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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 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
December 12: Bertrand Black (Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History & the University of Vermont) - A phylogenomic revision of lady ferns (Athyrium) in the Americas
January 30: Jun Wen (Smithsonian Institution) - The grape family as a model clade for systematic and biogeographic studies
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21st Smithsonian Botanical Symposium:
Advancing Plant Conservation Through Horticulture
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Department of Botany, the United States Botanic Garden, and Smithsonian Gardens held the 21st Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “Advancing Plant Conservation Through Horticulture,” on May 17, 2024.
The focus of the Symposium was on conservation horticulture, the application of the technical knowledge and practical expertise of growing plants for the advancement of plant conservation, which is critical in our time of rapid global change if we are to ensure the survival of imperiled plant species. Botanic gardens and conservation organizations around the world maintain diverse and wild-collected ex situ plant collections, care for plants of concern in situ, provide plants for population augmentation and repopulation, and support conservation education and advocacy. Many plants that are extinct or facing extinction in the wild persist in cultivation through such efforts. The 21st Smithsonian Botanical Symposium explored these topics and current research at the nexus of plant conservation and horticulture.
The Symposium was a hybrid event, with invited speakers giving afternoon presentations in Baird Auditorium of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) for both in-person and virtual guests. This was followed by a poster session and evening reception for in-person guests at the Conservatory of the U.S. Botanic Garden.
A recap of the event is available in The Plant Press, and recordings of the presentations are available for viewing on NMNH’s Natural History for Scientists YouTube page.
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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.
