Smithsonian Botanical Symposium

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History

The 18^th 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 18^th 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 18^th 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.

If you wish to attend both days of the symposium, be sure to register for each day:

Thursday, May 13, 2021: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4oSefPMrToecWGgkIn62sQ
Friday, May 14, 2021: https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kZLs2Iv5S8aQCl5OI87ZPA

Schedule for Thursday, May 13, 2021 (Eastern Time)
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4oSefPMrToecWGgkIn62sQ
Please note that times are approximate.
1:00 pm - Welcome and presentation of the José Cuatrecasas Medal
1:15 pm - Naomi Pierce (Harvard University), "Context dependent evolution of the African ant acacia, Vachellia drepanolobium, and its multitude of symbionts"
1:35 pm - Jay Bolin (Catawba College), "Hydnora from fungus to foul flower: the natural history of the strangest plants in the world"
1:55 pm - Posy Busby (Oregon State University), "Assembly and function of the leaf microbiome"
2:15 pm - Panel discussion

Schedule for Friday, May 14, 2021 (Eastern Time)
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kZLs2Iv5S8aQCl5OI87ZPA
Please note that times are approximate.
1:00 pm – Welcome
1:10 pm - Leonora Bittleston (Boise State University), "Convergent interactions in carnivorous pitcher plant microcosms"
1:30 pm - Dong Wang (University of Massachusetts Amherst), "Indentured servitude: host control of intracellular bacteria in the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis"
1:50 pm - Manuela Dal Forno (Fort Worth Botanic Garden | Botanical Research Institute of Texas), "The lichen dilemma: unveiling diversity in multi-species symbioses"
2:10 pm - Panel Discussion