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DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY
News and Highlights
Upcoming Events
Botany Seminar Series
The NMNH Department of Botany seminar series features guest speakers presenting their current research. Topics range from taxonomy, evolution, and systematics to plant ecology and conservation biology. All seminars are typically held on Thursdays at 1pm Eastern (unless otherwise noted). If you are interested in receiving notices of upcoming seminars and web links to the virtual presentations, subscribe to the Botany Seminar email list by sending your name, affiliation, and email address to Gary Krupnick.
Upcoming seminars
- March 5, 2026: Ingrid Romero (Smithsonian) - TBA
- April 23, 2026: Ana Martinez Becerril (Smithsonian) - Exploring the diversity and evolution of ferns in Mexico through an integrative framework
- June 4, 2026: Lucile Jourdain-Fievet (Smithsonian) - Phylogenomic insights into the evolution and biogeography of Grewia (Malvaceae) in Madagascar and the Paleotropics
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23rd National Botanical Symposium:
American Botany: 250 years of Discovery
The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Department of Botany, the United States Botanic Garden, and Smithsonian Gardens will hold the 23rd National Botanical Symposium (formerly Smithsonian Botanical Symposium), “American Botany: 250 years of Discovery,” on May 29, 2026.
The 18th century not only saw the founding of our nation but also the founding of American botany as it transformed from European explorers looking for plants to supply European gardens, to a new age of homegrown botanists and horticulturists. The American government sent out expeditions to explore the expanding frontier and bring back plants and document indigenous knowledge about them. America has a unique flora that has undergone dramatic changes in composition and distribution. From indigenous people managing land with fire, to the 20th century loss of keystone species like American chestnut to disease, our national flora has changed enormously as a result of land use and movement of people. These changes have brought great biological, cultural, and economic impacts. Botanical research is in an exciting era of big data from new technologies. New plant species continue to be discovered in the U.S. and the environmental processes that make and shape our flora are increasingly understood, especially across landscapes. The Symposium will celebrate the centuries of endeavors and successes to document and explain our flora with speakers who provide insight into research on the plants, biomes, history, and botanical exploration of the United States.
More information about the symposium is available here.
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Highlights
Digitized!
The Department of Botany is happy to announce that the US Herbarium is completely digitized as of May 2022. The seven year effort to digitize the herbarium through a digitization conveyor system has resulted in 3.8 new specimen images, 2.8 new label transcriptions, and over 80,000 new taxonomic names added to the data catalog.
Women Support Staff of the United States National Herbarium
Women have a significant presence in museum work most notably in illustration, research assistance, and collection management. More recently collections work has expanded to include digitization, outreach, administration, and library and information resourcing, as well as fulfilling everyday department tasks.
Women Support Staff of the USNH
Women of the United States National Herbarium
Historically, botany has been one of the few attainable fields in science for women, most commonly in the areas of scientific illustration and field collection (assisting male botanists who oftentimes were their husbands). In the US National Herbarium, women have figured prominently. Here we spotlight many of our best from past and present.
Women of the US National Herbarium
Plants Are Cool Too!
Chris Martine's series "Plants are Cool Too" presents a behind the scenes in Kauai to look at how the National Tropical Botanical Garden is leading the charge to save rare plants and protect tropical biodiversity. In a second episode, a group of passionate plant people are working to save some of the rarest plants on the archipelago -- and tell us why we need a new generation of biodiversity lovers to help battle the extinction crisis. Our own Warren Wagner is spotlighted in this series.
News
Newsletter -- The Plant Press is the quarterly newsletter from the Department of Botany and the U.S. National Herbarium. The purpose of The Plant Press is to provide information about the activities of the Department. Included are articles about staff research and travel, visitors, new publications, and plant conservation highlights.
