Missouri Botanical Garden Research Articles

BiodiverseCity St. Louis—An Initiative of the Missouri Botanical Garden

Botanical gardens are addressing urgent biodiversity issues through plant-based capacities including botanical research and data-sharing, conservation horticulture, ecological restoration, seed banking, and more. The Missouri Botanical Garden initiative BiodiverseCity St. Louis, led by the Garden’s sustainability division, adds broad community engagement to this mix. This work includes public and professional education, the demonstration and promotion of ecological landscaping and Green Infrastructure practices, citizen science programs, and coordinating communications for a regional network of partner organizations focused on biodiversity. Diverse activity engages businesses, local governments, elementary and secondary (K-12) schools, colleges, and community groups. Community biodiversity work at the Garden is informed by an institutional core of scientific rigor, provides opportunity for internal collaborations, and aligns with global strategies for plant conservation—to ground impactful local work. Missouri Botanical Garden’s experience offers a model for public gardens: leveraging modes of community engagement, in concert with diverse institutional strengths, to address biodiversity needs.

Ecological status of three Angiosperms (Alysicarpus bupleurifolius var. hybridus DC, Hibiscus hoshiarpurensis and Ceropegia bulbosa Roxb. var lushii) in Punjab (India)

Around the world, several plant species are fighting for their survival in the new urbanized world to which they are not adapted to and these species face a significant risk of extinction in the near future. Such species are categorized as “threatened species” in the IUCN redlist. In India, there are several herbaceous plant species that are getting pushed to those zones of existence and the scenario is no different in the northwestern state of Punjab where changes in the land cover use has been challenging the survival of several plant species including a few natives. This article focuses on existing knowledge base on the three angiosperm species in Punjab, Alysicarpus bupleurifolius var. hybridus DC and Hibiscus hoshiarpurensis and Ceropegia bulbosa Roxb. var lushii, that have been identified by Punjab Biodiversity Board as threatened in the state. It is important to understand here that comprehensive information on geographic distribution, ecology and threats to these species is lacking on global databases and even the threat status is apparently ambiguous. Alysicarpus bupleurifolius var. hybridus DC, which has been identified as endemic herb in the state, is listed as endangered species by Punjab Biodiversity Board, however the variety itself has not yet found its place in the IUCN redlist. The species, Alysicarpus bupleurifolius, is listed as the Least Concern species in the IUCN red list. Similarly, the global IUCN status of Hibiscus hoshiarpurensis, another herb identified as endemic to the state, is not known however the species is listed as threatened by the Punjab Biodiversity Board. According to The Plant list (database maintained by The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden), the plant species status is still unresolved. Ceropegia bulbosa Roxb. Var lushii, that has a distribution in a few states of India, has been identified as threatened on regional scale however the species has not yet been assessed for the IUCN Redlist.

Vitis, Wine, and Medicine: The Other Careers of George Engelmann (1809–1884)

Although professionally better known for his work on North American cactus, grapes and wine formed the longer and arguably more culturally important thread of U.S. botanist George Engelmann’s (1809–1884) career. Through new and comprehensive use of Engelmann’s personal papers, letters, and informal daily correspondence housed at the Missouri Botanical Garden, this essay offers a reappraisal of the botanist’s place in the history of grape science, the international wine industry, and the late 19th-century phylloxera crisis, as well as the use of wine in his medical practice in St. Louis. Engelmann’s work on Vitis L. illustrates that he served as the hub of a wide wheel of scientific inquiry, positioning U.S. botanists as experts for prestigious international audiences. His contributions in three related arenas—botanical discovery and naming of Vitis species, service to the wine industry, and as a physician attending to St. Louis families’ health by prescribing wine—were all crucial facets of U.S. national expansion. Like many other wine enthusiasts, Engelmann and his adopted countrymen were interested in defining U.S. viticulture and the nation itself as projects concerned with both wild, resilient native stock and cultivated refinement.

Botanical Dissertations from the 19th and Early 20th Centuries at the Ohio State University Herbarium (OS)

Botanical Dissertations from the 19th and Early 20th Centuries at the Ohio State University Herbarium (OS)

South American terrestrial biomes as geocomplexes: a geobotanical landscape approach

The classic and current perception of biome in its various meanings is fundamentally based on vegetation types that are considered as discrete or independent and fragmented entities in the landscape. Vegetation units are characterized by their physiognomy, which is based on the dominant life forms and mainly determined by climatic conditions. However, vegetation units are associated and mutually interacting at a landscape level. They are determined by local or regional, climatic, topographic and edaphic gradients within a given territory or geographic area. In this work, we propose a new conceptual and methodological approach aiming to better understand the biome concept in a landscape framework, developing ideas already partially advanced by us. In this sense, we consider the biome as a landscape complex (geocomplex), that spatially includes one to several vegetation geoseries which, in turn, each comprise the following possible geomorphologically linked vegetation series: i) the potential natural climatophilic vegetation (zonal vegetation) and their seral successional stages which occur repeatedly in the landscape; ii) edapho-xerophyllous vegetation (azonal vegetation such as occurs on rocky outcrops or sandy soils); and iii) edapho-hygrophilic vegetation (azonal vegetation such as flooded vegetation on river banks). Based on surveys and field data (more than ca. 300 transects) obtained by the authors in most South American countries from 1990 to the present, 33 South American geocomplex biomes and 16 macrobiomes were identified and synoptically characterized, through graphic general zonation models (phyto-topographic type-profiles) extrapolated from numerous observations along representative bioclimatical, geomorphological and biogeographically stratified transects. Field data and transect-plots are currently being processed to be included into the “GIVD database”. Taxonomic reference: Tropicos.org, Missouri Botanical Garden (https://tropicos.org) [accessed 1 Feb 2023]. In Memoriam: Salvador Rivas-Martínez

Melissopalynology of <i>Coffea arabica</i> honey produced by the stingless bee <i>Tetragonisca angustula</i> (Latreille, 1811) from Alajuela, Costa Rica

<abstract> <p><italic>Tetragonisca angustula</italic> is the most widespread stingless bee species, from Mexico to Northern Argentina. It is called Mariola in Costa Rica. Native plant species offering food resources and nesting sites to stingless bees are included in reforestation and conservation programs. In Costa Rica there are continuous initiatives on listing flora supporting meliponiculture. In this study, a sample of pot-honey was collected from sealed honey pots within nests of <italic>Tetragonisca angustula</italic> in Alajuela, Costa Rica. It was acetolyzed following standard methods and the pollen types were visualized by microscopic analysis at 200X magnification using a Nikon Eclipse Ni binocular scope. Electronic brightfield micro-photographs were obtained at 1000X magnification and pollen types were plated. Palynological descriptions were provided for major pollen grains. The botanical identifications of plant families and genera were established by comparison with pollen atlases and were validated consulting the 2022 Tropicos Missouri Botanical Garden database. Seventy-nine pollen types were recognized in the pollen spectrum, representing 36 families and 67 genera of flowering plants. Their habits were trees (51%), lianas/vine (11%), herbs (19%), herb/tree (5%), shrubs (5%), shrub/tree (1%) and not assigned (8%). This assemblage indicated the presence of lowland tropical forest elements, probably small relicts of secondary forest surrounding open and cultivated areas where <italic>Coffea arabica</italic> pollen dominated in the honey pollen spectrum with 54.3% of total counts, with secondary <italic>Paullinia</italic> sp. 8.7%, <italic>Vochysia</italic> sp. 4.8% and <italic>Cassia</italic> sp. 4.2% and 95% of pollen taxa present in < 3% relative frequency. Taxa offering only pollen (polleniferous) were considered honey contaminants (32%) not explaining the nectar botanical origin of honey.</p> </abstract>

Botanical Resonance: Plants and Sounds in the Garden

<i>Botanical Resonance: Plants and Sounds in the Garden</i>

Introduction

Introduction

Rhakhis: A workflow for managing the WFO taxonomic backbone

In 2021, the World Flora Online (WFO) Council agreed that the team at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh would take on the technical role of managing the WFO Taxonomic Backbone (WFO-TB). This presentation outlines the implementation of a system to manage the associated data and explores possible future developments. The WFO-TB is a global concensus checklist of plants including bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms. The checklist data consists of two parts: facts concerning the nomenclatural acts that establish the names under the nomenclatural code, and consensus expert opinion on the placement of those names into a single, authoritative taxonomy. WFO-TB is unique in that it is both global in scope and curated by a large team of experts from multiple institutions. There are currently around 280 specialist contributors organised into 37 Taxonomic Expert Networks (TENs). The primary function of the WFO-TB is to provide structure to the hundreds of thousands of descriptions, images and other pieces of Content that make up the WFO’s main web portal, but periodic snapshots of the taxonomic data are also made available as public downloads and published as the WFO Plant List. The WFO Plant List is unique in that it remembers each version of WFO-TB that was published and links between them thus providing a stable, citable resource. In addition, data can be released in any format that researchers may find useful including through ChecklistBank and so be potentially incorporated into the Catalogue of Life and GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility). All checklist data are released with a Creative Commons (CC) license of CC0 so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the works for any purposes without restriction under copyright or database law. Prior to 2022, the WFO-TB was managed as part of the main WFO data resources supporting the WFO Portal by the team at Missouri Botanical Garden. Moving responsibility for hosting the backbone to the team at Edinburgh added significant resources to the project as a whole, but created technical challenges. The first requirement of the new system (called Rhakhis, a Greek form of rachis, the ‘backbone’ of a leaf or inflorescence) was to demonstrate that it could feed data back to Missouri in a way that could be incorporated into the WFO infrastructure without causing disruption to the Content curation process. This was completed in early 2022, and, by June, the primary copy of the WFO-TB data had been entrusted to Rhakhis. The June 2022 version of the WFO Plant List and the WFO-TB was published using the previous system, switching to publication from Rhakhis in December 2022. The system architecture of Rhakhis is quite simple. A MySQL database holds all the data and is exposed via a GraphQL API to a web-based user interface written in Javascript using React and Bootstrap. User authentication is handled via a link to ORCiD (Open Researcher and Contributor ID). Authorisation for editors is delegated hierarchically down the taxonomic tree. This provides the ability for TENs and the TEN Manager to oversee and manage the live data directly and to delegate authority to colleagues. The TEN Manager has access to a plain HTML bulk loader interface that enables the ingestion of CSV and files in DwC-A (Darwin Core Archive) format supplied by TENs as well as updates from other data sources, such as IPNI (International Plant Names Index) and WCVP (RBG Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants). Rhakhis is designed as a standalone data management tool for taxonomists involved in the project rather than a public website, and is hosted on a WFO server on the Google Cloud. The WFO Plant List is run on a separate system and designed to be a performant public-facing website. Periodic snapshots of the WFO-TB are imported into a Solr Index that is then exposed via another GraphQL API as well as Semantic Web-compliant HTTPS URIs. A web-based user interface to WFO Plant List is implemented as part of the Craft CMS (Content Management System) that also runs the About pages of the WFO Web Portal, but it would be possible to build other interfaces to this data. The periodic snapshots of the WFO-TB, which are published through the WFO Plant List, are archived in Zenodo and assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), as well as contributed to Catalogue of Life ChecklistBank. The archive formats currently supported include: Darwin Core Archive and Catalogue of Life Data Package, but other formats will be considered in the future. We are interested in investigating the creation of data papers, e.g., through the Biodiversity Data Journal at Pensoft, to provide additional accreditation for contributors and exposure of their data.

Functional relationship between leaf/stem pseudobulb size and photosynthetic pathway in the Orchidaceae

Water storage has been commonly cited as an important function of orchid pseudobulbs, and it is reasonable to assume that orchids which utilize crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthesis have larger pseudobulbs than those of C3 orchid taxa, because these foliar (or stem) structures may reflect another type of succulent tissue in CAM plants. On the other hand, it is equally plausible that C3 orchids have larger pseudobulbs, as they lack succulent tissue, as well as the water-conservative CAM pathway. The goal of this study was to compare pseudobulb size in over 100 living orchid species growing at the Missouri Botanical Garden by measurement. Pseudobulb volumes of C3 species did not differ from those of species with CAM photosynthesis in a family-wide comparison of all sampled species, as well as in comparisons of taxa with these two photosynthetic pathways among three subtribes and within one genus. The results did not support a functional relationship between pseudobulb volume and photosynthetic pathway in the Orchidaceae. Pseudobulbs are equally important structures in C3 and CAM orchid taxa, and may function similarly in water, carbohydrates, and (or) essential elements storage in the two groups of orchids. This study lays a foundation for further research into pseudobulb evolution in orchids.

Analysis of the vascular flora in the Cajas National Park (Central Andes, Ecuador)

The Cajas National Park (CNP) is located 30 km from the city of Cuenca (Ecuador), in the western Andean chain and occupies an area of almost 30,000 ha, between 3300-4450 m of altitude, and includes various ecosystems: subpáramo, herbaceous paramo and super-páramo, which include grasslands (dominant in CNP), wetlands, Polylepis sp. pl. and scrubs; above 4200 m, bush communities adapted to extreme edaphoclimatic conditions dominate. For the elaboration of the catalogue of the vascular flora of the CNP, we compiled, refined and analysed the information available in the herbaria of the University of Azuay (Cuenca, Ecuador) (HA), Missouri Botanical Garden (MO), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador (QCA) and Tropicos® database, with records of altitudes above 3300 m asl and our collections in the years 2012-2019. 666 species are documented, belonging to 264 genera and 89 botanical families; we describe their biological form (biotype), habitat, distribution ‒with special attention to endemic and non-native species‒ and degree of threat. Finally, the data for each of these criteria are jointly analysed and compared with other Andean mountain ranges. Dichondra macrocalyx Meisn. and Piptochaetium tovarii Sánchez Vega are reported for the first time in Ecuador.

&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Virola parvusligna&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt;, a New Species of Myristicaceae from the Cordillera Azul National Park, Peru

In one of expeditions realized by Missouri Botanical Garden in May 2019, we found a small tree as part of the project "Diversity of flora and its relationships with the soil, in the wild area of Cordillera Azul National Park"; examining the botanic samples be carefully and realizing respective comparisons, we arrived to conclusion that it has different characteristics from the others species of <i>Virola</i>. Therefore it would be a new species for science; the new species is described and illustrated in the present article; it is characterized because generally they are small trees 2.0 m highest; the terminal twigs with persistent indument, terete; leaves, ovate-elliptical to oblong-elliptical, with 10–15 pairs of secondary veins; pistillate inflorescences, axillary 1.5–1.6 cm long, with 6–12 flowers; fruits 1–4, obovate-elliptical, carinate, acute apex 2.0 –2.2 × 1–1.2 cm, densely ferruginous tomentose. On the other hand, we present the discussions regarding the relations with other species, for which we include illustrations, images, and data on its ecology, phenology, geographical distribution, geological location and its current state of conservation.

Ex situ species conservation: Predicting plant survival in botanic gardens based on climatic provenance

Living collections grown in outdoor landscapes within botanic gardens play an increasingly important role in ex situ species conservation, but there is little work predicting the survival of different plant species in these landscapes. Here we present an approach to predict the survival of plants grown from wild propagules in botanic gardens, based on climatic provenance. We developed mixed effects Cox models to relate plant survival to horticulturally informed measures of climatic differences between botanic garden landscapes and the wild distribution of plants. We fit these models to data on the survival of 1184 plantings of 410 species grown in the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG, in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA) from wild propagules collected around the world. We detected major effects of growth form, minimum temperature of the coldest month, maximum temperature of the warmest month, and to a lesser extent precipitation of the driest month. Survival at MBG was predicted better by the climate of propagule collection localities than by the overall climatic distribution of species, suggesting local adaptation. However, there was substantial interspecific variation in survival among plants from similar climates. The best models predicted high survival for plants grown at MBG from propagules collected within broad latitudinal bands across non-tropical regions. We explore implications of these findings for the role of botanic gardens in ex situ conservation, and discuss the applicability of the approach we developed to enhance the capacity of living collections to represent species of conservation concern.

(2847) Proposal to conserve the name Anthurium microspadix against A. porrectum (Araceae)

(2847) Proposal to conserve the name <i>Anthurium microspadix</i> against <i>A. porrectum</i> (<i>Araceae</i>)

Challenges, Solutions, and Workflows Developed for the Taxonomic Backbone of the World Flora Online.

The World Flora Online (WFO) is the collaborative, international initiative to achieve Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC): "An online flora of all known plants." WFO provides an open-access, web-based compendium of the world’s plant species, which builds upon existing knowledge and published floras, checklists and revisions but will also require the collection and generation of new information on poorly known groups and unexplored regions (Borsch et al. 2020). The construction of the WFO Taxonomic Backbone is central to the entire WFO as it determines the accessibility of additional content data and at the same time, represents a taxonomic opinion on the circumscription of those taxa. The Plant List v.1.1 (TPL 2013) was the starting point for the backbone, as this was the most comprehensive resource covering all plants available. We have since curated the higher taxonomy of the backbone, based on the following published community-derived classifications: the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG IV 2016), the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group (PPG I 2016), Bryophytes (Buck et al. 2008), and Hornworts &amp;amp; Liverworts (Söderström et al. 2016). The WFO presents a community-supported consensus classification with the aim of being the authoritative global source of information on the world's plant diversity. The backbone is actively curated by our Taxonomic Expert Networks (TEN), consisting of specialists of taxonomic groups, ideally at the Family or Order level. There are currently 37 approved TENs, involving more than 280 specialists, working with the WFO. There are small TENs like the Begonia Resource Center and the Meconopsis Group (with five specialists), medium TENs like Ericaceae and Zingiberaceae Resource Centers or SolanaceaSource.org (around 15 experts), and larger TENs like Caryophyllales.org and the Legume Phylogeny Working Group, with more than 80 specialists involved. When we do not have taxonomic oversight, the World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP 2019) has been used to update those families from the TPL 2013 classification. Full credit and acknowledgement given to the original sources is a key requirement of this collaborative project, allowing users to refer to the primary data. For example, an association with the original content is kept through the local identifiers used by the taxonomic content providers as a link to their own resources. A key requirement for the WFO Taxonomic Backbone is that every name should have a globally unique identifier that is maintained, ideally forever. After considering several options, the WFO Technology Working Group recommended that the WFO Council establish a WFO Identifier (WFO-ID), a 10-digit number with a “wfo-” prefix, aimed at establishing a resolvable identifier for all existing plant names, which will not only be used in the context of WFO but can be universally used to reference plant names. Management of the WFO Taxonomic Backbone has been a challenge as TPL v1.1 was derived from multiple taxonomic datasets, which led to duplication of records. For that reason, names can be excluded from the public portal by the WFO Taxonomic Working Group or the TENs, but not deleted. A WFO-ID is not deleted nor reused after it has been excluded from the WFO Taxonomic Backbone. Keeping these allows for better matching when assigning WFO-IDs to data derived from content providers. Nevertheless, this implies certain considerations for new names and duplications. New names are added to the WFO Taxonomic Backbone via nomenclators like the International Plants Name Index (IPNI, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew et al. 2021) for Angiosperms, and Tropicos (Missouri Botanical Garden 2021) for Bryophytes, as well as harvesting endemic and infraspecific names from Flora providers when providing descriptive content. New names are passed to the TEN to make a judgement on their taxonomic status. When TENs provide a new authoritative taxonomic list for their group, we first produce a Name Matching report to ensure no names are missed. Several issues come from managing and maintaining taxonomic lists, but the process of curating an ever-growing integrated resource leads to an increase in the challenges we face with homonyms, non-standard author abbreviations, orthographic variants and duplicate names when Name Matching. The eMonocot database application, provided by Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, (Santarsiero et al. 2013) and subsequently adapted by the Missouri Botanical Garden to provide the underlying functionality for WFO's current toolset, has also proven itself to be a challenging component to update. In this presentation, we will share our hands-on experience, technical solutions and workflows creating and maintaining the WFO Taxonomic Backbone.

Study on Morphological and Microscopic Characteristics of Abelmoschus sagittifolius (Kurz) Merr. in Vietnam

Sam bo chinh (Abelmoschus sagittifolius (Kurz) Merr.) is a precious medicinal plant that has been exploited and planted in Vietnam for a long time. However, the morphological characteristics of this plant is easy to confuse with other species of the same genus. In addition, the microscopic characteristics and medicinal powder composition of this medicinal plant have not been comprehensively described. The present investigation was aimed to determine the morphological and microscopic characters of Sam bo chinh using comparative morphology, anatomical research and medicinal powder analysis. The complete description of morphological and microscopic characteristics reported in this study will serve as valuable data for the conservation and development of this species in Vietnam.&#x0D; Keywords&#x0D; Morphology, microscopic characteristics, medicinal plant, Abelmoschus sagittifolius.&#x0D; References&#x0D; [1] The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2021, http://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:558042-1, (accessed on: 7th May 2021).[2] P. H. Ho, Medicinal Plants in Vietnam, Tre Publishing House, Ho Chi Minh, 2006, pp. 112 (in Vietnamese).[3] D. H. Bich et al., Medicinal Plants and Medicinal Animals in Vietnam, Science and Technics Publishing House, Hanoi, 2006, pp. 690-693 (in Vietnamese).[4] Ministry of Health, Vietnamese Pharmacopoeia V, Medical Publishing House, Hanoi, 2018, pp. 1310-1311 (in Vietnamese).[5] G. L. D. Chen, Y. Y. Liu, G. X. Ma, W. Zheng, X. B. Sun, X. D. Xu, A New Cadinane Sesquiterpenoid Glucoside with Cytotoxicity from Abelmoschus sagittifolius, Natural Product Research, Vol. 33, 2019, pp. 1699-1704, https://doi.org/10.1080/14786419.2018.1431635.[6] D. T. Vui, Study Chemical Composition and Pharmacological Effects towards The Treatment Gastric Ulcers of The Roots of Abelmoschus sagittifolius (Kurz) Merr. Malvaceae, Doctoral Thesis, National Institute of Medicinal Materials, Hanoi, 2007 (in Vietnamese).[7] D. T. Xuyen, Some New Information on The Genus Abelmoschus Medic. in Vietnam, Scientific Report on Ecology and Biological Resources, The First National Conference, Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources, Hanoi, 2005 (in Vietnamese).[8] N. N. Thin, Methods of Plant Research, Vietnam National University Press, Hanoi, 2007 (in Vietnamese).[9] N. Ba, Plant Morphology, Vietnam Education Publishing House, Hanoi, 2006 (in Vietnamese).[10] N. V. Than, Testing Medicinal Herbs by Microscopic Method, Science and Technics Publishing House, Hanoi, 2003 (in Vietnamese).[11] P. H. Raven, H. D. W. Zhengyi, Flora of China, Science Press (Beijing) &amp; Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis), China and USA, 2007, pp. 283-285.[12] Abelmoschus moschatus (L.) Medik, http://uphcm.edu.vn/caythuoc/index.php?q=book/export/html/298, (accessed on: May 25th, 2020) (in Vietnamese)

The Berberis of China and Vietnam – A revision, by JulianHarber2020, Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden, Volume 136. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, Missouri. ISBN 978‐935641‐18‐6. £57.67 (on Amazon).

Curtis's Botanical MagazineVolume 38, Issue 2 p. 260-262 Book Review The Berberis of China and Vietnam – A revision, by Julian Harber 2020, Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden, Volume 136. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, Missouri. ISBN 978-935641-18-6. £57.67 (on Amazon). Keith Rushforth, Keith RushforthSearch for more papers by this author Keith Rushforth, Keith RushforthSearch for more papers by this author First published: 30 May 2021 https://doi.org/10.1111/curt.12392Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume38, Issue2June 2021Pages 260-262 RelatedInformation

A Brief Early History of Plant Science in St. Louis and the Partnership between Washington University and the Missouri Botanical Garden

Since the founding of the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) in 1859, the emphasis on research and the distribution of research findings in botany has been, and will remain, one of the central components of the garden’s mission. Likewise, Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), the MBG’s partner in graduate programs since 1885, has had a continuous and similarly strong emphasis on research and the dissemination of research findings in plant science through publications. Since the beginning of this partnership, the ongoing extension of common research themes has been critical, through the early focus on traditional botanical studies (1885–1930) at the MBG, the move toward a focus on physiology and the emerging field of ecology (1930–1960), and eventually the shift to the study of biochemistry, molecular biology, and genomic studies in plant science (1960–present), primarily at WUSTL. For more than 135 years (1885–2020), this St. Louis–based collaboration has had a prominent place in the region’s rich history in plant science. In recent years, collaboration with and contributions from other St. Louis–area degree-granting institutions in the field (such as Saint Louis University [SLU] and the University of Missouri–St. Louis [UMSL]) have steadily increased. Couple this with the addition of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center (Danforth Center) in 2000, which, like the MBG, has undertaken research and training in plant science, and you now have impressive depth and diversity within St. Louis’s plant science offerings. As a result, both organizations train students and carry out peer-reviewed research funded by the same agencies (i.e., National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Agriculture) as the region’s degree-granting institutions. Every year, a significant number of master’s degree and Ph.D. graduates in this consortium comprise an impressive pool of talent available for postdoctoral training, research, and teaching positions, as well as employment in government entities and private and public life science corporations. To this end, St. Louis has one of the largest concentrations of plant science Ph.D.’s in the world (with more than 1,000 such individuals residing in the region [BioSTL, 2018]), as well as a broad diversity of disciplines represented. In addition, the faculties at both the Danforth Center and MBG frequently serve as adjunct members of university departments and as advisors to graduate students, and greatly increase the breadth of topics offered in the St. Louis plant science community, particularly in areas not directly supported by the universities. Both organizations contribute to an increasingly important part of this ecosystem. Below is a short history of the relationship between the MBG and WUSTL, and how this collaboration, primarily through graduate research education, has been foundational for the St. Louis area’s impressive plant science ecosystem. This is not a detailed review of the science generated by these organizations, but rather an account of the initial events and leaders that led to the region becoming the present-day hub for plant science.

From Geneticist to the Garden to Senior Botanist: Edgar Anderson and the Study of Plants in the 20th Century

This examination of Edgar Anderson’s career from his undergraduate studies at Michigan Agricultural College beginning in 1914 to his death at the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1969 is an opportunity to trace the study of plants in the middle half of the 20th century. He came to the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1922 as geneticist, but he took Senior Botanist as his last title. His perspective was always generalist and synthetic, applying insights from specialization for their broadest implications. This approach led to his recognition of the role of repeated backcrosses, introgressive hybridization, as a major evolutionary mechanism, a view being tested and explored increasingly by today’s workers. Analogously, his disciplinary approach similarly reflected introgression as he helped incorporate genetics, cytology, ecology, and developmental biology—in a word, biosystematics—into the botany that he studied as a young man.

Geopolitics of bitterness: Deciphering the history and cultural biogeography of Quassia amara L

Ethnopharmacological relevanceQuassia amara L. recently came into the spotlight in French Guiana, when it became the object of a biopiracy claim. Due to the numerous use records throughout the Guiana shield, at least since the 18th century, a thorough investigation of its origin seemed relevant and timely. In the light of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya protocol, questions about the origin of local knowledge are important to debate.Aim of the study: Defining cultural biogeography as the dynamics through space and time of biocultural complexes, we used this theoretical framework to shed light on the complex biogeographical and cultural history of Q. amara. We explored in particular the possible transfer of medicinal knowledge on an Old World species to a botanically related New World one by enslaved Africans in Suriname. Materials and methodsHistorical and contemporary literature research was performed by means of digitized manuscripts, archives and databases from the 17th to the 21st century. We retrieved data from digitized herbarium vouchers in herbaria of the Botanic Garden Meise (Belgium); Naturalis Biodiversity Center (the Netherlands); Missouri Botanical Garden, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum (USA); Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (UK); the IRD Herbarium, French Guiana and the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle (France). Vernacular names were retrieved from literature and herbarium specimens and compared to verify the origin of Quassia amara and its uses. ResultsOur exploration of digitized herbarium vouchers resulted in 1287 records, of which 661 were Q. amara and 636 were Q. africana. We observed that the destiny of this species, over at least 300 years, interweaves politics, economy, culture and medicine in a very complex way. Quassia amara's uses are difficult to attribute to specific cultural groups: the species is widely distributed in Central and South America, where it is popular among many ethnic groups. The species spread from Central to South America during the early 18th century due to political and economic reasons. This migration possibly resulted from simultaneous migration by religious orders (Jesuits) from Central America to northern South America and by Carib-speaking Amerindians (from northern South America to Suriname). Subsequently, through colonial trade networks, Q. amara spread to the rest of the world. The absence of African-derived local names in the Guiana shield suggests that Q. africana was not sufficiently familiar to enslaved Africans in the region that they preserved its names and transferred the associated medicinal knowledge to Q. amara. ConclusionsCultural biogeography has proven an interesting concept to reconstruct the dynamics of biocultural interactions through space and time, while herbarium databases have shown to be useful to decipher evolution of local plant knowledge. Tracing the origin of a knowledge is nevertheless a complex adventure that deserves time and interdisciplinary studies.