From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019. "Distichophyllum cuspidatum (Dozy & Molk.) Dozy & Molk. and Leskeodon brevicuspidatus (E.B. Bartram) B.C. Tan & H. Rob." illustrated by Alice Tangerini In a 1990 monograph in Smithsonian Contributions to Botany (Number 75), Benito Tan and Harold Robinson reviewed the Philippine... Continue reading

Those who have studied the Smithsonian are no doubt familiar with the U.S. Navy’s U.S. Exploring Expedition, called the Ex. Ex. for short. This ambitious trip around the world took four-years (1838-1842), included six ships, and the crew had a team of nine scientists and artists. It is one of... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019. Joel Nitta Joel Nitta joined the Department of Botany as a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow in January 2019. Nitta is working with Eric Schuettpelz and Warren Wagner to investigate the biogeography of pteridophytes (ferns and lycophytes) in the Pacific, with a... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019. Emmanuel Kyei-Baffour and Maggy Benson (Education & Outreach) interview lichenologist Manuela Dal Forno during a broadcast of “Exploring the Amazing World of Lichens” on Smithsonian Science How. (photo by Jennifer Renteria, NMNH) On 28 March, Manuela Dal Forno participated in two... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019. -Adapted from Pensoft Publishers A new species of the Brazil-endemic small genus Mcvaughia is described as part of an extended revision of this unique group. The study was recently published in the open access journal PhytoKeys. Mcvaughia bahiana is just one... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019. This past fall members of the Department of Botany teamed up with Education & Outreach to hold an after-school class for 18 local teenagers called "Pterrific Pteridophyte Ptuesdays." Liz Zimmer, Peter Schafran, W. Carl Taylor, Gabe Johnson, Shruti Dube, Eric Schuettpelz,... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019. Recipients of the 2018 Richard and Minnie Windler Award in Systematics are Lytton Musselman and Peter Schafran (at the awards banquet) and Liz Zimmer and Carl Taylor (at the Isoetes display at the National Museum of Natural History). The article, “A... Continue reading

The Paleontological Society of Washington 7:00 pm, Wednesday, May 15 National Museum of Natural History, Constitution Ave. entrance Eurypterids in the Appalachian basin: New insights into their paleoecology, taphonomy, and biomechanics Matthew Vrazo Research Associate, Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History Eurypterids ("sea scorpions") are often only found... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019. The Department of Botany granted six travel awards for 2019: one Robinson Award, one Smith Award, and four Cuatrecasas Awards. As usual, Botany received many excellent applications from which the awards committee could make selections. The following individuals have accepted their... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019. By Gary Krupnick As 2019 came roaring in, the Department of Botany faced a number of challenges. Staff and visitors to the National Museum of Natural History were met with a sign announcing the closure of the museum due to the... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 2, April 2019. By Julia Beros From the Smithsonian Castle to the National Museum of Natural History, the fifth floor to the third, the Bryophyte collection at the U.S. National Herbarium has seen many homes, but is now settling into a more permanent and... Continue reading

The Paleontological Society of Washington 7:00 pm, Wednesday, April 17 National Museum of Natural History, Constitution Ave. entrance Mammalian community change in the Pliocene and Pleistocene of the Indian Subcontinent Advait Jukar Deep Time – Peter Buck Fellow, Paleobiology, NMNH The Siwaliks of South Asia have some of the richest... Continue reading

Surely you have heard of the famous US National Museum female carcinologist, Mary Jane Rathbun, but there are a number of other female carcinologists who worked or were associated with the Museum that also deserve the stage light, most notably Harriet Richardson Searle, Mildred Stratton Wilson, and Isabel Canet Pérez... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. Asexuality, in the form of apomixis, may help ferns colonize islands more readily, but little is known about the incidence of asexuality across the group. Dryopteris macropholis is an endangered fern endemic to the Marquesas Islands. Recent analysis of spores from... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. Kathryn Picard joined the Department of Botany as a postdoctoral fellow in October 2018. Working under the supervision of Eric Schuettpelz, she is studying the incidence and evolutionary consequences of apomixis in the diverse fern order Polypodiales. Picard earned her Master’s... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. By W. John Kress Ida Lopez came to the Smithsonian in June 1998 as a Museum Specialist to work with me to develop the Zingiberales and Monocot Research Program in Botany. I could tell immediately when I first met her that... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. Walter & Karen Adey aboard the research vessel Alca i Karen Adey, producer and executive producer of more than a hundred Smithsonian films, passed away on December 29, 2018. Wife of Research Botanist Emeritus, Walter Adey, she has spent the past... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. By Julia Beros “It was a good story while it lasted,” he chortled while shuffling the lichen Type folders back into their cabinet shelf. From the cabinet marked “SAG - SAZ,” and no sight of the elusive Santessonia. He tapped the... Continue reading

Imagine you’re in the car on a rainy day looking out the window. What do you see? Then, pull your focus back to window itself and the raindrops beading up. Now what do you see? An entirely new world, right? Smaller, but a world just the same, individual droplets all... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. After three years of production, the Department of Botany is excited to announce that the Botany Digitization Conveyor Belt has reached 2 million scans of botanical specimens this December 2018. This number also coincides with the transcription of 1.5 million conveyor... Continue reading

The Paleontological Society of Washington 7:00 pm, Wednesday, March 20 National Museum of Natural History, Constitution Ave. entrance 1. New developments in our studies on amber and plant exudates Jorge Santiago-Blay Resident Research Associate, Paleobiology, NMNH 2. How a Family is Unearthing Amber Online and Helping Scientists Discover New Species... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. The National Museum of Natural History has launched a new website at https://naturalhistory.si.edu/. The new visitor-focused site works on both desktop and mobile screens, integrates with multiple Smithsonian-wide systems, and has improved accessibility and adherence to current accessibility standards and requirements.... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. By Pamela Tuchscherer Retired teacher and Department of Invertebrate Zoology volunteer Pamela Tuchscherer explores her experiences attending the Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “Plants in the Past: Fossils and the Future,” which convened at the National Museum of Natural History in May 2018.... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. The National Museum of Natural History presented the 2018 Peer Recognition Awards on December 11. Award recipients are individuals and teams who have given their time and talent to the museum above and beyond what their jobs call for, and to... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019. The Department of Botany and the United States Botanic Garden will convene the 2019 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “What Darwin Couldn't Know: Modern Perspectives on Crop Plant Origins,” to be held at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., on... Continue reading