From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019. A study that explores the origin and diversification of Asteraceae, the sunflower family, was recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1903871116). Asteraceae, composed of an estimated 25,000-30,000 species, accounts for nearly 10 percent of all flowering plants.... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019. Report from Guyana, June 1994: Having just flown into Kaieteur National Park, Carol Kelloff, Paula DePriest, and Mike Tamessar (University of Guyana) realize that Eric Christenson, who had flown in with them, is missing. Christenson is found at the airstrip, with... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019. As botanists develop more knowledge the science of taxonomy becomes increasingly complex. Between 1753 and 2016, the number of known plant species has risen from about 6,000 to 390,000, an average increase of nearly 1,500 species each year. Over 2,000 new... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019. Ernani Guingona Meñez was born on 15 August 1931, in Manila, Philippines. He finished his secondary schooling at Mapa High School in Manila and his undergraduate degree (BA in Botany) at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. At UP, he worked... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019. In the January 2019 issue of The Plant Press (Vol. 22, No. 1), Julia Beros reported on an interesting mystery in the article, “The search for Santessonia continues.” Harold Robinson told Beros a story about Mason Hale’s discovery of the highly... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019. The Department of Botany and the United States National Herbarium present the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany to a botanist and scholar of international stature who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The award... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019. The 17th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “What Darwin Couldn't Know: Modern Perspectives on Crop Plant Origins,” was held 17 May 2019. The invited speakers explored contemporary research into the domestication of crops and their wild relatives. Below are the abstracts from the... Continue reading

From Plant Press, Vol. 22, No. 3, July 2019. By Gary A. Krupnick Smithsonian’s Department of Botany and the United States Botanic Garden convened the 2019 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “What Darwin Couldn't Know: Modern Perspectives on Crop Plant Origins,” at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, D.C.,... Continue reading

I seem to always take a long time to finally post a summary of my field-work in photos. Here is a summary of a trip I undertook with #TeamDiptera members Charlotte Alberts, Allan Cabrero, and Brandon Claridge in November 2019 prior to the 9th International Congress of Diptera in Windhoek,... Continue reading

I have been trying to write this post for a while, but every time I start to think about what to write about my work on deep sea sponges, I get stuck on where to begin. So, this idea stayed in the back of my mind and, suddenly, in the... Continue reading

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