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The Cutting Edge
Volume XV, Number 1, January 2008
News and Notes |
Leaps and Bounds | Germane Literature |
Season's Pick | Annotate your copy
DELUGE AT USJ. Disaster struck the USJ herbarium on 26 November when an entire half of
the Escuela de Biología building at the Universidad de Costa Rica was flooded by a broken
water line. We first learned of this in an e-mail dated 12 December from USJ director
Carlos O. Morales. As related by Carlos, the consequences for the herbarium were
dire, requiring two full weeks of intensive labor (including weekends), involving five dehumidifiers
and two large air-conditioning units. Despite this heroic effort, some material, which had
been wet for more than a week, was subsequently attacked by fungi (Boraginaceae and Brassicaceae
suffering most acutely). Happily, Carlos reports that even this material was salvaged, via
an ad hoc procedure to be fully divulged at a later date, but which evidently involved treatment
with 95% alcohol followed by 24 hours in the plant dryer. But this was only the first stage
of a costly one- or two-year restoration process that will require the replacement of hundreds of
folders and the painstaking demounting of damaged specimens, followed by their remounting on new
sheets. Carlos expresses his gratitude to everyone who participated in these valiant efforts,
intent on saving everything and unwilling to settle for saving merely as much as possible.
CHEILANTHOID ESCAPE. On 3 January, Manual co-PI Barry Hammel accompanied Amanda
Grusz and Carl Rothfels (both of DUKE) and Sachi Gibson (DAL), students arriving
early for Robbin Moran’s (NY) OTS fern course, on part of their pre-course search for
cheilanthoid ferns (Pteridaceae), of particular interest to Amanda and Carl. Previous trips
to an officially unnamed limestone bluff (known to botanical insiders as “Heartbreak
Ridge”) just west of Cerro Caraigres had convinced us that the site was bound to yield at
least a few intriguing cheilanthoids. Indeed, after five additional days of collecting,
including the Volcanes de Irazú and Turrialba and various areas on the Península de
Nicoya, the students anointed “Heartbreak Ridge” their most rewarding locale.
Hammel’s harvest was unspectacular, compared with previous visits, a few in situ photos of
the rare Salvia lasiantha (see under "Season’s Pick") being most
noteworthy. The trip took place deep in the dry season, on one of the windiest days in
recent memory in Costa Rica; Hammel lost his favorite cap (it hovered and bounced, momentarily,
high above the vegetation, as a kite on a string, then flew off in the unseen distance) and dared
not explore his favorite steep slope, on the windward side of the ridge.
DARWIN INITIATIVE FORGES ON. The most recent Talamanca expedition under the auspices of
the Darwin Initiative [see The Cutting Edge 13(3): 2, Jul. 2006] targeted a botanically fruitful
area northwest of Fila Matama, apparently not explored during several previous inventories of the
same general region, according to INBio project co-coordinator Alexánder
Rodríguez. The new discoveries have already begun to filter in (see “Leaps
and Bounds,” under Melastomataceae). The project was featured last May in an article in
La Nación, Costa Rica’s most important newspaper, in which it was claimed that
two new spp. of Pilea (Urticaceae) had been found:
http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2007/mayo/12/aldea1094189.html
CIEN MIL AND COUNTING. Kudos are in order for veteran MO curator Thomas B. Croat,
who attained the imponderable milestone of 100,000 collection numbers during his recent trip to
Ecuador. We don’t know exactly how many botanical collectors, living or dead, belong to
this exclusive club (Paul Standley and Julian Steyermark spring to mind), but surely
the number would be in single digits. Tom’s achievement is all the more impressive when
one considers that the family Araceae, his specialty, has accounted for a high percentage of his
collections. These generally weighty plants, bothersome to carry and to dry, also demand careful
and extensive field-notes, for which Tom has gained some notoriety among MO’s data-entry
team. As if that were not enough, Tom is wont to take multiple photos of each specimen in the
field, to prepare numerous duplicates, and to collect living material as well as DNA samples.
Furthermore, most of his numbers were obtained in a non-resident capacity, during highly intensive
(and generally solitary!) collecting bouts in a wide array of foreign (mostly neotropical) countries
from his base in St. Louis. All of this quite boggles the mind, and we stand in collective awe
of Tom’s singular accomplishment, the culmination of more than four decades of sustained and
dedicated effort. And he’s still going strong! By the way, Croat 100000 is
a new sp. of Anthurium (Araceae), specially reserved for the honor, while Croat 1 was
a specimen of Leonotis nepetifolia (L.) R. Br. (Lamiaceae), collected in October, 1962, on
St. Thomas, U. S. Virgin Islands.
VISITORS TO MO. Manual co-PI Nelson Zamora journeyed to MO for an important meeting
in early November, and remained on board for another month, mostly working full-bore on his Fabaceae
treatment for our next volume. INBio curator Armando Soto arrived 12 November for a
10-day visit, working on Papaveraceae, Polygonaceae, and Solanaceae. Close on Armando’s
heels, in early December, followed CR botanists Alfredo Cascante and Joaquín
Sánchez, for a two-week stay funded by “Proyecto Noruega” [see
The Cutting Edge 13(4): 1, Oct. 2006]. Alfredo worked on Araceae (mainly Monstera) and
his Manual treatment of Bombacaceae, while Joaquín worked mainly on Rubiaceae (with MO curator
Charlotte M. Taylor) and his Manual treatments of Buddlejaceae and Gentianaceae (the heterotrophic
taxa). They left by train early one Sunday, during the worst snowstorm in seven years, bound for
Chicago and New York, with additional herbarium work planned at NY.
CHICO ON THE PROWL. October found INB curator Francisco Morales in Mexico, where
he curated various families at MEXU and other herbaria and completed several papers. Then,
from 25 November–8 December, he worked in El Salvador, curating material at MHES and
botanizing in Depto. Cabañas. All of this was accomplished with funding from
“Proyecto Noruega” (see foregoing entry).
SPOTTED AT MO’S FALL SYMPOSIUM. In attendance were Manual contributors William
R. Anderson (MICH; Malpighiaceae), Fred R. Barrie (F/MO; Myrtaceae, Valerianaceae),
James S. Miller (NY; Boraginaceae), and Sir Ghillean T. Prance (Chrysobalanaceae,
Dichapetalaceae), as well as Manual correspondent Mario Blanco (FLAS).
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