Graham, Professor Emeritus at the Kent State University and current
curator at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. 
This collection began as part of an early palynology laboratory set up in the
herbarium of the University of Texas in 1954, and expanded with original preparations,
and also with exchanges with numerous laboratories throughout the world. It
comprises over 25,000 pollen slides of modern taxa, mostly from the neotropics,
thousands of pollen slides from Dr. Graham’s work on the geological history
of the forests of Central America, as well as pollen residues and an impressive
collection of literature (over 16,000 reprints related primarily to the biology
and geology of the New World with emphasis on Latin America). The modern reference
component has the added virtue that all the original preparations can be referenced
to a specific herbarium collection, allowing scientists to verify the identification
of fossil material and specimens used in taxonomic studies.
At STRI, we are grateful and honored to be hosting this collection, which is
an invaluable resource for our scientists. Soon, we hope to have
all components in digital format, to share it on the web with
everyone who might be interested, worldwide.
Carlos Jaramillo jaramilloc@si.edu
Maria Adelaida Cubides CubidesM@si.edu
Center for Tropical Paleoecology and Archaeology
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Tel: (507) 212-8057
Missouri Botanical Garden Awards Highest Honor to Renowned Ecologist
Dr. Thomas E. Lovejoy, president of the Heinz
Center for Science, Economics and the Environment, has received
the Henry Shaw Medal from the Missouri Botanical Garden. The award
was presented by Dr. Peter Raven, president of the Missouri Botanical
Garden, during the annual Henry Shaw dinner on Oct. 13. Awarded
since 1893, and named for the Garden’s founder, the medal honors
those who have made a significant contribution to the Missouri
Botanical Garden, botanical research, horticulture, conservation
or the museum community.
A renowned ecologist, Dr. Lovejoy has worked in the Brazilian
Amazon since 1965 studying the interface of science and environmental
policy. Beginning in the 1970’s, Dr. Lovejoy helped bring attention
to the issue of tropical deforestation, and in 1981, published
the first estimate of global extinction rates in the Global 2000
Report to the President. Dr. Lovejoy also conceived the idea to
conduct the Critical Size of Ecosystems project, a long term study
on forest fragmentation in the Amazon.
Dr. Raven praised Dr. Lovejoy for coining the term “biological
diversity,” later shortened to “biodiversity,” and for originating
the concept of debt-for-nature swaps. A debt for nature swap is
an agreement between a developing nation in debt and its creditors
to forgive the debts in return for the promise of environmental
protection. Dr. Lovejoy established the concept in 1981, largely
to minimize the negative effect debt has on developing nations
and to minimize the environmental destruction that such nations
frequently cause.
Dr. Lovejoy is the founder of the public television series “Nature.”
He has served as the Senior Advisor to the President of the United
Nations Foundations, Chief Biodiversity Advisor and Lead Specialist
for the Environment for the Latin American region for the World
Bank, Assistant Secretary for Environmental and External Affairs
for the Smithsonian Institutions, and Executive Vice President
of World Wildlife Fund-US. He has also served on advisory councils
in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations.
Dr. Lovejoy received his B.S. and PhD in biology
from Yale University.
2008 ESRI User Conference Features Keynote Address by Dr. Peter H. Raven
Renowned Botanist and Environmentalist Speaks at World’s
Largest GIS Gathering
The 2008 ESRI International User http://www.esri.com/events/uc/index.html
Conference (ESRI UC) featured renowned botanist, environmentalist,
biodiversity expert, and president of the Missouri Botanical Garden,
Dr. Peter H. Raven. Raven discussed the significance of biodiversity
and the environment for sustaining our world.
“Dr. Raven has played a vital role in teaching others about the
importance of biodiversity and in researching our planet’s ecosystems,”
says Jack Dangermond, president, ESRI. “He’s making a difference
in securing our environmental resources. We’re honored to have
him as our guest and we’re excited about the opportunity our users
will have to hear from such a distinguished individual.”
The ESRI UC, the largest conference in the world devoted to geographic
http://www.gis.com/whatisgis/index.html information system (GIS)
technology, was held August 4-8 at the San Diego Convention Center
in California. The conference drew approximately 13,000 users
from more than 120 countries who came together to learn, collaborate,
and discover the latest developments in GIS technology. The conference
theme this year was GIS: Geography in Action.
Raven talked about the importance of biodiversity
and how it influences our daily lives. He discussed
the threats-including loss of habitat,
overconsumption, and climate change-that impact
biodiversity and the solutions available for us to
preserve and improve our planet’s sustainability.
As part of the presentation, GIS was used to analyze
ecosystems and the myriad of plant and animal life
that inhabit them. In addition, GIS was used to
model future impacts to these bionetworks.
Professor Dedicated To Study Of Plant Use By Native Americans Will Receive William L. Brown Award
The William L. Brown Center (WLBC) of the Missouri Botanical
Garden in St. Louis will award its highest honor, the William
L. Brown Award for Excellence in Genetic Resource Conservation,
to ethnobotanist Dr. Nancy Turner of the University
of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. The biennial award recognizes
the outstanding contributions of an individual in the field of
genetic resource conservation and use. It is made possible through
the generous support of the Sehgal Family Foundation, in cooperation
with the family of Dr. William L. Brown. Dr. Turner will receive
the award prior to delivering the keynote address at the 2008
WLBC Symposium, Ethnobotany: Integrating Biology and Traditional
Knowledge. The event will take place Friday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
at the Garden. It is free and open to the public.
Dr. Turner has devoted her career to the study and preservation
of indigenous plants used by native peoples of northwestern North
America. Her major research contributions include demonstrating
the pivotal role of plants in past and contemporary aboriginal
cultures, language and knowledge. She has documented how traditional
management of plant resources has shaped the landscapes and habitats
of western Canada. She has spent much of her professional career
fostering lasting relationships with Native Americans to further
understanding of indigenous plant management, and in turn preserve
plant genetic resources for future use. Her efforts on behalf
of traditional land management, sustainable use of non-timber
forest products, and the relationship of human and environmental
health has globally impacted the field of ethnobotany.
Immediately following the award presentation, Dr. Turner will
present on “Western Redcedar: An Endangered Cultural Icon of Northwestern
North America.” Western redcedar (Thuja plicata) is an iconic
tree in the culture of the indigenous population of the northwestern
coast of North America. It is a critically important part of the
coastal temperate rainforest ecosystem and a valuable economic
species in the forest industry. Although young cedars are common,
old-growth cedars have become rare due to industrial logging and
global climate change. Turner will use the tree species to illustrate
the clash of values and approaches that have characterized land
and resource use since colonial times, and to show how ethnobotany
and conservation biology, embracing ideas and concepts from indigenous
peoples, can help to reinstate the species for the future.
The award presentation and keynote address will take place Friday,
Nov. 7 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. at the Shoenberg Theater of the Missouri
Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Blvd. in St. Louis. The audience is
also invited to attend a multi-author ethnobotany book signing
in the Garden Gate Shop from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Participants include
conservation scientist Dr. Gary Nabhan, who will sign copies of
his new release, Where Our Food Comes From, and Missouri Botanical
Garden President Dr. Peter Raven, who will sign the new book,
Missouri Botanical Garden: Green for 150 Years. Both events are
free and open to the general public.
The events are being held in conjunction with the
two-day symposium, Ethnobotany: Integrating
Biology and Traditional Knowledge, presented by
the WLBC and the International Union of Biological
Sciences. The WLBC is one of the largest and most
active programs in economic botany in the world. It
operates under the auspices of the Science and
Conservation Division of the Missouri Botanical
Garden.
Courses/Workshops
Experience in Tropical Botany
Dates: June 15 to July 11 2009
Location: The Kampong Garden of the National
Tropical Botanical Garden, 4013 Douglas Road,
Coconut Grove, Miami FL 33133
The Class will use the newly-constructed Kenan
Teaching Laboratory at The Kampong (wet bench
and microscope facilities) and be accommodated
in comfortable dormitory style housing in the same
location (Scarborough House).
Course title: “Biodiversity of Tropical Plants”
Instructor: Professor P. Barry Tomlinson ,
Professor of Biology Emeritus, Harvard University &
Crum Professor of Tropical Botany, National Tropical
Botanical Garden.
“Biodiversity” is commonly interpreted as a catalogue
of species richness in a given environment and how
it might be preserved, but it can mean much more
if an investigation considers the functioning, not just
the systematics, of the organisms in a given area,
i.e., their biology. Clearly biodiversity in this broad
context can be studied best in the tropics, where
diversity is richest.
South Florida offers a sampling of this richness,
conveniently located in the continental United States.
And the course offers an opportunity at many levels
to become more familiar with tropical plants and
their biological mechanisms.
The course is intensive and intended to present an
overview of the rich plant diversity in natural
environments (e.g. The Everglades National Park,
Biscayne Bay National Park) and especially the rich
collections of introduced tropical plants at
collaborating Institutions, notably Fairchild Tropical
Botanic Garden and Montgomery Botanical Center,
Coral Gables. Here we have an estimated 10,000
species representing most major biological groups
of plants. For example, there are well over 500
species of palms (tropical icons) available, and
over 100 plant families not represented in natural
environments in the United States.
Emphasis is on morphology and anatomy in both a systematic but and functional
context and involves both field and laboratory study. The course
structure is extensively enquiry-based and is intended to develop
skills in investigative techniques and philosophical approaches
which can be applied subsequently in Graduate Study. Students
are introduced to many tropical plant families (especially the
iconic Arecaceae) and such topics as, e.g., tree architecture,
pollination biology, the morphology of vines and epiphytes as
well as distinctive tropical ecosystems like seagrass meadows
and mangroves. Laboratory work emphasizes anatomy and dissection
of fresh material, using implements ranging from chain saws to
scalpels.
Admission to the course depends on some demonstrated previous
familiarity with at least elementary Botany and is intended to
cater for students who are already enrolled in a graduate program
in Botany or Biology or plan to do so in the near future.
Students will be required to register with The Harvard Summer
School and will receive 4 credits. Estimated Cost.: Harvard Summer
School tuition; travel to and from Miami; Kampong accommodation
at $25 per day. Tuition and Travel scholarships may be available
for qualifying students.
For further information:-
P.B. Tomlinson at the above Miami address, or
Harvard Forest, Harvard University, 324 N.Main St.
Petersham MA 01366
e-mail: pbtomlin@fas.harvard.edu
And Harvard Summer School on-line in 2009
Chicago Botanic Garden and Northwestern University Create Doctorate Program in Plant Biology and Conservation
Local response to global plant conservation issues
The Chicago Botanic Garden and Northwestern University announced
a one-of-a-kind doctorate program in plant biology and conservation,
in response to the urgent need to train scientists who will embark
on a far-reaching course to address pressing conservation issues.
We are in a global extinction crisis. Biodiversity is facing
more threats than it ever has,² said Dr. Kayri Havens, director
of plant science and conservation at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
³There is great need for a graduate program that will bring more
scientists into the field of studying plant diversity, since this
is the foundation of all ecosystems, she said.
According to the World Conservation Union, 30 percent of the world¹s plants are threatened with extinction by 2050. Students will have the opportunity to gain experience, skills, and knowledge to become scholars, leaders and practitioners, in the effort to stem the loss of plant life worldwide.
This is an effort to find global solutions. With the creation of the doctorate program, the Garden will be a national home to far-reaching education and research programs, able to train professionals in a variety of plant science disciplines, which are critical to the Garden¹s mission to save the plants and save the planet,² said Sophia Siskel, president and CEO of the Chicago Botanic Garden.
The program begins in fall 2009 and will be housed in the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Plant Conservation Science Center at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Ground was broken on the Rice Science Center in June of 2008.
When completed in the fall of 2009, the 38,000 square-foot Rice Science Center will serve as an international center for plant conservation research providing a world-class teaching and state-of-the-art laboratory facility designed specifically to meet the needs of students and teachers.
In 2005, the Garden partnered with Northwestern University to create a Master¹s degree program in plant biology and conservation. Since the program¹s inception, twenty-one students have enrolled; five have graduated and are currently pursuing careers in the fields of plant conservation or are attending doctorate programs.
The resources of Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden complement one another to create a learning environment that could not be duplicated by either one alone,² said Northwestern University Provost Daniel Linzer.
The doctorate program will provide a foundation in plant ecology, evolution and biology and in applied plant conservation theory and methods. The program offers advanced courses taught by distinguished faculty members and scientists from the Chicago Botanic Garden and Northwestern University. The program includes over 15 teaching and research faculty from Chicago Botanic Garden and Northwestern in fields such as ecology, population genetics, restoration ecology, invasive plant biology, pollination biology, plant evolution, taxonomy, paleontology and climate change. The doctorate program will offer a comprehensive scholastic program that contributes to the field of plant biology. Students typically should complete the degree in five years.
Positions Available
M.S. Student Position: Analysis of patterns of gene flow in Maryland populations of Harperella (Ptilimnium nodosum)
Funding is available for a graduate teaching assistantship in the Department
of Biological Sciences at Towson University. The successful candidate
will assist in a research study regarding patterns of gene flow
in Maryland populations of Harperella (Ptilimnium nodosum), a
federallyendangered stream macrophyte. The study will focus on
examining patterns and relationships between gene flow via seed
and pollen using molecular markers. Understanding historical and
contemporary patterns of gene flow and their effects on genetic
diversity and genetic structure is necessary to manage and restore
populations of Harperella. Identification of more genetically
diverse plants may be key to restoring viable populations as these
carry more adaptive genetic variance. Additionally, if we understand
historical patterns of gene flow we can formulate more educated
hypotheses about the manner of restoration efforts, in particular,
we can identify the most genetically diverse subpopulations for
protection and use in restoration activities. Students would be
expected to use data generated from their studies for a Master’s
thesis at Towson University. The stipend is currently $12,000/year,
plus a full tuition waiver and travel costs. The assistantship
will begin in August 2009. Deadline for applications is 15 March
2009, but early applications are encouraged.
The ideal student for this position is self-motivated, works
well independently, and has a strong interest in conservation
biology, plant molecular ecology and evolution. The position will
require long hours in both the field and laboratory. Prior experience
with field research and molecular ecology is preferred but not
required.
Towson University is located just a mile north of the vibrant
city of Baltimore, Maryland. TU’s Department of Biology offers
outstanding opportunities for graduate students in several areas
including ecology, conservation biology and molecular ecology.
Previous graduate students have gone on to Ph.D. programs at a
number of major institutions or have found employment with state
or federal management agencies.
A complete list of departmental facilities, our current Graduate
Faculty, and their teaching and research interests is available
on our web site at: http://wwwnew.towson.edu/biologicalsciences/graduate_program.html.
For additional information, contact:
Roland P. Roberts
410-704-3034
rroberts@towson.edu
Other News
Brooklyn Botanic Garden and New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Sign Breakthrough Conservation Initiative
Brooklyn Botanic Garden and New York City Department of Parks & Recreation Sign Breakthrough Conservation Initiative
BROOKLYN, NY–SEPTEMBER 22, 2008–Today, in the shade of the Native
Flora Garden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (BBG), New York City Department of Parks
& Recreation (Parks) commissioner Adrian Benepe and Brooklyn Botanic Garden
president Scot Medbury signed a historic memorandum of understanding (MOU),
committing the resources of the Garden and Parks to the conservation of plants
native to New York City. This is the first-ever comprehensive conservation initiative
targeting New York City’s native plants. The conservation effort will
be conducted primarily through ecological and molecular assessments of remaining
plant populations in the city’s 23 ecosystems, leading to management protocols
to improve the long-term sustainability of these plants.
The MOU acknowledges that of the over 1,450 species that once occurred in the
city, over 600 are gone and 500 are vulnerable. “Little attention has
been given to the management of rare species in the urban context and virtually
no attempt has been made to assess and manage the more common, yet declining
species found in urban, fragmented habitats,” the memorandum reads. The
conservation agreement will work toward increased conservation of the area’s
flora. BBG will utilize the resources of its New York Metropolitan Flora project
(NYMF) and other related BBG science programs. Parks brings to the initiative
its expertise from the Greenbelt Native Plant Center and Natural Resources Group.
Through the MOU, Parks and BBG will collect plants and seeds for research and
seed banking purposes, analyze the genetic diversity of plants, and raise awareness
about the conservation of New York City’s native plants.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden has long been committed to researching and promoting
the native flora of the region. The Native Flora Garden was the first “garden
within the Garden” opened to the public at BBG, in 1911. In 1990 the Garden
embarked on the New York Metropolitan Flora project, a multiyear effort to document
the flora in all counties within a 50-mile radius of New York City.
New York City may be known to many for its towering skyscrapers and pulsing
urban lifestyle, but few are aware of the incredible biodiversity and plant
life found within the city. “We are proud to collaborate with Parks and
work toward the common goal of conserving the area’s native plants,”
said Scot Medbury, BBG’s president. “Through the work of BBG’s
respected Science department, we will be able to engage in detailed analysis—down
to the molecular level—to help us understand the condition of New York
City’s native plants. This in turn will help us formulate ways to both
conserve current populations and preserve them for the future,” Medbury
explained. “In addition, I have asked BBG’s interpretive staff to
develop signage to better explain the initiative to the Garden’s visitors,
so that more people will learn of the work being done to protect the plants
that will populate our great city for generations to come,” Medbury added.
“The conservation initiative is an important step to not only preserve
New York City’s flora but also to provide information on the state of
plant life throughout the five boroughs,” said Commissioner Benepe. “Plants
provide numerous benefits, from helping to clean the city’s air to cooling
the environment to beautifying our streets and parks. We are pleased to partner
with Brooklyn Botanic Garden for this vital study to make the city a greener,
greater New York.”
Rare Book Exhibition Focuses on Children's Books about Plants, Lenhardt Library,
November 28, 2008 through February 1, 2009
Rare Book Exhibition Focuses on Children's Books about Plants, Lenhardt Library,
November 28, 2008 through February 1, 2009
Plants and gardens have long been places of wonder for children and excellent
opportunities to teach them about science. A new exhibition from the Rare Book
Collection of the Lenhardt Library provides a glimpse into rare children's books
about plants and the natural world. The exhibition will be on display in the
Lenhardt Library from November 28, 2008 through February 1, 2009.
One of the earliest books written specifically for a young reader was published
in Paris in 1545. Entitled De re Hortensi Libellus, it was written by Charles
Estienne for his eight-year-old nephew, Henri Estienne. In the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries, an explosion of books for children were published,
many of which were quite small. Les Plaisirs de la Campagne, published in 1825,
is about the size of a postage stamp. Later in the nineteenth century, children's
books took on a slightly fantastic nature to make the scientific aspects of
the text a little more digestible and they usually included many colorful illustrations.
An interesting example is The Little Flower Seekers: Being Adventures of Trot
and Daisy in a Wonderful Garden, by Moonlight, published in London in 1873 and
written by Rosa Mulholland Gilbert. By the end of the nineteenth century, fictional
stories used gardens and botany as a background, as in The Secret Garden by
Frances Hodgson Burnett. The Lenhardt Library's copy is the first American edition
published in New York in 1911. Approximately fifteen books will be on display
in the exhibition.
A free library talk, ³Early Editions of Well-Loved Stories,"
will be given by Susan Boothe, curator of exhibitions at the Chicago
Botanic Garden at 2 p.m. on Saturday, January 10, 2009.
The Lenhardt Library is the primary research tool for students
of the Joseph Regenstein, Jr. School of the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Visitors are encouraged to research their latest gardening project,
thumb through inspiring garden journals and magazines, or see
the display of selections from the Garden¹s rare book collection.
The Lenhardt Library is located in the Regenstein Center. Hours are from 9
a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from noon to 4 p.m. on Sunday. On
Tuesdays, the Lenhardt Library is open until 7 p.m. Closed on holidays. Members
have borrowing privileges.
Admission to the Chicago Botanic Garden is free. Select event fees apply. Parking
is $15 per car; free for Garden members. For more information and to search
the library collections, visit www.chicagobotanic.org/library.
Missouri Botanical Garden Mounts Milestone Six Millionth Herbarium Specimen
Collection is Among the World’s Largest
The Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis operates one of the
largest and fastest growing herbaria in the world, and the second
largest in the western hemisphere. With the addition of a specimen
of Anthurium centimillesimum, a gigantic new aroid species from
Ecuador, the Garden’s permanent collection of pressed and dried
plant specimens has reached a milestone of six million specimens.
A herbarium is essentially a “library” of plant specimens. The
Garden’s herbarium includes about five-and-a-half-million vascular
plants (flowering plants, ferns and conifers) and 500,000 bryophytes
(mosses, liverworts and hornworts). The bryophyte collection is
also one of the largest of its kind in the world.
“The importance of these ‘libraries’ of plants cannot be overstated,”
said Vice President, Science and Conservation, Dr. Robert Magill.
“There are an estimated 300,000 recognized, named species of plants,
with perhaps an additional 100,000 species still to be discovered.
Herbaria are vital resources that allow botanists to organize
information about this enormous diversity of plant life. Without
a system of documentation that includes actual samples of the
plants, it would be nearly impossible to make conclusions about
the roles and relationships of plants, or to even verify the discovery
of a species new to science.”
Plant specimens are collected in the wild, pressed in newspaper
folds, and dried in a wooden-framed plant press before being sent
to the Garden’s herbarium for study and identification. At the
Garden, newly received specimens are counted, recorded, and treated
by freezing to kill insects that might eat them. Permanent labels
are prepared from the collector’s field catalog for each specimen.
The label contains information on where and when the specimen
was gathered, by whom, and any features about the plant that are
not readily apparent from the pressed specimen. The specimens
are then studied by plant taxonomists with specialized knowledge
of the group to which the plant in question belongs. Taxonomists
will either identify the specimens, or recognize them as new to
science. One specimen from each collection is mounted and added
to the Garden’s herbarium. Any duplicates are distributed to other
herbaria in exchange for specimens from their areas of activity;
the Garden exchanges specimens with about 400 other herbaria worldwide.
The Missouri Botanical Garden’s six millionth herbarium specimen
was collected in late 2007 by Dr. Thomas Croat, P. A. Schulz Curator
of Botany. Croat discovered Anthurium centimillesimum while on
a collecting trip in Ecuador’s Pichincha province, in an area
of tropical premontane rain forest. The giant plant was found
growing on a steep bank next to a pasture.
“At first I considered it impossible that this species was new,
simply because the area was previously well collected,” said Croat.
“Still, after returning to the Garden, I went through all the
existing species and none came close to this Anthurium.”
Croat has been collecting plant specimens in the wild for over
41 years as part of the Garden’s science and conservation team.
Anthurium centimillesimum is the 100,000th collection made by
Croat, making him the fourth most prolific plant collector in
the history of botany. Of his vast collections, all but 4,500
have been deposited at the Garden.
The new Anthurium is a member of the aroid or Araceae family,
also known as the Philodendron family. Aroids make up the largest
group of ornamental pot plants, and more aroid species are counted
among the top dozen plants in North American sales than any other
plant family. The Missouri Botanical Garden is a major center
of aroid research, with one of the largest living collections
in the world. In some cases, it is unknown whether the species
are still found in nature, or whether the Garden’s plants are
the only survivors.
Garden scientists conduct field research in 36 countries and
six continents around the globe in an effort to collect, identify,
and preserve plant specimens. Staff focus their efforts on areas
of high biological diversity, with the goal of characterizing
and grouping the plant life they discover.
The expansiveness of the Garden’s science and conservation programs
allows the institution to coordinate in-house editorial activity
through MBG Press, the Garden’s publishing arm. Plants collected
in the wild and accessioned to the herbarium form the basis of
scholarly publications, including floras, which document the known
information about the plant species found in a particular geographic
region. These taxonomic tools allow the Garden’s wealth of plant
information to be readily accessed by a wide variety of users
throughout the worldwide scientific community.
“A fundamental part of our mission is to characterize, describe,
and name the patterns of diversity found in the plant world,”
said Dr. James Solomon, herbarium curator. “We then build the
tools that allow people to learn about, understand, and communicate
about that diversity. In order to find medicines or sustainably
manage lands, you have to be able to recognize and know the species
involved. Our work is helping to synthesize knowledge from around
the globe to make this possible.”
For more information on the Missouri Botanical Garden’s science
and conservation work, visit www.mobot.org/plantscience.
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden on Display in Olympic Venues
A global audience gained knowledge of the allimportant, sustaining
work of botanic gardens throughout the world this summer in Beijing.
Together with other botanical gardens and arboreta, Rancho Santa
Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG) in Claremont was featured in the World
Botanic Gardens Exhibition, “Homes for Plants - Gardens for Humans,”
- located in the active Olympic venues of Beijing.
RSABG botanical field studies coordinator, Naomi Fraga submitted
exhibit materials on the local 86- acre California native plant
garden to the Botanic Garden Council International (BGCI). The
RSABG exhibit includes historical information, the Garden’s mission
and programmatic work.
Inclusion in this important Olympic exhibit underscores the importance
of maintaining public and private gardens for scientific research,
conservation, restoration, education and public enjoyment. RSABG
is pleased to be acknowledged for its mission in support of these
critically essential world-wide endeavors.
Ann Joslin
Director of Visitor Services & Community Relations
Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden
California’s Native Garden
1500 North College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711
909.625.8767 ext. 251 | 951.743.4649 (cell)
The Elastic Stability of Palms
Peter Sterken, Abstract 
A mathematical model and hypothesis are presented, which goal
is to enhance visual palm diagnosis. Firstly, the safety factor
of the palm trunk regarding elastic stability is calculated. This
factor has to be higher than 100%, in order not to buckle under
its own weight. If this factor is satisfied, the palm can withstand
a certain amount of additional loads, like the weight of a climber
or wind loads. Secondly, the additional wind loads are estimated
which enables to optimize artificial supports of the palm. The
wind load in the palm, and the resulting loading of the supporting
structure, has to be assessed undeniably. The input of the expected
wind speed for the area, temperature and altitude, enable to optimise
this wind load analysis. Thirdly, a hypothesis has been formulated
(Sterken, 2005c) which could heighten the efficiency of visual
assessment. It is suggested that the critical wind speed for failure
of the palm stem depends significantly on the relationship between
the modulus of elasticity, the form of the cross-section (not
only diameter), the slenderness of the palm (ratio of height vs.
the thin stem), dynamic wind loading and mechanical behaviours.
Deductions from the Leonardo Da Vinci – Euler - Bernoulli theory
and the theory of elastic stability are introduced. The guidelines
that are given is to combine the visual assessment of mechanical
catastrophic behaviours with the safety factor regarding elastic
stability and the wind load analysis for cabling the palm tree.
Earlier components of this model have recently been published
in the scientific peer-reviewed Arboricultural Journal , Vol.
29, pp 243-265. The content of this publication has been published
earlier as a part of the Spanish paper on the modelling of forest
trees and palms in Foresta (Sterken, 2008).
Key-words: Palms · Safety · Critical wind speed
Data of the complete publication:
Sterken, P. 2008. The Elastic Stability of Palms. 15p.
Royal Belgian Library
Keizerslaan, 4
B-1000 Brussel
Adaptation of the original version: © Peter Sterken,
2008
Original version: © Peter Sterken, April 2007
www.sterken.be
Wind load analysis for trees
Peter Sterken
In accordance with Eurocode 1, part 2-4.
Data input=
Tree characteristics
Species (see list of species) = Quercus robur
Height tree = 21.00 m
Crown diameter = 12.00 m
Height trunk = 1.50 m
Circumference = 245.00 cm
Bark thickness = 4.00 cm
Residual wall thickness, t = 9.50 cm
Cw-value (see list of species) = 0.25
Compression strength = 2.8kN/cm*cm
(see list of species)
Environment
Altitude = 10.00 m
Minimum temperature = -15.00 °C
Expected wind speed for the area = 130.00 km/h
Results =
Wind load analysis for trees Crown area = 183.78 m*m
Air density = 1.37 kg/m*m*m
Wind speed = 37.29 m/s
at height = 12.23 m
Wind load = 42.96 kN 4380.55kg
Wind induced bending moment = 525.17 kNm
Bending fracture of the sound stem =
Critical wind speed = 49.95 m/s
Safety = 179.43 %
Required residual wall thickness = 8.32cm
Torsion safety of the closed and concentric residual wall =
Critical wind speed = 60.43 m/s
Safety = 262.61 %
Bending fracture of the residual wall =
t/R measured = 0.27
Critical wind speed = 39.12 m/s
Safety = 110.05 %
Dynamics =
Natural frequency = 7.82
Vcrit_resonance = 27.35 m/s
Equivalent wind load = 23.11 kN
Please consult the following publications, in order
to interpret correctly wind load analysis for trees:
Sterken P (2006) Prognosis of the development of decay and the
fracture-safety of hollow trees. Arboricultural Journal.
Vol 29: 245-267
Sterken P (2005) A Guide for Tree-stability Analysis. Second
and expanded edition. University and Research-centre of Wageningen:
http://library.wur.nl/gkn/
Sterken P (2008) Modelización de la estabilidad del arbolado
y palmeras. FORESTA. Asociación y Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros
Técnicos Forestales. Nº 38: 59-67.
Sterken P (2006) Prognose van de breukvastheid van holle bomen.
KPB Nieuwsbrief. Kring Praktiserende Boomverzorgers. Dutch ISA
chapter. Vol. 27: 1-10. Nederland.
Disclaimer: While every effort has been made to validate the
solutions in this worksheet, Peter Sterken is not responsible
for any errors contained and is not liable for any damages resulting
from the use of this material, nor for any interpretation of the
calculations. These calculations are only intended for educational
purposes and should only be employed by a professional trained
in this method. © Peter Sterken 2006 www.sterken.be
Books Reviewed
Developmental/Structural
Teaching Plant Anatomy Through Creative Laboratory Exercises
Ecology
Ecology of Weeds and Invasive Plants, 3rd ed
Trees, Truffles, and Beasts: How Forests Function
Economic Botany
The Curious World of Carnivorous Plants: A comprehensive guide to their biology and cultivation
Duke’s Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the Bible
Edible Medicines: An Ethnopharmacology of Food
Gardens, City Life and Culture
Timber Press Pocket Guide to Palms
Education
Gods and Goddesses in the Garden - Greco-Roman Mythology and
the Scientific Names of Plants
Genetic
The Origins of Genome Architecture
Historical
Fruits and Plains: The Horticultural Transformation of America
Middle East Garden Traditions: Unity and Diversity
Musa Cliffortiana: Clifford’s Banana plant
Physiological
Physiology and Behaviour of Plants
Systematic
Field guide to Wisconsin sedges, An introduction to the genus Carex (Cyperaceae)
Flora of the Northeast: A Manual of the Vascular Flora of New England and Adjacent New York
Weeds in South Texas and Northern Texas: A Guide to identification
Woody Plants of the Southeastern U.S.: A Field Botany Course on CD
Teaching Plant Anatomy Through Creative
Laboratory Exercises. R. Larry Peterson, Carol A.
Peterson, Lewis Melville 2008. ISBN 978-0-660-
19798-2 National Research Council Press, Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada. ix +154 pp +CD. ($US 59.95
Spiral).
http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/books/books/9780660197982.html
Plant Anatomy is fun! This “hands-on” book has the
objective of providing “students, teachers and
researchers with simple methods to investigate the
structure of plant cells, tissues, and organs using
fresh material and a minimum of supplies”. It
achieves this objective and may well go beyond that.
It is a practical guide to the study of plant anatomy
and can help to reintroduce this important subject
into biology curricula in schools and universities,
from which it has virtually disappeared, by making
the subject visually attractive and enjoyable.
The standard texts in plant anatomy, as listed in this
books Appendix, do not do this. They vary from the
encyclopedic to the sophomoric with, in some
instances, an attempt to relate the subject to its
applied aspects (e.g. industry, agriculture, forensics,
pharmacology), but do little to teach plant anatomy
as a practical discipline and largely fail to connect
internal structure to the whole plant (which is rarely
illustrated). The present book achieves this objective
because it moves from fresh material of whole
plants to what can be revealed under the microscope
entirely at the hands of the student. This is done
through the medium of sections cut with doubleedge
razor blades, stained in various ways and
mounted as temporary wet preparations to be viewed
directly under the microscope, all within minutes.
The book is profusely illustrated with color
photographs taken directly from sections prepared
in this way. They show the kind of result that students
themselves can produce. In fact, the numerous
photo credits to the plates suggest that many of
them were actually made in class by
undergraduates. Hey, guys let’s write our own textbook!
Students do like hands on activity in the lab and plant
anatomy is NOT fun if it is presented via prepared
slides in which xylem is always red and phloem
green, or as PowerPoint images remote from the
original plant. My experience is that motivated
students, with a little practice and a sympathetic
instructor, can become very proficient in section
preparation and staining so as to produce results
which when seen under the microscope are easily
of the quality of the many illustrations in this book.
In addition an ace preparation shared among
classmates scores points without competition and
inflates egos nicely. The lab soon fills with “Wows!”
and “Cool”! As an aside here I recommend 50%
glycerine/water as a mounting medium rather than
water alone as it is more permanent.
The book begins with the use of the compound
microscope and has a useful scale chart that
connects microscopic dimensions to the real world
(but misses out the hand-lens, the cheapest
microscope of all). There is then a short chapter on
the simple methods advocated for section cutting,
based on double-edged razor blades, but
complemented throughout the book by boxes which
describe other methods like maceration and
clearing together with some experiments and even
guides to growing the fresh material. Recipes for
stains and reagents are in the Appendix. The
obligatory beginning is an introduction to cells and
organelles but largely dealing with their visible
products. Cell types and simple tissues introduces
the metachromatic stain toluidine blue (TBO - good
old Tol Blue) which turns up extensively in the
illustrations. Complex tissues refer largely to xylem
and phloem, but dealt with inadequately. Secondary
xylem is scarcely illustrated because of the
limitations of flexible double-edge blades; single
edge blades would have been better here because
they are firmer (and cheaper). Phloem is difficult to
study with freehand sections – the usual conclusion
is that if it does not stain and you can identify
everything else, it must be phloem. There are
separate chapters on roots, stems and leaves, the
root chapter especially well illustrated because this
is the Peterson’s area of research expertise. The
flower is briefly dealt with, (with pictures of flowers!)
but nothing on the fruit. The best tool here would
probably be a machete. The Appendix has further
useful information, especially on the recognition of
microscopic artifacts, often a problem for the
beginning microscopist.
Those remaining practitioners of this disappearing
art (e.g., my students!) will have their own special
take on methods and approaches which are in no
way detrimental to the objectives of the book. I
missed a description of Kohler illumination even
though there is almost a whole page of space
available for it. The temperate bias is obvious and
herbaceous. The dissecting microscope can be
used extensively for bulky organs, especially with
transmitted light capability. As a simplistic and
minimalist approach fluorescent techniques with
ultraviolet light and Nomarski optics seem a little
out of place but, as demonstrated, can produce
spectacular results. Polarized light is similar, here
made accessible by the ingenious recommendation
to disassemble polarizing sun-glasses.
One last comment is that the motivated student (all
of them at the end of the first class?) will enthuse
over being able to see images from their own
preparations as good, if not better than the images
in this text. Therefore they should be assisted in
recording them. I find students are very enterprising
with the use of their own digital cameras and will
take pictures through the eyepiece, but it is important
to make sure they produce annotated drawings in
quantity so that the instructor can check that accurate
information has been retained. . Students thus
build up a portfolio that becomes invaluable for
presentations and revision. A class camera with an
appropriate eyepiece will complement the book –
so throw away the book’s accompanying CD of all
the plates, it is an unnecessary distraction.
The book is highly recommended for its originality
and diversity of color so that it cannot fail to be
attractive to students at all levels, especially as they
will find they can work the magic themselves.
Advanced researchers should also take in its
message and use it to learn about the microscopic
structure of organisms they may work on, since this
is the basis for all the internal mechanisms of the
plant. After all one would have little faith in an auto
mechanic who had never looked under the hood!
- P. Barry Tomlinson. Harvard Forest, Harvard
University, 324 N. Main St., Petersham MA 01366.and
The Kampong of the National Tropical Botanic
Garden, 4013 Douglas Rd., Miami FL 33133
Ecology of Weeds and Invasive Plants, 3rd ed. Steven R. Radosevich,
Jodie S. Holt and Claudio M. Ghersa. 2007. ISBN 978-0-471-76779-4
(cloth, US$75.00) xvii + 454 pp. Wiley-Interscience, Hoboken,
New Jersey.
The third edition of this
well known textbook on weed ecology now has a longer title (and Invasive Plants)
and shorter text (454 instead of 589 pages). More importantly, this edition
is more affordable for students ($75.00 instead of $175.00). While three excellent
textbooks of weed ecology have appeared since the second (1997) edition (Liebman
et al. 2001; Booth et al. 2003; Myers & Bazely 2003), this third edition
is still very useful as a textbook and reference.
The text is divided into nine chapters: (1) Weeds and invasive plants, (2)
Principles, (3) Invasibility of agricultural and natural ecosystems, (4) Evolution
of weeds and invasive plants, (5) Weed demography and population dynamics, (6)
Plant-plant associations, (7) Weed and invasive plant management approaches,
(8)Herbicides, (9) Systems approaches for weed and invasive plant management.
Over 1400 references (an over 60% increase since the last edition) will serve
as important sources of primary contributions and review publications.
Inevitably, like in many ecology textbooks, there are some mistakes in the
text. Logistic equation was not developed by Lotka (1925) and Volterra (1926)
(p. 54), but by Verhulst (1838). Bi terms in population transition matrices
are not age-specific fecundities (p. 137 & 138), but age-specific fertilities
(numbers of viable offspring produced per unit of time). This misconception
can lead to incorrect construction of population models (e.g., Figure 2.9).
Rejmánek (2000) discussed in detail this frequent mistake. In the first
chapter (p. 3-11), the authors struggled quite a bit with terminology. However,
the result is not completely satisfactory. After reading this chapter, my students
remained unsure whether invasive plants are a subset of weeds or vice versa.
When we read the first six lines on p. 4, we should not be surprised. Also,
it looks like the authors believe that non-native agricultural weeds are not
invasive plants. Terminological clarification in this area is highly desirable
(Pyšek et al. 2004). Just a detail: the word anthropomorphic should be
replaced by anthropocentric (p. 5-7). Surprisingly, rather limited space in
the book on invasive plants is dedicated to plant dispersal (p. 142-149, 178-179).
Now, however, this can be compensated for with supplementary reading from Cousens
et al. (2008). Some important topics are clearly underrepresented (apomixis,
vegetative propagation, aquatic plants, invasive vines, invasive Cactaceae).
Some are not mentioned at all (Allee effects, residence time, species range
modeling, climate change).
Despite these weaknesses, the strengths of this book are many. Growth analysis,
design of competition experiments, and management implications are three of
them. Over the last 22 years, I have been using progressively all three editions
of this textbook in my classes on weed biology. Very likely, I will continue
to do so. This is the best textbook of weed ecology currently available.
- Marcel Rejmánek, Department of
Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616.
Literature Cited
Booth, B. D., Murphy, S. D. & C. J. Swanson. 2003. Weed ecology in natural
and agricultural systems. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK.
Cousens, R., Dytham, C. & R. Law. 2008. Dispersal in plants. A population
perspective. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Liebman, M., Mohler, C. D. & C. P. Staver. 2001. Ecological management
of agricultural weeds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Myers, J. H. & D. R. Bazely. 2003. Ecology and control of introduced plants.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Pyšek, P., Richardson, D. M., Rejmánek, M., Webster G., Williamson
M. & J. Kirschner. 2005. Alien plants in checklists and floras: towards
better communication between taxonomists and ecologists. Taxon 53: 131-143.
Rejmánek, M. 2000. On the use and misuse of transition matrices in plant
population biology. Biol. Invasions 2: 315-317.
Trees, Truffles, and Beasts: How Forests Function.
Maser, Chris, Andrew W. Claridge, and James M.
Trappe. 2008. ISBN 978-0-8135-4226-3 (Paper
US$26.95) 288 pp. Rutgers University Press, 100
Joyce Kilmer Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8099.
Maser, Claridge, and Trappe try to write three books
in one: a guidebook to the natural history of forests
in the North America’s Pacific Northwest and
Australia’s southeast, an analysis of disturbance
and succession in these forests, and a
philosophical discussion of ecology and evolution.
The guidebook is interesting, the treatment of
disturbance and response to disturbance is superb,
but the philosophical musing alternately
disappointed and annoyed me. When I started
reading Trees, Truffles, and Beasts: How Forests
Function, I saw it as part of my eternal search for
books to use with undergraduate biology seminars.
At first the philosophy of ecology the authors present
made me hesitate to use their book, but I am slowly
getting over it. It might make for even better
discussions.
Mycorrhizal interactions between fungi and plants,
animals eating fungi and thereby dispersing fungal
spores, and coevolution among the three groups of
creatures provide a thread unifying the three books.
The creatures involved are presented in the first
chapter, “The Forest We See” and the last large
chapter, “Of Lifestyles and Shared Habitats”. The
descriptions of predominant species in both regions
are done in a way comparing animals, plants, and
fungi in terms of niches, which allows direct
comparison of the two communities. Re-reading
these sections before the next International Botanical
Congress in Melbourne will definitely be worthwhile!
Three chapters about mycophagy, including one on
coevolution and one about the importance of fungi
in the diets of animals that eat them along with a
short summary of ecosystem services provided by
mycophagy, begin the book’s midsection. Having
spent a fair amount of time foraging for chanterelles
in Oregon I was aware of generalities of these
topics, but the detailed natural history in these
chapters added a great deal to my understanding
of this interaction.
However, the two chapters coming next, about
landscape patterns, fire, succession, and habitat
dynamics, are the gems that make the book
worthwhile. After broad description of fire in forests,
the authors summarize the fire histories of the two
regions, examine several cases in detail, and then
talk about the fungal and specifically mycorrhizal
responses to disturbance. I have never encountered
such a nicely written and engaging discussion of
succession from a fungal point of view and organized
around the role of fungi in the community’s response
to disturbance. These two chapters are strong,
informative, and enlightening. They tend to make
me forgive the book’s less pleasant aspects.
On a technical note, one of those less pleasant
aspects is the bibliography. Too many of the citations
are wrong, even those of the authors’ own
publications. Many of the papers I tried to look up
either had incorrect page numbers or the volume
numbers given did not match the years. Several
times this was obvious without going to the library
because the beginning page number was higher
than the ending page number.
The aspect of the book that bothered me the most,
though, is a philosophy of ecology (and evolution)
sprinkled throughout every topic. I could not decide
whether I was reading a later-day revival of
Clementsian ideas about communities and
ecosystems or a subtle advocacy of Gaia. Repeated
suggestions that evolution works for the greater
good, and possibly intentionally and directionally,
pop up in almost every chapter. I do not know
whether the authors share this inclination, but many
of my students would find this aspect of the book
supportive of sentimental and even spiritual ideas
about nature. Maybe I am over-reacting to a very
strong emphasis upon coevolution, but I would
hesitate to offer such ideas within a scientific treatise.
Still, the section on fire ecology is very good, and my
mid-western students could always use exposure
to the ecology of other climates and continents.
Perhaps they are ready for discussions about the
philosophy of ecology that could grow out of this
book along with the particular content that the authors
present so well.
- Chester Wilson, Department of Biology, University
of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN.
The Curious World of Carnivorous Plants: A comprehensive guide to their
biology and cultivation, by Wilhelm Barthlott, Stefan Porembski, Rüdiger
Seine, Inge Thiesen [Translated by Michael Ashdown]. Timber Press: Portland.
224 pages, 158 illustrations, 2 maps. ISBN-13: 9780881927924, ISBN-10: 0881927929.
US$39.95.
This is an exquisite book, truly covering both biology and cultivation of carnivorous
plants. It provides an up-to-date review of scientific work on these plants,
much of it done by the authors. It also contains a lot of obscure older references.
The photos are remarkable. While not particularly artistic—there are no
gorgeous panoramas with these plants, as can be found in other recent volumes,
such as Stewart McPherson's Pitcher Plants of the Americas—Barthlott
et al. provide photos with such lush detail that you can really begin to understand
the intricacies of these plants.
This book begins with curious and far-ranging history that covers everything
from the first suspicions of carnivory, to the not-so-subtle sexual innuendo
in the binomial of the Venus flytrap, to Charles Darwin, and molecular systematics.
After a short digression into distributions and diversity, the authors move
on to six lovely chapters on how carnivorous plants make a living: attracting,
trapping, and digesting their meals, sometimes with the help of other organisms.
After another short digression into conservation and cultivation, the book launches
into chapters on each family of carnivorous plant, although the terms “carnivorous”
and “plant” are used liberally.
The book is filled with fascinating details. Although Darwin titled his seminal
monograph Insectivorous Plants, many carnivorous plants have diets composed
of things other than insects or even other arthropods. Although it will hardly
surprise anyone that bladderworts (Utricularia) eat rotifers (which
curiously do not appear in the index), they also eat mollusks and protists,
including algae. Many carnivorous plants eat a fair amount of pollen, with some
butterworts (Pinguicula) making up 70% or more of their catch in pollen.
Barthlott, who has done much work with epiphytic cacti, also highlights epiphytic
carnivorous plants. Utricularia reniformis can grow epiphytically on
tussocks of grass. Utricularia nelumbifolia and U. humboldtii
grow epiphytically in the water-filled rosettes of bromeliads, where they can
spread vegetatively from bromeliad to bromeliad, including the carnivorous bromeliad
genus Brocchinia. Some Nepenthes and Pinguicula species
are also epiphytes, including P. lignicola, which only grows on pines.
The authors also report some amazing observations about longevity of single
flowers. Utricularia meziesii in cultivation had a single flower that
was open for over two months! If unpollinated, some female flowers of Nepenthes
can remain viable for several weeks.
This book is, however, not without problems. The authors use archaic terminology.
Describing taxa as primitive or advanced—instead of ancestral and derived—carries
too much pejorative baggage. Contrary to standard usage for at least a quarter
century, the authors consider lichens and fungi to be plants. The authors use
the term "precarnivorous" for plants that do not meet all their criteria
for carnivory, such as bromeliads that catch and kill insects in cisterns (pitchers)
but do not have digestive enzymes, instead relying on bacteria for digestion.
This is like saying that termites do not eat wood or cows do not eat grass because
they rely on microbes for their digestion. Furthermore, the term precarnivorous
is a teleological nightmare in that it needlessly implies that descendants of
these plants will evolve what the authors call true carnivory.
The authors assert correctly that carnivorous leaves and (non-carnivorous) flowers
use the same mechanisms to attract insects. They then claim that carnivorous
plants have tall inflorescences to keep pollinators from being eaten. This is
a too adaptationist—and untested. Moreover, the cosmopolitan Drosera
rotundifolia has relatively short inflorescences.
Disturbingly, this book does not contain information on ISBN, year of publication,
place of publication, or information on who did the translation from the 2004
German text. I had to go to the publisher¹s website for most of this information,
although I still could not easily locate the year of publication. Lack of information
on the translator is particularly disturbing because of errors in botanical
nomenclature (e.g., Discocactus horstii absorbs water via spines, not
thorns) and failure to detect silly errors, such as in the etymology of Heliamphora,
and confusion between figures 26 and 27. There is also the odd production maneuver
of filling up blank space with uncaptioned repeats of photos that have been
used elsewhere in the book. I am not sure if lack of care with production is
attributable to Timber Press, the last great independent North American botanical
publisher, having been recently acquired by Storey and Workman Publishing. However,
such essential information, especially full credit to the translator, needs
to be given.
Regardless of these shortfalls, this is a superb book, at a reasonable price,
that beautifully covers both biology and horticulture of a group of plants that
have fascinated people for centuries.
- Root Gorelick, Ph.D., Department of Biology and School of
Mathematics & Statistics, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel
By Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1S 5B6 Canada
Duke’s Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the Bible.
Duke, James A. with Peggy-Ann K. Duke and Judith
L. duCellier. 2008. ISBN 978-0-8493-8202-4 (Cloth
US$89.95) 528 pp. CRC Press/Taylor & Francis
Group, LLC. 6000 Broken Sound Parkway, NW,
Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487
Duke’s Handbook of Medicinal Plants of the Bible
attempts to present a range of Biblical plants and
their pharmaceutical uses. In doing so, the author
is only partly successful.
The book opens with extensive introductory
material, including charts of the many, many
abbreviations used throughout the text. This
introduction also includes a less-than-professional
multi-page diatribe against large pharmaceutical
companies and current medical practice. The
author should be free to state his objections, but
they should come in a more professional voice. He
also uses the term “Farmaceuticals” which the
reviewer found rather offputting.
The main section of Duke’s Handbook of Medicinal
Plants of the Bible then proceeds from one plant to
the next, providing ample discussion of what exaxt
species might match the terms used in Scripture.
Common names, ethnopharmacological uses in
(sometimes many cultures), etc. are listed, with
heavy reliance on the abbreviations tables from the
front of the book for references and other explanatory
information.Toxicity, dosing, and natural history of
the particular species follows in each entry.
One particularly odd aspect of these entries is the
translations of the Bible which the author uses—
each entry has a relevant verse or verses from up
to three translations: the King James Version, the
Revised Standard Version, and the New World
Translation. These are given to help in identifying
the Biblical term with a modern Latin name. Why
use three derivative English translations? True, the
author does discuss words from the original, but
why not give at least something as old as the
Vulgate or Septuagint? Failing that, the most
immediate translation into English from those
sources, the Douay-Rheims. Using original texts
or translations only one step removed from them
would certainly give a more accurate identification.
While there is a true wealth of information here
which might be of use to ethnopharmacologists
and bioprospectors, the very long lists of uses and
the heavy reliance on many, many abbreviations
are sure to make this book cumbersome to use. It
deserves a place in university and some
professional libraries, but may not find as wide as
use as it might.
- Douglas Darnowski, Department of Biology, Indiana
University Southeast
Edible Medicines: An Ethnopharmacology of Food. Etkin, Nina
L. 2008. ISBN 978-0-8165-2748-9 (Paper US$24.95) 320 pp. The University
of Arizona Press. 355 S. Euclid Avenue, Suite 103, Tucson, AZ
85719.
Nina Etkin’s Edible Medicines, reprinted from
its original (2006) hardcover edition, reflects its broad appeal,
and its value as a textbook in University courses e.g., anthropology,
economic botany or ethnobotany. Edible Medicines surveys the medicinal
properties of foods across continents and cultures. Etkin’s
status as medical anthropologist and her original work on the
pharmacologic implications of plant use are well-established with
an earlier book: Eating on the Wild Side (1994), which
she edited.
In this wide-ranging book, Etkin reveals the medicinal properties of foods
in the specific cultural contexts in which they are used. She addresses some
of the physiological effects of foods through history, taking into account the
complex dynamics of food choice. Showing that food choice is more closely linked
to health than is commonly thought, she helps us to understand the health implications
of people's food-centered actions documented with examples. Foods are set in
a global perspective e.g., we learn that most of the world population is lactose
intolerant. The social history of coffee, tea, cocoa and alcohol shows that
the invention of those beverages imparted prestige and their appeal inspired
rapid dispersal. Drawing on her research among Nigeria's Hausa people and studies
of other indigenous cultures, Etkin addresses the medicinal properties of social
foods and masticatories, e.g., kava, khat, kola.
Focal chapters with appeal to botanists are: Food in the History of Biomedicine;
Spices: the Pharmacology of the Exotic; little-discussed, Fermented Foods and
Beverages; Lives of Social Plants, foods consumed in company; Health in the
Marketplace: Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Functional Foods, and More.
The book closes with a 7 page Appendix titled Some Common Spices; 7 pages of
Notes; 36 pages of References, including both scholarly and popular sources;
a 13 page General Index; and a 5 page Scientific Index. There are 11 black and
white photos, most taken during the author’s fieldwork in Nigeria.
In her succinct analytical Conclusions, Etkin’s writing shines, as she
describes her objectives and theoretical foundations: that cultural construction
and social transaction of all aspects of food-production, transformation, circulation,
consumption-are both undergirded by, and have impact on, food culture and human
physiology. She observes the “extranutritive meaning of foods that embody
sociability or star in origin myths,” not just their phytochemical profiles,
and admires “people-food relationships that are apparent in the structure
of cuisines” and their roles in “creating and sustaining community
and identity.” Here too, Etkin points out the “rapid globalization
of some foods beyond their source areas (e.g., chocolate, chile) compared to
the sluggish radiation of others from points of origin (e.g., tomato) and the
narrow range of consumption of still others (e.g., kola and betel nuts).”
“The history of the spice trade is a series of encounters with political
and economic asymmetries: mercantile capitalism, Euromonopolies, colonialism,
wars.”
Given a subject this broad, an author cannot be an expert on
all foods, and Etkins relies heavily upon Simmoons’ Food
in China (1991). Finding the plant I know best, corrections
are wanted on p. 23, Table 1.3, Origins of Some Domesticated Plant
and Animal Foods. Sesame did not originate in Africa although
numerous authors continue to state that as fact, but on the Indian
subcontinent (Bedigian 1988, 1998, 2000, 2003a, 2003b, 2004, Bedigian
et al. 1985, 1986) bringing to attention the perils of overreliance
upon secondary sources, in this case Davidson’s Oxford
Companion to Food (1999), rather than searching the originals.
This reliance reappears on p. 89 in the section A Cultural History
of Spices, where inexplicably, Etkin wrote, “United States,
Canada and Europe are significant sources of sesame seed”
when in fact, China (825,531 MT) and India (620,000 MT) are the
world’s principal producers (IPGRI 2004). Myanmar, Sudan,
Uganda, Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia (exceeding Bangladesh, and
displacing Thailand from the top 10 in 2005), and Central African
Republic, are other major sesame growing countries (FAO Economic
and Social Department 2005; IPGRI 2004). Here and there one can
find a typo, e.g., Hamid Dirar (p 252).
- Dorothea Bedigian, Research Associate, Missouri
Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO
Literature Cited
Bedigian, D. 1988. Sesamum indicum L.
(Pedaliaceae): Ethnobotany in Sudan, crop diversity,
lignans, origin, and related taxa. In: P. Goldblatt and P.P. Lowry,
eds. Modern Systematic Studies in African Botany 25: 315-321.
AETFAT Monographs in Systematic Botany, Missouri Botanical Garden,
St. Louis, MO.
Bedigian, D. 1998. Early history of sesame cultivation
in the Near East and beyond. Pages 93-101 In: A.B. Damania,
J. Valkoun, G. Willcox and C.O. Qualset, eds. The Origins of Agriculture
and Crop Domestication. The Harlan Symposium. ICARDA, Aleppo.
http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/publications/HTMLPublications/47/ch07.htm#bm4-Early%20History%20of%20Sesame%20Cultivation%20in%20the%20Near%20East%20and%20Beyond%20D.%20Bedigian
Bedigian, D. 2000. Sesame. Pages 411-421 In: K.F. Kiple and C.K.
Ornelas-Kiple, eds. The Cambridge World History of Food,
Vol. I. Cambridge University Press, NY.
Bedigian, D. 2003. Evolution of sesame revisited: domestication,
diversity and prospects. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution
50: 779-787.
Bedigian, D. 2003. Sesame in Africa: origin and dispersals.
Pages 17-36 In: K. Neumann, A. Butler and S. Kahlheber, eds. Food,
Fuel and Fields - Progress in African Archaeobotany. Africa Praehistorica.
Heinrich-Barth-Institute, Cologne.
Bedigian, D. 2004. History and lore of sesame in Southwest
Asia. Economic Botany 58(3): 329-353.
Bedigian, D., D.S. Seigler and J.R. Harlan. 1985. Sesamin,
sesamolin and the origin of sesame. Biochemical Systematics
and Ecology 13: 133-139.
Bedigian, D., C.A. Smyth and J.R. Harlan. 1986. Patterns
of morphological variation in sesame. Economic Botany
40: 353-365.
Davidson, A. 1999. The Oxford Companion to Food.
Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Etkin, N.L., ed. 1994. Eating on the Wild Side, the Pharmacologic,
Ecologic and Social Implications of Using Noncultigens.
University of Arizona Press, Tucson/London.
FAO Economic and Social Department. Statistics Division. 2005.
Major Food and Agricultural Commodities Producers, Sesame. http://www.fao.org/es/ess/top/commodity.html?lang=en&commodity=289&year=2005
[most recent data posted]
IPGRI. 2004. Descriptors for Sesame (Sesamum spp.). International
Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy. http://www.ipgri.cgiar.org/publications/pdf/246.pdf
Simmoons, F.J. 1991. Food in China: A Cultural and Historical
Inquiry. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.
Gardens, City Life and Culture. Conan, Michel and
Chen Whangheng (eds.) 2008. ISBN 978-0-88402-
328-9 (Paper US$40.00) 274 pp, 33b/w illustrations,
80 color photographs. Harvard University Press, 79
Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Gardens, City Life and Culture is a critical exploration
of public garden spaces through history. It shows
that gardens have profoundly influenced the cultural
development and social life in many world capitols.
Gardens have provided an opportunity to break
social barriers, and to enact in public, behavior once
unseemly. Gardens permit the presentation of self
in everyday life, and play a role in transformation of
culture, mores and lifestyles. The collection surveys
gardens from ancient Roman Pompeii through the 20th century, in China, India, Constantinople, Genoa,
Paris, Vienna and the United States. Pertinent to all
those involved in urban planning, it examines the
dire lack of a municipal garden policy in modern
Beijing and Marrakech. Exhaustive reviews of park
and garden planning reveal the successes and
failings of different policies in Stockholm, Tokyo,
Kerala India, historic Suzhou China, and three US
“New Towns” of the 1960s.
Arranged more or less chronologically, the contents
appear in two sections: Historical Contributions of
Gardens to City Life, and Gardens in Modern Cities.
A significant contribution of this tome is that it draws
together and makes accessible in English, new
literatures from many different languages: Arabic,
Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese,
Spanish, and Swedish; the Ottoman bibliography
includes four works translated from Armenian into
Turkish and in one case, Italian. The contents are
many and varied; limited space allows comment on
only a few.
Gardens and Garden life in Pompeii in the First
Century AD reviews the varieties of social roles
gardens played in Pompeii, in temples, public
baths, food, gardens for dead, religious worship,
and mystery cults, involving perfume, incense,
libations or blood sacrifice.
Royal Gardens and City Life in Paris (1643—1789)
by Editor Michael Conan argues for the promotion
by gardens of new mores and breaches in previously
accepted social norms, blurring social differences:
Abbeys flirt with women, new permissive gender
relations, encouraged development of fashion and
conspicuous consumption, illicit sexual activities,
fostered social movements, existing norms of civility
were challenged by the social forces they repressed.
Garden Sociability in Eighteenth-Century Ottoman
Istanbul points out that women were “seldom visible
in mostly male recreational universe of taverns and
coffeehouses.” Garden visits allowed “complete
collapse of gender boundaries triggered by a
frivolous gaze, or by the location of a swing.” Its
spotlight on public fountains - a focal point, around
which all activities converged, reminds this reader
of resemblances to similar settings around wells in
other cultures, in Sudan and Yemen, where women
are secluded. There girls, usually sheltered, were
able to converse with unknown men. The sources
provided here include writings of the famous 17th c
Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi and his Armenian
counterpart, Eremya Çelebi. Readers gain insight
into the evolution of mosque gardens and
refurbishment of old imperial gardens- the passage
from courtly to urban.
The Shanghai Gardens in Transition from the
Concessions to the Present Times points out “As
leisure entertainment moved from an essentially
agricultural focus on seasonal festivals to weekly or
daily recuperative activities, the for-profit garden
also hastened the transformation of its space from
a localized phenomenon marked by class hierarchy
and centered on family to open public
space…dominated by market consumption.” The
section Medium for Importation of Western Culture
indicates Shanghai was at the vanguard of
Westernization. After 1860, all Chinese and foreign
commodities were assembled there. For-profit
gardens utilized every kind of entertainment to entice
consumers with an eye on profit, and to parade the
new. Besides flower and moon viewing, they offered
billiards, dancing, magic and circuses. Display of
foreign rarities, e.g., an exhibition of electric lights
spurred the spread of electric lights in that city. In
1896, before the arrival of a cinema house, films
were screened at Xu Garden. Zhang Garden used
scenic sites for souvenir outdoor photography, as
well as for banquets, meetings with friends, birthday
parties and weddings, “for the powerful and for
prostitutes.” Exceptional illustrations are included,
e.g., a scenic railway built by the foreign circus, and
Lamp Boats. An anti-Russian Congress was held
there – outside the control of the Qing court, it was
the site of special public gatherings and public
speeches. Urban gardens, born from the pollution,
congestion and turbulence that accompanied the
Industrial Revolution in the latter 19th c functioned to
improve the quality of the urban environment. Urban
forests were the “green lungs of Shanghai.”
Part I closes with the review Parks, Parkways, and
Suburban Communities: Frederick Law Olmsted
and the Modern Metropolis, and the view that the grid
was an unfortunate choice for a city plan. Part II
opens with Swedish Mid-Century Utopia: Park
Design as a Tool for Society Improvements. It points
out that in agricultural societies, men and women
shared work responsibilities and made mutual
economic contributions. Industrialization ruined the
gender balance; now men have greater
responsibilities to contribute financial support.
Women were tied at home, and this created
economic dependency.
Cities in the Garden: American New Towns and
Landscape Planning, features Reston VA,
Columbia MD and Irvine CA. The findings disclose
that despite the planners’ intent, designed cities
such as Reston VA and Columbia MD did not lead
to decreased auto use. With no viable transit
alternative, an internal bus system that barely
functions, planning has failed to diminish the
American love affair with automobiles. Irvine CA has
traffic problems as serious, perhaps worse than
other new towns. “Convenient schools, shopping
and community centers are primarily patronized by people arriving in cars. As in the other new towns,
the environmental ethic has not transformed daily
lives of individuals in any appreciable manner.”
I was deeply moved reading Marrakech: An
Ecological Miracle and its Wanton Destruction (1071-
2000 AD), Mohammed el Faïz’ powerful petition for
its preservation and exposé of its annihilation. It
reminded me of another, the totally ruined historic
10th century Armenian capitol, Ani http://
www.virtualani.org/history/part1.htm. Marrakech is
the only city in Morocco to be classified by UNESCO
as a World Heritage site for both its physical
environment [akin to Ani], and its cultural riches.
Urbanizing tendencies of the last two decades are
dooming Marrakech’s ecological heritage. They
have sapped the basis of its ecosystem and threaten
to destroy it in short order. There were powerful
causes such as sharp rise in population and urban
development. Now, the Medina has lost all the
traditional park space of its historic legacy: gardens
paved over; paving of streets and plazas smothered
the root systems, causing many trees to die. I
observed these changes myself, during three visits:
1995, 1996 and 2000. Human negligence, i.e.
through uncontrolled urbanization, appears in two
photographs: Fig. 8, The Triumphant Desert, and
Fig. 9, The Time of Vandalism. Invoking the Hanging
Gardens of Babylon, “Countless gardened
enclosures have been destroyed through human
negligence.” “To stop this degradation, each
individual needs to view the whole planet as a
garden and to act in harmony with nature and not
against it. Loss of cultural inheritance is irreversible.”
Appropriate to so many world regimes, el Faïz
concludes: No remedy in the world can cure a
ravaged national conscience or restore to a nation
its lost garden art.”
The Promenades and Public Parks of Tokyo: A
Tradition Permanently Reinvented shows “beyond
the rupture of the ancient balance and the apparent
disorder of its megalopolitan development, Tokyo
demonstrates a capacity to regenerate itself from
principles of engagement with space and nature
issuing from a deep-rooted cultural matrix.”
Horticulturalists may be especially interested in
Ecological and Socioeconomic Dimensions of
Home Gardens of Kerala, India. Kerala, compared
with other states of India, is distinctive in its village
system. Gardens feature the agrosilvopastoral
approach, combining herbaceous crops, woody
perennials and animals. Using the authors’ phrase,
‘Homegardens’ play a negligible role in conservation
of wild species outside protected areas. However,
they serve as informal experiment stations for
transfer, trial and adaptation of domesticated
species and a “genetic backstop” for preserving
species not economic in field production and planted
in small scale for taste preference, tradition or
available planting materials. World over, of
approximately 300 major vegetables, 200 are
produced in homegardens, while only 20 in field
cultivation. Addressing the role of women in
homegarden management, the drastic transition
from subsistence to cash crop monocultures will
increasingly marginalize women. The authors
conclude that traditional homegardens in Kerala
help conserve crop diversity and reduce pressure
on local national forests as sources of fuel, fodder
and medicinal plants. They observe a shift in
multiple crop patterns toward monocropping. There
is a growing disinterest among farmers toward
long gestation tree crops. There is a lack of solid
research data of the ecological properties of plant
components of homegardens, particularly trees,
the economics of homestead farming, resource
management and utilization. The authors argue
this will be possible only when the same priority is
given to resources of homegardens, as is given to
control pests and diseases of cash crops and to
breeding new varieties of rice.
This substantial volume has a nine page index, and
illustrated generously with color and black and
white photographs, aerial photographs, drawings,
engravings, miniature paintings, other paintings,
and garden site plans. It will appeal to city planners,
environmentalists, historians, landscape architects
and preservationists. Resembling other
publications in this series printed on high quality
paper stock, it is well-bound, as warranted by its
weight.
- Dorothea Bedigian, Research Associate, Missouri
Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO
Timber Press Pocket Guide to Palms. Riffle,
Robert Lee. 2008. ISBN 978-0-88192-776-4 (Flex
US$19.95) 244 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 S.W.
Second Avenue, Suite 450. Portland, OR 97204-
3527.
The Timber Press Pocket Guide to Palms by Robert
Lee Riffle presents itself as a guide for gardeners
who want to identify palms, either those commonly
cultivated or some few deserving, in the author’s
opinion, wider cultivation. The now-deceased author
was an authority in horticulture, particularly on
palms in cultivation.
Certainly the book is very complete, both in terms
of the large number of species, even those rarely cultivated, and in terms of the information provided
for each species. This list includes wild distribution,
habit, number of trunks, crown shaft presence/
absence, leaf details, flower structure, fruit edibility
and description, growth rate, climatic requirements,
sun exposure requirements/tolerances, soil
preference, water needs, salt tolerance, possibility
of indoor cultivation, seed germination parameters,
and a descriptive paragraph. All of these listings
follow an introductory chapter on the botany and
horticulture of palms. The images are uniformly
pleasant and useful, though not masterful, with
many needing more contrast to highlight important
details (for example, see p. 72 and the photo there
of Caryota gigas).
There are some deficiencies. This is supposed to
be a “pocket” guide, but it would take an enormous
pocket to hold it, so taking this book and a notebook
through a garden might be more awkward than
needed. Given the nature of the photographs, a
smaller, truly pocket-sized edition might have been
a better option. In addition, the great majority of the
photographs of plants in cultivation are taken in the
US, while more photographs from outside the US
would probably give the book more of an
international appeal. Finally, and this may just be
the reviewer’s own personal reaction, the book is
full of annoying, personal reactions to particular
plants, methods of pruning dead leaves, etc. Not so
surprising in a horticultural book, but still not always
needed.
This would be a useful work for horticulturists,
university libraries, and gardeners in warmer zones
where many palms are within reach, climatically.
- Douglas Darnowski, Department of Biology, Indiana
University Southeast
Gods and Goddesses in the Garden - Greco-
Roman Mythology and the Scientific Names of
Plants. Peter Bernhardt. Rutgers University Press.
239 pp. ISBN 0-8135-4266-9.
The title of this short, but pleasant addition to one’s
collection of reference books certainly makes it
clear what is covered. What is not immediately
known from the title is exactly how the author will
approach the subject. In fact, there could be a
question about whether this book is intended for
serious, well-versed botanists or for non-scientists,
non-botanists who just like plants, just like
mythology, or just like the etymology of plant names.
Bernhardt has done a good job of balancing his
approach and a non-scientist might find the volume
a bit more detailed than he or she wants, and a hard
core botanist might find the treatment a bit simplistic
(especially the introductory Chapter 1 (“In the
Cyclop’s Orchard: The Why and How of Scientific
Names”), so presumably the balance is just right.
The book could easily “teach” a lay person some
basic features of plant taxonomy (and taxonomy in
general) rather painlessly as the reader moves
through the first two chapters to get to the core
chapters (3 through 7). Certainly the seven-page
glossary could be very helpful to the lay reader.
The organization and titles of the chapters are part
of the charm of the book and one instantly wonders
what information will be found under the chapter
titles (e.g., “Mortal Monarchs and Monsters,” and,
“Troy and Its Aftermath”) and the numerous chapter
subtitles (e.g., “Chaste or Constant Nymphs,”
“Meleager and the Fates,” and “The Interrupted
Voyage of Odysseus”). The small book is filled with
interesting (fascinating, perhaps) tidbits about the
gods, goddesses, demigods, and humans
associated with some of the botanical names. Just
one example of historical trivia that some potential
readers might appreciate (as I certainly did) was the
fact that “Greek and Roman herbalist would not
gather peony roots or seeds by day. They believed
that if Hades saw them, the underworld god would
send a woodpecker to pick out their eyes!” Now, if
perchance you were not already aware of the quarrel
between Hades and Asclepius and did not know the
role of Paeonius in the story you would not fully
appreciate the quoted historical factoid. I was
certainly aware of none of this and thoroughly
enjoyed gaining some erudition rather painlessly
as I read through this delightful volume. For those
more interested in sex and incest, Berhardt provides
some of that as, for example, in the tale of Myrrha and
King Cinyras (sex, drugs, attempted murder, and a
strange birth of handsome Adonis – wow!). In terms
of the humans mentioned there are also interesting,
sometimes humorous comments on the botanists
who did the science and chose the names. The
author’s approach has created an interesting
reference work that does not read with page-turning
excitement of a murder mystery, but is a very
enjoyable romp through a lot of mythology, a lot of
botanical history, and a lot of science including the
chemistry of interesting plant compounds.
The rather narrow (esoteric?) focus of this book
presumably would not lead to massive sales and
if that is indeed the case, it is too bad. Because it
would be wonderful to see the book succeed well
and appear in a new, heavily illustrated version. I’ve
underscored the word “heavily” because ideally it
would be fantastic to have many photos of the plants
mentioned and many illustrations of works of art
portraying the mythology stories recounted in the
book. This would be a much larger and much more
expensive book but what a gem it would be. Perhaps an online version would be the cost effective way to
bring some visual richness to the trove of information
that Bernhardt has compiled. The rather minimal
illustrations that are provided were for the most part
the only thing I did not like about this otherwise
simply delightful addition to my library. On the other
hand, the jacket illustration of Hyacinth from “Flora’s
Feast” (1892) by Walter Crane is an absolutely
charming and appropriate piece of art to adorn the
cover of this delightful reference work.
- Russell L. Chapman, Center for Marine Biodiversity
and Conservation, Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, UCSD, La Jolla, California.
The Origins of Genome Architecture. Lynch,
Michael. 2007. ISBN 978-0-87893-484-3 (cloth
US$59.95) 494 pp. Sinauer Associates, Inc. P.O.
Box 407, Sunderland MA 01375-0407.
This is a truly remarkable book, which will forever
change your view of evolutionary biology. Anyone
with even tangential interest in evolution needs to
read the preface, epilogue, and especially the fourth
chapter on population size. Lynch takes a detailed
knowledge of molecular genetics and genomics,
combined with a refined fluency in population
genetics, to create sound sweeping descriptions
and predictions about evolution.
Lynch shows how modern genomic data imply that
large eukaryotes - e.g. plants and animals - are
largely immune from selection. Drift and mutation
are much more salient drivers of their evolution,
virtually mocking adaptationist explanations.
Empirically, he shows how small effective population
size also results in reduced recombination,
increased linkage disequilibrium, greater genetic
hitchhiking, and increased mutation rates. By
contrast, with small eukaryotes with few cell types,
selection reigns supreme. This does create tension.
Rich Lenski pioneered experimental evolution in
prokaryotes, a field that others have expanded to
protists and fungi, showing that selection drives
evolution of large populations. For better or worse,
Lynch shows that such results cannot be
extrapolated to larger, more complex eukaryotes.
He thereby resurrects Sewall Wright¹s early vision
that drift matters. Botanists need to heed his words
and stop always looking for adaptationist
explanations. For example, why are angiosperm
radiations invariably thought to be adaptive?
Evolutionary botanists need to look elsewhere for
answers, especially to the roles of gene duplications,
where polyploidy is the most dramatic case, in
driving drift, mutation, linkage, epistasis and
pleiotropy.
This book is not aimed at botanists. In fact, Lynch
knowledgeably covers all life and even life¹s
progenitors. The chapter on gene duplications,
which are prevalent in plants, will probably be most
useful to plant scientists, especially his discussions
of neo- and sub-functionalization, which is greatly
strengthened by Keith Adams¹ beautiful work on
reciprocal epigenetic silencing of homeologous
genes in cotton.
Alex Haley¹s Autobiography of Malcolm X was
ironically not an autobiography. Charles Darwin¹s
Origin of Species was ironically not about the origin
of species. Lynch follows in this grand tradition. His
book is not is much about the origins of genome
architecture, but rather about ramifications of that
architecture to evolutionary trajectories.
The only faults that I could find with this book are
extremely minor. More extensive coverage of
epigenetic effects would have been nice. His
discussion of centromeres omitted mention of
karyotypic fission and perpetuated the inaccurate
suggestion that only one of four products of meiosis
survives in most female organs (cf Ed Klekowski¹s
wonderful diagrams of angiosperm
megagametophytes, which show more than just
the textbook Polygonum type). While Lynch¹s index
is moderately good, a more comprehensive index
would be a great addition to any revision.
This is not a book for the meek. The genetic and
population genetic details, while accessible, are
still extraordinarily rich in detail. Many of the
arguments are cumulative throughout the volume.
But it is worth the effort wading through these
details, which, while important in their own right,
add up to an expected synthesis that selection is not
the primary driver of plant (or animal) evolution.
Casting the hand-waving aside, Lynch shows that
it is only by looking at the details of genome
architecture and associated population genetics
that we can really see how important non-adaptive
evolutionary explanations can be. While most
botanists abhor mathematics, it is worth trying to
understand the nicely presented and simplified
mathematics herein. Read Lynch¹s book, have your
students read it, and let¹s revise our views of
evolution.
- Root Gorelick, Department of Biology, Carleton
University, Ottawa, Ontario K1S
5B6 Canada.
Fruits and Plains: The Horticultural Transformation
of America. Philip J. Pauly. 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0-
674-02663-6. 337 pages. Harvard University Press;
Cambridge Massachusetts.
“Fruits and Plains” is a deceptively simple title for a
book that covers a wide range of horticultural
subjects and geographic areas from the time of the
arrival of Europeans in North America to the present.It seems that the urgent challenges of today such as
invasive species have been with us from the
beginning. Pauly reviews the wide variety of
approaches that have been taken to the culture of
plants through introduction, breeding and control.
His goal was to show how difficult it is to understand
contemporary environments without knowledge of
the past. He makes many important connections
through time and space that would never have
occurred to me and I feel that he has succeeded in
achieving his goal in this extremely readable book.
In the early days of the United States, little value was
placed on native plants for food or aesthetics. As
European settlers began to colonize, every effort
was made to maintain the familiar diet, gardens and
culture of their native lands and there began their
often unsuccessful attempts to contend with the
perceived imperfections of climate and growing
conditions they found.
One of the most interesting threads woven
throughout the whole book is that apparently
unrelated events can cause unexpected and lasting
changes in the landscape. For example, George
Washington fought and kept the British contained in
a small area north of Delaware for several years
therefore the British and Hessian soldiers had no
access to the food needed to keep their horses and
cattle alive. Large quantities of grass were shipped
from all over Europe and the first invasive species
called the Hessian fly arrived from the Mediterranean
where it was so uncommon as to be unnoticed.
Once introduced in New York it proved to have a
devastating affect on the growth of wheat, a most
basic food of life. Responding to such a crisis in a
new country where horticulture was mainly the
passion of amateurs and naturalists greatly
increased the importance of the plant scientist
throughout the many of investigation of this pest that
followed. Ultimately an unexpectedly large part of
the federal and state government has therefore
come to be dedicated to the culture and control of
food and forage crops.
Fruit establishment in America proved to be
unexpectedly challenging. Early horticulturists,
mostly in Massachusetts, felt sure that just as
humans had adapted to the change in continent, the
fruits they had become so accustomed to in Europe
should do so as well. They failed to account for the
very long time frame that had ultimately led to the
success of fruit culture in Europe. For example,
strawberries presented a challenge to early North
American breeders but by the 1850s an apparently
mediocre, but marketable product was available.
Early attempts at grape (and therefore wine) culture
continually failed as fungi and climate played their
part.
In addition to providing historical perspective on
botanical and horticultural issues, Pauly provides
many interesting details about the individuals who
have been passionately involved with plants. He
demonstrates the importance of beliefs, attitudes
and even the social standing in plant culture. He
traces the beginnings of federal programs to Patent
Office involvement with the spreading of new
introductions. He captures the frustration of forest
pathologists in the early 1900s who found
themselves completely unable to stop chestnut
blight and the subsequent challenges of the federal
Plant Quarantine program. The value and methods
of restricting entry of new organisms into the country
became the controversial subject it remains today.
Pauly traces the shift of the split of the horticultural
field into two groups. Those who continued to focus
on breeding and growing conditions worked mostly
in the academic world and in federal and state
agricultural offices where their decision profoundly
impact the fields of agriculture, forestry and
ornamental plant development. Those interested
in gardens shifted toward the field now called
landscape architecture where aesthetics became
the central concern, a trend that he feels ultimately
marginalized many of the botanical gardens which
had originally had a central role in international
plant commerce.
Toward the end the book does address the subject
of the plains with a fascinating discussion of the
efforts to “restore” prairie in the west. It proves to be
a tale involving people and organizations from the
citizens living near Chicago parks targeted for
restoration, to ecologists from various midwestern
Universities, the National Park Service and the
Nature Conservancy. Ultimately through federal
funding the Konza Prairie Long-term Ecological
Research site was established and currently
investigates competing views of what a natural
prairie actually is.
In this review I’ve only presented a sample of the
many interrelated topics covered in this well-written
book. The material is well-researched and 56 pages
of notes document references from a variety of
sources. There is an index, which can be very
helpful in finding specifics within chapters with
such intriguing titles as “Fixing the accidents of
American natural history”. Anyone who is interested in plants will find an engaging historical perspective
on their culture and management in this book.
- Joanne Sharpe, Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens,
Boothbay Maine
Middle East Garden Traditions: Unity and Diversity.
Conan, Michel (ed.) ISBN 978-0-88402-329-6 (Paper
US$40.00) 363 pp. Dumbarton Oaks Research
Library and Collection, distributed by Harvard
University Press, 79.Garden Street, Cambridge,
Massachusetts 02138.
It is difficult to write about Middle East Garden
Traditions without gushing superlatives. I have
been waiting for a scholarly compilation on this
subject for decades. Editor Michael Conan, former
Director of Garden and Landscape Studies,
Dumbarton Oaks admirably assembled colleagues
to execute this undertaking, which links gardens
and people of different cultures and creeds. These
chapters originated as conference proceedings
from the Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History
of Landscape Architecture, XXXI, held at the Freer
and Sackler Galleries April 2007. The resulting
commentary represents decades of research by
experts who have diligently compiled centuries of
study by others: area specialists who brought into
English a vast literature about garden history that
was previously unavailable. It presents a critical
selection, not intentionally comprehensive, of
sources on studies of gardens issued from Middle
East garden traditions. It displays erudition at the
highest order.
This account sorts out cultural connections,
variations and distinctions between gardens in the
Middle East since Roman times, and in the broader
Islamic world. Scholars supply new sources for
studies of gardens in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan,
Iran, the Ottoman world, Judea, Morocco and Moorish
Spain. They explore the interaction of conflicting
influences, the cultural reception of gardens in
religious and mystical societies, and the political
uses of gardens, presenting an astonishing range
of garden forms among diverse social groups. It
includes 56 black and white photographs, 173 color
photographs, site maps and digital reconstructions
of vanished gardens. It has an extensive, 27 page
Index covering garden terminology and botanical,
geographical and person names.
In addition, there is associated with this work, a
feature both highly unusual, in my experience, and
rich: a searchable website of expanded contents:
http://www.middleeastgarden.com. Authors of this
study have participated in it, and it currently consists
of five features: a catalog of gardens of interest for
future research referencing major scholarship or
more often, the absence of scholarly discussion of
their traces; a multicultural glossary giving a short
definition of many garden terms used in Arabic,
Hebrew, Farsi, Ottoman and Urdu; a historical
garden dictionary for Ottoman prepared by one of
the authors in the Istanbul study group for the
History of Ottoman Gardens, which brings together
all the original entries about garden and horticultural
terms found in more than 200 historical dictionaries
and technical treatises written in Ottoman or
translated from Ottoman to English; a joint
bibliography of sources and scholarly research on
gardens in the different languages used by the
authors; and an exemplary study of the historical
flora of al-Andalus with a methodological
commentary by E.García Sánchez and J.E.
Hernández Bermejo in their study of agricultural
treatises of al-Andalus. They suggest that other
scholars could engage in similar endeavors but
they will have to devise a method adapted to the
sources they are using, and it is not certain that
such rich historical sources as were found in al
Andalus will be readily available for other parts of
the world.
Having searched a series of my favorite subjects:
geographical (Armenia, Diyarbakir, Van) botanical
(jasmine, rose, eaglewood, sandalwood,) and
thematic (agriculture, irrigation, poetry), it seems
undeniably comprehensive, and pointless to identify
any single principal audience for this book. Fully
interdisciplinary, it contains broad and thorough
treatments that will enlighten many specialists in
Middle East and related regional studies, and in a
number of subject areas, including architecture,
art, geography, history, as well as botany and
horticulture.
The arrangement offers five main sections: first, the
Editor’s Introduction showing how new
developments and new questions in garden
archaeology transform our understanding of ancient
evidence and broaden the field of garden history,
3rd-14th c. New Perspectives for Garden Archaeology
contains the following articles: The Rose and the
Balsam: The Garden as a Source of Perfume and
Medicine; Soil Improvement and Agricultural
Pesticides in Antiquity; An Approach to the Visual
Analysis of the Gardens of Al-Andalus; and
Ornamental Plants in Agricultural and Botanical
Treatises from Al-Andalus.
The Political Uses of Gardens has five contributions:
Garden Strategy of the Almohad Sultans and Their
Successors (1157-1900); Princely Safavid
Gardens: Stage for Rituals of Imperial Display and
Political Legitimacy; Royal Gardens of Farahâbâd and the Fall of Shah Sultan Husayn Revisited; My
Garden is Hindustan: The Mughal Padshah’s
Realization of a Political Metaphor; Questions about
the Political Significance of Mughal Garden
Waterworks.
The next sections each hold two essays. Cultural
Receptions of Gardens includes Matrakçý Nasuh
and Evliya Çelebi: Perspectives on Ottoman
Gardens (1534-1682); and Unity and Diversity of
Mughal Garden Experiences. Critical Discussion
of Cultural Influences presents: Gardens at the
Kaðithane Commons during the Tulip Period (1718-
1730); and Rajput Gardens and Landscapes.
Exploring the Limits of Garden Traditions extends
From the Andalusí Garden to the Andalusian Garden:
Remnants and Re-Creation; to Gardens of
Afghanistan.
Testing the capability of the Advanced Search
Multilingual Vocabulary and Glossary, searching
Sesamum indicum L. under the widespread Turkish
name ‘susam’ I obtained various citations under 19
synonyms. There were no entries under other
languages. It is sensible, considering the vast
amount of material remaining to be examined
along these lines that these authorities decided to
open the web site to the public, and to encourage
other scholars to participate in its development.
One can now only wish that the regions that Editor
Conan admits were skipped involuntarily in this
volume: Mesopotamia, Egypt, ancient Persia, Iraq
and Syria will find their place in another tome of this
elegant series. Considering the value of its contents
and the giant efforts to assemble these scarce
materials, the published work, stitched solid to
strengthen the binding to support its hefty weight,
is worth every penny of its price, and belongs in
libraries of botanical gardens, horticulture institutes,
museums, universities and public libraries
worldwide.
- Dorothea Bedigian, Research Associate, Missouri
Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO
Musa Cliffortiana: Clifford’s Banana plant.
Linnaeus, Carl (Reprint and translation of the
original edition [Leiden 1736]). Translated into
English by Stephen Freer. With an introduction by
Staffan Müller-Wille. 2007. ISBN 978-3-906166-63-
6 (Cloth US$ 124.00) 264 pp. A. R. G. Gantner Verlag
K. G. Distributed by Koeltz Scientific Books, P.O. Box
1360, D-61453 Koenigstein, Germany.
Musa Cliffortiana is a very nice book which provides
much more than the title may suggest. The main
body is a facsimile of Linnaeus’s detailed
description of a banana plant (“Musa Cliffortiana”)
which flowered in 1736 in the garden of Georg
Clifford (1685–1760). Clifford was Linnaeus’s patron
for whom the 28 year old Swede officially worked as
a private physician. However, one of the main duties
of Linnaeus was to curate Clifford’s vast plant
collection at the Hartenkamp. The facsimile is
accompanied by Stephen Freer’s translation into
English. The binding is in such a way that the Latin
text of each page is on the left and its translation on
the right side of the book. This particular binding
makes the reading of both the original Latin version
and Freer’s translation rather interesting and good
fun. Two illustrations on large folded sheets – one
showing the whole plant and the other the
inflorescence with young fruits and flowers – are
reproduced to a smaller scale at the end of the text.
Facsimile and translation are preceded by a
comprehensive and thoughtful introduction by
Staffan Müller-Wille. He carefully analyzed Musa
Cliffortiana and puts it into the broader context of
Linnaeus’s work and achievements. The
introduction is accompanied by 10 figures of which
four are in color and six in b/w.
Next, a “Musa-centric” chronology gives an overview
of Linnaeus’s work on the banana plant. The
chronology starts with Linnaeus’s arrival in Holland
(13 June 1735) and it ends in 1762 with the thesis
“Fundamentum fructificationis” in which Linnaeus
speculates that Musa paradisiaca (this is the name
that Linnaeus recognized in 1753 for the plant in his
Species plantarum) is a hybrid.
The chronology is followed by a brief preface of the
translator, Stephen Freer. He discusses the history
of Linnaeus’s two private copies of Musa Cliffortiana
(one of which is the basis of Freer’s translation)
which were bought by James Edward Smith in
1784. Smith was a founding member of the Linnaean
Society of London which now holds the two copies
of the book. However, for “technical and financial”
reasons the present facsimile is produced from a
copy held by the University of Vienna Library (but this
does not reduce the value of the actual book). Freer
also highlights that Linnaeus’s publications are
largely derived from lecture-notes, and that this affects his style which is sometimes highly
rhetorical. As a result Freer notes that “... I almost felt
that I could see Linnaeus pointing to each part ... and
hear him discoursing about the details...” It is
noteworthy that this excitement and liveliness of
Linnaeus description is successfully transformed
into modern English by Freer.
The core text is not a mere translation, but Freer also
provides more than 120 notes with highly informative
background information referring to both the text,
wording, and translation and to many other aspects
such as biographical notes, other studies on Musa
and he even reports on a Musa basjoo which
produced fruit out-of-doors at Clare College,
Cambridge (UK) during a heat-wave in 2006 (this is
a note in response to Linnaeus’ note that Musa has
never grown out-of-doors in Europe).
After all of this, the reader will still find additional and
valuable bonuses: First, Linnaeus’s handwritten
notes (52 in total) are reproduced from one of his
personal copies of Musa Cliffortiana. The position
of the notes is marked in the facsimile by encircled
numbers and the handwriting is translated by Freer.
The reproduction of Linnaeus’s handwriting is not
always to scale and sometimes it is not easy to
read. Nevertheless, it is rather interesting and
fascinating to actually see how he worked. Some of
the notes are written on blank pages which were
bound opposite each printed page in Linnaeus’s
private copies. This gives an interesting glimpse on
how Linnaeus continued his work on Musa. It seems
possible that he even planned a second edition of
the book, which never appeared. However, parts of
these notes were published as corrigenda in the
Hortus Cliffortianus (1737).
This is still not the end of the book. What follows is
a bibliography of Linnaeus’s sources compiled by
Müller-Wille which again adds up to the value of the
book. And finally we find two appendices at the end
of the book. Appendix I is a reprint and translation of
Linnaeus’s Methodus which was published
separately in 1736 and which is inserted as a folded
letterpress in Linnaeus’s own copies of Musa
Cliffortiana. The Methodus perfectly accomplishes
Musa Cliffortiana, because it contains detailed
instructions on how to describe species, which
Linnaeus followed meticulously in writing Musa
Cliffortiana. Finally Appendix II – the definitive end of
the book – is the reproduction of a laudatory poem
by Johann Heinrich Jungius which is enclosed on
a loose sheet in Linnaeus’s annotated copy of
Musa Cliffortiana. The poem which consists of
eighteen elegiac couplets is handwritten
(interestingly it is Linnaeus’s own handwriting) and
translated again by Freer.
Summing up, the translation of Musa Cliffortiana is
an excellent and highly welcome attempt to
rediscover this early piece of Carl Linnaeus’s work.
Because of the successful introduction by Müller-
Wille and the fact that the translation goes far
beyond a mere English version of the Latin text, and
because of the other extras such as the reprint of
Linnaeus’s handwritten annotations, Musa
Cliffortiana is highly recommendable to a broader
audience. Everyone who is interested in Carl
Linnaeus, the history of botany and/or in the fruit,
which “is so excellently sweat that hardly any other
can be compared with it” (Musa Cliffortiana, p. 177)
will be pleased with this book. According to Müller-
Wille (p. 24) “Musa Cliffortiana was not in the first
instance produced for sale. Its purpose was rather
to serve as a present for botanical amateurs and
botanists with whom Clifford either had established
or wanted to establish exchange relations.” Here
again we can find a link to the present, because this
edition of Musa Cliffortiana certainly makes a nice
(but not cheap) present for esteemed friends and
colleagues.
– Gerhard Prenner, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3DS, UK.
Physiology and Behaviour of Plants. Scott, Peter.
2008. ISBN 0-470-85024-4 (Cloth US$170.00) 305
pp. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern
Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ,
England.
The concept of plant behavior may not be readily
apparent to most observers. While a few plants
exhibit dramatic movements such as the famous
Venus fly trap, most other plant behaviors or
movements occur at a much slower scale. One of
the overarching concepts in this book is that plants
exhibit a range of fascinating behaviors which are
based on an intriguing underlying physiology.
Author Peter Scott’s approach is to present basic
concepts of plant physiology and development in an
enthusiastic and engaging manner. While Scott
considers biochemistry, he does not use molecular
biology throughout the book in an attempt to make
it more accessible to a broad audience.
The author also believes that while plant biology is
relevant to solving global problems such as feeding
a large population, interest in the topic appears at
a historic low, and plant biology gets too little
coverage in most undergraduate biology programs. Hence, he tries to use his passion for his subject to
be an effective teacher, and his enthusiasm is
evident throughout the book.
As an example of his exuberance, I cite chapter 2
entitled: Photosynthesis: the ultimate in autotrophy.
He describes RUBISCO as the “marvel enzyme of
the universe” that supports almost all life on Earth!
The author also discusses the biochemical
elegance of photosystem II with its ability to split
water and extract the oxygen we need to breathe.
Another fascinating chapter discusses carnivorous
plants, a topic which seems to attract a great deal
of interest among introductory students. The overall
approach is to consider these organisms as highly
adapted plants that have elaborate mechanisms
that have evolved from alterations in leaf structure
that are common to all plants. In many ways,
including basic mechanisms of nutrient uptake, the
author views the carnivorous plants as similar to
non-carnivorous plants.
Given my personal interests, I particularly enjoyed
chapter 13, Plant senses and perceiving the world.
His description of shade avoidance and the role of
phytochromes in this process is very enlightening.
The subheadings in this chapter are informative
and provide a new perspective for many students on
plant biology: sensing light (sight), sensing time,
sensing touch (feeling), sensing chemicals (taste),
and sensing sounds (hearing). The last issue
seems to be a perennial topic in science fairs: do
plants respond better to Mozart or Meatloaf?
One of the clear strengths of this book are the highquality
color diagrams. The figures are simply
stunning and are a fabulous tool for learning. They
have an elegant simplicity while covering the basic
points–without being overly “busy.” For instance,
the diagram on vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza in
the chapter on mycorrhizal associations and
saprophytic nutrition provides a good explanation of
the importance of this group of fungi. Other fine
examples include the diagram on the capture of
light energy by an antenna complex and the figure
illustrating the difference between shade and sun
plants.
I enjoyed reading Physiology and Behaviour of
Plants and came away with good ideas for new
approaches to teaching topics in plant biology. The
book could be useful in a number of courses in
botany and plant biology at the freshman and
sophomore level.
- John Z. Kiss, Department of Botany, Miami
University, Oxford OH 45056
Field guide to Wisconsin sedges, An introduction to the genus Carex (Cyperaceae), by Andrew L. Hipp, illustrations by Rachel D. Davis. 2008. 265 pp. ISBN 978-029922594. $27.95 (pbk). The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI.
Carex provides many unique challenges to the serious field botanist. The extreme specialization of their floral structures means that experience with other taxa is not applicable to this genus; Carex must be learned (Catling et al. 1990). The primary resources available up to now have been rather imposing technical floras. Andrew Hipp's new field guide thus fills an important gap: it provides an introduction to Carex that is both complete enough to be of lasting value to professional botanists, and accessible enough to provide an entry point for keen amateurs.
The book begins with a ten-page overview of Carex morphology, "What is a sedge?". This section is organized around the Flora of North America (FNA, Ball and Reznicek 2002) description. Hipp quotes key lines from the FNA, each accompanied by a paragraph of further explanation. This provides the reader with a clear outline of the key features of Carex. Perhaps more importantly, the formal language used in the FNA is rendered somewhat less intimidating to budding caricologists. Indeed, Hipp refers to the FNA repeatedly throughout the book, and the two volumes complement each other nicely. The introduction briefly discusses differentiating Carex from other sedges, as well as grasses and rushes. Beginners would have benefited from an illustration of the differences among these groups, but that is perhaps beyond the scope of this field guide.
The introduction is concluded by a brief overview of Carex taxonomy. Not a great deal of depth is provided, just enough to place the genus in its evolutionary context, and introduce some of the main concepts in its Linnaean classification. This is followed by some general tips for studying sedges in the field.
Hipp proceeds with the taxonomic key and species descriptions. He emphasizes the utility of the existing classification, noting the advantages of learning to recognize the subgenera Vignea and Carex, and the many sections within each subgenus. In my experience this aspect of Carex taxonomy is too often overlooked by field botanists. With 150 species in the flora, having a logical way to partition the diversity into manageable chunks is critical in coming to terms with the genus. However, while Hipp acknowledges the value of the sectional classifications, this could be better reflected in the keys themselves. He begins with a key to the subgenera, and then provides separate keys for different combinations of species within each subgenus. Sections are indicated within the species-level keys, but I prefer keys that provide separate intra-sectional keys, as in FNA, Gleason and Cronquist (1991) or Voss (1972). This further reinforces the sectional relationships among species, at the cost of somewhat longer keys. Hipp's decision not to include intra-sectional keys may have been influenced by the fact that the species-level classification of Carex is likely to undergo some substantial rearrangement in the next decade, however.
Keys notwithstanding, the species descriptions are arranged in sections. Hipp provides interesting notes to accompany each key, section, and species, emphasizing key characters for the group, ecological relationships, or Wisconsin distribution, as appropriate. This provides considerable value, making this more than simply a scaled-back version of the FNA. I expect even experienced caricologists will find much of interest here. The notes on section Ovales, one of Dr. Hipp's specialities within the genus, provide a very welcome introduction to this most challenging group.
The second half of the book is devoted to the field guide. Here, four-fifths of the Wisconsin Carex flora is fully illustrated with excellent watercolour paintings. The artist, Rachel Davis, clearly has spent some time in the study of sedges herself, as she has done a wonderful job in capturing the fine details of perigynia and scales. Each of the species illustrated is accompanied by a full page description, including habitat preferences, similar species, and Wisconsin distribution. The extent of the coverage, and the quality of the illustrations, will allow for ready identification, at least to section, of many specimens simply by thumbing through the book.
The book concludes with two appendices. The first is a guide to the principal carices of different habitat types in Wisconsin, compiled by Theodore Cochrane. The second is a county level atlas for the Carex flora of Wisconsin. Although these are obviously of greatest interest to botanists in that area, the book as a whole is a fantastic resource for anyone working with Carex anywhere in the midwest or northeast. Indeed, I included this book in a recent Carex workshop here in Nova Scotia, and it was very popular. The students enjoyed the book well enough that I can forgive Dr. Hipp for not including the species in our local salt marshes in his treatment.
At $27.95, this book is a bargain. Any serious student of Carex will want a copy on their shelf. The species coverage make it a useful guide for carices from Minnesota to Nova Scotia, although it will be comprehensive only for Wisconsin.
- Tyler Smith
Ball, P. W. and A. A. Reznicek. 2002. Carex. Pages 254-273 in Flora of North America Volume 23: Magnoliophyta: Commelinidae (in part): Cyperaceae. Flora of North America Editorial Committee. Oxford University Press, New York.
Catling, P. M., A. A. Reznicek and W. J. Crins. 1990. Systematics and ecology of the genus Carex (Cyperaceae). Canadian Journal of Botany 68: 1405-1408.
Gleason, H. A. and A. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York.
Voss, E. G. 1972. Michigan flora part I: Gymnosperms and Monocots. Cranbrook Institute of Science, Michigan.
Flora of the
Northeast: A Manual of the Vascular Flora of New England and Adjacent
New York, by Dennis W. Magee and Harry E. Ahles. 2007.
2nd edition. ISBN 10: 1–55849–577–0; ISBN 13:
978– 1–55849–577–7 (Cloth US$95) 1264
pp. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst.
New England has been blessed with a bouquet of good floras. Without
even including single-state volumes or those limited to particular
groups like the ferns, botanists in the region have been able
to reach for Fernald’s excellent Gray’s Manual of
Botany, Gleason and Cronquist’s Manual of Vascular Plants,
Gleason’s New Britton and Brown Illustrated Flora of the
Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada or Seymour’s
Flora of New England. Still, Gleason & Cronquist (G&C)
is the only one of these that is less than 25 years old. Given
the rapidity with which plant systematics has been changing in
recent years, a new flora of the region is more than welcome.
Flora of the Northeast: A Manual of the Vascular Flora of New
England and Adjacent New York by Dennis W. Magee and the late
Harry E. Ahles has been issued in a 2nd edition (University of
Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 2007). The keys and distributional
information in this volume are primarily the work of Ahles, curator
of the University of Massachusetts herbarium who died in 1981,
but they have been assembled and revised by Magee, vice president
of an environmental consulting company, who added the descriptive
text.
For New England botanists, there is much to like about this volume.
For one thing, it focuses more closely on the six-state region
(it actually covers an area extending west to the Hudson River
and south to Long Island, outside the political bounds of the
New England states) than does G&C, which is the best of the
other floras. In trying to identify a plant in the Apiaceae, a
botanist using Magee and Ahles (M&A) would have to work through
34 genera instead of the 49 in G&C, including those like Lomatium
and Polytaenia that don’t occur east of the Great
Plains. Of course, the close geographical focus makes M&A
less useful for botanists in Minnesota, Missouri or Virginia.
The volume also includes county-level dot maps showing the range
of most species (the range of very infrequent species is described
in the text) as well as line drawings by Abigail Rorer of 995
species – at least one per genus. G&C lacks both.
Furthermore, M&A provides information on the etymology of
genus and species names, as Fernald does, and includes accents
on Latin names as an aid to pronunciation.
Family and genus descriptions are adequate. The only descriptive
information for most species is provided in the keys, but the
flora does include information on species’ wetland indicator
value, food value for people and wildlife, medicinal uses and
poisonous properties, as well as more traditional information
such as habitat and synonyms. Moreover, the volume includes a
56- page matrix to help in identifying dicots to genus and a separate
10-page matrix to help identify woody plants in winter. A welcome
addition to the 2nd edition is a CD that makes using the dicot
matrix much easier and adds images of all 624 genera.
Using the text matrix, I was unable to identify a vegetative
specimen of Diervilla lonicera, but I recognized it immediately
from among the photographs provided on the CD after narrowing
my search to the genera to which my specimen could belong, based
on its having opposite, simple, dentate leaves.
For field botanists, keys to identify specimens represent the
heart of any flora, and the keys in this one are many and excellent.
Separate artificial keys are provided for aquatic plants, parasites
and saprophytes, vines, pteridophytes, gymnosperms, scapose herbs,
herbs with opposite or whorled leaves, herbs with alternate leaves,
woody plants without leaves, woody plants with opposite or whorled
leaves, woody plants with alternative leaves and woody plants
in winter condition. The keys led to the correct identification
of herbarium and freshly collected material, including a sedge,
a composite, a legume, a fern, a lycopod and a specimen of Anemone
quinquefolia. The only problem occurred with identifying
a vegetative specimen of Myriophyllum humile; keys led
to the correct genus but could not identify the species without
flowers or fruits.
County-level distributional maps give M&A a great advantage
over G&C. However, these were not revised in the 2nd edition;
Magee says in a preface that he “lacked opportunity”
to update the maps. That is unfortunate. Magee acknowledges that
“county level distributional data are changing constantly,”
and maps for many taxa were out of date even in the first edition.
For example, Myriophyllum spicatum is not listed as a
resident species in Connecticut even though it is the most frequently
found of all milfoil species in southern New England (it is described
as “reported for CT, MA, NH, VT”). Probably it is
unfair to use a non-native species as a test case, since these
can spread so quickly, but the maps are out of date for native
species as well. The maps can be used only as a general guide
to where species occur: Zannichellia palustris does,
in fact, occur primarily along the coast and in areas with calcareous
rock in the extreme western part of the region; ignore the fact
that the map shows the species absent from Connecticut’s
Fairfield County (although specimens date at least from 1982)
and Middlesex County (specimens from 1980). Magee says in the
preface that this edition’s range maps “provide reasonable
indication of the distribution of approximately two-thirds of
the flora.” That seems like settling for too little.
The most serious problem with the region’s other floras
is that they are too old to reflect the current understanding
of the relationships among plants. This, therefore, is where M&A
could make the greatest contribution. To some degree it succeeds.
When G&C was published, there was a single genus for lycopods;
M&A divides the species among Huperzia, Lycopodiella,
Pseudolycopodiella, Diphasiastrum and Lycopodium,
in line with the arrangement accepted by the Flora of North America.
Thelypteris is placed in its own family, in accord with
FNA, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System and the Plants
database, not in the Aspleniaceae, as it was in G&C; Onoclea
and Matteuccia are in the Dryopteridaceae, as they are
in FNA and ITIS, not in the Onocleaceae, as they were in G&C.
Much taxonomy is corrected – Wolffiella floridana
becomes W. gladiata.
However, this flora fails to fully embrace modern systematics.
Magee says in a preface that production of the second edition
was motivated primarily by systematic revisions adopted since
publication of the first edition in 1999. He relies heavily on
John Kartesz of the Flora of North American project to guide his
decisions on taxonomy, and Magee writes that, in most cases, he
accepted Kartesz’s recommendations. But not in all. Magee
clearly believes older classifications in some cases are more
convenient. Families in the flora are arranged using the Englerian
system instead of what he acknowledges would be a “more
modern” approach like that taken in G&C because “it
seemed more practical to use the familiar system that is most
generally used by taxonomists and field botanists,” which
seems an odd approach even if the assumption is correct, which
is unlikely. This flora is for field botanists, Magee stresses,
and until characters recognizable in the field are identified
for groups, it is more convenient to stick with the old classification,
regardless of what molecular analyses tell us. Perhaps this is
why Stuckenia pectinata is still listed as Potamogeton
pectinatus, although both FNA and ITIS place it in Stuckenia.
Species traditionally assigned to the genus Scirpus are
retained in that genus by Magee “to promote comprehension
and convenience of use” although he does list alternative
names in the genera Trichophorum and Schoenoplectus
for some species; he doesn’t acknowledge Bolboschoenus
even though FNA recognizes it.
The primary goal for Magee was to provide “a functional
manual for the serious field botanist.” He avoided splitting
taxa into groups “lacking conspicuous distinguishing field
characteristics,” and he declined to combine taxa that can
be distinguished from each other based only on molecular analyses.
That would be “counterproductive for consistent and accurate
plant identification in the field,” Magee writes. “For
comprehension and convenience of use, I have frequently retained
concepts and names of taxonomic entities that have become well
established through usage over the years.”
Convenience is a worthy goal, but this is a flora, not a field
guide, and it presents itself as a serious reference work for
serious botanists. Serious botany, first and foremost, is not
about convenience (I would much prefer to simply stick with G&C,
frankly). A modern flora can best serve regional botanists by
embracing the new systematics, helping botanists keep up with
all the changes, reminding us of the new names and phylogenetic
relationships. This flora represents an improvement over other
available floras for the region, yet it seems to want to keep
one foot in the past, and that is unfortunate. In spite of its
imperfections, this flora will be a valuable addition to the shelf
of any New England botanist – for use both in the field
and as a reference work. I can hope only that it will continue
to improve with future editions.
- Robert S. Capers, George Safford Torrey Herbarium,
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of
Connecticut, Storrs CT 06269- 3043
Literature cited
Fernald, M.L. 1950. Gray’s Manual of Botany 8th ed. American
Book Co., Boston.
Gleason, H. A. 1952. The new Britton and Brown illustrated flora
of the northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. 3 vols.
New York Botanical Garden, Bronx.
Gleason, H.A., and A.C. Cronquist. 1991. Manual of Vascular Plants
of the Northeastern United States and Adjacent Canada. 2nd ed.
New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York.
Seymour, F. C. 1982 The flora of New England. 2nd edition. Phytologia
Memoirs 5. Plainfield, N.J.
Weeds in South Texas and Northern Texas: A Guide to identification. James H. Everitt, Robert I. Lonard, and Christopher R. Little. 222 pages, (paperback) ISBN-13: 978-0-89672-614-7, ISBN-10: 0-89672-614-2
This book is the third guide on the vegetation of the temperate-tropic of Southern Texas and Northern Mexico. The reference provides easy access to information on common weedy species of plants found in both rural and urban areas, and is intended for people working the field of agriculture. Field guides for this region of the world are scarce and while other available publications contain more taxa, species selected by the authors include those that dominate in disturbed areas, i.e. because they are weeds.
Given the predominance of agriculture throughout this region, there is a need to be able to recognize invasive species and access information on their management. This guide is of obvious value for those purposes. The appendices on important plant pathogens, their host plants, and available treatment options make this publication an especially useful resource. Descriptions or pictures of the pathogens would have been helpful given that not all readers may be familiar with plant diseases.
The book begins with a discussion on the definition, significance, and ecology of weeds. The main text is broken into three sections: Polypodiopsida, Magnoliopsida, Liliiopsida, and contains 261 colored photographs of the 189 included species arranged by families. Poaceae has the lion’s share of entries, and the detailed pictures are particularly useful for determining species. Each entry includes a description as well as notes on the ecology, pathology, and significance for selected species. There are also seven appendices, a glossary, and an index. Between the color photos and clearly executed plant descriptions the guide is very easy to use without needing to employ the glossary. Unfortunately by leaving out plant measurements in the descriptions, and not providing scale for the photos, the reader has a poor idea of the size of the plants and their critical features.
The book itself is a durable paperback (9” x 6”) able to withstand the wear and tear that comes with field work. While a little too wide for a pants pocket, the guide fits comfortably into a backpack without adding too much weight. Every page has a large blank space that could have been cut out to make the book smaller. Alternately the photographs could have been made larger. A key would be useful for beginning botanists and amateurs who are not familiar with plant family characteristics. Nevertheless, Weeds of South Texas and North Mexico would be a positive addition to the library of anyone interested in plants of this region, and doubly so for those with interests in agricultural and urban floras.
- Nathan LeClear, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Texas-Pan American.
Woody Plants of the Southeastern U.S.: A Field Botany Course on CD.
Kirchoff, Bruce. 2008. ISBN 13:978-1-930723-62-7. (CD US$27.00)
Missouri Botanical Garden Press, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, Missouri
63166-0299
Woody Plants of the Southeastern United States: A Field Botany
Course on CD provides a wonderful tool for teaching and learning
taxonomy in general as well as the specific flora mentioned in
the title. Formatted for Windows machines, the program is quite
simple. After registering, the user selects one of four options:
building a list from the available families, genera, or species;
studying the items on the list; taking a quiz; and taking a test.
Study can be with or without prompts and can be either advanced
slide-by-slide by the user or automatically advanced by the program.
The quizzes are shorter than the tests and have the display of
text prompts as an option, while tests do not.
While the CD is aimed at the Southeastern US, the families represented
include many of broader distribution which might make this CD-ROM
of interest to a wider audience in the US, Canada, and possibly
elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.
There are 55 families represented, many with multiple genera,
and each species shown has at least four high quality photographs
available, most species with more. Some even have over a dozen
photographs of various taxonomically-useful features.
It would be nice if this CD-ROM also came in Mac and Linux formats,
but given the capacities of the newer Intel-based Macs and of
various Linux tricks, that may not be an insurmountable impediment
to users of those operating systems. Buy a copy today for your
introductory class to use in practicing taxonomic features and
the quick identification of common woody plants.
- Douglas Darnowski, Department of Biology,
Indiana University Southeast
Books Received for Review
If you would like to review a book or books for PSB, the easiest
way to do so is to: highlight and copy the book details, click
on the Reviewer Requested
link to the right of the book's details and paste the information
into the email form that pops up. Remember to include your name,
University/Department, all of your mailing details and the date
by which the book will be reviewed (15 January, 15 April, 15 July
or 15 October). Alternatively, email, write or call the Editor,
including the details noted aboe, as soon as you notice the book
of interest in this list because they go quickly! - Editor (psb@botany.org,
Ph 620-341-5605)
|
Plants of Bastar Chhattisgarh: A Field Guide, Ramnath, Madhu 2006. 568 pp. The Netherlands Committee for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN-NL) |
|
|
Science and the Garden: The Scientific Basis of
Horticultural Practice, 2nd ed. Ingram, David Sl,
Daphne Vince-Prue, and Peter J. Gregory. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4051-6063-6
(Paper US$50.00) 350 pp. Wiley-Blackwell, John Wiley &
Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex.
PO19 8SQ. |
|
|
Field Guide to the Sedges of the Pacific Northwest.
Wilson, Barbara L., Richard Brainerd, Danna Lytjen, Bruce
Newhouse, and Nick Otting. 2008. ISBN 978-0-87071-197-8 (Paper
US$35.00) 432 pp. Oregon State University Press, 121 The Valley
Library, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-4501.
|
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
California’s Fading Wildfowers: Lost Legacy
and Biological Invasions. Minnich, Richard A. 2008.
ISBN 978-0-520-25353-7 (Cloth US$49.95) 360 pp. University
of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
|
|
|
Mushrooms as Functional Foods. Cheung,
Pater C.K. (ed.) 2008. ISBN 0-470-05406-2 (Cloth US$90.00)
259 pp John Wiley & Sons, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NY 07030.
|
|
|
Sonoran Desert Life: Understanding, Insights, and
Enjoyment. Rosenthal, Gerald A. 2008. 978-0-615-18671-9
(Paper US$27.95) 306 pp. University of Arizona Press, 355
S. Euclid Ave., Suite 103, Tucson, AZ 85719
|
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern
Vocation. Shapin, Steven. 2008. ISBN 0-226-75024-8
(Cloth US$29.00) 468 pp. The University of Chicago Press,
1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60637-2954
|
|
|
Natural Environments of Arizona: From Deserts to
Mountains. Ffolliott, Peter F. and Owen K. Davis.
2008. ISBN 978-0-8165-2697-0 (Paper US$19.95) 208 pp. University
of Arizona Press, 355 S. Euclid Ave., Suite 103, Tucson, AZ
85719 |
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Chocolate: Pathway to the Gods. Meredith
L. Dreiss and Sharon Edgar Greenhill. 2008. ISBN 978-0-8165-2464-8
(Cloth US$30.00) 208 pp. University of Arizona Press, 355
S. Euclid Ave., Suite 103, Tucson, AZ 85719
|
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Teaching Plant Anatomy through Creative Laboratory
Exercises. Peterson, R. Larry, Carol A. Peterson,
and Lewis H. Melville. 2008. ISBN 978-0-660-19798-2 (Spiral
US$59.95) 154 pp + CD. NRC Research Press, National Research
Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontarios K1A 0R6, CANADA
|
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
A Flora of the Liverworts and Hornworts of New Zealand,
Volume 1. Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri
Botanical Garden 110. John J. & David Glenny.
2008. ISBN 978-1-930723-67-2 (Cloth US$105.00) 897 pp. Missouri
Botanical Garden Press, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299
USA
|
|
|
Intracellular Signaling in Plants. Annual
Plant Reviews, Volume 33. Yang, Zhenbiao (ed). ISBN 1-4054-6002-0
(Cloth US$225.00) 430 pp. Wiley-Blackwell, 2121 State Avenue,
Ames, Iowa, 50014-8300.
|
|
|
Lichen Biology, 2nd ed. Nash, Thomas H.
III (ed). 2008. ISBN 978-0-521-69216-8 (Paper US$70.00) 486
pp. Cambridge University Press, 32 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10013.
|
|
|
Biology and Evolution of Ferns and Lycophytes.
Ranker, Tom A. and Christopher H. Haufler. 2008. ISBN 978-0-521-69689-0
(Paper US$70.00). 480 pp. Cambridge University Press, 32 Avenue
of the Americas, New York, NY 10013.
|
|
|
Burdock. Malcolm, Janet. 2008. ISBN 978-0-300-12861-1
(Cloth US$65.00) 28 pp. Yale University Press, 302 Temple
Street, New Haven, CT, 06529-9040. |
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Plant Biochemistry. Bowsher, Caroline,
Martin Steer, Alyson Tobin. 2008. ISBN 0-8153-4121-0 (Paper
US$) 446. Garland Science, Taylor & Francis Group, 270
Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. |
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Plant Form: An Illustrated Guide to Flowering Plant
Morphology. Bell, Adrian D. 2008. ISBN 978-0-88192-850-1
(Cloth US$49.95) 444 pp. Timber Press, Inc. 133 S.W. Second
Avenue, Suite 450, Portland, OR 97204-3527. |
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Tea Roses: Old Roses for Warm Gardens.
Chapman, Lynne, Noelene Drage, Di Durston, Jenny Jones, Hillary
Merrifield, Billy West. 2008 (ISBN 9781877058677 (Cloth US$59.95)
240pp Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd., P.O. Box 6125, Dural
Delivery Centre NSW 2158, Australia. |
|
|
Physiology and Behaviour of Plants. Scott, Peter. 2008. ISBN 0-470-85024-4 (Cloth US$170.00) 305 pp. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, England. |
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Plants and Vegetation: Origins, Processes, Consequences.
Keddy, Paul A. 2008. ISBN 978-0-521-86480-0 (Cloth US$75.00)
683pp. . Cambridge University Press, 32 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10013. |
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
The Names of Plants (4th ed). Gledhill,
David. 2008. ISBN 978-0-521-68553-5 (Paper US$45.00) 426 pp.
. Cambridge University Press, 32 Avenue of the Americas, New
York, NY 10013. |
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Plants at the Margin: Ecological Limits and Climate
Change. Crawford, R.M.M. 2008. ISBN 978-0-521-62309-4.
(Cloth US$80.00) 478 pp Cambridge University Press, 32 Avenue
of the Americas, New York, NY 10013. |
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Lost Worlds of the Guiana Highlands. McPherson,
Steward. 2008/ ISBN 978-0-9558918-0-9 (Cloth £29.99)
385 pp. Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole, Dorset,
England. |
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Fungal Pathogenesis in Plant and Crops: Molecular
Biology and Host Defense Mechanisms, 2nd ed. Vidhyasekaran,
P. 2008. (Cloth US$169.95) 509 pp. CRC Press, Taylor &
Francis Group, 6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300, Boca
Raton, FL 33487-2742. |
|
|
An Introduction to Plant Breeding. Brown,
Jack and Peter Caligari. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4051-3344-9 (Paper
US$80.00) 209 pp. Blackwell Publishing, 2121 State Avenue,
Ames, Iowa 50014-8300. |
|
|
Plant Bioinformatics: Methods and Protocols.
Edwards, David (ed.) 2007. ISBN 978-1-588-29-653-5 (Cloth
US$139.00) 552 pp. The Humana Press, Inc., 999 Riverview Drive,
Suite 208, Totowa, New Jersey 07512. |
|
|
Seed to Elegance: Kentia Palms of Norfolk Island,
South Pacific. Williams, Kevin. 2007. ISBN 978-0-9775121-1-9
(Paper US$24.95) 72 pp. Studio Monarch, Norfolk Island, 2899
South Pacific. |
|
|
Plant-Bacteria Interactions: Strategies and Techniques
to Promote Plant Growth. Ahmad, Iqbal, John Pichtel
and Shamsul Hayat (eds.) 2008. ISBN 3-527-31901-5 (Cloth US$195.00)
310 pp. Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, Germany.
|
|
|
Plant Biotechnology and Genetics: Principles, Techniques,
and Applications. Steward, C. Neal Jr. 2008. ISBN
0470043814 (Cloth US$100.00) 374 pp. John Wiley & Sons,
Inc.
|
|
|
A Primer of Conservation Biology, 4th ed.
Primack, Richard B. 2008. ISBN 0-87893-692-0 (Paper US$49.95)
349 pp. Sinauer Associates, Inc. P.O. Box 407, Sunderland,
MA 01375-0407.
|
|
|
Phycology 4th ed. Lee, Robert Edward. 2008.
ISBN 978-0-521-68277-0 (Paper US$70.00) 547 pp. Cambridge
University Press, 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY
10013.
|
OUT FOR
REVIEW |
|
Rare Wildflowers of Kentucky. Barnes, Thomas
G., Deborah White & Marc Evans. 2008. ISBN 978-0-8131-2496-4
(Cloth US$39.95) 204 pp. The University Press of Kentucky,
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008.
|
|
|
- GO GREEN – THINK BALANCE – BE
SUSTAINABLE