IN THIS ISSUE...

SUMMER 2018 VOLUME 64 NUMBER 2

PLANT SCIENCE  

BULLETIN

A PUBLICATION OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Rebekah Mohn wins Triarch  

photo contest....p. 79

Theresa Culley on the perils of 

predatory publishers..p. 96

Report from Congressional Visits 

Day participants.... p.  81

                                                          SUMMER 2018 Volume 64 Number 2

PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN  

Editorial Committee  

Volume 64

From the Editor

Kathryn LeCroy 

 

(2018)

 

Environmental Sciences 

University of Virginia 

Charlottesville, VA  22904 

kal8d@virginia.edu

Melanie Link-Perez  

(2019)

 

Department of Botany  

& Plant Pathology 

Oregon State University 

Corvallis, OR 97331 

l

inkperm@oregonstate.edu

Shannon Fehlberg 

(2020)

 

Research and Conservation 

Desert Botanical Garden 

Phoenix, AZ 85008 

sfehlberg@dbg.org

David Tank 

(2021) 

Department of Biological 

Sciences 

University of Idaho 

Moscow, ID 83844 

dtank@uidaho.edu

Greetings,
In this summer issue of Plant Science Bulle-

tin, you will find lots of important Society 

News. We have information about the up-

coming Botany 2018 meeting in Rochester 

and the traditional pre-conference list of 

award winners and election results. I am 

also happy to bring you this year’s reports 

from the annual Congressional Visits Day. 
I want to draw your attention to a special 

feature in this issue. One of the most im-

portant things many of us do is publish sci-

entific articles; publishing is how we com-

municate new knowledge and, for many 

of us, how we prove our worth to tenure 

committees and grant panels.  However, 

publishing can be fraught with challenges. 

In this issue, Theresa M. Culley addresses 

the danger of predatory publishing and tips 

for avoiding inadvertently submitting your 

work to questionable journals. 
If you would like to discuss these issues, as 

well as other strategies for successful pub-

lishing, please note that there will be a dis-

cussion session on publishing held on Sun-

day, July 22 in Rochester, MN.
See you in Rochester!

70

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SOCIETY NEWS

Election Results .......................................................................................................................................................... 71

 Awards part I ................................................................................................................................................................ 72

Public Policy: Congressional Visits Day ........................................................................................................ 81

Publishing at a Crossroads in a Changing Climate............................................................................... 87

In Memoriam Barbara Webster   ....................................................................................................................... 89

In Memoriam Jochen Heinrichs   ...................................................................................................................... 91

Get Ready for Botany 2018 ................................................................................................................................. 93

SPECIAL FEATURES

How to Avoid Predatory Journals When Publishing Your Work ......................................................... 96

SCIENCE EDUCATION

Education News and Notes ................................................................................................................................113

STUDENT SECTION

Navigating BOTANY 2018: A Guide for Student Members ...............................................................118

BOOK REVIEWS

Ecology ..........................................................................................................................................................................122

Economic Botany .....................................................................................................................................................125

Historical .......................................................................................................................................................................130 

Systematics  ...............................................................................................................................................................132

71

SOCIETY NEWS

BSA 2018 Election Results

President-Elect 

Linda Watson 

University of Oklahoma

Secretary 

Rachel Spicer 

Connecticut College

Director-at-Large Education 

Chris Martine 

Bucknell University

Student Representative 

Ya Min 

Harvard University

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

72

Dr. Madelaine Bartlett  

Receives BSA Emerging Leader Award

Dr. Madelaine Bartlett, University of Massachusetts–Amherst, is a 

strongly dedicated scientist, driven by her multi-disciplinary research 

on plant evolution and development with particularly strengths in 

molecular and genomic evolution, plant developmental genetics, 

and comparative and experimental plant evolutionary biology. Her 

research uniquely combines these various focal areas of expertise, 

making her one of the top plant evolutionary and developmental 

geneticists of her generation.

Bartlett is fearless in developing cutting-edge research designed to understand fundamental 

processes in plant development and genetic evolution, that ultimately play a key role in plant 

adaptation and diversification. Through her research, teaching and mentoring, and outreach, 

Bartlett has positioned herself to have a major impact on the future of scientific research and 

education in botany, plant evolution, and developmental biology. Her scholarship, creativity, 

energy, and drive make her the ideal embodiment of a BSA Emerging Leader.

Dr. Lena Struwe Receives  

Charles Edwin Bessey Teaching Award

The 2018 recipient of the Bessey Award is Dr. Lena Struwe 

(Rutgers University). The following people praised Struwe for her 

accomplishments:

“In my opinion, the energy that Lena Struwe has expended on teaching 

botany to people of all ages (and the success she has had in her efforts) 

is unparalleled. I can’t imagine there being a person who is more 

deserving of the Bessey Award.” - Dr. Christopher Martine

“Lena views herself as a learner and participates in communities 

that support educators. She reflects on her teaching experiences and 

adapts her courses to meet developing educational needs. She has 

demonstrated herself as an excellent and effective educator in specific courses, in face-to face 

public outreach, and with her online presence.” - Jennifer Blake-Mahmud

“There cannot be anyone more deserving of the Bessey Award than Lena Struwe, who has 

inspired me and many others with her passion and creativity for many years. When I was 

preparing to teach Plant Systematics, Lena is the person I reached out to for ideas and guidance, 

because she epitomizes what I would like to be as a teacher. I can only hope to have a fraction of 

her influence on her students, colleagues, and the public.  She is everything that is exceptional 

and desirable about a teacher—brilliant, positive, creative, engaging, generous

, supportive, 

effective—the entire package.” - Dr. Amy Litt

BSA AWARD WINNERS 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

73

BSA Public Policy Award

The Public Policy Award was established in 2012 to support the development of of tomorrow’s 

leaders and a better understanding of this critical area. The 2018 recipients are:

Tanisha Williams, Ph.D. Student, University of Connecticut

Timothy Batz, graduate student, California State Polytechnic University

The J. S. Karling Graduate Student Research Award

Rebekah Mohn, University of Minnesota (Advisor: Dr. Ya Yang), for the proposal: Dissecting 

the Evolutionary History of North American Sundews (Drosera, Droseraceae)

Ecology Section Student Travel Award

Francesco Martini, Guangxi University (Advisor: Dr. Uromi Goodale), for the presentation: 

Forest regeneration in a subtropical forest: factors shaping seedling community along elevation

The BSA Graduate Student Research Awards

Jared Beck, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Advisor: Dr. Donald Waller), for the proposal: 

Do natural enemies regulate herbaceous plant diversity? Examining patterns of distance- and 

density-dependent mortality in temperate forests

Taylor Chae, Miami University (Advisor: Dr. Richard Moore), for the proposal: Differential 

gene expression in  Carica papaya associated with reverse sexual transition from dioecy to 

hermaphroditism 

Joseph Charboneau, University of Arizona (Advisor: Dr. Michael Sanderson), for the proposal: 

Verifying and screening for chloroplast genome inversions in New World Astragalus (Fabaceae) 

Katherine Culatta, North Carolina State University (Advisor: Dr. Alexander Krings), for the 

proposal: Taxonomy, Population Genetics, and Status Assessment of Nuphar sagittifolia (Walter) 

Pursh (Nymphaeaceae) 

Aayudh Das, University of Vermont (Advisor: Dr. Jill Preston), for the proposal: Testing the 

influence of extrinsic versus intrinsic factors on the evolution of grass stress tolerance

Andrea Fetters, University of Pittsburgh (Advisor: Dr. Tia-Lynn Ashman), for the proposal: 

Pollination gone viral: pollinators as novel agents of plant pathogen transmission

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

74

Mahboubeh Hosseinalizadeh Nobarinezhad, Mississippi State University (Advisor: Dr. Lisa 

Wallace), for the proposal: Fine-scale genetic structure in rhizosphere microbial communities 

associated with 

Chamaecrista fasciculata

 (Fabaceae) 

Stacy Jorgensen, University of Arizona (Advisor: Dr. Mark Beilstein), for the proposal: 

Transcriptomic desiccation response in diploid and polyploid xerophytic species of Selaginella 

subg. Rupestrae 

Christopher Krieg, University of Florida (Advisor: Dr. Emily Sessa), for the proposal: How 

understanding the evolution of physiological traits and environmental niche can help save the 

world’s most threatened plant group

Katherine Kucera, Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden (Advisor: Dr. 

Andrea Kramer), for the proposal: Characterizing genetic changes in the production of multi-

source seed lots in Penstemon pachyphyllus

Kali Mattingly, The Ohio State University (Advisor: Dr. Steven Hovick), for the proposal: 

Assessing the extent of hybridization between the invasive species Lythrum salicaria (purple 

loosestrife) and the horticultural species L. virgatum

Samuel McCauley, University of Idaho (Advisor: Dr. David Tank), for the proposal: 

Biogeographically-mediated evolution and diversification of Thalictrum (Ranunculaceae)

Juan Isaac Moreira Hernandez, University of Missouri-St. Louis (Advisor: Dr. Nathan 

Muchhala),  for the proposal: Interspecific pollen transfer and gene flow during the rapid 

diversification of Neotropical bat-pollinated bellflowers (Campanulaceae: Burmeistera) 

Kirsten Nolting, University of Connecticut (Advisor: Dr. Kent Holsinger), for the proposal: 

What makes a ‘biodiversity hotspot’ hot? Trait-mediated species coexistence in seedling communities 

in a fire-driven ecosystem

Lindsey Riibe, University of Florida (Advisor: Dr. Emily Sessa), for the proposal: Phylogeny & 

biogeography of endemic ferns in a biodiversity hotspot

Gabriella Rossetto, Pennsylvania State University (Advisor: Dr. Peter Wilf), for the proposal: 

Araucarian conifer fossils of Eocene Patagonia may reveal an Australasian rainforest connection

Aniket Sengupta, University of Kansas (Advisor: Dr. Lena Hileman), for the proposal: Of central 

importance: control of carpel zygomorphy in tribe Antirrhineae by CYCLOIDEA-RADIALIS 

interaction 

Shengchen Shan, Florida Museum of Natural History (Advisor: Dr. Doug Soltis), for the 

proposal:  Developmental and genetic dynamics of the inflorescence in reciprocally formed 

allopolyploid Tragopogon miscellus (Asteraceae) 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

75

Mathew Sharples, University of Colorado-Boulder (Advisor: Dr. Erin Tripp), for the proposal: 

Investigating the Origins of Apetaly in the Cosmopolitan Genus Stellaria L. (Caryophyllaceae)

 

Genetics Section Student Travel Awards

Yi Huang, University of California-Riverside (Advisor: Dr. Amy Litt), for the presentation: 

Genetic Variation and habitat differentiation in a group of taxonomically difficult plants: 

Arctostaphylos glandulosa (Ericaceae)

Shujun Ou, Michigan State University (Advisor: Dr. Ning Jiang), for the presentation: The 

genomic composition and domestication of Asian rice revealed by 3,400 rice genomes

Serena Macias, University of Missouri-St. Louis (Advisor: Dr. Christine Edwards), for the 

presentation: Phylogenomics of Passiflora sect. Decaloba reveals strong biographic structuring of 

clades

Kali Mattingly, The Ohio State University (Advisor: Dr. Steve Hovick), for the presentation: 

Assessing the extent of hybridization between the invasive species Lythrum salicaria (purple 

loosestrife) and the horticultural species L. virgatum

Vernon I. Cheadle Student Travel Awards

(BSA in association with the Developmental and Structural Section) 

This award was named in honor of the memory and work of Dr. Vernon I. Cheadle.

Glen Morrison, University of California-Riverside (Advisor: Dr. Amy Litt) for the Botany 2018 

presentation: “Testing the utility of morphological traits in delimiting a variable subspecies 

group, the Arctostaphylos glandulosa complex.” Co-authors: Yi Huang, Natalie Saavedra, 

Thomas Stoughton, Dylan Burge, V.T. Parker, and Amy Litt

Farahnoz Khojayori, Virginia Commonwealth University (Advisor: Dr. Wenheng Zhang) for 

the Botany 2018 presentation: “CYC2-like genes elucidate floral symmetry evolution following 

a major biogeographic disjunction.” Co-authors: Jingbo Zhang, Elena Kramer, Charles Davis, 

and Wenheng Zhang.

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

76

The BSA Young Botanist Awards 

The purpose of these awards is to offer individual recognition to outstanding graduating 

seniors in the plant sciences and to encourage their participation in the Botanical Society of 

America. The 2018 “Certificate of Special Achievement” award recipients are:

Shayda Abidi, Humboldt State University (Advisor: Dr. Mihai Tomescu) 

Nicholas Drews, Eastern Michigan University (Advisor: Dr. Margaret Hanes) 

Caroline Edwards, Oberlin College (Advisor: Dr. Michael Moore) 

Michelle Gaynor, University of Central Florida (Advisor: Dr. Eric Hoffman) 

Georgia Hann, Connecticut College (Advisor: Dr. Chad Jones) 

Dan Hayes, Bucknell University (Advisor: Dr. Chris Martine) 

Laban Kayitete, Arizona State University (Advisor: Dr. Kathleen Pigg) 

Mae Lacey, Bucknell University (Advisor: Dr. Chris Martine) 

Hanna Makowski, St. Mary's College - Notre Dame (Advisor: Dr. Cassie Majetic) 

Mallory Malecek, South Dakota State University (Advisor: Dr. Maribeth Latvis) 

Sarah McDonald, University of Guelph (Advisor: Dr. Christina Caruso) 

Kelly Pfeiler, Humboldt State University (Advisor: Dr. Mihai Tomescu) 

Pasteur Magine Uhaweniman, Arizona State University (Advisor: Dr. Kathleen Pigg) 

Andrea Wallace, Hillsdale College (Advisor: Dr. Ranessa Cooper)

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

77

The BSA PLANTS Grant Recipients

The PLANTS (Preparing Leaders and Nurturing Tomorrow’s Scientists: Increasing the diversity 

of plant scientists) program recognizes outstanding undergraduates from diverse backgrounds 

and provides travel grants and mentoring for these students.

Liliana Benitez, New College of Florida (Advisor: Dr. Emily Saarinen) 

John Christman III, Christopher Newport University (Advisor: Dr. Janet Steven) 

Inesha Ellis, Widener University (Advisor: Dr. Katherine Goodrich) 

David Flanery, South Dakota State University (Advisor: Dr. Maribeth Latvis) 

Andrew Gonzalez, California State University - Sacramento (Advisor: Dr. Clayton Visger)

Alexis Kantor, University of Colorado-Boulder (Advisor: Dr. Stacey Smith) 

Carina Motta, University of California-Santa Barbara (Advisor: Dr. Susan Mazar) 

Simone Oliphant, Florida International University (Advisor: Dr. Suzanne Koptur) 

Asa Peters, Connecticut College (Advisor: Dr. Chad Jones) 

Megan Rasmussen, SUNY-Farmingdale (Advisor: Dr. Eric Morgan) 

Keana Tang, California State University - Long Beach (Advisor: Dr. Amanda Fisher) 

Nicole Tineo, The College of New Jersey (Advisor: Dr. Wendy Clement) 

Matthew Treanor, Plymouth State University (Advisor: Dr. Diana Jolles) 

Delecia Utley, Howard University (Advisor: Dr. Janelle Burke)

The BSA Developing Nations Travel Grant Recipients

N. Ivalu Cacho, Instituto de Biología, UNAM, Mexico 

Eliezer Cocoltzi, Universidad Veracruzana in Xalapa, Mexico 

Orlando Adolfo Jara, Jardín Botánico de Bogotá, Columbia 

Satish Khadia, S.D.Agricultural University, India 

Nicholas Le Maire, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa 

Viviana Londoño Lemos, Universidad de los Andes, Columbia 

Maria Laura Pipo, INIBIOMA (UNCo-CONICET), Argentina 

Boni Souleymane, University of Parakou, Benin

The BSA Professional Member Travel Grant Recipients

John Chau, University of Johannesburg, South Africa 

Verónica S. Di Stilio, University of Washington 

Jaime Fagundez, University of A Coruña, Spain 

Joseph Gallagher, University of Massachusetts-Amherst 

Ed McAssey, University of Georgia 

Erik Nilsen, Virginia Tech 

Tilottama Roy, Western Missouri State University 

Adam Schneider, University of Toronto-Missaussaga, Canada 

Laura Skates, University of Western Australia, Australia 

Evelyn Williams, Chicago Botanic Garden

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

78

Genetics Section Student Research Awards 

Genetics Section Student Research Awards provide $500 for research funding and an addi-

tional $500 for attendance at a future BSA meeting.

Danielle Black, University of California-Santa Barbara (Advisor: Dr. Scott Hodges), for the 

proposal: Identifying the genetic basis of serpentine adaptation in Aquilegia eximia

Sarah Carey, University of Florida (Advisor: Dr. Stuart McDaniel), for the proposal: Developing 

near-universal sex-linked markers for mosses

Developmental & Structural Section Student Travel Awards

Amanda Katzer, University of Kansas (Advisor: Dr. Emily Sessa), for the presentation: How 

understanding the evolution of physiological traits and environmental niche can help save the 

world’s most threatened plant group

Dustin Ray, University of Connecticut (Advisor: Dr. Cynthia Jones), for the presentation: 

Mechanical and physiological traits do not trade off in petioles

Cecilia Zumajo, New York Botanical Garden (Advisor: Dr. Barbara Ambrose), for the 

presentation: Expression and functional studies of basal eudicot REPLUMLESS homologs during 

flower and fruit development

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

79

Triarch “Botanical Images” Student Travel Awards

This award provides acknowledgement and travel support to BSA meetings for outstanding 

student work coupling digital images (botanical) with scientific explanations/descriptions 

designed for the general public.

 

FIRST PLACE

 

Rebekah Mohn 

University of Minnesota

  

“Dewy Tentacles”

Glandular trichomes, specialized hairs that excrete mucus, cover the leaf of insect-eating 

sundews like this 

Drosera menziesii

. Insects become stuck to the gooey liquid excreted at the 

tip of each trichome. Once the plant detects the insects by the combination of movement and 

chemical changes in the mucous, the leaf and trichomes wrap like tentacles around the insects. 

The presence of an insect also triggers the hairs to begin to excrete proteins like chitinases, 

which can break down the insect’s body to absorb their nutrients. This provides the plant with 

nitrogen and phosphorous which are often limited in the soils were these species grow.

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

80

SECOND PLACE

Ya Min 

Harvard University

 

“Floral Morphogenesis”

Plants generate new organs continuously 

throughout their entire life spans. Floral 

organs are made from a group of stem cells 

located in the floral meristems, and new floral 

meristems are produces by the flanks of flower-

subtending leaves (bracts). Because plant cells 

are bounded by cell walls, we can trace back 

every cell division that have occurred during 

the process of making a flower from a floral 

meristem.

THIRD PLACE

Iona Anghel 

University of California-Los Angeles 

“Extreme Living”

This image was captured in Death Valley 

after a wet winter in the desert in 2016. This 

Phacelia species was thriving in the clay pans 

of the valley flats. Its presence in this rough 

environment highlights the resilience of plant 

life, illustrating this species’ ability to grow 

quickly before the water dries out in the heat of 

the desert spring, as well as its ability to develop 

roots through a very dense soil substrate. The 

fact that it has reached reproductive maturity 

is a testament to its successful adaptation in 

this ecology.

 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

81

Public Policy News

By Ingrid Jordon-Thaden (University of California Berkeley), 

ASPT EPPC Chair, Krissa Skogen (Chicago Botanic Garden), 

and Kal Tuominen (Metropolitan State University), BSA PPC 

Co-Chairs

The BSA Public Policy Committee is pleased 

to announce the 2018 Public Policy Award 

recipients: Tanisha Williams from the 

University of Connecticut and Timothy 

Batz from California State Polytechnic 

University, Pomona.  In addition, the 

ASPT Environmental and Public Policy 

Committee awarded a Congressional Visits 

Day Travel Award to ASPT member Naomi 

Fraga of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical 

Garden. These awards cover travel expenses 

for Congressional Visits Day, an annual 

AIBS-sponsored event in Washington, D.C. 

involving science advocacy training and a 

day on Capitol Hill meeting with legislators 

and staff.  This year, a Communications Boot 

Camp for Scientists was also offered as an 

optional training.  Williams, Batz, and Fraga 

share their experiences below.

The BSA PPC has granted two Public Policy 

Awards annually since 2013, and the ASPT 

EPPC has granted one award annually since 

2016.  Application guidelines are provided on 

the awards pages of the BSA (www.botany.

2018 Engaging Policy Makers:  

BSA Member Involvement and Opportunities

org) and ASPT (https://aspt.net/) websites, 

with the next deadline in January 2019.  

If you would like to explore the many ways 

in which botanists connect their science 

to policy before then, please join us at the 

BOTANY 2018 workshop, “Using our Science 

to Inform Public Policy,” on Sunday, July 22.  

We will introduce participants to the shared 

work of the BSA PPC and ASPT EPPC, hold a 

panel discussion with scientists working at the 

intersection of science and public policy, and 

run breakout groups to help attendees learn 

new skills.  This is a great opportunity for 

botanists at all career stages to connect with 

those involved in science policy and discover 

potential entry points to this exciting area of 

work!

Timothy Batz’s Experience

The field of botany has profoundly affected 

our lives. Countless scientists have toiled 

to understand the plant kingdom, from the 

tallest tree to the smallest cell. Discoveries 

from the plant world have 

benefitted us with reliable 

harvests, clothing materials, 

and medicines—not to 

mention the appealing parks 

and gardens we all enjoy. 

Despite our reliance on these 

organisms, most people take 

plants, and the science that 

studies them, for granted. 

This indifference of the 

general public and politicians 

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

82

must change. A warming planet coupled with 

unprecedented population growth threatens 

to greatly impact our lives and the planet itself. 

Plants will play a large role in how we adapt 

as a society to increasing demands for food 

and fuel. Conversely, plants will also need 

our help in diminishing the harmful effects 

our lifestyles have on their environment. We 

need scientifically informed policy to face the 

challenges that affect us and the world. For 

this reason, I applied for the Public Policy 

Award to represent the Botanical Society of 

America in Washington DC. 

I traveled to the Capitol with fellow botanist 

Tanisha Williams to meet with other scientists 

interested in promoting scientific investments 

to our representatives. Our fields were diverse, 

from immunology to ecology and chemistry, 

but we all had the common bonds of NSF and 

NIH funding. I was surprised to learn that 

scientists, like almost every other organization 

of people, must lobby to representatives to 

voice their concerns directly. Like most of 

the other scientists who gathered for this 

lobbying event, I had no previous experience 

in government. To better prepare ourselves for 

this meeting opportunity, we underwent a two-

day communication boot camp led by Dr. Rob 

Gropp of the American Institute of Biological 

Sciences (AIBS), a non-profit association 

dedicated to public policy, education, and 

public understanding of science.

After a briefing on the current state of 

federal funding as well as communication 

techniques highlighting the economic and 

societal benefits of science, we engaged in 

exercises of radio and television interviews 

to practice condensing technical language 

into relatable stories for journalists and the 

public. After the second day, we had greater 

confidence in our ability to reach the ears of 

voters and policy makers alike. However, our 

objective still seemed daunting. Congress 

holds the purse strings to the U.S. Treasury, 

and the time had come to appropriate funding 

decisions to federal agencies and departments. 

Unfortunately, the current administration had 

proposed deep cuts to science-based agencies, 

including a 20% cut to NOAA and 24% cut 

to the EPA. The White House also planned 

to rescind science funding allocations for the 

2018 fiscal year. Our goal was to ask Congress 

to maintain a stable funding level of $8.45 

billion (<1% of the $1.2 trillion federal budget) 

for the upcoming 2019 fiscal year.

We divided into regional teams to promote 

our national scientific effort to as many 

representatives as possible. My group 

included botanist Naomi Fraga, Ph.D. 

student Jo Bairzin, conservationist Dana 

Batz in front of the U.S. Capitol during Con-

gressional Visits Day.

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

83

Green, and Jeff Brown and Faerthen Felix of 

the UC Berkeley Sagehen Field Station. Our 

schedule was full of meetings with our district 

and state representatives. Being a majority 

Democratic state, our plea for science funding 

was heard by most congressional staff we 

met, especially California Senators Kamala 

Harris and Dianne Feinstein. Meeting 

the staff of California Republican Doug 

LaMalfa offered an opportunity to expand 

our discussion beyond usual supporters. I 

stressed the importance of NSF funding in 

plant biology research that safeguards grape 

and rice crops grown in his district against 

disease and pests. Jeff and Faerthen promoted 

their science to solutions approach in forest 

management by emphasizing the economic 

benefit of utilizing thinned unwanted trees for 

an emerging timber market in the district. We 

can only hope that our ten-minute meetings 

with staff were summarized and taken into 

consideration when the time comes to vote on 

appropriations.        

Many of us apply to and 

utilize federal grants 

to conduct important 

research, but the data 

produced and tested by 

those funds often fail to 

influence the decisions 

of elected officials. The 

public image of a lone 

scientist working in the 

lab requires reinvention.

By experiencing how our government works 

in Washington, I realize the need for scientific 

literacy in our legislature, especially on matters 

of funding and policy. Many of us apply to and 

utilize federal grants to conduct important 

research, but the data produced and tested 

by those funds often fail to influence the 

decisions of elected officials. The public image 

of a lone scientist working in the lab requires 

reinvention. More of us need to communicate 

to policy makers and the public at large about 

our work if we truly want to make changing 

impacts. Scientific literacy should not be 

restricted to academic journals and conference 

meetings. It is our responsibility to translate 

technical language into effective conversation 

that is reachable by everyone, from our next-

door neighbors to the President of the United 

States. The consequences of ignoring this fact 

have repercussions in our environment and 

at the voting booth. I would like to thank the 

members of the BSA Public Policy Committee 

for this incredible opportunity and encourage 

readers to participate in the AIBS (https://

www.aibs.org/home/index.html).   

Tanisha Williams’s  

Experience 

I grew up in Washington, DC, and I was bitten 

by the policy bug long ago. I have always been 

interested in how science influences public 

policy, and I have sought opportunities that 

would help me communicate effectively with 

policy makers. What an honor it was to be 

recognized by the Society through the Public 

Policy Award! 

My first two days in DC were spent at the 

offices of the American Institute of Biological 

Sciences (AIBS) where I met other graduate 

students, postdocs, and field station scientists 

seeking to learn more about the role of scientists 

in policy and effective communication. Our 

communications training included topics like 

the curse of knowledge (forgetting that your 

audience does not understand the details that 

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

84

fascinate you, which requires that you tailor 

your message to make it easily understood), 

crafting stories and elevator pitches, and 

media 101 (understanding the diverse types 

and roles of media). We also participated in 

mock interviews. The trainings demonstrated 

that being an effective communicator is not 

only important for science policy, but also as 

a life skill.  

With our trainings complete and elevator 

pitches refined, we spent a half day preparing 

for the congressional visits. We received 

insights on what science policy is, an overview 

of the federal budget, and lessons on how to talk 

to lawmakers. We also participated in mock 

congressional meetings. Once the trainings 

were done, we separated into regional teams 

to further refine our collective pitches. My 

team decided that each scientist would take 

the lead for their home state or district, which 

meant the leader would introduce the group 

and share state- or district-specific support 

stories. I was the lead for three congressional 

meetings! We were also given talking points 

that highlighted the importance of select 

Representatives and Senators who voted to 

oppose deep cuts to science funding proposed 

by Trump’s FY 2018 budget. Besides thanking 

the Senators and Representatives for their 

service, we also made an ask for FY 2019: We 

asked that Congress fund the National Science 

Foundation (NSF) at $8.45 billion, which is 

needed to continue to fund non-medical basic 

research at all academic levels. 

On the third day I met with the Connecticut/

New York team in the Longworth House 

building to review our message before 

our busy day on the hill. We met first with 

Representative Faso (R - NY) and one of his 

staff members to discuss the importance of 

funding science agencies like NSF to support 

innovation, education, outreach, and keeping 

ahead of the global market. We also met 

staff members from the offices of Senator 

Kirsten Gillibrand (D - NY), Senator Richard 

Blumenthal (D - CT), Senator Chris Murphy 

(D - CT), Senator Charles Schumer (D - 

NY), Representative John Katko (R - NY), 

and Representative Adriano Espaillat (D - 

NY). Representative Joe Courtney (D - CT) 

welcomed us to his office before attending 

another meeting, and we continued our 

meeting with one of his staff members. During 

each of our eight meetings, I shared exciting 

facts about my research and how NSF made 

it possible for me to do what I love in science, 

international (science) diplomacy, education, 

and outreach. I also stressed how important 

funding from NSF is to all levels of education 

and research through offering stories about 

how my home institution, the University 

of Connecticut, is using NSF funding to 

promote science research and education 

through a state-of-the-art collections facility 

and teaching greenhouses managed by my 

department, Ecology and Evolutionary 

Biology. Lastly, I stressed the importance of 

such funding to my department, focusing on 

how NSF provides undergraduates, graduates, 

postdocs, and faculty resources to conduct 

Matthew J. Rubin, Williams, Elizabeth Car-

len, and Dr. Elizabeth Long in front of Sen-

ator Chris Murphy’s (CT - D) office. 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

85

cutting-edge research, both locally and 

globally. Most offices were quite supportive of 

science and research funding. Their eagerness 

showed in their questions about specific NSF 

programs that promote science discovery or 

diversity, and in their desire to hear tangible 

examples that show how important funding 

the NSF is to science research and education. 

Prior to my trip, I had heard that developing 

a relationship with your Representative or 

Senator is mostly a matter of continually 

showing up and reaching out. It is like the 

saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the oil. 

Being active by holding meetings to not 

only discuss what issues you are concerned 

about, but also thanking your policymaker 

for their service helps build a relationship. 

It sounds easy, but I did not believe that one 

person could build this connection, let alone 

a graduate student. Yet only two weeks after 

my visit, Congressman Courtney’s office 

contacted me and scheduled a visit to my 

department of Ecology and Evolutionary 

Biology at the University of Connecticut! I 

was stunned and delighted that Congressman 

Courtney and his staff member remembered 

me and wanted to see where I work. It 

was a whirlwind tour of my department’s 

greenhouses, where Representative Courtney 

learned about a few extinct to the wild species 

that we have at our facilities, the NSF-funded 

collections facility, how I use herbarium 

samples to understand the effects of climate 

change, and meeting graduate students from 

my department. I was amazed how easy it 

was to talk with Representative Courtney 

and his staff members, and I was delighted 

to see how interested they were in learning 

more about what my department is doing 

and how NSF funds many of our research and 

teaching programs. This visit was an amazing 

opportunity to start a partnership with 

Representative Courtney and his office that 

started with BSA! I am truly grateful for the 

opportunity to participate in the Congressional 

Visits Day, and I thank BSA for providing the 

support! I look forward to staying involved 

with AIBS and BSA’s Public Policy Committee.  

Naomi Fraga’s Experience

As Director of Plant Conservation Programs 

at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in 

Claremont, California, I oversee a diverse 

program focused on plant conservation. I am 

privileged to engage in a spectrum of botanical 

work that both spans and links “pure” scientific 

research to on-the-ground conservation 

efforts. At the center of my work is my desire to 

increase the understanding, appreciation, and 

conservation of plant diversity. Therefore, I 

was incredibly excited to receive the American 

Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) travel 

grant to participate in Congressional Visits 

Day (CVD) hosted by American Institute 

for Biological Sciences (AIBS). The event 

provided me an opportunity to advance my 

goals of being an effective advocate working 

on behalf of plant conservation and allowed 

me to hone my communication skills toward 

Williams explaining to Rep. Joe Courtney how 

she used herbarium samples to understand the 

effects of climate change on flowering phenolo-

gy within the genus Pelargonium.

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

86

increasing my effectiveness as a plant scientist 

and conservationist.

Prior to the CVD event I took part in a two-

day science communications training where 

I worked on developing my talking points 

to prepare for meetings with congressional 

staffers. Our goal was to advocate for 

the importance of federal funding in the 

biological sciences and provide information 

on how federal funding is important to our 

research. I was also particularly interested in 

discussing important policy issues facing plant 

conservation in my home state of California. 

When I arrived at the training, I was 

pleasantly surprised to meet a fellow southern 

Californian and plant advocate, Tim Batz from 

Cal Poly Pomona (my undergraduate alma 

mater). Tim and I had a lot of overlapping 

experience and interest, including advocating 

for initiatives that increase representation of 

underserved groups in STEM fields. On the 

actual Congressional Visits Day we had a full 

day of meetings set up with congressional 

staffers, and I got to work with Tim and an 

excellent team of scientists from Arizona and 

California. 

I was able to start off CVD with a constituent 

breakfast hosted by my California State 

Senator, Diane Feinstein, who I found to 

be incredibly inspirational. Our team had 

several meetings scheduled throughout the 

day, so we had our work cut out for us! On 

CVD I was able to meet with the Legislative 

Director for Norma Torres, the representative 

for my home congressional district, and staff 

from the offices of Diane Feinstein, Kamala 

Harris, and John McCain. In addition, we 

met with staffers that represent other districts 

in California. Overall I found the day to be 

very enjoyable and inspirational. I left the 

event feeling encouraged and motivated to 

stay in contact with my legislators. I came 

to better understand the effect that we can 

have on policy and budgetary decisions, 

both individually and collectively. I would 

encourage others to get in contact with their 

I came to better 

understand the effect 

that we can have on policy 

and budgetary decisions, 

both individually and 

collectively. I would 

encourage others to 

get in contact with their 

legislators and possibly 

set up a meeting.

legislators and possibly set up a meeting; I 

personally found it to be a very empowering 

experience. The training combined with CVD 

was incredibly educational, and I am very 

thankful to have had the experience!   

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

87

When the month of May rolls around, the 

season of professional conferences begins in 

earnest for many of us. For your friends in 

the BSA Publications office, that often means 

attending the annual meetings of the Council 

of Science Editors (CSE) and the Society for 

Scholarly Publishing (SSP), among others. 

This year in early May, Beth Parada and I 

attended the CSE meeting in New Orleans, 

which had the theme “Publishing in the 

Changing Climate of the Research Ecosystem.” 

In late May Richard Hund and I went to the 

SSP meeting in Chicago, the theme of which 

was “Scholarly Publishing at the Crossroads: 

What’s working, what’s holding us back, where 

do we go from here?”

Every year these two meetings bring together 

hundreds of professionals who work in 

scholarly publishing—editors and publishers 

of scholarly journals and books; commercial 

and not-for-profit service providers; 

commercial publishers; consultants; 

librarians; and others involved or interested 

in these endeavors. 

Your BSA Ed. folks return from these meetings 

energized and woke on new and old issues. We 

Publishing at a Crossroads in a 

Changing Climate

By Amy McPherson 

Director of Publications 

of Managing Editor  

Botanical Society of 

America  

ORCID 0000-0001-7904-242X

assume that our authors, reviewers, editors, 

and readers and aware of and concerned about 

similar issues. Is it true? Are these issues you 

are thinking about, too? If not, what are

 you 

thinking about? Let us know! 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine 

Learning: These were huge, and provocative, 

topics at this year’s conferences. If published 

research cannot be read by a machine, it is 

virtually undiscoverable. On a practical level, 

that is why we are concerned about properly 

applied metadata, JATS and BITS XML 

structure, proper tagging and formatting of 

literature references (machines are counting 

citations), persistent identifiers (e.g., ORCid), 

among other things, in the context of data and 

text mining. 

AI is also being used to curate what we see 

when searching the internet, and it is being 

used by publishers to source new content, 

inform and improve content, and suggest 

new product development.  Algorithms may 

review scientific papers more efficiently than 

humans. More than once we were told that 

for the first time, in 2018, a machine is able to 

answer questions more quickly and accurately 

than a human. The session “(Don’t) Rage 

Against the Machine” highlighted incredible 

advances that are being made in technology in 

the name of progress, but I left thinking that 

we need to be careful. AI is only as good as 

the information it receives, so it needs ALL 

the information—and who decides how the 

machines process it? 

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

88

Inherent Biases in Digital Technology, and 

the Importance of Diversity and Inclusion:

 

Related to advances in AI and machine 

learning, we learned about implicit biases built 

into digital technologies. When you search on 

Google, are you aware of what informs the 

algorithms that bring up the most “relevant” 

content? Algorithms are written by people, 

and according to Safiya Umoja Noble, in her 

excellent SSP keynote and recently published 

book (Noble, 2018), they are shaped by and 

infused with values that are not impartial or 

lacking a position. Not every person or every 

work is treated fairly

, and what is even meant 

by “fair”? Noble challenged all people in 

publishing and academia to address the biases 

inherent in the tools we use, the work we 

produce, and the decisions we make. (See also 

Courtland, 2018, for a fascinating discussion 

of the topic.)

Communicating science in a “post-truth” 

world: Of course, we are not really living in 

a totally Orwellian “post-truth” world (not 

yet!), but I think most of us know that we need 

to engage the larger community to be less 

intimidated by science and to think openly 

and critically about what we read and hear 

about the world around us. 

If we need an example of someone who has 

really “gone to the mat” for communicating 

science, we just need to look at Michael Mann, 

climatologist, professor, and author of many 

books, including The Hockey Stick and the 

Climate Wars (Mann, 2013). At considerable 

personal cost, he is striving to “cut through the 

fog of disinformation that has been generated 

by the campaign to deny the reality of climate 

change”—and we are called to stand up and 

do our part, in whatever area of science we’re 

in. And we might need to learn effective 

ways to engage the broader community. 

Steve Mirsky, author of the “AntiGravity” 

column in Scientific American and host of the 

60-Second

  Science podcast, shared ideas for 

communicating science that have worked for 

him—humor and persuasion. Chris Martine’s 

YouTube series “Plants Are Cool Too!” came 

to mind for me.

This is meant to be a brief essay, so I am not 

going to elaborate on other Big Issues we 

learned about—but if any of these, or anything 

else, are of interest to you, please let me know 

and we can chat at Botany 2018 or we can 

explore in a future essay. 

Data sharing and accessibility policies: FAIR 

data principles, i.e., making sure that data 

are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and 

Reusable (see Force11).

Peer Review: Which system is the best, and why?  

Preprint Servers: Is everyone on board—

why or why not? How do they fit in with the 

research ecosystem and what comes next? 

REFERENCES

Council of Science Editors, https://www.council-

scienceeditors.org/

Courtland, R. 2018. Bias detectives: the research-

ers striving to make alorithms fair. Nature 558: 

357-360. doi: 10.1038/d41586-018-05469-3

Force11: The Future of Research Communica-

tions and e-Scholarship. [Website] https://www.

force11.org/about

Mann, M. 2013 [Paperback edition]. The Hockey 

Stick and the Climate Wars: Dispatches from the 

front lines. Columbia University Press, New York. 

Noble, S. U. 2018. Algorithms of Oppression: 

How search engines reinforce racism. NYU Press, 

New York.

Society for Scholarly Publishers, https://www.

sspnet.org/

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

89

Barbara D. Webster  

(1929-2017)

Barbara D. Webster, Professor Emerita in the 

Department of Plant Sciences, University 

of California, Davis, died September 7, 

2017, in Davis, at the age of 88. Born and 

raised in the Boston area, Barbara earned 

a B. S. in botany from the University of 

Massachusetts, Amherst; an M. A. in 

biology from Smith College; and a Ph.D. in 

biology from Harvard University. An NSF 

Postdoctoral Fellowship and a new spouse 

took her to Purdue University, where her 

career-long research into abscission began in 

the laboratory of Prof. A. Carl Leopold. The 

scope of Barbara’s research extended from 

her Ph.D. research on morphogenesis in 

bracken fern to include reproductive biology 

and pollination mechanisms in legumes, 

effective and ineffective nitrogen fixation in 

legumes, environmental stresses in relation to 

morphogenesis and yield of crop plants, and, 

always, abscission and senescence in higher 

plants. Her research approaches combined 

anatomy, morphology, ultrastructure, and 

physiology.   

Barbara arrived in Davis, CA in 1966 without 

a job but with a major NSF grant in hand. Her 

husband, Grady L. Webster, had been hired as 

a full professor in the Department of Botany 

at UC Davis. In the early months in Davis, 

Barbara was, as she put it, “underemployed” 

as a lab technician. In 1967, she was hired as a 

Lecturer and Assistant Research Morphologist, 

split between the Department of Agronomy 

and Range Science and the Department of 

Vegetable Crops (now combined into Plant 

Sciences). Over the next 12 years, Barbara 

held part- and full-time positions, sometimes 

paid in soft money and sometimes in hard 

money. She pursued research on leaf and 

pod abscission in common beans, and 

flower, fruit, and seed development in other 

crop plants. During her career, she received 

research grants from the USDA, USAID, NSF, 

and California Dry Bean Advisory Board, and 

she and her students and other collaborators 

published their work in prominent national 

and international botanical and horticultural 

journals. Barbara supervised graduate 

student research, mentored undergraduates, 

and, at intervals, taught an upper division 

undergraduate course in crop morphology. 

In 1979, Barbara’s appointment was converted 

to Professor of Agronomy and Agronomist 

in the Agricultural Experiment Station, with 

tenure.  

Once officially on the faculty at UC Davis, 

Barbara trained additional graduate students 

In Memoriam

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

90

and postdocs, often women and minorities, 

and sought out leadership and administrative 

opportunities. She served as the Associate 

Vice-Chancellor for research from 1989-1992 

and before that, as Associate Dean, Division 

of Biological Sciences (1981-1982). She served 

on and chaired numerous panels, boards, 

and committees for the National Science 

Foundation, National Research Council, 

USDA, Associated Western Universities, W. 

K. Kellogg Foundation-Grants, and National 

Center for Atmospheric Research. She was 

a Senior Fulbright Research Fellow at the 

University of Nairobi, Kenya. Barbara was 

the first woman elected as Treasurer of the 

Botanical Society of America (1977-1981) 

and later served as President (1983). She was 

a distinguished fellow of the Botanical Society 

of America (2008), and a fellow of the AAAS 

and the American Society for Horticultural 

Science; she received the university medal 

from Universidad San Francisco de Quito 

(Ecuador), and was a Visiting Scholar, 

People’s Republic of China. Locally, Barbara 

served as chair of the City of Davis Planning 

Commission, Board of Zoning Adjustment 

and co-chair of the grants committee of the 

Davis Regional Science Center.  

For obvious reasons, Barbara had a long-

standing interest in creating and improving 

opportunities in academia for women and 

other under-represented groups. She was a 

frequent contributor to faculty development 

workshops for new and junior faculty at 

UCD, always emphasizing the importance 

of understanding the academic system, of 

understanding expectations for professional 

advancement, of choosing a mentor, and of 

choosing one’s battles (Webster, 1989). She 

was a strong advocate for women in science, 

particularly women graduate students, and 

a vigorous proponent of support networks 

and interest groups to enhance collegiality 

and share information about resources and 

strategies for a successful career in academia. 

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Barbara 

also traveled to academic institutions across 

the country, where she gave talks on the 

challenges for women in the sciences in 

general and academia in particular. She was 

active in the UCD Women’s Resources and 

Research Center Network and a co-founder 

of the Faculty Women’s Research Support 

Group, in which colleagues met regularly 

to provide direction to new women faculty 

and to encourage the appropriate balance of 

research, teaching, and service to be successful 

in the promotion and tenure process.   

Barbara retired from UC Davis in December 

1992, staying active in the UC Davis Emeriti 

Association, the Davis Branch of the League of 

Women Voters, and several book groups. She 

is survived by her daughter, Susan V. Webster, 

the Jane Williams Mahoney Professor of 

Art History and American Studies at The 

College of William and Mary; her son-in-

law Hernán Navarrete; her sister Dorothy 

Sears and brother William Donahue; and 

numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces and 

grandnephews. Her brother Robert Donahue 

preceded her in death.  Grady pre-deceased 

her in 2005. In 2006, Barbara and Susan 

established the Grady L. Webster Award of 

the Botanical Society of America and of the 

American Society of Plant Taxonomists in his 

honor. The Grady L. Webster Memorial Fund 

also was created in 2006 to support research 

in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC 

Davis. A celebration of Barbara’s life was held 

in June, 2018, in the UCD Arboretum.  
-Judy Jernstedt, University of California, Davis

LITERATURE CITED

Webster, B. D.  1989.  Opening doors for women 

in academia.  BioScience 39(2): 96-98.  

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

91

Jochen Heinrichs

  

(1969-2018)

Jochen Heinrichs, a professor on the faculty of 

biology at the University of Munich, Germany, 

passed away on April 22, 2018, following 

a long battle with an autoimmune disease. 

Jochen was born in 1969 in Mönchengladbach 

near Düsseldorf and early on developed an 

interest in botany and especially bryology. He 

earned a master’s degree at the University of 

Düsseldorf (1989–1996), with a thesis on the 

systematics of a genus of mosses, and then 

moved to the University at Göttingen for 

his doctoral research under the supervision 

of Robbert Gradstein. His thesis, in 2002, 

consisted of a taxonomic revision of three 

sections of Plagiochila. Still in Göttingen, 

Jochen obtained his habilitation (2007) 

while working as a curator of the Göttingen 

University Herbarium (2001-2012). He 

reorganized the collection and initiated the 

establishment of a digital herbarium, which he 

supervised until he left Göttingen for Munich 

in 2013 to assume the position of professor for 

Molecular Systematics of Lower Plants at the 

Ludwig-Maximilians-University.

Jochen loved field work and participated in 

expeditions to Bolivia (1997), Costa Rica 

(1999), and Ecuador (2004), during which 

he focused mostly on liverworts. Many of 

his specimens of liverworts, bryophytes, 

and flowering plants have gone to the two 

(intercalated) herbaria in Munich, M and 

MSB. In spite of his comparatively young age, 

Jochen published more than 200 research 

articles (see Bibliography in Krings et al., 

2018), with his most influential contributions 

addressing the taxonomy of Plagiochila 

and liverwort systematics and taxonomy in 

general. Jochen was awarded the Sullivant 

Award of the American Bryological and 

Lichenological Society for the best paper 

published in The Bryologist in 2005. By about 

2008, Jochen became increasingly interested 

in, and fascinated by, fossil bryophytes, 

especially the copious record of these plants 

in amber, which naturally led to an interest 

in the calibration of ‘molecular clock’ and 

reconstructions of trait evolution and 

geographic range change. Jochen’s research on 

amber fossils resulted in more than 40 papers 

on liverworts and mosses, as well as ferns, 

fungi, and lichens, all beautifully illustrated, 

usually with color photos of the fossils. One of 

the last manuscripts Jochen was working on 

was “A comprehensive assessment of the fossil 

record of liverworts in amber,” an invited 

contribution to the commemorative volume 

In Memoriam

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

92

for the late Thomas N. Taylor (1937–2016; 

Krings et al., 2018). 

Jochen loved teaching, and during his barely 

six years at the University of Munich, he 

mentored dozens of Bachelor students, several 

M.Sc. students, and two Ph.D. students. His 

seminars in our institute seminar series 

were fresh and fascinating, whether one 

cared about liverworts or not. Jochen served 

as an editorial board member of several 

scientific journal, Editor-in-Chief of the series 

Bryophytorum Bibliotheca (since 2005), 

and on the Committee for Bryophytes of the 

International Association for Plant Taxonomy 

(1999–2005). 

As described in a fuller appreciation of his 

many contributions (with a full list of his 

publications; Krings et al., 2018), Jochen 

was an outstanding scientist and passionate 

person who will long be missed by his friends 

and colleagues, not only across Germany but 

throughout the world.
-

-Susanne S. Renner, 

Systematic Botany and 

Mycology, Department of Biology, University 

of Munich (LMU), Menzinger Str. 67, 80638 

Munich

LITERATURE CITED

Krings, M., Schneider, H., Bechteler, J., Feldberg, 

K., Renner, S. S., Schäfer-Verwimp, A., and A. 

R. Schmidt. Jochen Heinrichs: March 14, 1969–

April 22, 2018. Plant Systematics and Evolution 

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-018-1521-4.

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

93

Are you ready ?

Don't miss the best scientific conference of the summer!   

Join us in the vibrant city of Rochester, Minnesota!  

Timely Symposia and Colloquia 

Informative Workshops 

Spectacular Field Trips 

Over 950 Oral and Poster presentations 

Exhibits 

Networking Events 

Something for everyone!

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

94

Featured Speakers

Plenary Lecturer 

 

Walter Judd

 

Flora of  

J.R.R. Tolkien’s  

Middle-Earth

 Regional Botany  

Special Lecture 

 

George Weiblen 

 

Annals of Botany  

Lecture

 

 

Jeffrey Karron 

 Kaplan Memorial

 

Lecture

 

 

Toby Kellogg

 

.

 Incoming BSA President 

Lecture

 

 Andi Wolfe

 

 Pelton Award

 Lecture

 

 Neelima Sinha 

 Emerging Leader  

Lecture

 

 Benjamin Blackman

 

Incoming ASPT President 

Lecture

 

 Mark Fishbein

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

95

Enhance your Conference experience  

Sign up for a field trip and experience the  

Botany of the Rochester area! 

For complete information, descriptions, and fees, go to: 

http://2018.botanyconference.org/field-trips.html

New this year! 

 Botanical Society of America will reimbuse any student member  

up to $100.00 for field trip fees.  Sign up early!  

Reimbursements are first-come, first-served! 

Information on the conference website

Friday Trips

•  Join the Fern Foray - Do the overnight adventure or just come 

for the day!

Saturday Trips

•  Explore the Big Woods and go Kayaking - Check out the video 

on the site!

•  Visit the Cedar Creek EcosystemScience Reserve
•  Collect and identify Sedges at the Whitewater Wildlife 

Management Center

•  Hike the Weaver Dunes Prairie - and then canoe the marsh 

and look for the American Lotus!

•  Check out the Glacial Relics and the fire-dependent Plant 

communities

Sunday Trips

•  Hike through Whitewater State Park
•  Visit Mystery Cave State Park 
•  Walk through the Minnesota Landsape Arboretum and then 

Prince's private estate - Paisley Park

•  Discover the New Bell Museum, the MIN Herbarium and Surly 

Brewing Company

Post-Conference Thursday Trips

•  See the Karst bedrock and tour the Whitewater Valley
•  Another chance to go Kayaking on the Cannon River

96

SPECIAL FEATURES

By Theresa Culley
Department of Biological Sciences, University of 

Cincinnati, 614 Rieveschl Hall, Cincinnati, OH 

45221-0006  

E-mail: theresa.culley@uc.edu, Tel: 513-556-9705

Manuscript received 1 June 2018; revision accepted 19 June 2018.

Introduction

For researchers looking to publish their work, 

there now exists a dizzying array of possible 

outlets.  Over the past decade, the publication 

landscape has exploded from print-based, 

subscription journals published by respected 

scientific societies 

and legitimate publishing 

companies to an almost equal number of 

disreputable, open-access journals backed 

by for-profit companies (Beall, 2012, 2016b; 

Shen and Björk, 2015; Beninger et al., 2016; 

Laine and Winker, 2017). Known as predatory 

journals (Beall, 2012), these journals charge 

publication fees with promises of rapid 

publication but often have a sham peer review 

process, leading to low article quality (Beall, 

2016a, b; Eriksson and Helgesson, 2017; 

Shamseer et al., 2017). Consequently, these 

journals are not accepted for indexing in major 

bibliographic databases, like Web of Science or 

How to Avoid Predatory Journals 

When Publishing Your Work

Key Words

fake impact factor; open access; predatory 

journal; predatory publisher. 

Acknowledgements

The author thanks R. Hund, B. Parada, and A. 

McPherson for their encouragement to write 

this manuscript; they were also extremely 

helpful in forwarding relevant articles and 

blog postings on the subject. Thanks also to 

T. Serota, D. Spooner, and two anonymous 

reviewers for helpful comments and 

suggestions on this manuscript. 

PubMed.  Many predatory journals purposely 

dupe authors—especially young investigators 

and academics from low-resource countries—

into submitting manuscripts with deceptive 

advertising designed to resemble legitimate 

scholarly journals (Beall, 2012, 2016a).  

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

97

In some cases, predatory publishers even 

create counterfeit websites of respected 

journals to deceitfully obtain manuscripts—

essentially “hijacking” the legitimate journals 

(Tin et al., 2014; Beall, 2016a; Eriksson and 

Helgesson, 2017; see https://predatoryjournals.

com/hijacked/).  Many predatory publishers 

state that they are located in the U.S., Canada, 

Australia, and the U.K., but are actually in 

other countries (Beall, 2012; Gasparyan et 

al., 2015; Shamseer et al., 2017) where many 

predatory journals originate. Predatory 

publishers have even created sham “meetings” 

and “conferences,” in which they divide up 

ballrooms in a hotel in a popular tourist city 

to hold multiple “conferences” together on the 

same weekend, with limited staff and very few 

attendees (Hunziker, 2017). In short, these 

entities are scams targeting academic authors 

for their own financial benefit (Anderson, 

2017) and to “generate profits rather than 

promote academic scholarship” (Stratford, 

2012). Consequently, authors must carefully 

navigate where to submit their papers for 

scientific dissemination (Barroga, 2015; 

Eriksson and Helgesson, 2017). 

This proliferation of predatory journals can be 

traced to a relatively recent shift in publication 

models (Beninger et al., 2016), but the reality 

is that anyone with a computer and internet 

connection can create a “journal.” In the 

past, traditionally printed journals were large 

complex operations, financially supported by 

personal and library subscriptions.  Although 

this ensured high quality of published articles, 

one disadvantage was that readership was 

potentially limited; non-subscribers could 

only read articles if they personally paid for 

the journal or had access to it through their 

institution.  The open access model reversed 

this idea so that the published paper is 

freely available to all readers, after authors 

themselves pay the publication cost (typically 

called an “article processing charge,” or APC).  

Although the intent of the open access model 

was honorable, it has now been exploited by 

for-profit predatory journals focused solely 

on increasing their own income by requiring 

author fees (ranging from US$100 to several 

thousand dollars) on as many articles as 

possible without any concern for quality or 

scientific rigor.  Although not all open access 

journals are predatory—many are indeed 

legitimate—all predatory journals are open 

access. 

The extent of predatory journals is never more 

apparent than through “sting operations” in 

which bogus manuscripts are submitted to 

journals to test whether they would publish a 

clearly flawed paper.  In one classic example, 

a working neuroscientist and anonymous 

blogger submitted a nonsensical Star Wars–

inspired study to nine journals in response 

to e-mailed invitations (Neuroskeptic, 2017).  

Written by the fictional Dr. Lucas McGeorge 

and Dr. Annette Kin, the manuscript detailed 

“midi-chlorians,” or “microscopic life forms” 

said to live inside the cells of Jedi and give them 

their powers. If that were not enough to warrant 

rejection along with references to “Yoda’s 

ataxia” and “Wookie’s Disease,” the manuscript 

also included an embedded monologue about 

a Dark Sith Lord.  Yet, four journals accepted 

and published the clearly fictitious paper. 

Just a few days after the sting was publicized, 

all four journals deleted the paper (which is 

available by the author at: https://www.scribd.

com/document/354932509/Mitochondria-

Structure-Function-and-Clinical-Relevance). 

In yet another case, a joke manuscript that 

consisted entirely of repetitions of seven words 

(“Get Me Off Your F------ Mailing List”; http://

www.scs.stanford.edu/~dm/home/papers/

remove.pdf), complete with obviously bogus 

figures, was accepted by the International 

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

98

Journal of Advanced Computer Technology in 

2014, but the author declined the fee of $150 

(Stromberg, 2014a).  At least one anonymous 

reviewer rated the manuscript as “excellent.” 

Finally, a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen 

constructed an entirely fictional manuscript 

that combined the topics of soil, cancer 

treatment, and Mars by cutting and pasting 

text from valid scientific papers.  He submitted 

the manuscript to 18 journals, and 8 of those 

agreed to publish the paper for a fee ranging 

from $1000 to $5000 (Stromberg, 2014b).  

Clearly, there was no peer review or editorial 

oversight in any of these cases.

WHY CARE?

Authors must be aware of these predatory 

journals for several reasons (Hunziker, 2017; 

Rydholm, 2017), not the least 

of which 

is their unethical nature, promotion of 

counterfeit science, and the “watering down” 

and devaluation of solid scientific research.  

Furthermore, some predatory journals are not 

transparent about their publication process 

(Beall, 2016a), sometimes tricking authors 

into paying exorbitant fees.  An example is as 

follows: An author submits a manuscript in 

response to a journal’s spam e-mail request, 

but the manuscript is immediately published 

(indicating no peer review) and the author 

is then invoiced a large amount of money 

—usually over $1000.  If the now-suspicious 

author asks to withdraw the manuscript, the 

publisher refuses unless a “withdrawal fee” is 

paid.  

In short, the author must pay either the 

publication fee or the withdrawal fee because 

the manuscript cannot be submitted elsewhere 

since it is already considered published 

(Stratford, 2012; Hunziker, 2017). 

According 

to Beall (2016a), this is akin to holding the 

manuscript “hostage” until a fee is paid. In 

other cases, predatory journals can charge 

fees that are much lower (median = $100 per 

article) than the open access fees of higher 

quality legitimate journals ($2500 to $3000; 

Shamseer et al., 2017).  In this way, predatory 

journals can attract more authors and publish 

more articles, garnering more profit for the 

journal at the expense of quality.

Publishing in a predatory journal can also be 

detrimental to a researcher’s career because 

institutions are now recognizing their low 

quality.  Specifically, articles in illegitimate 

journals are increasingly being discounted 

from the publication record of scientists 

seeking employment or promotion.  For 

example, the Department of Biological 

Sciences at the University of Cincinnati 

recently revised their promotion and tenure 

requirements to specifically exclude articles 

published in predatory journals. The concern 

for institutions is that unscrupulous authors 

may intentionally pad their dossiers by 

sending their manuscripts to these fake 

journals because of guaranteed acceptance 

(Beall, 2017; Kolata, 2017).  This also applies 

to unknowing authors who may be duped into 

submitting an article to a predatory journal.  

The ongoing proliferation of predatory 

journals also causes confusion among authors 

and readers, endangering the reputation 

of legitimate journals.  For example, some 

legitimate open access journals in developing 

countries or journals that are newly launched 

may be improperly labeled as “predatory” 

(Regier, 2018).  This can further exacerbate 

existing biases in scholarly publishing against 

non-Western and non-English studies, even 

though these legitimate journals may serve as 

important publishing outlets in critical areas 

of the world.

So how can researchers—especially those just 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

99

beginning their publishing career—know 

where to publish their work and specifically, 

how to avoid inadvertently submitting their 

manuscripts to an inferior, predatory journal?  

SIGNS OF PREDATION

The first list of predatory publishers and 

stand-alone journals appeared in 2012 as a 

blog titled Scholarly Open Access by Jeffrey 

Beall, a scholarly communications librarian at 

the University of Colorado (Beall, 2012). Beall 

had become concerned about the proliferation 

of low-quality, for-profit, online-only journals 

that masqueraded as legitimate publishing 

outlets. He first coined the term “predatory” 

in reference to these publishers and journals 

(Beall, 2016a). The impetus for his list started 

in the 1990s when many academic libraries 

in North America, facing declining library 

budgets and increasing subscription prices 

along with the appearance of many new 

academic fields, were forced to become more 

selective in their journal subscriptions (Beall, 

2017).  As poor-quality, predatory journals 

began to increase in number, Beall created 

his list to share this information with other 

librarians who were considering how to refine 

their subscription lists.  Known as “Beall’s List,” 

this resource became very popular, although 

it had a limitation in that some publishers 

could have a mix of predatory and seemingly 

legitimate journals. Unfortunately, Beall shut 

down his blog in 2017 following pressure 

from his employer, caused in part by threats 

of lawsuits by some of the very publishers he 

had identified as “predatory” (Beall, 2017).  

Although an archived Beall’s List is still being 

updated today by an anonymous researcher 

(see 

Chawla, 2018

), listing of predatory 

journals has now been taken over by Cabell’s 

International (http://www2.cabells.com), 

a well-regarded publisher of a directory of 

journals. In early 2017, Cabell debuted a 

Blacklist as well as a Whitelist (Anderson, 

2017; 

Chawla, 2018

). In contrast to Beall’s 

List, Cabell’s Blacklist is not freely available 

but requires a subscription, with prices set 

institutionally.  

The publishing community has also been 

working to address the issue of predatory 

journals and publishers.  In 2013, the 

Committee on Publication 

Ethics (COPE) 

developed 

Principles of Transparency and Best 

Practice in Scholarly Publishing

,

 which included 

16 guidelines for member organizations 

on how to best promote transparency and 

scientific rigor (COPE, 2014).  These guidelines 

are also helpful for authors in confirming the 

scientific validity of any journal.  For example, 

they require member journals to conduct 

peer-review using experts in the field (not 

only the editorial staff), to possess a journal 

name that cannot be easily confused with 

another 

journal (and thus mislead authors), 

and full disclosure of names, affiliations, and 

contact information for the editorial board 

and staff

.  If any journal or publisher violates 

one or more of these points, it must address 

the issue satisfactorily or risk losing their 

membership in COPE, 

the Directory of Open 

Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access 

Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA

), 

and/or the World Association of Medical 

Editors (WAME). 

In addition, several legitimate publishers 

and library groups started an initiative 

in 2015 called ThinkCheckSubmit (

http://

thinkchecksubmit.org)

  to educate authors 

about what to look for when selecting a 

journal 

in which to publish 

(Beall, 2016b).  Another 

resource to identify deceptive journals or 

publishers was created by the Council of 

Science Editors (2018).  However, even these 

resources do not prevent unethical, predatory 

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

100

journals from continuing to market to and 

engage unsuspecting (or deceitful) authors.  

Based on published resources (e.g., COPE, 

2014; Tin et al., 2014; Beall, 2016a,b; Beninger 

et al., 2016; Eriksson and Helgesson, 2017; 

Hunziker, 2017; Laine 

and Winker, 2017; 

Shamseer et al., 2017; Council of Science 

Editors, 2018), I created a combined checklist 

to help authors identify whether a given 

journal is predatory or legitimate.

COMMON RED FLAGS OF 

A PREDATORY JOURNAL

Authors should be wary of journals containing 

more than one of the following flags when 

considering where to submit their work for 

publication:  

Journal Information:

•  Journal name could be easily confused with 

a different legitimate journal

•  Only a small number of articles are pub-

lished per year, with articles typically of poor 

quality

•  Focus of the journal is very broad, often 

encompassing more than one field of study 

that are usually not treated together 

•  Title of the journal includes “International,” 

“World,” “American,” “European,” “British,” 

“Innovative,” or “Advanced” [Note that this 

also pertains to some legitimate journals.]

•  Editorial board is not clearly defined or 

consists of an inordinately large number of 

researchers (many non-experts) from dif-

ferent locations around the world

•  Claims an unrealistic peer review-to-publi-

cation turnaround time (e.g., one week)

•  Articles are sent to their editorial board for 

“peer review” rather than to ad-hoc experts 

in their field

•  Asks the recipient to also send their resume 

to be considered for their editorial board

•  Falsely claims to be indexed by databases 

such as Web of Science, PubMed, or SCO-

PUS

•  Falsely claims to be a member of the Open 

Access Scholarly Publishing Association 

(OASPA) or COPE, or if an online journal, 

deceptively claims to be registered in the Di-

rectory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

•  Direct marketing e-mails often contain 

spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and 

the use of pretentious and ostentatious 

words (“honored”, “impressive”, “eminent”)

•  E-mails requesting submissions are sent 

multiple times, spamming potential authors

•  In the e-mail, authors are asked to send their 

manuscript as an attachment without any 

indication of a website for verification of the 

authenticity of the journal; the e-mail ad-

dress may be personal (i.e., a gmail address) 

Website:

•  Appearance and/or content of website may 

mimic another journal or publisher’s website

•  Website contains many grammatical errors 

and/or images with poor resolution (having 

been copied from other online sites)

•  Publisher has no functional telephone num-

ber or postal address, or consists of a resi-

dential address

•  Full names of editors and their affiliations 

are not provided

•  Names and contact information of editori-

al staff are not provided; editorial assistant 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

101

may only be known by their first name or 

a combination of two typical American first 

names

•  The periodicity of publication is not clearly 

stated and/or is inconsistent

•  Peer reviewing process is not adequately de-

scribed

•  Uses words such as “impact factor” or “in-

dex factor” for non-existent organizations; 

or mentions indices, such as Google Scholar 

(which does not consider the quality of any 

listed articles) or Index Copernicus

•  Does not clearly indicate information about 

the ownership and/or management of a 

journal 

•  Copyright information is not readily appar-

ent or provided on the website; publisher 

may in fact retain the copyright

•  No clear statement about research integrity 

and how misconduct will be dealt with; no 

statement about conflicts of interest of edi-

tors, reviewers, and authors

•  No clear statement of archiving or how ac-

cess to journal content will be preserved in 

perpetuity (if the journal is no longer pub-

lished), such as in CLOCKSS or PubMed 

Central

Finances:

•  Author charges are either 

unclear or are not 

stated on the website.  

•  If posted, APCs are either extremely high 

(several thousand dollars) or extremely low 

(e.g., $60–$100)

•  Authors are required to pay a fee (often ex-

cessive

) in order for the paper to be first sent 

for “review” 

•  The advertising policy is not clearly stated
•  The method of access for readers, including 

subscription fees or pay per view, is not pro-

vided

A TEST CASE

To better understand the challenges faced 

by researchers seeking a publication outlet, I 

collected all e-mails I received over a three-

month period (October 2017 to January 2018) 

that invited submission of a manuscript to a 

journal.  From these e-mails, I extracted and 

compared the journal names, publishers, 

characteristics of the e-mail (sender, contact 

information, grammar, etc.), and frequency 

of contact.  I then used the checklist above, 

Beall’s List of publishers and some stand-alone 

journals, and Cabell’s Blacklist of journals 

to determine whether the journal/publisher 

referenced in each message was legitimate or 

predatory.  

In all, I received 86 e-mails during 

the 103-

day 

collection period, ranging from 0 to 

4 e-mails per day.  The e-mails originated 

from 68 journals from at least 30 publishers 

(in 11 cases, the publisher was not apparent; 

Table 1), and some journals sent multiple 

e-mails.  The largest number of e-mails were 

received on a Tuesday (n = 19), followed by 

Monday (17), Thursday and Friday (16 each), 

Wednesday (9), Saturday (7), and Sunday 

(2).  The most common publishers behind 

these e-mails were OMICS International 

(including SciTechnol and Insight Medical 

Publishing) with invitations to submit to 16 of 

their journals, sometimes repeated.  The next 

most common publishers were Open Access 

Publishers (OAP) with invitations to 5 of their 

journals and Science Research Publishing with 

3 journals.  OMICS International and OAP 

are considered predatory by both Beall and 

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

102

Cabell, and their e-mails were characteristic 

of the checklist above. In particular, OMICS 

International was labeled by Beall as “the 

worst of the worst” (see also Stratford, 2012).  

Eriksson and Helgesson (2017) also reported 

how OMICS International is particularly 

skilled at manipulating their reported “impact 

factor,” and Stratford (2012) emphasized that 

their websites are often deceptive.

Of the 86 e-mails that I received, only 9 

(10.5%) were determined to be from legitimate 

journals and the remaining 77 (89.5%) were 

from questionable sources.  Of these, 57 

(66.3%) e-mails originated from a predatory 

journal or publisher as identified by Beall and/

or Cabell, and 21 (23.3%) e-mails contained 

many of the characteristics of predatory 

journals (see checklist above), but did not 

appear on the Beall or Cabell lists.  Even if 

multiple requests from the same publisher 

were excluded, only 11.8% of e-mails could 

be tracked to a legitimate journal with 88.2% 

originating from a known or presumed 

predatory journal or publisher (consisting of 

64.7% listed on Beall and/or Cabell and 23.5% 

with characteristics of predatory journals).

During my review of these emails, the most 

common red flags that indicated a predatory 

journal were as follows:

1.  Inappropriate E-mail Presentation and 

Tone: Predatory journals often have an 

international origin and as such, may spam 

researchers with repeated e-mails that are 

replete with grammatical errors, odd word 

choices, effusive praise, and nonsensical 

sentence structure.  Noteworthy examples 

include (boldface as in the original message): 

 

Dear Dr. Theresa M Culley,

Good Morning…..!

I hope your morning is as bright as your smile!

Well, in order to apply ISSN we are in need of one 

Research Article. Is it possible for you to support us 

with your eminent work? In fact, we are offering 

best partial waiver for the first 5 articles which are 

received foremost.

Your trust in my efforts is the highest form of our 

motivation, I believe in you that your eminent 

manuscript brings out the best citation to our 

Journal.

Predict to hear your optimistic response.

Regards,

JOJ Horticulture & Arboriculture (JOJHA)

Dear Dr. Theresa M. Culley,

Greetings from SciFed Journal of Astrophysics.

We just wanted to take a minute to wish you peace 

and prosperity.

On behalf of  SciFed Journal of Astrophysics, 

we would like to invite you to publish your 

recent research work for the second issue.   

SciFed Journal of Astrophysics Journal accepts 

articles in the form of Research Articles/Review 

Articles/Case Reports/Short Communications etc.

Please kindly share your recent research paper related 

to Journal of Astrophysics.

We hope you will respond to this invite with a yes and 

will allow us to have one of the brilliant and most 

gifted minds of this century.

We are looking forward to hearing from you.

If you have any concerns, we will be glad to assist you.

Best Regards,
George Philip 

Assistant Scientific Editor 

SciFed Journal of Astrophysics  

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

103

2. Promises of a Quick Review and Acceptance: 

One e-mail I received from the International 

Journal of Management and Economics 

Invention promised notification of acceptance 

within 2 to 3 days of submission and online 

publication within 24 hours—despite the 

publisher’s statement that “RAJ is committed 

to peer review integrity and practices the 

highest standards of ethical publishing….” 

Notably, the charge for U.S. authors was 

$100 per article, to be paid through PayPal.  

The website for World Journal of Research 

and Review (https://www.wjrr.org/page/faq) 

mentions that it only takes 3 to 4 working 

days for the review process and that online 

publication is 1 to 2 days after “registration”; 

payment is by credit card or PayPal. 

3.  Odd Editorial Office Contacts: Another 

common characteristic of predatory journals 

is that e-mails to authors are commonly 

signed by an editorial assistant with either a 

single name followed by an abbreviation for 

the last name (Murray L or Amanda T) or two 

common English names put together (e.g., 

George Phillip, John Abraham, Isaac Brian).  

However, my favorite senders were “Monalisa,” 

the Assistant Managing Editor of the Journal 

of Plant Sciences and Agricultural Research, 

and “Scarlett Johansson,” the purported 

journal coordinator of the new Journal of 

Environmental Research (not to be confused 

with Elsevier’s legitimate Environmental 

Research). 

4. Large Number of Editorial Board Members: 

Predatory journals typically have a very long 

list of editors or editorial board members, 

often from a scattering of different topical 

areas (Shamseer et al., 2017).  In some cases, 

the “editors” may turn out to be reputable 

scientists who have no idea that their 

name and information has been purloined 

Dear Dr. T M Culley,

Hope all is well at your end. 

Apologize for bothering in your busy schedule.   

We are delighted to inform you that, we are 

planning to release our  Upcoming issue  by 

the  End of Current month  and require 

your kind support to do this in due time.   

 

We are planning to get ISSN number to our journal 

within 2months for which we have to publish more 

Research and Review articles as per the guidelines 

of Cope. Hence, we need your kind support, as 

we have gone through your profile in online and 

very much delighted & surprised by your eminent 

articles which are quite interesting and informative.  

 

Where, you are an eminent author to our journal, 

we kindly request you to contribute your manuscript 

to increase the scope of our journal or else you can 

suggest your friends/colleagues/students to submit 

their manuscripts towards our Journal.  Kindly 

follow the below link for online submission 

h t t p s : / / w w w . m e d w i n p u b l i s h e r s .

c o m / s u b m i t - m a n u s c r i p t . p h p

 

 

If you are unable to submit article by the given 

timeline, kindly send us  2 Page Editorial/Mini 

Review/Short communication/Opinion. Hope 

it would not consume your much valuable time. 

 

We are positive that this Journal will offer you an 

enriching experience and hope to achieve great 

successful endeavors.

Kindly acknowledge this email receipt 

within 24 hours.

Await your reply.

Kind Regards 

Lori Elizabeth 

Assistant Managing Editor 

Genomics & Gene Therapy International 

Journal (GGTIJ) 

MedWin Publishers 

Email: genomics@medwinpublishers.com 

 

If you wish to not to receive our e-mails, kindly 

unsubscribe

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

104

(Gasparyan et al., 2015).  For example, in 

2016 I received an e-mail from Biological 

Systems: Open Access, published by OMICS 

International, requesting a review article. 

 

The e-mail caught my attention because it 

was very poorly written with grammatical 

mistakes, yet reportedly was from their 

Editor-in-Chief—a name that I happened to 

recognize as a researcher at a neighboring 

university.  When I contacted him, the 

person had no idea that his information and 

photograph had been surreptitiously used 

in this manner, having been copied from his 

university website. Several years ago, I politely 

declined a request to join an editorial board of 

a journal, mentioning that it was completely 

outside my area of expertise and I was already 

too busy as an editor-in-chief—to which the 

journal asked me to reconsider, mentioning 

that I did not need to do anything at all.  In yet 

another example involving a sting operation, 

a resume from a fictitious scientist named 

Anna O. Szust (based on the Polish word for 

“a fraud”) was submitted to 360 journals to 

serve on their editorial board; 40 predatory 

journals accepted her as an editor (some 

offers were conditional on receiving payment) 

and 4 journals appointed her as editor-in-

chief—with at least one mentioning that she 

would have “no responsibilities” (Sorokowski 

et al., 2017).  Finally, the fictional Dr. Lucas 

McGeorge mentioned earlier in the Star Wars 

sting operation was subsequently sent an 

unsolicited e-mail to serve on the editorial 

board of a different journal (Neuroskeptic, 

2017).

5.  Misleading Statements of Importance and 

False Impact Factors: Predatory journals 

sometimes provide a fake impact factor to 

misrepresent their importance (Beall, 2016b; 

Gasparyan et al., 2015; Beninger et al., 2016; 

Eriksson and 

Helgesson, 2017; Hunziker, 

2017).  Impact factors are calculated each 

year by Clarivate Analytics (which took over 

the calculations from Thomson Reuters), 

and it can take at least two years for a journal 

to be selected

 to be included in their well-

regarded Journal Citation Report (JCR). 

However, Thomson Reuters originally never 

trademarked the name “impact factor,” 

so a number of companies (such as Index 

Copernicus) have emerged to supply bogus 

“impact factors” to predatory journals 

(Eriksson and Helgesson, 2017; Shamseer et 

al., 2017).  Furthermore, predatory journals 

may claim inclusion in an irrelevant indexing 

service that does not 

include any measure of 

article quality, such as Google Scholar (Beall, 

2016a). To check the authenticity of reported 

metrics, the group known as Stop Predatory 

Journals provide a list of such indexing services 

(https://predatoryjournals.com/metrics/).  

Some predatory journals 

also state falsely on 

their websites that they are registered in the 

Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), 

which can be easily checked (

https://doaj.org)

.  

Finally, Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are 

provided for materials regardless of their 

quality, so the fact that a journal provides 

DOIs for their articles should never be taken 

as an external recognition of the importance 

of that journal. 

One of my favorites is the following e-mail from 

the predatory journal American International 

Journal of Contemporary Research.  It was 

sent from “Emily Michael” and has even been 

updated to include that the journal is indexed 

in Cabell’s.  It is certainly included there—but 

on their Blacklist.  The underlined and bold-

faced portions are as in the original e-mail. 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

105

 

Call for Papers 

American International Journal of Contemporary Research 

ISSN 2162-139X (Print), ISSN 2162-142X (Online) 

DOI: 10.30845/aijcr

American International Journal of Contemporary Research (AIJCR) is an open access, peer-reviewed and 

refereed multidisciplinary journal published by 

Center for Promoting Ideas (CPI), USA.

 The main objective 

of AIJCR is to provide an intellectual platform for the research community. AIJCR aims to promote contemporary 

research in business, humanities, social science, science and technology and become the leading journal in the world.

The journal publishes research papers in three broad specific fields as follows:

Business and Economics 

Management, marketing, finance, economics, banking, accounting, human resources management, 

international business, hotel and tourism, entrepreneurship development, business ethics, development studies 

and so on.

Humanities and Social Science 

Anthropology, communication studies, corporate governance, criminology, cross-cultural studies, demography, 

education, ethics, geography, history, industrial relations, information science, international relations, law, 

linguistics, library science, media studies, methodology, philosophy, political science, population Studies, 

psychology, public administration, sociology, social welfare, linguistics, literature, paralegal, performing arts 

(music, theatre & dance), religious studies, visual arts, women studies.

Science and Technology 

Astronomy and astrophysics, Chemistry, Earth and atmospheric sciences, Physics, Biology in general, 

Agriculture, Biophysics and biochemistry, Botany, Environmental Science, Forestry, Genetics, Horticulture, 

Husbandry, Neuroscience, Zoology, Computer science, Engineering, Robotics and Automation, Materials 

science, Mathematics, Mechanics, Statistics, Health Care & Public Health, Nutrition and Food Science, 

Pharmaceutical Sciences, and so on.

The journal is published both in print and online versions. 

AIJCR publishes original papers, review papers, conceptual framework, analytical and simulation models, case 

studies, empirical research, technical notes, and book reviews. 

AIJCR is indexed with and included in Cabell’s, EBSCO, Ulrich’s , IndexCopernicus International, and 

Gale. Moreover the journal is under the indexing process with ISI, ERIC, ProQuest, Scopus, DOAJ and Econlit.

DOI

® 

number 

Each paper published in American International Journal of Contemporary Research is assigned a DOI

® 

number. 

The DOI of this journal is 10.30845/aijcr. 

AIJCR is inviting papers for Vol. 8 No. 2 which is scheduled to be published on June 30, 2018. Last date of 

submission: June 20, 2018. However, an early submission will get preference in case of review and publication 

process.

Send your manuscript to the editor at editor@aijcrnet.com

For more information, visit the official website of the journal www.aijcrnet.com

With thanks, 

Dr. Andrew Lessard 

The Chief Editor 

American International Journal of Contemporary Research 

Contact: editor@aijcrnet.com

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

106

6. Invitations to Submit to Irrelevant Journals: 

Although most journals e-mailing to solicit a 

manuscript were usually of some relevance to 

my own research as a botanist, there was also 

a subset of highly irrelevant journals.  These 

included the SciFed Journal of Astrophysics 

(which sent three identical requests and 

another this May, asking why they have not 

heard back from me), Advances in Automobile 

Engineering, and Journal of Stem Cells and 

Regenerative Therapy, to name a few.  

Some 

of these journals also sent insistent, follow-up 

e-mail solicitations, often directly referring to 

one of my own unrelated publications by title.

WHAT TO DO NEXT

The appearance of new predatory journals will 

undoubtedly continue as long as researchers 

remain ambivalent, ignorant, or accepting of 

this publishing trend. As one of their main 

targets, junior scientists such as graduate 

students writing their first paper need to be 

especially wary of predatory journals. Given 

that I

,

 as a full professor with over 18 years 

of publishing articles

,

 received so many 

requests from predatory journals, it would be 

interesting to determine if it might differ for 

graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, 

and junior tenure track faculty members 

in 

the United States.  Authors in countries 

with limited financial resources may also be 

attracted to these journals because the cost 

is often much lower than legitimate journals.  

For example, a review of articles published in 

predatory journals from 2010–2014 revealed 

that 75% of the authors were from Africa or 

Asia (Shen and Björk, 2015).  However, it is 

important to remember that legitimate, open 

access journals from these regions of the world 

can also be improperly labeled as “predatory,” 

so lists such as those above should be used 

with caution with non-Western and non-

English journals (Regier, 2018).  

As emphasized here, authors should avoid 

submitting their manuscripts to these 

illegitimate journals, but there are also other 

implications of the proliferation of predatory 

journals.  First, when authors are searching 

for relevant citations to include in their own 

manuscripts, they now must decide which 

articles are valid to cite and which to ignore 

(Beall, 2016a); it is not enough to always 

simply trust in the reputation of the journal 

itself.  In addition, fake literature will continue 

to infiltrate academia as students and others 

unknowingly reference illegitimate articles 

found on the internet.  Third, the onus now 

falls upon academic search committees to 

carefully vet the curriculum vitae of their 

job applicants to avoid applicants who pad 

their publication record with articles in low-

quality, predatory journals (Kolata, 2017).  

Finally, the scientific 

community still needs 

to consider the role of paid editing services 

for non-English speaking authors (Gasparyan 

et al., 2015).  In the end, authors, reviewers, 

and editors must remain vigilant about the 

predatory journals and publishers.  This is 

the only way that we can thwart persons and 

companies who wish to 

devalue science for 

their own personal profit. 

LITERATURE CITED

Anderson, R. 2017. Cabell’s new predatory jour-

nal blacklist: A review. The  Scholarly  Kitchen. 

Available at: https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.

org/2017/07/25/cabells-new-predatory-jour-

nal-blacklist-review/  [accessed May 29, 2018].

Barroga, E. 2015. Predatory publishing practices 

corrode the credibility of science. Journal of Ko-

rean Medical Science 30: 1535-1536.

Beall, J. 2012. Predatory publishers are corrupting 

open access. Nature 489: 179.

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

107

Beall, J. 2016a. Dangerous predatory publishers 

threaten medical research. Journal of Korean Med-

ical Science 31: 1511-1513.

Beall, J. 2016b. Best practices for scholarly au-

thors in the age of predatory journals.  Annals of 

The Royal College of Surgeons of England 98: 77-

79.

Beall, J. 2017. What I learned from predatory 

publishers. Biochemia Medica 27(2): 273-278.

Beninger, P.G., J. Beall, and S.E. Shumway. 2016. 

Debasing the currency of science: The growing 

menace of predatory open access journals. Journal 

of Shellfish Research 35: 1-5.

Chawla, D.S. 2018. The undercover academic 

keeping tabs on ‘predatory’ publishing. Nature 

555: 422-423.

Committee on Publication Ethics – COPE. 

2014. Principles of transparency and best prac-

tice in scholarly publishing. Version 2. Available 

at: https://oaspa.org/principles-of-transparen-

cy-and-best-practice-in-scholarly-publishing/  

[accessed May 29, 2018].

Council of Science Editors. 2018. Predatory or 

deceptive publishers – recommendations for 

caution.  Available at: https://www.councilscien-

ceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/

cse-policies/approved-by-the-cse-board-of-direc-

tors/predatory-deceptive-publishers-recommen-

dations-caution/ [accessed June 16, 2018]

Eriksson, S. and G. Helgesson. 2017. The false 

academy: predatory publishing in science and 

bioethics.  Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 

20: 163-170.

Gasparyan A.Y., M. Yessirkepov, S.N. Diyano-

va, and G.D. Kitas. 2015). Publishing ethics and 

predatory practices: A dilemma for all stakehold-

ers of science communication. Journal of Korean 

Medical Science 30: 1010-1016.

Hunziker, R. 2017. Avoiding predatory publishers 

in the post-Beall world: Tips for writers and edi-

tors. AMWA Journal 32: 113-115.

Kolata, G. 2017. Many academics are eager 

to publish in worthless journals. The New York 

Times Oct. 30. Available at: https://www.nytimes.

com/2017/10/30/science/predatory-journals-aca-

demics.html  [accessed May 29, 2018].

Laine C. and M.A. Winker. 2017. Identifying 

predatory or pseudo-journals.  World Associa-

tion of Medical Editors.  Available at: http://www.

wame.org/News/Details/18 [accessed May 29, 

2018].

Neuroskeptic. 2017. Predatory journals hit by ‘Star 

Wars’ Sting. Discover.  Available at: http://blogs.

discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2017/07/22/

predatory-journals-star-wars-sting/#.Wv4f_S_

Gx0t [accessed May 29, 2018].

Regier, R. 2018. The institutionalized racism of 

scholarly publishing. A Way of Happening: a Re-

search Library Blog. Available at: https://away-

ofhappening.wordpress.com/2018/06/09/the-in-

stitutionalized-racism-of-scholarly-publishing/ 

[accessed June 18, 2018]

Rydholm, A. 2017. Beware of predatory journals. 

Acta Orthopaedica 88(6): 576.

Shamseer L., S. Moher, O. Maduekwe, L. Turn-

er, C. Barbour, R. Burch, J. Clark, J. Galipeau, J. 

Roberts, and E.J. Shea. 2017. Potential predato-

ry and legitimate biomedical journals: Can you 

tell the difference? A cross-sectional comparison. 

BMC Medicine 15: 28.

Shen C. and B.-C. Björk. 2015. ‘Predatory’ open 

access: A longitudinal study of article volumes 

and market characteristics. BMC Medicine 13: 230.

Sorokowski P., E. Kulczycki, A. Sorokowska, and 

K. Pisanski. 2017. Predatory journals recruit fake 

editor. Nature 543: 481-483.

Stratford, M. 2012. ‘Predatory’ online journals 

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https://www.chronicle.com/article/Predatory-On-

line-Journals/131047 [accessed May 29, 2018].

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

108

Stromberg, J. 2014a. “Get Me Off Your F------ 

Email List” is an actual science paper accepted 

by a journal. Vox. Available at: https://www.vox.

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[accessed May 29, 2018].

Stromberg, J. 2014b. A reporter published a fake 

study to expose how terrible some scientific jour-

nals are. Vox.  Available at: https://www.vox.

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a-fake-study-to-expose-how-terrible-some [ac-

cessed May 29, 2018].

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Dragan, and S. Dušan. 2014. Predatory and fake 

scientific journals/publishers – a global outbreak 

with rising trend: A review. Geographica Pannon-

ica 18: 69-81.

Table 1. Journals that sent 68 e-mails to the author inviting journal submissions over a 103-day 

period.  Shown for each journal is the publisher, sender of the e-mail invitation (Sender), and the 

following characteristics for each e-mail: fitting much of the criteria in the checklist above (Classic 

example), containing multiple grammar and spelling mistakes (Mistakes), containing one or more 

statements of effusive praise (Effusive praise), the sender listed as a single name or a combination 

of common American or British names (Simple sender name), whether the e-mail is from a jour-

nal from an unrelated field (Non-relevant field), and the number of times an e-mail was received 

(N). Journals are arranged by publisher in alphabetical order and grouped according to whether 

they are considered predatory by Beall, Cabell, both Beall and Cabell, or are not listed by either 

but contain characteristics of predatory entities, and legitimate journals.

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

109

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PSB 64 (2) 2018        

112

The only instrument in the  
world that uses Rapid Sensing

™

  

Technology for fast A-C

i

 curves  

and survey measurements.

www.licor.com/6800

LI-6800 Portable  

Photosynthesis System

Stinziano JR, Morgan PB, Lynch DJ, Saathoff 
AJ, McDermitt DK, and Hanson DT. (2017) 
The rapid A-C

i

 response: photosynthesis in 

the phenomic era. Plant, Cell & Environment, 
40:1256-1262. doi: 10.1111/pce.12911

See the open access  
Rapid A-C

i

 Response  

(RACiR

™

) Method paper

113

  SCIENCE EDUCATION

 

By Dr. Catrina Adams,  

Education Director

BSA Science Education News and Notes 

serves as an update about the BSA’s educa-

tion efforts and the broader education scene. 

We invite you to submit news items or ideas 

for future features. Contact Catrina Adams, 

Education Director, at cadams@botany.org.

PlantingScience  

participates in NSF’s  

STEM for All Video Showcase    

“I’m just also enthusiastic about plants, more 

than I ever was before – because they are 

awesome, actually. I’m sorry I missed that, but 

I’ll catch up now.” – PlantingScience teacher 

and Digging Deeper participant

“I’m there to inspire [students] to be better 

scientists, but they inspire me that the 

future is actually going to be awesome.” – 

PlantingScience early-career scientist liaison 

and Digging Deeper participant

Come watch PlantingScience’s new 3-minute 

video with footage from interviews with 

teachers and early career scientists from last 

Education News and Notes

summer’s collaborative teacher/scientist 

professional development workshop. 

PlantingScience joins 214 other NSF-funded 

projects from the DRK-12 and C-STEM 

programs in the 2018 showcase. This year’s 

theme is “Transforming the Educational 

Landscape.” If you are curious to see how 

PlantingScience and the Digging Deeper 

professional development program are 

impacting teachers and changing the education 

landscape for the better, please watch our 

3-minute video at: 

http://stemforall2018.

videohall.com/presentations/1086

Last year’s award-winning video provides 

an overview of the Digging Deeper project 

and an outline of the research design, which 

can still be accessed at http://stemforall2017.

videohall.com/presentations/922.

Make a Difference in  

Secondary Education:  

Sign up as a Planting-

Science Mentor or Join the 

Master Plant Science Team

Are you looking for ways to impact the 

future of botany? To pay forward the 

mentoring and enthusiasm that made you the 

passionate botanist you are? Mentoring with 

PlantingScience takes about an hour a week and 

can be done from anywhere with an internet 

connection. The fall session starts September 

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

114

15. Sign up at https://plantingscience.org/

mentorjoin/mentorjoinmain and complete 

your profile by September 10 for the best 

chances for team matches. Teachers appreciate 

the personal attention and motivational boost 

you give to small student teams, and it is an 

excellent way to polish your mentoring skills 

around investigation design and practice 

communicating with young and diverse 

learners. You can choose to mentor projects 

that fit nine broad themes in plant biology. 

Check out our Star Project Gallery for 

examples of student/mentor conversations 

at https://plantingscience.org/psprojects/

starprojectgallery.

Graduate students and post-doctoral 

researchers: does mentoring with 

PlantingScience sound exciting to you? Do 

you have good communication skills already 

and some experience with or a strong interest 

in helping secondary students and teachers?  

If so, consider the next step: becoming a part 

of our Master Plant Science Team and serving 

as a teacher/scientist liaison. We provide 

special training in what it takes to excel as an 

online mentor and reveal behind-the-scenes 

aspects of how the program works. First, 

you’ll get to mentor several teams to learn the 

ropes and practice mentoring with diverse 

groups of students. Then you are paired with 

one of our participating teachers to help the 

teacher get the most from the program, make 

sure the teacher’s mentors get the classroom 

and scheduling context they need to be 

good mentors, and help to keep the student/

scientist conversations going strong. It is an 

excellent opportunity to see how a variety of 

mentoring styles play out with students and 

a powerful way develop your own mentoring 

and communication style. Liaisons make the 

program possible! In exchange for your extra 

help, we sponsor your BSA membership for 

the year and provide a 50% discount off of 

meeting registration. Learn more and apply 

by August 6 at https://plantingscience.org/

joinmpst.

Screenshot from the STEM for ALL 2018 Video Showcase.

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

115

On the fence? Learn more about the program 

from participating mentors, teachers, and 

liaisons at Botany 2018’s PlantingScience 

mentor workshop on Sunday, July 22,

 

from 10 

a.m. to noon.

Many thanks to the following BSA MPST 

2017-2018 members for their hard work and 

dedication: Alex Rajewski, Anna Sugiyama, 

Ben Scott, Christopher Fiscus, Derek Denney, 

Dr. Chris J. Meyer, Elizabeth Lombardi, 

Elizabeth Stunz, Foong Lian Chee, Irene 

Liao, Jacob Suissa, Jaime Schwoch, Kate 

Eisen, Laura Klein, Liliana Belmonte, Morgan 

Gostel, Ojo Funmilola Mabel, Rachel Meyer, 

Sarah Wike, Stephanie Conway, Sukuan Liu, 

and Tania Jogesh. 

Upcoming Education  

Conferences

Life Discovery – Doing Science Education 

Conference, March 21-23, 2019: 

Microbiomes to Ecosystems: Evolution and 

Biodiversity across Scale, Space, and Time

BSA co-sponsors the Life Discovery – Doing 

Science Education Conference, a stand-alone 

education conference for high school and 

undergraduate biology educators. The call for 

proposals is opening in July, so sign up soon 

to present your ideas. This is an interactive 

conference with many opportunities to 

network and share ideas with colleagues 

interested in biology education.   

About the conference theme:  Our knowledge 

about the Earth’s biodiversity across space, 

time, and scale is expanding rapidly. New tools, 

like remote sensing, are creating new data 

sources, while other tools, like digitization, are 

freeing traditional datasets from the cabinets 

and drawers of labs and collections and 

making them accessible online. How do we 

teach students about biodiversity at different 

scales and contexts with these new data, tools, 

and resources? How do we best enable and 

develop the next generation of 21st-century 

scientists and create data-driven educational 

programs aligned to national initiatives such 

as Next Generations Science Standards and 

Vision and Change for Undergraduate Biology 

Education? The Life Discovery – Doing 

Science Biology Education Conference will 

build on the 2017 data theme and challenge 

educators to create opportunities for their 

learners to explore our theme across:

Scale: Through new technologies, we can 

study biodiversity scaling from an individual’s 

microbiome to the Earth’s biomes. How 

do we help students explore biodiversity 

concepts and evolution at different scales and 

investigate interactions across scales?

Space: We now have access to environmental 

and biodiversity data spanning habitats, eco-

systems, and landscapes. How do we help our 

students think in broader geographical con-

texts about evolution, biodiversity, ecology, 

and conservation?

Time: We have the ability to look at life on 

earth across geologic time through the fossil 

record and through digitized natural history 

collections. How do we approach big ques-

tions like how have populations, species, and 

communities evolved over time and how will 

big-scale processes like climate change and 

human impacts affect biodiversity in the fu-

ture?

For more information and to see the request 

for proposals, please visit http://www.esa.

org/ldc/.

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

116

High-Speed 

BOTany

For Everyone!

Your colleagues have 

developed innovative 

ways to share botany with 

students and the public. Pick 

up effective education and 

outreach ideas you can use 

to share your passion for 

plants.

Join us for high-speed 

presentations, hors 

d’oeuvres, and plenty of time 

for conversation.

germinating 

ideas

new

new

new

ideas

approaches

data

and anything else not ready for 

a full talk. 

Two different lightning talk sessions at Botany 2018. 
Pick up new ideas 3 minutes at a time!

Monday 

7-9PM

Wednesday 

3:45-5:30PM

at the

reception

2

unique

options!

Sequential talks with discussion 

at the end for 

feedback and refreshments.

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

117

FROM THE 

PSB

 ARCHIVES

60 years ago:  Charles E. Bessey was memorialized in the pages of PSB more than 40 years after his death in 

February 1915. His love of teaching and his scholarly contributions are highlighted, as are some of the more 

unique aspects of his personality. 

“I have talked with scores of Bessey’s students, over the course of a half-century, and in every instance 

they have told me of some inspiring occasion or statement, often profound sometimes homely, in classroom 

or elsewhere, that inspired them and endeared the man to them forever. The intensely infectious, and always 

wholesome enthusiasm of the man left their lasting stamp upon thousands of men and women who never 

went beyond the Freshman course with him. To this day few of them could distinguish between parenchyma 

and sclerenchyma, or tell the difference between Chroococcus, Cystopteris, and Chenopodium. But they all 

proudly testify to the lasting effect of a bit of meristem that he left forever implanted in their future lives, 

whether, in after college days they became bankers, lawyers, merchants, teachers, clergymen, politicians, 

biologists, foresters, botanists, geneticists, phytopathologists, or virologists!”

-Pool, Raymond J. “Professor Charles Edwin Bessey, Master Teacher “  PSB 4(5): 7-8

50 years ago:  Editor Adolph Hecht thanked Bill Stern for filling in as “Temporary Editor” and alerted read-

ers to a problem that persists to this day, as the current editor can attest.

“May I take this opportunity to thank Dr. Bill Stern for the superb job he did as ‘Temporary Editor.’ One 

might assume that this was very easy for Bill to do since he himself had been Editor for several years preced-

ing my current term. . . Among other problems was his need to “scrounge” for appropriate copy to fill our 

usual eight pages at quarterly intervals. This continues to be my problem, yet surely the botanists of America 

are engaged in many activities that deserve to be brought to the attention of our readers.” 

-Hecht, Adolph. “Notes From The Editor”  PSB 14(3): 4

118

STUDENT SECTION

By James McDaniel and Chelsea Pretz, 

BSA Student Representatives

The annual BOTANY conference is just 

around the corner! With 6 days of formal 

talks, dual poster sessions, workshops, field 

trips, social events, networking, and more, 

you’re probably wondering how you can get 

the most out of this year’s experience. Well, 

don’t worry because we’ve got you covered in 

our student-focused guide below. 

Travel and Lodging

1.  

Travel Grants: Although it is too late to apply 

for BSA-related travel grants this year, please keep 

these opportunities on your radar for spring 2019! 

You can find a consolidated list of these awards as 

well as details pertaining to them online at 

http://

www.botany.org/

.

 Once you reach the website, 

click the “Awards” tab and then scroll down and 

click the “Travel Awards for Students” tab. A list 

will pop up with links to each of the following:

Navigating BOTANY 2018: A Guide 

for Student Members

•  PLANTS grants continue to thrive, thereby 

ushering in a new cohort of undergraduates 

each year from talented and diverse back-

grounds. The PLANTS program has been 

funded by the NSF and BSA since BOTA-

NY 2010, covering the normal costs of trav-

el, registration, food, and accommodations 

at the meeting. 

•  Triarch “Botanical Images” Awards pro-

vide acknowledgement and travel support 

to BSA meetings for outstanding student 

work in the area of creating beautiful botan-

ical digital images. If you already use images 

of plants in your research, why not submit 

some of your favorites to show them off?

•  Section Awards: There are numerous sec-

tions within the BSA that provide travel 

awards to the annual BOTANY conference. 

Please be sure to check with your sections 

online for more details!

•  Vernon I. Cheadle Awards are generally 

awarded to students who will be presenting 

in a session sponsored by the Developmen-

tal and Structural Section, so please plan ac-

cordingly!

•  Finding a Roommate: Are you looking to 

save $$$ by splitting hotel costs at BOTA-

NY 2018? Chec

k out BSA’s nifty roommate 

finder tool at http://images.botany.org/

roommate.shtml. It can b

e a great way to 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

119

connect with your peers, make new friends, 

and forge life-long professional connections! 

Also, for more information on discounted 

hotel rates, check out: 

http://www.botany-

conference.org/hotels.html.

Volunteer at the Conference: Did you know 

that you can earn your early registration fee 

back if you volunteer to assist BSA staff at the 

conference? In fact, the conference couldn’t 

happen without the gracious help of students 

who ru

n the registration booth, monitor 

ticketed events, and make sure that sections, 

symposia, and colloquia run smoothly. For 

more information about this wonderful 

opportunity, be sure to read your BSA 

newsletters that come via e-mail and keep 

tabs on the conference website (http://www.

botanyconference.org/)!

Events for Students

If you have already registered for BOTANY 

2018, it is incredibly easy to add events 

to your conference registration! Navigate 

to the conference website at 

http://www.

botanyconference.org/

 

and click the link 

“Register Online for Botany 2018”. Once you 

are re-directed to the registration page, then 

click “Modify Registration”. Please note that 

while some events are free, all of them are 

reasonably priced!  

Workshops

•  “Job Search Transparency: Learning the 

Unwritten Rules to Land your Dream Job”, 

led by your friendly neighborhood BSA stu-

dent representatives and a diverse group of 

panelists who will make brief introductions 

and then open up the floor with an infor-

mal question-and-answer session between 

the panelists and attendees. The goal of this 

workshop is to help young professionals 

navigate and move forward from graduate 

school or postdoctoral positions on a pos-

itive career trajectory. (Free, but please reg-

ister!)

•  “The Elevator Speech: Crafting an Effective 

Pitch that Highlights your Research and Il-

lustrates the Broader Impacts”, led by the 

BSA student reps and featuring tips from 

our keynote speaker Amanda Grusz, shown 

below, who will provide helpful tips on craft-

ing an effective elevator speech followed by 

a breakout session to allow attendees the 

opportunity to revise and modify their own 

elevator speeches. (Free, but please register!) 

•  “Tips for Success: Applying to Graduate 

School”, led by Anna Monfils, is a panel dis-

cussion designed to introduce undergradu-

ate students to the specific requirements for 

applying to graduate programs in plant biol-

ogy. (Free, but please register!)

Student Involvement in Botany Luncheon – 

A Focus on Botanical Career Opportunities

•  What can you do with a degree in botany? 

Make sure that you are present at the annual 

Student Luncheon to find out! We will kick 

120

off the event with a short talk, “

Following 

Your Plant (or other!) Passion

”, from our 

keynote speaker, Susan Pell, pictured be-

low at left, the Science and Public Programs 

Manager at the U.S. Botanic Garden. Then 

you will get a chance to chat with panelists 

from various career paths in a “speed-dat-

ing” format. FYI, the panelists usually have 

insider information on open positions for 

graduate school or careers. ($10 - includes a 

catered lunch)

 

Student Social and Networking Event

•  This event is an annual favorite! This year we 

will be at Grand Rounds in Rochester, Min-

nesota. This venue is a short walk from the 

Rochester Civic Center and features good 

food and local brews. Sponsored in part by 

Wiley—come catch up with old friends and 

meet new ones while enjoying craft brews 

and snacks. ($10 - includes a drink ticket) 

Undergraduate Student Networking 

Event

•  This is our second annual Undergraduate 

Student Networking Event, which will be 

held at the beginning of the conference on 

Sunday evening. This event was a great suc-

cess last year! Not only will it provide attend-

ees with an excellent opportunity to meet 

fellow undergrads, but it will also allow indi-

viduals to make some new friends/contacts 

to help them navigate through the rest of the 

conference. You’ll also get a chance to hear 

about different career paths! (Free – food will 

be included!)

Poster Session

•  Whether you are presenting your own 

work or just there to see what other people 

are working on, this is a great time to talk 

science, learn about cutting-edge plant re-

search, and meet people! Poster sessions will 

happen on July 23. Be sure to check out a 

detailed schedule on the web at http://2018.

botanyconference.org/engine/search/ or via 

the Botany Conference app, which will be 

available soon! (Free - no ticket required)

121

Field trips

•  Rochester has a rich history and diverse lo-

cal ecosystems, which you can explore first-

hand with local experts! This year, a whop-

ping 13 field trips (one overnight) are being 

offered over the span of four days (Friday, 

Saturday, Sunday, and Thursday). Whether 

you have a knack for hiking, collecting, kay-

aking, or exploring, we bet there’s a field trip 

tailored for you! Discover sedges and other 

flora of the area, visit the new Bell Museum 

and MIN Herbarium, wander through the 

Minnesota Landscape 

Arboretum, or vis-

it Paisley Park—Prince’s private estate! For 

more information about individual field 

trips, please check out the following link: 

http://www.botanyconference.org/field-

trips.html/. (Prices vary)

For most ticketed events, it’s not too late to 

register! Tickets for these events are easy to 

add to your conference registration: Navigate 

to the conference website at http://www.

botanyconference.org/ and click the link 

“Register Online for Botany 2018”. Once you 

are re-directed to the registration page, click 

“Modify Registration”. You can also register 

for events at the registration booth once you 

arrive at the conference; however, events tend 

to fill up fast, so plan accordingly!

The BOTANY Conference App

•  Schedule Planner: With so many events 

co-occurring during the conference, plan-

ning each day can be a daunting task! How-

ever, with the BOTANY conference app, you 

will have the freedom to effortlessly browse 

talks and events as well as create your own 

easily accessible schedule to stay on track. 

The app for this year has not been released 

yet, so make sure to read your BSA newslet-

ters that come via e-mail and keep tabs on 

the conference website (

http://www.botany-

conference.org/)

 

for more details! 

•  Share your BOTANY experience: Social 

media allows you to share your experiences 

at the conference, and the number of tweets, 

posts, likes, and shares are growing every 

year. The social media aspect lets you share 

your photos and thoughts throughout the 

conference, and it can also be a way to share 

your work and increase your visibility. It’s a 

great way to see what is going on and keep 

tabs on all of your conference buddies! Keep 

an eye on the hashtags to use this year, but 

be sure to use #BOTANY2018 in your posts! 

Do  you Tweet?   

Be sure to join the conversation!

 

 

Follow  the conference  at  

#BOTANY2018 

We will be tweeting room changes,  

restaurant reviews,  conference tips, and 

other bits of information through  

Twitter and our conference App.  

Stay in touch - even if you can't be with us in Rochester!

122

BOOK REVIEWS

 

Ecology

Evolutionary Ecology of Weeds ......................................................................................................................122

Discoveries in the Garden ..................................................................................................................................124

Economic Botany

Ethnobotany, a Phytochemical Perspective ..............................................................................................125

The Food Explorer. The true adventures of the globe-trotting botanist who  

 transformed what America eats ......................................................................................................................127

Historical

Nature’s Colony: Empire, Nation and Environment in the Singapore Botanic Gardens ..130

Systematics

Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of New York State ........................................................................132

Evolutionary Ecology of 

Weeds, ed 2 

Jack Dekker

2016. ISBN: 978-1-53540-107-4

Paperback, US$60.00. 552 pp. 

CreateSpace Independent Pub-

lishing Platform, San Bernardi-

no, California, USA 

Weeds are typically the first 

plants I learn when I have 

traveled to a new area for work because of 

their abundance and propensity for upland 

habitats. Several species that I am familiar 

with in the East also occur out West, which 

would follow the pattern of settlers moving 

across the country. Dr. Dekker makes this 

point early on: the story of weeds is the story of 

humans and how we have moved and brought 

agriculture to different areas throughout the 

world. Weeds, unless they are invasive, haven’t 

been a focus of any of the work that I’ve done, 

but reading this book has given me a broader 

perspective.

ECOLOGY

The book is separated into seven units 

containing nineteen chapters. There are also 

selected readings, references cited, and an 

indexed glossary. There is a summary and 

foreword to kick things off, with a table of 

contents in between.
Unit 1 is the nature of weeds. This unit only 

contains one chapter, but explains how many 

of the plants that we now consider weeds 

are related to plants and their seeds that are 

consumed. The history of weeds is the history 

of agriculture, and many weedy plants have 

relatives that are still consumed to this day. 

A list of such species is provided with crop 

species and their associated weed relatives 

(pp. 52-76).
Unit 2, “The evolution of weed populations.” 

is described within Chapters 2-5. There is a 

focus on natural selection and adaptations 

that have made weedy species able to persist 

and occupy opportunity spacetime. Natural 

selection has included human intervention 

where the attempt to control weeds has 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

123

produced stronger variants. This also includes 

a lot of things discussed in detail later in the 

book but mainly a plant that can colonize 

quickly after a disturbance and sometimes lay 

dormant in the seed bank germinating when 

the conditions improve.
Unit 3, “Adaptation in weed life history,” is 

described within Chapters 6-8. Adaptations 

are further discussed as are abilities like 

exploiting locally available opportunity, 

growth form, and strategy per conditions. I 

don’t know that a plant can have a strategy, 

but morphological adaptations to survive in 

different conditions are discussed. Seed size 

and number is also discussed here and later 

in the book. A plant has finite resources and, 

depending upon conditions, the seed size and 

number can adjust over time to the habitat 

conditions to increase survival potential. 
Unit 4, “Adaptation in local plant 

communities,” is described within Chapters 

9-10. The concept of a “weed guild” is 

introduced, which would pique the interest 

of my birder friends, I believe. That’s the only 

other place that I have heard that term used 

is by birders, but it seems to fit weeds as well 

for species that have similar adaptations and 

habitat preferences. I also appreciated the 

biogeography theories as an area of study that 

needs to be further explored.
Unit 5, “Complex adaptive weed systems,” are 

described within Chapters 11-13. This unit 

dives into the features of weedy vegetation 

and complex adaptive system (CAS). CAS 

includes how the many parts of an organism 

or community of organisms work together to 

adapt to the environment in which a species 

exists.
Unit 6, “Representation of weed biology,” is 

described within Chapters 14-16. Discussion 

includes statistical analysis and how it doesn’t 

fit these species due to the dynamics and 

adaptive capabilities of the group and how the 

assumptions used are typically incorrect. The 

cultural chapter, Chapter 16, is interesting in 

that it discusses how species are studied and 

how perception and opinion have been too 

heavily intertwined with weed science
Unit 7, “Weed case history,” is described 

within Chapters 17-19. This unit gives a 

thorough investigation into species that the 

author has studied throughout his career and 

is an in-depth look into the Setaria species, 

Brassica napus, and Abutilon theophrasti. The 

life histories, morphology, and adaptations 

are included within this discussion along with 

species associations. It would be hard to find 

a better synopsis of decades worth of research 

into these groups and species.
This would be a great text for an undergraduate 

course in weed evolution. There are a few 

references to Wikipedia that should probably 

be sourced elsewhere, since it’s not a peer-

reviewed source. I would also like to see more 

selected readings and the addition of chapter 

review questions since there is no companion 

text with possible assignments if I were using 

it to teach. All things considered, this would 

be a great resource for someone looking for 

more information on this topic and on the 

case study species in particular.
-David W. MacDougall, CWB® Consulting 

Biologist

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

124

Discoveries in the  

Garden

James Nardi

2018. 

ISBN: 978-0-22653-166-3

Paperback, US$25.00; 280 pp.

The University of Chicago Press, 

Chicago, Illinois, USA

For many burgeoning 

botanists, the garden is 

the birthplace of a fascination with plants. 

Dr. James Nardi’s new book, “Discoveries in 

the Garden”, harnesses this sentiment and 

expands on it, giving us a wonderful tour of 

plant form and function while magnifying 

plant and animal interactions through the lens 

of the backyard garden. Through his use of 

illustration, anatomical photographs, at-home 

experiments, and thoughtful prose, Nardi 

introduces an abundance of information 

without losing the captivating appeal of plants.
The first few chapters take us on a journey 

through a plant’s life from seed to flower, 

ranging from belowground roots to 

aboveground stems, leaves, and flowers. These 

chapters focus on the development of the plant, 

emphasizing different organs and anatomical 

structures, as well as the triggers that help 

plants “know” when and how to grow. Chapter 

4 gives an elegant breakdown of pollination, 

fruit development, and the alternation of 

generations in plants, representing concisely 

one of the more complex and confusing 

concepts in plant biology.

With the basics covered, Nardi transitions 

into the more in-depth topics of energy 

collection and plant mobility in Chapters 

5 and 6. Photosynthesis is broken down 

into its respective chemical components, 

including a comparison of C

3

 and C

4

 plants. 

He then introduces us to the macro- and 

micronutrients that plants obtain from the 

soil. These explanations are complemented 

by suggested at-home experiments that use 

different fertilizers to illustrate how plants 

utilize these nutrients. Next, the familiar 

growth of tendrils and vines is tidily explained 

and contrasted with the daily movements of 

leaves and flowers: a fascinating peek into the 

world of plant behaviors.

“Wisdom of the Weeds”, Chapter 7, uses 

the unique perspective of “weedy” plants to 

illustrate several plant phenomena, including 

asexual reproduction, competition, and seed 

dispersal. This chapter highlights some of the 

reasons weedy plants are so successful and 

gives us pause to see these more common 

plants in a different, perhaps more positive, 

light.
Chapters 8 and 9 discuss plant chemicals. In 

sophisticated detail, Nardi reflects on  plant 

pigments, odors, and oils; their utility to the 

plant; and their utility to humans through 

dyes, fragrances, and nutrition. A section 

on companion gardening advises the home 

gardener perfectly, with insights into ecological 

competition and large-scale agriculture.
The book concludes with a discussion of non-

plant garden inhabitants, focusing on bacteria, 

fungi, and insects. The inclusion of species 

interactions and ecosystem functioning here 

places the plant in the context of a community 

with its biotic counterparts. Nardi emphasizes 

belowground soil dynamics and the living 

components of soil health—an aspect of the 

garden that may be overlooked by the casual 

observer.

In each chapter, Nardi does an excellent job 

of incorporating aspects relevant to a variety 

of target audiences. The prose of the book is 

appropriate for all audiences, while sections 

titled “Observe” will have the home gardener 

and plant enthusiast looking at their yards 

in a new light. Sections titled “Hypothesize” 

suggests different aspects of the plant to look 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

125

at or manipulate, predictions to make, and 

experiments to help answer these questions. 

Some of the experiments seem simple and 

require little more than the materials a typical 

gardener would have access to. More intricate 

experiments are also proposed, requiring 

more time and some basic scientific equipment 

(petri dishes, dissecting microscope, etc.). The 

diversity in recommended experiments allows 

the reader to pick and choose according to 

their own interests or teaching purposes.

The aesthetic appeal of the book adds a new 

dimension to the biology it describes. The 

scientific figures and anatomical pictures of 

plants lend insights to the casual gardener 

that might otherwise only be found in a more 

technical textbook. The beautiful and detailed 

illustrations, artfully drawn by Nardi, show 

the complexity and diversity of the nature 

found right in our backyards. Nardi uses a 

rich yet simple prose and quotes from writers, 

scientists, and philosophers to convey his 

message and puts the detailed science a more 

well-rounded context. He breaks down the 

scientific terminology into its roots in Latin 

and Greek, which helps to describe concepts in 

layman’s terms, and will delight the language 

aficionado.
Nardi’s focus on a traditional North American 

or European garden allows him to add a more 

personal feeling to the book as he references 

his own home garden in Illinois. Despite his 

regional specific experience, the scientific 

principles and many of the references to 

crop plants and ecology will resonate with a 

global audience. Nardi explains the science of 

plants in a clean, charismatic and cultivated 

way that can be enjoyed by plant enthusiasts 

and gardeners of all scientific backgrounds. 

“Discoveries in the Garden” is a wonderful 

read.

 -Nora Mitchell, Department of Biology, 

University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New 

Mexico, USA

ECONOMIC BOTANY

Ethnobotany, a Phyto-

chemical Perspective 

Barbara M. Schmidt and Diana 

M. Klaser Cheng, Eds. 

2017. ISBN: 978-1-11896-190-2

Hardcover, US$150.00; E-Book 

$120.99. 357 pp. 

John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Hoboken, 

NJ, USA

Intended as a textbook for advanced 

undergraduate or graduate students, there are 

many things to like about this book, which 

examines the chemistry of plant medicines, 

dyes, fibers, flavors, poisons, and insect 

repellants, among other useful botanicals. 

Since both editors have industry connections 

(B.M. Schmidt, Global Leader of Plant 

Biology, L’Oreal USA; D.M. Klaser Cheng, 

Senior Scientist, Nutrasorb, LLC and Visiting 

Scientist, Rutgers University), a logical 

focus is to unite botany, ethnobotany, and 

phytochemistry with inputs of applied botany 

to industry.
The first chapter, one third of the book, 

introduces ethnobotany. Key topics include 

the history of plant exploration, current 

issues such as conservation and intellectual 

property rights, and a brief review of plant 

anatomy. Focus on plant taxonomy highlights 

especially significant, economically important 

plants. Valuable attention is paid to herbaria 

and voucher specimens. 
Discussion about intellectual property is 

appreciated, as present-day researchers 

face hurdles even to collect voucher 

specimens for basic research in taxonomy, 

systematics, and chemotaxonomy. Collection 

for bioprospecting is lightly covered, 

including the complexities arising from the 

Convention on Biological Diversity, “benefit 

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

126

sharing,” and “capacity building”—although 

considering the authors’ work with industry, 

that issue may have arisen. I was impressed 

by this warning (p. 21): “…in some ways, 

ethnobotany is unintentionally at odds with 

conservation and the rights of indigenous 

people. Publishing descriptions of valuable 

plant species and traditional knowledge as a 

free exchange of scientific information could 

contribute to economic exploitation of the 

area and rob the people of potential economic 

benefits. The question of whether traditional 

knowledge should be made public is a topic of 

much debate. Information in public domain is 

free for development by commercial interests 

unless a patent application is filed before 

publication. So, academics must err on the 

side of caution when publishing potentially 

sensitive information.”
The achievements of plant-derived drugs 

are many and should be celebrated, but 

many obstacles are put before present-day 

collectors—so it is unclear whether success 

stories revealed in the text will be achievable 

any longer. This may be an historical look at 

past discoveries.
The uniqueness of this book is its focus on 

phytochemistry. Fundamentals of secondary 

metabolism, as well as traditional and 

modern methods of plant extraction and 

chromatographic techniques, are summarized 

in 30 pages. 
The remaining two thirds of the book offers 

a history of plants native to each region and 

features “Case Studies” about selected plants 

that changed the course of human history 

from each continent. Africa holds Achillea 

millefolium, vanilla, and traditional treatments 

for HIV in South Africa. The Americas feature 

agave, quinoa, maqui (Aristotelia chilensis; an 

ancient Mapuche medicine with antidiabetic 

potential), and betalains from Chenopodium 

quinoa.

Asia, the largest continent, holds the longest 

list of authors (12). Case Studies include the 

ethnobotany of teeth blackening in southeast 

Asia, Artemisia and human health, the sacred 

plants  Betula utilis (bhojpatra) and Quercus 

oblongata (banj) from Uttarakhand, and 

neem-based insecticides.  
European plants include Lavandula stoechas 

among Anatolian people, fascinating 

pages devoted to ‘Mad Honey,’ indigo, and 

insecticides based on plant essential oils. 

Oceania contributes Musa spp., a traditional 

treatment for diarrhea, and kavalactones from 

kava (Piper methysticum) root. 
References placed directly behind each section 

enable users to peruse sources straightaway. 

The book closes with a 10-page botanical index 

and 18-page subject index, including chemical 

constituents, common names, geography, 

and prominent persons. Lovely illustrations 

about ethnobotanical applications enrich the 

textbook greatly. 
The book has 28 contributors; the chapter about 

Asia has 12; about Africa, 6. Multiple authors 

multiply the possibility of misinformation, 

requiring the editors and publication staff to 

catch and correct contradictions.
I am surprised to observe so few figures and 

photos are credited. Other editorial issues: 

equivalent illustrations of Digitalis purpurea 

(p. 85; p. 94), whereas illustrations of hundreds 

of other economic plants are omitted. More 

worrisome, the Near East is defined as the 

center of origin for sesame and millet (pp. 

233-234): “The Indus Valley Civilization (i.e., 

Harappan Civilization, c. 3300-1300 BCE)… 

grew crops that most likely originated in 

neighboring regions such as wheat, barley, 

peas, lentils, flax, mustard, sesame, and millet. 

Compared to other centers of diversity, few 

row crops originated in South Asia,” omitting 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

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sesame from Table 6.3, ‘Crops that originated 

in South Asia’. Also oddly, sesame is listed 

in Table 4.1 (p. 149) among ‘Crops that 

originated in Northern Africa’! References 

show alternative studies. Some coordination 

was missing, allowing these discrepancies to 

creep in.
–Dorothea Bedigian, Research Associate, Mis-

souri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, 

USA

References

Bedigian, D. 1988. Sesamum  indicum L. (Peda-

liaceae): 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 Mono-

graphs in Systematic Botany, Missouri Botanical 

Garden, St. Louis, MO.

Bedigian, D. 2003. Evolution of sesame revisited: 

domestication, diversity and prospects.  Genetic 

Resources and Crop Evolution 50: 779-787.

Bedigian, D. 2014. A new combination for the In-

dian progenitor of sesame, Sesamum indicum L. 

(Pedaliaceae). Novon 23(1): 5-13.

Bedigian, D. 2015. Systematics and evolution in 

Sesamum L. (Pedaliaceae), part 1: Evidence re-

garding the origin of sesame and its closest rel-

atives.  Webbia:  Journal  of  Plant  Taxonomy  and 

Geography 70(1): 1-42.

Bedigian, D., D.S. Seigler and J.R. Harlan. 1985. 

Sesamin, sesamolin and the origin of sesame.  Bio-

chemical Systematics and Ecology 13: 133-139.

Bestel, S., G.W. Crawford, L. Liu, J. Shi, Y. Song, 

and X. Chen. 2014. The evolution of millet do-

mestication, Middle Yellow River Region, North 

China: Evidence from charred seeds at the late 

Upper Paleolithic Shizitan Locality 9 site. The 

Holocene 24(3): 261-265.

Deng, Z., L. Qin, Y. Gao, A.R. Weisskopf, C. 

Zhang, and D.Q. Fuller. 2015. From Early Do-

mesticated Rice of the Middle Yangtze Basin to 

Millet, Rice and Wheat Agriculture: Archaeobo-

tanical Macro-Remains from Baligang, Nanyang 

Basin, Central China (6700–500 BC). PLoS One 

10(10): e0139885.

Lu H., J. Zhang, K. Liu, N. Wu, Y. Li, K. Zhou, 

M. Ye, T. Zhang, H. Zhang, X. Yang, L. Shen, 

D. Xu and Q. Li. 2009. Earliest domestication of 

common millet (Panicum miliaceum) in East Asia 

extended to 10,000 years ago. Proceedings of the 

National  Academy  of  Sciences 106(18): 7367-

7372.

The Food Explorer: The 

true adventures of the 

globe-trotting botanist 

who transformed what 

America eats

Daniel Stone

2018. ISBN 978-1-10199-058-2 

Hardcover, US$28.00 (Canada 

$37.00); 416 pp. 

Dutton, New York.

The Food Explorer presents a uniquely 

American story, documenting events that 

contributed to the wealth of food plants 

and other valuable plant life available to 

residents in the United States today. David 

Fairchild (1869–1954) was responsible for 

the introduction of more than 200,000 exotic 

plants and varieties of established crops into 

the United States between 1894 and 1904, 

including avocados, dates, mangos, nectarines, 

pistachios, pomegranates, seedless grapes, 

soybeans, bamboos, and flowering cherries. 

Certain varieties of wheat, cotton, and rice 

became especially economically important. 

Stone’s biography recounts Fairchild’s 

fascinating travel adventures acquiring the 

familiar foods we eat and plants we now 

utilize without question. He traces early plant 

introduction to the United States by David 

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

128

Fairchild and close professional associates, 

Frank Meyer and Wilson Popenoe.
Fairchild grew up in Kansas in post-Civil 

War 19th century. Having studied botany and 

horticulture at Kansas College, he created a 

way to combine his love of plants and travel 

into a job with the nascent U.S. Department 

of Agriculture. At the age of 22, he created 

the Section of Foreign Seed and Plant 

Introduction, which he led for 37 years. He 

traveled to more than 50 countries on every 

continent, in search of worthwhile seeds and 

cuttings. At the time, such travel was rare, 

in an era when international travel was very 

challenging and done by ship. 
Barbour Lathrop, a wealthy philanthropist 

whom Fairchild met on an ocean liner, 

financed his travels. Fairchild met people 

from all levels of society; some were hostile. 

He committed botanical espionage; he 

succumbed to typhoid, got arrested in 

Corsica, was shot with arrows, and nearly fell 

off a mule on a narrow path beside a deep 

canyon in the Andes while looking for quinoa. 

Ultimately, Fairchild developed a strategy of 

talking with people, visiting markets, and 

learning by observing what people are eating 

and what they were growing. Since much 

economic endeavor in the United States at 

that time depended on farming, the growth of 

America was aligned with the expansion and 

improvement of agricultural commodities. 

Through Fairchild, and blessed by a variety 

of ecological zones, the United States was 

transformed to have a diversified food system, 

providing rich dietary choices.
Some amusing events are recounted, 

just as originally told by Fairchild in his 

autobiography,  The World Was My Garden 

(1938). 

In 1902, he was traveling in Asia, 

looking for mangos that would thrive in the 

United States. He bought big baskets of several 

cultivars, but the loads in his baskets of whole 

fruits were deemed to be too large to board 

onto the ship and the steamer was about to 

depart. Realizing that the items he needed to 

send home were only seeds, not whole fruit, 

Fairchild rounded up a group of local boys 

on the pier, paying them to eat the fruit and 

give him the seeds, which he hastily packed 

in charcoal.

Stone also delves into the life and psyche of 

Frank Meyer, who was hired by Fairchild as 

a field explorer once Fairchild had married 

and settled down to his permanent post in 

Washington D.C. Meyer was a zealously 

dedicated collector who traveled in China 

extensively, much of it on foot, through 

regions where locals hated foreigners 

intensely. Eventually danger, deprivation, 

disappointment, loneliness, and isolation 

resulted in Meyer’s descent into depression. 

Fairchild was unable to help and unable to 

provide the necessary supportive counsel. 

Meyer’s trajectory was tragic. 
Through Charles Marlatt, a childhood 

acquaintance of Fairchild who had matured 

as an entomologist, the reader gets a balanced 

view but is warned about the downside of those 

endeavors, because the tons of samples sent 

home to Washington were not quarantined 

and thoroughly inspected. Therefore, plant 

diseases and pests were imported too, such as 

the codling moth, Hessian fly, asparagus beetle, 

hop-plant louse, cabbage worm, wheat-plant 

louse, pea weevil, Croton bug, boll weevil, 

San Jose scale, gypsy moth, brown-tail moth, 

Argentinian ant, and alfalfa-leaf weevil. It was 

nearly impossible to control problems once 

they were released into the ecosystem. 
The plant importation trend introduced 

a series of errors. Spotted knapweed is an 

aggressive noxious biennial that suppresses 

native grasses and has now spread to 7 million 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

129

acres. Grazing animals avoid it. Leafy spurge 

now inhabits 2.5 million acres, and only 

some types of goats can eat it. As a result, 

biological deserts are expanding and are 

extremely expensive to eliminate. Among 

the gravest ecological catastrophes caused 

by imported plants was chestnut blight. It 

was first noticed on American chestnut trees 

at New York’s Bronx Zoo in 1904. At that 

time, chestnuts were a canopy species in 8.8 

million acres of eastern forest. They were 

majestic, providing an abundance of food for 

wildlife. Chestnut wood was rot resistant, did 

not warp or shrink, and was useful in many 

ways, such as for ornamental interior wood 

trim. Spores of the blight fungus spread so 

that within 40 years, the American chestnut 

was a threatened species. Four billion trees 

died. Marlatt argued that the blight could have 

been prevented if the federal government had 

wisely quarantined and inspected all imported 

plants. Fairchild thought this was a ridiculous 

idea, impeding the speed of progress for no 

good reason. Marlatt was vindicated when 

Congress passed the Plant Quarantine Act 

in 1912, and inspections were the domain of 

the Federal Agricultural Board, which Marlatt 

controlled.
But missing from these pages is a more 

considered, analytical assessment about 

the perils of plant introduction. Stone fails 

to mention any cautionary notes against 

bio-piracy—the theft of another country’s 

botanical heritage—nor present-day rigorous 

regulations by governments protecting their 

valuable genetic resources. Stone’s narrative 

style is rambling, with many meandering 

digressions. It may appeal to an audience of 

amateurs with culinary interests or armchair 

travelers. However, for any serious seeker, 

Fairchild’s own autobiography is the source 

Stone rephrases. Several of Fairchild’s many 

archival black-and-white photographs are 

reproduced, along with eight lovely botanical 

illustrations in color on quality paper stock, 

of Corsican citron, cashew nut, papaya, 

mangosteen, avocado, grapes, mango, and 

watermelon. Nine pages of a bibliography, 47 

pages of notes, and an 11-page index close the 

book.
–Dorothea Bedigian, Research Associate, 

Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Missouri, 

USA

Literature Cited

Fairchild, D., E. Kay, and A. Kay. 1938. The World 

Was My Garden: Travels of a Plant Explorer. C. 

Scribner’s Sons, NY.Top of FormBottom of Form

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

130

HISTORICAL

Nature’s Colony: Empire, 

Nation and Environment 

in the Singapore Botanic 

Gardens

Timothy P. Barnard

2016. ISBN: 978-981-4722-22-3

Paperback, SGD$34.00. 304 pp. 

NUS Press, Singapore  

 

As an institution connected 

with a diminutive insular 

city-state in Southeast Asia, the Singapore 

Botanic Gardens might seem an esoteric subject 

for a history monograph. Environmental 

historian Timothy Barnard’s Nature’s 

Colony: Empire, Nation and Environment 

in the Singapore Botanic Gardens makes 

a compelling case otherwise. In Barnard’s 

handling, the Garden serves as an intriguing 

case study in the transition from colonial 

to postcolonial botany, in the relationship 

between science and state administrative 

priorities, and in the ecological management 

of a growing metropolis. On the whole, this 

is an enjoyable and meticulously researched 

book that makes a worthy contribution to the 

history of 19th- and 20th-century botany.
For decades subsequent to Singapore’s 

founding as a British East India Company 

trading post in 1819, European residents 

cultivated only a narrow range of commercially 

valuable crops. It was not until 1859, when 

a well-heeled association of gardening 

enthusiasts resolved to establish a “pleasure 

garden” (23) on the model of an English estate, 

that the Singapore Botanic Gardens came into 

existence at its present location. This was a 

bourgeois colonial institution through and 

through, with restricted access for non-white 

and less affluent clientele. In 1874, insufficient 

revenues prompted the government to assume 

jurisdiction over the garden, whereupon 

scientifically trained botanists from Kew 

were—for the first time—hired as primary 

caretakers. Under the tutelage of Henry 

Murton, and later, Nathaniel Cantley, the 

Garden acquired a herbarium, arboretum, 

and zoological menagerie, and played an 

important role in biodiversity conservation 

and reforestation. Henry Nicholas Ridley, 

the first to hold the title of garden Director, 

brought the Garden unprecedented renown by 

making it a center for rubber cultivation and 

experimentation. This marked the beginning 

of the end of the Garden’s dependence on Kew, 

as it came increasingly to be seen as a hub of 

botanical expertise in a “polycentric network 

of science” (169).
By the time Isaac Henry Burkill took on the 

directorship in 1912, rubber’s fortunes had 

waned, prompting a shift in emphasis from 

economic botany to herbarium-based study. 

The burgeoning study of orchids, beginning 

especially with the directorship of Richard 

Eric Holttum in the 1920s, was another sign of 

changes underway. These enthusiasms spilled 

outside the Garden, in fact, when elite Chinese 

and European Singaporeans undertook 

sophisticated orchid cultivations of their own. 

Orchids took on particular significance after 

independence, when hybrids concocted in 

the Garden’s laboratories and named after 

foreign notables came to serve important 

symbolic cultural and diplomatic functions. 

Independence also brought challenges, 

however, as colonial-era institutions like the 

Garden seemed progressively out of place. 

Under the rubric of what Barnard calls 

“developmental botany” (not to be confused 

with similarly named studies of evolutionary 

plant biology), this scientific institution 

was thus subordinated to the needs of a 

modernizing and industrializing nation-state. 

Under such constraints, it reverted to the status 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

131

of a kind of “recreational park” headed by a 

“chief administrator” rather than a “director” 

(244). Beginning in 1988 under the leadership 

of Tan Wee Kiat, however, who reclaimed the 

title of “Director,” the Garden experienced 

something of a renaissance spearheaded 

by orchid horticulture, conservation, and 

experimentation. This rehabilitation ran 

full circle when the Singapore Botanic 

Gardens achieved UNESCO heritage status 

in preparation for the 50th anniversary of 

independence, and perhaps even more so 

when Nigel P. Taylor—lately of Kew—took up 

the directorship in 2011.
Depending on their disciplinary standpoint, 

readers may experience occasional points of 

frustration. More rigorous interrogation of 

sources would have helped to contextualize 

some of the author’s primary and archival 

materials, not least the repeated reference 

to “coolies”—meaning indentured laborers 

or slaves, and now considered a highly 

derogatory title in many parts of the world—a 

term used throughout the early chapters 

without qualification. In light of the Garden’s 

role as a clearinghouse for plant knowledge 

in a highly bioculturally diverse region of 

the globe, further discussion of indigenous 

knowledge in relation to the collection of 

plants—beyond cursory reference to the 

“native assistants” (159) who served on 

botanical expeditions—would have been 

welcome as well. Barnard’s thesis regarding 

the role played by the Singaporean Botanic 

Gardens in an increasingly “polycentric” 

botanical network independent from Kew 

and Britain, moreover, would have been well 

served by some analysis of the influence of 

American botanists in the region, especially 

during the Cold War. Finally, given the wealth 

of archival research that clearly informs this 

work, it is disappointing not to see a more 

detailed breakdown of manuscript sources in 

the book’s bibliography.

These issues notwithstanding, Nature’s Colony 

is a useful work that will interest a diverse 

and interdisciplinary readership. Readers 

will especially appreciate the book’s studious 

attention to vernacular and Latin plant 

nomenclature, as well as its gardener’s eye 

for horticultural detail. Barnard’s regard for 

the hands-on particulars of working with 

plants—from Ridley’s method of “calling” 

rubber from Hevea brasiliensis (140-1) to the 

innovative laboratory process of germinating 

orchid seeds without the normally required 

symbiotic fungi—is similarly refreshing. 

Additionally, many of the anecdotes 

recounted by the author are absorbing in their 

own right, such as his description of how a 

Japanese botanist named Kwan Koriba helped 

to save the Singapore Botanic Gardens from 

depredation during World War II, and the 

almost slapstick-worthy attempts to recapture 

a crocodile that escaped from the zoological 

gardens. Environmental humanists, for their 

part, will welcome the book’s analysis of the 

postmodern “greening” of one of world’s most 

urbanized societies. Historians of botany, 

finally, have gained a proficient survey of 

an important botanical institution and an 

invaluable starting point for future research.
-Geoff Bil, University of British Columbia

PSB 64 (2) 2018        

132

SYSTEMATICS

Catalogue of the  

Vascular Plants of New 

York State

David Werier

2018. ISBN 978-0-9996525-0-3

Hardcover, US$35.00; Volume 

27; 544 pp. + iv

 

Memoirs of the Torrey Botanical Society 
For my research in the Adirondack Mountains 

of northern New York, I have relied heavily on 

the digital atlas of the New York flora at http://

www.newyork.plantatlas.usf.edu/ of which 

David Werier is one of the authors. Catalogue 

of the Vascular Plants is a greatly expanded 

and meticulously documented outgrowth of 

this work. This book is a resource for anyone 

interested in the plants of New York State. It 

is also an exemplar of how to compile a flora.   
An introduction, methods, results, and 

acknowledgements comprise the volume. The 

introduction includes a summary of floristic 

work in the state—starting, appropriately, 

with John Torrey—followed by methods. 

Here we find how the author studies taxa 

from reliable published sources, a survey of 

herbaria, and his personal familiarity with the 

flora. Synonymy is treated with similar rigor. 

There is a documented flora of 1993 native 

species for New York State including hybrids 

and infraspecific taxa.   
A great amount of detail is given to the 

nativity of plants with discussions on where 

they might or might not persist. If non-native 

plants are included, the state flora consists 

of 3524 species, meaning that a remarkable 

43% of the total flora are non-native plants 

and plants of unknown status (uncertainty 

as to the taxon being native or non-native). 

Also included is the state ranking of rare and 

endangered plants.  
The bulk of the book consists of three 

“appendices.” The first appendix is Accepted 

Taxa. For each taxon there is the common 

name, synonymy, and a voucher—a 

designated herbarium specimen documenting 

the presence of that species in the state.  The 

second appendix, Excluded List, is a likewise 

detailed listing of plants that should be 

considered as non-native. The third appendix, 

Expected List, includes plants that can be 

expected based on reports from contiguous 

and nearby states. Both the excluded and 

the expected list are well-documented with 

literature and herbarium references.

Extensive references and a comprehensive 

index of common and scientific names 

conclude this well-edited, sturdily bound 

volume.

The Torrey Botanical Club is to be commended 

for publishing this work, continuing their 

tradition of supporting floristic work in 

the Northeastern United States. It is an 

appropriate production for the society’s 150th 

anniversary.

Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of New 

York State will be a requisite resource for 

professional botanists, ecologists, and 

resource managers interested in the dynamic 

flora of the state.  

-Lytton John Musselman, Department of 

Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, 

Norfolk, Virginia 23529-0266 

 

PSB  64  (2)  2018        

133

Come and Meet 

Walter Judd,  

Plenary Speaker 

and  

Graham Judd

at Botany 2018 

Sunday, July 22, 7:30 pm

with a book signing 

immediately afterward

Plant Science Bulletin 

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reproduction, evolution, & uses 

of plants & their interactions 

within the biosphere.

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Plant Science Bulletin

                                                                                    SUMMER 2018 Volume 64 Number 2

Although BOTANY conferences are always full of fantastic 

speakers, informative talks and posters, and social events 

in the evenings, the greatest benefit is the chance meeting, 

the unexpected conversation, and the sudden partnership 

or collaboration. BOTANY conferences are great for new 

connections and old friendships—and we can't wait to see 

everyone at our upcoming conferences!

Plan your Botany Summers 

Now!

Botany 2019

Tucson, Arizona

July 27 - 31, 2019

Botany 2020

Anchorage, Alaska

July 18 – 22, 2020

Fire and Ice!