2012 v58 No 4 Winter

James D. Ackerman
Afiz Ajibade
Edith B. Allen
Nan Crystal Arens
Rafael E Arevalo Burbano
Joseph & Nancy Armstrong
Sidney R. Ash
Nina Lucille Baghai-Riding
Stokes S. Baker
Bruce G. Baldwin
Grant M. Barkley
Mary Barkworth
Karen Barnard
Ellen T. Bauder
Amy Berkov
Charles E. Blair
Linda M. Broadhurst
Luc Brouillet
Steven B Broyles
Leo P. Bruederle
Janelle M. Burke
Imre Matyas Buzgo
Melanie Byerley
Diane L. Byers
Aubrey Cahoon
Clyde L. Calvin
Andrea L. Case
Brenda B. Casper
Russell L. Chapman

William Cheadle
Gregory P Cheplick
Hong-Keun Choi
John Choinski
Lynn G. Clark
Jim Cohen
Margaret E Collinson
Paul L. Conant
Martha E. Cook
Todd J. Cooke
Janice Marie Coons
S. H. Costanza
Nancy Coutant
Nancy E. Cowden
William Louis Crepet
Wilson Crone
Mitchell Cruzan
Chicita F. Culberson
Theresa M. Culley
Peter S. Curtis
Edward J. Cushing
Stephen Darrel Davis
Carol Dawson
Ted Delevoryas
Darleen A. Demason
Nancy Dengler
Melanie L. Devore
Pamela Kathleen Diggle
Kevin W. Dougherty

Jennifer Doubt
Andrew Nicholas Doust
Rebecca Drenovsky
Leah S. Dudley
Bohdan Dziadyk
Susan E. Eichhorn
Wayne J. Elisens
Diane Marie Erwin
Frank W. Ewers
Lafayette Frederick
Vicki A. Funk
Candace Galen
Moira Galway
Maria A. Gandolfo
Janet L. Gehring
Jennifer Geiger
Lawrence J. Giles
Thomas J. Givnish
Daniel K. Gladish
Stefan Erwin Gleissberg
Martin C. Goffinet
Charles W. Good
Uromi Manage Goodale
Carol Goodwillie
Hazel J. Gordon
Linda Graham
Sean W. Graham
Brenda J. Grewell
Cecilia Greyson

Sincere thanks to all of our donors for their generous

support of our multiple sections, student awards and travel

funds, and the BSA Endowment

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

Judy Parrish
William J. Platt
Cyrille Prestianni
Katherine A. Preston
Robert A. Price
Thomas Ranker
Eric Ribbens
Steve Rice
Jennifer H. Richards
Ricarda Riina
Vanessa Lopes Rivera
Alison W. Roberts
Robert G. Ross
Thomas Lowell Rost
Carl Rothfels
Scott D. Russell
Peter Ryser
Ann Sakai & Stephen Weller
Carl D Schlichting
Andrew Schnabel
Edward L. Schneider
Eileen K. Schofield
Lisa M. Schultheis
Patricia Jean Schulz
James & Marilyn L. Seago
Elizabeth C. Seastrum
Joanne M. Sharpe
Michael Simpson
Lawrence & Judith E. Skog
Michelle Amber Smith
Selena Y. Smith
Allison Ann Snow
Douglas & Pamela Soltis
John R. Spence
Kelly P. Steele
James B. Stichka
Peter F. Straub

Takahide Kurosawa
Elizabeth P. Lacey
David W. Lee
Blanca R. Leon
Geoffrey Levin
Amy Litt
William Mclagan Malcolm
Greayer Mansfield-Jones
Brigitte Marazzi
Marilyn C. Marynick
Lucinda Ann Mcdade
David J. Mclaughlin
Dr. Manjari A. Mehta
Irving A. Mendelssohn
Brigitte Meyer-Berthaud
Helen J. Michaels
James E. Mickle
Charles N. Miller Jr
Brent Mishler
L Maynard Moe
Brenda Molano-Flores
Arlee M. Montalvo
Nancy Morin
Mark E. Mort
Lytton John Musselman
Joan E. Nester-Hudson
Trina L. Nicholson
Karl J. Niklas
Mart Nirzka
Harufumi Nishida
Eisho Nishino
Gretchen B. North
Sally L. Norton
Richard Nuss
Richard G. Olmstead
Jeffrey M. Osborn
Virgil T. Parker

Yaffa L. Grossman
Jocelyn Hall
Judith Hanks
Gary L. Hannan
Clare Ann Hasenkampf
Marsha & Christopher Haufler
Donna Hazelwood
Leo J. Hickey
Jason Hilton
Ann Hirsch & Stefan Kirchanski
Hans R. Hoester
Joseph Hogg
Noel & Patricia Holmgren
Kent E. Holsinger
Raymond W. Holton
Marcus Hooker
Harry & Celia T. Horner
Tom Horton
Carol L. Hotton
Shing-Fan Huang
Francis M. Hueber
Bonnie L. Isaac
Rachel Schmidt Jabaily
Anna L. Jacobsen
Claudia L. Jolls
Cynthia S. Jones
Tracy Lynn Kahn
Dorothy Kaplan
Lee B. Kass
Kathleen H. Keeler
Sterling C. Keeley
Amanda Kenney
Robert A Klips
Olga R. Kopp
Suzanne Koptur
Jean D. Kreizinger

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

Peter Wilf
Joseph H. Williams
Carol Wilson & Clyde Calvin
M. F. Wojciechowski
Eckhard Wollenweber
Richard Lee Wurdack
Atsushi Yabe
Jun Yokoyama
Elizabeth A. Zimmer
Wendy B .Zomlefer

Andrew Stuart
Marshall & Sara D Sundberg
Jennifer A. Tate
Thomas N. Taylor
Edith L. Taylor
Irene Terry
Barbara Thiers
Rahmona A. Thompson
Bruce H. Tiffney
Lindsey K. Tuominen

Lowell E. Urbatsch
Mario Vallejo Marin
Paul Leszek Vincent
Andrea Wakefield
Don Waller
Megan Ward
Linda E. Watson
Cherie L. R. Wetzel
Elisabeth Wheeler
Richard Whitkus

Alligator Bayou is easily accessible off I-12 at Prairieville, just south of Baton

Rouge on the way to New Orleans. A short distance from the landing the bayou

expands into Cypress flats where a few old-growth trees, and numerous stumps

from logged trees emerge from a mat of water hyacinth. Scenes like this occur

throughout South Louisiana - - be sure to sign up for one of the field trips associated

with the annual meeting next summer. (photo by Marsh Sundberg)

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

plants is becoming ever more critical – whether we

are discussing ecosystems, fields, or single cells – it

is useful to begin discussion of points we can agree

on and put forward to policy-makers.
-Elizabeth A. Kellogg, President, Botanical Society

of America

Plant Science Research

Summit Final Report

The final report of the Plant Science

Research Summit, held in September 2011,

is now available at http://botany.org/

plantsciencebulletin/121011_final_PSummit_

report.pdf. The summit was convened by the

American Society of Plant Biologists, with the goal

of defining a set of common priorities for plant

science research. As described in the Plant Science

Bulletin (2012, 58: 1), the summit was attended by

three representatives of the BSA, then President-

elect Elizabeth Kellogg, Past-president Judy Skog,

and Treasurer Amy Litt. This summary document

represents the input of a broad set of plant biologists,

although as noted in my original report in PSB,

ecology and evolutionary biology were somewhat

under-represented. In fairness to the organizers,

the people who they originally invited to represent

those disciplines were unable to attend.

It is worth reading the document as a statement

of broad goals shared by many plant biologists. The

hope is to use this in efforts to generate funding

for plant research in its broadest sense. The first

paragraph of the Executive Summary reads:

“Now, more than ever, it is vital to increase public

and private support for plant science research

and recognize the critical need to invest in its

future and embrace its potential.” The four grand

challenges identified by the document are (1)

Ensure nourishment for all, now and in the future;

(2) Protect, enhance and illuminate the benefits of

nature; (3) Fuel the future; and (4) Be sustainable.

Much of the sort of science described in this

report fits into the concept of “use-inspired basic

research,” outlined by Donald Stokes in the book

Pasteur’s Quadrant (Brookings Institution Press,

1997). He observes that the linear view of a

continuum between basic and applied research is

too constraining. Instead he suggests that some

scientific studies may search for fundamental

understanding of nature, while working in areas

that may ultimately benefit humans.

Like all policy documents, the summary report

represents the views of a particular set of people at a

particular time and is likely to lead to other similar

documents in the future that highlight different

aspects of the plant science agenda. It is perhaps

worth recalling Ben Franklin’s famous statement

“We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall

all hang separately.” At a time when knowledge of

ASPB – BSA Core Concepts and

Learning Objectives in Plant

Biology for Undergraduates

The American Association for the Advancement

of Science, National Science Foundation (NSF),

and other stakeholders recently published a call

to transform undergraduate biology education,

titled Vision and Change (http://visionandchange.

org/finalreport). Major themes of Vision and

Change include teaching core concepts and

competencies, focusing on student-centered

learning, promoting campus-wide commitments

to change, and engaging the biology community in

implementation of change. The American Society

of Plant Biologists (ASPB) and Botanical Society

of America (BSA) were among the first societies

to become involved in Vision and Change. NSF

awarded ASPB a grant to host a workshop in 2011

to gather feedback from plant biologists on how

to put the Vision and Change recommendations

into practice. One of the major concerns that

emerged from this workshop was the lack of a

defined set of core concepts in plant biology that

undergraduates should learn. This lack results in

underrepresentation or misrepresentation of plants

in undergraduate curricula and misunderstanding

about the importance and unique functions of plants

and their broader contributions to understanding

biology (e.g., plants “don’t do much”; plants are

“only important for photosynthesis”; plants are “not

interesting” to study).

To address these concerns, a working group of

ASPB and BSA members was assembled: Kathleen

Archer (Trinity College), Erin Dolan (University of

Georgia), Roger Hangarter (Indiana University),

Ken Keegstra (Michigan State University), Judith

Skog (George Mason University), Susan Singer

(Carleton College), Neelima Sinha (UC Davis),

Anne Sylvester (University of Wyoming), and Sue

Wick (University of Minnesota). The working

group was tasked with generating a set of core

concepts that:

• outline what undergraduate biology majors

should learn about plants;

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• are consistent with themes from Vision and

Change and the new K-12 science education

framework;
• are the enduring, big ideas that explain what

makes plants distinct from other lineages of

organisms and describe the essential attributes

and life strategies of plants; and
• are broad and foundational in nature, and can

be divided further into multiple sub-concepts or

units of knowledge (e.g., learning objectives) that

are measurable.
For the purposes of this effort, plants were

defined as: eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms

with multicellular haploid and diploid stages in their

life cycle and protected diploid embryos.

ASPB and BSA members were invited to comment

on a draft of the core concepts, and their feedback

was used to generate the final version that follows.

The concepts are organized into the four life science

domains of the new framework for K-12 science

education developed by the National Academy of

Sciences Board on Science Education (http://www.

nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13165): (1) From

Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes,

(2) Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics,

(3) Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits,

and (4) Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity.

Each set of concepts begins with a description

of the foundational knowledge in the domain.

Individual concepts are followed by sample learning

objectives: what students could do to demonstrate

their understanding of the concept. ASPB and

BSA leadership urge all who teach undergraduate

biology students to use this document as a guide for

curricular design and instruction.

1. From Molecules to Organisms: Structures

and Processes. Plants are living organisms that

grow, reproduce, and die. Plants and their parts are

made up of cells, which contain DNA and other

molecules that support plant functions. Plants are

attached and do not move from place to place to

acquire resources for survival. Plants grow toward

resources and have specific structures, called

chloroplasts, which carry out the reactions of

photosynthesis. Using the energy captured from

sunlight, plants produce molecules to support their

own growth and development. Plants also take up

water and inorganic nutrients from their terrestrial

or aquatic environment. Plant cells are bounded

by cell walls that are essential for growth and

development of the plant body.

1A: Structure and Function. How do structures

of plants enable life functions?

• Plants growing in various environments

have a diversity of structures for acquiring and

retaining water, exchanging gases, optimizing

photosynthesis, and supporting growth and

reproduction.

»Learning objective (LO): Compare and

contrast the structures by which vascular

and non-vascular plants obtain and

retain water, allow for gas exchange for

photosynthesis, and allow for long-distance

internal transport of water.

»LO: Map onto a phylogenetic tree of

plants the locations where innovations for

acquiring water, retaining water, exchanging

gases, upright stature, and reproduction in

the absence of swimming sperm arose.

»LO: Analyze structural and anatomical

features that optimize photosynthesis under

various environmental conditions such as

shading, water deficit, or high temperature.

• Plants have carbohydrate-based cell walls that

serve diverse functions.

»LO: Contrast the primary cell wall

component of plants, fungi, and bacteria.

»LO: Analyze the roles of cellulose and cell

wall matrix components in support, growth,

and cell-cell recognition as well as protection

against pathogens.

• Plants have specialized structures and systems

for defense against disease and predation.

»LO: Categorize defense mechanisms into

structural, constitutive biochemical, and

induced biochemical responses, evaluating

the cost and benefits of each.

• Plants have conducting tissues that transport

water, carbohydrates, and nutrients through

both passive and active mechanisms.

»LO: Compare and contrast the long-distance

transport of carbohydrates with that of water

and nutrients in a plant.

»LO: Diagram the pathway of carbohydrate

transport from a source to a sink, indicating

where active transport is required.

• Some plants and plant parts are able to move.

»LO: Categorize plant structures and their

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particular features that facilitate dispersal of

the plant in the environment

»LO: Select a plant structure that is capable

of movement and analyze the features that

enable it to move.

1B: Growth and Development of Organisms.

How do plants grow and develop?

• Plants can reproduce sexually and asexually.

»LO: Categorize examples of asexual

reproduction based on the plant structures

involved.

»LO: Select a plant and diagram the

contributions of the gametophyte(s) to

sexual reproduction.

• Plants grow from single cells and retain

groups of undifferentiated and dividing cells

throughout their lives.

»LO: Support the claim that plants continue

to develop and differentiate new structures

after formation of a multicellular structure

by drawing and identifying regions of a plant

with persistent meristem activity.

»LO: Using examples, explain how shoots and

roots are repeatedly added to a plant through

meristem activity.

• Plant germ-line cells are established after

vegetative growth has started.

»LO: Explain when and where in the plant

meiosis occurs.

• The development of plant form is influenced

by external and internal cues.

»LO: Categorize internal and external cues

based on their effects on plant form.

»LO: Draw a diagram that represents the

effect of a specific wavelength of light

on plant form; include photoreceptors,

signal transduction, gene expression, and

morphological change in the diagram.

»LO: Draw a diagram that illustrates the effect

of gravity on plant form; include receptors,

signal transduction, gene expression, and

morphological change in the diagram.

»Plants produce and respond to hormones

that regulate growth and development.

»LO: Identify the categories of plant hormones

and provide examples of their effects on

growth and development.

»LO: Compare and contrast the production of

and response to a steroid hormone in a plant

and an animal.

• Cell expansion depends on biochemical and

biophysical processes, including wall loosening

and water pressure inside the cell.

»LO: Diagram how internal and external

cues integrate to contribute to mechanisms

of cell expansion.

1C: Organization of Matter and Energy Flow

in Organisms. How do plants obtain and use

matter and energy to live and grow?

• Plants capture light energy to assimilate

inorganic carbon dioxide into organic

compounds.

»LO: Create a diagram showing how

inorganic carbon is assimilated into organic

compounds in plants and overlay this with

the flow of energy through the plant.

• Plants take up and transport inorganic

materials from their surroundings.

»LO: Trace the path of movement of inorganic

nutrients from soil into the aboveground

part of the plant

»LO: Compare the roles of mycorrhizae and

root nodules in the uptake of inorganic

materials in plants.

»LO: Identify the two inorganic molecules

that are used to produce the majority of a

plant’s mass, and indicate their sources.

»LO: Explain how the availability of soil

microorganisms has supported or limited the

growth of economically important plants.

• Plants capture and use energy from sunlight.

Almost all other organisms on the planet eat

plants as a source of energy.

»LO: For a terrestrial ecosystem, analyze the

flow of energy among organisms.

• Plants photosynthesize and respire.

»LO: Explain why plants can grow in a closed

terrarium.

• Plants synthesize a wide variety of organic

compounds through diverse biochemical

pathways.

»LO: Choose a class of organic compounds

other than sugars and, in general terms,

explain the carbon and energy sources for

synthesis of these materials.

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1D: Information Processing. How do plants

detect, process, and interpret information from

the environment?

• Plants detect and respond to physical and

biological cues in their environment, including

light, water, gravity, biochemical, and mechanical

stimuli.

»LO: Construct a representation of a

molecular receptor for a physical or

biological signal that clearly shows how the

signal is detected and how information is

conveyed from the receptor to the plant cell.

• Signals transmitted through a plant can

induce changes in gene expression, protein

activity, and protein turnover.

»LO: Compare and contrast a signaling

pathway that leads to the activation of a

cytosolic enzyme and a pathway leading to

changes in gene expression.

• Plants can respond to stimuli over a broad

range of time scales.

»LO: Choose a stimulus that has an immediate

response in a plant and a stimulus that

results in a response days or weeks later;

compare and contrast the information

processing in the two examples.

• Plants perceive and respond to each other and

to other organisms in their environment.

»LO: Diagram how a signal from a plant is

perceived and acted upon by another plant.

»LO: Compare and contrast how a plant

detects, processes, and interprets information

from an herbivore and a pathogen.

»LO: Provide examples of how herbivory

alters plant growth.

2. Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and

Dynamics. Ecosystems are communities

of organisms and their nonliving physical

environment. Ecosystems are defined by complex

hierarchical networks of interactions among

individuals and populations, as well as interactions

between organisms and their environment. All

organisms in an ecosystem are linked through

energy flow and cycles of water, carbon, nitrogen,

and soil minerals. Energy enters the ecosystem

mostly through photosynthesis and biomass

production by plants. Other organisms obtain

matter and energy from the plants. Decomposers

act on dead organic matter, releasing carbon back

to the atmosphere and facilitating nutrient cycling

by converting nutrients stored in dead biomass

back to forms that can be reused. Ecosystems are

dynamic and changes in biotic and abiotic factors

affect their stability and resilience. Humans are part

of the biotic community and are having rapid effects

on the biotic and abiotic aspects of ecosystems. In

many cases, humans are placing profound stresses

on the Earth’s overall ecosystem to a point that

ecosystem resilience, sustainability, and services are

a major focus of concern.

2A: Interdependent Relationships in

Ecosystems. How do plants interact with the living

and non-living environment?

• Plants are the primary food and oxygen

producers on Earth.

»LO: Compare the relative contributions of

plants and another photosynthetic organisms

like lichens or terrestrial algae to production

of food and oxygen on land.

• Plants are foundational to large ecosystems.

»LO: Evaluate the statement that plants are

the foundation of terrestrial ecosystems.

• Plants live in close association and interact

with other organisms, including other plants,

animals, fungi, and microorganisms.

»LO: Chose an example of an interaction

between a plant and another organism and

elaborate on the ways in which they interact

to the benefit of one or both organisms.

• Plants produce metabolites that affect other

organisms in ecosystems.

»LO: Choose a plant metabolite that affects

other organisms in the ecosystem and

explain the mechanism of the effect.

• Plants have changed and continue to change

Earth systems.

»LO: Evaluate the geological evidence that

plants contributed to glaciation (i.e., ice

ages).

»LO: Contrast the general properties of

plants, soil, and fauna on Earth at the time

that plants first colonized dry land with the

general properties of those organisms today.

»LO: Analyze the progression of changes in

plants and other organisms that occur after

a volcanic eruption or a major wildfire.

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2B: Cycles of Matter and Energy Transfer in

Ecosystems. How do matter and energy move

through an ecosystem?

• Energy first enters ecosystems through

photosynthesis.

»LO: Evaluate the claim that energy first

enters the ecosystem through photosynthesis;

consider relative to chemosynthesis.

• Plants cycle oxygen and carbon dioxide

through photosynthesis and respiration.

»LO: Create a diagram that illustrates the

flow of oxygen and carbon dioxide through

photosynthesis and respiration in an

ecosystem.

• Plants cycle water in ecosystems through

photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration.

»LO: Diagram the flow of water through an

ecosystem, incorporating photosynthesis,

respiration, and transpiration.

• Plants are central to the global carbon cycle

through photosynthesis.

»LO: Estimate the impact of a reforestation

and/or deforestation project of 1 million

hectares on the global carbon cycle.

• Plants participate in cycling nitrogen and

other nutrients.

»LO: Evaluate the nitrogen runoff into

watersheds from fields of nitrogen-fixing

crops versus fields of crops fertilized with

inorganic nitrogen.

2C: Ecosystem Dynamics, Functioning, and

Resilience. What happens to ecosystems when the

environment changes?

• Resilience of ecosystems depends on the

diversity of plant species.

»LO: Evaluate a current research paper

on how plant diversity affects ecosystem

resiliency after a disturbance.

• Plant populations are affected by

environmental changes, which alter ecosystems.

»LO: Consider a situation in which

population size or distribution of plants is

altered due to changes in climate, herbivore

populations, or invasive species, and predict

how this might affect other aspects of the

ecosystem.

3. Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of

Traits. Like other organisms, plants use DNA to

store genetic information and encode proteins,

which underlie the plant’s traits. Genes containing

DNA are organized into chromosomes and variants

of a given gene are called alleles. Each cell of a plant

contains a complete set of chromosomes, and the

same genetic information. As in other organisms,

plants transmit their genetic information from

parent to offspring, and from parent cell to

daughter cell. Inheritance of chromosomes from

parent to offspring explains why offspring have

traits that resemble the traits of their parents.

Mutations also cause variation in traits, which may

be harmful, neutral, or occasionally advantageous

for an individual.

3A: Variation of Traits. Why do individuals of

the same species vary in how they look and behave?

• Some natural populations of plants vary

widely in their phenotypes.

»LO: Identify a trait in a natural population of

plants, then collect and analyze phenotypic

data to determine how much the trait varies.

• Gene expression in plants is controlled by

genetic and environmental cues.

»LO: Analyze data from an online repository

of gene expression data to determine how

genetic differences or environmental cues

affect patterns of gene expression.

»LO: Design and conduct an experiment to

compare the expression of a gene of interest

under different environmental conditions.

»LO: Predict differences in gene expression in

mutant versus wild-type plants based on the

function of the gene.

3B: Inheritance of Traits. How are

characteristics of one generation related to the

previous generation?

• Plants can exist in haploid, diploid, and

polyploid states.

»LO: Design an experiment to determine the

ploidy of a plant tissue.

• Plants vary in their reproductive strategies.

Some self-fertilize, which can lead to offspring

that are genetically similar. Others have

mechanisms to ensure transfer of gametes

between different plants, which results in novel

genetic combinations.

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»LO: Compare the genetic diversity of the

offspring of a plant that is reproducing

sexually versus asexually.

• Some plants can reproduce asexually,

producing offspring that are genetically identical

to each other and to the parent.

»LO: Compare the amount of genetic variation

in the offspring of a plant that self-fertilizes

and a plant that reproduces asexually.

• Some plants can hybridize within and

between species, which can result in novel traits

in the offspring.

»LO: Select an example of within species

hybridization (e.g., hybrid corn) and explain

why this can result in desirable agricultural

traits.

»LO: Diagram the flow of chromosomes from

plants of two different species that hybridize

to their offspring; construct an argument for

whether the offspring will reproduce.

»LO: Select a crop plant that is the result of

hybridization and subsequent polyploidy

(e.g., wheat or banana) and discuss how

polyploidy corresponds with important

agricultural traits.

4. Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity.

Like all organisms, plants evolved from a single

celled organism and continue to evolve. The fossil

record of plants and many characteristics of living

plants provide strong evidence for evolution.

For example, plants use the same genetic code as

other organisms, providing evidence for a single

origin of life. Like other eukaryotic organisms,

plants have mitochondria and a nuclear envelope.

Plants also have chloroplasts, which resulted

from the endosymbiosis between a eukaryotic

cell and a photosynthetic bacterium. Diversity

of plants is especially critical in the face of global

climate change; plants and other photosynthetic

organisms have the capacity to reverse increases in

atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. The important

roles that plants play in human life as food, feed,

fuel, fiber, shelter, and pharmaceuticals have shaped

human civilization. The evolution of plants is

affected by humans, and affects humans.

4A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and

Diversity. What evidence shows that different

species are related?

• Plants have many genes and gene families in

common with all other organisms.

»LO: Using gene trees, support the argument

that plants have many genes and gene

families in common with all other organisms.

• All plants have chloroplasts with similar

structure and pigment composition; this is the

result of a single endosymbiotic event between a

eukaryotic cell and an ancestral cyanobacterium.

»LO: Analyze the structural and biochemical

evidence for the claim that a single

endosymbiotic event between a eukaryotic

cell and a cyanobacterium was ancestral to

all chloroplasts, including chloroplasts in

algal groups.

»LO: Formulate an evolutionary hypothesis

that accounts for the both the similarities

and differences among the chloroplasts of red

algae, brown algae, green algae, and land

plants, including differences in the number

of membranes.

• Plants have multicellular haploid and

multicellular diploid stages in their life cycles.

»LO: Draw a generic plant life cycle indicating

the role of meiosis and mitosis in establishing

multicellular haploid and multicellular

diploid stages.

»LO: Contrast the relative size of the

multicellular haploid stage in mosses, ferns,

and angiosperms.

• DNA sequences have helped establish the

relationships among major plant clades and

between plants and other organisms.

»LO: Use a computational phylogenetic tool

and DNA sequences of one or more genes to

predict the evolutionary relationships among

major plant clades or between plants and

other organisms.

4B: Natural Selection. How does variation

among plants affect survival and reproduction?

• Diversity of organisms at the chromosome

and gene level can be generated in several

ways, including recombination, mutation,

hybridization, and polyploidy, resulting in

the variation underlying evolution by natural

selection.

»LO: Compare the relative contributions of

recombination, mutation, hybridization,

and polyploidy to plant diversity.

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»LO: Explain the biological constraints for

hybridization and polyploidy to successfully

increase plant diversity.

• Diversity among plants may be influenced by

factors such as epigenetics (i.e., structural rather

than sequence level changes in DNA) that affect

the way genes are expressed.

»LO: Explain how epigenetic phenomena

such as DNA methylation and histone

modification lead to phenotypic variation

among plants that are otherwise genetically

identical.

• Some plant species can survive a diverse and

changing environment. Others cannot, which

results in their extinction.

»LO: For various species that exhibit a range

of diversity, predict some possible outcomes

of expansion of their distribution due to

climate change.

»LO: If a new pathogen or herbivore is

introduced, predict possible outcomes for a

plant species, relative to its diversity.

4C: Adaptation. How does the environment

influence populations of plants over multiple

generations?

• Adaptation of plants to a variety of

environments on Earth has resulted in a

great diversity of structures and physiological

processes.

»LO: Categorize symbiotic relationships that

have adapted plants to life in a terrestrial

environment.

»LO: Compare strategies that have evolved

for population migration and dispersal

in mosses, ferns, gymnosperms, and

angiosperms.

»LO: Select and evaluate an adaptation in

plants for retaining water while facilitating

gas exchange.

»LO: For an aquatic plant, select, and evaluate

an adaptation for retaining gases needed for

photosynthesis.

»LO: Compare structures and their

modifications in desert plants from the

southwestern U.S. and South Africa.

4D: Biodiversity and Humans. What is

biodiversity, how do humans affect it, and how

does it affect humans?

• Diversity of plant species is important for the

long-term health of an ecosystem.

»LO: Analyze data from a recent paper on

ecosystem biodiversity and evaluate the

authors’ conclusions.

• Human activity has affected global plant

diversity, especially through the alteration of

habitats.

»LO: Using Long Term Ecological Research

(LTER) data sets, examine historical and

current biodiversity data for a particular

region and illustrate how the physical

environment and biodiversity have changed

as a result of human activity.

• Human selection has affected almost every

aspect of crop plants, including their structure,

reproduction, genetics, and adaptation.

»LO: For a given crop plant (corn, Brassica,

wheat, soy, potato, tomato, bean, banana,

etc.), compare its structure, reproduction,

genetics, and adaptation relative to its wild

ancestors.

»LO: Select a crop plant (e.g., corn, rice,

potato) and trace the evolutionary changes

that occurred through human domestication

of the wild relative.

»Agriculture shapes human populations,

including their size, distribution, and

cultures.

»LO: Compare the size, distribution, and

culture of a human population before and

during the introduction of agriculture.

»LO: Compare the size, distribution, and

culture of a human population as agriculture

became more sophisticated after 1900.

156

BSA Science Education

News and Notes

BSA Science Education News and Notes is a quarterly update about the BSA’s education efforts and the

broader education scene. We invite you to submit news items or ideas for future features. Contact: Claire

Hemingway, BSA Education Director, at chemingway@botany.org or Marshall Sundberg, PSB Editor, at

psb@botany.org.

Cross-Organization

Connections and Education

Opportunities

In this issue, we highlight a variety of efforts and

opportunities to advance education reform on the

national level. It is exciting to see involvement of

BSA members integral to many of these current

collaborations — thank you for your important

contributions. A number of the national initiatives

address the Vision and Change call to action

to transform undergraduate biology education

(http://visionandchange.org). Other efforts aim to

provide teaching and learning resources or to tackle

issues that have come to the attention of the biology

education community.

These education efforts will continue to be all the

richer with BSA members adding their botanical

education expertise! If you would like more

information about these, get in touch. Please also

let us know about the initiatives you are involved in

so we can share this information with the broader

community.

Digital Resource Discovery

and Life Discovery Conference

Collaboration

The Digital Resource Discovery Grant is a

collaboration among the Ecological Society of

America, Botanical Society of America, Society for

the Study of Evolution, Society for Economic Botany,

and other professional societies to support high-

quality resources in ecology, evolution, and plant

sciences. The inaugural conference Life Discovery

– Doing Science Education Conference will be held

March 15-16, 2013 in St. Paul, Minneapolis (http://

www.esa.org/ldc/). Beverly Brown served on the

planning committee for the 2013 conference and

advisory panel for the collaborative grant. Phil

Gibson has been nominated to serve on the 2014

Life Discovery Conference planning committee.

Understanding Evolution

Invitation to Partner

An invitation to partner with Understanding

Evolution (UE) (www.evolution.berkeley.edu)

was positively received by the BSA Education

Committee in June. Through this partnership, BSA

members’ expertise on plant evolution can expand

and enhance the resources that target undergraduate

Introductory Biology. New resources include an

interactive syllabus connecting an evolutionary

perspective to each topic, a journal club toolkit for

accessing the literature, an evolution misconception

diagnostic, an Evo Gallery for student projects,

etc. BSA members can actively contribute to UE

by serving as an External Advisor responsible for

reviewing resources for both science and pedagogy,

evaluating resources, or submitting teaching

resources for possible inclusion in the UE database.

New Free Resource for

Case-Based Learning

Are you looking for real-world contexts for

your students to explore plant biology and its

interdisciplinary connections? An outcome of the

PlantIT Careers, Cases and Collaborations project

(DRL 0737669) is the e-book Problem Solving with

Plants: Cases for the Classroom. Download your

free e-book at: http://www.myplantit.org.

Problem Solving with Plants: Cases for the Class-

room contains 14 cases adaptable from middle

school to college classes and helps for teaching with

investigative cases.

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

Core Concepts in

Undergraduate Plant Biology

BSA members Judy Skog and Susan Singer

joined with education leaders in the American

Society of Plant Biologists to draft core concepts in

undergraduate plant biology and circulated these

for community feedback. These core concepts will

be used to guide learning objectives for 200-level

plant biology units within the HHMI-funded

CourseSource initiative, which will be created by

partnerships with the National Academies Summer

Institutes and professional societies and made

available through a digital repository.

American Institute for

Biological Sciences (AIBS) and

Partner Activities

The American Institute of Biological Sciences

(AIBS), including board member Judy Skog and

AIBS education committee chair Muriel Poston,

is tackling the issue of credentialing faculty that

was raised this summer (e.g., someone with

a PhD in botany is not considered qualified

to teach introductory biology). AIBS will be

developing a position statement, and president of

HAPS Dee Silverthorn is also working with other

societies to develop guidelines for accrediting

organizations. We’ll continue to keep you informed

of developments on this important issue.

The AIBS Education Committee

is exploring the

feasibility of developing an initiative that would

support biology/life sciences department leaders.

Presentations and posters from the Introductory

Biology Project Summer Conference, led by

Gordon Uno, are now online at http://ibp.ou.edu.

Beth Schussler, Marsh Sundberg, and Susan

Singer were among the presenters. Several action

items emerged from the sessions on the role of

professional societies and introductory biology. A

group will be getting together to write an article

that features the many different successful models

to promote education within specific scientific

societies and ways that education organizations

can work with scientific societies. Two-year faculty

would like to be able to more easily become involved

in professional societies, and encouraged societies

to consider new ways of welcoming them into their

communities. There was a call for the development

of a common statement on the importance of

introductory biology.

The PULSE Vision and Change Fellows were

announced in early September. Susan Singer is a

PULSE mentor in this joint effort by NSF, HHMI,

and NIH to support Leadership Fellows. PULSE

welcomes community involvement to help develop

and implement systemic change in undergraduate

life science education (http://pulsecommunity.org).

The AIBS is participating in an initiative

funded by the U.S. Department of Education to

address the big sustainability questions in our

classrooms (understanding and engaging in

problem solving around societal issues such as

access to food and water, poverty reduction, and

cleaner energy supplies). More information about

this “Sustainability Improves Student Learning in

STEM” initiative is online: http://www.aacu.org/

pkal/disciplinarysocietypartnerships/sisl/index.

cfm.

Are you helping to educate for a more sustainable

future? Help impact hundreds of thousands of

students by infusing sustainability into textbooks

from major publishers and get paid for your

efforts. Textbook publishers have seen the demand

from educators and students for sustainability-

related materials in our discipline. We have

been asked by major textbook publishers (e.g.,

Cengage and McGraw-Hill) to gather names of

potential reviewers who can receive remuneration

for suggesting ideas about how to educate for a

sustainable future. These ideas will be used as

examples and themes in their textbook revisions.

If you are interested in educating for a sustainable

future by serving as a reviewer or subject matter

expert, please fill out a survey at https://www.

surveymonkey.com/s/JGN89ZD.

For more information contact Susan Musante at

smusante@aibs.org.

BSA at National Association

of Biology Teachers

A number of BSA members presented at

the recent NABT Professional Development

Conference in Dallas, TX. Gordon Uno led

sessions in an AP Biology Symposium. Stephen

Saupe presented a poster on using leaf morphology

to measure mean annual temperature in the 4-year

college poster session. Susan Singer and Gordon

Uno will present in the 2012 NABT Faculty

Professional Development Summit. Stanley Rice

presented on root foraging investigations for

classrooms. Gordon Uno and Marsh Sundberg

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

led a special Saturday workshop on Planting

Inquiry in Science Classrooms. In association with

the NABT meeting, a PlantingScience Focus Group

meeting of teachers and mentors was held to gain

stakeholder input.

The new student roadmap through a science project

planned for the revised PlantingScience website will

have helps for science practices doing science, record-

ing ideas in notebooks and sketches, presenting sci-

ence, and talking science. A graphic will be associated

with each main support, such as this one for Arguing

the Evidence.

PlantingScience Successes

and Next Steps

PlantingScience is in high gear reviewing lessons

learned from the DRK12 grant (DRL 0733280)

to build on successes and plan next steps. The

online platform is currently undergoing a complete

overhaul. Some of the new resources include a

student roadmap through a project and supports

for science practices in keeping with the Next

Generation Science Standards. An Inquiry Task

Force, including representatives from the American

Society of Plant Biologists, Ecological Society of

America, American Phytopathological Society,

was established in the spring as a mechanism for

partner societies to participate in new inquiry

development. For highlights of some successes

and collaborative efforts, see the American

Society for Plant Biologists’ September/October

2012 newsletter: http://newsletter.aspb.org/2012/

septoct12.pdf

Plant Blog on

Huffington Post

Chris Martine has taken his “Plants Are Cool,

Too!” efforts to the popular media site Huffington

Post. Don’t miss his blog:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-chris-martine/

leaf-fossils-preserved-leaves_b_1967427.html

159

Editors Choice Reviews

Plant Reproduction & the Pollen

Tube Journey – How the Females

Lure the Males

Lorbiecke, René. 2012. The American Biology

Teacher 74(8): 575-580.

Many of us have had students germinate pollen to

observe pollen tube growth on a slide, but Lorbiecke

has taken this one step further to demonstrate

chemotaxis as the pollen tube approaches an ovule

in this semi-in vivo assay. Rapid cycling Brassica

(Fast Plants) flowers are the research material and

the author provides detailed instructions, including

a diagrammatic flow-chart of the procedure, for

students to follow. Excellent macrophotographs

illustrate the results.

Do College Introductory Biology

Courses Increase Student Ecologi-

cal Literacy?

Cheruvelil, Kendra Spence and Xuemel Ye.

2012. Journal of College Science Teaching

42(2): 50-56.

Do prospective biology majors have greater

motivation for study and more positive perception

of environmental issues than non-majors? Yes. Do

they have better conceptual understanding? Not

so much. Are they more ecologically literate at the

end of the course? Not significantly. I’m sure these

results would be different in any of the courses we

teach. Or would they be? Actually, for most of us,

the results would probably be quite similar. Read

this article and set yourself a challenge.

160

Ethics CORE - Can You Help?

Together with the National Science Foundation,

Ethics CORE is working to give researchers and

professionals easier access to ethics information

through a new online portal. Ethics CORE (http://

nationalethicscenter.org) leverages its digital

platform to bring together a novel collection of

traditional library resources (e.g., encyclopedia,

research articles, etc.) with new media (e.g., blogs,

online communities and multimedia tools). The

goal is to create a virtual space where students,

faculty, researchers and practicing professionals

can seamlessly receive and share information on

everything from Authorship to Whistle-blowing.

As we seek to create a virtual hub for ethics

information, we would very much like to solicit

your input on the following questions:
1) What ethics resources (articles, documents,

books, websites, etc.) have been particularly useful

or relevant to researchers or practitioners in your

field?
2) Are there any case studies, particularly case

studies with positive outcomes, involving ethical

issues that might be interesting or useful to other

members of your discipline?
The Ethics CORE team can help you connect

with ethics resources useful to you. If you are

aware of any gaps in the ethics resources available

to members of your discipline, or if you need a

digital environment to serve a need particular

to your group, we would like to collaborate with

you. We also hope you consider Ethics CORE as a

mechanism for distributing your own related work.
-Megan Hayes Mahoney Visiting Digital Library

Research Librarian, Grainger Engineering Library,

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Email:

mohayes2@illinois.edu

-Gene Amberg, Ph.D Collaborations Director,

National Center for Professional & Research Ethics,

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Email:

gamberg@illinois.edu

BULLARD FELLOWSHIPS IN

FOREST RESEARCH

Each year Harvard University awards a limited

number of Bullard Fellowships to individuals in

biological, social, physical and political sciences to

promote advanced study, research or integration

of subjects pertaining to forested ecosystems.

The fellowships, which include stipends up to

$40,000, are intended to provide individuals in

mid-career with an opportunity to utilize the

resources and to interact with personnel in any

department within Harvard University in order

to develop their own scientific and professional

growth. In recent years Bullard Fellows have been

associated with the Harvard Forest, Department

of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and the

J. F. Kennedy School of Government and have

worked in areas of ecology, forest management,

policy and conservation. Fellowships are available

for periods ranging from six months to one year

after September 1. Applications from international

scientists, women and minorities are encouraged.

Fellowships are not intended for graduate students

or recent post-doctoral candidates. Information

and application instructions are available on the

Harvard Forest web site (http://harvardforest.fas.

harvard.edu). Annual deadline for applications is

February 1.

Position Available

Assistant/Associate/Full

Professor Bioeducation

Position # F99418

Job Summary:

The position is for an Assistant Professor (tenure

track), Associate Professor (tenure track or tenure

eligible), or Full Professor (tenure eligible) nine-

month appointment with a possible three months

of summer support for first three years. We are

seeking a colleague to contribute to our unique

PhD program in Biological Education. Preference

will not be given to a particular rank; all applicants

will be judged in accordance with their years of

experience. We seek a candidate with a Doctorate,

with research experience in teaching and learning

at the postsecondary level, and expertise in at least

one biology content area sufficient to add to and

ANNOUNCEMENTS

161

Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

• Teaching experience at the university level
• Ability to teach other courses in areas of need

(e.g., molecular biology, general biology, etc.)

Salary and Benefits:

Salary and rank is commensurate with

qualifications and experience. Benefits available

include health, life, and dental insurance, as well as a

selection of several defined contribution retirement

programs. Dependents and spouses of UNC

employees who are employed as 0.5 FTE or above

are entitled to and eligible for Dependent Tuition

Grants. These tuition grants will cover in-state

tuition charges. Further requirements may exist.

Other benefits may be available based on position.

The position is a nine-month appointment with

a possible additional three months of summer

support provided by the Winchester Distinguished

Professorship Endowment for the first three years

to help the faculty member establish a productive

research agenda.

Requested Start Date: August 19, 2013

Application Materials, Contact,

and Application Deadline:

Screening of applications will begin on

December 3, 2012 and will continue until the

position is filled. Interested persons should apply

online at https://careers.unco.edu and select “View/

Apply for Faculty Positions” then choose “Assistant/

Associate/Full Professor – BioEducation.”

Application documents to be submitted online are

a letter of application/cover letter, a curriculum

vitae, and the names and contact information of at

least three references. In addition to the material

provided online, please send unofficial or official

copies of all undergraduate and graduate school

transcripts, a statement of research interests, a

statement of teaching philosophy, a list of courses

you would like to teach, and copies of published

original research articles to: Cynthia Budde, School

of Biological Sciences, Ross Hall, Box 92, University

of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639. Tel:

970-351-2921. email: cynthia.budde@unco.edu.

For questions, contact Rob Reinsvold, Chair of the

search committee, at robert.reinsvold@unco.edu.

Additional Requirements:

Satisfactory completion of a background check,

educational check, and authorization to work in the

United States is required after a conditional offer of

collaborate with current expertise in the school.

The job duties include: teaching undergraduate

lectures and laboratories in biology content area

and graduate courses in Bioeducation and Biology;

training graduate students emphasizing biological

education research topics at the postsecondary

level of teaching and learning; providing service

for the school, college, university, and community;

conducting research in biological education;

applying for grants; and publishing original

research results.

Minimum Qualifications:

Doctorate (Ph.D. or Ed.D.) in Biology or

Science Education (or closely related field) with

demonstrated experience in Biological Education

Research:

• Evidence or potential for excellence in

teaching
• Demonstrated research and publication

record in the area of teaching and learning
• Potential or past success securing external

funding
• Ability to teach graduate courses in

bioeducation topics and educational research

techniques
• Ability to teach undergraduate courses in

some biology topic(s) that complements current

expertise in the school
• Potential or past experience in supervising

research students
Preferred Qualifications:
• Demonstrated pedagogical research at the

collegiate level of teaching and learning
• Ability to provide leadership with the

pedagogical aspect of our Ph.D. program in

Biological Education

162

Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

employment has been made. Original transcripts

must be submitted at least one (1) month before the

start date.

Location and Environment:

The University of Northern Colorado is a

Doctoral/Research University enrolling 12,000+

graduate and undergraduate students. The

university, founded in 1889, is located in Greeley,

Colorado, which has a growing population of

90,000 and is situated an hour north of Denver

and 30 miles east of the Rocky Mountains. The

School of Biological Sciences currently has 18 full

time faculty members, 40 graduate students (MS,

MBS, and PhD), and 450 undergraduate majors.

The unique Ph.D. program in Biological Education

specializes in training biologists to be experts in

their disciplines and outstanding college biology

teachers. This degree program allows the student to

choose between an emphasis on the biology content

or an emphasis on biology pedagogy. Another

strength is our long tradition of cooperative

interactions between faculty of the Sciences and

Education. Further information about UNC and

the City of Greeley is available at http://www.unco.edu.

Additional Information:

This position is contingent on funding from the

Colorado State Legislature, approval by the Board of

Trustees, and subject to the policies and regulations

of the University of Northern Colorado. Federal

regulations require that the University retain all

documents submitted by applicants. Materials will

not be returned or copied for applicants.

The University of Northern Colorado is an equal

opportunity/affirmative action institution that

does not discriminate on the basis of race, color,

national origin, sex, age, disability, creed, religion,

sexual orientation or veteran status. For more

information or issues of equity or fairness or claims

of discrimination contact the UNC AA/EEO/Title

IX Officer at UNC Human Resource Services,

Campus Box 54, Carter Hall 2002, Greeley, CO

80639, or call 970-351-2718.

Angiosperm Origins—

Monocots First?

The origin of angiosperms continues to be an

unresolved issue, but has always been framed

within the paradigm of seed plant monophyly. This

is a parsimonious view, based on the improbability

that both seed-and-pollination and cambium-and-

woody growth are likely to have evolved more

than once. A Monocots-First scenario denies both

assumptions and claims that angiosperms arose

directly from a pteridophytic base and built their

seeds independently of all other living seed plants.

The cambium and woody growth developed later,

during the diversification of early dicots.

A Monocots-First scenario is both falsifiable

and has considerable explanatory power. The

similarity of early embryology in monocots and

pteridophytes is either a recent “reversion” or a deep

symplesiomorphy. Genomics of early development

should be able to verify which is correct. Because a

tubular cambium and woody growth came later—

in the diversification of early dicots—it can explain

“Darwin’s abominable mystery.” Woody growth

allowed more complex branching—a platform for

the evolution of smaller leaves that became both

petiolate and deciduous. These, in turn, fossilize

much more readily than herbaceous growth and

produced the “sudden appearance” that troubled

Darwin. Please take a look at this very different

Perspective: http://fieldmuseum.org/explore/

angiosperm-origins-monocots-first-scenario.
–William Burger, Department of Botany, Field Mu-

seum (e-mail: wburger@fieldmuseum.org)

Funding for Plant

Conservation and Native Plant

Materials Programs

Dear Plant Conservation Alliance Colleagues,

I am writing with some tentatively good news as

well as with a request.

As you know, the Bureau of Land Management

(BLM) has supported a modest native plant

materials program for a number of years. This

program, like many federal activities, has been

in jeopardy of reduced funding in the current

budgetary climate.

In 2011 we were successful in obtaining

language as part of the appropriations bill for the

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

Department of the Interior that instructed the BLM

to maintain a robust native plant program. This

language was secured, in part, through the efforts

of the Plant Conservation Alliance NGO members

who communicated its importance to their elected

officials.

Earlier this year, we had some additional success

when the report that accompanied the House

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies

Appropriation Bill for FY 2013, included the

following language:

“Native Plant Program. The Committee is

supportive of the Bureau of Land Management’s

existing plant conservation and native plant

materials program and expects the Bureau to

continue the program through resources provided

under various accounts. The Committee directs

the threatened and endangered species account to

contribute to this program.”

These two sentences express the support of the

Committee for native plant programs and instruct

the Bureau of Land Management to maintain the

contribution to the program that comes through

the funding line item for the Threatened and

Endangered Species account. It is imperative that

elected officials, committee staff members and

agency personnel are repeatedly reminded of the

importance of funding for endangered and native

plant materials. If we don’t speak up for plants, no

one else will.

This brings me to my request: Please take a

minute to send a message to your elected officials

regarding the importance of protecting funding

for plant materials and native plant programs.

Following is some suggested text:

Dear _________:

On behalf of (organization), I am contacting you

to ask for your help in supporting funding for plant

conservation and native plant materials programs

through the Bureau of Land Management.

The United States has inherited a rich legacy of

biodiversity, with native plants delivering essential

ecosystem services such as waste purification,

climate modulation and habitat for myriad wildlife

and fish services across the United States. Native

plant communities are threatened by unsustainable

urban and rural development, expanding energy

production, the spread of invasive species, and

pollution. The United States needs to ensure that

native plant communities are protected and that

future generations benefit from the same legacy

that we have inherited.

The work of the Bureau of Land Management

(BLM) is critical to these efforts. Funding

provided through BLM is critical to these efforts.

Funding provided through BLM accounts for Land

Resources, Wildlife & Fisheries Management and

Threatened and Endangered Species supports work

on native plants, rare plants and addresses problems

posed by invasive plant species. These funds not

only protect biodiversity, but also contribute to

generating more science competency and green

jobs—new scientists, ecologists and land managers.

As Congress works to finalize the Department

of Interior’s 2013 funding, please ensure that

resources provided for plant activities is included

at no less that the FY12 level. We suggest including

the following language with the Bureau of Land

Management Appropriation:

“Native Plant Program. The Committee is

supportive of the Bureau of Land Management’s

existing plant conservation and native plant

materials program and expects the Bureau to

continue the program through resources provided

under various accounts. The Committee directs

the threatened and endangered species account to

contribute to this program.”

Contacting Congress:

You can find your Senators by visiting www.

senate.gov and following the “Find your Senators”

dropdown in the upper right corner. Or, if you

want to call and know the name of your Senator,

you can call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-

3121 and ask to be connected to their office.

You can find your Representatives by visiting

www.house.gov and entering your service area zip

code(s) in the upper left corner. Or if you know

the name of your Representative, you can call the

Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to

be connected to his or her office. Once connected

to the Congressional office, please ask for the staff

handling appropriations for the Department of

Interior.
Sophia Siskel, President & CEO, Chicago Botanic

Garden, www.chicagobotanic.org. ssiskel@chica-

gobotanic.org, 847-835-8351

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

Hunt Institute Receives

National Film Preservation

Foundation Grant

(PITTSBURGH, PA)—Hunt Institute for

Botanical Documentation has been awarded

preservation project funding from the National

Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) to preserve

Walter Hodge’s film of Peru in the 1940s. The award

will be used to clean, conserve and make both a film

copy for preservation and a digital copy for access.

Walter Henricks Hodge began his botanical

career in 1934 as a graduate teaching assistant at

Massachusetts State College. Eventually his resume

included time on the faculties of the University

of Massachusetts, the Universidad Nacional de

Colombia and Harvard University and service

in governmental and scientific organizations,

including the United States Department of

Agriculture and the National Science Foundation.

Hodge traveled extensively, including periods in

the West Indies, Peru, Colombia and Japan, which

provided him with ample opportunities to indulge

his interest in photography. His photographic work

illustrates practical and economic uses of plants

throughout the world and records not only a large

variety of plant species, but also informal portraits

of botanists he encountered in his travels. Hodge’s

still photographs have been published in various

United States Department of Agriculture bulletins,

National Geographic and the Christian Science

Monitor. From 1943 to 1945 he was a botanist for

the United States Office of Economic Warfare’s

Cinchona Mission in Lima, Peru, and the film we

will preserve is a result of this assignment.

The purpose of the Cinchona Mission was to

find reliable alternate sources of cinchona bark

for the wartime production of quinine. The

footage is a unique collection of material relating

not only to Hodge’s botanical mission, but also

to his interests in the local culture and customs

of Peru. Sequences include shots of local scenery

(including Macchu Picchu) and anthropologically

interesting material relating to native lives and

customs (including sequences in local street

markets and at a bullfight). Hodge’s wife Barbara

(1913–2009) traveled with him and can frequently

be seen in the footage, occasionally acting as a

model for close studies of textiles and jewelry.

Finally, Hodge did not neglect his central work

assignment; he included a sequence covering the

entire process of the harvesting and preparation

of cinchona bark. The film quality and color are

Walter Hendricks Hodge with his personal Cine-

Kodak Special 16mm camera, which was used

to create his film of Peru that will be preserved

with the grant funds, 1944, Miraflores, Lima

Peru, HI Archives portrait no. 94. Photo by

Barbara Taylor Hodge. (c 2012 Hunt Institute for

excellent, and it is our feeling that this material will

interest botanists, anthropologists and historians.

Hunt Institute has had a long relationship with

Hodge, which began when Founding Director

George H. M. Lawrence (1910–1978) proposed that

Hodge take informal portraits of botanists. Over

the years Hodge has sold or donated thousands of

photographs to the Hunt Institute Archives. We

also hold 27 linear feet of Hodge’s professional and

personal correspondence and research.

The NFPF grant application process was

undertaken by Hunt Institute Archivist Angela L.

Todd with the assistance of Jeffrey A. Hinkelman,

video collection manager and course instructor

at Carnegie Mellon’s University Libraries, and

Hannah Rosen, preservation programs specialist at

Preservation Technologies in Cranberry Township,

Pennsylvania.

The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation,

a research division of Carnegie Mellon University,

specializes in the history of botany and all aspects of

plant science and serves the international scientific

community through research and documentation.

To this end, the Institute acquires and maintains

authoritative collections of books, plant images,

manuscripts, portraits and data files, and provides

publications and other modes of information

service. The Institute meets the reference needs of

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

botanists, biologists, historians, conservationists,

librarians, bibliographers and the public at large,

especially those concerned with any aspect of the

North American flora.

Hunt Institute was dedicated in 1961 as the

Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt Botanical Library,

an international center for bibliographical

research and service in the interests of botany

and horticulture, as well as a center for the study

of all aspects of the history of the plant sciences.

By 1971 the Library’s activities had so diversified

that the name was changed to Hunt Institute for

Botanical Documentation. Growth in collections

and research projects led to the establishment

of four programmatic departments: Archives,

Art, Bibliography and the Library. The current

collections include approximately 30,150 book and

serial titles; 29,000+ portraits; 29,270 watercolors,

drawings and prints; 243,000+ data files; and

2,000 autograph letters and manuscripts. The

Archives specializes in biographical information

about, portraits of and handwriting samples

from scientists, illustrators and all others in the

plant sciences. The Archives is a repository of

alternate resort and as such has collected over 300

institutional and individual archival collections

that may not have otherwise found an easy fit at

another institution. Including artworks dating from

the Renaissance, the Art Department’s collection

now focuses on contemporary botanical art and

illustration, where the coverage is unmatched. The

Art Department organizes and stages exhibitions,

including the triennial International Exhibition

of Botanical Art & Illustration. The Bibliography

Department maintains comprehensive data files on

the history and bibliography of botanical literature.

Known for its collection of historical works on

botany dating from the late 1400s to the present, the

Library’s collection focuses on the development of

botany as a science and also includes herbals (eight

are incunabula), gardening manuals and florilegia,

many of them pre-Linnaean. Modern taxonomic

monographs, floristic works and serials as well as

selected works in medical botany, economic botany,

landscape architecture and a number of other

plant-related topics are also represented.

Impulsive micromanagers

help plants to adapt, survive

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Soil microbes are

impulsive. So much so that they help plants face the

challenges of a rapidly changing climate.

Jen Lau and Jay Lennon, Michigan State University

biologists, studied how plants and microbes work

together to help plants survive the effects of global

changes, such as increased atmospheric CO

concentrations, warmer temperatures and altered

precipitation patterns. The results, appearing in the

current issue of the Proceedings of the National

Academy of Sciences, showed that microbes in the

ground not only interact with plants, but they also

prompt them to respond to environmental changes.

“We found that these changes in the plants

happen primarily because of what global changes

do to the below ground microbes rather than the

plant itself,” said Lau, who works at MSU’s Kellogg

Biological Station. “Drought stress affects microbes,

and they, in turn, drive plants to flower earlier and

help plants grow and reproduce when faced with

drought.”

The team conducted a multi-generational

experiment that manipulated environmental

factors above and below ground while paying close

attention to the interaction between the plants

and microbes in the soil. Close examination of

this particle partnership revealed some interesting

results.

Researchers already knew that drought stress

reduced plant growth and altered their life cycle.

The team was surprised, though, to observe that the

plants were slow to evolve and, instead, microbes

did most of the work of helping plants survive in

new, drier environments. This happened because

the microbes were quick to adapt to the changing

environment.

This newfound aspect of their relationship

gives plants an additional strategy for survival,

Lau said. “When faced with environmental

change plants may not be limited to traditional

‘adapt or migrate’ strategies,” she said. “Instead,

they may also benefit from a third approach—

interacting with complementary species such

as the diverse microbes found in the soil.”

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

“If you look at engineering materials, we have

lots of different types, thousands of materials that

have more or less the same range of properties as

plants,” Gibson says. “But here the plants are, doing

it by arranging just four basic constituents. So

maybe there’s something you can learn about the

design of engineered materials.”

A paper detailing Gibson’s findings has been

published this month in the Journal of the Royal

Society Interface.

To Gibson, a cell wall’s components bear a close

resemblance to certain manmade materials. For

example, cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin can

be as stiff and strong as manufactured polymers.

A plant’s cellular arrangement can also have

engineering parallels: cells in woods, for instance,

are aligned, similar to engineering honeycombs,

while polyhedral cell configurations, such as those

found in apples, resemble some industrial foams.

To explore plants’ natural mechanics, Gibson

focused on three main plant materials: woods,

such as cedar and oak; parenchyma cells, which are

found in fruits and root vegetables; and arborescent

palm stems, such as coconut trees. She compiled

data from her own and other groups’ experiments

and analyzed two main mechanical properties in

each plant: stiffness and strength.

Among all plants, Gibson observed wide variety

in both properties. Fruits and vegetables such as

apples and potatoes were the least stiff, while the

densest palms were 100,000 times stiffer. Likewise,

apples and potatoes fell on the lower end of the

strength scale, while palms were 1,000 times

stronger

“There are plants with properties over that

whole range,” Gibson says. “So it’s not like

potatoes are down here, and wood is over there,

and there’s nothing in between. There are plants

with properties spanning that whole huge range.

And it’s interesting how the plants do that.”

It turns out the large range in stiffness and

strength stems from an intricate combination of

plant microstructures: the composition of the

cell wall, the number of layers in the cell wall, the

arrangement of cellulose fibers in those layers, and

how much space the cell wall takes up

In trees such as maples and oaks, cells grow and

multiply in the cambium layer, just below the bark,

increasing the diameter of the trees. The cell walls

in wood are composed of a primary layer with

Jen Lau, MSU biologist studied how plants and mi-

crobes work together to help plants survive the effects

of global changes. Photo courtesy of MSU.

Lau and Lennon’s research is funded in part by

MSU AgBioResearch.
Contact: Layne Cameron, Media

Communications, Office: (517) 353-8819, Layne.

Cameron@cabs.msu.edu; Jen Lau, Kellogg

Biological Station, Office: (269) 671-5117, jenlau@</a>

msu.edu

Plants exhibit a wide range

of mechanical properties,

engineers find

Biological structures may help

engineers design new materials.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — From an engineer’s

perspective, plants such as palm trees, bamboo,

maples and even potatoes are examples of precise

engineering on a microscopic scale. Like wooden

beams reinforcing a house, cell walls make up the

structural supports of all plants. Depending on how

the cell walls are arranged, and what they are made

of, a plant can be as flimsy as a reed, or as sturdy

as an oak.

An MIT researcher has compiled data on the

microstructures of a number of different plants,

from apples and potatoes to willow and spruce

trees, and has found that plants exhibit an enormous

range of mechanical properties, depending on the

arrangement of a cell wall’s four main building

blocks: cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin and pectin.

Lorna Gibson, the Matoula S. Salapatas Professor

of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT, says

understanding plants’ microscopic organization

may help engineers design new, bio-inspired

materials.

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

cellulose fibers randomly spread throughout it.

Three secondary layers lie underneath, each with

varying compositions of lignin and cellulose that

wind helically through each layer.

Taken together, the cell walls occupy a large

portion of a cell, providing structural support.

The cells in woods are organized in a honeycomb

pattern — a geometric arrangement that gives

wood its stiffness and strength.

Parenchyma cells, found in fruits and root

vegetables, are much less stiff and strong than

wood. The cell walls of apples, potatoes and carrots

are much thinner than in wood cells, and made up

of only one layer. Cellulose fibers run randomly

throughout this layer, reinforcing a matrix of

hemicellulose and pectin. Parenchyma cells have

no lignin; combined with their thin walls and

the random arrangement of their cellulose fibers,

Gibson says, this may explain their cell walls’

low stiffness. The cells in each plant are densely

packed together, similar to industrial foams used in

mattresses and packaging.

Unlike woody trees that grow in diameter

over time, the stems of arborescent palms such

as coconut trees maintain similar diameters

throughout their lifetimes. Instead, as the stem

grows taller, palms support this extra weight by

increasing the thickness of their cell walls. A cell

wall’s thickness depends on where it is along a

given palm stem: Cell walls are thicker at the base

and periphery of stems, where bending stresses are

greatest.

Gibson sees plant mechanics as a valuable

resource for engineers designing new materials.

For instance, she says, researchers have developed a

wide array of materials, from soft elastomers to stiff,

strong alloys. Carbon nanotubes have been used to

reinforce composite materials, and engineers have

made honeycomb-patterned materials with cells

as small as a few millimeters wide. But researchers

have been unable to fabricate cellular composite

materials with the level of control that plants have

perfected.

“Plants are multifunctional,” Gibson says. “They

have to satisfy a number of requirements: mechanical

ones, but also growth, surface area for sunlight and

transport of fluids. The microstructures plants have

developed satisfy all these requirements. With the

development of nanotechnology, I think there is

potential to develop multifunctional engineering

materials inspired by plant microstructures..”

Karl Niklas, a professor of plant biology at

Cornell University, says Gibson’s engineering

parallels are fitting. Plants, in a way, he says, are

“largely structural things … chemical factories that

are architecturally arranged.”

“Plants on Earth have evolved over three-and-a-

half billion years, and that is a giant evolutionary

experiment of trial and error, because the things

that don’t work are extinct, and the things that do

work are more abundant,” Niklas says. “We can

learn things from nature and apply it to construct

better panel boards, styrofoams and photovoltaics

that will help society.”

Triage for plants: NYBG

scientists develop and test

rapid species conservation

assessment technique

To speed up the process of identifying threatened

and endangered plant species, a team of New

York Botanical Garden scientists has developed a

streamlined method for evaluating the conservation

status of large numbers of plant species, using

information from plant research collections and

Geographic Information Systems technology.

Faced with such threats as deforestation,

climate change, and invasive species, a significant

proportion of the world’s plant species are

commonly believed to be in serious decline and

possibly headed toward extinction. For government

officials, non-governmental organizations, and

anyone working to preserve biodiversity, knowing

which species are most at risk is a critical piece of

information, but the conservation status of only

a fraction of the world’s plant species has been

determined.

The rapid assessment method developed by

Botanical Garden scientists uses the geographic

range of a species as an indicator of its vulnerability.

Sorting through thousands of species, the

process identifies which ones are widespread in

a region—and thus not in any immediate risk—

and which have restricted ranges, making them

more susceptible to extinction when faced with

environmental problems.

“The lack of a comprehensive list of threatened

and endangered species is one of the greatest

impediments to the effort to preserve plant

biodiversity,” said James S. Miller, Ph.D., the

Garden’s Dean and Vice President for Science

and the lead author of the paper that outlines

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

the method and the results when it was tested on

Puerto Rico’s native plant species. “Having a more

efficient system for assessing threats means that we

can quickly focus conservation efforts on priority

areas and species that need the most attention.”

Using the Garden’s streamlined assessment

process could make it possible for the conservation

community to meet a key target of the Global

Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which

calls for an assessment of the conservation status

of all known plant species by 2020. (The GSPC is

a product of the 1992 Convention on Biological

Diversity, an international treaty that calls for

the conservation and sustainable use of Earth’s

biodiversity.)

Currently, the standard conservation assessment

method is the one created by the International

Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for its

Red List, which since 1994 has used a scientifically

rigorous, multicriteria process that assigns a species

to such categories as “extinct,” “least concern,”

“endangered,” and “critically endangered.”

Red List assessments have been completed for

large groups of animal species—birds, mammals,

and amphibians—but so far, fewer than 15,000

plant species have been evaluated under the Red

List process, in part because the procedure requires

more data than is readily available for many species.

According to Dr. Miller, there are approximately

300,000 known plant species, but many more

remain to be discovered.

In designing a simpler process for evaluating

plant species, Dr. Miller and his colleagues decided

to assign species to only two categories: “At Risk”

or “Not at Risk.” The key criterion for determining

a species’ status was the size of its geographical

range, or extent of occurrence (EOO). Under one

of IUCN’s criteria, a species with an EOO of more

than 20,000 square kilometers (about 7,700 square

miles, slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey)

is considered not threatened, so that became the

cutoff for determining whether a species would be

categorized as At Risk or Not At Risk.

The Garden’s scientists tested their approach by

evaluating the 2,025 species of seed plants native to

Puerto Rico, which was chosen because its plants

are well documented in research collections. Data

for the study came from the Global Biodiversity

Information Facility, an international, open-access

resource, and from the Garden’s C.V. Starr Virtual

Herbarium, a repository of digitized information

about more than 1.6 million plant specimens.

As described in the team’s paper in a recent

issue of the scientific journal Biodiversity and

Conservation, the assessment consisted of two

stages. An initial evaluation of the plant data

determined that 1,476 species had ranges of more

than 20,000 square kilometers and were classified as

Not at Risk. Focusing on the remaining 549 species,

the Garden scientists added more precise latitude

and longitude references for the locations where

many of the species samples had been collected.

After recalculating their ranges, the team was able

to determine that 90 additional species could be

categorized as Not at Risk.

That means, however, that 459 species, or 23

percent of Puerto Rico’s flora, should be considered

At Risk. The analysis of more than 2,000 species

took less than four months.

To test the method’s reliability, the Garden

scientists compared their results with the Red List,

which has assessed only 77 species of Puerto Rican

seed plants, assigning 53 to threatened categories.

The Garden’s rapid assessment process categorized

47 of the 53 species on the Red List as At Risk.

In addition to Dr. Miller, the Garden team

consisted of Brian Boom, Ph.D., Director of the

Garden’s Caribbean Biodiversity Program; Holly

A. Porter-Morgan, Ph.D.; Hannah Stevens; James

Fleming; and Micah Gensler.

The Biodiversity and Conservation paper also

describes a second rapid assessment method

developed by the Smithsonian Institution, which

categorized 367 species as At Risk. It overlapped

with the Red List for 42 out of 53 species.

Beyond identifying a broad range of threatened

species, the two methods could serve as valuable

planning aids, the authors conclude. “The tools used

to conduct these analyses can also map distributions

of ‘At Risk’ species and identify specific geographic

places where threatened plants are concentrated,”

they write. “The places thus identified may be

considered priority areas for conservation and

possible candidate areas for protected status.”

169

Reports and Reviews

Developmental and Structural

Floral Diagrams. An Aid to Under-

standing Flower Morphology and

Evolution

Louis P. Ronse de Craene.

2010. ISBN 978-0-521-72945-1

Paperback, $63.00 (£37.00); 441 pp.

Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,

England

Making floral diagrams—diagrams that show

the spatial relationship of the various parts of the

flower—is an excellent way for student, teacher,

and researcher alike to understand how a flower is

put together. However, it is somewhat of a lost skill,

and Ronse de Craene rectifies this in this profusely

illustrated book. The various parts of a flower are

discussed in an introductory chapter, and then we

turn to a justification for making floral diagrams;

a brief introduction to the floral diagrams follows.

(Keep a bookmark in p. 52, where the symbols used

in the diagrams are explained.) A brief statement

of the systematic significance of floral diagrams

follows, which he returns to in the conclusion,

and a glossary and two indices are also included.

The bulk of the book consists of floral diagrams of

over 150 families. There is sometimes more than

one example per family, and always discussion

explaining the diagrams to put them in the general

context of the floral variation in the family to

which they belong. Floral formulae are given for

each species illustrated, as well as a general floral

formula for the family as a whole.

The classic study that uses floral diagrams is A. W.

Eichler’s Blütendiagramme Konstruiert und Erläutert

of 1875-78, which has been digitized. Ronse de

Craene’s diagrams are much more elaborate that

those of Eichler, sometimes showing relationships

between parts at different levels in the flower, or

at different times during development. Indeed, as

he claims in the introduction, “the information

contained in floral diagrams is potentially immense

and replaces complex descriptions.” Although

a vast amount of information is summarized in

individual diagrams, the typographic result can be

like a Rorschach inkblot. However, if floral diagrams

cannot replace text, they are still an invaluable aid

in understanding the relationships between parts.
The book is generally clearly written, although some

terms are confusing. Members of the important

positional term pairs ventral/dorsal, adaxial/

abaxial, and posterior/anterior seem to be used

randomly and are not even all in the glossary (but see

p. 53); the term pherophyll is sometimes mentioned,

but does no “work” at all. On the other hand, Ronse

de Craene reasonably opts to use the term disc for

some nectaries; if its use were precluded because it

referred to non-homologous structures (whatever

that might mean), the botanical lexicon would have

to be expanded drastically to cope.
A few points I noted as I read through the book:

Perianth members are distinguished in the

diagrams by their appearance; even if the perianth

is biseriate, no convention is used to distinguish

between the two whorls. Rather surprisingly, all the

perianth members of Symphonia and of Calycanthus

are shown as being sepaloid. The flowers of families

like Taccaceae, Hydrocharitaceae, and Araceae

Developmental and Structural

Floral Diagrams. An Aid to Understanding Flower Morphology and Evolution ..........169

Physiological

Plant Metabolomics. Methods and Protocols. ...............................................................170

Systematics

Flora of Tropical East Africa: Solanaceae .................................................................... 172

Flora Zambesiaca, 12(1) Araceae (including Lemnaceae) .............................................173

Sarraceniaceae of the Americas ..................................................................................... 173

Tropical Plant Collecting: From the Field to the Internet...............................................175

Aldrovanda: The Waterwheel Plant. ...............................................................................176

170

Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

are drawn with the odd member of outer whorl

in the adaxial position, the unusual position for

monocots, but this is not discussed in the text.

Galphimia is drawn with the only nectary glands

of the flower being adaxial in position and on the

bracteoles/prophylls, although in G. brasiliensis,

there may be sepal glands as well, and both secrete

oils (Castro et al., 2001, not cited).
Explicating inflorescence morphology is not a

major goal of this book. However, in families

such as Smilacaceae, Myrtaceae, Myristicaceae,

Amborellaceae, Ranunculaceae, and Calycanthaceae,

“bract” structures appear in odd places in the diagrams,

or different flowers in the one inflorescence are shown

with different orientations. Ronse de Craene refers

to, but does not explain, European and American

traditions in the use of floral formulae. As with

the floral diagrams, the general floral formulae for

families can be complex and difficult to understand

readily. Recent efforts to make such formulae more

widely used (Prenner et al., 2010) have tended

toward the same result; less can be better. And,

although this was probably an editorial decision,

may I protest about the use of “et al.” references

when the bibliography is arranged alphabetically by

the name of the second author? This is now quite a

common practice, but when somebody has been as

prolific as Ronse de Craene himself, life becomes
quite difficult!
Problems like these are minor and can be fixed

in the next edition. Like the author, I think floral

morphology has much to offer systematists today.

A better understanding of floral morphology

would surely enliven that all-too-large subset of

papers on phylogeny that seem to have sworn off

looking closely at flowers, or at any other aspects

of the morphology or anatomy of the plant, for

that matter. Floral diagrams and formulae are great

teaching tools in any plant diversity class. I still

remember with pleasure the Diploma in Taxonomy

I took at Edinburgh. I went out into the gardens

and greenhouses at lunch to get flowers of different

families; for each, I drew a longitudinal section, and

made a floral diagram and floral formula. It was a

great way to learn.

Literature Cited

CASTRO, M. A., VEAGA, A. S., and MULGURA,

M. E. 2001. Structure and ultrastructure of

leaf and calyx glands in Galphimia brasiliensis

(Malpighiaceae). American Journal of Botany

88: 1935-1944.

PRENNER, G., BATEMAN, R. M., and RUDALL,

P. J. 2010. Floral formulae updated for routine

inclusion in formal taxonomic descriptions.

Taxon 59: 241-250.

–P. F. Stevens, Missouri Botanical Garden and the

University of Missouri at St Louis, St Louis, Mis-

souri 63110 USA

Physiological

Plant Metabolomics. Methods and

Protocols.

Hardy, Nigel W. and Hall, Robert D. (Editors)

2012. ISBN 978-1-61779-593-0,

(Cloth US$139.00) 340 pp. Humana Press,

333 Meadowlands Parkway, Secaucus, NJ

07094.

Recent developments in technology, research

and computing machinery along with the new

horizons in the sciences also presents challenges for

the plant sciences. An area witnessing rapid growth

in research interest is the field of plant molecular

biology, which integrates both general and applied

science, focusing on monitoring, screening and

profiling molecular behavior in plant cells and

cellular systems. One branch of plant molecular

biology is metabolomics, which utilizes technology

aimed at obtaining a qualitative and quantitative

overview of plant metabolites. This research

domain is highly innovative and complex, and the

empirical results have many potential applications

in applied botany, crop science, horticulture, food

technology, nutrition and the pharmaceutical

industry. Research on metabolomics is very active.

According to the Science Citation Index (SCI), the

keywords “plant metabolomics” yielded a total of

850 papers published up to August 2012 in high-

ranking scientific journals worldwide. During July-

August 2012 alone, more than 15 new papers were

published. This means that the research potential

in the field is strong, with new results continually

coming up for scientific debate. Important current

topics include the research methods and protocols

used and problems relating to their future

development.
The book “Plant Metabolomics. Methods and

Protocols” is fresh in ideas and a useful manual for

scientists, researchers, scholars, students and the

wider readership interested in plant metabolism

and metabolite molecules. The authors represented

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

in the book are scientists active in the EU project

META-PHOR and the book´s editors are N. W.

Hardy and R. D. Hall. The purpose of this volume is

to provide information on basic practical questions

concerning experimental work with metabolomics.

The book is divided into three parts (Material

preparation, Chemical analysis approaches, Data

analysis) comprising 18 chapters and explains the

terms and concepts used in the field. Chapter 1

describes the practical setting up of a metabolomics

experiment, with information on data pre-

processing, metabolite identification, data analysis

and data reporting. Chapter 2 focuses on questions

of experimental design in plant metabolomics

experiments and gives guidelines on the growth of

plant material. This chapter also describes various

philosophical and historical aspects of plant

empirical experimentation from Ptolemy, trough

Copernicus, and Bacon to Fisher. Observations are

also made and on omics experiments and provides

a detailed checklist of factors on starting a plant

metabolomic experiment. Chapter 3 describes

an approach to the co-cultivation of Arabidopsis

cell cultures and bacterial plant pathogens to

assess dual metabolomics. The Arabidopsis cell

cultures, bacterial strains, nutrients, chemicals,

antibiotics and the equipment needed are

presented in detail. The methods appropriate for

such an experiment are also described along with

practical recommendations touching research of

this kind. The dual metabolomic approach could

be adapted to investigate fungal-plant interactions.

In chapter 4, the authors recommend various

precautions in the preparation and handling of

samples from crop plants, and in chapter 5 the

methods and material for tissue preparation using

Arabidopsis are presented. This chapter ends the

Part I (chapters 2-5), which mainly focuses on the

preparation of material in metabolomics research,

mostly with Arabidopsis as a model plant, and on

pathogens. Research experience, methodology and

the appropriate laboratory routines are presented.

However, a critical reader of the book may be

surprised at the absence of any consideration of

metabolomics in the context of plant-herbivore

interactions or of ecological aspects of symbiotic

and antagonistic interactions, or plant signaling.

Moreover, no empirical indication of the scientific

reliability of the methods described in this part of

the book is given, while the sources reveal a certain

degree of bias.
Part II presents chemical analytical approaches

used in metabolomic research. Chapter 6 is

illuminating on solid phase micro-extraction in

natural volatile components in melon and rice

using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

(GC-MS), and chapter 7 on GC-MS materials

and methods for profiling primary metabolites

of tomato fruit. Materials and methods for the

use of high-perfomance liquid chromatography

coupled to mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) in

metabolomics of the plant family Brassicaceae are

described in detail in the following chapter. This

description is followed by typical chromatographs

and their interpretation, and by the practical

recommendations for conducting research of this

kind. Chapter 9 contains a detailed presentation

of tomato metabolite analysis by ultraperfomance

liquid chromatography (UPLC), and chapter

10 describes high precision measurement and

fragmentation analysis for metabolite identification.

All the materials, methods, equipment and

standards used in such investigations are presented

in depth. Similarly, the succeeding chapters

describe Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance

mass spectrometry (FT-ICR) for plant metabolite

profiling and identification (chapter 11), the use

of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and flow

injection electrospray mass spectrometry (FI-ESI-

MS) for metabolomics research in Brassicaceae

(chapter 12), and the spectroscopy research

protocols of trace element content and speciation

in cereal grains (chapter 14). The Part II ends

with chapter 14, describing the use of genomics

and metabolomics methods to quantify fungal

endosymbiots and alkaloids in grasses. A very

detailed presentation of the methods and the

interpretations of chromatograms greatly help

the reader to understand the procedures. Part II

(chapters 6-14) of the book is chemical in character

and shows the practices and challenges of research

in metabolomes. As metabolomes constitute an

extremely large field with very diverse groups of

molecules, the chemical methods used must be

considered case by case. The examples presented in

part II are very useful for this purpose. Moreover,

readers of the book will benefit from the fact that

the methods with many physical and technical

parameters and terms of high technology are

presented simply and intelligibly.
Part III of the book (chapters 15-18) describes

data analysis, data interpretation and accuracy

estimation. Chapter 15 describes the processing of

nominal and accurate mass LC-MS or GC-MS data

using the MetAlign software package, and chapter

16 focuses on the methods for the fingerprinting

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

and profiling of metabolome chromatography

data. TagFinder software is presented. The

chemical identification strategies using liquid

chromatography-photodiode array-solid-phase

extraction-nuclear magnetic resonance-mass

spectrometry (LC-PA-SPE-NMR) are discussed

in chapter 17. Part III concludes with chapter 18,

which details a strategy for selecting data mining

techniques in metabolomics. It is stated that the

development of metabolomics depends not only

on advances in techniques of chemical analysis but

also on advances in computing and data analysis

methods.
Overall, the book presents methods and protocols

relating to all the stages of accurate plant

metabolomics workflow, which is the foundation

for innovative and prospective research worldwide.

The book is a mix between a scientific treatise and a

laboratory manual. As such it is an excellent one. It

is also a good example of how a difficult and multi-

complex matter can be presented simply. On the

other hand, the book does not give answers to all

the questions connected with plant metabolomics

research and its quality. A more critical approach

to the methods and protocols described and

recommended could serve as fruitful basis for

discussion, leading to more rapid analytical

progress in the field. In its present form, the book

hints at this opportunity, but clearly transfers this

responsibility to the reader. Moreover, the use of

different referencing styles in different chapters,

and a rather routine style in the presentation of

the data, and other small defects which, while

they do not interfere with the reading of this book,

can, from the formal point of view, be considered

as minor blemishes. In sum, this is a most useful

volume, which helps in separating the inseparable

and measuring the un-measurable.
-Prof. Dr. Tadeusz Aniszewski, Research and Teach-

ing Laboratory of Applied Botany, Biological Inter-

actions and Ecological Engineering, Department

of Biology, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu

Campus, Finland

Systematics

Flora of Tropical East Africa: Sola-

naceae

Edmonds, Jennifer M., with contributions by

Maria S. Vorontsova and Sandra Knapp.

2012. ISBN 978-1-84246-395-6

Paper, US$51.85; 240 pp. + 4 unnumbered

pages of back matter

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Sur-

rey TW9 3AB, UK; www.kew.org

The publication history of this series dates from

1952. The final part appeared in early 2012, and

whether this treatment of Solanaceae is in fact

the final part is not explicitly stated, but one

suspects it is. (There are no “Forthcoming Titles

in Production” listed in the back matter.) Tropical

East Africa is here defined as the modern states of

Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, excluding Rwanda

and Burundi on the west.
Commendably, the authors present an artificial

key to all genera represented in the flora area, even

those only represented by cultivated plants. The

taxonomic treatments are enriched by remarks on

folk uses of some species, including folk medicine.

Nearly every genus is accompanied by one or more

full-page drawings, all of which are original to this

work.
There are extensive discussions of generic limits,

where necessary. In the treatments of the individual

species, the authors cite a very full synonymy

and often digress into extended discussions of

typification, encompassing even some species that

are not native to Africa. The work is therefore

important far beyond its stated coverage.
There is what might be called a “companion

piece” to this volume: Edmonds, J. M. 2005. The

Solanaceae in the Flora of Tropical East Africa, pp.

157-196 in A Festschrift for William G. D’Arcy.

Monographs in Systematic Botany No. 104. In this

contribution, which includes a goodly array of full-

page illustrations, the stated intention was that the

formal treatment of the Solanaceae would appear

in 2005. A delay of seven years may well be due

to unanticipated difficulties in finishing the work,

especially the knotty problems presented by often-

weedy species of Solanum, where all manner of

trivial variants have been named in the literature,

many of them without preserved types. I counted

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Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

general pattern throughout the series, not peculiar

to just this treatment.
The genera and species are all accompanied by

complete citations of protologs and typification.

The literature citations are conventionally

abbreviated. Chromosome numbers are nowhere

mentioned, probably because the authors and

editors recognize that chromosome numbers have

no place in a regional flora.
As best one can tell, from the listing given in

the back matter just after p. 54, the Cyperaceae,

Asclepiadaceae, and Commelinaceae are the major

elements yet to appear in this monumental effort.
-Neil A. Harriman, Biology Department, University

of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901

USA.

Sarraceniaceae of the Americas.

Sarraceniaceae of South America.

McPherson, Stewart, Andreas Wistuba, An-

dreas Fleischmann, and Joachim Nerz. 2011.

ISBN 978-0-9558918-7-8 (cloth, $89.99). 566

pp. Redfern Natural History Productions,

Dorset, England. www.redfernnaturalhis-

tory.com.

Sarraceniaceae of North America.

McPherson, Stewart and Donald Schnell

2011. ISBN 978-0-9558918-6-1 (cloth,

$89.99). 810 pp. Redfern Natural History

Productions, Dorset, England. www.redfern-

naturalhistory.com.

These two volumes are a much expanded volume

of Stewart McPherson’s 2007 book, Pitcher Plants

of the Americas (reviewed in PSB 53: 176-177).

Combined, the two new volumes are more than

1000 pages longer than Pitcher Plants of the

Americas and they present many more gorgeous

photographs of pitcher plants and their habitats.

Unfortunately they add little new scientific value,

and most critically, they neglect much recent

literature and add much confusion to the taxonomy

of Sarraceniaceae.
The two new Sarraceniaceae volumes are intended

as a set. Sarraceniaceae of South America has

chapters introducing both carnivorous plants

and the family, and provides an overall broader

context for looking at pitcher plants of the Western

23 species-level synonyms just for Solanum

aethiopicum L., a widely cultivated food plant,

and these are only the binomials in common use

or based on African types; the reader is referred to

a Solanaceae Source website for even more details.
The sometimes-cryptic abbreviations for literature

citations throughout the work are explained on an

unnumbered page just after p. 240.
-Neil A. Harriman, Biology Department, University

of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54901

USA.

Flora Zambesiaca, 12(1) Araceae

(including Lemnaceae).

Haigh, Anna and Peter C. Boyce, with contri-

butions from Josef Bogner. 2012. ISBN 978-

1-84246-374-1, paperback; 54 pp. + 3 un-

numbered pages of back matter. US$55.00.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Sur-

rey TW9 3AB, UK; www.kew.org; published

by University of Chicago Press and available

at their website, uchicago.edu.

It may be mentioned first that the contents of this

part of the flora are given neither on the cover

nor on the title page, as is also true for all the

preceding parts of this series, which was begun

in 1960. The area covered by Flora Zambesiaca

is the modern nations of Botswana, Malawi,

Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, and also

the Caprivi Strip, which falls between Zambia and

Botswana. The inclusion of the Lemnaceae follows

the recommendation of the Angiosperm Phylogeny

Group, although the overall arrangement of the

flora follows Bentham & Hooker of the nineteenth

century. It is estimated that, when completed, the

flora will account for some 10,000 species. As

hinted at by the numbers in the title proper, the

entire flora is to be treated in a series of volumes, 14

in all, with these volumes divided into 50 parts. Of

these 50 parts, 38 have appeared thus far.
The Araceae, in the traditional sense, include a

great many cultivated species. The authors elected

to treat these as a separate group, just after the

family description, and they are not included in the

keys. All the genera in the keys have at least one

species illustrated.
The species treatments mention no common

names, nor is there any discussion of local uses of

any of the species, so far as I could detect. This is a

174

Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

Hemisphere. This introductory material, especially

on the history of the discovery of these plants, is

very interesting to read, but it will be frustrating

to future scholars because most of the references

cited in text are not listed in the Bibilography.

Sarraceniaceae of North America dives right into the

two North American genera and all their extreme

morphological variation; like its counterpart,

much of the literature cited in text is unfortunately

missing from the Bibliography. The two volumes

also can be read independently – each focuses

on particular genera (Heliamphora in the first,

Darlingtonia and Sarracenia in the second), each

has its own index, and because each has its own

cadre of co-authors, each has a very different take

on taxonomy of the three genera. Nevertheless, new

species and infraspecific taxa, complete with Latin

descriptions and assignments of type specimens,

are formally described in each volume. Although it

is not unheard of to erect new taxa in peer-reviewed

floras, it is very rare to do it in non-peer-reviewed

coffee-table books. McPherson et al. (2009a,

2009b) did the same in this two-volume treatment

of Nepenthes (reviewed in PSB 56: 45-46). In all of

these cases, it would have been better to subject

these systematic hypotheses to peer review.
Although there are many more species of

Heliamphora than of Darlingtonia and Sarracenia

combined, Sarraceniaceae of South America is the

smaller of the two, and the more taxonomically

conservative. In part, the smaller size of South

America reflects the lack of overall information

on Heliamphora, which grows primarily on the

sandstone massifs (tepuis) of the Guyana Shield

of Venezuela, Guyana, and Brazil. Tepuis are hard

to access, difficult places to work once there, and

consequently Heliamphora has received much

less scientific attention. Co-author Andreas

Fleischmann is working on the systematics of the

group for his dissertation project, and because

that is not yet complete, the authors are rightly

conservative in identifying species in the field and

not identifying innumerable ecotypes, subspecies,

varieties, or forms.
The same cannot be said for Sarraceniaceae of

North America. Here, contemporary systematic

approaches to the North American pitcher-

plant genera, such as those in Flora of North

America (Mellichamp, 2009) derived from a

careful consideration of both morphological and

molecular data, and literally centuries of botanical

research, are completely swept aside in favor of

Schnell’s (2002) nomenclatural approach that

formally names nearly every color morph, every

isolated population, and every cultivated “sport” as

a new variety or form. Although not prohibited by

the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae,

Fungi, and Plants, this system is neither rationally

consistent (if it’s appropriate for Sarracenia, why

not for Heliamphora?) nor can it be supported

by morphological, molecular, or field data

(summarized in Mellichamp, 2009). Rather, it can

be seen most charitably as a philosophical view of

species (and infraspecific taxa) as Platonic entities, a

view roundly rejected by modern systematists who

treat systematic taxonomy as a series of hypothesis

to be tested, not as revealed truth. Alternatively,

the seemingly infinite identification of infraspecific

taxa could be seen as a way to bolster the market

for unique (cultivated) varieties of pitcher plants

among hobbyists and collectors. Given the extensive

space in each volume dedicated to discussion of

carnivorous plant “Societies and Recommended

Suppliers” in both volumes, and that Sarraceniaceae

of South America is co-authored by the owner

of Wistuba – Exotic Plants in Germany, the latter

explanation cannot be discounted.
Like other titles in McPherson’s burgeoning list of

volumes on carnivorous plants, the two volumes

on Sarraceniaceae in the Americas introduce

carnivorous plants to a wide audience, and the

exquisite photographs and lavish production makes

them a joy to leaf through. But as a resource for

botanists, systematists, and evolutionary ecologists

doing serious research on carnivorous plants, these

volumes are disappointing.
–Aaron M. Ellison, Harvard Forest, Harvard

University, 324 North Main Street, Petersham, MA

01366.

References Cited:

MCPHERSON, S. 2007. Pitcher Plants of the

Americas. The McDonald & Woodward

Publishing Company, Blacksburg, Virginia.

MCPHERSON, S., A. ROBINSON, and A.

FLEISCHMANN. 2009a. Pitcher Plants of

the Old World, Volume One. Redfern Natural

History Productions, Dorset, England.

MCPHERSON, S., A. ROBINSON, and A.

Fleischmann. 2009b. Pitcher Plants of the Old

World, Volume Two. Redfern Natural History

Productions, Dorset, England.

175

Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

MELLICHAMP, T. L. 2009. Sarraceniaceae

Dumortier – Pitcher Plant Family. Flora of

North America 8: 348-363.

SCHNELL, D. E. 2002. Carnivorous Plants of the

United States and Canada, 2nd edition. Timber

Press, Portland, Oregon.

Tropical Plant Collecting: From the

Field to the Internet.

Mori, Scott A., Amy Berkov, Carol A. Gracie &

Edmund F. Hecklau.

ISBN 978-85-65005-00-5

(Paper US$34.95) 332pp.

TECC Editora LTDA, Rua João Pio Duarte

Silva, 602, Apto.eos, Bloco A, CEP: 88037-

000, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brasil.

Scott Mori, the senior editor, with nearly half

a century of experience in tropical botany as a

collector and specialist of neotropical plants, is

a dedicated and well-published scientist and a

curator of various herbaria. He and the three co-

authors manage to condense this lifetime worth of

experience into 600 pages of well-written, easy-to-

read tips, suggestions, and recommended protocols

for tropical plant collection and curation. When I

first heard about Mori’s Tropical Plant Collecting:

From the Field to the Internet, I assumed it was a

technically written textbook. I was pleasantly

surprised that it was not. Instead, this book is a

narrative of the editors’ experiences and lessons

learned while collecting plants in the tropics. The

first portion of the book is comprised of a series

of colloquial anecdotes that describe living in the

tropics and the many issues that arise. The book

then systematically provides the reader suggestions

and detailed protocols on how to collect and

preserve plants and then submit the specimens to

herbaria. It also describes herbarium curation and

suggestions for utilizing herbarium records for

online databases.
The first two chapters are autobiographical.

Chapter one covers Mori’s 47-year career as a

tropical botanist, and in chapter two, one of Mori’s

past students, Amy Berkov, describes how a year

in the tropics transitioned her from a 36-year-old

artist to what she is now—a PhD-trained tropical

entomologist. Though the first two chapters

establish the credibility of the editors and describe

some trials and tribulations of tropical work, there

is little tangible information in them for aspiring

tropical biologists. They did, however, discuss the

feelings of loneliness and depression that come

along with the excitement the tropics bring.
The remainder of the book is packed with practical

information for not only those who plan to collect

plants in tropical locations but those who are

interested in herbarium curation and maintenance.

I could not pin-point a single most important

section because each chapter has information

tailored for individuals who fall into specific niches

and responsibilities within the field of botany.
For those preparing to travel to the tropics, the

gem of the book is chapter three, ‘Tips for Tropical

Biologists.’ This chapter provides suggestions for

setting up camp and navigating the forest. Though

admittedly not all-inclusive, it does provide a

laundry list of many dangers, which include not

only parasites and animals but common accidents

tropical biologists should know.
Chapter four is the most useful chapter for those

who do not know the proper etiquette and protocol

to follow when collecting and preparing plants for

distribution to herbaria. This chapter discusses

what samples to collect, how and when to collect

the samples, and how to preserve and maintain the

samples prior to submission into an herbarium.

Mori stresses often the importance of collecting

underrepresented plants and making high-quality

specimens. This chapter also presents protocols

and general rules for collecting vouchers for

ecological studies, which answered many questions

I had for my own research. This chapter provides

information that will maintain continuity and keep

information parsimonious if ecologists follow the

protocols established by Mori.
Chapters five and six focus on herbaria operation

and use. In chapter five, Mori describes procedures

for submitting specimens to herbaria and how a well

organized, up-kept herbarium is maintained with

proper labeling systems, modern databases, and

how hard copy records can be supplemented with

digital information and images. This will provide

continuity of record keeping within and between

herbaria. He also provides an example of a mission

statement that could be used as a template for

those who plan to establish an herbarium. Chapter

six illustrates how herbarium records can be used

and presented to a large audience via the internet

as e-floras, e-monographs, and descriptions of

individual species.

176

Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

Mori finishes with a chapter on rainforest

conservation, in which he describes rainforest

ecology and the consequences of land use

conversion and fragmentation. In this chapter,

Mori makes an exceptionally strong economic case

for tropical rainforest protection by focusing on

ecosystem services and the value of harvested foods

or other commodities provided by the forests.
The book includes appendices that provide

information on potential funding sources, and also

includes useful checklists of essential equipment.

An index is also included to help the reader find

important topics.
Throughout this book, the reader senses Mori’s

enthusiasm and concern for uninformed, naive, or

poorly trained tropical botanists. Anecdotes in this

book illustrate why it’s important to be prepared

and not delve into the tropics lightly. The rewards

are huge for science and scientists, but the costs

can be large and may result in death. Readers will

also get a sense of the time and effort required

for studies in tropical biology, where five years of

collection is the suggested minimum time, though

it typically takes a lifetime.
I have few complaints regarding this book, and those

I do have are superficial and do not detract from the

quality of the information presented. My primary

complaint is that many of the photos provided

are not clear, especially those showing pathogen

infections and insect vectors. Mori discusses the

importance of high quality, high resolution photos

of plant characteristics, but the examples provided

in this book are poor quality, black-and-white dot

matrix images. Color plates of high-resolution

photographs would have been ideal.
Mori provides addresses, phone numbers, and

e-mails of companies that sell the equipment he

uses in the field. He also references Google often

and specific software packages used for database

creation. Obviously these references are fine for

the present, but this information will become out-

dated rather quickly and will certainly not be useful

in the future.
This book is not a pocket guide or one I would

travel with if space was limited and weight was a

factor. Most of the tips and suggestions are hidden

in blocks of text, so they may be inaccessible when

needed. I would recommend that readers transcribe

the information gleaned from this book into their

field notebook for quick reference.
In conclusion, the style of Mori’s writing makes

the book approachable for scientist and lay-

persons alike who wish to spend time in the tropics

collecting plants. This book is also a great resource

for people who are establishing an herbarium or

aspire to write floras or monographs. Mori and

his colleagues aim to “make the work of tropical

biologists safer, easier, and more comfortable.” This

aim will certainly be achieved if tropical botanists

read this book.
-Kevyn J. Juneau, The School of Forest Resources

and Environmental Science, Michigan Technological

University, Houghton, MI 49931.

Aldrovanda: The Waterwheel Plant.

Adam Cross.

2012. ISBN-13: 978-1-908787-04-0

Hardcover, UK£17.99 (approx. US$ 34.99).

xiii+248 pp.

Redfern Natural History Productions, Poole,

Dorset, England. http://www.redfernnatur-

alhistory.com/

The waterwheel plant, Aldrovanda vesiculosa,

is one of the most curious of all botanical

curiosities. This perennial, rootless, aquatic

carnivorous plant is essentially an aquatic Venus’

flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)–its leaves have been

modified into snap-traps–but with growth habits

and physiological characteristics much more like

the completely unrelated bladderworts (Utricularia

spp.). Aldrovanda vesiculosa is the only species in

the genus, and represents one of only three genera

in the sundew family (Droseraceae); the other two

are the monotypic and aforementioned Dionaea

and the quite diverse Drosera. In spite of the many

unique aspects of Aldrovanda and well over 150

years of research into all aspects of its biology, there

has not until now been a book-length monograph

devoted to it. As such, Cross’ Aldrovanda is a most

welcome compendium of information on this plant.
In a relatively short and lavishly illustrated book,

Cross summarizes what is known about the

taxonomic history; paleobotany and evolution;

ecophysiology and morphology; habitat and

distribution; population genetics; conservation

issues; and methods for cultivation of Aldrovanda.

Nearly 200 years of literature on the plant–

from peer-reviewed through grey to popular–is

thoroughly reviewed (the Bibliography itself is 30

pages long), and Cross not only summarizes this

literature but also reflects on studies needed to fill

177

Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

in the gaps in our knowledge on all of these topics.

Not bad for a young doctoral student from Western

Australia!
Although the summaries of the basic scientific

literature are most welcome, probably the most

valuable aspect of the book is its discussion and

highlighting of the pressing need to protect and

conserve Aldrovanda. In spite of its geographically

widespread distribution–Aldrovanda grows in

Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia–and relatively

broad tolerance of water chemical characteristics

and pH, it is very intolerant of habitat conversion,

nutrient loading, or pollution, and so is locally

extinct or on the brink thereof throughout its entire

range. Some populations are protected and growing,

but of 379 natural and restored populations known

from historical records, herbarium data, or new

observations, only 50 are extant. Similarly, of

69 introduced populations, only 28 are extant,

including 10 in the United States, well outside of

its natural range. The lengthy tabulation of the

status of natural and introduced populations makes

depressing reading indeed, but clearly illustrates

the conservation challenges faced by many aquatic

plants, including Aldrovanda.
As with all of the books on carnivorous plants

published by Redfern Natural History Productions,

the photography is exceptional. The majority of the

photographs are by the author, but many others,

including well-known experts on Aldrovanda

biology, including Lubomír Adamec, Kamil Pasek,

and Ryszard Kaminski grace the pages as well.

Cross has clearly benefited from his interactions

with these individuals, and many others, who not

only provided him with great photographs but

also fact-checked the manuscript. At the same

time, Cross continues in the tradition of other

Redfern publications in using the opportunity

of a book-length publication to erect new taxa.

Herein, only one new variety is formally named:

Aldrovanda vesiculosa L. var. rubsecens A. T. Cross

& L. Adamec. This variety is distinguished by its

expression of anthocyanins in bright habitats and

by its geographic restriction to all of Australia,

Botswana, and Lake Balata-to in Hungary. It would

really have been better to publish a new taxon in a

peer-reviewed journal.
Aldrovanda: The Waterwheel Plant sets a series of

benchmark for future studies of this species. It is not

only a book every carnivorous plant aficionado will

want on his or her shelf, but it also should be near

at hand for botanists focused on the Caryophyllales

and for those studying physiology of aquatic plants

and how plants move. And it will look pretty on the

coffee table, too.
– Aaron M. Ellison, Harvard Forest, Harvard Uni-

versity, Petersham, Massachusetts, USA

178

The Anatomy of Palms: Arecaceae – Palmae. Tomlinson, P. Barry, James W. Horn, and Jack B. Fisher.

2012. ISBN 978-0-19-955892-6 (Cloth US$225.00) 251 pp. Oxford University Press, 2001 Evans Road,

Cary, NC 27513.
Beach Forests and Mangrove Associates in the Philippines. Primavera, J.H. and R.B. Sadaba. 2012.

ISBN 978-971-9931-01-0 (paper US$50.00) 160 pp. SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department and UNESCO

Jakarta Office, SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department, Tigbauan 5021, Iloilo, Philippines.
Life of a Leaf. Vogel, Steven. 2012. ISBN 978-0-22685939-2 (Cloth US$35.00) 303 pp. The University of

Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th St., Chicago, Il.
The World of Northern Evergreens, 2nd ed. Pielou, E.C. 2011. ISBN 978-08014-7740-9 (Paper US$19.95)

168pp. Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.
Medicinal Plants and the Legacy of Richard E. Schultes. Ponman, Bruce E. and Rainer W. Bussmann,

(Eds.). 2012. ISBN 978-0-9848415-2-3 (Paper US$24.95) 138pp. William L. Brown Center at the Missouri

Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299.
Systematics, Biodiversity and Ecology of Lichens. Kärnefelt, Ingvar, Mark R.D. Seaward, and

Arne Thell. 2012. ISBN 978-3-443-58087-2 (Paper, €87.00) 290 pp. J. Cramer, Begrüder Borntraeger

Verlagsbuchhandlung, Johannesstrasse 3A, 70176, Stuttgart, Germany.
The Evolutionary Relevance of Vegetative Long-shoot/Short-shoot Differentiation in Gymnospermous

Tree Species. Dörken, Martin. 2012. ISBN 978-3-510-48032-6 (Paper €94.00) 93pp. Schweizerbart

Science Publishers, Johannesstrasse 3A, 70176, Stuttgart, Germany.
Plants of the Chesapeake Bay. Musselman, Lytton John and David A. Knepper. 2012. ISBN 978-1-4214-

0498-1. (Paper US$24.95) 216 pp. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles Street, Baltimore,

MD 21218.
Air Plants: Epiphytes and Aerial Gardens. Benzing, David H. 2012. ISBN 978-0-8014-5043-3 (Cloth

US$39.95) 248 pp. Comstock Publishing Associates, Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State

Street, Ithaca, New York, 14850.
Huanduj: Brugmansia. Hay, Alistair, Monika Gottschalk, and Adolfo Holguin. 2012. ISBN 978-1-84246-

477-9 (Cloth US$110.00) 424 pp. Royal Botanic Gardens, Hew, Distributed by University of Chicago Press,

1427 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637-2954.
Natural Products Isolation, 3rd Ed. Sarker, Satyajit D.; Nahar, Lutfun (Eds.) 2012. ISBN: 978-1-61779-

623-4 (Cloth US$159.00) 552 pp. Humana Press, Springer Science + Business Media, 233 Spring Street,New

York, NY 10013.
Plant DNA and Barcoding: Methods and Protocols. Sucher, Nicholas J., James R. Hennell & Maria C.

Carles (Eds.) 2012. ISBN: 978-1-61779-608-1 (Cloth US$119.00) 202 pp. Humana Press.
The Beauty of Houseplants. Gough, Tom and David Longman. 2011. ISBN 978-1-889878-30-0. (Cloth

US$22.95) 118 pp. Botanical Research Institute of Texas, 1700 University Drive, Fort Worth, Texas 76107.
Plant Nutrition and Soil Fertility Manual, Second Edition. J. Benton Jones, Jr. 2012. ISBN 978-1-439-

81609-7. (Paper US$79.95) 304 pp. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group. 6000 Broken Sound Parkway

NW, Suite 300, Boca Raton, FL 33487
Recombinant Gene Expression: Reviews and Protocols, 3rd Ed. Lorence, Angela. 2011. ISBN: 978-1-

617-79432-2 (Cloth US $159.00) 649 pages, 105 illustrations. Humana Press, 333 Meadowlands Parkway,

Secaucus, NJ 07094.
Peonies of the World: Polymorphism and Diversity. Hong, De-Yuan. 2012. ISBN 978-1-84246-458-8

(Cloth US$115.00) 94 pp. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Distributed by University of Chicago Press, 1427

E. 60th St., Chicago, Il 60637.

Books Received

179

Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

The Diatoms: Applications for the Environmental and Earth Sciences. Smol, John P. and Eugene F.

Stoermer. 2010. ISBN 978-0-521-50996-1 (Cloth US$225.00) 667 pp. Cambridge University Press, 32

Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013.
Bromeliads for Home and Garden. Kramer, Jack. 2011. ISBN 798-0-8130-3544-4. (Paper US$26.95)

176pp. University Press of Florida.
Photosynthesis Research Protocols, 2nd ed. Carpentier, Robert (ed.) 2011. ISBN 978-1-60761-924-6

(Cloth US$139.00) Humana Press, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013.
Landscapes and Hydrology of the Predrainage Everglades. 2011. McVoy, Christopher, Winifred Park

Said, Jayantha Obeysekera, Joel VanArman, and Thomas W. Dreschel. ISBN 978-0-8130-3535-2. (Cloth

US$85.00) 368 pp. University Press of Florida, 15 NW 15th Street, Gainesville, FL 32611-2079.
Grasslands of Wales: A Survey of Lowland Species-Rich Grasslands, 1987-2004. Stevens, D.P.,

S.L.N.Smith, T.H. Blackstock, S.D.S. Bosanquet, and J.P. Stevens. 2010. ISBN 978-0-7083-2255-0 (Cloth

US$85.00) 336 pp. University of Wales Press, distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th

Street, Chicago, IL 60637.
Habitats of Wales: A Comprehensive Field Survey, 1979-1997. Blackstock, T.H., E.A. Howe, J.P. Stevens,

C.R. Burrows, and P.S. Jones. 2010. ISBN 978-0-7083-2257-4 (Cloth US$85.00) 240 pp. University of Wales

Press, distributed by the University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637.
Nova Hedwigia Beiheft 135, Diatom Taxonomy, Ultrastructure and Ecology: Modern Methods and

Timeless Questions. A tribute to Eugene F. Stoermer. 2009. ISBN 978-3-443-51057-2 (Paper €139.00) 369

pp, J. Cramer in Borntraeger Science Publishers, Johannesstrasse 3 A, 70176 Stuttgart, Germany.
Marine Phytoplankton: Selected Phytoplankton species from the North Sea around Helgoland and

Sylt. Hoppenrath, Mona, Malte Elbrächter, and Gerhard Drebes. ISBN 978-3-510-61392-2 (Paper €18.80)

264 pp. E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung (Nägele u. Obermiller), Johannesstrasse 3 A, 70176

Stuttgart, Germany.
Diversity and Ecology of Lichens in Polar and Mountain Ecosystems. Hafellner, Josef, Ingvar Kärnefelt

and Volkmar Wirth (eds). 2010. ISBN 978-3-443-58083-4 (Paper €104.00) 389 pp. J. Cramer in Borntraeger

Science Publishers, Johannesstrasse 3 A, 70176 Stuttgart, Germany.

180

Plant Science Bulletin 58(4) 2012

Botany 2013 will be held in New Orleans Louisiana, at the Riverside Hilton, July 27 - 31, 2013. The theme

of this year’s meeting, “Celebrating Diversity,” is well suited to the diverse flora of southern Louisiana

and the wide array of talks provided by the five scientific societies participating in Botany 2013. These

include are the American Bryological and Lichenological Society, American Society of Plant Taxonomists,

American Fern Society, Botanical Society of America, and International Association for Plant Taxonomy.

We met in New Orleans recently to inspect our meeting facilities, meet the on-site staff, coordinate

programs, and to plan events for our upcoming meeting. Downtown New Orleans and the surrounding

natural areas in southern Louisiana offer tremendous opportunities for a memorable meeting this year.

Our meeting facilities at the Riverside Hilton offer beautiful and state of the art facilities for our meeting.

The rooms are spacious and are serviced by professional staff who will quickly attend to any needs that

may arise to insure a seamless set of events. We are situated within easy walking distance to downtown

New Orleans and the historic French Quarter, offering many places to socialize with our colleagues during

evening get togethers with many restaurants, bars with outdoor seating, and entertainment venues.

Field trips are always popular, and Louisiana has noted natural areas. Our field trip schedule is taking

shape with trips suiting attendees in all of our diverse disciplines. We are making every effort to have

wonderful field trips led by professionals fully knowledgeable in the plants and sites under their direction.

And how cool it will be to take some tours offering views of native carnivorous plants and maybe alligators!

Botany 2013 offers 12 symposia and nine colloquia (http://www.2013.botanyconference.org/info/

symposia.php) in a wide range of botanical disciplines that is emblematic of our annual meetings. These

range genomics, public policy, digitizing herbaria, taxonomy, evolution, ecology, conservation, biodiversity,

and evolutionary topics from bryophytes and ferns to fossils to angiosperms.

This year’s Sunday evening plenary speaker is Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, who will speak on “Celebrating

diversity in the understanding of science: Botanists as ambassadors to a spectrum of humans.” Please

see a video of her work recently released on CNN: http://www.cnn.com/video/standard.html?hpt=hp_

c2#/video/living/2012/11/16/the-next-list-nalini-nadkarni-weekend-pkg.cnn David White will be our

Regional Botany speaker.

Botany 2012 experienced record levels of student involvement, and we are making every effort to

continue this in Botany 2013: A generous grant from Monsanto Corporation is providing opportunities

for students to network and socialize.

Abstract submission will begin on February 2 and close April 1, and we will keep you posted of this date

and other activities and speakers as the meeting planning progress. We look forward to seeing you in New

Orleans this summer!

Any questions - please feel free to contact Johanne Stogran (johanne@botany.org) or David Spooner

(david.spooner@ars.usda.gov) for details, or refer to conference updates posted on our meeting website:

http://www.2013.botanyconference.org/

Winter 2012 Volume 58 Number 4

The Botanical Society of

America is a membership

society whose mission is to:

promote botany, the field of

basic science dealing with the

study & inquiry into the form,

function, development, diversity,

reproduction, evolution, & uses

of plants & their interactions

within the biosphere.|

ISSN 0032-0919

Published quarterly by

Botanical Society of America, Inc.

4475 Castleman Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63166-0299

Periodicals postage is paid at

St. Louis, MO & additional

mailing offices.

POSTMASTER:

Send address changes to:

Botanical Society of America

Business Office

P.O. Box 299

St. Louis, MO 63166-0299

bsa-manager@botany.org

The yearly subscription rate of $15

is included in the membership

Address Editorial Matters (only) to:

Marshall D. Sundberg

Editor

Department of Biological Sciences

Emporia State University

1200 Commercial St.

Emporia, KS 66801-5057

Phone 620-341-5605

psb@botany.org

Plant Science Bulletin

Featured Image

Plant Science

Bulletin

The BSA’s new journal, Applications in Plant Sciences (APPS),

launches in January as part of BioOne’s Open Access collection.

APPS originated as the American Journal of Botany’s online-only

section, AJB Primer Notes & Protocols in the Plant Sciences, which

was begun in 2009 to serve as a publication outlet for researchers in

genetic and molecular areas. APPS is a monthly, online-only, open

access, peer-reviewed journal that promotes the rapid dissemination

of newly developed, innovative tools and protocols in all areas of the

plant sciences, including genetics, structure, function, development,

evolution, systematics, and ecology.

The Editorial Board welcomes submissions, particularly of protocols

that improve investigations in any area of plant biology, including

methods on genetic markers, and morphological, physiological,

biochemical, anatomical, and ecological data collection. Authors

wishing to contribute papers to APPS should submit their manuscripts

online at http://www.editorialmanager.com/apps/ after consulting the

newly expanded Instructions for Authors (http://botany.org/

apps/APPS_Author_Instructions.html) for article types, editorial

policies, and submission guidelines.

APPS Editorial Board:

Theresa Culley (Editor-in-Chief)

Richard Cronn

Mitch Cruzan

Kent Holsinger

Jeff Maughan

Mike Moore

Pam Soltis

Lisa Wallace

Beth Parada (Online Publication Editor)

Editorial office contact: apps@botany.org

See you in New Orleans......

Symposia and Colloquia Announced

www.2013.botanyconference.org

Join these scientific societies for Botany 2013

Announcing

Dr. Nalini Nadkarni

University of Utah

Plenary Speaker - July 28, 2013

Celebrating diversity

in the understanding of science:

Botanists as ambassadors to a

spectrum of humans

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