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Smithsonian Botanical Symposium
Smithsonian Botanical Symposium
The 18th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, 13-14 May 2021, to explore plant symbioses
The Smithsonian’s Department of Botany and the United States Botanic Garden will hold the 2021 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “Plant symbiosis: The good, the bad, and the complicated,” on 13-14 May 2021. Originally scheduled for May 2020 but canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this symposium will adapt to a virtual setting and be spread over two days.
Plants, like all organisms, exist in collaboration and competition with other life forms. As primary producers, plants form the basis of most food webs. In many cases they also depend on insects, vertebrate animals, bacteria, and/or fungi to survive and reproduce. Sometimes these interactions are especially close and long lasting and such symbioses are among the most fascinating relationships in the natural world. The 18th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium will explore current research in the diversity of plant symbioses, examining the relationships plants have with insects, fungi, bacteria, and even other plants. Speakers will include botanists, ecologists, microbiologists, and geneticists whose research unravels the complicated relationships that plants have with their collaborators and competitors in the natural world.
In addition, the 18th José Cuatrecasas Medal in Tropical Botany will be awarded at the Symposium. This prestigious award is presented annually to an international scholar who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The award is named in honor of Dr. José Cuatrecasas, a pioneering botanist who spent many years working in the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian and devoted his career to plant exploration in tropical South America.
Attendees will need to register online. Further details will be posted soon.
Smithsonian Botanical Symposium Archive
2001 Linnaean Taxonomy in the 21st Century
2002 The Convention on Biological Diversity
2003 Botanical Frontiers in Southeast Asia
2004 Botanical Progress, Horticultural Innovations, and Cultural Changes
2005 The Future of Floras: New Frameworks, New Technologies, New Uses
2006 Island Archipelagos: Cauldrons of Evolution
2008 Partners in Evolution: Interactions, Adaptations, and Speciation
2009 Genes, Genomics and Genome Evolution in Plants
2010 Food for Thought: 21st Century Perspectives on Ethnobotany
2012 Transforming 21st Century Comparative Biology using Evolutionary Trees
2013 Avoiding Extinction: Contemporary Approaches to Conservation Science
2014 Location, Location, Location...New Advances in the Science of Biogeography
2015 Next Generation Pteridology: An International Conference on Lycophyte & Fern Research
2016 Bats, Bees, Birds, Butterflies and Bouquets: New Research in Pollination Biology
2017 Exploring the Natural World: Plants, People and Places
2018 Plants in the Past: Fossils and the Future