2017 v63 No 3 Fall

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Issue: 2017 v63 No 3 Fall

IN THIS ISSUE...

FALL 2017 VOLUME 63 NUMBER 3

PLANT SCIENCE

BULLETIN

A PUBLICATION OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

International Botanical

Congress a success...p. 137

Executive Director

Bill Dahl retires...p. 145

Meet BSA’s new student rep,

Chelsea Pretz...p. 174

CONGRATULATIONS TO PLANTS GRANT RECIPIENTS!

FALL 2017 Volume 63 Number 3

PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN

Editorial Committee

Volume 63

From the Editor

Kathryn LeCroy

(2018)

Environmental Sciences

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA 22904

kal8d@virginia.edu

Daniel K. Gladish

(2017)

Department of Biology &

The Conservatory

Miami University

Hamilton, OH 45011

gladisdk@muohio.ed

Melanie Link-Perez

(2019)

Department of Botany

& Plant Pathology

Oregon State University

Corvallis, OR 97331

inkperm@oregonstate.edu

Shannon Fehlberg

(2020)

Research and Conservation

Desert Botanical Garden

Phoenix, AZ 85008

sfehlberg@dbg.org

David Tank

(2021)

Department of Biological

Sciences

University of Idaho

Moscow, ID 83844

dtank@uidaho.edu

Greetings,
In this issue of PSB, we bring you news of sig-

nificant change underway for the BSA. At the

end of September, long-time Executive Direc-

tor Bill Dahl retired. In this issue, Bill reflects

on his experiences with the Society and shares

his perspective on the future of the BSA. I want

to thank Bill, on behalf of PSB, for his dedica-

tion to, and direction of, the Society and for

sharing his parting thoughts with us. Heather

Cacanindin has stepped in as Interim Executive

Director.
A change is also occurring in publications.

Beginning with the January 2018 issues, the

American Journal of Botany and Applications

in Plant Sciences will be published as part of

the Wiley family of publications. You can read

more about what this means for those journals

on page 148. Plant Science Bulletin will contin-

ue to be published in-house by the BSA and,

thankfully, we will still have access to the fan-

tastic production staff that puts together each

issue. However, we will no longer use Editorial

Manager to handle submitted articles. Instead,

please send your submissions, including a cov-

er letter, manuscript word document, and any

image or supplementary files, directly to the

editor at psb@botany.org. Articles will still un-

dergo anonymous peer review and a revision

process; we will simply handle them in a more

personal manner through e-mail correspon-

dence. As always, PSB welcomes unsolicited

submissions from BSA members and hope that

you will consider contributing to Plant Science

Bulletin!

121

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SOCIETY NEWS

Be an Effective Advocate for Plants: Lessons from the Botany Bill (H.R. 1054) and What

You Can Do! ................................................................................................................................................................122

How to Be an Effective Conference Session Moderator ..................................................................124

Botanical Society of America’s Award Winners (Part 2) ...................................................................128

In your own words....Comments from the post conference survey! ............................................132

A chat about publishing: Scholarly Collaboration Networks ...........................................................135

Recap of the 2017 International Botanical Congress .......................................................................137

What Does the Botanical Society of America Do for You and

What Do You Do for the Society? ..................................................................................................................142

Latest News on the PLANTS Grant Program ..........................................................................................143

An “Exit Interview” with Retiring BSA Executive Director, Bill Dahl .............................................145

BSA Enters Publishing Partnership with John Wiley and Sons ......................................................148

SPECIAL FEATURES

Plant Evolution in a Human-Altered World .................................................................................................149

Cutting the Cord: Tips for Computer-Free Presentation Skills .....................................................158

SCIENCE EDUCATION

Scientists Respond to Call: PlantingScience Mentor Pool Increases to Meet Need .......166

Teachers and Early Career Scientists Participate in PlantingScience Digging Deeper

Professional Development in Colorado Springs ....................................................................................167

Upcoming Science Education Conferences ............................................................................................167

PseudoScience Fair at the University of Central Arkansas is an Opportunity to Engage

Students’ Critical Thinking and Communication Skills ......................................................................168

STUDENT SECTION

A Reflection on the Current State and Future Direction of Student

Membership of the BSA .......................................................................................................................................171

Quick Notes on the BOTANY 2017 Conference ...................................................................................173

Getting to Know your New Student Representative: Chelsea Pretz ..........................................174

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Harvard University Bullard Fellowships in Forest Research ..........................................................176

Tenure-Track Positions Open at Iowa State University ....................................................................176

BOOK REVIEWS

Bryology .........................................................................................................................................................................177

Development and structure ................................................................................................................................179

Ecology ..........................................................................................................................................................................180

Economic botany .....................................................................................................................................................182

Systematics.................................................................................................................................................................186

122

SOCIETY NEWS

H.R. 1054 – Botanical Sciences and Native

Plant Materials Research, Restoration, and

Promotion Act, affectionately referred to as the

“Botany Bill,” was introduced in the U.S. House

of Representatives on February 14, 2017 by

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) and co-sponsored

by Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL).
The Botany Bill has four main goals:
1. Promote critical plant materials and resto-

ration-related research.
2. Enhance demand for botanical scientists

through the authorization of federal agencies

to hire more botanical staff and to create a stu-

dent loan forgiveness program for botanists in

federal agencies.

3. Drive demand for native plant materials

by establishing a preference for the use of lo-

cally adapted native plant materials in feder-

al land management activities, maintenance,

and restoration. An amendment to the Sur-

face Transportation Act and Federal Building

Code would create a preference for the use na-

tive plant materials, to the extent practicable.
4. Support rare, endangered, and native plants

via federal programs through the authoriza-

tion of the Plant Conservation Alliance Inter-

agency Plant Materials Efforts and implemen-

tation of the Seed Strategy, and the Bureau of

Land Management’s Native Plant Materials

Development Program. Additional amend-

ments to the National Fish and Wildlife Foun-

dation and the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956

would authorize grants to the states to protect

rare and endangered plant species.

Benefits to the Botanical

Community at Large

The development of the Botany Bill helped

hone and answer the questions: what are the

key issues in supporting plant conservation in

the U.S. and what do we need to do to address

them? The Botany Bill provides a tool for di-

Be an Effective Advocate for

Plants: Lessons from the

Botany Bill (H.R. 1054) and

What You Can Do!

By Krissa Skogen, Northwestern University,

and Kal Tuominen, John Carroll University

PSB 63 (3) 2017

123

verse stakeholders (botanic gardens, universi-

ties, garden clubs, native plant societies, and

nurseries) to speak with one voice and pro-

vides an entry point for discussions with elect-

ed officials, agency heads, and appropriators.

The Most Impactful Things

You Can Do

1. Meet with your Representative locally (dis-

trict office) during congressional recesses. In-

vite them to visit your lab/institution when

he or she is in the District.
2. Focus your message. Let your Represen-

tatives know what you do and why it is im-

portant.
3. Focus on one broad topic (e.g., supporting

the Botany Bill; federal funding for research).

Explain the issues affecting constituents, and

how your “ask” (e.g., supporting the Botany

Bill) will benefit them. Avoid details, focus

on the big picture, and use accessible lan-

guage (avoid jargon). Use your time wisely—

you’ll usually have just 5 to 10 minutes of your

Representative’s time.

4. Persistent contact is key. Follow up with a

thank you and additional information.
Whether emailing, speaking with a legislative

aid, or attending a town hall meeting, main-

tain your relationships with your elected of-

ficials!
5. Policy making takes time—stay involved!

Some legislators are interested in supporting

a particular bill but want to see support from

legislators from a different political party be-

fore they will commit to bill sponsorship or

a “yes” vote. This is where connecting with

botanists, friends, and family living in other

districts and states on key issues can become

powerful!

How To Get Involved

To date, the bill has a total of 19 co-sponsors

from ten states. Additional bi-partisan sup-

port is needed in the House of Representa-

tives. Ask your Representative to co-sponsor

the Bill!
Track the status of the Bill here and sign

up for alerts: https://www.congress.gov/

bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1054 .

PSB 63 (3) 2017

124

This paper grew out of a conversation by the

authors following the Botany 2015 meeting.

Observing that there were several examples of

excellent moderators as well as a few cases in

which further improvement would be helpful,

the authors developed these suggestions based

on their own experiences.
If you are a new researcher embarking on

your career, one of the best and quickest ways

for you to develop your professional network

is to act as a session moderator at a conference

in your field. Not only does this associate your

name with a topic or area, but you will also

have the opportunity to connect with your

peers and to meet top senior researchers in

your field. However, this is also a very public

role that you may feel hesitant at first to em-

brace. Here are a few tips to get you started.
1. Thinking About Moderating? One of the

key traits of effective session moderators is

that they are there to facilitate the session, not

to dominate it. As a moderator, you have mul-

tiple responsibilities: director, timekeeper, and

enforcer. Ultimately, your job is to make sure

the expectations are clear and participants are

held accountable. Some of the top experts in

a field can be some of the worst session mod-

erators, whereas junior academics (graduate

students, post-docs, or assistant professors)

can be the most effective moderators. So feel

free to give it a try and don’t be intimidated by

seniority.
2. Set the Stage for Success. To make sure

that your session flows well throughout its as-

signed time, it is important to make adequate

preparations beforehand:

• If you will be co-moderating the session

with a second person, make sure that you

discuss beforehand how to divide up the

responsibilities. Most often one moder-

ator will cover the first half of a session

(if there is a break in the middle) and the

second moderator will cover the second

portion. If at all possible, it is a good idea

to make sure that a moderator is not re-

sponsible for the part of the session in

which he or she will be presenting (it can

be very difficult to be one’s own time-

keeper!).

By Theresa M. Culley

, Professor, Depart-

ment of Biological Sciences, University of

Cincinnati, and Kathryn E. Theiss, Assis-

tant Professor, Department of Biology,

California State University Dominguez Hills

How to Be an Effective

Conference Session Moderator

Footnotes

Manuscript received 9 May 2017; revision

accepted 21 June 2017.

Corresponding e-mail: Theresa.Culley@uc.edu

doi: 10.3732/psb.1700002

PSB 63 (3) 2017

125

• Confirm beforehand whether you will

have an AV assistant to load each talk or

whether that will be your responsibility.

• Make sure all presentation files are avail-

able beforehand on the computer with

easily recognizable names and placed in

order.

• Have a way to keep track of time, wheth-

er a separate timer or a stopwatch on

your phone. The phone option can also

be effective if it includes an audible alarm

(but see below).

• Just as you would practice your own pre-

sentation for a conference, it is also im-

portant to practice all titles and names of

presenters (assuming such information is

available beforehand). On the day of the

session, show up early to greet presenters

and make sure that your pronunciation

of their names and presentation titles is

correct (ask if in doubt; they will thank

you for it later).

3. Let the Force Be With You. As the modera-

tor, your job is to make sure that the session is

successful; this means that not only do all talks

remain on schedule, but ideally your actions

create an environment where researchers can

form valuable contacts that may lead to future

advances in their field. To make sure that the

session stays on track, try the following:

• Begin on time. This is essential to demon-

strate that you hold yourself accountable

to the same expectations you have of the

participants.

• At the beginning of the session, welcome

attendees and participants. Be sure to

mention the session name in case some-

one is in the wrong room. Finally, intro-

duce yourself as the moderator of the ses-

sion, providing your name and affiliation.

• Outline the ground rules at the very be-

ginning of the session. Explain when you

will indicate how much time has passed

(usually 12-14 minutes for a 15-minute

time slot), and how you will indicate this

(standing up, raising a hand, etc.). Most

presenters greatly appreciate getting

some indication of how much time they

have left in their allotted time period.

• Ask presenters politely to please respect

their time intervals so all talks can remain

on track, but also clearly indicate the con-

sequences for talking too long—injecting

a little humor is often very effective (de-

pending on your own personal style). For

example, some moderators use an audi-

ble alarm that can be heard at the end of

the presenter’s time; this makes it quite

obvious to everyone in the room that the

time period has been reached. However,

make sure that the alarm is not too dis-

tracting. Other moderators slowly walk

forward at the end of the time interval

(and who wants someone slowly walk-

ing toward them as they try to finish up

their presentation?). This is usually quite

effective in persuading authors to stick to

their allotted time. And better yet, follow

up. The crowd may laugh the first time

the moderator starts to walk toward a

presenter, but you can bet that all other

presenters will be keeping track of their

time!

• At the beginning of each talk, introduce

the presenter, making sure to state the ti-

tle clearly. If it has changed from what is

printed, be sure to read it from the title

slide. Some moderators prefer to instead

mention some interesting facts about the

presenter (his or her institution, status as

PSB 63 (3) 2017

126

a graduate or undergraduate student, and

the name of his or her research advisor).

• If the session will be stopping for a cof-

fee break, be sure to announce the time

when the session will resume (and stick

to it!). When the session begins again af-

ter the break, welcome all the attendees

once again, announcing the name of the

session, in case some attendees may be in

the incorrect room. Immediately intro-

duce the next speaker and off you go!

4. Houston, We Have a Problem. As a ju-

nior researcher, you may have avoided serv-

ing as a moderator up to this point because

of a deep-seated fear of having your session

spiral out of your control. What if a partic-

ularly long-winded speaker goes on relent-

lessly or a series of presenters run past their

allotted time, and the session falls hopeless-

ly out of sync with all other sessions? Worse

yet, what if that overly verbose, superfluous

speaker is none other than the top researcher

in your field, perhaps someone who may re-

view your next paper or grant proposal? What

if the computer malfunctions, the fire alarm

goes off, or someone has a medical emergen-

cy? How do you recover and get things back

on track?

• Although these problems are exceeding-

ly rare, it may be helpful to think about

some solutions, if at least to relieve any

undue anxiety. In other sessions you have

attended, how have any of these issues

been handled? What worked? What did

not? Learn from other moderators’ suc-

cesses and mistakes and incorporate that

into your own personal style.

• For the overly verbose presenter, make

sure to follow through on the rules that

you have outlined at the beginning of

the session and enforce the time signals.

If speakers are going over their allotted

time and have ignored all signals, it will

be necessary to interrupt them to ask if

they are nearly done. This can feel awk-

ward but it will be much appreciated by

the audience. In the worst-case scenario,

you can turn flash off the lights (if they

are still on or dimmed) as a major hint—

but use this only as a last resort!

• If one speaker talks too long, remember

that all subsequent presenters should

still receive their full-allotted time. To get

back to the normal session schedule, you

should ask that the audience hold their

questions for the break.

5. What NOT to Do. Never, ever, move talks

from their allotted time period, even in the

very rare occasion a previous talk has been

canceled. This is critical as attendees may be

moving between sessions and are relying on

the talk being given at its published time pe-

riod. If there is a cancellation that is known

ahead of time, be sure to mention it at the

beginning of the session and at any session

breaks. Your attendees will be grateful for the

information.
6. To Infinity and Beyond. Just as you have

spent time carefully introducing the session

and setting it up for success, you also need to

bring it to its final conclusion. There is noth-

ing more disheartening after a series of excit-

ing talks than awkward silence or just a casual

“Thanks for coming.”

• Move to the front of the room and signal

the end of the session, such as, “And that

concludes the session on [topic here].”

Thank all participants (especially if they

all stayed on time!) as well as your audi-

ence for their attention. This is especially

important for those sessions that occur at

the end of the day or on the last day of

PSB 63 (3) 2017

127

the conference when attendance is usu-

ally light.

• If appropriate, you can also suggest that

any interested attendees gather after-

wards to exchange information or join

one another for an impromptu meal.

Overall, the most helpful way to learn how to

effectively moderate a scientific conference

session is to watch how others perform the

task. You will need to figure out which tactics

are most effective and which you would feel

comfortable implementing. What have you

seen that works? What would you do differ-

ently? In addition to being a much-appreci-

ated service to your society or organization,

moderating a session is an ideal opportunity

to expand your network, meet new research-

ers, and ultimately benefit your own research

program. Both of these authors have benefited

immensely from the experience. Give it a try

and you may just realize how exciting it can

be!

[The authors thank several mentors who

first encouraged them to gather the courage

to become session moderators: A.K. Sakai,

S.G. Weller, A.A. Snow, S. Kephart, and K.

Holsinger. They also deeply appreciate past

moderators who have served at meetings

hosted by the Botanical Society of America

over the past 20 years.]

FROM THE

PSB

Latest News on the

PLANTS Grant Program

The PLANTS grant program (Preparing

Leaders and Nurturing Tomorrow’s Scientists:

Increasing the diversity of plant scientists) has

just finished its seventh year. Currently man-

aged by co-PIs Ann Sakai (UC-Irvine), Anna

Monfils (Central Michigan University), and

BSA Staff Member Heather Cacanindin, the

goal of the PLANTS program is to encour-

age students from under-represented popula-

tions to become part of the scientific botanical

community and, in particular, to help them

understand the opportunities possible with

an advanced degree and to learn about careers

in the plant sciences. The program, which is

funded by the National Science Foundation

with additional support from BSA, brings 10

to 14 students, who are chosen through an

open application process, each year to the an-

nual BOTANY conference. The review com-

mittee for the applications includes members

of the BSA Human Diversity Committee and

two former PLANTS Scholars.
PLANTS students attend scientific talks with

mentors, a workshop on applying to graduate

school, the Human Diversity Luncheon, and

numerous social and networking events. With

assistance from Dr. Sakai, Dr. Monfils, and Dr.

Ann Hirsch, as well as all those who served

on the PLANTS grant selection committee, 72

students were funded over the first six years of

the PLANTS grant (2011-2016). In 2017, 13

students were selected to attend the Botany

2017 Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.
At the core of the program are the mentors

who serve to guide the students through what

to expect at a scientific conference of this mag-

nitude. Each student is assigned a peer and a

senior mentor. Mentors were matched to stu-

dents based on student requests for particular

research areas. A new addition to the program

this year was a pre-meeting webinar hosted by

the PIs and BSA staff to acquaint students and

mentors with meeting opportunities, logistics,

and responsibilities.
Mentors contact students before the meeting,

attend social activities and scientific talks with

the students, help the students network with

other students and faculty at the meeting, and

in general, introduce students to the broader

relevance and application of the discipline.

Mentors pass on to the students the genuine

intellectual excitement and involvement of

the conference participants. In fact, many

mentors maintain contact with their mentees

after the conference is over, providing insight

and guidance on their career path and assist-

ing them with graduate school and grant ap-

plications.
Our mentors are committed to helping young

scientists and increasing the diversity of plant

scientists. Mentors hail from government

positions, small colleges, large research in-

stitutions, and nonprofit organizations. They

represent the variety of job opportunities in

the botanical sciences. Almost 100 mentors

have participated in the program since 2011.

They enthusiastically share their personal ex-

periences and expertise in the sciences and

serve without compensation or reimburse-

ment. The mentors are truly the backbone of

the PLANTS program and provide impactful

experiences for the PLANTS students. The

networking and mentoring both proved to

PSB 63 (3) 2017

144

be highlights for the students as they helped

to create a “sense of community” and a place

where the students felt supported. One 2017

PLANTS recipients recently stated, “I was so

humbled by how kind, supportive, and helpful

my mentors were.” Another reiterated the im-

portance of the sense of community created

by the PLANTS program: “The program has

given me a community that I was lacking and

has tremendously increased my confidence as

a student.”
The PLANTS grant co-PIs keep in touch with

the past PLANTS scholars and track their

progress and careers. So how is the PLANTS

II program impacting careers? For our 2016

PLANTS cohort of scholars, one student is

currently in a PhD program and has received

a Ford Foundation Fellowship, three students

are in Masters programs, one student is study-

ing at an Environmental Science Institute, and

two students are working in the plant scienc-

es at botanical gardens/herbaria and plan to

apply to graduate school this fall. This means

that 82% of the 2016 PLANTS scholars are

still pursuing careers in the botanical sciences.
The success, enthusiasm, and contributions

of the PLANTS participants have helped to

make our botanical community more aware

and proactive about encouraging the diver-

sity of plant scientists within the Society and

the plant sciences as a whole. We continue to

have increased recognition and support of

the program from members of the Society,

as PLANTS I program alumni are active and

are recognized within our scientific commu-

nity. In fact, two past PLANTS scholars have

been elected student representatives to the

BSA Board (James McDaniel [UW-Madison]

and Chelsea Pretz [UC-Boulder]), and sev-

eral have been recognized with Best Student

Paper awards by their sections as well as BSA

research awards. Moreover, a transformation

of the membership of the BSA has begun to

occur as documented by the increase in the

diversity of our overall membership. From

2011 to 2017, representation of BSA members

who were American Indian/Alaska natives,

Pacific Islanders, and African American/

Black together rose from <1% to 2.7%, and

members who were Hispanic or Latino/a rose

from 2.3% to 4.6% of the U.S. membership, for

a total of 7.3% of U.S. members.
Science will not thrive unless it is equally ac-

cessible to students from all backgrounds, in-

cluding those from groups that are currently

underrepresented. Access involves knowl-

edge about the discipline, understanding

the culture of science, feeling welcome as a

participant in scientific endeavors and as a

member of the scientific community, and un-

derstanding job opportunities in the area. The

PLANTS program continues to be successful

in encouraging students from underrepre-

sented backgrounds to become part of our

scientific community. The PLANTS program

is just one part of an overall growing effort by

the Society to provide a range of profession-

al development opportunities to our student

members. Some of these efforts include host-

ing non-academic career panels, workshops

and symposia about science communication

and dissemination, broader impacts issues,

and career speed-dating.
When the call for applications comes out in

February for the PLANTS Award, please care-

fully consider those who you might encour-

age to apply for this opportunity. In May, we

will again be seeking peer and senior mentors

for the 2018 cohort of PLANTS Scholars. If

you are planning to attend BOTANY 2018

in Rochester, this could be a fantastic way for

you to make new connections and positively

impact the life of an aspiring plant scientist.

If you have any questions about the program,

please feel free to contact the BSA Office or go

to https://botany.org/home/awards/trav-

el-awards-for-students/plants-grants.html.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

145

After 15 years of serving as the BSA’s executive

director, Bill Dahl retired from his position on

October 1, 2017. He’s affected the lives of count-

less BSA members and leaves behind a spirit in

the Society that will continue for many years.

The PSB is pleased to present a final discussion

with Dahl just before his departure. We wish all

the best to Bill, his wife Janice, on future days

filled with travel and photography!
What drew you to the position of Executive

Director of the Botanical Society of America?
It’s actually a love story. I was having a won-

derful life in New Zealand in a similar position

with New Zealand’s largest community health

provider. New Zealand has the “dreaded” na-

tional health system and they actually take

care of people with mental health issues! We

assisted the most severe in a transition from

hospitalization back into community living. A

fantastic system focusing on health—but that

gets away from the question!
I came to the USA in 2000 to visit a U.S. part-

ner and ended up at the conference of the

American Society of Association Executives.

My boss Gerry was attending and he invit-

ed me along. He felt we’d have a week to talk

strategy.
On the first morning I attended a session called

a CEO Boot Camp. I walked into a room with

about 600 people, started one way, stopped,

turned around and found a seat right next to

Janice Grauberger (now Dahl). From there we had

some amazing discussions and a very nice few days.

I did see Gerry a few times in passing (LOL).
Two years later, our kids (from previous mar-

riages) had all graduated and left the nests,

and we were in a race to find employment in

each other’s countries. Jan’s connections put

her onto the BSA’s search for an Executive Di-

rector. I applied and had the pleasure of meet-

ing with Judy Jernstedt and Ed Schneider in

the Los Angeles airport. Months later I came

to the BSA meeting in Madison for another

interview and had the pleasure of meeting

with the Board. It was also my introduction

to Johanne Stogran and her family, who were

running the Botany conferences. By October I

was in St. Louis working for you.
What were your first impressions of the BSA

and/or botanists in general?
It was nice to see and feel how important the

long-term health of the BSA was to most of

the Board and Society members. In conjunc-

tion with that, how dedicated people were to

An “Exit Interview” with Retiring

BSA Executive Director, Bill Dahl

PSB 63 (3) 2017

146

plants and everything about plants and mak-

ing sure others had the opportunity to share

in their discoveries. I’ve been extremely fortu-

nate to be involved with this group and have

learned so much about so many things.
What’s the biggest challenge that you felt

you faced as Executive Director of the BSA?
Hmm, there were so many exciting things. I

guess the first was landing in St. Louis to the

large space allocated to the BSA at the Mis-

souri Botanical Garden. There was a desk

and a phone—that was it. From there it was

building a team and setting the foundation in

an effort to focus on the BSA’s mission. The

Board provided me/us with the document

titled “BSA Strategic Planning/Action Plan:

Deep Thought,” which set the foundation for

the next six to seven years of work. It was a

fantastic map forward.
The first thing I did was ask Wanda Lovan to

join the team. Her ability to remember people,

events, and everything else we were involved

in has always been a tremendous asset for the

Society. She’s also the glue that pulls every-

thing together.
What are you proudest of?
First would be the team that was pulled to-

gether to support the Society’s mission. They

have and will continue to make anything pos-

sible.
I’d love to be able to say my biggest achieve-

ment was the growth and development of the

Botany Conference program—but that was

Johanne Stogran working with various BSA/

ASPT/ABLS and AFS meeting directors. Or

that it was the development of our publica-

tions, the American Journal of Botany, Appli-

cations in Plant Sciences, and the Plant Sci-

ence Bulletin, and the support given to their

authors—but that was Amy McPherson, Beth

Parada, and Richard Hund working with the

editors and editorial boards. Or that it was our

response to educational needs and the devel-

opment of the PlantingScience program—but

that was initially Claire Hemingway, followed

by the amazing work Catrina Adams and Jodi

Creasap-Gee are doing now along with var-

ious education directors and so many ded-

icated members and Society partners. And

the growth in the membership, in particular

younger members and building the platform

for them to become involved in steering the

future direction of the Society—but, again,

that was someone else: Heather Cacanindin.

Of course, all of this involved developing

technologies and web-based support led by

Rob Brandt.
And the Boards and Board members—what

a treat! I’ve had the pleasure of working with

a wide range of botanists. Just the Presidents

alone—Judy Jernstedt, Scott Russell, Lin-

da Graham, Allison Snow, Ed Schneider,

Chris Haufler, Pam Soltis, Karl Niklas, Kent

Holsinger, Judy Skog, Steve Weller, Elizabeth

Kellogg, Pam Diggle, Tom Ranker, Dick Ol-

mstead, Gordon Uno and Loren Rieseberg—

wow! And that’s just a small part of the entire

group of Board members. And then there are

folks like the current PSB editor, Mackenzie

Bill Dahl in the early days of his time at the

BSA, along with Administrations Officer

Wanda Lovan.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

147

Taylor, who was the first BSA student repre-

sentative on the Board (and the 10 or so that

have followed her). It makes me smile.
So you see, it’s always been the team! We are

botanical.
The PlantingScience program is a major high-

light. In Mobile, in 2003 Dr. Bruce Alberts

challenged us to get off our backsides to sup-

port science education in a meaningful way. I

feel we continue to do so; there are very few

ventures of this type bringing scientific soci-

eties together to support the understanding of

science. In concert, we support middle- and

high-school teachers while mentoring their

students in the core principles of scientific in-

vestigation. Dollar for dollar, this program has

more potential to get young people involved

with plants, science, and scientists than any-

thing else out there.
What changes, positive or negative, have

you seen in the Society, or in scientific soci-

eties in general, during your time as Execu-

tive Director?
Slowly but surely, collaboration is becoming

important across scientific societies. Biology

is so diverse that it creates a real communica-

tions problem. AIBS made a good move in fo-

cusing on legislative issues because someone

needs to speak for biology, and the mix of so-

cieties makes it very difficult. I hope this con-

tinues and that folks find new ways to work

together.
I’d also like to stress how the efforts of a few

make a huge, really huge, difference for the

whole. Diversification is an important direc-

tion in science as our demographics shift.

I remember back as far as 2003 when BSA

members Karen Renzaglia and Jeff Osborn

put together the Undergraduate Mentoring

in Evolutionary Biology (UMEB) program to

support under-represented peoples in coming

to our meetings. Later after the UMEB pro-

gram expired, Ann Sakai and Ann Hersch,

supported by then-BSA President Judy Skog

and Heather Cacanindin, evolved this concept

into the BSA PLANTS program. I smile with

the knowledge that two of the current BSA

Board members are past PLANTS recipients.
What do you think will be the biggest chal-

lenge for the Society in the next 10 years?
Filling the understanding gap as to why it is

important to support scientific societies and

society-based publishing. The BSA has done a

very good job in supporting member-publish-

ing options in the American Journal of Botany,

Applications in Plant Science, and Plant Sci-

ence Bulletin, yet we continue to hear young

scientists looking to publish in other places

without understanding why.
Do you have any parting words of wisdom?
Cherish the importance of plants, and what

you and what your peers do as botanists!

From ecosystem down to the tiny bits of DNA,

plants are critical to all life as we know it.

What’s Next Regarding the

BSA Executive Director

Position?
With Bill’s retirement, Heather

Cacanindin has been named as

the Interim Executive Director.

A search committee has been

formed, and its members will

be reviewing applications for

the Executive Director position.

The position should be filled in

early 2018.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

148

After careful consideration and deliberation

over the past year and a half regarding the fu-

ture of its publishing program, the BSA has

decided to enter a publishing partnership

with John Wiley and Sons, beginning official-

ly in January 2018. This agreement will affect

the Society’s two research journals, American

Journal of Botany and Applications in Plant

Sciences. Both titles will be hosted on Wiley

Online Library, including back file content

from AJB dating back to 1914.
“The Botanical Society of America looks for-

ward to this partnership with Wiley,” said BSA

President, Dr. Loren Rieseberg. “Wiley’s prov-

en expertise in scientific publishing and mar-

keting will not only expand the reach of BSA

publications, but also provide enhanced tools

and technologies to assist our authors and

members with the publication process and the

dissemination of their research.”
“Wiley is proud to be selected as BSA’s pub-

lishing partner,” said Colette E. Bean, Vice

President & Society Publishing Director for

the US, Wiley. “The BSA is a leader in plant

science research, and we are honored to part-

ner with them to publish their prestigious

journals. We very much look forward to

working with the BSA to continue to publish

high-quality content that supports their com-

munity of authors, readers, and members, and

to further advance the knowledge and com-

munication of botanical research.”

What does this mean for readers and authors

of the journals? First of all, editorial control of

the journals remains with the editors-in-chief

(Drs. Pamela Diggle for AJB and Theresa Cul-

ley for APPS). BSA staff members for each

journal (Amy McPherson and Richard Hund

for AJB and Beth Parada for APPS) will also

remain to serve authors, reviewers, and edi-

tors throughout the publication process. The

article submission system authors have used

for years, Editorial Manager, will be retained.
The most visible change will be the online

hosting of each journal via the Wiley Online

Library. The new websites will offer an up-

dated look for each journal and better author

tools. With Wiley, the BSA is looking to ex-

pand the journals’ reach; modernize the on-

line presence; support our authors, reviewers,

editors, members, and subscribers; and keep

current with the demands and challenges of

scientific publishing in the 21st century.
With changes to come, one thing above all will

remain the same: the mission of the Society

to promote botany. If you have any questions,

please contact us at ajb@botany.org.

BSA Enters Publishing Partnership

with John Wiley and Sons

149

n a poster designed by cartoonist Walt Kel-

ley to publicize the first annual Earth Day

in 1970, Pogo the Possum is shown picking

up trash that humans have strewn across his

home in Okefenokee Swamp, with the head-

line, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

This quote has even greater resonance today.

Humans are the main threat to life on our

planet and have emerged as its dominant se-

lective force. While climate change receives

the most publicity, it isn’t the only concern.

Other threats include habitat destruction, ur-

banization, and the spread of pests and dis-

eases. In a human-altered world, plants must

adapt to these changes, migrate to a new en-

vironment, or die. I devoted my presidential

address to discussing the importance of one

of these responses to anthropogenic change:

evolutionary adaptation. I specifically asked

the following questions: How fast can plants

evolve? How fast do they need to evolve to

Plant Evolution in a

Human-Altered World

By Loren H. Rieseberg,
BSA President

University of

British Columbia

cope with climate change? How can we aid or

hinder adaptation? And, how can we convert

this knowledge into action?

How fast can plants evolve?

Despite the focus of evolutionary biologists on

adaptation for over 150 years, an answer to this

question remains out of our reach. Nonetheless,

theoretical and empirical studies allow us

to draw some preliminary conclusions. In

an influential theoretical study of rates of

adaptive phenotypic evolution, Bürger and

Lynch (1995) employed a simulation model

in which selection acts on a quantitative trait

that is correlated with fitness. They reported

that in a large population, the sustainable rate

of phenotypic evolution is “a few percent”

of a phenotypic standard deviation (SD)

per generation. In small populations, the

sustainable rate of evolution was even lower:

<1% of a phenotypic standard deviation per

generation. Recent theoretical studies support

these general conclusions (e.g., Kopp and

Matuszewski, 2013).

Why is evolution so slow, at least according

to theory? One potential impediment to

adaptation is the depletion of beneficial

SPECIAL FEATURE

Remarks from Botany 2017 by President Loren Rieseberg

PSB 63 (3) 2017

150

genetic variation. The rate of adaptation is

also limited by the number of selective deaths

that have to occur to replace one allele with

another. This is referred to as the “cost of

selection” (Haldane, 1957) and can lead to

population extinction if selection is too strong.

Conversely, phenotypic plasticity and density-

dependent or “soft” selection provide a buffer

against extinction. That is, if the strength of

selection is commonly reduced at low densities

(e.g., due to a reduction in the intensity of

competition or spread of a disease), extinction

risk might be much lower than predicted by

conventional “hard selection” models.

What can we learn from empirical studies?

Evolutionary biologists typically quantify

rates of contemporary phenotypic evolution

in terms of Haldanes, where a Haldane is

defined as a change of one phenotypic SD

per generation. I searched the literature for

studies that had estimated rates of phenotypic

evolution in plants, building on a review

by Bone and Ferris (2001). I only included

studies that reported on rates of phenotypic

evolution in natural populations and verified

through common garden or reciprocal

transplant studies that the phenotypic

changes were genetically based rather than

plastic. Results indicate that while rates of

evolution can be very fast over the short

term, over longer time periods, phenotypic

evolution slows and is roughly consistent with

theoretical predictions (Figure 1). The decline

in rates over time likely has multiple causes,

including fluctuating selection pressures, the

approach to a new phenotypic optimum, and

the depletion of genetic diversity.

●

●
●

●

●
●

●

●
●

●

●
●

●

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

100

125

Generations

Haldanes

Rates of Phenotypic Evolution

Figure 1. Rates of phenotypic evolution in plants.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

151

How fast do plants need to

evolve to cope with climate

change?

To estimate the extent of phenotypic change

required to cope with climate change, I

surveyed the literature for studies that report

on phenotypic differences along latitudinal or

altitudinal clines. A rate of 0.45°C/degree of

latitude (Lindzen, 1994) and 0.5°C/100 m of

altitude (Marshal et al., 2007) was employed

to estimate temperature differences between

study sites unless more accurate values were

provided by the study. As before, only studies

that distinguished between genetic and plastic

differences were included in the analysis.

While there was considerable variation among

traits, phenotype differentiation averaged ~0.3

SD per degree of Celsius, which provides a

crude estimate of the magnitude of phenotypic

change necessary for adaptation to predicted

climate change.

Climate projections suggest temperatures will

rise between 2

and 5

C over the next century

(Raftery et al., 2017). Based on average

phenotypic differences observed along

altitudinal and latitudinal clines (above), we

can extrapolate that, on average, phenotypic

change of 0.6 to 1.5 phenotypic SDs per

century will be required to adapt to predicted

temperature changes, and in the absence

of migration. Assuming an average rate of

phenotypic evolution of 0.11 Haldanes, which

seems reasonable at least in the short term,

this implies that species with short to medium

generation times (8 years or less) might be

able to evolve rapidly enough to cope with

climate change (Figure 2). Species with longer

generation times must migrate.

Of course, this is a very rough approximation

and does not take phenotypic plasticity into

account. Also, there is likely to be considerable

variation among traits, populations, and

species in their response to selection. It

might be, for example, that traits more closely

associated with fitness will evolve more slowly

due to reduced genetic variation or genetic

and physiological constraints. In addition,

populations facing climate change may be

subject to other potential conflicting selection

pressures such as competition from invasive

species, new diseases, loss of pollinators,

habitat disturbance, and so forth that will slow

evolutionary responses to climate change.

Thus, it is important to compare these results

with other studies that examine threats to

plant species.

First, it is important to keep in mind that

presently climate factors are not a leading

Phenotypic SDs

0.6

1.5

Generation time (years)

1 2 4 8 16 32

Figure 2. Maximum expected phenotypic ad-

aptation over the next century compared to

necessary adaptation predicted by climate

models.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

152

threat to plant species. Kew Garden’s State

of the World’s Plants (2016) quantifies the

threatening processes for vascular plants

on the IUCN Red List. Agriculture (31%),

Biological Resource Use (21%), Urbanization

(13%), Natural System Modifications (9%),

and Invasives and New Pests and Diseases

(8%) are the main threats. Climate change and

severe weather are considered to be threatening

factors in <4% of species, but this number

is expected to grow in the future. A meta-

analysis of 131 studies across a broader array

of organismal groups (Urban, 2015) suggests

that climate change is a somewhat greater

threat (7.9% of species and accelerating) than

implied by the Kew report, but currently still

less than other major threatening processes.

On the other hand, a recent study of extinction

at the population level across the geographic

ranges of numerous plant and animal species

reported that local population extinctions at

the warm edge of species’ ranges are frequent

(Wiens, 2016). In plants, for example, roughly

40% of 260 plant species surveyed suffer from

warm edge extinctions. This implies that,

contrary to my calculations, populations of

many species are unable to cope with climate

change. Perhaps adaption at range edges is

frequently limited by maladaptive gene flow,

insufficient genetic variation, or conflicting

selection pressures.

Lastly, it is important to remember that

evolutionary adaptation is only one of several

biological processes that impact organismal

responses to environmental change. Other

key processes not considered here include

migration, species interactions, demography,

physiology, phenotypic plasticity, phylogenetic

constraints, and characteristics of the

environment. Ideally, models should include

information about all of these processes to

predict climate change responses (e.g., Urban

et al., 2016).

How can we aid or hinder

adaptation?

Understanding the factors that limit

adaptation is central to understanding how

evolutionary change can be facilitated when

desired (e.g., adapting to climate change) and

hindered when necessary (e.g., slowing the

evolution of pests and weeds). Population size

is probably most critical, as a large population

brings both genetic and demographic benefits

(Figure 3). Probably less widely appreciated

is the need to reduce conflicting selection

pressures brought about by the wide array of

threatening processes described above. Lastly,

it is important to manage levels of gene flow.

Gene flow can be beneficial by increasing

the genetic variation available for selection.

However, gene flow can be potentially

maladaptive as well by reducing the efficiency

of selection. The latter is most likely if levels

of gene flow are high and/or the gene flow

derives from genetically or ecologically

divergent source populations.

In terms of specific actions, one of the

most widely debated approaches is assisted

migration or assisted colonization (Ricciardi

and Simberloff, 2009; Aitken and Whitlock,

2013). As implied by the name, the method

refers to the translocation of genotypes to

a more suitable environment or one that

is predicted to be more suitable in the

future. Assisted migration includes assisted

population migration, assisted range

migration, and assisted species migration.

Assisted population migration, in which

genotypes are better matched with the

environment within the current range of

PSB 63 (3) 2017

153

a species, is least controversial and has

the potential to rescue species that cannot

migrate sufficiently fast or lack the capacity to

adapt in situ (Vitt et al., 2009). Assisted range

migration and assisted species migration are

more controversial because populations are

translocated beyond current range boundaries,

leading to legitimate concerns about potential

harm to recipient communities (Ricciardi

and Simberloff, 2009). With that said, given

ongoing and predicted anthropogenic

impacts, inaction may result in greater damage

to biodiversity than the careful integration

of assisted migration (broadly defined) into

conservation strategies (Schwartz et al., 2009).

In addition to adaptation of natural

populations, more attention needs to be given

to adaptation of managed populations, such

as fiber, forage, and food crops. This is critical

because agriculture and biological resource

use (e.g., logging) are currently the greatest

threats to plant diversity. With an expanding

human population, and dietary shifts due to

increasing affluence, competition for land and

water is expected to further intensify in the

future. Thus, we must not only increase the

productivity of our crop, forest, and rangelands

(thereby sparing land for conservation), but

also modify our agricultural practices to make

them more biodiversity friendly (Kremen,

2015). Practices that enhance local adaptation

of crops and trees can contribute to both

goals. For example, Wang et al. (2006) has

shown that implementation of a knowledge-

based policy in which seeds are matched

to future local climate can increase forest

productivity by circa 35% relative to the status

quo. Likewise, the breeding and deployment

of locally adapted crops has the potential to

both increase yields and reduce the need for

external inputs such as water and fertilizer.

• Large popula+ons: ⇑ beneﬁcial muta-ons

• Strong selec-on: ⇑ ini-al rate of adapta-on

• Constant selec-on

Speed of adapta-on

• Small Popula+ons: ⇓ beneﬁcial muta-ons, dri9, inbreeding

depression

• Fluctua-ng selec-on

• Low trait heritability

• Mul+ple Conﬂic+ng Selec+on Pressures

• Gene ﬂow: increases variability, but reduces eﬃciency of

selec-on

• Gene-c correla-ons

Figure 3. Factors that affect rates of adaptation.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

154

To accomplish this, we must tap the genetic

diversity of environmentally resilient wild

plants, which has been shaped by millions

of years of natural selection. While in some

cases (e.g., crop wild relatives) this can be

accomplished via conventional breeding,

given the urgency of reducing agriculture’s

footprint, we should embrace and utilize the

full arsenal of agricultural biotechnology.

Modern plant breeding practices have

developed crop varieties that perform

exceptionally well in monoculture and soils

enriched by synthetic mineral fertilizers

(N-P-K). However, these varieties typically

are less well-suited to more sustainable

agro-ecological farming practices such as

intercropping, perennial systems, organic

matter inputs to soil, etc., which increase crop

and non-crop diversity (Kremen et al., 2012).

We need to re-orient breeding efforts toward

the development of cultivars that are locally

adapted, environmental resilient, and well

suited to agro-ecological farming practices.

Such well-adapted varieties will be required if

sustainable and diversity-focused agriculture

is to match the productivity of conventional

farming.

Methods for hindering adaptation in pests

or weeds are important as well and can

be viewed as the flipside of encouraging

adaptation. A general strategy therefore is

to limit population sizes of the pest, as well

as to reduce the consistency and strength

of selection pressure from the focal control

agent. For example, to reduce the evolution

of herbicide resistance, standard management

procedures

(e.g., http://hracglobal.com/

prevention-management/best-management-

practices) inc

lude: (1) crop rotations, which

permit the rotation of herbicides that vary in

mode of action; (2) cultural control methods

(e.g., plowing, delayed planting, mulching,

etc.) that release the weed population from

herbicide pressures and reduce the soil

seed bank; and (3) herbicide mixtures or

sequential treatments of different herbicides.

Unfortunately, except when enforced by

strict regulatory regimes, the implementation

of evolutionarily informed management

strategies tends to be haphazard and resistance

evolution is inevitable.

In the future, new biotechnology approaches

may be employed to both aid and hinder

adaptation of natural populations. One of the

most promising of these is gene drive, in which

inheritance is biased toward a particular copy

of a gene. As a consequence, a “drive” allele

will spread much more quickly through a

population than a mutation governed by

conventional rules of inheritance. New gene

editing methods make it possible to build

robust gene drive systems that could, for

example, eliminate populations of invasive

species, pests, and weeds by driving in

sterility or sex ratio bias genes. Alternatively,

it might be feasible to drive in genes that

protect species at risk due to climate change

or reduce pest damage. Of course, there are

many risks associated with deployment of

drive systems. For example, drive alleles

might have unintended consequences due

to pleiotropic or epistatic effects. They also

may spread beyond the target species if it

has sexually compatible relatives, potentially

wreaking havoc in non-target species. Most

likely, though, natural resistance will arise

to the drive allele, so that it will be stopped

long before it can move across the range of a

system. The bottom line is that there is much

more that we need to understand before

drive alleles should be released into natural

populations.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

155

How can we convert this

knowledge into action?

A popular cartoon shows a group of scientists

sitting around a conference table with the

caption, “The latest research shows that

we really need to do something with all of

this research.” Scientists have historically

been strong proponents of curiosity-driven

research, in which they choose both the

question to be studied and the experimental

program. Results contribute to our basic

understanding of how the world works and

typically do not have an obvious application.

However, such research sometimes leads

to serendipitous breakthroughs. It also is

important to keep in mind that all applied

research builds on this foundational research.

The curiosity-driven research paradigm has

been extraordinarily successful and is arguably

mainly responsible for the extraordinary

pace of scientific discovery and technological

innovation seen over the past century. The

one potential weakness is that the knowledge

flow is unidirectional (from scientists to end-

users). This has sometimes been likened to a

loading dock. Scientists dump the information

on the loading dock, but most of the time no

one picks it up.

An alternative solution-driven paradigm

has been building steam of late, driven by

the desire of funders (mainly governments)

to extract greater economic benefits from

the science they fund. In this paradigm,

research is focused on finding solutions for

end-users, whether they are in government,

industry, NGOs, or society, more generally.

Knowledge is produced jointly and the flow

of knowledge is bidirectional, with benefits to

both researchers and end-users. Results tend

to be more specific and applicable to end-user

concerns. The downside is that such research

is less likely to contribute importantly to

our broader understanding of the natural

or physical world, and fundamental

breakthroughs are less likely.

I spent my first two decades in academia

focusing solely on curiosity-driven research

(and loving every minute of it). However,

given the severity of the challenges facing

the globe, I believe that there is a need for

both curiosity- and solution-driven research.

Thus, I urge botanists to engage with end-

users, such as land managers, farmers, plant

breeders, policymakers, etc. to learn their

concerns and co-design research programs

that may contribute to solutions. My own lab’s

efforts are now split approximately equally

between these two endeavors. I do miss the

heady days of doing whatever I wanted all of

the time, but my lab’s research program over

the past decade has been greatly enriched by

engagement with end-users.

While conducting research is important,

most of us will have a greater impact through

education. My own accomplishments pale

in comparison to those of my students. For

example, my first two students, Dulcé Arias

and Oscar Dorado, were both from the state

of Morelos, Mexico. After leaving my lab, they

returned to Morelos, where they established

the world’s largest tropical deciduous forest

preserve, the Huatla Sierra Biosphere Reserve

(http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-

sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/

biosphere-reserves/latin-america-and-

the-caribbean/mexico/sierra-de-huautla/).

Tropical deciduous forest is one of the

world’s most threatened habitats, and the

Huatla Reserve protects one of the few large

remnants of this unique ecosystem. A more

recent student, Hannes Dempewolf, joined

PSB 63 (3) 2017

156

my lab with the ambitious goal of feeding the

world over the next century as population

growth, changing diets, and climate change

create a perfect storm. He currently is doing

exactly that! After leaving my lab he joined

the Global Crop Diversity Trust, where he is

spearheading a $60 million project to adapt

crops to climate change.

By the time students reach our labs, though,

their trajectories are largely set. I have no

doubt, for example, that Dulcé, Oscar, and

Hannes would have done great things for

biodiversity and food security, respectively,

even if they had never set foot in my lab. We

arguably can have a greater influence on our

undergraduate students and on our children

by stimulating an interest in nature. I was

late in having children and have struggled

to engage them with nature while living in

an urban environment. Yet we have to teach

our children to love nature before asking

them to save it! My wife and I serve as the

zoologist and botanist, respectively, for a TV

show called “Scout and the Gumboot Kids,”

in which children (including our own) solve

nature mysteries. The hope is that the five-

minute show, which appears each morning

on CBC Kids

(http://www.cbc.ca/parents/

shows/view/scout-the-gumboot-kids), will

kindle children’s curiosity about nature and

foster a more protective vie

w of our natural

environment.

Conclusions

The meta-analyses I performed offer some

conclusions about the rates at which plants

can evolve, as well as the rate at which they

need to evolve to keep up with climate change.

Evolutionary rates can be high in the short

term, and potentially high enough to allow

many plant species to cope with climate

change. However, observations of frequent

population extinctions at the warm edge of

species’ ranges contradict this conclusion.

Possibly, adaption at range edges is limited

by other factors, such as conflicting selection

pressures due to other anthropogenic impacts.

I also made a call for the development of

strategies to aid adaptation when desired

and hinder it when necessary. In addition to

maintaining large and connected population

systems, we must attempt to limit the

conflicting selection pressures faced by

populations. More options exist for assisting

adaptation in managed populations, ranging

from assisted population migration to

selective breeding to gene editing. Equally

important are approaches to limit adaptation

in pests and weeds. Strategies utilized to slow

pest adaptation typically attempt to limit

population sizes, as well as to reduce the

consistency and strength of selection pressure

from a given control agent. More generally, our

focus going forward should be on adaptation

rather than preservation of the status quo.
To put this knowledge into action, I argued

that botanists need to become more engaged

with end-users, and that the botanical com-

munity should embrace both solution-based

and curiosity-driven research. However, we

likely will have our greatest impact through

education rather than research, especially by

inspiring the curiosity of our non-majors and

children about the natural world. The latter

hopefully will contribute to a needed cultural

shift towards valuing and protecting nature.

(Acknowledgements: I thank Sally Otto for

stimulating discussions about adaptation to

anthropogenic change and Julianno Sambat-

ti for compiling information on phenotypic

differences along clines.)

PSB 63 (3) 2017

157

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This paper grew out of a skill-building

workshop held at Botany 2017 in Fort Worth,

Texas.

iving a talk” or “preparing a lecture” has

become synonymous with putting to-

gether slides in presentation software such as

PowerPoint or Keynote. However, the power

of these tools cannot replace good fundamen-

tal presentation skills and may even detract

from your message. In addition, computer-less

“chalk-talks” for seminars or interviews are

gaining popularity. For people used to work-

ing with presentation software, going comput-

er-free can be a challenge. Planning for pacing

is important when you have to draw and write

everything out while you talk, and visual com-

ponents must be streamlined. However, un-

derstanding how to work with just a marker

and whiteboard will help you refine your mes-

sage to its most essential components. Here,

we provide tips for effectively communicating

information in a chalk-talk and give examples

of what to do and what not to do. We share

some of the feedback provided by participants

of the skill-building workshop we held on this

topic at Botany 2017.

By Melanie Link-Pérez (Oregon State University), Rebecca

Povilus (Harvard University), and James McDaniel (University of

Wisconsin-Madison)

Cutting the Cord: Tips for

Computer-Free Presentation Skills

1. Good fundamental presentation skills—

don’t forget your KAYAK.

The weekend after we decided to host a work-

shop together on presentation skills, one of us

(MLP) went on a whitewater kayaking adven-

ture. For those readers without first-hand ex-

perience, know that kayaking on a fast-mov-

ing river is quite different from paddling on a

lake or slow-moving river. If you don’t steer

properly and get into the right part of the riv-

er where the water is flowing, your kayak gets

hung up in the bends of the river with the flot-

sam and jetsam and you get tangled in all the

overhanging vegetation—a situation that the

River Guide called “the Jungle Tour.” While

this sounds attractive to a botanist, the jungle

tour isn’t really all that great!
The River Guide thankfully provided some

instruction to successfully navigate the river:

he said to “look” at where we wanted to go

and “paddle accordingly—sometimes hard

and fast.” He also cautioned us against look-

ing at the places where we didn’t want to

go—by shifting our eyes and focusing toward

those areas, we would end up paddling right

into them! For the sake of science, the River

Guide’s instruction was fol-

lowed (result: paddling like

a pro, with kayak moving

through the sweet spot of

the rapids) and, for com-

parison, ignored (result:

tangled up on the Jungle

Tour). Hypothesis testing

works.
Readers may wonder why

we’re sharing this story

PSB 63 (3) 2017

159

here. The River Guide’s simple instruction is

equally applicable to making good presenta-

tions: Know where you want to go and Do

what it takes to get there. The word “KAY-

AK” also makes a helpful acronym to remem-

ber the following tips for giving a good pre-

sentation.
“Know”
There are several things you need to know:

• Know your audience (who are they,

why are they there, what do they already

know, what questions will they want an-

swered).

• Know your goal—your objectives—for

the presentation. What are your major

points? What information does your

audience need in order to follow your

presentation? What figures/diagrams are

necessary for audience to follow and un-

derstand your message?

“Ask”
Ask questions!

• A good presentation is really about com-

munication, and that communication

should be two-way. Ask questions so you

can better know your audience and en-

gage them. Of course, sometimes when

you engage the audience in this way, you

can end up taking a bit of a Jungle Tour—

but that is okay, because you Know what

your goals are and how to reach them, so

you will be able to get back on track and

into the flow of your message.

“You tell a story”
A good presentation tells a story.

• You aren’t going to go into all the de-

tails—just focus on the parts that enable

you to tell an effective story, one that pro-

vides context and has a beginning, mid-

dle, and end. We are naturally drawn to

a story and find it easier to connect to

information shared as part of a story; a

story gives us a way to connect with the

material shared in a presentation—that

material goes from being disparate pieces

of information (or “facts”) into forming a

more cohesive whole.

• We are natural storytellers—we tell sto-

ries all the time—and we don’t pull up

the computer or presentation software to

do it! Your most important tool is your

voice, followed by your hands and your

body. Use changes in volume, pitch, and

speed of voice for emphasis. Use silence,

too. You yourself are the most effective

instrument for conveying meaning.

“Assess understanding and Adjust”
Remember, you are communicating with your

audience, and communication needs to be

two-way.

• Assess your audience’s understanding

and engagement by asking them ques-

tions and paying attention to their body

language and facial expressions. Do they

look lost? Ask questions to find the point

at which you lost them. Do they seem

disinterested? Do you need to change the

pace, get them re-engaged?

• You must pay attention to the audience

and adjust accordingly. Sometimes, your

audience is stuck in the Jungle Tour and

you need to go get them and bring them

back into the flow again so you can reach

your desired endpoint—together.

“Know you’ve reached your goal”
How will you know your presentation

PSB 63 (3) 2017

160

achieved your goal?

• Because you followed KAYAK, you will

Know that you conveyed all the key

points you wanted to convey, you Asked

questions so you could involve your au-

dience, You told a story, you Assessed

understanding and can see that your

audience has the satisfied look and body

language that communicates to you that

communication was successful, allowing

you to Know you’ve reached your goal.

2. Challenges and concerns of going com-

puter-free—don’t be afraid to get your

feet wet.

After presenting the KAYAK of good, fun-

damental presentation skills at the Botany

2017 workshop, we asked participants to help

us generate a list of challenges and concerns

one may have about giving a computer-free

presentation. Below is a summary of that,

followed by our counterpoints and potential

solutions.
Fear of forgetting something

• Presentation slides should be used be-

cause they support what you are saying—

not the other way around (that is, you are

not there to walk the audience through

a set of slides). Slides should be created

with the purpose of helping the audience

understand your message; they should

not be used as speaking notes, loaded

with text you intend to say.

• Allay concerns about forgetting what you

want to say by listing main points on an

index card. If you need the comfort and

assurance of more detailed speaking

notes, you can create one (or more) cards

per major topic, punch holes in the top

corner, and secure the set together with

a loose-leaf binder ring. The ring of cards

fits nicely in your non-dominant hand

and you can easily flip through them as

you complete a point. If scripting your

presentation helps you feel prepared,

then make a simplified, bulleted version

to reference during your talk so you don’t

get lost in your text.

• Bring a hard copy of any diagram or il-

lustration you plan to draw on board or

show via a PowerPoint slide; make sure it

is annotated with the things you intend to

point out or discuss with your audience.

Fear of being vulnerable, or feeling naked

without the computer and slides to hide be-

hind

• We can spend a significant amount of

time preparing a talk using presentation

software. Looking for images, formatting

the slides, and producing the accompa-

nying text can take countless hours; after

all that effort, we may think our presen-

tation is “ready” because we have a digital

file that will surely impress our audience

with how prepared we are. However, we

can choose to prepare differently. We can

spend less time preparing PowerPoint

slides and more time thinking through

our presentation and how to connect the

audience to our main objectives. We have

more time to clarify our ideas and how

best to share them.

• Going computer-free can be better be-

cause the audience gives you more atten-

tion, instead of focusing on your slides.

If you use presentation software, you can

use the “black screen” to remove the dis-

traction of the slides when you want to

direct attention at what you are saying or

what you are drawing on a whiteboard.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

161

Fear of not being in control

• Because we can spend so many hours

preparing slides in presentation software,

we become rather invested in them. We

can feel compelled to “get through the

slides” because of all that effort. Our au-

dience can also become subdued, reluc-

tant to ask questions they need answered,

and inclined to watch passively. Every-

one can feel locked into the presentation

that exists. While it may be comforting

to keep in lockstep with projected slides,

it can prevent us from being attentive to

our audience and engaging in the two-

way communication that helps us suc-

cessfully deliver our message.

• It’s okay to give up this kind of control

because you know (KAYAK) what your

objectives are and what you need to do

to help audience reach those objectives

with you.

Fear of trying a new presentation method

• If you are not sure you are ready to fore-

go presentation software, you can at least

minimize your dependence on it while

delivering your presentation. Prepare

presentation slides as usual (with as much

text as your heart desires), print a version

to use as your hardcopy speaking notes,

then delete every slide except those con-

taining figures or text that you consider

essential for supporting your message. In

this way, you can have the best of both!

Fear about running out of time

• Timing is important for any presenta-

tion. Establish signposts in your pre-

sentation with target times, so you end

on schedule and allot sufficient time for

critical content (for example, “I must be

discussing this point by 15 minutes into

the presentation”).

• Keep main points in mind (know your

goals, KAYAK) so you can get back on

track when the audience or discussions

pulls you off your planned course.

Fear that audience won’t follow your presen-

tation or won’t understand your message

• You know what your goals are and what

information the audience needs in order

to follow your presentation (KAYAK),

you ask questions so you have a sense for

existing knowledge and are stimulating

engagement (KAYAK), you are telling a

story (KAYAK) so your presentation is

a satisfying “whole” instead of disparate

bits of information, and you are continu-

ally assessing your audience (KAYAK) so

you can provide additional clarification

when needed.

• You can use a whiteboard, chalkboard,

or flip chart to provide the visuals you

need, including text or outlines that will

help organize your presentation. Don’t

overlook the value of including other

demonstration objects that you have de-

termined can help convey your meaning.

3. How to make the most of the white-

board—paddles in the water.
You can make a “chalk talk” as informa-

tion-rich as a slide presentation. We use Pow-

erPoint in our classrooms, but we spend much

more time using the whiteboard than project-

ing PowerPoint slides because we’ve found

them to be much more effective. The fastest

way to lose a group of students or any audi-

ence is to project a slide showing a detailed

diagram for which they are not properly pre-

pared. Drawing and/or writing on the board is

PSB 63 (3) 2017

162

superior because:

• You create the visuals you need right

there, when you need them. The act of

creation draws in the audience.

• Simplified diagrams that the audience

watches you create will help them fol-

low you as you walk them through the

drawing, rather than getting lost in a

very detailed projected illustration (these

projected illustrations are much more

effective after you’ve created simplified

versions on the whiteboard).

Here are some tips for when you are plan-

ning your presentation, and for when you are

in front of the board with a marker in hand!

Write it out
The simple act of writing key words and

phrases will give your audience clear clues as

to the most important parts of your message.

• Keep it short—Writing takes longer than

talking, so don’t expect to write out whole

sentences all the time. Stick to single

words or short phrases. You might even

consider picking a few, longer words to

abbreviate; just make sure it’s as obvious

as possible what the abbreviations stand

for, and don’t abbreviate similar words.

• Keep it organized—Use spatial place-

ment of words as a clue to how they are

related to each other. Bullet points are

your friend here, but word clouds or flow

charts can be useful for more complex

relationships.

• Keep it legible—There’s no way to avoid

it: handwriting is important. You don’t

have to win any penmanship awards, but

there is no point in writing something

down if no one else can read it.

• Writing on a vertical surface is different

than writing on a flat desk, so it’s a good

idea to practice.

• Think about where the audience is sit-

ting; in a bigger room, you will need to

make your writing larger.

• If you find yourself making illegible

scribbles because you feel rushed, slow

down and simplify what you are trying to

write. Remember that note-takers will be

writing, too, and will probably appreciate

a little extra time.

• Make an effort to focus on what you are

writing, as this will help you to be neater.

It can be difficult to write and talk at the

same time; it’s okay to catch your breath

while you write.

A picture is worth a thousand words
Illustrations, diagrams, charts, graphs—all of

these are important tools, but they can seem

daunting to produce in front of the audience.

• Have a map—Take the time to plan your

illustration. Draw the complete image

out on an index card or paper that you

can bring with you up to the board; you

can reference this to stay on track.

• Simplify—If it’s not necessary, don’t draw

it; this will save you time and keep your

message clear. Using a simplified style

can also help you if you think you are ar-

tistically challenged—and if drawing isn’t

your strong suit, that’s okay! You can use

your maybe-oversimplified representa-

tions to add a little humor (“Believe it or

not, this blob-shape is supposed to be a

_______ …”). Label elements of the im-

age for clarity; if labels aren’t key words

for your message, then do you really need

to draw that element at all?

PSB 63 (3) 2017

163

• Practice—Before you present, practice

drawing out the image while explaining

what it is that you are drawing. You’ll feel

more relaxed when you actually present,

which means that you can concentrate a

little more on making straight lines, neat

circles, or whatever else it is you need to

draw.

• Break it into pieces—It can help to make

several passes for illustrating complex

concepts. Start with the simplest diagram

possible that can provide a broad over-

view (this establishes context), and then

make additional components, each add-

ing just a little more detail. In between

passes, be sure to turn around and check

in with the audience.

• An animated experience—You can’t

draw an entire picture at once, so think

of it as an opportunity to add a dimen-

sion of time to your image, or to indicate

a series of actions.

• Use tools—Do you have to draw a lot of

straight lines, but you can’t seem to keep

your hand from wobbling? There is no

reason you can’t bring a ruler to use when

you’re up at the board. Your audience will

appreciate having a neat and tidy image.

Build your board together

Pull your audience into the experience by

asking for their input, and incorporate that

into what gets written or drawn on the board.

Word-clouds and flowcharts are great for

this; their flexible formats allow you to take

advantage of your audience’s creativity. Here’s

how you can do it!

• Make a plan. Decide what you want to

explain, and think about the best visual

strategy to present the concept—this is

your goal. Even though you can never

know exactly what sort of journey you

and your audience will explore, your job

is to guide them toward the goal.

• Start simple. When you’re at the board,

start by writing a single word or simple

phrase. Putting it in the middle of the

board allows for the most flexibility, but

you can put it on the top or side of the

board as a clue to your audience that you

have a linear concept you want to explain.

If it’s useful, block out zones of the board

for certain types of ideas that you will be

looking for (for example, if the core word

is “Photosynthesis”, block out the left side

of the board as “Inputs” and the right side

as “Products”).

• Ask a question. You can start with a fairly

general request for ideas related to your

core topic, and ask about more specific

concepts if the audience is veering away

from the goal. Avoid yes-or-no questions.

• Organize audience input. If you get ideas

that are relevant, but you don’t know how

to incorporate them just yet, you can “put

them off to the side for now” (start a word

box on one side of the board, that you can

grab terms from later). Even if you don’t

end up using all of the terms, audience

members will be encouraged by seeing

their ideas written on the board.

• Build on your core idea. If you get useful

ideas, add them to your diagram/flow-

chart/word-cloud!

• Evaluate your story. This is an important

step, to make sure that you stay on track.

Did the last addition help you get to your

goal? Is your audience showing special

interest in a tangential topic that you can

explore during this lesson, or as part of a

future talk? As a review for the audience,

take a moment to walk through the im-

portant parts of the image you have so

PSB 63 (3) 2017

164

far, from start to finish. This can help you

form your next question and will prime

your audience to think about where you

are going.

• Repeat steps as needed!

Tip: Grab an assistant from the audience.

Are you nervous about having your back to

the audience while you write on the board,

or worried about your hand writing? Choose

an audience member to come up to the board

with you and be your “note-taker” (just make

sure your assistant gets a copy of the notes,

or can take a picture of the board with their

phone at the end).
4. Conclusions: Giving a talk is like taking

your audience on a journey toward the goal

of understanding a concept. How you guide

them is up to you and is influenced by how

you decide to deliver your talk. PowerPoint

slides are one tool you can use; your slides will

certainly be informative, and it’s easy to “stick

to the script.” A whiteboard is another tool—

one that is just as effective at conveying infor-

mation, and one that also facilitates interact-

ing with the audience. If you are used to using

only PowerPoint slides, going computer-free

can seem challenging—but this challenge is

nothing that can’t be solved by having a plan

and practicing. In fact, planning out how best

to use the whiteboard is a great opportunity

to think about simplifying and streamlining

your message, ultimately making it easier for

the audience to follow along with you.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

165

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166

In the last issue, we shared an urgent need for

scientist mentors to work with small teams

of students on plant science investigations

through PlantingScience.org. BSA and part-

nering organization members responded to

the call, and this summer we added over 200

new mentors to our scientist mentor pool. We

are starting the fall session with 625 mentors.

PlantingScience mentors come from all career

stages with especially high numbers of gradu-

ate students (n = 224), post-docs (n = 78) and

early career scientists (n = 127) volunteering.

Our mentors include scientists from 25 coun-

tries and 48 U.S. states. Collectively, Plant-

ingScience mentors are members from 150

different societies/professional organizations

and have a diverse set of research interests

(Figure 1).

SCIENCE EDUCATION

By Catrina Adams,

Education Director

BSA Science Education News and Notes

serves as an update about the BSA’s educa-

tion efforts and the broader education scene.

We invite you to submit news items or ideas

for future features. Contact Catrina Adams,

Education Director, at cadams@botany.org.

Thanks to all of our mentors for making the

program possible and for helping get more

plant science into middle- and high-school

classrooms. Thanks also for everyone’s assis-

tance in recruiting scientists to serve as mentors.
We will be recruiting teachers heavily in

spring, so if you know of middle- or high-

school biology teachers who may be interested

in participating with their classrooms, please

direct them to our website, https://planting-

science.org/.

Teachers and Early Career

Scientists Participate in

PlantingScience Digging

Deeper Professional

Development in Colorado

Springs

This summer, 36 high-school teachers and 22

early-career scientists met at Biological Sci-

ences Curriculum Study (BSCS) headquar-

ters in Colorado Springs, CO to prepare to

participate in PlantingScience this fall using

the Power of Sunlight Photosynthesis and

Respiration Investigation Theme. Enthusiasm

was high as groups worked together to learn

how to address student misconceptions, ask

the right questions to move student learn-

Scientists Respond to Call:

PlantingScience Mentor Pool

Increases to Meet Need

PSB 63 (3) 2017

167

Science Education

ing forward, and practice using the website

as they will in the fall. Early-career scientists

discussed mentoring strategies and how to

encourage student thinking in an asynchro-

nous, online environment, as well as how to

be good role models and encourage students’

long-term interest in science and confidence

in their science ability. The workshops are

part of the NSF-funded PlantingScience: Dig-

ging Deeper Collaborative Teacher/Scientists

Professional Development research project

(#1502892) (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Early-career scientists and teacher participants from one of two PlantingScience: Dig-

ging Deeper professional development workshops held this summer. Photo taken during the field

trip to Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs.

Figure 1. PlantingScience mentors collectively belong to 150 organizations. Societies with the

most PlantingScience volunteers are largest in this wordle. Notice the diversity of scientific fields

and interests represented!

PSB 63 (3) 2017

168

Upcoming Science

Education Conferences

Interested in creating environments and op-

portunities for your students to discover, in-

vestigate, and inform with data? Attend the

Life Discovery – Doing Science Biology

Education Conference October 14-21 at the

University of Oklahoma. Go to http://www.

esa.org/ldc for more information.
Attending the National Association of Biol-

ogy Teachers’ (NABT) meeting (November

9-12) in St. Louis? Please stop by to see BSA

staff at the PlantingScience booth. We’d love

to have PlantingScience mentors or teachers

stop by to share their experiences with the

program. Also check out our Inquiring About

Plants workshop with effective, tested ideas

for bringing inquiry-based teaching about

plants into your classroom. Attendees will get

a free print copy of the book “Inquiring About

Plants.” Interested in the workshop but won’t

be attending NABT this year? You can pur-

chase the e-book version ($10.95) at https://

secure.mybookorders.com/Orderpage/1400;

all proceeds go to support the PlantingScience

program.

PseudoScience Fair at the

University of Central

Arkansas is an Opportunity

to Engage Students’ Critical

Thinking and

Communication Skills

Increasing students’ ability to think critically

and distinguish between science and pseudo-

science is a main goal for many science teach-

ers. Why not approach that goal directly by

giving students opportunities to recognize and

critique pseudoscientific concepts head on?

That’s what a team at the University of Central

Arkansas aimed to do by organizing a well-at-

tended, cross-disciplinary PseudoScience Fair

through their STEM Residential College. BSA

members Steven Karafit (University of Cen-

tral Arkansas) and Faith Yarberry share their

experience of facilitating their freshman-level

biology students’ participation in the fair and

their plans for a second Pseudoscience Fair this fall.

Studying the nature of

science by investigating

pseudoscience

Students often view science as a hard and

daunting subject that is little more than mem-

orizing vast amounts of unrelated facts. It is

no secret that there is growing evidence on

the need for science faculty to not only teach

their students about the nature of science, but

also have students actively participate in the

scientific process (e.g., Alberts, 2005; AAAS,

2011). Growing evidence suggests that stu-

dents who accept pseudoscience as fact are

likely to accept other invalidated claims, such

as paranormal beliefs and conspiracy the-

ories, as facts as well (Lobato et al., 2014).

Students of the STEM Residential College at

the University of Central Arkansas were giv-

en the chance not just to learn to recognize

good science, but to research what bad science

looks like. By researching a topic that may fall

outside the sphere of science, students build

skills by finding and reading primary, peer-re-

viewed literature, analyzing data and claims,

working in groups, and explaining science to

a broad audience. This project allowed stu-

dents to research claims that may or may not

be pseudoscientific and encouraged them to

challenge their own previously held beliefs on

PSB 63 (3) 2017

169

the subject.
The STEM Residential College in Arkan-

sas Hall is a living and learning community

consisting of approximately 200 freshman

science students on the University of Central

Arkansas (UCA) campus. In the fall of 2015,

the STEM Residential College established a

Pseudoscience Fair as part of its co-curricu-

lar activities across the scholastic disciplines

of Biology, Chemistry, History, Philosophy,

Psychology, and Exercise Science. The Fall

2015 and Fall 2016 Pseudoscience Fairs were

held on the UCA campus, and approximately

400 individuals attended the event each year

from the university community and the City

of Conway.
The Resident Master of the STEM Residential

College is tasked with organizing the event.

Besides scheduling a date, time, and venue,

the primary order of business is coordinat-

ing the faculty and students. Lists of enrolled

students are obtained for the participating

classes. Students taking multiple participating

classes were placed into groups. This is an es-

sential step in the process because it encour-

ages students to view a topic through a variety

of lenses. The participating faculty members

are then brought together and topics are de-

termined for those groups that span multiple

disciplines. At the start of the fall term, the

groups are given their topic choices and the

research begins.
The STEM Residential College Resident mas-

ter assembled a list of topics for Pseudoscience

Fair participants. Topics were either generally

considered to be pseudoscience by the scien-

tific community or were at least perceived as

such by the general public. The list of topics

was deliberately broad in order to encourage

students to focus on the process and interdis-

ciplinary nature of science as recommended

by Vision and Change (AAAS, 2011).

Biology 1440

Biology 1440 (Principles of Biology 1) is a

freshman-level cellular and molecular biology

course for biology majors. It also is a required

course for several other majors to obtain a B.S.

degree. Biology 1440 is a typical lecture-based

course with a weekly 3-hour lab component.

Students were placed in groups of four to six

students. After a lecture on the nature of sci-

ence, they picked their topic of study (Table

1). In the following lecture, a librarian led the

students through the process of finding rel-

evant primary literature. Students were then

tasked to do a review of literature on the topic.

After completing their literature review, they

met with their instructor to discuss their find-

ings. Students were provided with feedback

and then had a second meeting with their in-

structor where they presented a rough draft of

their project and received additional feedback.

Students were encouraged to think critically

about the evidence that they found, and not

judge the credibility of their subject until they

had enough evidence to do so. Students were

tasked with creating a presentation or poster

that would contain the following informa-

tion: background; claims made by the prod-

uct, practitioners, or believer; evidence for or

against these claims; and a group conclusion.

Within the conclusion, students needed to

determine if their topic was scientific or not,

and they were asked to discuss what evidence

would be needed in order for the topic to be

considered as scientific.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

170

Table 1. Topics covered by Biology 1440 stu-

dent groups in the Fall 2017 Pseudoscience Fair.

The pseudoscience

fair/public outreach/student

attitudes

Participants discussed their findings with

fellow students, faculty, and the public at the

Pseudoscience Fair. The three highest scoring

groups in Biology 1440 were asked to partic-

ipate in a science outreach event at a local ju-

nior high school.
While we have collected no formal data at this

time, over 50% of students recommended that

Biology 1440 participate in the fair in the fu-

ture. Students displayed interest in their topics

and were able to take what they had learned

and apply it to other topics, including experi-

mental design in the lab portion of the course.

Future work/data collection

The participating faculty met during the sum-

mer of 2017 to discuss the organization and

evaluation of the Fall 2017 Pseudoscience

Fair. The organizers plan to develop a com-

mon survey to analyze the student opinion of

the process, along with a rubric to determine

communication effectiveness both orally and

in writing.

Literature Cited

Alberts, B. 2005. A Wakeup Call for Science Facul-

ty. Cell 123: 739-741.

American Association for the Advancement of

Science (AAAS). 2011. Vision and Change in Un-

dergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action.

Washington D.C.

Lobato, E., J. Mendoza, V. Sims, and M. Chin. 2014.

Examining the Relationships Between Conspiracy

Theories, Paranormal Beliefs, and Pseudoscience

Acceptance Among a University Population. Ap-

plied Cognitive Psychology 28: 617-625.

Pseudoscience Fair Topics

Aromatherapy

Homeopathy

The Dangers of GMO Foods

The Health Benefits of Green Tea

Climate Change Denial

Lunar Effects on Human Behavior

Greenwashing

Vaccines and Autism

Subliminal Messaging

Electroshock Therapy

171

STUDENT SECTION

By James McDaniel and Chelsea Pretz,

BSA Student Representatives

Throughout the last decade, many botany de-

partments have become enveloped by larger

biological science departments, resulting in

fewer students pursuing botany degrees. In

order to combat this issue, many different

initiatives have taken root (e.g., using

#IAmABotanist on social media); however,

one of the most notable initiatives was BSA’s

foresight to invest in their student members.

During a time when popularity and funding

for botany related research was diminishing,

former BSA Executive Director Bill Dahl ap-

proached the board of directors with the sug-

gestion that students needed to play a more

active role in the Society by having their voices

A Reflection on the Current State

and Future Direction of Student

Membership of the BSA

heard by the rest of the Society. In fact, here is

a quote graciously provided by Dahl himself:

“There are so many passionate, tal-

ented, and energetic young botanists/

scientists looking to make a positive

contribution to science and [the] Soci-

ety in general. We needed the ideas and

energy from this group, and we need-

ed to provide a means for this to come

directly into the governance structure.

Creating positions on the board just

made sense. This has also allowed the

BSA to expose a younger group to gov-

ernance (with a window into scientific

society operations). Part of the vision

was to prepare tomorrow’s leaders by

giving people hands-on experience.

I feel this has worked well. I think all

of the past student reps would share a

similar story in terms of increased con-

fidence and growth. Remember, they

represent the Society as well as being

responsible for bringing forward new

ideas and concerns of the students to

the board for action. Having seats at the

table is important for everyone.”

Thus, more than a decade ago, the BSA real-

ized that there was a need to build a support

PSB 63 (1) 2017

Student Section

172

system for the student membership in order

for the Society to continue prospering. As a

result, two student representative positions

were established on the BSA executive com-

mittee.
More recently, at BOTANY 2016, the society

recognized a decade of service provided to

the BSA by student representatives, and we

wanted to take time to recognize this monu-

mental feat by reflecting on some of the ac-

complishments that have occurred over the

past ten years. For example, there has been a

push to establish additional resources geared

toward the student members of the BSA. Pre-

vious student representatives saw a need for

more student-oriented content at the confer-

ences, which resulted in Sunday workshops

aimed at students being added to the confer-

ence schedule. Over the past few years, stu-

dent representatives have led workshops such

as “Crafting an Effective Elevator Speech and

Communicating Broader Impacts” and “Cut-

ting the Cord: a Workshop for Computer-Free

Presentation Skills” in an effort to convey the

importance of utilizing effective science com-

munication skills when networking and/or

interviewing for jobs. Furthermore, the very

first Undergraduate Student Mixer occurred

at BOTANY 2017, which will continue to help

integrate undergraduates into the Society as

well as encourage them to attend future con-

ferences.
Another notable accomplishment within the

last ten years is the fact that the Society has

doubled the number of grants available each

year to student members. Specifically, the

Society added five new awards in 2012 and

again in 2013, which brought the total up to

19 annual grants specifically targeted toward

student membership. We are even more proud

to announce that the student awards were re-

named to honor Bill Dahl’s tremendous con-

tributions to the Society over the years, spe-

cifically those that were critical in the growth

of the student membership within BSA. The

awards are now titled the “Bill Dahl Graduate

Student Research Awards” and the “Bill Dahl

Undergraduate Student Research Awards.”
The Society has also been integral in increas-

ing diversity among the student population by

creating the NSF-funded PLANTS (Preparing

Leaders and Nurturing Tomorrow’s Scientists)

grant. The PLANTS program, which was es-

tablished in 2012, annually funds ten different

students from underrepresented groups to at-

tend the BOTANY conference. These students

are supported by a cohort of their peers as well

PSB 63 (1) 2017

Student Section

173

as two different mentors as they navigate their

first botany-related conference. Additionally,

PLANTS has been a large component when

it comes to engaging students in botany and

establishing them as active members in the

Society.
Unfortunately, one of our very own PLANTS

grant recipients, Samuel Torpey, tragically

passed away in May of 2017. As an undergrad-

uate at the University of Idaho, Samuel attend-

ed his first Botany Conference in 2014 after re-

ceiving the prestigious PLANTS grant. From

there, he finished his undergraduate degree

at the University of Idaho and became a ded-

icated student member of the BSA by serving

as a mentor for future PLANTS grant recipi-

ents. Furthermore, Samuel was a member of

the

Coeur d’Alene Tribe and enjoyed studying

his family’s native cultures while also working

as a part-time environmentalist for his tribe.

Ultimately, Samuel was a charismatic individ-

ual who had a knack for making friends and

a passion for the environment and its floral

diversity. As a result, the BSA is seeking dona-

tions to help fund a new PLANTS recipient at

BOTANY 2018 in the honor of Samuel. If you

would like to donate or to learn more, please

visit

https://crm.botany.org/civicrm/contrib-

ute/transact?reset=1&id=13.
As your current student representatives and

past recipients of the PLANTS grant, we

are excited to keep the momentum going as

student membership continues to increase

throughout the Society, but we are also excited

to focus on building an inclusive and support-

ive community for students that will last for

decades to come.

Quick Notes on the

BOTANY 2017 Conference

We would like to extend a thank you to ev-

eryone who attended BOTANY 2017 in Fort

Worth, Texas! From our perspective, the con-

ference was filled with great workshops and

mixers geared toward the student member-

ship of the Society as well as great talks given

by students, faculty, and alumni. More impor-

tantly, approximately 30% of the conference

attendees were students—a number that has

gradually increased throughout BSA’s history.

During our “Careers in Botany” Student Lun-

cheon, we were reminded by Ned Friedman to

take time to enjoy what we do and not spend

time worrying about what needs to get done

(to an extent). Friedman was also gracious

enough to show us high-speed videos of Rho-

dodendron flowers releasing pollen, which

was followed up by a nice discussion that saw

students interacting with panelists from a

broad range of botanically oriented careers.
We also had a wonderfully executed workshop

on “chalk talks,” which introduced students to

skills that are vital for giving a successful com-

puter-free presentation. After watching Mela-

nie Link-Perez present her take on a successful

chalk talk (very successful, indeed), we all had

the opportunity to practice and receive feed-

back in a friendly environment. Overall, our

student-oriented events were a success and we

loved having the opportunity to meet every-

one at the student mixer, which was hosted

at the T&P Tavern in downtown Fort Worth,

Texas.
We look forward to seeing all of you again,

or getting to know you for the first time, at

BOTANY 2018, July 21-25, in Rochester,

Minnesota!

PSB 63 (1) 2017

Student Section

174

Getting to Know your New

Student Representative:

Chelsea Pretz

Chelsea Pretz is a PhD student at the Universi-

ty of Colorado-Boulder, Ecology & Evolution

Department, and has just started her two-year

term.
When did you join BSA and what motivated

you to do so?
I first heard about the Botany Conference

during an REU (Research Experience for Un-

dergraduates) internship at Missouri Botani-

cal Garden. This was my first experience being

around so many botanists, and I came to real-

ize that research was a reachable career choice.

So many of the researchers had very fond

memories of Botany and would talk about the

conference. The next year, I was lucky enough

to be a recipient of the PLANTS (Preparing

Leaders and Nurturing Tomorrow’s Scien-

tists) grant where I was able to attend Botany

and create my own fond memories in Edmon-

ton, Canada. Furthermore, PLANTS included

a four-year membership to the BSA, which

motivated me to stay involved.
What motivated you to run for the position

of Student Representative to the Board of

Directors?
I was motivated to run for Student Represen-

tative after having such a positive experience

in the PLANTS program. During this pro-

gram, I met many different students who were

at the same place in their career and who were

excited to talk about plants. Throughout this

process I realized how lucky I was to have a

cohort of peers to experience the conference

with; however, I know that there were other

students who were isolated without a sup-

portive community of people. This realization

made me want to help connect students with

resources and help students network to meet

other really great researchers at the confer-

ence.
What is your research about?
I am studying the evolution of the genus

Physalis (Solanaceae), which contains the

important crop tomatillo. In particular, I am

investigating interspecific gene flow, pollina-

tion ecology, and reproductive isolation with

a focus on the domesticated species and their

relatives.
What sorts of hobbies do you have?
Like most botanists, I enjoy hiking, camping,

gardening, and traveling. Other things that

fill my time include sewing, listening to pod-

casts (Planet Money, Code Switch, and Re-

veal), cooking, and playing board games with

friends.

PSB 63 (1) 2017

Student Section

175

Thank You!!

PCMA POWER Chapter members Johanne

Stogran and Dianne Killian collecting supplies.

Building an Intentionally Inclusive Community

One of our main goals moving forward is to focus on building

an intentionally inclusive community for student members of

the BSA. If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or

comments about how we can make a more inclusive community,

please reach out to either James McDaniel (jlmcdaniel@wisc.

edu) or Chelsea Pretz (chelsea.pretz@colorado.edu).

You did a good deed!

This year at the Botany Conference we collected your unused toiletries from the Omni hotel.

Together with the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA), we were able

to put together and donate over 400 packets of shampoo, conditioner, bath wash, and body

lotions. These will be given to families at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus.

176

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Harvard University

Bullard Fellowships in

Forest Research

Annually, Harvard University awards a limit-

ed number of Bullard Fellowships to individ-

uals in biological, social, physical, and politi-

cal sciences and the arts to promote advanced

study or the integration of subjects pertaining

to forested ecosystems. The program seeks to

allow mid-career individuals to develop their

own scientific and professional growth by

utilizing the resources and interacting with

personnel in any department within Harvard

University.
In recent years Bullard Fellows have been as-

sociated 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 man-

agement, policy, and conservation. Stipends

up to $60,000 are available for periods rang-

ing from six months to one year and are not

intended for travel, graduate students, or re-

cent post-doctoral candidates. Applications

from international scientists, women, and mi-

norities are encouraged. Additional informa-

tion is available on the Harvard Forest website

(http://harvardforest.fas.harvard.edu). Annu-

al deadline for applications is January 15.

Tenure-Track

Positions Open at Iowa

State University

The Department of Genetics, Development

and Cell Biology (GDCB) at Iowa State

University invites applications for two ten-

ure-track faculty positions at the rank of As-

sistant Professor. The department seeks to

enhance and build upon existing strengths

at ISU, with an emphasis on: (i) cellular or

developmental processes integral to animal

health or disease, especially in genetic mod-

el organisms; or (ii) cellular or developmental

mechanisms that underpin plant responses to

environmental signals and stresses.
Responsibilities include building nationally

recognized research programs that compete

successfully for extramural funding, advanc-

ing the discipline through high-quality pub-

lications, mentoring students, and effective

teaching of undergraduate and graduate

courses.
The successful candidate will possess excellent

communication and leadership skills and will

share the university’s commitment to an in-

clusive environment that supports world-class

diversity.
For more information, go to https://www.

iastatejobs.com/postings/28431.

177

BOOK REVIEWS

Bryology

Mosses, Liverworts, and Hornworts: Field Guide to Common Bryophytes

of the Northeast .......................................................................................................................................................177

Development and Structure

Trees: A Complete Guide to their Biology and Structure .................................................................179

Ecology

Venerable Trees: History, Biology, and Conservation in the Bluegrass ...................................180

Economic Botany

The Botany of Empire in the Long Eighteenth Century .....................................................................182

Sound and Scent in the Garden ......................................................................................................................184

Tulip ..............................................................................................................................................................................185

Systematics

The Botany of Mangroves, Second Edition ..............................................................................................186

BRYOLOGY

Mosses, Liverworts,

and Hornworts: Field

Guide to Common

Bryophytes of the

Northeast

Ralph Pope

2016. ISBN-13:

978-1-5017-

0078-1

Paper, US$24.95. 384 pp.

Cornell University Press

As a field botanist, I am often drawn to and

fascinated by nonvascular plants, but like so

many other botanists and plant enthusiasts,

I’ve not had much training in identifying

them and am challenged when I try to do so.

This summer, I was excited to add to my li-

brary Ralph Pope’s new field guide to mosses,

liverworts, and hornworts, a resource made

for people just like me who want to be more

versed in these diminutive plants but need

help getting there.

Pope’s guide to northeastern bryophytes is a

valuable resource for anyone who wants to

learn to identify common mosses and other

nonvascular plants in the eastern U.S. [Note:

the author acknowledges that although bryo-

phytes may not be a “proper” taxonomic term

based on contemporary understanding of

plant systematics, it is still a term often used

to refer to nonvascular land plants, and for the

sake of convenience he uses it in this way in

the book. For simplicity, I will do the same in

this review.]

The target audience for this handy and

information-rich guide is amateur naturalists

and non-bryologist botanists, and the book is

well-constructed for use by this audience—

one does not need to be highly trained in

nonvascular plants to use it. It is created with

the intention that readers can identify the

plants with only a hand lens (although some

characteristics would be more easily seen

with a dissecting microscope). He describes

PSB 63 (3) 2017

178

Book Reviews

a handy trick of putting phyllids (leafy parts

of some bryophytes) between two slides and

then holding up to the light with a hand lens to

see characters such as costa and differentiated

alar cells, which could be very useful in field

identification.
Included in the book’s introductory material

are: information about illustrations/

photographs, geographical and taxonomic

coverage, species names and ranges, basic

bryophyte biology, taxonomy, and ecology.

The introductory chapter also includes helpful

information about collecting and studying

bryophytes.
The section on bryophyte taxonomy presents

one current taxonomic delineation (stated as

one of several in use today), but unfortunately

with no citation/reference for its source

or author. The author does call out main

important points in the taxonomy of these

plants, and this is useful in understanding

current knowledge of bryophyte taxonomy,

but the systematics of nonvascular plants is

still uncertain and he notes this.
Following the introductory material, there is a

master key used to divide bryophytes into six

major groups: hornworts, thalloid and leafy

liverworts, Sphagnaceae, acrocarpous mosses,

and pleurocarpous mosses. The three moss

groups each have a section of the book with a

key to genera. In some cases (especially with

common or diverse groups), keys to species

within genera are also included. Hornworts

and the two groups of liverworts are placed

together in the final section.
The master key is very well crafted and useful.

It only gives names of major groups to lead the

reader to the next stage of the book; it would

have been more useful to also include page

numbers to lead the reader to the relevant

section. It is helpful that the keys in the

book rely as little as possible on sporophyte

characteristics as these are not always available

(although in places it was understandably

unavoidable).
At the beginning of each section on the major

groups, there is a nice, organized list of species

included. Each species description includes

specific description of its characteristics,

comparison with similar species, range and

habitat, and information about the name

etymology. Each entry is abundantly illustrated

with high-quality photos. Drawings and

photos focused on key characteristics of each

species are particularly useful. Many include

scale bars, which are incredibly helpful. Some

do not, which diminishes their usefulness,

but only slightly. Moss species entries also

include distribution maps for northeastern

U.S. south to South Carolina and Georgia and

east into Michigan (maps are not included for

liverwort and hornwort species).
An illustrated glossary is included in the back.

This glossary could use even more illustrations

of the terminology included, but it will still be

very helpful to those new to the vocabulary of

bryophyte structures. The author also includes

a list of annotated references in the back, in

five sections: those not needing a microscope;

those more technical where a microscope is

required; textbooks; miscellaneous printed

references; and websites. Readers will find

this list of resources useful for learning more

about nonvascular plants beyond what is

available in this guide.
In general, the book is very well organized and

user-friendly. The colored “tabs” indicating

the four main sections of the guide will be

very helpful in efficient use of the guide in the

field or laboratory.
Nonvascular plants can be very tricky to

identify in the field for anyone not already

PSB 63 (3) 2017

179

DEVELOPMENT AND

STRUCTURE

Trees: A Complete

Guide to their Biology

and Structure

Roland Ennos

2016. ISBN-13: 978-1-5017-

0493-2

Paper $19.95, 128 pp.

Cornell University Press,

Ithaca, New York.

For the lay public, this

is indeed a concise, but complete, guide to the

biology of trees. For professional botanists,

it is a source of interesting connections

and observations. For instance, the first

chapter is an abbreviated history of the

evolution of vascular plants highlighting

Rhynia, Lepidodendron, Calamites, tree

ferns, cycads, conifers, and angiosperms

(including monocot “trees”). Ennos notes the

rapid growth of fossil fern allies during the

carboniferous with Lepidodendron reaching

full height (about 40 m) in only 10 years.

This growth was so successful at sequestering

carbon that atmospheric CO

decreased from

20× the current levels at the beginning of the

period to levels lower than our current 400

ppm.
The second chapter provides an integration

of the physiology of water transport with the

“hydrodynamic design of wood.” An interest-

ing note is that hydraulic tension within the

xylem can “shrink” a 20-m-tall, 30-cm-wide

tree during the day by 1 cm in height and 1

mm in width. Among the structural features

described in Chapter 3 is a comparison of fi-

berglass to wood cell walls. However, instead

of just a structural comparison of glass fiber

and cellulose microfibrils surrounded by a ma-

trix, Ennos notes that embedding glass fibers

in a matrix increases the combined strength

1000× tougher than either component alone.

The analogous composite of cellulose and

lignin is about 100× tougher than fiberglass.

Some interesting notes on “Limits to Height”

are that stomata at the tops of tall trees close

earlier in the day than those at lower levels,

and that photosynthesis and new growth are

reduced in the upper canopy, despite greater

access to light. Chapters 5-8 focus on special-

ized groups of trees: survival strategies; trees

in different climates; specialist trees; and trees

of the southern hemisphere. My favorite “tid-

bit” from these chapters is that the “drip tip” of

rainforest trees not only help the leaf shed wa-

ter, but actually helps minimize soil erosion.

The final chapter touches on all aspects of the

economic botany of trees. My favorite exam-

ple is the physics of why the English longbow

was constructed from the join between sap-

wood and heartwood of the Yew tree. As a

result, arrows could be shot more than 100 m

and penetrate body armor.
At the end of the book is a one-page glossary,

about two dozen selected references equally

divided between books and websites, and a

useful index.

well versed in their characteristics, and there

has been a lack of easy-to-use resources for

field identification of this group. This book

helps to fill that gap. I highly recommend it

for anyone in the eastern U.S. who wants to

become more familiar with this fascinating

group of plants that are so often overlooked.

Their identification will still take careful study

and focused investigation even with this tool

in hand, but this guide will serve as a good

entry point for those new to the challenge.
-Amy Boyd, Warren Wilson College

PSB 63 (3) 2017

180

Book Reviews

My only concerns were the lack of a geological

timeline of periods and the place of families in

the hierarchy of classification, both of which

would provide a better perspective of the fos-

sil groups covered in the first chapter.
“Trees” is not quite a coffee table book, with

a 7.5- × 10-inch trim size, but it contains nu-

merous high-quality, full-color images, in-

cluding full-page images facing each chapter

title page. The format is much like a modern

textbook with a single wide column of text

and marginal figure captions. Size and place-

ment of text figures varies throughout in an

attractive way. I found the book to be a pleas-

ant read and will include it on my undergrad

reading list. I especially encourage middle-

and high-school teachers to request a copy for

their libraries. I suspect that it could provide

an effective antidote for treating plant blind-

ness.

-Marshall D. Sundberg, Emporia State Univer-

sity

ECOLOGY

Venerable Trees:

History, Biology, and

Conservation in the

Bluegrass

Tom Kimmerer

2015. ISBN-13: 978-0-

8131-6566-0

Hardcover, US$39.95. 288

pp.

University Press of Ken-

tucky

With Venerable Trees: History, Biology, and

Conservation in the Bluegrass, Tom Kimmerer

takes us on a remarkable journey that is at

once cultural and personal, wide-ranging and

intimate, challenging and inspirational. We

travel across the landscape of the Bluegrass and

Nashville Basin ecoregions, easily traversing

the years between first settlement and today,

and learn about a legacy ecosystem from a

masterful guide. Kimmerer is an ecological

detective. He pieces together physical

evidence and historical accounts of the region

to reveal the origin of the woodland pasture,

“an anomalous vegetation area” still evident

in the oldest trees alive today. Yet Kimmerer’s

account is much more than an historical or

ecological report. It is also a call to awareness,

an invitation to view the disappearance of

woodland pastures as the result of collective

choices, as well as a prescription for improved

management of our inheritance.
Our tour begins with a visit to a massive

bur oak surrounded by a parking structure

in Lexington, the sole survivor of what was

once, not too long ago, a woodland pasture

shaded by this oak and representatives of the

other four venerable tree species: kingnut,

chinkapin oak, blue ash, and Shumard oak.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

181

Kimmerer dubs the burly giant the “St. Joe

Oak” and, by naming the tree, acknowledges

the importance of its long life as a member of

a larger community that eventually included

the humans who demanded its preservation.

The St. Joe Oak, and the other named trees

and groves that grace the pages of Venerable

Trees, reminds us of a landscape that predates

human settlement and our present-day

structures, a landscape that we now glimpse

with the help of our able guide.
Large portions of the Bluegrass and Nashville

Basin, we learn, were once mosaics of

woodland pastures, forest, and meadows of

cane and grasses. The botanist E. Lucy Braun,

studying the region in the 1950s, was uncertain

of its origin, believing that the environmental

conditions there should have produced a

continuous forest. Kimmerer deftly disputes

the hypothesis that early settlers thinned the

once-dense forests and instead investigates

the interaction of several key factors over

a longer time period that encompasses the

settlement era. He weaves together natural

history and memoir, biogeography, and

dendrochronology to demonstrate that

“today’s landscape is the direct descendant

of the mosaic created by karst, drought, and

bison.” The effect of clearing, fire, and Native

American activities were not as relevant here

as in other regions of the eastern United States.
Kimmerer’s ecological analysis is the heart

of Venerable Trees. His interpretation of the

origin of woodland pastures is accompanied

by a comparison with the analogous “wood

pastures” of England. This comparison serves

to not only strengthen his analysis, but also

fuels the subsequent discussion of how best

to conserve the ancient giants and remnant

pastures that exist today. We continue touring

the landscape with visits to several locations

that exemplify good management and several

in which management was an afterthought

or development was prioritized. We see

that woodland pastures can be maintained

in agricultural areas with key changes to

animal management, and in urbanizing areas,

awareness and care can extend the lives of

isolated trees. Kimmerer uses living examples

such as the Old Schoolhouse Oak and the

Elmwood Trees to suggest several “general

rules of management” that reflect our current

state of knowledge about tree reproduction

and establishment and their susceptibility

to root damage caused by construction and

suburban lawn care.
For those of us encountering the Bluegrass

and Nashville Basin for the first time, perhaps

not having an investment of familiarity and

connection in these particular trees, we meet

with the challenge of considering how well we

know our own regional landscape. Kimmerer

indirectly asks us to consider the way in which

natural landscape elements are gradually but

permanently altered by human actions. His

words are a subtle call for an integrated human-

nature landscape and for understanding the

needs of that which we value. Many venerable

trees remain because people learned to value

the park-like atmosphere that they created in

cemeteries and preserved estates. Others were

the focus of active campaigns to protect them

during construction or to care for them after

lightning strikes or disease.
This impressive synthesis of several fields of

study is clearly the result of many decades

of research and exploration. Readers new

to these topics will find food for thought

in Kimmerer’s technical detail about mast

fruiting, dendrochronology, the effect of

lightning strikes, and range shifts in response

to climate change. The more experienced

reader may find inspiration in the author’s

thoughtful discussion of ecological

management and restoration planting. All

who appreciate trees will enjoy the dozens of

PSB 63 (3) 2017

182

Book Reviews

color photographs and the species list with

habitat notes. Just as venerable trees increase

as we move away from city centers, our view

enlarges as we move away from “what is” and

consider “what might be.”
The promise of this book’s title is fulfilled. A

venerable being, Webster’s dictionary tells

us, is one that “calls forth respect through

age, character, and attainments.” The story of

the woodland pasture trees not only evokes

a respectful awareness, but also suggests the

profound relationships we are capable of

having with long-lived species able to shelter

many generations of our own.
-By Andrea Kornbluh, Rowan University

ECONOMIC BOTANY

The Botany of Empire

in the Long Eighteenth

Century

Yota Batsaki, Sarah Burke

Cahalan and Anatole

Tchikine, Eds.

2016. ISBN-13:

978-0-

8840-2416-3

Hardcover, US$90.00,

£66.95

, €81.00. 406 pp.

Dumbarton Oaks Symposia

and Colloquia, Dumbarton

Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, DC.

The Botany of Empire is a lavishly illustrated

and carefully documented volume, extending

presentations from a symposium marking the

fiftieth anniversary of the Rare Book Room at

the Dumbarton Oaks Research Center. The

editors are long-time affiliates of Dumbarton

Oaks: Yota Batsaki is Executive Director;

Sarah Burke Cahalan is Director of the Marian

Library, University of Dayton, formerly special

projects and reference librarian at Dumbarton

Oaks; Anatole Tchikine is Assistant Director

of Garden and Landscape Studies, Dumbarton

Oaks. Nearly all images reproduced are from

volumes held in the Dumbarton Oaks Rare

Book Collection; if from elsewhere, they are

for purposes of comparison.
This endeavor spearheads strengthening

connections to the history of science.

It documents widespread exploration

worldwide, and derives from the massive

increase in collection of botanical specimens,

taxonomic breakthroughs, and horticultural

experimentation during the 18th century.

Contributors to this volume compare the

impact of those new developments and

discoveries as several regions broadened their

geographical possessions beyond the better-

branded British, Dutch, French, and Spanish

empires. These studies examine the botanical

ambitions of 18th-century empires; some

notable botanical explorers; links between

imperial ambition and the impulse to survey,

map, and collect botanical specimens in

“new” territories; and the relationships among

botanical knowledge, personal motivations,

and material culture. Organizationally, the

contributions are divided into four parts that

follow the Editors’ Introduction. Chapter titles

are provided here.
Part I: Botanical Ambitions, features

“Botanical Conquistadors: The Promises

and Challenges of Imperial Botany in the

Hispanic Enlightenment,” establishing that

botanical exploration was a global enterprise

with high economic stakes that relied on

institutional networks and received strong

state support in the quest for new raw

materials; “The Geography of Ginseng and

the Strange Alchemy of Needs,” wherein a

Jesuit account of Chinese ginseng published

in Paris, read by a missionary in Quebec,

led to the unlikely discovery of the plant

in North America; “Weeping Willows and

Dwarfed Trees: Plants in Chinese Gardens

PSB 63 (3) 2017

183

under Western Eyes,” communicates Jesuit

accounts showing the Chinese garden as the

product of an enlightened empire, worthy of

imitation due to its informal aesthetic and

low cost, although that view was subsequently

reversed, considering it perhaps as perverse

manipulation of nature; “Echoes of Empire:

Redefining the Botanical Garden in

Eighteenth-Century Tuscany,” offers a concise

trajectory of the botanical garden.
Part II: Agents of Empire? scrutinizes

the notion of botanist as agent of empire

through several case studies. “The Politics

of Secular Pilgrimage: Paul-Émile Botta’s

Red Sea Expedition, 1836–39,” indicates that

Botta’s success rested on his knowledge of

area languages and geopolitics, and his ability

to establish local connections and navigate

local conflicts, then highlights the extent to

which botanical practices were enmeshed in

other areas of expertise (e.g., in this example,

archaeology and diplomacy); “François Le

Vaillant: Resistant Botanist?” reveals his

criticism of botanical illustration for its two-

dimensionality, and its deplorable neglect

of indigenous knowledge of indigenous

ecosystems; “Thomas McDonnell’s Opium:

Circulating Plants, Patronage, and Power in

Britain, China, and New Zealand, 1830s–50s,”

displays how metropolitan centers connected

activities on the periphery.
Part III: Botanical Itineraries, conveys

“On Diplomacy and Botanical Gifts: France,

Mysore, and Mauritius in 1788,” tracing some

interpersonal trajectories of 18th-century

colonial botany featuring nutmeg, cloves,

and cinnamon, spices not native to France;

“From Local to Global: Balsa Rafts and a

Bountiful Harvest from Ecuador,” advances

an appreciation of river transport; “’In

Imperio Rutheno’: Johann Amman’s Stirpium

rariorum (1739) and the Foundation of

Russia’s Botanical Empire,” assesses Russian

imperialist aspirations especially where they

came in conflict with Ottoman and Safavid

neighbors.
Part IV: Cultivating Identities, includes

“Ornamental Exotica: Transplanting the

Aesthetics of Tea Consumption and the Birth

of a British Exotic,” explores the cultural

effects of tea as commodity by focusing on

how tea consumption in England penetrated

its commerce and sensory experiences;

“Allegories of Alterity: Flora’s Children as

the Four Continents,” examines Robert

Thornton’s Temple of Flora that personifies

each plant, assigning to each racial and

cultural characteristics associated with

its territory in a hierarchical scheme that

privileges Europe as the locus of culture and

power, but tainted ideological associations

with plants from Africa, America, and Asia;

“Ottoman Horticulture after the Tulip Era:

Botanizing Consuls, Garden Diplomacy,

and the First Foreign Head Gardener,”

brings to learned European audiences a

more sophisticated picture of Ottoman

culture than those found in conventional

“Orientalist” accounts; “Making ‘Mongolian’

Nature: Medicinal Plants and Qing Empire

in the Long Eighteenth Century,” contrasts

Linnaean taxonomy with its multiethnic

and multilingual form; “William Bartram’s

Drawing of a New Species of Arethusa (1796):

Portrait of a Life,” interprets Bartram’s drawing

as “a historical reflection reminding those

who might choose to interpret the young

nation—or the course of their own lives—as

the product of a revolutionary break with the

past that the present and future are, in fact,

embedded in historical relationships that are

continuous and ever-binding,” or as sculptor

Richard Berger (1997) more succinctly stated:

“History Never Lets Go.”
As with other books in this scholarly series,

the volume unearths substantial historical

PSB 63 (3) 2017

184

artworks from Dumbarton Oaks’ rare book

collections: 174 exquisite color illustrations, 6

halftones, 1 line drawing, 1 map, 1 table; each

article is thoroughly researched, evident from

the abundant endnotes; the writing is precise

and the arguments are well-defined; and it

closes with a 14-page author and subject

Index and Contributors’ biographies. Readers

who enjoy botanical chronicles, as well as

contemporary plant explorers, will appreciate

these diverse approaches that enrich our

knowledge about the historic pursuit of green

treasures.

Literature Cited

Berger, Richard. 1997. History Never Lets Go.

Plexiglas, Lights and Motors.

–By Dorothea Bedigian, Missouri Botanical

Garden, St. Louis, Missouri

Sound and Scent in

the Garden

D. Fairchild Ruggles, Ed.

2017. ISBN-13: 978-0-

8840-2422-4

Hardcover, US$65.00,

£51.95, €58.50. 362 pp.

Dumbarton Oaks Symposia

and Colloquia, Dumbarton

Oaks Research Library and

Collection, Washington, DC.

The 2014 Dumbarton Oaks symposium in

Garden and Landscape Studies was based on

the theme of sensory perception. Presentations

explored the ways that historical encounters

with sound and scent can be reclaimed, and

explained the implication of those essences

for landscape design. In what ways are plants,

gardens, and landscapes shaped to stimulate

the senses and to promote healing? The

Editor’s Introduction closes with the proposal

that the volume’s lasting contribution may be

to show the wide variety of approaches that

we can apply to the study of sensory history,

signifying that audition and olfaction have

always been important dimensions in the

experience of gardens.
Although visitors may generally consider

gardens as places for visual experiences, Sound

and Scent in the Garden explores selected,

more elusive encounters of sound and smell,

that stimulate the sensations of humans

mightily. Sounds of fountains, footsteps,

raindrops, wind, bells, and birdsongs mingle

with scents of fragrant flowers, sunbaked

soil, bitter medicinal herbs, earthy leaf litter,

humus, or mushrooms to become soothing or

stimulating, while their sources are subtle and

distant with low visibility.
Strikingly, the titles of several contributions

are evocative and poetic, e.g., “Perfuming

the Heart: A Study of a Seventeenth-Century

Perfumery Treatise from Islamic India”; “The

Scent of Power: Flowers, Fragrance, and

Ephemerality in the Gardens of Louis XIV”;

“Sounds and Scents of Monsoon in the Late

Medieval Gardens of Rajasthan”; “Lilac and

Nightingale: A Heritage of Scent and Sound at

Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill.”
Imagery to delight the imagination abounds

in this volume: Visitors to an ancient Chinese

garden found zither music; the recipe for

preparation of aloeswood incense (‘ūd)

instructs the reader to break up 1 kg of the best

quality aloeswood into small pieces, and soak

these pieces for three days and three nights in

rose water strengthened with petals of Rosa

damascena. The chips of aloeswood are to

be dried in the shade and later crushed very

fine. Sugar syrup, in which ambergris soaked

in rose water, and the crushed aloeswood are

combined, and the whole is set aside to cool.

Finally, small balls, each the size of a grape,

PSB 63 (3) 2017

185

are formed from this paste, dried in the shade

in a china dish, and burned when required,

to scent a space or perfume one’s apparel. The

writer observed in 1996 that this is a ritual still

practiced in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
The architectural element of the pavilion

features prominently in the monsoon gardens

of Rajasthan. The moonlight garden was an

essential part of all Rajput palaces, as the

gardens would mostly be enjoyed at night

in the summers and during the monsoons.

Water features were abundant: canals, tanks,

cascades, and water under pressure that

would pass with considerable force through

pipes embedded in hollow pillars of the

structure, helping to rotate iron balls to create

the artificial sound of thunder.
Water structures of the Italian Garden are

conspicuous as well, described in itineraries

from the 16th century as “murmuring,”

“whispering,” “pattering,” and “humming”

streams, in “The Expulsion of the Senses,”

which includes lavish photographs by author

Anatole Tchikine. His Appendix translates

a 1931 cultural manifesto that remains a

foundational statement of the Fascist “garden

of reason,” a product of the artistic subjugation

of nature constructed on purely rational lines.
This admirable tome was edited by D. Fairchild

Ruggles, Professor in the Department of

Landscape Architecture at the University of

Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. As with other

books in this scholarly series, the endeavor

unearths substantial historical artworks from

rare books, including the Dumbarton Oaks

collection, delivering 13 color illustrations,

113 halftone and color photos, and 4 line

drawings. Each article is well-researched,

evident from the abundant endnotes; the

writing is clear and the arguments are well-

presented; and the book closes with a 14-page

author and subject Index and Contributor

biographies. Historians who admire garden

architecture, connoisseurs of scented and

aesthetic gardens, innovative professional

landscape installers, as well as contemporary

perfumers will appreciate these diverse

approaches that deepen our learning about

the world’s botanical and cultural heritage.
–By Dorothea Bedigian, Missouri Botanical

Garden, St. Louis, Missouri

Tulip

Celia Fisher

2017. ISBN-13:

978-1-

7802-3759-6

Hardcover, £16.00. 224

pp.

Reaktion Books, London.

Celia Fisher’s Tulip

presents a concisely

written account of

various wild tulips,

from their origins in the mountains of Central

Asia, to their cultivation in the gardens of

Mughal, Persian and Ottoman rulers, and

their transfer along the silk route. Tulip is

an appropriately illustrated botanical and

cultural history of this beloved bulb. It depicts

tulip representations on a trove of art treasures

across diverse formats, including charming

patterns on tiles from Iznik, Turkey, lacquer

book bindings, bedsheets, fabric designs,

manuscripts, paintings, and the august

painting from Thornton’s Temple of Flora,

a grand scale reproduction of it adorning

the reading room of the Missouri Botanical

Garden’s Peter H. Raven Library.
Fisher is a freelance art historian and plant

specialist who has written several stylistically

popular books on natural history, plants, and

gardens in art, including “Flowers and Fruit:

National Gallery Pocket Guide (2000),” “The

PSB 63 (3) 2017

186

Medieval Flower Book (2007),” “Flowers of

the Renaissance (2011),” “Flower: Paintings

by 40 Great Artists (2012),” “The Golden Age

of Flowers: Botanical Illustration in the Age of

Discovery 1600-1800 (2013),” and “The Magic

of Birds (2014).”
Fisher’s Acknowledgements reveal that she

relied heavily on Diana Everett’s salient 2013

volume, reviewed in these pages (Bedigian

2014), from which she acquired 11 illustrations

of tulips in their natural habitats, as well as

substantial scientific details. The contents

include wild tulips; Turkish tulips; the

economics of “Tulipomania,” during which

the frenzy that rare tulips inspired among

ostentatious collectors caused an economic

bubble; links with artists’ tulips, and literature

that tulips have roused, from Dutch Masters

to Alexandre Dumas’ novel, “The Black

Tulip.” Botanists, florists, plant hunters, and

nurserymen are all are counted in brief.
Fisher’s book joins the ranks of numerous

other writings about tulips aimed at amateurs;

a subject search of non-fiction titles in

WorldCat® related to tulips uncovers 781

books, 85 serials, and 7 articles. Fisher’s

Tulip contains 107 illustrations, 104 in color,

reproduced on high-quality paper stock,

printed and nicely bound in China; it closes

with a short Timeline beginning with the year

1070 AD when Seljuk Turks began to conquer

eastern Anatolia, creating the first ceramic tiles

that feature tulips, simultaneously with the

Persian poet Omar Khayyam’s compositions

of verses in his Rubaiyat, the first literature

to mention tulips. Fisher’s Tulip can appeal

to weekend gardeners, horticulturalists,

and history buffs who admire or grow this

fashionable flower.
–By Dorothea Bedigian, Missouri Botanical

Garden, St. Louis, Missouri

SYSTEMATICS

The Botany of Man-

groves, Second Edition

P. B. Tomlinson

2016. ISBN-13: 978-1-107-

08067-6

Hardcover, US$84.99. 418

pp.

Cambridge University Press,

Cambridge, U.K.

Thirty years ago, I wrote my first grant pro-

posal to study mangroves and began an odys-

sey through mangrove ecology that continues

to this day. Six months earlier, P. B. Tomlin-

son had published The Botany of Mangroves,

which, despite scant reviews (I can only locate

two: one written by Ong Jin-Eong [1987] for

Trends in Ecology & Evolution, and the oth-

er by Alwyn Gentry [1987] for Annals of the

Missouri Botanical Garden), was welcomed

worldwide as the go-to reference for floristics,

biogeography, and especially its unified treat-

ment of, and identification guide to, “true”

mangroves and mangrove “associates.” Al-

though not a formal taxonomic monograph,

the first edition of The Botany of Mangroves

more than fulfilled its intended goal of intro-

ducing mangroves and mangrove ecosystems

(“mangal”) to a much broader audience of sci-

entists, foresters, conservation biologists, and

restorationists. I relied heavily on The Botany

of Mangroves to ground my fanciful proposals

in the reality of working in dense Belizean for-

ests of “walking trees.”

Literature Cited

Bedigian, D. 2014. Plant Science Bulletin 60(3):

170-172. The Genus Tulipa. Tulips of the World.

Diana Everett. 2013. Kew Publishing, Royal Bo-

tanic Gardens, Kew.

PSB 63 (3) 2017

187

The first edition of The Botany of Mangroves

was re-issued in a paperback edition (1994)

with minor updates in a seven-page Appen-

dix. Now, nearly a quarter-century later, the

second edition provides more comprehen-

sive updates to chapters in the first section

(“General Account”) on biogeography, shoot

and leaf systems, structural biology, and in-

teractions with people. Most notably, this first

section includes a new first chapter—“His-

torical Prelude”—reviewing Georg Everhard

Rumpf’s (a.k.a. Rumphius; 1627–1702) early

description of 19 species of true mangroves

(“Mangium legitimum”) from the Dutch col-

ony of Amboina (now Ambon Island in In-

donesia). The material in this chapter is based

on Beekman’s (2011) six-volume translation

of Rumphius’ Herbarium Amboinense and is a

most welcome introduction to the long history

of botanical explorations of mangroves (sum-

marized in Kathiresan and Bingham, 2001).

Rumphius, Tomlinson, and all other students

of mangroves recognize that “mangrove” is

not a taxonomic grouping, but an ecological

one that provides seemingly endless opportu-

nities for studying convergent evolution.

In terms of literature review and synthesis,

however, the other 10 chapters in the first

section leave much to be desired. As in the first

edition, and reflecting the author’s expertise

in anatomy, physiology, and functional

morphology, ecology and conservation are

given short shrift. A thorough review of

mangrove ecology and conservation—of

which >10,000 articles have been published

since 1987 alone—deserves its own book,

which remains to be written (excellent

reviews of that literature, uncited in The

Botany of Mangroves, include Kathiresan and

Bingham, 2001; Walters et al., 2008; Feller

et al., 2010; Sandilyan and Kathiresan, 2012;

and Lopez-Angarita et al., 2016). At the same

time, the still-burgeoning literature on other

aspects mangrove “plant science”—more than

1000 articles published 1987–2015—is only

cursorily reviewed; for his updates of new but

basic information, Tomlinson apologetically

(p. xii) relies on only a few dozen primary

articles or reviews published in the last 15 years.
The second section, occupying nearly 60% of

the book, is a detailed description of the 36

families that include true mangroves (trees

characteristically found growing in tidal

swamps that have anatomical, physiological,

and morphological specialization for living in

salt water) and mangrove associates (trees and

shrubs, and a few herbs, that grow in mangal

but are not restricted to it). These botanical

descriptions reflect systematic and nomencla-

tural changes that have occurred since 1987.

The most notable are in the Rhizophoraceae

and Avicennia (Avicennicaceae) and reflect

Duke’s (2006) treatment of Australian man-

groves. A handful of hybrids, some of which

were hypothesized in the first edition of The

Botany of Mangroves, have been confirmed

by molecular methods and are fully treated

in the second edition. Unlike in the first edi-

tion, the treatment of each family begins on

its own page, making it much easier to read.

This section easily supplants that of the first

edition as the standard reference for students,

researchers, and practitioners working with

mangroves in the field.
The Botany of Mangroves is copiously illus-

trated, but the numerous photographs and

line drawings, so crucial to identifying, un-

derstanding, and appreciating mangroves, are

a mixed bag. On the very positive side, the

second edition includes an expansive section

of 24 color photographic plates illustrating

many aspects of mangrove flora and fauna.

(Full disclosure: I took 9 of the 177 individu-

al photographs.) Mangroves are enlivened by

the stunning photographs of bark and roots;

fruits, flowers, and leaves; the unusual vivipa-

PSB 63 (3) 2017

188

rous seedlings; microscopic details of leaf and

wood anatomy; and the forests and the people

living and working in them. On the downside,

however, the line drawings and most of the

black-and-white photographs that are placed

throughout the text appear simply to have

been scanned at low resolution from the first

edition, and then enlarged to the somewhat

larger format of the second edition. The result

is a substantial fuzziness and loss of details

crucial for accurate identification of species.

Some of the enchanting humor has been lost,

too. In the first edition, but not the second,

Tomlinson quoted Watson’s (1928) descrip-

tion of Avicennia alba fruits as “resembling a

gorged leech” that “as spent swimmers, that

do cling together and choke their art.”
From Nearchus and Theophrastus, through

Plutarch, Abou’l Abass, and Rumphius, and

down to the present day, mangroves have

fascinated scholars, authors, and travelers

(Kathiresan and Bingham, 2001). Rumphi-

us (fide Beekman, 2011) admired the “man-

gi-mangi” for their ability to live in salt water

and their novel anatomy and morphology,

whereas Steinbeck (1951) referred to them

as places of “stalking, quiet murder.” Tomlin-

son’s The Botany of Mangroves is a must-read

for anyone starting out in studying mangroves

and mangal, and a key reference for all of us

actively working on these amazing plants and

the ecosystems that they build.

—Aaron M. Ellison, Harvard University, Har-

vard Forest, Petersham, Massachusetts, USA;

aellison@fas.harvard.edu

Literature Cited

Beekman, E. M. 2011. The Amboinese Herbal.

An English Translation of Georgius Everhardus

Rumphius (Georg Eberhard Rumpf, 1627–1702).

Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

Duke, N.C. 2006. Australia’s Mangroves: The Au-

thoritative Guide to Australia’s Mangrove Plants.

University of Queensland Press, Brisbane, Australia.

Feller, I. C., C. E. Lovelock, U. Berger, K. L.

McKee, S. B. Joye, and M. C. Ball. 2010. Bio-

complexity in mangrove ecosystems. Annual Re-

view of Marine Science 2: 395–410.

Gentry, A. 1986. Review: The Botany of Man-

groves. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden

74: 460–462.

Kathiresan, K., and B. L. Bingham. 2001. Biology

of mangroves and mangrove ecosystems. Advanc-

es in Marine Biology 40: 81–251.

Lopez-Angarita, J., C. M. Roberts, A. Tilley, J. P.

Hawkins, and R. G. Cooke. 2016. Mangroves and

people: lessons from a history of use and abuse

in four Latin American countries. Forest Ecology

and Management 368: 151–162.

Ong, J.E. 2987. Mangrove systematics. Trends in

Ecology & Evolution 2: 111.

Steinbeck, J. 1951. The Log from the Sea of Cor-

tez. Penguin Books, New York, New York, USA.

Sandilyan, S., and K. Kathiresan. 2012. Mangrove

conservation: a global perspective. Biodiversity

and Conservation 21: 3523–3542.

Walters, B. B., P. Ronnback, J. M. Kovacs, B.

Crona, S. A. Hussain, R. Badola, J. H. Primave-

ra, et al. 2008. Ethnobiology, socio-economics

and management of mangrove forests: a review.

Aquatic Botany 89: 220–236.

Watson, J. G. 1928. Mangrove forests of the Ma-

lay Peninsula. Malay Forest Records 6.

Plant Science Bulletin

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science dealing with the study

& inquiry into the form, func-

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reproduction, evolution, & uses

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Plant Science Bulletin

Fall 2017 Volume 63 Number 3

It was another fantastic conference!

This wordle, taken from BOTANY 2017 survey results,

displays the important factors that make our confer-

ence stand out. DIVERSITY. MENTORING. PEOPLE.

One important word that may get lost here is CAN. The

conference opens doorways for collaboration, for learn-

ing, and for camaraderie—these things CAN be possi-

ble through the work and spirit of conference attendees.

We'll see you at BOTANY 2018

in Rochester, MN

July 21-25!

Rochester, Minnesota

Join these Societies for the

Premier Scientific Conference of 2018!

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