2020 v66 No 2 Summer (2024)

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (1)

IN THIS ISSUE...

SUMMER2020 VOLUME 66 NUMBER 2

PLANT SCIENCE

BULLETIN

A PUBLICATION OF THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

An era of virtual seminars: from creating one to a

list of ones to join.... p. 111

A look back, and forward, at Black Bota-

nists Week with Tanisha Williams.... p. 90

A season of Awards.... p. 76

SPECIAL REPORT:

COVID-19 and

Its Effect on BSA

Members

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (2)

Summer 2020 Volume 66 Number 2

PLANT SCIENCE BULLETIN

Editorial Committee

Volume 66

From the Editor

Shannon Fehlberg

(2020)

Research and Conservation

Desert Botanical Garden

Phoenix, AZ 85008

sfehlberg@dbg.org

DavidTank

(2021)

DepartmentofBiological

Sciences

University of Idaho

Moscow, ID 83844

dtank@uidaho.edu

James McDaniel

(2022)

BotanyDepartment

University of Wisconsin

Madison

Madison, WI 53706

jlmcdaniel@wisc.edu

Seana K. Walsh

(2023)

NationalTropicalBotanical

Garden

Kalāheo, HI 96741

swalsh@ntbg.org

Greetings,

I think it is fair to say that this is a tumultuous year

and that we are facing challenges on many profession-

al and personal fronts. In this issue ofPSB, we begin

to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on

the botanical community. No doubt we will be seeing

the effects of the pandemic for years, but here we’ve

included reflections of members to capture how it has

felt in the moment. We include two articles that pro-

vide tips for moving to a more virtual world, as well.

I am also delighted to highlight the Black Botanists

Week Initiative, which was organized this summer to

celebrate Black people who love, and work with, plants.

We also recap theunprecedented, butoverwhelmingly

well-received,VirtualBotanymeeting.Thefeedback

I have heard underscores the importance of joining

togetherand maintaining professional community

during difficult times. It was a joy to see outstanding

work and deserving people celebrated, even if we were

unable to meet in person.

I want to send a very special thank-you to everyone

who contributed to this issue. Much of it came together

while universities, labs, and public spaces were closed

andpeoplewerejugglingremoteworkwithnovelfam-

ily obligations and extreme uncertainty.

Sincerely,

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SOCIETY NEWS

Meet the New BSA Board Members...............................................................................................................75

BotanicalSocietyof America’s AwardWinners.......................................................................................76

Reflections on Botany 2020 -Virtual!............................................................................................................88

A Look Back—andAhead—at Black BotanistsWeek..........................................................................90

COVID-19and YouChecking in with 12 BSA Members during a Global Pandemic...........93

SPECIAL FEATURES

An Era ofVirtual Seminars: From Creating One to a List of Ones to Join............................111

SCIENCE EDUCATION

Summary of Spring 2020: HowTeachers Managed PlantingScience

During a Pandemic..........................................................................................................................................123

Resources forTeaching Botany Online......................................................................................................127

STUDENT SECTION

Student Experiences During COVID-19 Lockdown..............................................................................129

Getting to Know your New Student Representative: Imeña Valdes..........................................135

Time ManagementTips: Before and During a Pandemic................................................................136

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

Thank You,Taran!...................................................................................................................................................139

New 3-Year Post-doc Memberships............................................................................................................139

Gift Memberships...................................................................................................................................................140

Membership MatterseNewsletter..................................................................................................................140

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Machine Learning in Plant Biology:A new special collection in

APPS.....................................

142

In Memoriam

-

W. Arthur(“Art”)Whistler.......................................................................................................143

An extended review of

Mulberry

by Peter Coles...................................................................................145

BOOK REVIEWS..............................................................................................................................................152

Lookingforwardto

meetingwiththese

premier scientific societies!

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SOCIETY NEWS

Meet the New

BSA Board Members!

Michael Donoghue

President-Elect

Melanie Link-Perez

Program Director

Chelsea Specht

Director at Large

forDiversity, Equity

and Inclusion

Jennifer Cruse-Sanders

Director at Large for

Development

Imeñña Valdes

Student

Representative

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CANDACE GALEN

University of Missouri

In her nearly 40-year career, Dr. Candace

Galen has been a champion for plant science,

conservation, and education. In particular,

Dr.Galen’scareerhashadamajorimpact

on the field of plant reproductive ecology

and evolution. She was an innovator at a

time when plant population biology was a

budding field and stands out as a trail blazer

in many dimensions. A hallmark of Dr.

Galen’s research is elegant experiments to

test fundamental evolutionary principles

in the wild. Her research is typified by

a blendof keen observationin the field,

novel conceptual models, and new tools to

understand not just pattern, but also process.

Her work on alpine skypilots,Polemonium

viscosum, revolutionized our understanding

BOTANICALSOCIETYOF AMERICA’S AWARDWINNERS

Distinguished Fellow of the Botanical Society ofAmerica

The Distinguished Fellow of the Botanical Society of America is the highest honor our Society bestows. Each year,

the award committee solicits nominations, evaluates candidates, and selects those to receive an award. Awardees

are chosen based on their outstanding contributions to the mission of our scientific Society. The committee identi-

fies recipients who have demonstrated excellence in basic research, education, public policy, or who have provided

exceptionalservicetotheprofessionalbotanicalcommunity,orwhomayhavemadecontributionstoacombination

of these categories.

of floral trait evolution by integrating across

ecologicalandevolutionarytheory.Recent

work documented evolutionary changes in

pollinator trait evolution in response to climate

change and illustrated the use of noninvasive

monitoring of declining pollinators.

In addition to the numerous graduate students

and postdocs she trained, nearly half of the 40

undergraduate students that worked in her

lab became co-authors on research papers.

In the broader context, her commitment to

education is also evident in that she was one

of the leaders of University of Missouri’s

GK-12 “Show me Nature from Elements to

Ecosystems” STEM grant.

Dr. Galen’s passion for public engagement has

also led to formative change in conservation

ofnaturalresources.Herdedicationto

plantconservation andabilitytoconvey

complex and sometimes “hot button” topics

(e.g., climate change) to the public led to

partnerships with the Mountain Area Land

Trust to preserve her long-time research site,

Pennsylvania Mountain, in Colorado. Her

ability to form these partnerships, to inspire

broad groups, will lead to a lasting impact on

the public and on biodiversity.

Dr. Galen has had a remarkable and impactful

career as a botanist, educator, and conservation

advocate, and has served as an important role

model of strong, independent thought for

generations of students.

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JAMES LEEBENS-MACK

University of Georgia

James Leebens-Mack has been described

as a “genuine star in the firmament of plant

molecular systematicsand evolution.” Oneof

the more notable aspects of his record is that

he not only publishes top-notch empirical

work from his own lab, and on a great diversity

of topics, but he has a knack for community-

buildingand forgingcollaborations.

Colleaguesfromaroundthecountryseekhim

out to participate in some of the most exciting

genomic research projects going on in the

world today.

Dr. Leebens-Mack has made many significant

contributions to our understanding of

plant diversity. In just the last several years,

hehaspublishedpapersonthemolecular

underpinningsofvariousaspectsofseedand

flower biology, sex determination, storage

roots, CAM photosynthesis, and small RNA

biology. And even with these focused studies,

Dr. Leebens-Mack has been pushing the

envelope by “going big,” with the publication

of numerous whole genome sequences, and

then even grander with the publication last

year of the 1,124 plant transcriptome project,

which he led. The landmark accomplishment

represents theculmination of Dr. Leebens-

Mack having forged collaborations across

dozens of institutions. This achievement

provides key genomic resources for the entire

botanical community, as well as insight into

the phylogeny of all green plants.

Thebroaderimpactofhisskillsasamentor

should not be overlooked. Dr. Leebens-Mack

is readily available to give his time to help

other researchers and is particularly good at

helping students and postdocs. He regularly

answers questions about techniques or

troubleshooting from across our community,

especially assisting early-career researchers

with practical advice about their unpublished

data sets. Dr. Leebens-Mack has shown real

leadership for our community through his

fearless approach to developing and applying

new techniques, and new ways of thinking.

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BSA Emerging Leader

Award

CHRISTOPHER MUIR

University of Hawaii

Dr. Christopher Muir serves as an Assistant

Professor in the Department of Botany

at the University of Hawaii. Dr. Muir is

an exceptionally talented quantitative

evolutionary biologist, a passionate and

committed botanist, and a true emerging leader

acrossthefieldsofplanttraitecophysiology

and evolution, including as a developer of

community resources and organizations to

supportthesynthesis ofthesefields.Muir’s

overarching research interests are focused on

understandingthemechanismsunderlying

physiological trait variation, as well as their

role in driving the creation, maintenance, and

distribution of organismal diversity. Although

Muir’s record clearly shows his ambition

and talent for research, he also has a highly

developed sense of mentorship (including

mentoring undergraduate researchers) and

a rapidly emerging record as a leader and

innovator in building community resources

and networks. Muir has been described as

creativeanddeepthinker,anda talentedplant

biologist with a strong computational bent.

NED FRIEDMAN

Harvard University

William (Ned) Friedman is the Arnold

Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary

Biology at Harvard University and the eighth

Director of Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum.

Friedman’s studies have fundamentally

altered century-old views of the earliest

phases of the evolution of flowering plants,

Darwin’sso-called “abominable mystery.”

He is also deeply interested in the history of

early (pre-Darwinian) evolutionary thought

and is particularly focused on the largely

forgotten contributions ofhorticulturists

and botanists. As Director of the Arnold

Arboretum, Friedman has worked to expand

the Arboretum’s societal impact through

diverseinitiativesinpublicprogramming,

enhanced communication between scientists

and the public, the embedding of scientific

scholarship within the living collections,

and a reinvigoration of the long-standing

relationship between the Arboretum and the

biodiversity of Asia.

Donald R. Kaplan

Memorial Lecture

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MARGARETMENZEL AWARD

(GENETICS SECTION)

The Margaret Menzel Award is presented by the Genetics Section for the outstanding paper presented in the

contributed papers sessions of the annual meetings.

Rebecca Povilus, Whitehead Institute, for the Presentation: Single nucleus analysis of Arabidopsis

endosperm reveals new, transcriptionally distinct cell types.Co-authors: Colette Picard, Ben

Williams, and Mary Gehring

EDGAR T. WHERRYAWARD

(PTERIDOLOGICALSECTION AND

THEAMERICAN FERN SOCIETY)

The Edgar T. Wherry Award is given for the best paper presented during the contributed papers session of

the Pteridological Section. This award is in honor of Dr. Wherry’s many contributions to the floristics and

patterns of evolution in ferns.

Amanda Grusz, University of Minnesota-Duluth, for the Presentation: An environmentally-

based model for the origin of obligate apomixis in ferns: insights from the pellaeid clade (Pteridaceae;

Cheilanthoideae). Co-authors: MichaelD. Windham,KathrynPicard, Kathleen Pryer,

Eric Schuettpelz, and Christopher Haufler

BSA PUBLIC POLICYAWARD

ThePublicPolicyAwardwasestablishedin2012tosupportthedevelopmentof tomorrow's leaders

and a better understanding of this critical area.

Taylor AuBuchon, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center

Mary Sagatelova, The Ohio State University

BOTANYADVOCACY LEADERSHIP GRANT

This award organized by the Environmental and Public Policy Committees of BSA and ASPT aims

to support local efforts that contribute to shaping public policy on issues relevant to plant sciences.

Nina House, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, for the Proposal: Assessing Grazing Impacts on

Remote Montane Meadows in the Southern Sierra Nevada, Tulare County, California

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DONALD R. KAPLANAWARD IN

COMPARATIVE MORPHOLOGY

Donald R. Kaplan was a leading researcher in the area of plant form, where he sought to deduce fundamental

principles from comparative developmental morphology. Through his own work and the work of the many

graduate students he mentored, he had a profound effect on the fields of plant development and structure.

Kaplan alwaysencouragedhis students towork independently,oftenon projects unrelatedto his ownresearch.

He believed that students should publish their work independently, and rarely coauthored his students’ papers.

To promote research in plant comparative morphology, the Kaplan family has established an endowed fund,

administeredthroughtheBotanicalSocietyofAmerica,tosupportthePh.D.researchofgraduate students

in this area. The annual award of up to $10,000 may be used to support equipment and supplies, travel for

research and to attend meetings, and for summer support. This award was created to promote research in

plantcomparativemorphology,theKaplanfamilyhasestablishedanendowedfund,administeredthrough

the Botanical Society of America, to support the Ph.D. research of graduate students in this area.

Annika Smith, University ofFlorida,for the Proposal: The unique nectar spurs of the nasturtiums

(Tropaeolum): Vascular architecture, tissue conflict, and synorganization

THE BSA GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCHAWARD

INCLUDINGTHE J. S. KARLINGAWARD

The BSA Graduate Student Research Awards support graduate student research and are made on the basis

ofresearchproposalsandlettersofrecommendations.WithingtheawardgroupistheKarlingGraduate

Student Research Award. This award was instituted by the Society in 1997 with funds derived through a

generous gift from the estate of the eminent mycologist, John Sidney Karling (1897-1994), and supports and

promotes graduate student research in the botanical sciences.

THE J. S. KARLING GRADUATE STUDENT

RESEARCH AWARD

VeronicaIriart, University of Pittsburgh, for the Proposal: The Fate of Plant Mutualisms Under

Anthropogenic Stress

Hanna Makowski, University of Virginia, for the Proposal: The role of plant mating systems in

colonization

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THE BSA GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCHAWARDS

Ioana Anghel, UniversityofCalifornia,LosAngeles,fortheProposal: Speciesboundariesand

mechanisms of divergence in sympatric species ofLinanthus

Betsabé CastroEscobar, University of California, Berkeley, for the Proposal: Phylogeography

and Domestication of calabash trees (Crescentia cujete) in the Caribbean

Nevin Cullen, University of Pittsburgh, for the Proposal: Can adaptation to toxic elements

facilitate microbially-mediated speciation in plants?

VictoriaDeLeo, Pennsylvania StateUniversity, for theProposal: Testing tradeoffs in different

components of fitness due to frugivory in the common Caribbean treeMetopium toxiferum

Estefania Pilar Fernandez Barrancos, University of Missouri-St. Louis, for the Proposal: Effects

of forest restoration on the recovery of coarse woody debris and associated arthropods

ClariceGuan, Cornell University, for the Proposal: Pieces of the puzzle: Morphological, genetic,

andhistologicalinvestigationsofspiromonostichy,auniquephyllotacticpatternwithassociated

helical growth in spiral gingers (Costus,Costaceae)

Katherine Holmes, Cornell University, for the Proposal: Plasticityandlocal adaptation of

secondarymetabolitestoherbivoryinEutrochium maculatum

Nina House, Claremont Graduate University (Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden), for the

Proposal: A Vascular Flora of the Manter and Salmon Creek Watersheds, Tulare County, CA

YiHuang, University of California, Riverside, for the Proposal: Speciesdelimitationin

Arctostaphylos

Amanda Katzer,UniversityofKansas,fortheProposal: Modified-TrichomeNectary

Development inPenstemon

Thomas Lake, University of Minnesota, for the Proposal: Doesadaptationfacilitateorimpede

future plant invasions?

BingLi, Northwestern University, for theProposal: Genetic and Morphological Changes of

Oenothera organensis duringExSituConservation

MartinLlano, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia, for the Proposal: Taxonomy, phylogeny

and biogeography ofAnthuriumsectionDactylophyllium(Araceae)

Elena Loke, Northwestern University, for the Proposal: Incorporating Phased Alleles to

Reconstruct a Recent and Rapid Radiation

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NatalieLove, University of California, Santa Barbara, for the Proposal: Using field and herbarium

collections to detect the ecological and evolutionary causes of geographic variation in pollen size

and production in the California mountain jewelflower (Streptanthus tortuosus,Brassicaceae)

Victoria Luizzi,University of Arizona, for the Proposal: Investigating thepotentialmicrobial

drivers of interactions between leafcutter bees (Megachilespp.) and cottonwoods (Populus

fremontii)

ValerieMartin, Utah State University, for the Proposal: Microbial Facilitation of Exploitation in

aPlant-PollinatorMutualism

Susan McEvoy, University of Connecticut, for the Proposal: From genome to methylome:

detection of epigenetic marks for two forest tree species

Bailey McNichol, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, for the Proposal: Characterizing plant

diversity and distribution at an ecological crossroads in an era of global change

Heather Phillips, Cornell University, for the Proposal: Quantifying the Ontogeny of Development

of Fused Structures in the Zingiberales

Brandie Quarles, Duke University, for the Proposal: PhenologicalTrackingviaDormancy:

Facilitating Survival and Adaptation to Climate Change

MaryamSedaghatpour, University of California, Berkeley, for the Proposal: Silene

(Caryophyllaceae)ofmediterraneanLebanon

ElenaStiles, University of Washington, for the Proposal: Linking cordilleran uplift and landscape

aridification in the northeastern Andes

Amy Waananen, University of Minnesota, for the Proposal: Time is the Longest Distance:

Temporal Outcrossing in a Fragmented Environment

THE BSA UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCHAWARD

The BSAUndergraduate Student ResearchAwards support undergraduate student research

and are made on the basis of research proposals and letters of recommendation.

MichaelDaines, Brigham Young University-Idaho, for the Proposal: DistributionofAstragalus

amnis-amissi, a Plant Endemic to East-Central Idaho

Jonathan Hayes, Bucknell University, for the Proposal: Genetic diversity& connectivity of

Chasmanthium latifolium(Poaceae) in Pennsylvania & the effect on conservation status

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Aaliyah Holliday, Cornell University, for the Proposal: EvolutionoftheMonocotInflorescence

I. Jason Rose, Cornell University, for the Proposal: Inflorescence Structure And Development In

Liliales: What Is The Ancestral State Of The Liliales Order?

Diamanda Zizis, Bucknell University, for the Proposal: Solanum dioicumandSolanum

ultraspinosum: A morphometric analysis of hybrid offspring from parents with different breeding

systems

THE BSAYOUNG BOTANISTAWARDS

The purpose of these awards is to offer individual recognition to outstanding graduating seniors in

the plant sciences and to encourage their participation in the Botanical Society of America.

Ava Adler, Oberlin College; Advisor: Dr. Michael J. Moore

Ariel Antoine, Bucknell University; Advisor: Dr. Christopher T. Martine

Sarah Ashlock, University of California, Santa Cruz; Advisor: Dr. Kathleen M. Kay

Jeannine Barr, Indiana University Southeast; Advisor: Dr. David Winship Taylor

Michele Beadle, College of Saint Benedict; Advisor: Dr. Stephen G. Saupe

Grace Brock, Miami University; Advisor: Dr. Robert L. Baker

Jennifer Davis, Bucknell University; Advisor: Dr. Christopher T. Martine

Rosemary Glos, Cornell University; Advisor: Dr. Shayla Salzman

AaronLee, The College of New Jersey; Advisor: Dr. Wendy Clement

Luisa McGarvey, Oberlin College; Advisor: Dr. Michael J. Moore

Grace McGee, Connecticut College; Advisor: Dr. Chad Jones

Samantha Mehl, Miami University; Advisor: Richard C. Moore

Elise Miller, College of Saint Benedict; Advisor: Dr. Stephen G. Saupe

EastynNewsome, Miami University; Advisor: Dr. Robert L. Baker

Lydia Soifer, Davidson College; Advisor: Dr. Christopher Thawley

Alexis Sullivan, Weber State University; Advisor: Dr. Bridget E. Hilbig

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THE BSA PLANTS GRANT RECIPIENTS

The PLANTS (Preparing Leaders and Nurturing Tomorrow’s Scientists: Increasing the diversity of

plant scientists) program recognizes outstanding undergraduates from diverse backgrounds and

providestravelgrant.

Christina Andreski, Plymouth State University; Advisor: Diana Jolles

JuanAngulo, University of Georgia; Advisor: James Leebens-Mack

Sarah Ashlock, University of California; Santa Cruz, Advisor: Kathleen Kay

Trinity Depatie, Florida Atlantic University; Advisor: James K. Wetterer

Kandiss Dowdell, Montana State University Billings; Advisor: Jason Comer

Miyauna Incarnato, The College of Wooster; Advisor: Jennifer Ison

Maia Jones, California Academy of Sciences; Advisor: Nathalie Nagalingum

SofiaOcampo, Florida International University; Advisor: Suzanne Koptur

Michelle Pham, University of California, Los Angeles; Advisor: James Cohen

I. Jason Rose, Cornell University; Advisor: Chelsea D. Specht

Vida Svahnstrom, University of St. Andrews; Advisor: Susan Healy

MAYNARDMOSELEY AWARD

(DEVELOPMENTAL & STRUCTURALAND

PALEOBOTANICAL SECTIONS)

The Maynard F. Moseley Awardwas establishedin 1995to honor acareer of dedicated teaching, scholarship,

and service to the furtherance of the botanical sciences. Dr. Moseley, known to his students as “Dr. Mo”, died

Jan. 16, 2003 in Santa Barbara, CA, where he had been a professor since 1949. He was widely recognized

for his enthusiasm for and dedication to teaching and his students, as well as for his research using floral

and wood anatomy to understand the systematics and evolution of angiosperm taxa, especially waterlilies.

(PSB, Spring, 2003). The award is given to the best student paper, presented in either the Paleobotanical

or Developmental and Structural sessions, that advances our understanding of plant structure in an

evolutionarycontext.

Aleca Borsuk, Yale School of the Environment, for the Presentation:Structural organization

of thespongy mesophyllin laminar leaveswith reticulatevenation.Co-authors: Adam Roddy,

Guillaume Theroux-Rancourt, and Craig Broderson

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ISABELCOOKSON AWARD

(PALEOBOTANICAL SECTION)

Established in 1976, the Isabel Cookson Award recognizes the best student paper presented in the

PaleobotanicalSection.

KeanaTang, University of Kansas, for the Presentation:CunonicaceaefromtheLateCretaceous

of NorthAmerica andits paleobiogeographic implications. Co-authors: Brian Atkinson and

Selena Smith.

KATHERINEESAU AWARD

(DEVELOPMENTALAND STRUCTURAL SECTION)

This award was established in 1985 with a gift from Dr. Esau and is augmented by ongoing

contributions from Section members. It is given to the graduate student who presents the out-

standing paper in developmental and structural botany at the annual meeting.

Cecilia Zumajo, New York Botanical Garden and CUNY, for the Presentation:Evolution of the

seedcoat. Co-authors: Dennis Stevenson and Barbara Ambrose

PHYSIOLOGICAL SECTION LI-COR PRIZE

(This year the Physiological Section awardedjust one award for the combined Best

Oral Paper & the Li-COR prize.)

Anna Jiselle Ongjoco,CaliforniaStatePolytechnicUniversity, Ponoma,forthePresentation:

StrategiesUtilizedbyPinus coulteriandPinusattenuataforSurvivingatLowElevationsinthe

SanBernardinoMountains. Co-authors: Edward G. Bobich, Frank E. Ewers, and Erin J. Questad

PHYSIOLOGICAL SECTIONSTUDENT POSTERAWARD

SimoneLim-Hing, University of Georgia, for the Presentation: Untangling the micronutrient

status and defense responses in loblolly pine(Pinustaeda).Co-authors: KamalJ.K. Gandhi,

Brittany F. Barnes, Lawrence Morris, Elizabeth McCarty, and Caterina Villari

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ECOLOGICAL SECTION STUDENT

PRESENTATION AWARD

VeronicaIriart(Graduate),UniversityofPittsburgh,forthePresentation:Herbicide

drift reveals species-level variation in stressor resistance and weakens co-flowering

interactions in 25 wild plant species. Co-authors: ReginaBaucom and Tia-Lynn Ashman

Jenni Velichka(Undergraduate), Queen’s University, for the Presentation: Intraspecificvariation

in seed dispersal strategies between annual and perennial ecotypes ofMimulus guttatus. Co-

author: Jannice Friedman

ECOLOGICAL SECTION POSTERAWARD

Aleah Querns(Graduate), North Carolina State University, for the Poster:The evolution of

thermal tolerance and clines in native vs. invasive populations ofMimulusguttatus. Co-authors:

Rachel Cooliver, Mario Vallejo-Marín, and Seema Sheth

A. J. SHARPAWARD

ABLS/BRYOLOGICALAND LICHENOLOGICAL SECTION

Bryan Piatkowski, Duke University, for the Presentation: Carbon Storage and Niche Preference

Track Phylogeny inSphagnum(peat moss). Co-authors: Joseph Yavitt, Merritt Turetsky, and

JonathanShaw.

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REFLECTIONS ON BOTANY 2020 -VIRTUAL!

As COVID-19 disrupted the entire world, we were

also forced to re-imagine the annual conference.

No travel. No meeting in person. Potentially No Fun!

We worked to create a version that would allow our

collective members to present their research, network a bit,

and learn and share with each other. It was an enormous

undertaking! But in your words, it was successful!

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TanishaWilliams

What was/is Black Botanists Week?

Black Botanists Week was first organized

in 2020 to promote, encourage, create a

safe space for, and find more Black people

(andBIPOC)wholoveplants!Theweekisa

celebration of Black people who love plants.

This plant love manifests in many ways

ranging from tropical field ecologist to plant

geneticist, from horticulturalist to botanical

illustrator. We embrace the multiple ways that

Black people engage with and appreciate the

global diversity of plant life.

A LOOK BACK—ANDAHEAD—

AT BLACK BOTANISTSWEEK

What motivated you to spearhead this

event?

During the height of the pandemic and

the Black Lives Matter Movement, the

#BlackBirdersWeek was formed in response

toaWhitewomanfalsely callingthecopson

a Black birder. I participated in this week and

found such a sense of joy and pride in seeing

themanybeautiful Blackpeoplewhowere

excited about science and nature. I wanted to

create a similar space for Black people who

loved plants.

What do you hope people will take away

from Black Botanists Week and the huge

response to it?

Our ultimate goal is that people from all

backgrounds, especially BIPOC backgrounds,

take away a sense of belonging within the

botanical and plant science fields. We had

nothingbut positiveandsupportive responses

from individuals, celebrities, botanical

societies, and more

What’s your vision for this hashtag and

event going forward?

This will be an annual celebration and

recognition of BIPOC who love plants. We also

want to make sure we are giving back through

service and outreach. Many of the committee

members are sharing their research, time,

skills, and love for plants across a variety of

In July 2020, BSA member Dr. Tanisha Williams---with a team of 11 like-minded botanists---

coordinated the very first Black Botanists Week.PSBEditor Mackenzie Taylor reached out to Dr.

Williams following the event to get her thoughts on the impact of the event and what the future

brings.

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platforms. We also are working to start a fund

to support young and aspiring botanists with

hand lens and botanical field guides. Also,

the committee members are collaborating

with the Holden Arboretum; each committee

member will be giving a lecture that highlights

the contribution of Black botanists during the

2020-2021 Scientist Lecture Series via Zoom.

Do you have a favorite post or story that

came out of the event?

Wow, tough question! There were (and are) so

many great stories.

Thefirst newspaperarticleonthe

week:

https://www.dailyitem.com/news/

local_news/bucknell-researcher-starts-

social-media-movement-to-highlight-black-

botanists/article_45f85956-f9cd-5ec2-9a18-

fc6f7d163e8f.html

MEETTHE BLACK BOTANISTSWEEK COMMITTEE

MayaAllen

Jade Bleau

Brandi Cannon

Natasza Fontaine

Morgan Halane

Rupert Koopman

Nokwanda P.Makunga

Beronda L.Montgomery

Itumeleng Moroenyane

Georgia Silvera Seamans

Tatyana Soto

TanishaM.Williams

RecentUSA Todayarticle: https://www.

usatoday.com/story/life/2020/08/04/

blackinneuro-blackinchem-can-hashtags-

help-black-scientists-build-community-

spotlight-excellence/5541431002/

My Plant Love Story: https://www.

plantlovestories.com/post/the-grace-of-

growing.

We also had a recent AP article that is really

making an impact around the country:

https://apnews.com/0e42554f0d60afeebe4b9e

119bb55165

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (22)

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92

THE BACKGROUND OF

BLACKBOTANISTS WEEK

BlackBotanistsWeekisacelebrationof

Black people who love plants. This plant

lovemanifestsinmanywaysrangingfrom

tropical fieldecologist toplant geneticist,

from horticulturalist to botanical illustrator.

We embrace the multiple ways that Black

people engage with and appreciate the global

diversity ofplantlife. (Pleaserefertothe

website: https://blackbotanistsweek.weebly.

com.)

The inaugural week of this social media

movement was held on July 6 to July 11, and

the organizers encourage all to participate

to showcase and amplify the voice of past,

present and future botanists.

Theorganizersdefineabotanistasanyonethat

has a love for plants and works with plants.

Any study fields or careers or social-cultural

engagements with the topics listed below fit

the profile of someone doing botany:

Cytology– Cell structure

Epigenetics – Control of gene expression

Paleobotany – Study of fossil plants and plant

evolution

Palynology – Pollen and spores

•Plant biochemistry – Chemical processes of

primary and secondary metabolism

Phenology –Timing of germination, flower-

ing and fruiting

Phytochemistry – Plant secondary chemistry

and chemical processes

Phytogeography – Plant Biogeography, the

study of plant distributions

Phytosociology – Plant communities and

interactions

Plantanatomy – Structure of plant cells and

tissues

Plant ecology – Role and function of plants

in the environment

Plant evolutionary developmental biology

Plant development from an evolutionary

perspective

Plant genetics – Genetic inheritance in plants

Plant morphology – Structure of plants

Plant physiology – Life functions of plants

Plant reproduction – Processes of plant

reproduction

Plant systematics – Classification and naming

of plants

Planttaxonomy – Classification and naming

of plants

•Plant interactions – With other life forms or

the environment

Applied Botanical Fields

Agronomy – Application of plant science to

crop production

Arboriculture – Culture and propagation of

trees

Astrobotany - The study of plants in space

Biotechnology – Use of plants to synthesize

products

Dendrology – Study of woody plants, shrubs,

trees and lianas

Economic botany – Study of plants of

economic use or value

Ethnobotany – Plants and people. Use and

selection of plants by humans

Forestry – Forest management and related

studies

Horticulture –Cultivation of garden plants

Marinebotany – Study of aquatic plants and

algae that live in seawater

Micropropagation –Rapid propagation of

plants using cell and tissue culture

Pharming (genetics) – Genetic engineering

of plants to produce pharmaceuticals

Plant breeding – Breeding of plants with

desirable genetic characters

Plant pathology (Phytopathology) – Plant

diseases

Plant propagation –Propagation of plants

from seed, bulbs, tubers, cuttings and graft-

ing

Pomology – Fruit and nuts

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (23)

93

COVID-19and You

CHECKING INWITH 12 BSA MEMBERS

DURINGA GLOBAL PANDEMIC

The past year has brought unprecedented challenges to those of us working in STEM and higher

education.Inlate2019,anovelcoronavirusaroseinWuhan,Chinaandspreadthroughout

the globe, prompting wide-scale shutdowns and quarantines across most continents. These

shutdowns hit the majority of the United States in early to mid-March 2020. Schools and

universities closed, the majority of classrooms transitioned to remote learning, and research

labs were shuttered. Many of us have lost friends, family, and/or colleagues to this disease.

As I write this in August 2020, the death toll in the United States continues to climb, even as

many universities are reopening for fall classes. Those of us returning to campuses are faced

with the challenge of implementing new, daunting requirements for enforcing social distancing,

sanitizing classrooms, and wearing personal protective equipment such as goggles and masks,

as well as accommodating students who are unable or unwilling to attend in-person classes.

Others among us are facing another semester of teaching online.

One of the greatest challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic has been the isolation it has created.

Many of us transitioned to working remotely where we missed regular, face-to-face interactions

with students, mentors, and colleagues. In my opinion, it has been easy to feel as though each

of us is alone in facing the challenges presented by the pandemic.

We asked people from across the Society to write briefly about their experiences with COVID-19

in order to document these experiences and to share them with others in the botanical

community. It is my sincerest hope that the readers ofPSBwill find reading these reflections to

be beneficial.

SPECIAL FEATURES

ByMackenzieTaylor

Editor-in-Chief,PSB

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (24)

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Howhasthepandemicanditsresponse

changed your job and/or daily routine?
I think many botanical researchers, regardless

oftheiraffiliations, were affectedby the

pandemic and efforts to control the spread of

the virus in much the same ways. For myself

andmostofmycolleaguesattheDesert

Botanical Garden, we lost several significant

things:

•Access to our office and laboratory

spaces.

•Access to the Garden’s Living Collection

for scientific purposes (essential staff

continue their comprehensive care for the

Living Collection itself).

•Ability to conduct fieldwork.
•Ability to work with volunteers (the

Garden has more than 700 volunteers

who not only care for plants but also

work in our research labs, herbarium, and

citizen science program).

•Revenue generated by daily visitors

and special events during the height of

the Garden’s typical visitorship (spring

season).

These losses primarily required shifts in the

focusofourefforts.Myneweffortswere

focused on adjustingprojectexpectations,

Shannon

Fehlberg

Desert Botanical

Garden,Phoenix,AZ

timelines, and budgets; making alternative

project plans under multiple, theoretical

scenarios;transitioning fromactivedata

collection(inthelab orfield)todataanalysis

andproposalandmanuscriptwriting,and

working with graduate students to finish up

thesis work and defend virtually.
What was your greatest challenge in

adapting to this new format?
Formethe greatestchallengeinadapting

to these changes is the long work days. To

accommodate working with my kids on their

school work (before summer break) and other

interruptions, I frequently have to work from

sunup to sundown (on and off). The pressure

toaccomplish mydailyworktasksandputin

my hours, all while taking on additional and

demanding responsibilities, feels unrelenting

and exhausting. These changes come with

other challenges too, like facing uncertainty

inalmosteveryaspectoflifeandadapting

projects that really can’t meet their goals

without fieldwork, lab work, or volunteers.
What were some surprises you experienced

as thespring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
Some of the most important skills I rely on

during this time are to be very organized in

listing and prioritizing my daily and weekly

goalsandusingsoftwaretotrackmytime

and efforts (I find this to be an excellent

tool in helping me to stay focused). One

important thing I am learning is to accept

my limitations and other people’s limitations

(time, physical, mental)—we all are working

to accomplish what we can in the midst of

difficult circumstances.
Going into the fall, what challenges and

opportunities do you see?
In the spring, when our statesand institutions

first began taking measures to limit the spread

ofthevirus,weallhopedforasummerand

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fallseasonwithdecreasedratesofspreadof

the virus and a phasing-in of some of the

things we’d lost. But in my part of the country,

we are not seeing a decreased rate of spread

but rather an alarming increase in the rate

of spread, leading to more uncertainty and

conflict among interests. The pandemic looks

as though it will continue to delay our projects,

shift our focus, increase our responsibilities,

and shrink our budgets. Despite this, I am

moving forward in a determined way to

continuetomakeprogressonallfrontsand

take advantage of some of the unexpected

opportunities we have during these times.

I am grateful for the additional time I’ve

been able to spend with my children and the

dramatic change we’ve seen in the pace of life’s

activities. I appreciate that virtual meetings,

workshops, and conferences are providing

chances for learning and interactions that

might nothavebeen possibleotherwise.I’m

lookingforwardtoco-teachinganewcourse

this fall incorporating a smaller class size

and virtual components. As have heard said

among family, friends, and co-workers, this is

an opportunity to learn a new way of doing

things, and that new way is not all bad.

How has the pandemic and the response

changed yourjob and/ordaily routine?

My job has not changed at all—I am the

academic leader of the College of Arts &

Sciences with about 500 faculty and staff

members. Allof the end of my academicyear

functions such as writing annual reviews of

heads/chairs/staff andbudgetplanningare

the same as always. What really has changed

is my daily routine—I work from home! We

havebeenusingZoomtocommunicateand

to schedule meetings large and small. I have

takenoveroneroomandmy wifeHelenis

working remotely in another room. I have a

lovely spacious house and live next to a lake

with nature trails—so I am lucky.

One additional challenge is that my research

lab has been closed, so my students have had

to work remotely, and I have had to meet

withthemvia Zoom. Theyhavedonewell

in that they have worked on analyses of the

large amount of data that they had generated.

Fortunately, now with some limitations, we

can open our lab again.

What was yourgreatest challenge in

adapting to this new format?

I feel like we are all working harder than ever

dealing with the many changes that have

resulted due to the corona virus situation.

Thus, in my role as dean, I am “on” all of the

time—but I am even more “on” now. Thus, I

John Z. Kiss

University of

North Carolina-

Greensboro,

Greensboro, NC

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have to turn off and stop looking at email and

doing other types of work! In some ways, I am

surprised that remote working is working well

for me. I consider myself fortunate as I know

other members of our society cannot adapt so

easily to working remotely.
How did your interactions with your faculty

and/or students change with the shift to

online?
Movingtoonlinemeetingswithfaculty

and the students in my research lab as well

ashavingcommitteemeetingsonlinehave

worked reasonably well. Seeing and talking

to them on Zoomis better than a phonecall

or conference call as there are some visual

cues. However, there is still an element that

ismissingvs.havingface-to-facemeetings.

You can lose more subtle signal and prompts.

Personal interaction is still better—humans

are social creatures. At the end of the day, I

miss seeing my staff, faculty, and students!
What were some surprises you experienced

as thespring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
I feel like I am working harder and longer than

ever. Part of this problem is that we all are

dealing with massive changes and planning

for the fall semester: moving things online,

hybrid classes etc. Another issue is that with

online meetings you can havemoresince there

is no walking time needed between meetings!

I seem to have developed skills with all of the

major online meeting platforms. I also think

thatonlinemeetingshavemademefocus

more and stay on topic.
Going into the fall, how are you feeling

about starting a new year? What challenges

and opportunities do you see?
The University of North Carolina system has

decided to open all public universities in the

state. Surveys show that our students want

to come back to campus, but things will look

different. The university leaders and faculty

have had to institute many changes to make it a

safe environment, and these measures include

maintaining social distancing and keeping a

cleanenvironment.Someofourcourseswill

go online and others will be in a hybrid format.

Ifeelpositiveaboutseeingstudentsandfaculty

on campus again but do have a degree of

trepidation. I also feel we are doing everything

we can to open the university safely but are

likely to see unforeseen challenges. I do not

seetheuniversity(andtheworld)gettingback

tonormaluntilwehaveaneffectivevaccine

with large scale distribution.
Howareyoufeelingemotionallyatthis

point?
While I am an optimistic person by nature,

I have concerns about our society at large.

Notwithstandingchallenges, while wein

higher education have been privileged in

many ways, I am concerned about the massive

disruption to our society at large: economic

turmoil dueto layoffs, problems dueto a

limited social safety net, continued health

risks to vulnerable populations, among others.

At the end of the day, I feel positive that our

students, faculty, and staff will emerge from

these challenges as well as our previous

generations, who have had deal with tough

situations in their time.

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97

Shuang-Quan

Huang

Central China

Normal University,

Wuhan, China

Howhasthepandemicanditsresponse

changed your job and/or daily routine?
The pandemic and its response have not

changed my job too much, but did to the form

of my job as a university professor in Wuhan.

Students and faculty members were not allowed

to study at the campus and the laboratory until

late April. Fortunately, graduate students who

passtheDNAexaminationandarewithoutan

infection of CoVID-19 virus have been able

to apply to go back to the campus since Mid-

June.

Research:Students and I are interested in

plant reproductive biology, particularly plant-

pollinator interactions, and ecology and

evolution of flowers. Our research includes

work in the field station and in the lab. For

example, one of the PhD students in my lab

is interested in the chemical ecology of pollen

and nectar in spring-flowering plants of

Rhododendronspecies. The field study of this

yearwasmissedandmaterialsareunavailable

for her further study in the lab. We are looking

forward to conducting a field study in the

fieldstationofouruniversityinShangri-La,

southwest China in this summer-flowering

season from July to August.

During this spring pandemic, I was trying

to read, write, and revise papers every day.

Nine graduate students (five for a Master’s

degreeandfourforaPhD)graduatedthis

June from our research group, the busiest

season in my scientific career. Face-to-face or

oral communications were reduced to nearly

zero, which may allow me to think deeply

without distraction, but had made me dull in

mind, because feedbacks cannot be gained as

rapidly as usual. Generally, I do not like this

style, becausedebatesorevenquarrelswould

ignite great ideas in our brains. In summary,

the work efficiency of mine during the global

crisis is quite low.

Teaching:I believe that online teaching has

been possible for at least 15 years and the

efficiency of online study seems quite low.

One may expect that students can do other

things during class given that the teacher

could not directly watch them. During the

pandemic online teaching, the students

were actually much more active than usual.

When they had any question, they simply

typed out the question to be noted, letting

me answer the questions immediately. In this

year, all oral defenses for the graduated theses

(dissertations) are communicated virtually

online. This allows colleagues from worldwide

and anyone who can access online, including

students’ parents, to join. From this point, I

really appreciate this interaction mode online.
What was your greatest challenge in

adapting to this new format?
As the outbreak was first realized in Wuhan,

the isolation through a lockdown of the city

had effectively protected people from virus

infection. Staying isolated for a short time

seems fine, but feeling lonely 2 to 3 months

later. In this manner, I really agree the idea that

humans are social animals; one is somehow

living in other people’s eyes, it is what you do

that makes you what you are. Actually, I am

notgoodatovercomingthischallenge,butI

see many people be brave, well behaved, and

friendly. I got emails from western colleagues

whokindly informedwhetherI needed help

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98

in the early stages of the pandemic. One of

my collaborators, an American evolutionary

biologist, has been infected by the CoVID-19

andisolatedinUKinFebruary.Ihopehewill

fully recover soon.
What were some surprises you experienced

as thespring went on? Whatskills didyou

pick up along the way?
The biggest surprise is that until the vanish of

COVID-19 in Wuhan, none of my relatives

or acquaintances was infected by COVID-19.

I picked up the skill of cooking and

housekeeping, as I have to cook lunch for my

daughter, a high-school student, now staying

at home and learning from online classes. I

note young and old generations playing table

tennis in rooms or outside. The exercise has

become morepopular recently inChina,as

team sports are not recommended.
Going into the summer/fall, what challenges

and opportunities do you see?
Challenges and opportunities co-exist in the

current situation.

Challenges:We are not sure whether students

can return the university campus and

laboratory to study.

Opportunities:Our university inspires

teacherstoteachonlineandstudentstostudy

online. However, experimental studies such as

biology or chemistry are difficult to practice.

We are trying to develop more practical

projects under Virtual Reality (VR) technique

for undergraduate students.

How are you feeling emotionally at this

point?

As nearly half a million people passed because

of deadly virus in the world, I feel that keeping

healthy is essential to all of us at this point.

We humans only can survive on the earth

if we are in harmony with nature, with no

more damages to wildlife and ecosystems. If

everyone treats the earth as his/her own eyes

or as home and own garden, the diverse life

forms will be symbiotic and sustainable in the

green planet.

Howhasthepandemicanditsresponse

changed your job and/or daily routine?
Thankfully, conservation work was deemed

essential early on in the state of Hawaiʻi

soIhave been abletocontinue field work.

There was only a 2- to 3-week pause on field

work whilethe state’s, our county’s and our

organizations’ safetyprotocolswere being

figured out. Other than that, office-related

work has changed from my office at our NTBG

headquarters to my home office, which is just

a couple miles away. I still go into the office at

least once a week to process collections. I use

Google Meet and Zoom on a daily basis now.
What was your greatest challenge in

adapting to this new format?
I was never very comfortable communicating

over video conferencing platforms such as

Google MeetandZoombeforethis.I gotused

to it really quick though and now it feels very

easy and natural.

Seana Walsh

National Tropical

Botanical Garden

,

Kalāheo, HI

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What were some surprises you experienced

as thespring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
I was surprised that conferences and meetings

scheduled for late summer and fall were

being cancelled left and right. Didn’t initially

expect that the pandemic would last that long.

I’ve picked up some skills in pre-recording

presentations forconferences!Forexample,

making sure lighting, sound, and background

areappropriate,havingvideoat eye level,

making it a little more engaging, etc.
Going into the fall, what challenges and

opportunities do you see?
ChallengesIseewillbeaseasilymaintaining

and building relationships with colleagues

and friends. Also, making new connections

and building new collaborations. Nothing can

replace the connections you make with people

in-person, including the ideas that come up

spontaneously when you’re physically together

and talking in an informal way. Opportunities

I see are connecting more frequently with

colleagues and friends because of this, over

video conferencing platforms, phone, text,

etc. I think we’ll need to connect more in

that way since we won’t be able to see each

other for a while in-person. There is also an

obvious opportunity to work on publishing

those hanging papers with freed-up time due

to cancelled conferences and cancelled field

workforsome.
Howareyoufeelingemotionallyatthis

point?
Being out here on Kauaʻi, I feel very safe at

the moment and am very grateful for that.

We haven’t had any new or active COVID-19

cases in over two months. I’m a little nervous

how things will change once we open up again

for tourism with the way things are in other

partsofthecountry.Iama little disappointed

thatI haven’t been ableto, andwon’tfor the

foreseeable future,connectwith colleagues,

family, and friends in-person. I agree that

cancelling travel plans is the safest and

smartest decision at this point, though.

How has the pandemic and the response

changed your job and/or daily routine?
Yes, the pandemic has absolutely changed

my daily routine, but my job is secure (TT

Assistant Professor). There may be upcoming

changes to my job, including a furlough or

pay cut. Additionally, I have an option to

delay my tenure review clock slightly. I have

not yet decided if it is in my benefit to do so.

My daily work routine is mostly sitting at my

dining room table with my roommate (and

occasionally my partner, who is a health care

worker) trying to be considerate about our

various meetings. I also stare at my pantry all

the time and try not to think of all the snacks

I could be eating!
The shift to online teaching was very

fast. What was your greatest challenge in

adapting to this format?
I was in the middle of teaching a Plant

Systematics class which has a large component

of hands-on labs with live plant material and

11 field trips. Most of this was cancelled when

we moved in early March to completely remote

instruction. Converting the class almost

instantaneously was a struggle particularly as

Jason T.

Cantley

San Francisco

State University,

San Francisco, CA

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (30)

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100

much of my teaching material is not digitized

(ex. herbarium specimens, live plant materials,

plants/habitats at a field site). I struggled most

with providing experiences that would stand in

forthe outdoorfieldexperienceand exposure

to different native plants. Technology was

also an issue, but mostly, I found our video

meeting platform to be challenging and not

equitable for my student’s home situation. It

was difficult to meet synchronously with my

students. I also believe that many students

had a rough time and their mental health was

challenged in being able to finish the semester.
How did your interactions with your

students change with the shift to online?
In my classes, they became less initially. Our

videomeetingswerenotterriblyengaging

and I felt as if I was struggling to reach them.

Eventually, save for a few students, I had found

a rhythm that seemed to work after a few

weeks of trial and error. For my grad students,

I prepped them with as much material as

possible to go home with and we started

weekly lab meetings to simply check-in with

each other. Sometimes interactions with them

werespottyorchallengingastheywerelosing

their jobs or housing, or were struggling to

maintainpositivementalhealthasfamily

members,friends,andpeoplearoundthe

globe became sick.
What were some surprises you experienced

as thespring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
I’m grateful that San Francisco State University

has several opportunities to prepare for

Fall semester that will be taught almost

exclusively remotely. A group of nearly 70

staff, faculty, lecturers, and graduate teaching

assistants of our Biology department have

committed torevampinghigh impact/ high

enrollment courses tocompletelyreinvent

our lab activities for these classes so that

they are 100% capable of online instruction.

Additionally, we have committed to having a

new lab manual for all of these classes by the

end of the summer with a critical eye towards

studentlearningoutcomes,and diversity,

equity, andinclusion. Also, SF Statehasa

professional development center, called the

Centerfor Equity andExcellence inTeaching

and Learning (CEETL), that is running

summer workshop for literally hundreds of

faculty members who will be learning all

kindsof skills forbetter online engagement

for their remotely instructed fall semester.

These experiences are providing me with a

large set of skills that I believe will make me

abettereducator,especiallyaswemoveto

remote learning for the fall.
Going into the fall, how are you feeling

about starting a new year? What challenges

and opportunities do you see?
I’m anxious, to be honest. While I feel like I

will be working hard this summer to be able

todeliveran engagingcoursethat meets

remotely, it is still overwhelming. I am trying

not to worry that this class will be like a

new course prep during this important time

point in my path to tenure. I know that the

time I am spending on course development

is in direct tradeoff with my research and lab

productivity. I feel like the Fall will be okay

given the current state of the world and my

preparation, butI recognizethe extra work

that I will do to ensure a successful learning

experience for the students that I engage with

in class and within my lab.
Howareyoufeelingemotionallyatthis

point?
At this point, I feel okay. But I would be lying

if I didn’t say this experience is an emotional

roller coaster. I’ve been doing weekly

reflections with my partner, and sometimes

I’m feeling fine, but other weeks I’m feeling

quite low. Low moments are strongly felt and

noticeable because my productivity tanks.

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I fail to schedule meetings and lose track of

important emails or deadlines that I need to

stayon topof.Thoseweeksarea struggle.

AndifI’mbeingtrulyhonest,thoseweeks

are correlated with the national mood that I

cannot escape in the middle of San Francisco

where I live. My partner is an emergency

medicine doctor and has had (and might

continue to have) to intubate several SARS-

coV-2 positive patients with rapidly declining

health. Some of those patients have died,

some are still on ventilators, others have

recovered. I worry because he is seeing a lot

of death and his work environment is full of

people who are stressed out, overworked, and

anxious or sick. His direct contact with the

virus puts our household at an elevated risk

of contraction. On top of that, just outside my

apartment windows, I’ve witnessed several

peaceful civil rights protests with thousands

of participants chanting for justice sparked

by the death of Geogre Floyd. Across the

street, a hotel has been converted by the city

into temporarylivingaccommodations for

homeless individuals who need to recover in

quarantine safely away from others. There are

often sirens from police and ambulances every

day. It hasnot beenpossiblefor me toescape

the duel crises that our nation is now facing.

As I write this, daily cases are increasing across

our nation at an alarming rate. California, and

thankfully to a lesser degree San Francisco, is

poised to become one of the next hotspots.

I just hope that we can all stay as healthy as

possible, mitigate as much death as we can,

and weather out the pandemic safely.

Howhasthepandemicanditsresponse

changed your job and/or daily routine?
The inconvenience of work has been an

adjustment,especiallylivinginaone-bedroom

apartment. It was easy to be distracted working

from home at the beginning, but I adjusted

by turning the dining room space into as

much of a clutter-free officeas possible. My

spouse had just moved across the country in

December and we had been apart in the field

forallofthatmonthandmuchofJanuary.The

apartment was filled with our newly reunited

livesandalloftheclutterandboxesthatcame

with it, so finding and making space was a

challenge. We rented a storage unit to move

overflow. Just before the shutdown and travel

ban, my spouse also traveled to Germany for a

workshop and ended up getting trapped for a

couple extra weeks. That was not ideal, but we

adapted and made the most of it—in fact, this

time apart was quite productive for both of us.

Unlike most of my colleagues, I have been

backatwork(inmyoffice)sincemid-May.

Returning to work has been interesting. It feels

more like a “work environment” again, but

highlycontrolledandalittlestressfultomove

throughout and use shared facilities. Lunch is

difficult to coordinate, I need to bring enough

coffee and water to last throughout the day, and

I am prioritizing office-work (e.g., analyses/

writing) over herbarium and lab work because

I want to minimize shared contact.

Morgan Gostel

Botanical

Research Institute of

Texas (BRIT),

Ft. Worth, TX

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My spouse and I welcome this opportunity to

be out of our cramped one-bedroom space,

but we are anxious for and mindful of our

colleagues and their families at home.
What was your greatest challenge in adapt-

ing to this new format?
The distractions and fluidity of work/life

balance were a difficult adjustment. I’m not

sure I ever fully adjusted, but I did eventually

become quite productive and my writing was

prolific for a month at home. It took two weeks

to adjust and then afterward, returning to the

office again was another adjustment. Lost work

opportunities include alot of canceled travel,

lack of specimen loans to/from herbaria,

and inability to hire students this summer.

Fortunately I have a lot of backlog work that

I can continue with, so I have much to keep

me busy. I am especially concerned for the

next generation of botanists who are missing

important opportunities to learn and develop.

I miss the more engaging aspects of my work—

including conferences, daily interactions

(lunch and social gatherings) with co-workers,

and work with students and volunteers. Our

offices are part of an open/shared layout and

because so many of our normal activities have

shifted to regularly schedule virtual meetings,

there is often excessive noise throughout this

shared space that adds an extra distraction for

work and productivity. Knowing that we are

back to work, we also try to completely restrict

any outside exposure, so we have shifted

all normal activities to delivery and pickup.

Although we try and have succeeded in so

many ways, there are many parts of our work

that cannot be replaced in a virtual format.
What were some surprises you experienced

as thespring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
My time management skills definitely

improved and the ability to create new

routines.ExpectationsinMarchwerenot

met for reasons associated with difficulty

of coordinating with colleagues, closure of

herbaria(andcorrespondinglackofshipping

offices/ability to send or receive loans),

inability to travel, etc. I am fortunate that my

place of work is continuing to operate with

minimal impacts—thanks to hardworking

andcommittedstaff;I’mnotsurprised,butI

continue to be impressed.
Going into the fall, what challenges and op-

portunities do you see?
There will continue to be challenges for time

management and coordination of activities

both for myself and with colleagues. Additional

conferences and field trips will switch to online

only. Being able to work in the laboratory,

herbarium, or other traditionally shared spaces

willrequirefurthercoordination.Iwon’t

be able to sort through a pile of specimens

to make determinations, with a colleague

next to me with whom I can bounce ideas

around. Direct student mentorship will be

challenging and eventually the “back log” will

begin to run out. I'm trying to focus on taking

this time, as before, to focus on work that is

feasible, including writing and fieldwork. My

spouse and I took a trip to southwest Texas

todofieldworkandareplanninganotherin

September. Thelaboratoryat BRIThasre-

opened on a limited basis and I have begun

working with a volunteer to get some DNA

sequencing completed. We continue to adapt

and manage in this new normal.
Howareyoufeelingemotionallyatthis

point?
This is a difficult question. Sometimes I feel a

little misanthropic due to the disregard by a

lot of leadership in the United States to this

pandemic.However,mypersonalsituationis

quite unique right now for personal reasons,

so perhaps I’m able to see more of a silver

lining than others. I’m not sure if I feel okay

because I’m willing myself to do so, or if it’s

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because I’m able to accept things are the way

they are and trying to go with the flow of this

crazy time. In a way I think I am happy things

havesloweddownandamforcedto focus

on what is important. My spouse and I are

privileged to havejobs and not havetoworry

abouttakingcareofothersorcoordinating

online school during these extremely difficult

times. I am hyperaware of my friends and

colleagues, though, and their needs. I’m

counting my blessings and allowing this time

to reflect on other parts of my life and focus

on what is important. This pandemic is a

global tragedy—it has been heartbreaking to

watch it unfold—but somehow my eternal

optimism sees a positive outcome in my life

and those of my friends and colleagues. We’ll

get through this with renewed ties, a sharper

focus on what is important, and I hope we will

learn something that endures about where

our values rest.

How has the pandemic and the response

changed your job and/or daily routine?
The pandemiclanded me, my husband, and

our two kids (ages 11 and 8) working and

doing school at home for ~3 months. We

converted part ofour houseto an officeand

set up a divided schedule where one parent

was working and one parent was the teacher,

and we would switch half way through the

day. Many days, the parent serving as the

elementary school teacher was also doing

Zoom calls, or even teaching his/her university

class, at the same time.
What was your greatest challenge in

adapting to this new format?
The pandemic has been challenging to so

many people for so many different reasons.

My husband and I are grateful that our jobs

were intact and that we have been able to

remain healthy (so far). Having said that, the

greatest challenge for me was trying to do my

job—the expectations of which didn’t change

much with the pandemic—in roughly half as

much time. The struggle is real: it is extremely

difficult, if not impossible, to work a full-time

job and serve as the teacher/parent of two kids.

Further, the accumulating backlog of stuff—

bothatworkandathome—thatIcouldn’tget

to was (and continues to be) overwhelming.

The pace of work hasn’t slowed, but my

capacity to do it has been severely impacted.
How did your interactions with your

colleagues and/or students change with the

shift to online communication?
My lab group started a morning coffee from

8:30 to 9:00 a.m. Mondays through Thursdays,

andthenweheldourregularlabmeetingon

Friday. This has been a joy, to touch base with

people each day, talk about what is going on,

and think about what we were trying to do

that day. My Economic Botany class moved

to Zoom—and my attendance improved!! It

was fun to teach people from home; I really

enjoyed the interaction with students.
What were some surprises you experienced

as the spring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
One of the greatest joys of the pandemic has

Allison Miller

Danforth Plant

Science Center,

St. Louis, MO

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been rediscovering nature and gardening with

our kids. We live within walking distance of

a major park in St. Louis where we have been

recording bird sightings and plants in bloom

since March. The kids are turning into great

naturalists! Also, our garden has never looked

better—although our dog Cookie is currently

decimating the squashes....
How are you feeling emotionally at this

point?
Exhausted, but grateful for our health, the extra

time with family, and the joy of consciously

taking in the biodiversity that surrounds us

every day.

How has the pandemic and its response

changed your job and/or daily routine?
In some major ways, my daily routine and

that of my lab’s has been significantly altered.

I have ongoing experiments plus imbibed

seeds inmylabandwasandso wasdeemed

essential by my organization. However,

restrictions were in place so that I could only

access the lab two to three days per week. This

was enough to assay and water the imbibed

seeds and monitor the physical facilities of the

ex situ conservation seed collection. I rely on

a half-time staff person, and full-time intern,

plus a small group of dedicated volunteers to

Dustin Wolkis

National Tropical

Botanical Garden,

Kalāheo, HI

help carry out the daily operations in the lab.

The staff person went on leave (unrelated to

COVID-19)just as the world was melting

down, and all volunteer activities were

suspended. I was able to advocate for my

intern to be physically present, so it was just

the two of us trying to do more work in less

time.Thishasledtoreducedoperations

overall including less-frequent germination

assays, and halting initiating new experiments

altogether.
What was your greatest challenge in adapt-

ing to this new format?
The greatest challenge by far was figuring out

how to work from home two to three days

per week, while my partner also worked from

homewhileattempting toprovidedistance-

learning to our kindergarten-aged son,

Canyon. We worked out a schedule where

she would wear the Kindergarten teacher hat

Monday through Thursday, with me playing

that roleon Fridays.Now that thatschool is

outitislesschallenging,butoneofusisstill

working every day of the week.
What were some surprises you experienced

as the spring/summer went on?
I expected that with limited access to my lab, I

could focus on projects with existing data and

hanging papers. I thought I was going to be

super productive, submitting papers and grant

proposalsleftandright,leavingmefeeling

accomplished and proud. The reality has been

just the opposite. Working from home has

its perks (e.g., eating lunch with family every

day; attending Zoom meetings with your

child), but it just was not nearly as productive

as I had hoped. Since the safe-at-home order

was enacted, I’ve yet to submit one project in

which I am leading.

What skills did you pick up along the way?

Well I’m still trying to figure out a Zoom

background, LOL. My organization is

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focusing on communication to the general

public, so I have been trying to sharpen my

public outreach writing skills.
Going into the fall, what challenges and

opportunities do you see?
We are planning for volunteers to return to

the lab in early July, including rearranging the

lab space to accommodate social-distancing

practices.The return ofvolunteersishugefor

my program since I rely so heavily upon them.

New germination experiments will restart,

assayswillbeconductedmorefrequently,and

I will be freed up to get back to those papers I

never finished.

How has the pandemic and the response

changed your job and/or daily routine?
As an educator, the pandemic has impacted

my daily routine tremendously. I teach a

mixture of virtual and in person science

courses during the academic year. My virtual

courses were not altered by the pandemic,

but my in-person courses were drastically

changed.Transitioningtoremotedeliveryfor

the remainder of the spring 2020 semester

impacted the way in which lectures and labs

were conducted. Students expressed the

disappointment in not being able to interact

witheachotheraswellasmyself.However,

I believe my students understood the need

tochangeourdailyroutinestohelpour

community reduce disease transmission.

Duringthesummers,Iinstructelementary

science camps at our local museum.We

transitionedour camps to a 100% virtual

platform,which has had many positive

results. Many campersthatotherwise would

not be ableto attendour sciencecamps

due to distance(i.e.,livingin anotherstate)

or a physicalhandicap(e.g., havingan

autoimmunedisorder) are now able to have

a camp experiencethrough a virtualsetting.

Idomissthein-personinteractionswith

campers, but I have been excitedto share

science with elementaryaged students across

the United States.Withoutthetransitionto

virtualsciencecamps, I would not have had

theopportunitytoteachsuchadiversegroup

of young scientists.

What was your greatest challenge in

adapting to this new format?
Being an educator, the greatest challenge has

been finding new ways to teach science outside

of a classroom setting. However, I feel that

challenges help us grow as individuals. This

is especially relevant in education. Sometimes

during challenging times, educators find

themselves redesigning their curricula that

may need a refresher. This benefits us as

educators as well as our students. Therefore, I

have enjoyed this challenge. I am also thankful

mycareerplacesmeinapositiontospread

scientific knowledge while also ensuring

disease transmission in my community is

minimized.
How did your interactions with your

colleagues and/or students change with the

shift to online communication?
Many of my colleagues have come together to

Keri Maricle

North Central

Kansas Technical

College

Hays, KS

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share new ideas and methods for educating

students during a pandemic. Students have

become more communicative with me as

many of them feel more comfortable asking

questions in a virtual setting. This situation

does not apply to all colleagues and students I

interact with, but I have noticed a shift toward

strengthening of relationships as we feel we

are all in the “same boat” when it comes to

these major changes.
What were some surprises you experienced

as the spring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
I would say the biggest surprise came in

March 2020 when our campus decided to

transition to remote delivery of courses. All

decisions that have come following this one

major decision have not really been surprises

as many of us have accepted that our way of

living and working has and will continue to

change each day. Many of my students and

advisees are taking my courses to enter a

nursingprogram.Therefore,many ofmy

students are CNAs working at organizations

andinstitutionsthatareattheforefrontof

COVID-19. I have gained an entirely new

appreciation for nurses as I have seen what

my students have encountered during this

pandemic as they continue their work.
Going into the fall, how are you feeling

about starting a new year? What challenges

and opportunities do you see?
Living in western Kansas, you come to

understandthatscienceisnotalwaysgoingto

be accepted in your community. I have noticed

just how true this is when interacting friends,

family, co-workers, and students. Many of

the individuals around me have different

interpretations of the current issues, which

have shocked and disgusted me. That being

said, I feel that this new academic year is an

opportunity to not only share the importance

of science (specifically, basic concepts of

epidemiology and immunology), but also a

time to take a stand toward the racial injustice

that is happening in our country. The changes

tomydailylifehaveshownmetheimportance

of acting and speaking up in the moment

rather than waiting for something to happen.

The pandemic has encouraged me to redefine

my approach toward current scientific and

political issues as I know now how quickly a

lifestyle can change.
How are you feeling emotionally at this

point?
I am greatly concerned about our country’s

decisions, but empowered to know that, as an

educator, I can educate those around me with

the facts. We all have decisions to make in life.

Political leaders may choose to reject science

and visions of equality, but I choose to use my

knowledge tosupportmystudents to bebetter

human beings through education.

How has the pandemic and the response

changed your job and/or daily routine?
Well, I’ve been working at home since mid-

March, making liberal use of Zoom. I see

much less of my colleagues and students, but

much more of my family (which is a silver

lining).

Michael J.

Moore

Oberlin College,

Oberlin, OH

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What was your greatest challenge in

adapting to this new format?
Notbeingableto interactwithstudentson

campus has been difficult. I can’t read the

classroom nearly as easily, and I worry about

the welfare of some students more than I ever

have.
What were some surprises you experienced

as the spring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
I think the shift to online-only learning in

the spring has had me thinking about ways

to incorporate elements of online learning

tosupplementmy classroom teaching when,

one day, the world returns to a more normal

routine. In particular, how can I make more

efficient and more impactful use of lecture

time?Ihavebeenthinkinga lotabouthowto

lecture less and have more in-class discussions.

I’ve also been very pleasantly surprised at how

effective shifting my Plant Systematics lab

toremotelearningwas. Iwasreallyworried

about the loss of field trips in April and May.

To try to minimize the loss of field work, I had

my students go on individualized, short field

trips at home and post the plants they found

to iNaturalist. They adapted to this extremely

well and learned a tremendous amount on

their own. We still met on Zoom during lab

time, and I still taught plant families and a

few key species, but I was very pleased with

the individual learning at home. Several of

my students from this past spring are still

actively using iNaturalist over the summer,

and collectively they have posted over 500

new plant observations from various parts of

the country.

Going into the fall, how are you feeling

about starting a new year? What challenges

and opportunities do you see?
Tobehonest,Ifeelabituneasyaboutthe

plans to reopen so many universities to in-

person classes this fall. For several reasons,

I have decided to teach my courses remotely

thisfall,andso Iwill haveallthechallenges

that come with online learning. I am most

worried about my introductory biology

section, which is composed almost entirely of

first- and second-year students. I have been

brainstorming ways to effectively introduce a

lot of students to biology in an online format.

However, I think my first-year seminar course

should work fairly well in an online-only

format, and I think there might be some cool

waysto incorporateonlineresourcesinto

thecourse.Plus,thebreakoutroomsfeature

on Zoom should work well for small-group

discussions, which I like to emphasize.
How are you feeling emotionally at this

point?
Overall, I feel OK. I think the state of the

world right nowis takinga bitof a toll, and

theuncertainty ofthecomingmonthsisnot

easy. But we’re all in this together, and I’m

very happy to belong to welcoming and open

professional societies!

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How has the pandemic and the response

changed your job and/or daily routine?
It was certainly an adjustment, at first, to work

almost entirely from home, but I had to visit

the office briefly each week to take care of a few

tasks.However,I became quitecomfortable

with the change and had a routine in place,

but I have recently returned to the office full-

time.

The shift to online teaching was very

fast. What was your greatest challenge in

adapting to this format?

My greatest challenge was that I had not

participated in any remote work or meetings,

but I was fortunate to have excellent assistance

from CITR staff on campus. They offered

webinars multiple times each week to help

faculty and staff learn how to use Zoom,

Google Meets, andourWesternOn-line

platform,andtheywerereadilyavailableto

answer questions and assist with trouble-

shooting.
How did your interactions with your faculty

and/or students change with the shift to

online?
Weheld ourdepartment meetingsusing

Google Meets. Most of my meetings were

held in this way too, with the exceptions of

large-attendance meetings where Zoom was

employed. My Tropical Ecology class was

able to travel to and from the Galapagos

safely before the shutdown. Prior to the study

abroad experience, we met weekly for lectures

andclassdiscussions,andweresumedthis

using Google Meets once classes were back in

session.
What were some surprises you experienced

as the spring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
With eight students, GoogleMeets worked

welleachweek,andIlecturedwithmy

PowerPoint slides with this format too. I

learned how to give exams online with our

WesternOn-lineplatform,andwe quickly

developed a weekly routine of lecture, followed

by class discussion. Students even gave their

individual presentations using Google Meets,

while discussion essays and group reports

were submitted electronically to me via e-mail.

I was surprised to see how much I enjoyed the

on-line exam preparation and administration,

especially when the program can grade a

number of questions automatically. I learned

how to implement Respondus Lockdown

Browser and Respondus Monitor for use by

students during the scheduled exam times.
Going into the fall, how are you feeling

about starting a new year? What challenges

and opportunities do you see?
As a Department Chair, working through

modificationsofthefallscheduletobeableto

offer face-to-face classes and laboratories with

limited room capacities and social distancing

hasbeenchallenging. Iwanteveryoneinmy

department and on campus to feel safe and be

safe, but many of us know that our plans can

change on a moment’s notice with COVID-19

surging in many parts of the country again.

Ranessa L.

Cooper

Western Illinois

University,

Macomb, IL

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How are you feeling emotionally at this

point?
I am still mentally tired from such a taxing

spring semester, along with educators and

parents, as we all had an abrupt shift in our

daily and weekly routines. I recall seeing a

phraseaboutus“allbeinginthesamestorm

but a different boat,” and this still resonates

with me. Fall will look different to all of us

in academia, and we will have to hope for the

best yet be prepared for a switch to online and

alternative deliveries.

How has the pandemic and the response

changed your job and/or daily routine?
On the whole I’ve been incredibly lucky and

benefitfromamazingprivilege. I’mlucky

to still have my job at all! I’m lucky to have

a family situation that is relatively conducive

to working from home. I and my family have

remained relatively healthy. So has everyone

in my lab, thank goodness—I hope that

doesn’t change!

In addition to moving my teaching and

research to 100% online, I had to cancel

a field season, had a pilot study cancelled

halfway through, and today I should be

visiting a colleague to help collect data but

am not allowed to travel. My institution has

responded to the financial pressures by, in

part, not renewing contracts for many non-

tenure track teaching faculty. Consequently,

my teaching load will more than double next

semester. We also have an altered Fall 2020

academiccalendar that is not compatible with

the growing season for my plants. I expect

my research productivity and grant proposal

submissions will be substantially decreased.

Thankfully, my institution offers the option to

delay the tenure clock as well as an extension

on the time to spend startup funds.

If these teaching changes are permanent, a

tenure clock extension may not be enough.

For instance, if we keep the new academic

calendar, I will need to re-envision my research

program. I think my tenure and promotion

committeeunderstandsthis,butI amnotso

sure about the upper administrators. I hope

they will recognize that if my job description

permanently changes, then the expectations

for tenure and promotion should also change.

Amid all this uncertainty, I did my best not

to change my daily routine: I still held class

at the same time (with asynchronous options

available). I make sure to meet with my entire

lab group during our usual timeslot and

scheduled additional individual meetings

with my grad students. We moved all of our

workonlinetodataentryandanalysis,or

alternativelycollectingdatafrompreviously

recorded digital images. My students were able

to (virtually) present their posters and all of

the undergrads graduating from my lab either

have well deserved jobs or graduate positions

in the fall. And, I am able to take short breaks,

contribute moreto childcare, and do fun

things like eat lunch with my family instead

of at my desk.

Robert Baker

Miami University,

Oxford, OH

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What was your greatest challenge in

adapting to this new format?
The biggest challenge was and continues to be

uncertainty. Our institutions are not used to

dealing with the rapid pace of the changes we’ve

seen over the past 3 to 4 months. There was

(and still is) a lot of conflicting information.

Thispastspring,therewasno forewarningor

time to plan, and our budgets were frozen so

we were unable to do things like construct and

mail kits to students so they could do labs at

home. While I did (and continue) to do my

best to pivot towards on-line interactions, it’s

hard to do something as simple as design a

course syllabus without knowing whether it

will be in person, online, or hybrid. Designing

research projects involving living organisms

that are robust to these unknowns is even

more challenging.
How did your interactions with your col-

leagues and/or students change with the

shift to online communication?
They decreased both in quantity and quality.

It’s really pushed us to adopt a number of

online collaboration tools that we probably

shouldhavebeenusingallalong.Within

my research group there are a few things

I’ve done: first, I’ve made it a point to have

regularlyscheduledmeetingsindividuallyand

ingroupswithallmy labmembers.Second,

we tested project management software

(turns out we don’t like to be managed

andIprefermentoringtomanaging)and

communication software (turns out we do like

to communicate!). Third, I’m taking a page out

of the Bioinformatics culture of open-source

sharing and extensive documentation and

applying it to our wet lab, growth chamber,

greenhouse, and field studies. Faculty in my

department have an informal virtual lunch

hour, which has been great. And finally, even

as a sometimes-introvert, I’ve increased the

amount of time I spend on Twitter (mostly

lurking)sothatIcanfeelmoreconnectedto

my scientific friends and colleagues.
What were some surprises you experienced

as the spring/summer went on? What skills

did you pick up along the way?
One of the best, most exciting things about

being a scientist is solving problems—

improvising, making do, and overcoming

unique obstacles that no other person has

ever encountered before. As a profession, I

think we are uniquely suited to dealing with

new challenges. Tapping in to that problem-

solving reserve has been critical.
Going into the fall, how are you feeling

about starting a new year? What challenges

and opportunities do you see?
Apprehensive. What if my partner and I get

sick at the same time? Who takes care of

the kids? What if we get shut down again,

mid-experiment? Whatif thereare further

visa restrictions and my grad students can’t

leave to visit family or return afterwards?

HowcanI servestudentsincountriesthat

block our online tools while maintaining

FERPA compliance? What if students refuse

to (correctly) wear masks? How can I teach

a 32-student lab in a room that has a new

maximum occupancy of 5? Is it possible to

socially distance as over a thousand people

move through narrow corridors and tight

stairwells within our building? Can I be

productive enough to pass tenure review? One

potential opportunity is that if we restructure

our courses to bedeliverable inan online (or

even hybrid) format, that could really increase

the sizeand diversityof the audience we can

reach.
How are you feeling emotionally at this

point?
Drained.

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Online seminars provide opportunities to

share research, meet people, and learn. In

this era of digital media, the use of video

meetings has increased communication

and collaboration. There are many benefits

of hosting digital seminars (even when

COVID-19 will no longer be a threat). One

majorbenefit isnoonehasto travel!Thisis

not only environmentally friendly, but also

means it is possible to hear about research and

collaborate with international researchers,

withoutspendinglargeamountsofmoney.

Virtualseminarsare agreatwayofsharing

ideas across fields with researchers that may

not attend the same conferences. Not to

mention, these seminars develop a community

thatiswelcomingandencouragingfornew

researchers.

Ana Rita Simões and Lauren Eserman have

developed theConvolvulaceaeNetwork

Seminar Series during the past year, which

currently gathers over 100 participants from

nearly 20 countries, from Asia to Brazil. Rocío

Deanna and Chelsea Pretz saw this as a model

An Era ofVirtual Seminars:

From Creating One

to a List of Ones to Join

and started a similar seminar series focusing

on research on physaloids (Solanaceae) that,

even being a more specialized and restricted

group,currentlyincludedtheparticipation

of almost 50 researchers from America and

Europe. In light of the COVID-19pandemic,

many other researchers are exploring the idea

of starting virtual seminar series, or joining

existing ones, to stay active. Here, we describe

our story as just one of many ways to continue

to engage in the research community despite

geographical and financial barriers, with

the goal of encouraging other researchers to

pursue these collaborative events.

STARTING AVIRTUAL

SEMINAR

Whenstartinganewseminar,thereare many

things to consider. What is the central topic?

How often do you meet? What platform

to use? What’s the best time for everyone?

Should we record? How do we promote our

seminars? With the collective experience

By Chelsea Pretz

1,5

, Rocío Deanna

2

, Lauren Eserman

3

, and Ana Rita Simões

4

1

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado-Boulder, USA

2

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Colorado-Boulder, USA; Instituto

Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal, IMBIV (CONICET-UNC). Córdoba, Argentina; Departamen-

to de Ciencias Farmacéuticas, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas (FCQ, UNC) Córdoba, Argentina

3

Department of Conservation & Research, Atlanta Botanical Garden, Atlanta, GA 30309

4

Department of Identification & Naming (Africa & Madagascar), Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

(United Kingdom)

5

Corresponding author email: chelsea.pretz@colorado.edu

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from the Convolvulaceae Network and

Physaloid Seminars (now Solanaceae Seminar

Online), we hope to help other groups who

are transitioning to virtual seminars.

THEBEGINNING: ASSESS-

MENT OF INTEREST

In early 2018, Ana was living in Brazil and

noticed a growing community of young

Convolvulaceae taxonomists in the country,

although with limited contact with each other

because of the large distance between them.

To help them engage more in discussions,

and help each other with references or

scientific queries, a Whatsapp group was

created with about 15 participants. It was

called Convolvulaceae Network. In May

2019, they gathered for a Workshop of

Young Convolvulaceae Researchers—online,

through Skype—which lasted for an entire

day, with a 15-minute presentation from each

of the Brazilian participants. It was a success

and left everyone craving more. It was also

attended by early career Convolvulaceae

researchers from other countries (Thailand

and DR Congo), who expressed the desire to

participateaswell. In 2019,LaurenandAna

both attended the Botany 2019 conference in

Tucson, Arizona, where they met in person

forthefirst time,alongwithJoanna Rifkin

and Irene Liao, and shared their enthusiasm

for Morning Glories (Figure 1). Many ideas

were brainstormed during that week, one of

whichwastofindawaytobringtogether

all these researchers working in the family,

especially linking the younger students and

early career researchers who needed more

support,andwhoweremoreopentotheuse

of new technologies. One of these ideas was

to set up a workshop or small conference

where everyone could present their work to

each other. This would have the advantage

of giving students an opportunity to practice

their communication skills, especially in

English, and offer them a platform to promote

their work, which is especially important

for those working on research fields that are

usually published in low-impact journals and

do not always get adequate visibility, such as

taxonomy. It would also be a good chance

toengagein discussionsabout overlapping

topics (e.g., researchers working on the same

taxa, but on different research questions), and

about competing ideas. The original plan of a

smallin-personconferencewasabandoned

because of lack of funding, a large number of

participants, and difficulties accommodating

everyone’s availability. The best option was to

make the conference online and spread it out

over a few weeks or months, with each week

featuring a different speaker. So what would

be a worldwide Convolvulaceae conference of

oneorafewdaysactuallybecameaseminar

series.

Figure 1.Ana Rita Simões (left) and Lauren

Eserman (right) at Botany Conference 2019 in

Tucson, AZ.

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The increasing rate of research for the

Solanaceae family has led to the development

of global networks of collaboration. To pursue

this, multiple meetings were organized along

thelast50years,fromtheInternational

Solanaceae Conferences starting back in

1976(Birmingham,UK)tothemorerecent

SOLgenomicsmeetings and Latin-American

SymposiumofSolanaceae.Evenwithallthe

effortstointegratedifferentresearchtopics

during these meetings, there are still gaps in

the communication between biodiversity,

genomics,andplantbreedercommunities.

Chelsea and Rocío noticed an increased

interest inPhysalisback in 2017. Several

different research groups started working with

thegenusbutwouldnot continuetoconduct

research, despite the economical potential and

questions that could be answered within the

group.ChelseaandRocíobelievedthiswas

caused by absence of communication among

researchers and confusing taxonomy. This led

them to their taxonomy and nomenclature

work, as well as to thinking about ways in

which to improve communication across

different research communities on the

physaloids. In 2019, Rick Miller invited

RocíototheConvolvulaceaeNetwork,and

she was impressed about the outstanding

organization of these seminars. This opened

the idea of a similar seminar series for

physaloids, considering that the increase of

goldenberries and groundcherries market

raised the necessity of working across different

questions and communities that needed to be

promoted and interconnected. The onset of

the Physaloid Seminar Series began by polling

other researchers of the Solanaceae family, to

gaugeiftherewasinterestinthistypeofonline

seminar. Once Chelsea and Rocío knew there

was more than enough interest, they started

with the organization of these seminars, from

finding a time that worked for most people to

inviting speakers and preparing a schedule.

PICKINGA TIME THAT

WORKS FOR MOST

In September 2019, Lauren would inaugurate

the Convolvulaceae seminar series with a talk

onherworkonevolutionofstorageroots,and

10 months later (about 40 weeks), still not all

researchers in the group have presented their

work. The time selected to host the seminars

was 2 p.m.London time,because it was the

only time that allowed all the participants to

be “awake”—very early morning in North and

Central America (6 a.m.), and late evening in

Asia(9p.m.).Thissolutionwasfoundforthe

very first seminar and has not changed since,

becauseitworksperfectlyforeveryone.The

issue with the wide range of time zones is also

one of the reasons why it would be difficult

to organize a one-week conference or full-

day conference; certainly, some people would

have to participate at inconvenient times (e.g.,

present their work at 2 a.m.).

The timetable, including different time zones

with the correct time for a list of several cities,

was oneof the great ideas thatChelsea and

Rocío followed from the Convolvulaceae

Network and applied to the Physaloid

seminars. This table is very important to keep

everyone on board and avoid confusion, and

it is constantly updated as the group grows;

attention isalsogiventotimechanges(e.g.,

daylight saving time). The Physaloid seminars

were inaugurated by Rocío in February 2020

with a talk about her work on Physalideae

phylogenetics and evolution. After almost

10 seminars on a biweekly basis, there is an

upcoming expansion to Solanaceae works

thatrequiresmore frequent seminars, starting

in July 2020 on a weekly regularity. The

time selected for these seminars was 4 p.m.

London time, in order to not overlap with

the Convolvulaceae seminars, as well as to

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114

make it possible for the researchers in the U.S.

West Coast (e.g., 8 a.m. in Seattle) to join. Up

to now, this has worked for almost everyone

and, when someone cannot attend, they can

still watch the talks, because they are recorded

and made available on the Physaloid Seminar

YouTube channel.

CREATING THE

STRUCTURE: ESTABLISH

COMMUNICATION AND

PREPARE THE

PLATFORMS

Initially, the presentations of both seminars

(Convolvulaceae andPhysaloids)were

delivered on Skype, and participants could

use the chat function to communicate

in between talks and during the week,

exchanging ideas and references. Particularly

forConvolvulaceae, anemailaddresswas

arrangedtosendouttheprogramandmanage

participant communications. To avoid an

excess of emails, the monthly program is

sent out to a mailing list at the beginning of

the month and shared on a dedicated Twitter

account(@convolv_network),also created

forthis purpose.An existing Convolvulaceae

Facebook group (created by Ana in 2011) is

also used to communicate the program of

theseminarseries,aswellasthe Whatsapp

group that gathers the Brazilian community.

The program includes a list of the talks with

additional information about the speakers, as

wellasatablewiththecorrectseminartime,

for each time zone. A website has also been set

up, and participants can now join by signing

up directly via a Google Form Sign-up sheet.

The Physaloid seminars were similarly

developed to Convolvulaceae, but using

Google-Groups, Twitter, and a website,

although there are many other ways to

promoteandinformparticipants(Figure2).A

Google-Group wassetup forcommunication

to the participants, but instead of sending a

program, an email reminder of every talk is

sent a few days before the seminar. On the

website, presenterswereaskedto write up a

smallabstractthatcouldbereviewedbefore

theseminarandhighlightedduringtheemail.

While these abstracts remain on the website

in the “past seminar” tab, it is also posted on

YouTubewiththeirtalk.Theresearchercan

not only add this seminar as an “invited talk”

to their CV, but also use the link for presenting

theirtalktoawideraudience.Ourhopeis

that promotion of researchers’ work will help

strengthen their career along with extending

collaborations beyond country borders and

continents.

Recording the seminars provides more

flexibility, allowing more people to watch

and be connected with the community. You

can record the talks easily in both Skype and

Zoom.However,thereareseveraldifferent

aspects of each tool to be considered. Skype

is free, but there is a limit of 50 people

during the call, though no time limit; Zoom,

however, can freely accommodate up to

100 participants, but there is a time limit of

40 minutes per call (Figure 3; refer to Table

1foracomparisonofonlineplatforms).

When starting the Physaloid seminar, there

wereroughly35peoplewitharound15to20

attendingeveryweek,soChelseaandRocío

decided to use Skype. Now that the Physaloid

seminarisexpandingtoincludethewhole

Solanaceaefamily,theyhavetransitionedto

Zoom. Many U.S.-based universities have

contracts with Zoom, which removes the time

limit on the Zoom calls and which could be

useful to know before setting up a platform

for these meetings.

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Figure 2.Pictures promoting an upcoming seminar and later the YouTube link to the channel.

PRESENTING RESEARCH

AND OTHER COMMUNITY

BUILDING ACTIVITIES

The Convolvulaceae group grew, and a new

organization systemwasputintoplace,

which would not have been possible without

close communication between Lauren and

Ana, as well as effective task division. At the

beginning, Ana would organize the email

correspondence, the program preparation,

and hosting of the seminars, while Lauren

would help promote the events on social

media and contact potential speakers. They

havediscussedtogether,fromtheoutset,all

the decisions and new ideas, and especially

the technological constraints and how to

overcome them. Currently, Lauren and Ana

alternate in hosting the seminars, and Lauren

has set up a new way of participants signing

up, through a Google form, which collates

newparticipant information ontoa Google

Sheet (currently over 100 participants from

22 countries). Ana is still more focused on

the program preparation and contacting

speakers. Both manage the email account,

and, depending on the availability, one or the

other responds to emails and sends out the

program.

In the meantime, since it was not possible to

reconcile everyone’s availability and have a

speaker for every week of the month, some

gaps in the program have urged our creativity,

and the program started to be enriched with

other types of talks: journal club, fun quizzes,

and participation of external speakers. These

havebeenequallysuccessfulandendedup

being a new element of the program and not

incidental. Journal clubs are sporadic and not

regularly organized. Every now and then, if

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a recent interesting paper is brought to the

attention of the group through the chat, usually

the person who mentions the publication is

asked to prepare a short discussion about it,

and we set up a date for this in the following

month. The quizzes are a more informal

platform, which have been very effective in

socialization between the participants—in

otherwords,theyare a lotof fun.Kahootis a

user-friendly platform through which you can

create questions with four optional answers.

You can create different sets of questions on

different topics. The quiz is then run on the

host’s screen, through Kahoot’s website (no

installation of programs is required), with

all the participants joining in through their

mobile phones or computers. The Kahoot

platformallowsyoutochooseachronometer

withhowlongisallowedtoanswereach

question,anditmanagesalltheparticipants’

scoresandranking,updatingitinbetween

thequestions.Theparticipantslookatthe

computer screen for the questions, and they will

have four symbols showing on their phones,

corresponding to the answers, on which they

caneasilyclickthroughout thegame. Atthe

end of the questions, Kahoot announces the

winner. So far, Ana has organized two quizzes,

one on general Convolvulaceae knowledge

(from classification to palynology), and

anotherqueryingaboutthespeakersandthe

presentations themselves. Several participants

sent Ana emails with ideas for questions, and

possible answers, which were incorporated

into the quiz. Lauren also prepared one on

species identification ofIpomoea, and it is

possible that new ideas will come up in the

future; for example, other participants offering

identification quizzes about the species or

genera, or geographical region, that they work

on.

Invited speakers, working on cutting-edge

research fields or closely related taxa as

ourdearcolleaguesfromthesisterfamily

Solanaceae, have also become part of the

matrixof the Convolvulaceae seminarseries

and helped the group grow and expand on

the scientific range of the discussions. This

alsoinspiresConvolvulaceaeresearchersto

look at aspects of their work from different

perspectives and try new methodologies.

Figure 3.The Convolvulaceae Network meeting on Zoom.

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Service

People

Limit

Time (Space)

Limit

Some pros

Some cons

Website

Skype

50 people

4 hours per

individual

video call

Easy to join

once the group

is set up; stable;

able to record

Must

screenshare

whole screen

https://www.

skype.com

Zoom

100 people

(webinars

can host up

to 10,000)

40 minutes

per individual

video call;

unlimited with

paid account

Can

screenshare

fromonlyone

tab/position of

screen; can set

up a waiting

room and

break rooms;

high-quality

video and

audio; able to

record

Zoom-

bombingmore

common

recently;

requires link

for meeting but

can be set up

as recurrent

https://zoom.

us/zoomrooms

YouTube

None

None

It can have a

wider audience

Discussion can

only be done

through chat

https://www.

youtube.com/

Google-

Groups

>2000 direct

add members

None

Email-based;

stable

Emails are

moreformal

and might

discourage

chatting; no

video calls

https://groups.

google.com/

Microsoft

Teams

250 membersNone

(1Tb + 0.5Gb

per E-licensed

user)

Better for

discussions,

chat; Microsoft

applications

integrated;

works with

Skype too; data

encrypted,

moresecure

Only allows

4 people with

video in the

same screen

https://www.

microsoft.

com/en-us/

microsoft-365/

microsoft-

teams/group-

chat-software

Google Meet100 people

None

Light, fast

interface; only

need to share

a link to start a

meeting; able

torecord

Not so easy to

share screen

https://meet.

google.com/

Table1.Examples of the popular free platforms that seminar series use (upgraded versions

could change the limits in people and time). This is not an extensive list, but rather a starting point.

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FOSTERING A

COMMUNITY: INVITING

SPEAKERS AND

INCLUDING DISCUSSION

PERIODS

Maintaining a diversity of speakers is a major

aspect to keep in mind. With researchers

working on systematics, biochemistry, ecology,

evolution, and breeding, it is important to

recognize and highlight the importance of

these diverse fields of research—not only to

include diversity in research topics, but to

make sure there is an inclusion of people.

This includes inviting researchers in different

career stages, from different institutions, and

from different corners of the world, while

always considering gender equality. To foster

an inclusive community of international

researchers, the Convolvulaceae Network

Seminar Series occasionally have speakers

present in their native language with slides

in English. This allows researchers whose

proficiency in English is improving but

would be more comfortable speaking in

their native language to present their work

to an international audience. Two talks have

been presented in Portuguese so far, and Ana

has assisted the speaker with translation.

The Physaloid seminar is very fortunate to

have strong female leaders in the family for

early career researchers to aspire to, such as

Sandra Knapp, Stacey Smith, Tiina Sarkinen,

Mahinda Martinez, Gloria Barboza, and Lynn

Bohs, just to name a few. With the expansion

to include the whole family, Andres Orejuela,

a researcher from Colombia (and PhD student

at Edinburgh), will increase the participation

of Latin American researchers to the seminars,

since there is a large diversity of research done

inSolanaceaeinSouthAmericaduetoitbeing

the center of diversity of the family.

BoththeConvolvulaceaeseminar andthe

Physaloid seminar include time for discussion

afterthepresentation. Whilethisisa time

forquestionsaboutthepresentation,italso

allows time to discuss concepts and broader

questions about the field the researchers are

studying. Allowing this time for questions

and discussion makes the community learn

and grow together, along with providing the

presenter feedback to improve their research.

It also provides a place for researchers to learn

how to talk to other researchers from other

fields that will later strengthen collaboration

and give a sense to young researchers about

the community dynamics.

SECURITYISSUES AND

TRANSITIONS TO

DIFFERENT STREAMING

SERVICES

After using a platform for a while, you might

realize due to the size, security issues, or for

other reasons that you would like to transition

to other services. For instance, Skype has

recently posed a significant constraint,

which is the limitation of 50 participants

in a call. Although it is rarely the case that

more than 50 participants participate in

the actual call, the fact that there are more

than 50 participants in the chat group itself

excludesthepossibilityofmakingthecall.

This meant excluding participants at the start

of every weekly meeting, and then re-adding

themafter the call, whichwas a clumsyand

exhausting process for the Convolvulaceae

Network. Lauren and Ana started exploring

newpossibilities,and,having benefited from

exchanging ideas with Rocío and Chelsea,

decided to move toward solutions to the

technological problems to these seminar

series. Currently, the Convolvulaceae seminar

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series are based on a Microsoft (MS) Teams

chat, where the actual talks take place and are

recorded in Zoom, with the discussions taking

place afterward in MS Teams video calls.

MS Teams comes with its own headaches.

Many people receive the invite and cannot

login.Itkeepsgivingthem anerrormessage

(“Linkisnolongervalid”)oritsimplyfreezes

their computer every time they try to log in. It

is very random, because most people seem to

join without problems, and others consistently

runintothe same message;this suggeststhere

is some technical issue that is not obvious,

and it has generated a lot of frustration. This

experienceoftryingtojoin agroupwithout

success can lead to giving up joining.

Security can be a problem with some platforms.

Zoom has what is called “zoombombing”—

when a person not a part of the group will

enter the chat just to be disruptive. There

are a few things you can do to ensure this

doesn’t happen: (1) do not post the link on the

internet, (2) require a password for login, and

(3) have a waiting room and only let people

with their full name since bombers usually

use single names.

PULLINGIT ALLTOGETHER

Onceeverythingisputintoplaceand

presenters have been invited, it’s time for your

seminar! While starting a seminar is hard

work, it does not stop once things are going.

There will be weekly tasks such as uploading

videos, promotion, and website changes. As

with everything, you have to find a balance

with helpfulness and time management. This

will look different for each group. While

putting together a successful seminar is hard

work, it is ultimately rewarding to work and

hear about research within a group of plants

you love to think about!

If you are looking to attend virtual seminars,

be sure to check out Table 2 on the following

page.

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Topic

Contact

Meeting

Times

Platform

Website

Convolv

Network

AnaRita

Simões

& Lauren

Eserman

Weekly,

Fridays

7 a.m.

GMT-6

Zoom, Microsoft

teams

https://sites.google.com/view/

convolvulaceae-network

Solanaceae

Seminar

Chelsea

Pretz, Andres

Orejuela, &

Rocio Deanna

Weekly,

Fridays,

9 a.m.

GMT-6

Zoom, Google-

Groups, YouTube

channel

https://physaloidseminars.

weebly.com/upcoming-

seminars.html

https://www.youtube.

com/channel/UCBKAYT-

QFTMDZfHFho9VAqQ/

EvoEco

Andreas

Sutter et al.

Mondays,

9 a.m.

GMT-7

YouTubechannel

https://twitter.com/

EvoEcoSeminars

https://www.youtube.

com/channel/

Gabriela Auge

et al.

Mondays,

2 p.m.

GMT-3

Zoom, Google-

Groups, YouTube

channel

https://argplantwomen.weebly.

com/

Polyploid

WebinarMikeBarker

Mondays,

11 a.m.

GMT-7

Zoom

https://www.barkerlab.net/

polyweb

Frederick

“Erick”

Matsen

Monthly

YouTubechannel

http://phyloseminar.org/

https://www.youtube.com/

user/phyloseminar/feed

Linnean

Society

Seminars

learning@</p>

linnean.org

PeriodicallyZoom

https://www.linnean.org/

meetings-and-events/

podcasts-of-events

Table 2.A list of Digital Seminars. (This is a dynamic table. To see the most up-to-date list of on-

line seminars, go to: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1U9AOVwxga-n7T_fO-JROL7GdE-

B30VP30EUga4tTb9pjA/edit#gid=0).

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Topic

Contact

Meeting

Times

Platform

Website

Plantchat

Bi-monthlytchat (twitter)

https://twitter.com/

itsplantchat?lang=en

Virtual

Genomics

Social

Hour

Athena

Lamalam@</p>

calacademy.

org

Fridays

11 a.m.

-12:30 p.m.

GMT-7

Everyweek

YouTube channel +

Google Hangout

https://www.calacademy.org/

virtual-genomic-social-hour

University

of

Michigan

Thursday

Seminars

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/pla

ylist?list=PLY8QfwKxxfG5m5

mkB3f3nNO5bF0cYKXqV

UCLA

PeriodicallyYouTube

https://www.youtube.

com/channel/

Melastome

Seminars

Once a

Month

Zoom

https://melastomeseminars.

weebly.com/

Table 2(continued)

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2020 v66 No 2 Summer (53)

123

SCIENCE EDUCATION

By Dr. Catrina Adams,

EducationDirector

During MarchoftheSpring2020

PlantingScienceSession, asa global pandemic

ledtotheshutdownof schoolsacrossthe

United States and around the world, teachers

who had started or had planned to start their

lessons with PlantingScience quickly had to

decide how to navigate remote schooling for

an indeterminate amount of time. Teachers

emailed us asking what they should do

and how to continue, whether they should

continue, or whether they should scrap their

plans for open-inquiry plant projects in the

classroom. In the confusion of the first couple

of weeks of March, it was unclear whether any

of the schools across the U.S. would open again

in the spring, leading to teachers requesting

that we temporarily close their online groups

with the hope that they would be back in a few

weeks.

Summary of Spring 2020: How

Teachers Managed PlantingScience

During a Pandemic

We sent the following options to teachers as

they considered their remote learning lesson

plans:

•Keep projects going as usual. If schools

are open, your students can keep plugging

away at projects in the classroom and com-

municating with their mentors as usual.

•Keep projects going from home. De-

pending on the module, where you are in

your projects, and internet accessibility for

students, your students could potentially

take home the projects, or at least commu-

nicate questions and ideas to mentors dur-

ing the time they are home from school. If

you choose to have students communicat-

ing from home, please keep an eye on the

communications to make sure they stay

appropriate. Please remind your students

that they should not contact mentors

outside of the PlantingScience platform.

•“Pause”the group and come back later

this Spring. We can archive your group

untilyou are ready to come back tothe

platform. Archiving the group will stop

those automatic «At-Risk» emails that

come when projects have a lack of activ-

ity, plus no one (not students or men-

tors) would be able to log into proj-

ects to make any changes or new posts.

Dr. Jodi Creasap Gee,

Education Technology

Coordinator

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124

•End the projects and say good-

bye. Depending on where the class is with

the projects, it might make the most sense

from your perspective to finish up and

postthankyou’sand goodbyes.Students

could potentially post conclusions before

the end of the session, when we archive all

groups.

Itseemedthat some teachers weregratefulto

be able to focus on other lessons and come

back to PlantingScience another time, while

others embraced the opportunity for students

to engage in deeper conversations with their

scientist mentors aboutinterruptions totheir

researchandhowtonavigatesuchdisruptions.

Many scientists were able to work on data

analysis, and many were forced to modify

theirplans—eitherbyreducingcollection

numbers or by reducing the number of people

in thecollection team. The keyto many of

these conversations, we noticed, was that

students learned that scientists have to be

adaptable—global pandemic or not—in order

to gettheir work done.They also learned that

science is a process and that it is not always

a simple cookie-cutter formula to answer the

important questions.

Sarah Tabor (teacher, in a forum post to her

mentors):

I have asked all students to continue

to communicate with mentors until

the termination of this project. At this

point, I think the value in this project is

the opportunity for students to discuss

this unprecedented situation with their

mentors.Anysciencethatisn’tdirectly

related to SARS-CoV-2 seems to have

come to a halt. Mentors, I thank you for

your time and efforts in communicating

withmystudents.Ihopeyouareall

healthy and sheltering in a safe place.

Kate Sidlar (scientist mentor, in a post to her

student team members):

Well, this is certainly unexpected.

But the unexpected is just something

you have to learn to expect in science.

Learning to adapt is a very important

skill! I remember having a grade 6

science project on plants all go moldy, so

I changed my project to be about mold

growth!
When I was working on my Master’s

project,Ispent6monthsinthelab

preparingspecimensforaspecifictype

oftesting.ThenwhenIwasreadyto

submit the samples to be tested, the

company didn’t offer the test anymore.

So I had to come up with other ways to

analyze my data.
We can never really know what’s going

to happen, but we can try to adapt to

what’shappened.
With that said, I’m going to keep

checking in until the end of the project.

You are welcome to ask me any questions

you want about studying science,

researching, what kind of school it takes

to be a scientist, or anything else you can

think of. You can also ask me anything

you want about any kind of science,

and I’ll try to find some answers for you

or point you in the right direction to

find some yourself! Although I studied

biology (fungi specifically) for my

Master’s degree, my job now involves

a lot of chemistry and physics as well,

so get creative with your questions!

Evenrandomlittlethingsyou’vealways

wondered about could have some really

interesting sciencebehind it,solet the

questions fly!

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125

Kelly Kerr (scientist mentor, in a post to her

student team members):

How is everyone holding up with the

Covid-19 disruptions? I thought I’d share

some of the impacts it’s been having on

my life and research to commiserate.
Since my research involves a lot of field

work (e.g. camping, hiking, living in the

woods for weeks at a time collecting

samples)inthespringandsummer,I’m

very worried that I won’t be able to get

a lot of the work done I had planned.

While a lot of public land (i.e. forests)

in Utah and Colorado are still open, my

University also shut down and no one

is allowed to work in the labs. So even

if I go to the forest, I may not be able

tomeasuremysamplesinthelabonceI

collect them.
I also had 2 conferences planned this

summer to talk about my research. One

has been cancelled—the other one is in

August but the organizers are already

talkingaboutitbeinginanonline

format.
Workingfromhomeisarealchallenge

for me—I don’t have the best discipline

to stay focused and on task. But it has

led to a lot of fun hobby exploration. I’ve

been playing the banjo a lot, baking lots

of bread (working on some sourdough

now), painting, and reading a lot of

books. Oh, and of course catching up

on some Netflix. I have a weekly zoom

hangout with some good friends, and

we’ve started a movie club while under

“quarantine”too.
Anyway, while this pandemic is

unprecedented, disruptions to science

areunfortunatelycommon—especially

when you work with live specimens like

plants. Two summers ago, the forest in

CO I work in was largely on fire and I

could not access many of the sites. So

therearebiggapsinthatdatasettoo!I

think we do our best to learn from the

mistakes, and try to gather what data

we can.
Hopeyouallarewell!Feelfreetoshare/

discuss your thoughts if you’d like.

Happy to chat about anything.

Many students whose teachers decided to

continue with PlantingScience also posted

about their experiences during the COVID19

pandemic.While a few expressed joy at being

away from school, most shared their thoughts

abouthow much they missed school (gasp!)

and their friends. As anyone who has or

works with children know, the disruptions

throughout their lives are creating no small

amount of consternation, confusion, and

disorientation, regardlessof age.These

feelings were expressed and explored to some

extent on the PlantingScience platform during

the last 6 weeks of the session.

7Dani (student, posting to their team’s page):

Sinceourlastcheck-in,Ihaven’tseen

my plants or even my classmates for

that matter. We are on oursecondweek

of online schooling and needless to say,

I very much wish to go back (Never

thought I would say that). We have left

our plants to die and it seems like there

is nothing we can do about it at the time

being. Has this happened to you with any

of your research? What have you been

doing with your time off? Are you able

to do research remotely? Has the corona

affected you in any way differently like

has a friend or family member got it?

Hope you are safe and well.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (56)

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126

4Emma (student, posting to their team’s page):

Hi!Asfewpeoplehavealreadysaid

our school was closed during our

spring breakuntilthe10

th

ofAprilbut

itwillmost likelybe for the rest of the

year. I wish we would havehad the

chancetofinishtheexperimentandI

want to thank you for all of the help

that you gave us.Are you still able to

doyourlabsandexperiments?Howis

your quarantine going? I amstarting

to get bored of doing the same things

over and over againLuckilyour

school and teachers have the ability

toteach us overtechnologyso weare

still able to get somesortof education.

My brother keeps asking me to play

baseballall the timeand I’ve read a

lot of books.Anyway I hope that you

arefindingawaytostaysaneduring

thistime!Again,thankyouforbeing

willing to help us with this project.

Maahir (student, posting to their team’s page):

I can’t believe everything that has

happened because of the pandemic. That

made it really hard to communicate

and spun my world around and I am

sure it has happened to others too. My

conclusions on my seed work are that

leaving the second and third batches of

seedsstay inthesun helpedjumpstart

their growth. Not one seed molded

and everyone single hypocotyl formed

in at most five days. I used to think

that sunlight was just a small factor of

germination but now I realize that it

made a bigger difference than I thought

it would. I still wonder about so many

things and will continue to learn more

aboutplants.Iwouldliketowrapthis

by thanking you Emily for helping me

through and sparking my plant interests.

Itwasfuntotalkaboutothertopicstoo!

You seem like an amazing person and

I hope that you have a happy life and

wish for all of us to keep on trucking

through this tough time.
This was so fun!

A worldwide pandemic has disrupted every

aspect of our lives, including schooling,

which has been challenging for children who

are used to those social interactions, meal

plans, and structure, among other benefits.

Pediatricians initially recommend that K-12

students go back to school this fall, as the

benefitsoutweighthedetriments(pending

students’ underlying personal and family

health concerns. However, they later added

the caveat that in-person school should

happen only if it can be done in a way to

keepeveryone– students, teachers, staff,

administrators, etc. – safe and healthy.

Knowing that this fall will likely look nothing

like last fall, PlantingScience staff continue to

prepare for a fall session to support teachers

in their efforts to teach their middle and high

school students the process of science through

hands-on plant science research projects.

We arecurrently reassessing ourmodules

to determine how—if at all—we can enable

teachers to run them through remote learning

strategies.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (57)

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Resources forTeaching Botany

Online

When the COVID-19 global pandemic forced universities to shift very quickly to online

teaching, many were left seeking help and needing resources. The BSA was quick to create

and provide online resources that are continually being updated. Go to https://botany.org/

home/resources/online_resources.html to explore these resources!

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (58)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

128

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (59)

129

STUDENT SECTION

Student Experiences During

COVID-19 Lockdown

InearlyMay2020,weputoutacallfortheBSAstudentmemberstosharetheirexperiences

during the COVID-19lockdown. So many of you have responded to our call, and we want

to give a big “Thank You” to all of you. When we put all the responses into a word cloud (see

next page), a few words stood out among all the responses, and they are the words that are so

tightly connectedto all ofourlivesrightnow:COVID-19,research,lab,work,home,online.

We appreciate the honesty in all the responses about their struggles and coping mechanisms,

and we hope you will find them helpful for you to get through this chaotic time as well, because

we are truly all in this together.

By Min Ya, Shelly Gaynor, and Imeña Valdes, BSA Student Representatives

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (60)

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130

Allison DeHaas

Undergraduate

Student,

Widener University

As a

senior

in undergrad, I was

finishing up

writing my thesis

when all of the chaos that

is COVID-19 ensued. I had done most of the

work, but the few things I had left to do required

myResearchAdvisorandIhadtoshareher

computerbecauseshehadaccesstothedata

analysis program I needed to use, and I did

not. Due to social distancing, we were unable

to do this. I was able to make do with what we

had—using previous figures from posters, but

it definitely interrupted the process and plan

we had outlined. On top of that, the flowers

that we study were in full bloom and I was

unabletovisitthembecausethearboretum

was closed! Once I finally finished my senior

thesis, I had the unique opportunity to do

my

thesis defense via Zoom. In all of this,

I’ve found the best way to cope is to just be

honestwiththosearoundyouabouthowyou

are doing. It isn’t always easy to be vulnerable

and share, but I’ve found that everyone t

ends

to relate. Right now, we are all doing the best

we can with what we have!

Chelsea Pretz

Graduate Student

University of Colorado, Boulder

;@chelsea_pretz

Staying inside so much has probably given me

vitamin D-deficiency, but I learned to be cat-

like and sit by windows. I have also learned

what bias-tape is and how to make it, so I

could make a homemade cloth mask.

Kate Volk

Graduate Student

I’ve found that, more than ever, my motivation

is all over the place. Some days I’m a go-getter;

some days I need a lot of breaks; some days I

can’t focus at all. Some tricks I’ve developed

forthoseun-focuseddaysaremakingdaily

to-do lists and checking things off as I go.

Even if the list doesn’t consist of classwork

and research, but rather “take 10 min break.”

I’ve found that checking the box off gives me

a little push todo the nextthingon the list.

Also, when taking breaks, heading outside

really refreshes me.

Tracey Simmons

Post-Doc Student

;@traceyssimmons

Withthecampuscloseddueto COVID-19,I

cannolongeraccessourlab.Somethingscan

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (61)

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131

bedoneremotely,butthereisno substitute

for the energy that comes from working in

the same room. The loss of that safe and

supportive space is difficult. My advice is to

treat yourself with kindness during this time.

Take thegentle care you wouldgive a growing

plant and turn that care back onto yourself.

Drink water, soak in the sunlight, and take

some deep breaths. Your work will be there

whenwereturn,soput yourmental health

first now. We will get through this together.

Nannie L. Persson

Graduate Student,

University Museum of Bergen

The decision to close our university due to

COVID-19 came very fast and I didn’t even

have time to get my laptop or the literature I

needed. I live alone, abroad, and suddenly felt

completely shut out from the world. I was able

to get my things the next day, though, and it

turns out I made the right decision to bring

home my big screen, since we’ve now had a

home office for two months and will probably

haveoverthesummer.Myworkplaceisvery

important to me, and if I don’t like it, my

concentration is bad. I was granted access to

the molecular lab after 1.5 months and had

longconversationswiththreecolleaguesthat

day. When I got back home, I was exhausted,

and it was the same exhaustion I had felt

every day after work prior to the shutdown.

Thus, during these two months, I’ve gone

from thinking I was an introvert, to longing

forpeoplemorethanI’ve ever donebefore,

to realize that I am indeed an introvert and

Iappreciatemyhomeoffice.Especiallysince

my deadline to deliver my thesis is in less than

six months and I need not to be disturbed.

Minya

Graduate Student

;@0_minyaaa

I was a teaching fellow for a class (Biology

of Plants) this semester and transitioning to

online teaching had been the most challenging

thing. This class has a weekly 3-hour lab

component andit’salwaysstudents’favorite

part because that’s where they get to look at and

dissect all sorts of plants. Changing in-person

labs into online labs has not been satisfying

nomatterhowmanyonlinematerialswe

prepare or what methods we try. However, the

most difficult part was not adjusting course

materials but adjusting myself. I knew my

students understood things and were enjoying

the lab when I taught the lab in person, but

I felt insecure when speaking through the

camera because I don’t have the connection

tothestudentsanymore.Thesemesterhas

ended and I appreciate all my students being

so great, but I wish I could figure out a way to

make the situation better both for them and

for myself.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (62)

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132

Justin Williams

Graduate Student

Lots of writing!Thank god for the online her-

bariaconsortia and databases!CurrentlyTA-

ing an online field course...hmmm.

BashirBolaji TIAMIYU

Graduate Student,

Wuhan Botanical Garden

ChineseAcademy of Science

;@timmybash001

Getting to Wuhan Botanical Garden as a

new graduate student (Ph.D.) in January

and there was lockdown a few days later, it

was an awful experience that brought some

inconvenience, in the beginning, however,

with the help of the management team, and

my supervisor, I was able to adapt to the

new surrounding and the reality on-ground.

I decided to channel my energy towards

reviewing relevant literature for my proposed

research. As a resident in Wuhan, initially it

was a traumatic experience, but as time passed

by, thepsychologicalpressureeased.I tried to

stay healthy through regular exercises, watch

movies and communicate with loved ones

back in Nigeria.

Sukuan Liu

Graduate Student

Yes.Iwaspossiblyexposedandbecamein-

fected back in China in mid

-December....

Deva Raj Khanal

Graduate Student

;@karkatdrk

From the beginning of spring semester

2020,

I had just started my research project: Genus

Salsola’s complexity for my MS studies at

South Dakota State University. However,

with the effect of COVID-19, I had stopped

my lab work. But, in this pandemic situation,

I am learning computational things from

home, which will be very useful for my

research project soon. For this, I am also

taking an online course. I hope to return to

my normal lab work and playwith DNA data

very soon.

Jacob Ewald

Graduate Student

California State

University, Chico

Iamafirst-yeargraduatestudentatChico

StateUniversityinChico,California.Ihave

beenquitefortunateinbeingabletoadapt

to theCOVID-19 pandemic.As a commuter

livingabout75milesawayfromcampus,I

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (63)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

133

alreadyhadtobeflexibletopursuemyedu-

cation.Whenthestatewideorders shut down

the campus, I was stillcollectingseeds from

ripeningfruitsfrom40 greenhouse-grown

monkeyflowerspecimens.RealizingIwould

quicklylose accessto thesespecimens,I

transported them from Chico State to my

homeinRedding,CA,whereIcontinuedto

collecttheirseeds.If theshutdown orderhad

comeearlier(say, when I stillneededto col-

lectseeds frommyoriginal270 plants),my

research would have been greatlyimpacted,

as I would not havebeenableto transport

themall.Fieldwork, too,has beenableto

continuein a properly regulatedfashion. I ac-

quired university permission to collectmon-

keyflowerDNAsamplesfromthefield,but

oncethepropersafetyprecautionshadbeen

discussed,Iwasabletoconductmyfieldwork

with only a short delay. Overall,ithas taken

someflexibilityandunorthodoxmethods,but

my research is forging ahead.

Simone Lim-Hing

Graduate Student

University of Georgia

;@simonelimhing

I think thebiggestimpactthepandemichas

had on me is the psychological one.While I

have the privilege to work safely from home

andmaintainmystipend,manyof myfriends

and familyare not. I amconstantlyworried

aboutthesafetyofothers,likemymother,for

example, whois an essential worker at a de-

tentioncenterthathas aCOVID-19 outbreak.

On the otherhand, this lockdown has taught

metoappreciatethethingsaroundmemore,

like my partner, pets, and books!

Kathryn Mercier

Graduate Student

City College of New York

and the New York Botanical Garden

;@kpmercier

I’vebeenrelativelyluckyinregardto CO-

VID-19. My familyandI areallstillworking

and healthy. I have beenableto shelter-in-

place with my parents, surrounded by Flori-

da biodiversity and empty hiking trails.Yet,

thiscoronavirushastakenmanyfirstsofmy

dissertationcareer.Ittookmyfirstseasonof

fieldwork.IttookmyfirstBotanymeeting.In

thefall,itwilllikelytakemyfirstin-person

teachingexperience.Itcanbedifficultnot

tofeeldejected.ButItrytorememberthat

Ihavealsogainedsomefirsts.Ihaveseen

friends from across the country defend their

dissertationthrough virtualmeetings.I have

taken up the guitar. I will be teachingonline

andattendingavirtualBotanymeeting.De-

spite the feeling of missing out, I will still be

abletohavethesefirsts,virtuallyoreventu-

ally.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (64)

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134

J

oanna Lumbsden-Pinto

Graduate Student

Bringingsomuchuncertaintyinmylastfield-

work season inthesummerso I neededto

come up with contingency plans.

Grace Brock

Recent graduate of a BA

I’vejustgraduatedinmid-MaywithaBA

inBotanyandCreativeWriting.Thetransi-

tion to online coursework during my last few

months as an undergrad was quite unexpect-

ed. I’ve stayed in closecontactwith allof my

friendsthroughtextingandvideoconferenc-

ing, but checking in on the plants that I’ve

helpedresearchforthepast3yearshasprov-

enmoredifficultoncenon-essentialworkers

wereaskedtostayathome.Onethingthathas

madethe transition easieris the weekly Snap-

chat video updates thatmy labmatesends to

mefrom inside the greenhouse!As for coping

withmissingoutonin-personlectures,noth-

ing can reallyperfectlysubstitutefor it.In-

stead,I’ve beendelvingthrough allof my old

botany notebooks to pull out the topics that

interestmemost.Ratherthanspendingthis

last semester physically attending lectures,

I’ve been creatingmy own mini-lecturesat

home.Ihopetosomedayworkinthefieldof

sciencecommunicationand if nothingelse,

thisextendedtimeatmyhouse hasgiven

methechanceto work on potentialtopicsto

someday write about. Lastly, I have found it

valuableto takeadvantageof allof my free

timeby reading.It’s a wonderful de-stressor

to put yourself intoanotherworld for a while.

Rightnow,I’mreadingJurassic Park, and

thenI’mmovingontotheLord oftheRings

trilogy!

Bethany Nichols

Graduate Student

;@Frondsbenefits

BeingisolatedathomemeansIdon’tgetto

interactwith otherstudents and talkingto oth-

ers is often what inspires my work.One of

my PhDchapters now has to be a literature

review because I can’t get into the lab. How-

ever,mygardenandhouseplantshavenever

looked betterand I’m connectingmore with

thewildflowersgrowingaroundmyhouse.

I’ve evenstarteda plantblog to helpmekeep

learning and writing.

Shelly Gaynor

Graduate Student

University of Florida

;@Shelly Gaynor

COVID-19has reallyimpactedmy research

progress.Myfieldworkwasdelayed.Though

myuniversitymayallowfieldworkinafew

weeks,Iworry thatitwouldn’tbesafetogo.I

amslowlyfindingmyfootingandfiguringout

how to move forward despite these delays.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (65)

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135

GETTINGTOKNOW YOUR

NEW STUDENT

REPRESENTATIVE:

IMEÑA VALDES

When did you join BSA and what motivated

you to do so?

WhileatFloridaInternationalUniversity,

my undergrad advisor, Dr. Suzanne Koptur,

encouragedmetoapplyforthePLANTS

program in 2015. I had such a great experience

at the Botany meeting, especially as a PLANTS

student. Since then I have promoted BSA

and the PLANTS program to many friends

so they could have similar experiences while

networking for their future.

What motivated you to run for the position

of Student Representative to the Board of

Directors, and what do you plan to do as the

student representative of BSA?

Because of the consistently great experiences

I have had while attending Botany meetings,

I wanted to do my part and contribute to

the Society. I want other underrepresented

studentsto have access to thetools Iwas

provided and a chance to meet incredible

scientiststhat can serve asmentors asthey

navigate through STEM. The current Black

LivesMattermovementmakesitabundantly

clear that we need to make science more

inclusive and safer for Black, Brown, and

Indigenous students. I envision using my

position as a sort of liaison between students,

particularly those who are underrepresented,

and the rest of the board.

What’s your research about and how did you

discover your research interest?

My research focuses on understanding

and evaluating pollinator preferences and

support in order to provide information on

best practices in landscaping and restoration

regarding the development of nativars.

I discovered my love for plant–animal

interactionsinundergradwhiletalkingtoa

friend about narrowing down my interests

so I could be placed in a lab for a semester to

complete a USDA scholarship requirement. At

first it was a casual interest but soon enough I

was hooked, and I continued in Dr. Koptur’s

lab until I graduated in 2018.

What sorts of hobbies do you have?

I enjoy baking; taking care of my growing

houseplant collection; traveling; chiseling

away the imperialist, capitalist, white

supremacist patriarchy; and petting other

people’s dogs.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (66)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

136

Prior to the COVID-19 shutdown in the United

States, we collected perspectives via Twitter for

our planned workshop on time management.

Since the shutdown, time management has

been a struggle

and we aren’t ready to teach it!

Instead, here we share some tips we gathered

onmanagingtime.Particularly,wecalledfor

answers to three main questions:

1.How do you keep track of everything

you have to do?

2.What do you do when you can’t com-

plete your to-do list?

3.How do you manage procrastination?

Wealsopostedthelinkstothe original

tweetsbelow so thatyou can see the original

responses. Please feel free to contact us if

you want to share your time management

strategies!

TimeManagement Tips:

Before and During a Pandemic

1. How do you keep track of everything you

have to do?(https://bit.ly/3krEjXs)

To-Do List

•Pen/Paper or Notebooks

•Sticky Notes (e.g., Kanban boards)

•Whiteboard

•Planners

ºNormal Planner

ºPassion Planners

¤Erasable pen *

¤Post-Its in a Planner

•Bullet Journals

Personal TaskManager

•AmazinMarivin ($6 per month)

•ToDoist (Free or $3 per month)

ºCan set reminders at times, link

tophonetoo.

•Omnifocus ($9.99 per month)

ºMac or iOS only

•GoodNotes ($7.99 for app)

Summary of responses:

Digital To-Do

•Google Keep

•OneNote

•Trello

•WorkFlowy ($4.99 per month)

•GoodNotes ($7.99 for app)


Calendars

•GoogleCalendar

ºTodolist Pro doesn’t integrate well!

ºGoogle task

•Outlook Calendar

•Synced Calendars between devices

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (67)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

137

Duringthe pandemic,didyourstrategy

change?

During the pandemic, did your strategy

change?

2.What do you do when you can’t complete

yourto-do list?

(https://bit.ly/2ZFwDsz)

The responses had three main themes:

•Break your to-do list into manageable

items (rank and organize this list).

•Identify feasible goals.

•It is okay if you do not get everything done.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (68)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

138

3. How do you manage procrastination?

(https://bit.ly/3kuTcbt)

Response summary: Procrastination is part

oflife.

•Schedule chunks of time for long tasks.

•Remember to schedule breaks!

During the pandemic, did your strategy change?

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (69)

139

THANK YOU,TARAN!

A bigTHANK YOUto Taran Lichtenberger,

one of two BSA Student Social Media Liaisons

hired last year to promote BSA’s mission, via a

student voice, on our social media platforms.

Taran’s focus was on Facebook and Instagram,

where she grew our audiences over 7% on

Facebook and an amazing 82% on Instagram.

Taran has been instrumental in helping to

shape the BSA Liaison position for future

students, including co-creating a detailed

MEMBERSHIP NEWS

By

Amelia Neely

BSAMembership

& Communications

Manager

E-mail:ANeely@</i>

botany.org

liaisonhandbook.WewishTaranwell asshe

starts her next chapter as the Community

Engagement Manager for Budburst, a

community science program of the Chicago

Botanical Garden.

The BSA Student Social Media Liaison

positions, which were originally developed

as two, one-year positions, are now two, two-

year staggered positions in order to maintain

continuity in tone and purpose. We are

thankful to Jared Meek for agreeing to stay

in this position for a second year. We are in

theprocessofhiringthesecondliaisonatthis

time.

If you have anything you would like to see

promotedontheBSAsocialmediachannels,

e-

mailsocialmedia@botany.org

.

NEW 3-YEAR POST-DOC

MEMBERSHIPS

The BSA renewal season is just around the

cornerstartingin October(BSA memberships

run on an annual cycle, Jan-Dec). New this

year, post-doc members will have the option

of a 3-year post-doc membership! For a

discounted rate of $105 (a savings of $15),

post-docs can keep this membership level

for the full three years even if their post-doc

status changes.

Three-year Student and 3-year Professional

membershiplevelsareavailablenow,sodon’t

miss out on the opportunity to pay once and

stay connected for three years when you renew

your membership this fall!

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (70)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

140

GIFT MEMBERSHIPS

Foronly$10,giftmembershipsarean

affordable way to share the benefits of being

part of the BSA community with students

ordevelopingnations colleagues.Visitwww.

botany.org, click Membership on the top

menu, and then click Gift Memberships to get

started.

MEMBERSHIP MATTERS

ENEWSLETTER

As a member benefit, BSA members receive

the monthly eNewsletter,Membership

Matters. The newsletter includes society news

and awards you do not want to miss. If you

do not currently receive a copy ofMembership

Matters, and wish to start receiving them,

please contact Amelia Neely at aneely@</p>

botany.org.

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2020 v66 No 2 Summer (71)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

141

FROMTHE

PSB

ARCHIVES

60 years ago

William Campbell Steere gave the Address of the retiring President of the Botanical Society of America at

the meeting held in Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. His remarks are included inPlant Science Bul-

letinand discuss the unique conditions for plants in arctic regions. He provides an important perspective

as we consider the rapidly changing conditions in the arctic today. He introduces the talk:

“I selected the topic, ‘Botanical Problems in Arctic America,’ as being timely because of the recent admis-

sion of Alaska to the Union as the 49th State, because of the large amount of publicity given to the activi-

ties of the International Geophysical Year in arctic and antarctic regions, and because of the increasing

importance of our northern outposts in the military defense of this continent. Moreover, after eight field

seasons in arctic and subarctic Canada, Alaska and Lappland, I have developed some ideas and some

questions that may well be of interest to a group of my botanical colleagues.

--Steere, William Campbell. “Botanical Problems in Arctic America”PSB6(4): 1-5.

50 years ago

“A freak hurricane on January 4, 1970 resulted in extensive damage to one of the worlds’ leading botanical

establishments. The loss to botany of such a famous and important collection transcends national bound-

aries and it is felt that many of the institutions and individuals who have benefited from the Gardens

and its associated facilities such as the Treub Laboratory and the Herbarium Bogoriense may wish to do

something tangible to help.

--“Botanic Gardens at Bogor Damaged by a Hurricane”PSB16(3): 8-9.

40 years ago

Joe E. Winstead discusses some situations that can negatively affect the experience of presenters, mod-

erators,andtheaudienceatscientificconferences.Thisdemonstratesthefact,thatwhiletechnologyhas

changed, giving a quality presentation is a perpetual struggle.

“It never ceases to amaze me that individuals with scientific training can hand a set of slides to the pro-

jectionist (usually an undergraduate) expecting that person to know immediately how the slides are to

be placed in the projector to appear on the screen. What happened to rehearsal time and the courtesy of

marking slides by number and with indications of which corner is to face the projectionist? One or more

slides often appear upside down or backwards and the speaker implies or states that the projectionist was

at fault.

. . .

Finally, it seems to be rare to find a moderator who will take 30 seconds to commend the academic hos-

tage who operated the projector by at least introducing them by name and, if a student, mentioning the

major area of study. Having been a faceless non-identity in the old days, I feel a special kinship to those

that have to hear every paper along with the moderator.”

--

Winstead, Joe E. “Disconsolate Observations at Paper Sessions or The Unselling of Information.”

PSB26(3): 17-18

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (72)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

142

The BSA is pleased to announce the publication

of an exciting special collection of articles in

ourOpenAccessjournal,Applications in Plant

Sciences, that highlights machine learning in

plant sciences.

Machinelearning—thescienceofenabling

computers to learn without being explicitly

programmed—is becoming so prevalent that

we often use it without even knowing it. The

autocorrect on your cell phone, the ads you see

as you browse online, and self-driving cars are

all common examples of machine learning,

as are personalized medicine and precision

agriculture.

The field of machine learning is advancing

rapidly as computer scientists develop more

efficient algorithms and more powerful

computing platforms. Plant scientists

are now increasingly applying machine

learning to biological problems including

species identification, plant phenology, and

comparative genomics.

ThespecialcollectioninAPPS,organizedby

editors Pam Soltis, Gil Nelson, Emily Meineke,

andAlinaZare,waspublishedacrossthe

Juneand July 2020issues.Thepapersfall

into two broad categories:the first focusing

on applications to images of herbarium

specimens,on topicsfromphenologyto

herbivory; and the second includingpapers

that address a broader range of topics, data,

and biological scale.

All articles are freely available athttps://

bsapubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/

toc/10.1002/(ISSN)2168-0450.machine-

learning-in-plant-biology. We especially

encourage you to check out the issue

introduction (https://bsapubs.onlinelibrary.

wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/aps3.11371),

which provides a thoughtful overview of the

16 featured articles,as well asa snapshot of

the current promise and challenges of this

emerging field.

New approaches involving machine learning

have the potential to change how we study

plantsandeven the questionswecan ask.

We hope that the papers presented in this

collection encourage further progress on the

emerging applications of machine learning to

plant biology.

MACHINE LEARNING IN PLANT BIOLOGY:

A NEW SPECIAL COLLECTION IN

APPS

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (73)

143

ANNOUNCEMENTS

In Memoriam

W. ARTHUR(“ART”)

WHISTLER

W.Arthur(“Art”)Whistler,aneminent

botanicalexpertoftheSouthPacificislands,

diedonApril2,2020duetoCOVID-19.His

death was the third in Hawaii from the disease.

Artwas originallyfromTrona, California,

asmalldeserttownnearDeathValleywith

vegetationthatstandsinstarkcontrastto

the tropical flora that he studied for four

decades. Although Art had visited Samoa

in the late 1960s as a Peace Corps volunteer,

his botanical story begins with him earning

a PhD from the University of Hawaii in

1979, supervised in part by the legendary

vegetation ecologist Dieter Mueller-Dombois.

Art’s major publication from his dissertation

titled “The vegetation of Eastern Samoa” was

published in 1980 and continuesto influence

all vegetation work in the American Samoa

portion of the archipelago. Subsequent to

his PhD, Art established and maintained

affiliations with the University of Hawaii

BotanyDepartment, theBishopMuseum,and

the National Tropical Botanical Garden.

Instead of pursuing an academic career, Art

established a consulting firm, Isle Botanica.

He leveraged the private sector to pursue his

botanical interests, not only as a consultant,

but also by publishing his botanical accounts

in guide books, which were sold across

the Pacific. These books have been widely

disseminated and include titles such as

Polynesian Herbal Medicine,Wayside Plants of

theIslands,RainforestTreesofSamoa,Plants

of the Canoe People,Samoan Herbal Medicine,

Flowersofthe Pacific Island Seashore, andThe

SamoanRainforestamong others.

Despitehisfocusonconsultingandwriting

botanical guidebooks, Art authored a

large

numberofpeer-reviewedjournal

articles, including accounts of vegetation of

Pacificislands, ethnobotanical treatments,

and taxonomic revisions such as for the

Art Whistler (right) with Siaifoi Fa’aumu (seat-

ed) and Edward Webb (left) in a small patch

of montane forest at the top of Olosega island,

Manu’a, American Samoa. Circa 1997.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (74)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

144

genera Psychotria and Syzygium in Samoa.

He also made numerous commissioned

inventories

, perhaps most importantly the

botanical inventory of forests that were

proposed—and later became—the National

Park

of American Samoa. Art’s long-term

professional goal, and which he was in the

process of finalizing upon his death, was

to publish the Flora of Samoa. This flora,

which is being published by the National

Tropical Botanical Garden in Hawaii, will be

the crowning achievement of his more than

40 years of experience and collection in the

Samoan archipelago.

I met Art in 1996 when I wasenrouteto

American Samoa to serve as a botanist for

the Government of American Samoa. I still

recall that first meeting and the advice he

gave me, which was that although American

Samoa was changing rapidly on the surface,

thecultureremaineddeepandshouldbe

unfailingly respected. This was sage advice

and it reflected Art’s acknowledgment that

foreign botanists—palagisin the Samoan

language—are guests in the island nations and

we should never forget that. Indeed this was

one of the reasons Art was so highly regarded

in Samoa. He treated people with respect

and enthusiastically mentored and trained

Samoan colleagues who he hoped would take

the mantle of Samoan botanical explorations

forward.Hisbooks,arguablyhisproductsthat

have gained the most traction, were written

with the average person in mind, and designed

to entice the readers to engage with plants.

They were, moreover written to chronicle the

local knowledge of plants, their names and

uses, across the Pacific as lifestyles change and

thatinformationbecomesthreatenedwith

extinction. Thus, Art committed his life’s work

to improved taxonomy of Pacific island plants

but with a parallel and equally important goal

ofmakingthatinformationavailabletoall

people, not just the academic world, so that

people may be inspired to maintain or rekindle

their cultural connections to the remarkable

plants of the Pacific islands.

Over the course of our 20+ year friendship, I

would occasionally send Art photos of Samoan

plant specimens, almost always sterile and

sometimes of seedlings, to ask his help with

identification. Without exception, Art gladly

gave his opinion along with his reasoning

and any caveats. Not only did he enjoy the

puzzlesthatplantsofferedeveryday,butas

I describe above he supported anyone who

had an interest in Pacific island plants. He

was generous with his time and expertise. The

last time I spoke with Art was in December

2019, when I called him from a small remnant

patch of Tava (Pometiapinnata) lowland

forest on the island of Tutuila, American

Samoa. We discussed field identification of

twoDysoxylumtree species (Meliaceae) and

thecharacteristicsof thestinginghairs onthe

rare treeDendrocnideharveyi(Urticaceae). As

always, Art was happy to chat about Samoan

plants and I remember wishing he could

have been in the forest as we inventoried the

trees in that small but important forest patch.

Indeed,hewill be sorely missed, but his legacy

guarantees him a prominent place in the

annals of Pacific island botany.

Edward L. Webb, PhD

Department of Biological Sciences

National University of Singapore

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (75)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

145

2019. ISBN

9781789141429.

Hardcover, £16.00;

$27.00. 264 pp.

Reaktion Books,

Ltd., London,

UK, distributed

by University of

Chicago Press,

Chicago, IL.

{Ed. Note: Dorothea Bedigian, who has contributed

book reviews toPlant Science Bulletinfor years,

recently provided a review of the 2019 book

“Mulberry” by Peter Coles that surpassed the typical

review in terms of depth and research. Because of

thisunique take,we’ve chosen to publishthis asa

full article. Thanks to Dorothea for her work.}

The material culture of mulberry, including

its service to sericulture, paper making,

for its wood,fruit,healing properties,

and its inspiration to artists and writers is

documented in Mulberry (see the Book

Review section for full info). Author Peter

Coles describes the trees botanically and

societally, with 100 effective illustrations (95

in color) that are, in my view, among its most

valuablefeatures.Therearereferencenotesto

each chapter, a select bibliography, and 6-page

Index. Coles is a freelance science writer,

fine art photographer and translator, and a

VisitingFellow at theCentre forUrban and

Community Research, Goldsmiths, University

of London.

It was startling to encounter the full-page

illustration (p. 192) with the caption, ‘Mulberry

pattern textile by Moda Fabric,’ because the

stems have thorns, the berries have sepals, and

the leaves with serrate margins are uniformly

tripartite,opposingColes’photographof

amulberryandleafonp.196!Instead,the

striking textile depicted is Rubus L., with

sepals at the base of the aggregate drupe(lets),

i.e., many carpels from one flower. Rather,

MorusL. hasmany separateflowers/fruits

fused together (a syncarp, compound), and

the perianth is part of the fleshiness, so there

are no distinct/recognizable sepals. While

some Morus leaves are lobed, they are not

compound.

I looked forward eagerly to reading Mulberry

because mulberries were an essential part

of my childhood. On summer Sundays we

would travel to a nearby wooded area to

harvestaweek’ssupplyoffreshblackand

white mulberries; in winter, dried mulberries

would substitute. Mulberries relate to my

Armenian heritage; I recall grandparents’

childhood memories of treasured traditions

in Western Armenia, harvesting the fruit by

stretching a large sheet held by four corners,

while someone climbed the tree to shake its

limbs, releasing the ripe fruit.

It is unfortunate that despite Coles’

internationalfocus,thisdetailedwork

neglects substantial geographical aspects

and omits considerable regional expertise

An extended review of

Mulberry

by Peter Coles

By Dorothea Bedigian

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (76)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

146

about mulberry. My disappointment is Coles’

shocking omission ofArmenianculturethat

venerates, and is identified so completely

with, mulberry, involving food, drink, and

silk manufacture. Coles identifies mulberry

pekmez(

պեկմեզ

)theconcentratedfruit

must, widely used as syrup by Armenians

(often mixed with tahini), as a Turkish item.

However,longbeforetheMongolinvasionsof

Anatolia,theArmenianHighlandswereasite

of major agricultural innovations (Bedigian,

2011). Coles credits mulberry foodstuffs to

thecolonialconquerors,acaseofcultural

appropriation, thereby erasing history,

ignoring contributions of Armenians, among

the original peoples of the region after the fall

of the Kingdom of Urartu, near the end of the

7

th

century BCE, many centuries before the

Ottoman conquest. This report seeks to rectify

the disservice done with these significant gaps.

AlthoughColesdoesnotdelveintothese

details, black mulberry (MorusnigraL.)

appears to have originated in the mountainous

areasof MesopotamiaandPersia, coinciding

with the center of its diversity: the south

Caucasus countries, Armenia, and northern

Persia (Grieve, 1931;Yaltirik,1982;Jansen

et al., 1991; Westwood, 1995; Tutin, 1996;

Browicz, 2000). Iran is viewed as its center

of origin (Koyuncu, 2004; Koyuncu et al.,

2004, p. 125). According to Markarian (1978),

mulberry (evidentlyM.albaL., because the

preceding sentence was about its Chinese

origin) was introduced to Armenia in the 16th

century, in 1710. Safar Vaselian transplanted

the first mulberry from Russia (Tereki vicinity,

Terek Soviet Republic).

TherootoftheArmeniantermtut

(թութ)

originates from the Aramaic tūtā (Chicago

Assyrian Dictionary, 2006), a loanword also

used in present-day Arabic, Azerbaijani,

Croatian, Hindi, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz,

Pashto, Persian, Romanian, Tajik, Turkish,

and Uzbek, reflecting its transfer along the

Silk Road.

There is a long textual tradition of mulberries

inArmenia.MkhitʻarGōsh, anArmenian

scholar, writer, public figure, and priest, was

among the stars of the Armenian Renaissance

prior to the Turco-Mongol Invasions of the

late 12thto early 13th centuries. His Fables

(Bayizian, 1987), include a metaphorical

rivalry between mulberry and olive: each

boasted of its strength(s), the olive of its

evergreen condition, and plentitude of fruit—

especially since its fruit is made of oil, oil is

made of light, and light dispels darkness. The

mulberry boasted of the sweetness of its fruit

and the fact that its leaves make silk. Worms are

bornandclothcomesfromit—clothenjoyed

by kings and princes. The olive challenged

the mulberry, arguing that its fruit passed too

quickly,becamediseased,wasdiscretionary

versus necessary, and that [people] removed

[silk clothing] at night, but still left their lamp

lit.

An Armenian creation myth describes the

origin of mulberry, its place in the natural

and social world. It illustrates the importance

of mulberry in Armenian culture, offering a

fantastical tale of how it came to be (Najarian,

2013).

Once upon a time, a silkworm wove a special

dress for a girl. It was incredibly thin, light,

with stunning lace. It was no ordinary dress.

It possessed some magic powers: the woman

who wore it became even more attractive.

Additionally, any woman who wore the

dress could go without food for days. After a

woman wore it, she lent it to her friend. Her

friend used it, then shared it with another

friend. They all rejoiced, seeing their beauty

proliferated.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (77)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

147

One day, the king chose one of these women

to become his wife. She then stipulated

that henceforth she alone would wear the

beautiful dress; she would never share it.

Her friends were taken aback, saddened by

her selfishness. Some grew angry, so they

went to the palace, began to shout, threw

stones at the windows, and eventually

stormed the palace; finding the new queen

cowering in a corner, they ripped the dress

from her hands and tore it to shreds.
Suddenly, before the enraged women’s eyes,

thehemofthedressturnedintoatreetrunk

withmanybranches.Theshredsofthetorn

dress flew up to the branches of the tree and

turned into swollen buds, that expanded

broadleaves, forminga dense canopy. That

was how the mulberry tree was born.

Mulberry was ubiquitous throughout historical

Armenia, in cuisine and lifestyle. Armenians

consumedmulberryfruitsfresh andmade

jams and syrup or molasses, prepared by

straining mulberry juice, then boiling and

thickening it. Traditionally that was used in

place of sugar, an uncommon commodity,

found only among the wealthy. Mulberry

seasonsyogurtand flavors wine.Mulberries

are distilled for a coveted commercial product:

the powerful (57–65%) alcoholic beverage tti

oghi that was widely produced as moonshine

at home, across Armenia. Mulberry’s sweet

aromatic juice doshab is believed to possess

healing powers against pneumonia, angina,

and the common cold. When dried, doshab

forms the fruit leather pekmez. Mulberries

arefamouslyesteemedbyresidentsofGoris,

SyunikProvince, whomountaNational

Mulberry Festival annually, in July.

Early travelers’ accounts are an invaluable

resource to reconstruct Armenian cultural life

before the massacres (1894–1915). Ainsworth

(1842) includes 10 entries about mulberry

plantations and groves amidst vineyards,

gardensof mulberry,fig,and pomegranate

trees:“Someoneclimbedthe mulberry tree

and shook the branches, letting down enough

fruit to feed 20 persons” (p. 190). Taylor (1868,

p. 330) observed “fine gardens of mulberry,

apricot and walnut.”

Writing about Arabgir, Knight (1854, p.

408)noted:“builtamidsta forestoffruit-

trees, among which the White Mulberry is

most common. The fruit of the mulberry is

eaten fresh, or used for making brandy, or

it is made into a sweetmeat called pekmez,

which is common all through Armenia”;

about Anatolia (Knight, 1854, p. 335): “Olive

and mulberry trees are extensively cultivated

for the production of oil and silk”; about

Amasia (Knight 1854, p. 271): “there are

numerous mulberry plantations, as silk forms

an important article of export”; about Hazero

intheTigrisplainnearBitlis(Knight,1854,

p. 515): “mulberry and Lombardy poplar

flourishinthedistrict.”AtthevalleyofEghin,

mountains rise rapidly to around 400 ft, the

lower slopes rising in terraces above the

narrow valley laid out in gardens and planted

with trees (Knight, 1854, p. 512): “the trees are

mostly white mulberry, the fruit of which is

eatenfresh,ordriedanddistilledfor brandy,

or else boiled into a conserve”; mountains

surrounding the basin of Lake Van on the

south (Knight, 1854, p. 517) are “clothed with

woods of oak, and along the rivers are walnut

trees, raspberries,mulberries, and vines.”

The city of Vanwas widely admired asa

“gardencity,”owingtoitsimpressive80-km

long stone-lined irrigation canal constructed

during King Menua’s reign, around 810-786

BCE (Bedigian, 2011), that ferried freshwater

fromtheArtosMountainstowaterthe

vineyards and orchards tucked behind mud

walls. American missionary and physician

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (78)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

148

Moses Parmalee reported (1888): “As we

approached Van, at the western extremity of

the lake, the villages of the Armenians became

more numerous... the dwelling-houses in

the gardens are embowered in most charming

orchards of mulberry and other fruit trees.
Protestant missionary Susan Wheeler (1877,

pp. 39-40) provides extensive firsthand culi-

nary detail:

“Whitemulberryisveryabundantthere

and is much used. It is the first fruit that

ripens, and the people relish the sweet fruit

after the long fast in the spring, when they

have little variety in their food. When they

areripethewomenbringoutlargesheets

and spread them under the trees, which

are then shaken, and the ripe fruit is easily

gathered.Theberriesareputintoalarge

copper boiler, a fire is kindled near the

place, and the boiler is supported by large

stones on each side of the fire. The fruit

is cooked for several hours, and strained

through a cotton bag, till all the juice is

pressed out. This is put into shallow copper

vessels, whitened with tin, and placed on

the flat roofs of the houses, where it remains

for days to evaporate in the sun. Then it is

put into a narrow-necked earthen vessel,

the mouth of which is covered with wet

leather, and the molasses is ready. Bread

and molasses is the morning meal of many

a poor Armenian family. They also prepare

a sort of sweet meat of this molasses.

They stir starch or fine flour into the fresh

syrup, boil it till it becomes a paste, and

then spread it on their cloth, and dry it

for winter. Sometimes they put nuts upon

it while it is fresh, or when it is partly dry,

rolling up the nuts, strung on strings, in

these thin layers. Its appearance, very much

like a sausage when rolled so, gives its name

“sweet sausage” (

Անուշսուջուխ

). Rojig

(sharots) [‘strung in a row,’ as in beads] is

preparedbystringingwalnuts,thendipping

the stringintoapreparation ofmolasses

and flour paste, and then allowed to dry

[forming fruit leather around the walnuts].

This kind of sweet paste is often brought

in with the sherbet and offered to guests. I

often brought home my pockets full of this

bastic.”

Taylor(1868, p. 311)stated:“[Kharpert]

gardens abound in fine fruit trees; the

mulberry, however, is the most profitable, its

fruit being made into a kind of thick paste,

called‘Pesteek,’largelyexported,andintoraki,

a villainous spirit, largely consumed in the

town and villages. A little silk is also raised; but

this branch of industry is as yet in its infancy.”

Lynch(1901,p.391)alsowroteadmiringly

about Kharpert where “the mulberry grows

in such profusion that the silk crop is often of

considerable value.”

Wemustalsoconsidertheweaverscraft,using

the silk produced by silkworms bred with

mulberry leaves. Hadjian (2018) uncovered

historical evidence showing that Bitlis

Armenians (ancestral home of my paternal

grandparents) always had several mulberry

treesinthegarden,aremainderofthefact

thatBitliswasontheSilkRoute.Beyondsilk

production, Bitlis exported silk carpets and

fabrics to France and Italy.

Years later, an editorial in The New Armenia

(1920) testifies: “Speaking of the decrease in

the production of silk…this industry is in

fulldecline. The principalproducingfactors

have been wrecked, the population which

specialized in the rearing of silkworms

displaced, and the mulberry plantations

uprooted wholesale. Everything has been

done to deal a death-blow to a once flourishing

industry. [...] There is a slight inaccuracy in

the above statement. To say that all this has

been ‘destroyed by the war’ is not strictly

accurate…neitheroftheabove-mentioned

silk producing regions was anywhere near the

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (79)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

149

fighting area. The real truth is that the Turkish

Government availed itself of the state of war to

carryoutitsfavoritepolicyofexterminating

the Greek and Armenian population, in

whose hands the silk industry chiefly is.”

Shirinian (1997) apprises David Kherdian’s

celebration of being alive, as in The Fast (an

amusing introduction to the person’s regard

forthedelicacyof rojik)and ‘Mulberry Trees’

(finding one’s roots while staining one’s fingers

with ripe mulberries):

When

as a small boy

I saw them ripen against

the early summer sun

I stopped alone for an hour and ate until

my fingers

tookanancientpurplestain

until something remembered

a small, knotty tree

in a barren, rocky landscape

before an older, quieter sun
and I went home a little

sadder, a little gladdened

andstandingontheporch

my mother and father

saw their Armenian son.

Thus, Kherdian connects with his heritage,

and from the Diaspora in America, he is

suddenly transformed through tapping into

the larger collective memory of the Armenian

people. The mulberrytreein America

remindshimofoneintheoldcountryhe

could never have known except discursively,

perhaps through his parents’ stories. As a

result, he is both saddened because of its loss,

and he is happy because of theexperiencethat

seems to have confirmed his identity. At the

endof thepoem, through atransposition, he

places himself in his parents’ point of view

and calls himself “their Armenian son.” This

third-person transposition is the result of

Kherdian’s reinterpreting his past, trying to

make it complete and meaningful. Kherdian,

at this point, has arrived at a crucial moment

in his life, when he is able to look back and see

himself clearly in relation to his parents and

their Armenian heritage.

Atom Yarjanian, pen name Siamanto (1875-

1915),among the mostinfluential Armenian

writers, poets, and national heroes of the 20th

century, was one of the intellectuals arrested

byOttomanTurkishauthoritiesonApril24,

1915and subsequentlyslain.Excerpted here

is a portion of his lament, ‘The Mulberry Tree,’

which depicts the atrocities committed by the

Ottoman Turkish government, characterizing

the momentous political and cultural upheaval

inthehistoryoftheArmenianpeople.‘The

Mulberry Tree’ gives voice to a woman who

has gone mad, upon seeing her grandson

killed.

They’ve even cut down my mulberry tree.

Give me death. They’ve cut my mulberry

tree.

I planted it the day my grandson was born.

They’ve cut my mulberry tree.

Woe to his memory. It grew tall before my

eyes just like him –

It was seven years old, and I was sitting in

its shade with my grandson in my arms

singing.

They’ve even cut my mulberry tree.

Look, they sawed it at the roots.

Where is the cart with the corpses? I still

hear it squeak.

I want to be thrown into it next to my

grandson.

There’s still a place on the cart.

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legend-of-the-mulberry-tree/
The NewArmenia. 1920. 12: 79–80.
Parmalee,M.P.1888.HomeandWorkbytheRiversof

Eden.American Sunday School Union, Philadelphia.
Shirinian, L. 1997. David Kherdian and the ethno-au-

tobiographicalimpulse:Rediscoveringthepast.ME-

LUS 22: 77–89.
Siamanto.1996.BloodyNewsfromMyFriend:Po-

emsbySiamanto.BalakianP,YaghlianN,transl.,pp

67–69.Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI.
Taylor, J. G. 1868. Journal of a tour inArmenia,Kurd-

istan,and Upper Mesopotamia,withnotes of research-

esintheDeyrsimDagh,in1866.JournaloftheRoyal

Geographic Society of London 38: 280–361.
Tutin,G.T.1996.MorusL.In:Tutin,G.T.,N.A.Burg-

es,A.O.Chater,J.R.Edmondson,V.H.Heywood,D.

M.Moore,D.H.Valentine,etal.(Eds).FloraEuropa,

Vol 1. Psilotaceaeto Platanaceae,2

nd

ed. Cambridge

University Press.
Westwood,M.N.1995.Temperate-ZonePomology

Physiology and Culture,pp. 86-87.TimberPress, Port-

land, OR.
Wheeler,S.A. 1877. DaughtersofArmenia.American

Tract Society, NewYork, NY.
Yaltirik,F.1982.Morus.In:Davis,P.H.etal.(Eds).

FloraofTurkey.EdinburghUniversityPress.Vol.7:

641–642.

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (81)

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2020 v66 No 2 Summer (82)

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BOOK REVIEWS

BarkAnatomy ofTrees and Shrubs in theTemperate Northern Hemisphere.....................152

Chasing Centuries...................................................................................................................................................154

Food Production in Native NorthAmericaAnArchaeological Perspective

and

Feeding Cahokia EarlyAgriculture in the NorthAmerican Heartland............................156

Guide to theVascular Flora of Picture Creek Diabase Barrens..................................................157

The History of Lancetilla Botanical Garden...........................................................................................158

John Gill Lemmon -Andersonville Survivor and California Botanist.........................................160

Lichen Study Guide for Oklahoma and Surrounding States...........................................................162

Making Eden How PlantsTransformed a Barren Planet..................................................................163

Mulberry.........................................................................................................................................................................164

The Natural History ofThe Bahamas:A Field Guide..........................................................................165

The Nature of Plant Communities ..............................................................................................................165

The TreeStory..........................................................................................................................................................167

WildYetTasty:A Guide to Edible Plants of Eastern Kentucky......................................................169

Wildflowers and Ferns of Red River Gorge and the Greater Red River Basin....................170

BarkAnatomyof Trees

and Shrubs in the

Temperate Northern

Hemisphere

Fritz H. Schweingruber,

Peter Steiger, and Annett

Börner

2019.

ISBN 978-3-030-14055-7

Hardcover €145,59; eBook,

€117,69; 394 pp. + vi

Springer International

Publishing

The first anatomical image of a plant structure

ever published represents the porous bark of

oak (Hooke, 1665). Since then, our anatomical

understanding of bark—and in particular

phloem—was enriched in structural details

andvitalplantprocessesundergoinginthe

bark were unraveled. The important book

from Esau (1969) summarizes phloem-related

knowledge of the mid-20th century. More

recently, an illustrated and annotated glossary

of terms enriched our capability to describe

barks (Angyalossy et al., 2016). The bases are

now set for more systematic bark anatomical

descriptions of trees, shrubs, and herbs.
The authors of this book are well qualified to

undertake thiseffort.Fritz H.Schweingruber

contributed with his deep understanding on

plantanatomicalvariability. PeterSteigeris

a landscape architect with a strong interest

in plant ecology and photography. Annett

Börner has been working in the field of

scientific publishing and book design for

more than 15 years.
They compiled a well-produced atlas.

Underlining the importance of bark in plant

life,theintroductionsupportstheneedfor

the book. Two following chapters describe

general bark macroscopic and microscopic

appearance introducing specific terminology.

Then,everytwo-pagespreaddescribesbark

macroscopic and microscopic variability

within each species. The trees and shrubs

species included in the book, most from

the deciduous temperate forest in Europe,

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encompassesspeciesfromtheMediterranean

region, Eastern Asia, and Northern America.

Withmorethan180speciesdescribedin

the book, the reader is transported from the

Mediterranean lowlands to boreal forests, and

uptothesubalpineandsubarcticregions of

the Northern Hemisphere.
Eachspeciesdescriptionincludesscientific

name and common names in English,

German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Plant

habitat, life-form, as well as leaves, flowers,

and fruits appearance are described. The bark

anatomicaldescriptionsreportdetailsonthe

phloem cells occurrence and distribution.

The anatomical description of rhytidome

and cortex is also detailed. While the text is

simple and short but still very informative,

thecolorfulpicturesareimpressive.Ageneral

speciesdescriptionincludesapicturetoshow

theplantinits ecological context,and its

flower and leaves details. Two macroscopic

bark pictures represent young (twig/

branches) and old (stem) bark appearance.

Two to four low- and high-magnification

anatomical pictures provide an anatomical

overview of the phloem. Microscopic view in

polarized light underlines crystals occurrence

and distribution. All anatomical images are

double-stained with a blend of safranin and

astrablue. In doing so, lignified (red) and less-

lignified (blue) cell walls can be easily spotted.

All anatomical thin sections were prepared

usingaslidingmicrotome,asdescribed ina

dedicated chapter.
The intended audience includes a very wide

range of readers. Scientists and professionals

of various disciplines from archaeology to

ecophysiology, soils science to plant ecology

will benefit from the book. Aiming to

demonstrate the macroscopic and anatomical

variability of bark, the authors also suggest it

can be used in helping to identify prehistorical

and historical plant remains. However, there

is no identification aid in the book, and

the bark identification process is left to the

reader’s ability to identify key anatomical

featureswhileflippingthroughthebook.The

layout consistently repeated in each species

description helps the process. The reference

and recommended reading lists are valuable

examples of ‘must-have’ books for the bark

anatomist—including the book by Crivellaro

and Schweingruber (2015) that is cited in the

text, but not included in the reference.
A uniquepoint of the book isthe ability

to link ecosystems to the within plant bark

variability. Thevariability ofexternal bark

appearance along the plant stem is informative

abouttheagingprocessoccurringinbarks.

As the anatomical structure of the bark highly

contributestoitsouteraspect,theapproach

to microscopic bark variability is rich in

high-qualityimages,whichisararefeature

in bark anatomy books. Having both the

macro-and micro-appearanceofbarkwithin

the same page allows the reader to assess the

association between the internal and external

bark structure. Thus, the book provides a

unique bark macroscopic and microscopic

viewpoint to the field of plant anatomy. In

integratingbarkmacroscopicalaspectwith

barkanatomy,thehugevariabilityofbark

structure can here be seen as the result of

ananatomicaldrivingprocessofnewcells

formation by the cambium, cells enlargement,

development of subsequent phellogens, and

the origin of patterned cracks or abscission

layers as beautifully illustrated on p. 6.
Even if I would find it difficult to use the

booktoorientmyselfintheidentification

ofanunknownbark,theimagesofbark

demonstrate the multiple ways it is constructed

inplantstems.Inthisrespectthebookisa

huge step forward, setting the base for future

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (84)

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154

similar works. The reader will appreciate the

plant descriptions and photographs, which

help to link the microscopic views to the scale

at which we may have known the plants in our

hikes and, in some cases, in our gardens.

LITERATURE CITED

Angyalossy,V.,M.R.Pace,R.F.Evert,C.R.Mar-

cati,A.A.Oskolski,T.Terrazas,E.Kotina,etal.2016.

IAWAlistof microscopicbark features.IAWAJournal

37: 517–615.
Crivellaro,A., and F. Schweingruber. 2015. Stemana-

tomicalfeaturesof Dicotyledons.Xylem,Phloem,

CortexandPeridermCharacteristicsforEcological

andTaxonomicalAnalyses. Kessel Publishing House.
Esau,K.1969.ThePhloem:EncyclopediaofPlant

Anatomy. Springer.
Hooke,R.1665.Micrographia,or,Somephysiologi-

cal descriptions of minute bodies made by magnify-

ing glasses: with observations and inquiries thereupon.

London, Printed by J. Martyn and J.Allestry.

-Alan Crivellaro, University of Cambridge,

Cambridge, UK. E-mail: alan.crivellaro@geog.

cam.ac.uk

Chasing Centuries:

The Search for

AncientAgave

Cultivars Acrossthe

Desert Southwest

Ron Parker

2019.

ISBN: 978-1941384480

Paperback US$19.99;

176 pp.
Sunbelt Publications

It may be safe to say that this reviewer has had

her horticultural horizons broadened by Ron

Parker’s engaging work with agave inChasing

Centuries: The Search for Ancient Agave

Cultivars Across the Desert Southwest. Parker’s

bookis so concentrated with information

andphotographythatareadermightbelieve

an agave would spring forth from its pages if

water, inadvertently, spilled onto the binding.

Chasing Centuries’ten chapters are nestled

under three sections:TheHistoricalPerspective

(Chapters 1-3),AgavesoftheRegion(Chapters

4-6), andNotes from the Field(Chapters 7-10).
InPart I: The Historical Perspective, Parker’s

writing is akin to thestory weavers ofold.

Parker verbally transports us on a historical

tour of early American Paleo-Indian

cultures inclusive of their dwellings, farming

techniques, and agave cultivation. One may

hearkentohearParkercrumblethestone

underfoot as he walks the reader through

the ancient villages, irrigation networks, and

traditional agave uses of the pre-Columbian

Native American Hohokam, Sinagua, and

Salado cultures. The lush photography,

featured in more than half of the book,

enhances this reading experience. As a nature

study historian, this section of historical

perspectiveisparticularlyinterestingto

my contextual side of researching the past,

applying this knowledge to the present, and

educating toward the future.
Agaves of theRegion, Part II is the largest

andmostcomprehensiveofthethree

sections with its decidedly more scientific

bend toward taxonomy, hybridization, and

vegetative characteristicsofagave inArizona.

Parker offers his keen insight into pollinator

dilemmas, plant blooming strategies in

subversive conditions, and plant adaptations

of the 12 naturally occurring agave species of

thestate.Theagaveplantsaresimultaneously

beautiful and beastly in appearance. Parker’s

attention todetailwitheach ofthe12

cultivar emphasizes his expertise while his

conversationalwritingstyleengages,rather

than intimidates, the reader. This section

of Chasing Centuries is more akin to a field

identification manual with field notes, specie

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descriptors, and clear photographs of each

of the 12 cultivars. It would not be remiss for

any agave adventurer to squeeze this book

into their backpack to aid their search in the

Arizonabackcountry.Whenreflectingback

on the first section of Parker’s book, after

completing the second section, one cannot

butmarvelatthe ingenuityoftheNative

American ancestors who learned to grow and

glean from this plant.
The remaining four chapters of Parker’s book

are in Section III: Notes from the Field. This

section is a reflective discourse of Parker’s

pursuit of the ancient cultigens singular in

their characteristics. In deciphering the

complicated agave biological history, and

ancient cultural history associated with the

botanical work, our author is fully aware that

time, which has passed for the agave ancestors

growingnearremnantsofancientdwellings,

continues to march forward. One gets from

Parker the sense of a hope in continued

engagement with his work; however, he is not

unrealistictosuggestafiniteendtothemost

vulnerable cultigens. This reviewer hopes that

interest piqued about agave from this book will

continue to lend Parker, and others, to search

for another connection to the antediluvian

cultures that met the challenges to provide

for their communities living in such austere

conditions.
Parker ends his book on a cautionary note

for the reader. High extinction risks for agave

groves in the mountainous desert environs of

Arizona continuously challenge the remaining

cultigens.Climatechanges,insectinfestation,

and precarious governmental policies are also

addedtothestewinthis pot of trouble. Parker

examples his own explorations and research

as testament to the decline. That said, Parker

emphasizes the wonderful work by colleagues

at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix to

continue interest, education, and propagation

strategies. Rounding off the book is a table of

the Arizona agaves with the subgenus, status,

size,elevation,andmore,listedforresearcher

and explorer alike. Parker provides a clear

reference trail with additional resources

for the curious researcher in the glossary,

endnotes, and bibliography.
AsonewholivedashorttimeinSierra

Vista, Arizona, almost three decades ago,

ChasingCenturiesbroughtbackwonderful

memories of the Huachuca Mountains and

dry desert stretches between towns. It was

with the pummeling of torrential rain, with

the coming of the July monsoon season,

that quenched the land and satiated life.

Iremembertheyuccaandagave,almost

bursting forth, in the change of season. It was

so beautiful, and so foreign, to an easterner’s

eyes. Parker completely engages the reader

in his adventures and thereby connects the

reader to their own senses and memories. Be

ithorticulturalstudents,scientificresearchers,

or plant enthusiasts, Chasing Centuries would

be at home, equally, on one’s coffee table or in

one’s academic office library.
- Karen Penders St. Clair, PhD

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (86)

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Food Production in

NativeNorth America

An Archaeological

Perspective

Kristen J. Gremillion

2018.

ISBN: 978-0-9328-3957-2

Paperback

US$31.95;

194

pp. + x

Society for American

Archaeology Current Per-

spectives.The Society for

American Archaeology Press.Washington, DC

AND

Feeding Cahokia

EarlyAgriculture in the

North American

Heartland

Gayle J. Fritz

2019.

ISBN: 978-0-8173-2005-8

Cloth US$59.95; 232 pp. +

xiv

The University of Alabama

Press. Tuscaloosa,Alabama

These two books are authored by recognized

authorities in archeology and anthropology.

Bothtreatmentsdealwithforgottencrops.For

theethnobotanistthis isespecially interesting

because indigenous plants known as the

EasternAgriculturalComplex(EAC)were

selectedbyNativeAmericansascrops.Thisisa

rare example of autochthonous crop evolution

in North America. Gremillion and Fritz’s work

is a major contribution to documenting the

process of artificial selection, transforming

native flora into agronomic value.
The image of Native Americans as strictly

hunter-gathers is modulated by extensive

research documenting the role of agriculture

in Central and Eastern North America

in roughly corresponding to the eastern

deciduous forest. Just as they describe the

historyofthe EAC, they documentthedecline

and demise of the crops and, for some, the

extinction of cultivars. By 1000 AD maize had

spread to much of Eastern North America.

Both authors discuss the spread of maize and

itsroleinsupplantingcultivationofother,

native species.
Species comprising the EAC are from

diverse plant families and weedy in their

behavior yielding seeds/fruits with high oil or

carbohydrate content. Most of them thrive in

the rich disturbed soil of river bottomlands.
The importance of adequate technology in

the study of archeological sites is described in

both books. This includes flotation methods

for material obtained from food caches,

paleofaeces, carbonized plant remains, and

stable isotope analysis of bones.
My review centers on botanical aspects, but

there is a wealth of information on Native

American agriculture and culture during

different historical periods, epochs, and

cultures.
Both volumes are valuable resources for

the ethnobotanist. Gremillion emphasizes

anthropology while carefully documenting

crop details. For example, she discusses

foraging for wild plants in the chapter titled

“Food Production Without Farming,” using

examples from the Pacific Northwest. In the

chapteronfoodproductionafterEuropean

contact,appropriately titled“A Worldof

Difference,” Gremillion discusses the role of

missions and plantations in the introduction

of cropsnew to the hemisphere and the impact

of this irruption on indigenous agriculture.
Thisisanauthoritativeyetaccessiblebook

reflecting the distinguished career of the

author. It is well indexed with extensive

references.

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“Feeding Cahokia” could be considered a

detailed regional study of many of the topics

included in Food Production in Native North

America. Cahokia was a Native American

megapolis near the Mississippi River east of

Saint Louis with a well-established agricultural

system and concomitant social structure.
I found the discussions of species used as

crops interesting because of my studies

of edible native plants. These include

Chenopodium berlandieri, Iva annua,and

Hordeumpusillumand other species of the

EAC. Artificial selection forI.annuaresulted

in larger achenes. Unfortunately, these large-

fruited varieties have been lost and are now

appropriately called a forgotten crop. Even

the weedy expression ofI.annuais difficult to

locate, as I learned after looking for it in two

states.
After reading aboutC. berlandieriI located

a sizeable population and collected the

abundant seeds. Though nutritious, they are

tedious to clean and had an unremarkable

taste. My culinary experience withI.annua

was similar.
Therearenumerousimagesin“Feeding

Cahokia” of varying quality. As a microscopist

I always chaff at SEM images of a single seed

like those in this work. A cluster of a few

seeds, especially small seeds. gives the viewer

a better impression of the variability in size,

shape, and ornamentation than a SEM picture

ofoneseed.
These two volumes are valuable contributions

to an often-overlooked aspect of crop

development and will be of value to

ethnobotanistsaswellasthetargetaudience

of anthropologists and archeologists.
On a broader scale, understanding the

Eastern Agricultural Complex may, in the

words of Gremillion, “...bring diversity and

sustainability back to modern agriculture,

and perhaps will lead to a greater appreciation

of ancient agricultural traditions like those of

Native America.”
I highly recommend both books.
-Lytton John Musselman, Old Dominion Uni-

versity, Norfolk, VA

Guide to theVascular

Flora of Picture Creek

Diabase Barrens

By Jennifer S. Stanley, Alex-

ander Krings, Jon M. Stucky,

and Richard R. Braham

2019.

ISBN: 978-1889878522

Soft cover US$45; 367 pp.

Botanical Research Institute

ofTexas Press, FortWorth,

Texas

TheGuide to the Vascular Flora of Picture

Creek Diabase Barrensarose as an outgrowth

oftheauthors’effortstovoucherthe floristic

diversity of Picture Creek Diabase Barrens,

an area known to be rich in rare species

but not comprehensively surveyed or well-

collected. It opens with an extensive overview

of the site; its geology, soils, history, etc.; and

a classification of the plant communities

found there. Therelationshipsbetween soils,

vegetative communities, and terrain are made

clear through well-chosen illustrations, and

theaccompanyingmapsof communitiesand

soils make it easy to understand the layout of

the barrens.
This section is followed by color photographs

illustrating the taxa described in the book,

emphasizing diagnostic features (e.g., most

Carexspp.areillustratedwithaphotograph

of a perigynium against a millimeter scale).

The plates are followed by dichotomous keys

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to the flora of the barrens; while adapted

from published from more comprehensive

publishedfloras,theauthorshave taken

advantage of the limited scope of this work,

and even thehigher levels of the key mostly

make use of easily observed morphological

characters. The illustrations accompanying

the key are the only discordant note; the use

of public domain art to illustrate overall plant

featuresandhabit, rather thancommissioning

drawingsdenovo, is understandable, but the

relative simplicity of the drawings (largely

taken from Britton & Brown, 1913) contrasts

somewhatjarringlywiththedetailinthe

photographic plates. The frequency and typical

habitat on-site is givenforeach taxon,as well

as bloom time, supporting vouchers when

available, conservation status, and a slightly

cryptic symbolic reference to previously

published plant lists for the site.
The authors aver that the guide is designed for

bothspecialistsand amoregeneralaudience. I

feel they have succeeded in doing so: the lucid

keys and well-chosen photographs make this

about as easy to navigate for a non-specialist

ascanreasonablybeexpected.However,the

casual reader might be forgiven for asking

whethera single, albeit interesting,floristic

community warrants so detailed a book,

at a density of about 0.9 pages per acre—

surely a case of gross overspecialization? As

an admitted devotee of edaphic grassland

ecosystems, I would disagree! While the

vouchering of the site flora and compilation of

a checklist for Picture Creek is a worthy project

of itself, the leading sections of the book make

it a valuable tool for site management and

maintenance.
We now recognize that protecting fragments

of biodiversity like Picture Creek is a duty that

cannot be supported solely by government

agencies or expert naturalists. Broad

coalitions of volunteers are necessary to

protect, maintain, and restore these habitats.

In my own experience of helping to maintain

serpentine barrens, assessing habitat and

identifying taxa of conservation concern is

one of the most formidable tasks for non-

specialist volunteers. A focused guide, like

the present work, is much less intimidating

to the lay volunteer than a regional flora,

and the mapping and detailed description of

communities makes it possible for a visitor

to assess and interpret the landscape. The

authors are to be commended for their efforts

torenderthisuniquelandscapelegibleand

approachable to both novice and expert.
-Christopher Hoess, Chair, Friends of the State

Line Serpentine Barrens

Historia del Jardñn

Botñnico de Lancetilla,

Honduras (The History

of Lancetilla Botanical

Garden, Honduras)

Donald L. Hazlett

2017. ISBN-10: 1889878537

Softcover $24.00; 140 pp.

Botanical Research Institute

ofTexas Press, FortWorth,

Texas

While readingTheHistoryofLancetilla

Botanical Garden, Honduras, I received the

SonoranQuarterly, a mailed publication

sentbytheDesertBotanicalGardentoits

members. In the mailing I learned that the

DesertBotanicalGardeninPhoenix,Arizona

now has a new scientific facility to protect

plants of the Sonoran Desert and is funded

largely with philanthropic donations. I then

returned to the Lancetilla Botanical Garden

(LBG),wherethestorycontrastssharply

withthatoftheDesertBotanicalGardenand

other established botanical centers. Lancetilla

Botanical Garden is not well-known, nor is it

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well-funded, but it is interesting, important,

and deserving of our attention.
The History of Lancetilla Botanical Gardenis

a sturdy little book written by ethnobotanist

Donald L. Hazlett and published by the

Botanical Research Institute of Texas. The

text is printed in Spanish and English and is

interspersed with drawings and color photos.

Due to its brevity and slight choppiness, it is

difficult to establish a rhythm while reading

the history of the LBG. Hazlett’s book doesn’t

quite know what it wants to be. It isn’t a

guidebookanditisnotathoroughhistory

book; rather it is a little bit of everything,

including folk legends, descriptions of plants,

recollections of work by the author, and

tributes to important local guides. For the

most part, Hazlett recounts visits to Lancetilla

in 1973 as a Peace Corps volunteer and later as

thedirectorofLancetillafrom1978through

1980. Although he continued to be associated

with Lancetilla after 1980, it is unclear why

Hazlett’stenurewassoshortandwhathis

connection to the LBG was after he returned

to the United States.
If you search the internet for Lancetilla

Botanical Garden, there really is not too

much to find. The Garden does have a website

(http://jblancetilla.org/welcome_ingles.

htm), but the information about its history is

limitedtofourparagraphs.Thewebsitedoes

have,however,a detailedmapofthe protected

area—something that the book lacks. Because

of its sparse website presence,TheHistoryof

LancetillaBotanicalGardenisthe definitive

source for the garden at the present time.

Unfortunately,withthedeathofHazletton

January5,2019,it isunlikely that therewillbe

a revised edition anytime soon.
Lancetilla is not a town or city, but the

name for a valley found along the north

coastofHonduras.The LancetillaPlant

Experimentation Station, slightly more

than 4100 acres in size, was established here

by the United Fruit Company (UFC) in

1926. Overall, the station served as testing

grounds for plantation crops, namely disease-

resistant strains of bananas. The first director

hired by UFC was William Popenoe who is

known for his work with avocados and later

forhis directorshipof thePan-American

Agricultural School in Zamorano, Honduras

in1941.HazlettsituatesPopenoeandtheearly

history of the LBG in a timeline at the end of

the book. Here, there are short descriptions

ofplacesandpeople,butthisisnot ago-to

source for the history of banana research in

Central America.
Hazlett does mention how the UFC exploited

workersand bribedgovernmentofficials,but

he does not dwell on the dark side of the banana

business in the Honduras. Unlike authors

whohavecriticallyexaminedmultinational

fruit companies for their labor practices and

land exploitation, Hazlett writes from the

perspective of a botanist who has worked and

lived at the plantation site and has benefitted

from the early actions of the UFC. It is safe

to say that the economic muscle of the UFC

helped protect the valley, its forests, and its

watershed fromhumanencroachment.Thisis

noteworthy today since the Lancetilla Valley

is situated close to the coastal city of Tela, a

tourist destination complete with golf courses,

resorts, and real estate agents.
In1974, the UFCrelinquishedits

experimental field station and turned over

the land and buildingsto the Honduran

Forestry School. During this time Hazlett

helped shift the focus of the LBG from large-

scale plantation research to that of growing

tropical fruits for Honduran orchards and

home gardens. The bulk of the book reflects

upon this time and is a bit scattered in terms

of notes and recollections. Hazlett’s writing

focuses on tributes and stories—from local

guides who have helped him complete an

accurate inventory of plant life, to toucans and

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John Gill Lemmon:

Andersonville

Survivor and California

Botanist

Brad Agnew and Kelly

Agnew

2020.

ISBN 9781695040212

Paperback US$24.95;

573 pp.

Independently Published

Brad Agnew and Kelly Agnew’sJohnGill

Lemmon: Andersonville Survivor and

CaliforniaBotanistis an interesting book about

the botanical pursuits of Californians John Gill

Lemmon (1832-1908) and his wife Sara Allen

Plummer Lemmon (1836-1923) in the mid-

to late 19th century. The title of this book does

notrepresentthescopeofJohnLemmon’s

captureintwoAmericanCivilWar(1861-

1865) Confederate prisoner of war camps;

nor that Lemmon studied, and obtained,

botanica in several other western states (New

Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Oregon) other

thanCalifornia.TheAgnewandAgnewbook

is thorough, and chronological, in the detail

of Lemmon’s extraordinary life, and it will

appealtoAmericanCivilWarhistorybuffs,

botanical historians, and archival researchers

equally.
John Gill Lemmon possessed an innate detail

toattentioninhismilitarycareer,botanical

pursuits, and entomological study. Lemmon

lived his life balancing both his remarkably

good- and sobering bad luck as he struggled

for gainful employment for the generous

portion of his adult life. His botanical quests

gave him a sense of purpose and drive after

hisdebilitatingwar experienceslefthim

physically and emotionally depleted. As his

lifestory unfolds,Lemmon vacillates between

self-pity and self-righteousness to earn a

living, live a meaningful life, and create a

strychnine poisoning. Interspersed with this

are descriptions of local plants, with common,

family, genus, and species names given.
For botany historians, the book provides

information on noted botanists who worked

atLancetillaorwereassociatedwiththe

LBG in some way. These include New York

Botanical Garden collectors Percy Wilson

and Elizabeth Mitchell in the early 1900s and

Paul C. Standley, who publishedThe Flora of

theLancetillaValley,Hondurasin 1931, and at

the same time expressed his concerns about

the increasing loss of biological diversity at

the experimental station. Also working in

Lancetilla werenotedtropicalplant disease

experts Otto Reinking and Paul House.

Reinkingintroduceda number ofSoutheast

Asianplants into theLancetilla Valley,

including the African oil palm from Malaysia.
BotanistPaulH.Allenservedasthethird

director of the experimental field station

(1960-1963) and is remembered for his work

with new banana breeds in Southeast Asia

and orchid systematics in Central America.

Bamboo researchers J. H. Perman and Floyd

A. McClure helped introduce several species

of bamboo plants to Lancetilla, and more

recently, Honduran botanists Cirilo Nelson

and Antonio Molina are recognized for their

plant taxonomy work in Central America.
Like many small botanical gardens, the LBG

has seen its share of struggles. Fortunately

for us, Hazlett was able to document some

of these struggles before his untimely death.

Reading thebookremindsusof howdogged

anapproachitisforthoseinvolvedwith

the protection of land, plants, and animals

in botanical gardens that are severely

underfunded, understaffed,andfacedwitha

tenuous future.
-Karen L. Wellner, Biology Department, Chan-

dler-GilbertCommunityCollege,Chandler,

Arizona

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appreciated moreso when one realizes that

the Lemmons risked life and limb through

aggressive environmental assaults to attain

any, and all, of their specimens. They carried

their equipment and specimens on their backs,

sufferedthroughtheirindividualmedical

conditions, and slept on pine boughs for

months at a time to acquire their quarry. So

intertwined were each with the other that, in

the years immediately following John’s death,

Sara’s mental health unraveled to startling

degrees and her last years werea heartacheto

read.
The first portion of this biographical book

is about John Lemmon’s early life, and more

poignantly, about his POW experiences in

the Andersonville and Florence Confederate

prisoner of war camps during the American

Civil War. This section is an exciting

read, and yet, very sobering. The authors’

structured chronological order in their

research have these military anecdotes roll

into the second portion of the book with

Lemmon’s contributions to botany including

his fanatical quest for accolades with the

botanicalacademicsofhistime.Equallyas

detailed as his Civil War years, Lemmon’s

botanical life story might be further divided

into his botanical pursuits as a bachelor, and

of those years he and Sara Plummer worked in

harmony.TheEpilogueof theAgnews’ bookis

a necessary completion to the Lemmons’ story

after John Lemmon’s demise on November

24,1908.Heretheauthorscomplete the

circle of life for the couple with the telling of

Sara Lemmon’s complete mental breakdown

and last sorrowful years. The comprehensive

Endnotes,Bibliography, andIndexaresound

and thorough, and willmore than adequately

aid any researcher for further study.
The repeated comparison of the Lemmons as

a married couple dedicated to their science

reminds this reviewer of the detailed research

lasting legacy. Often these three objectives

are at odds with each other, with Lemmon, or

with those who knew him socially, familially,

or professionally.
Lemmon’s professional connections in the

botanical world of the late 19

th

century are

impressive. ForemostisAsaGray (1810–1888),

botanist and Harvard professor, who figured

prominently in Lemmon’s career from the first

letter of admiration Lemmon exchanged with

Gray in 1873 until the latter’s death in 1888.

Professor Gray served as mentor to Lemmon

by trying to carefully instruct Lemmon in the

growth of his western botanical collections.

Gray provided sources of remuneration for

Lemmon’s work, and professional contacts

toLemmonfor increasedopportunitiesto

provide botanical specimens at cost. Through

Gray’s correspondence with Lemmon we feel

the exasperation and frustration of Lemmon’s

difficult personality, yet also recognize the

herculean efforts Lemmon made in traveling,

identifying, and cataloguing his herbarium.
Lemmon’s marriage to Sara Allen Plummer

in 1880 was a definite joy in an otherwise

challenging life. Sara Allen Plummer Lemmon

was a true beacon of solace in her husband’s

life. She was inquisitive, daring, a Women’s

Rights advocate, and successful in her efforts

advocating for the Golden Poppy to become the

State flower of California (on March 2, 1903).

Throughout their marriage the Lemmons

lived in an emotional, physical, and academic

symbiosis with each other. The botanical

accomplishments of John and Sara Lemmon

are almost one in the same because they

worked so closely with each other. Together

their accomplishments are staggering. For

example, they labored for months to label and

present 900 species of plants procured from

California for their state’s participation in the

New Orleans Exposition of 1884. This feat is

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I did on contemporaries of the Lemmons. I

conducted extensive research onthearchival

papers and original autobiographical

manuscript of entomologist Professor John

H. and Anna Botsford Comstock, nature

educator, both of Cornell University. The

Comstocks may be considered part of the

EastCoastfactionofagrarianscholarswith

whom Asa Gray harbored. That such a

biography of the Lemmons, and the turn-of-

the-century West Coast faction of botanists

now exists in one tome, is beneficial to

researchers and historians alike. This

reviewer would also like to acknowledge the

industrious efforts Sue Agnew contributed to

the Agnew familial effort with the research,

compilation, and writing of this book. The

undertaking of this project was no small task.

I thoroughly enjoyed Agnew and Agnew’s

book, and respect their research efforts to

bring the accomplishments of the Lemmons

back to us.

--Karen Penders St. Clair, Ph.D.

Lichen Study Guide for Oklahoma and

Surrounding States

Sheila A. Strawn

2017.

ISBN: 978-1-889878-55-3.

Flexibound US$25; 80 pp.

Botanical Research Institute ofTexas Press, Fort

Worth, TX

Lichens are a microscopic universe of

complexspeciesinteractionsbetweenfungi

and algae. Their inherent beauty, diversity,

and abundance have firmly established

lichens in the hearts of mycologists around the

world. Lichens also open new era of research

with a special focus on their metabolites.
“Lichen Study Guide for Oklahoma and

Surrounding States”

offers readers a

comprehensive field guide consisting of 68

pages

and is easily

pocketable. The book

abounds with

beautiful photographs and keys

for identification of lichens. The purpose of

this guide is to encourage large-scale studies

of lichens in this region and in surrounding

states with similar habitat by explaining the

basic characteristics needed to understand

lichen biology and identification.

This guide

is comprehensive and helpful for study of

lichensallover

the

globe.Theintroduction

is well written and up-to-date. It also focuses

on

the

importance of lichens, especially their

role in solving immunological problems, land

management, climatic change,

and

biodiversity.

It guides finding and collecting lichens and

the tools required for it

with comprehensive

knowledge of

observing and documenting

lichens, followed by their identification. It also

explainshowtopreserveandstorelichensin

herbaria. The most fascinating part is chemical

and UV tests for identification supplemented

with bright color contrast slides. It also

includes detailed information about lichen

morphology and anatomy. Common features

suchas thallustypes,color, reproductive

structures, substrates for growth, and stepwise

procedures are

thoroughlyillustrated.

These

are well explained by colorful photographs

of lichen from Oklahoma and surrounding

states.
The book is well written and up-to-date. I

am particularly fond of the “Practice keys

for the lichen identification,” which is a

concise explanation for an amateur

scientist/

mycologist

abouthowtoidentifylichensfrom

all over the world based on thallus characters

and chemical tests. Shelia A. Strawn has done

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a tremendous job of capturing the beauty

and diversity of the lichen of Oklahoma

andsurroundingstateswithawidearrayof

high-quality pictures that typically show each

character from several angles. The book ends

with a quick identification guide for common

lichen genera of the region. It is also decorated

with an appendix containing websites with

sources for lichen study.
Thetargetaudienceforthisimpressivework

isclearly

the

onefocusingonidentification

of lichens and appreciation of their diversity.

Those with such interests will not wish to

do without this guide. The book is highly

recommended for undergraduate students,

field explorers, and libraries of all mycology

fans. The book’s combination of aesthetically

appealing and scientifically accurate color

photographs and extensive descriptions

makes it a standard reference work for lichen

identification in not only in Oklahoma, but

also around the globe.
-Dr.AroojNaseer,AssistantProfessorinBota-

ny, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

Making Eden: How

Plants Transformeda

Barren Planet

David Beerling

2019;

ISBN-10: 019879830X; ISBN-

13: 978-0198798309

Hardcover US$27.95;

272 pp.

Oxford University Press

The evolution of plants has transformed the

Earth. Once photosynthetic organisms came

onto the evolutionary scene, the atmosphere

changed due to the presence of oxygen. The

life of humans and all animals still is intimately

tied to the success of plants. Yet, most of our

society suffers from a lack of knowledge from

plants or a so-called “plant blindness.” This

book attempts to remedy the problem and to

introduce plant biology to a broader audience.
After a brief introductory chapter, the second

chapterfocusesontheevolutionofland

plants. The theory of endosymbiosis has

enhanced our understanding of the evolution

of plants. The controversies around the

acceptance of this theory are considered. The

major groups of plants, life histories, and their

evolutionary relationships are also discussed.

While I found this early chapter interesting, I

am a botanist, but I started to ask if this book

would truly appeal to a general audience as it

istoutedtobe.
The author goes on to discuss the genomics

revolution of the past decade and the insights

itbroughtus regarding plant evolution.

The genome of a plant can be viewed as a

molecular “living fossil.” While this chapter

starts broadly and in an interesting manner,

it gets too technical with a good dose of

name dropping of plant molecular geneticists

throughout recent history.
The next discussion is on the rise of and the

importance of the “evo-devo” branch of plant

biology.Thisfieldcomparesthedevelopmental

processesofdifferentorganismsinorderto

infer the ancestral relationships among them

and how developmental processes evolved.

The example used is the KNOX–ARP

relationships across land plants. TheKNOX

andARPgenes are reported to be involved in

the evolution of leaf form in different species.

Again, I foundthis partof the bookinteresting

but question its broad appeal to non-botanists.
Stomatal pores, referred to as “gas valves,” are

also considered in detail. These structures

are especially important for the successful

transition to land plants as they control water

balance and the avoidance of desiccation.

When considering the height of redwood

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trees, the author notes that this “humble”

smallstructure isimportant forallowing

theseamazingtreestosurviveandthrive.

The function and the genetic basis of stomatal

function is discussed in detail.
In the chapter “Ancestral Alliances,”

the co-evolution of plants and fungi is

considered. Thehistoryofthediscoveryof

thesesymbioticrelationships inthe fossil

record is reviewed as well as the excitement

generated by the scientists at the time of

its introduction. However, there also was a

great deal of skepticism as occurred when

the endosymbiotic theory was first proposed.

The historical parts of the book do make for

interestingreadingandmaybeappealingfor

a more general group.
I found the last chapter on ecological

devastation and climate change to be the

most compelling and suspect it also will have

the broadest appeal. Because humans are

very successful animals, we are devastating

the resources of the Earth, which is resulting

in species decline and significant loss of

biodiversity. The end of the book considers

ourfutureandhowwecansurviveasa

species in harmony with plants if we act on

conservation imperatives.
Particularly at this moment, we do need non-

scientiststounderstandimportantconcepts

in science, especially in relation to climate

change. We also want non-botanists to better

understand and appreciate the role of plants in

our history and civilization. Thus, the author

has the noble goal of making these topics

accessible to the general public. I enjoyed

reading this book and found some gems of

insights. While I see a lot of interesting ideas,

the book may have too much terminology and

jargon to make it live up to its aspiration of

appealing to a more general audience.
-John Z. Kiss, Department of Biology, UNC-

Greensboro, Greensboro NC

Mulberry

Peter Coles

2019. ISBN

9781789141429.

Hardcover, £16.00; $27.00.

264 pp.

Reaktion Books, Ltd.,

London, UK, distributed

by University of Chicago

Press, Chicago, IL.

{For this review by Dorothea Bedigian, see p. 145.}

The Natural History of

The Bahamas:A Field

Guide

Dave Currie, Joseph M.Wun-

derle Jr., Ethan Freid, David

N. Ewert, and D. Jean Lodge

2019.

ISBN-13: 978-1501713675

Paperback US$34.99; 464 pp.

Cornell University Press,

Ithaca, NY

Natural history field guidesare the literary

equivalent of a Swiss army knife. These tomes

do notset out totreat oneelementof the natural

history extensively, but instead, provide broad

treatments of the fauna, flora, and habitats

affiliated with a region.The Natural History of

The Bahamas: A Field Guideprovides a sorely

needed resourcecoveringthe terrestrialand

coastal flora and fauna of the Bahamas. The

intent of such guides is to provide an entrance

into the world of birding, herpetology, etc.

Guidebooks permit one to enjoy everyday

encounters with the most common organisms

in your backyard or ones protected in one

of thenational parksin the Bahamas. In all

honesty, if it were not for guidebooks, many

of us would not have the careers in botany. If

Correll and Correll’s (1981) 1692-page flora

was your starting point for exploring the

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flora of the Bahamas as a high-school student

in a Bahamian National Trust (BNT) Young

Navigator Program, you probably would

bypassthatinterest.Giveastudentaguide,

provide them with a chance to learn a bit

aboutplantmorphology andtaxonomy,and

send them out to explore. That is how you

start to grow a botanist.
The guide begins with a nicely presented

coverage of the habitats, climates, and

ecological communities and transitions into

treatments of fungi, plants, invertebrates, fish,

amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Each section begins with an overview of the

naturalhistoryandfigureselucidatingthekey

characteristics needed to identify taxa. Species

descriptions consist of common and Latin

names,ranges, anddescriptions. Allspecies

areillustratedincolor. Theinvertebrates

are lavishly photographed, and this guide

provides a nice coverage useful to identify

some of the more common pollinators. The

treatment of fungi is honest in informing the

reader of the need of mycological studies of

Bahamian fungi. This illustrates yet one more

valuable attribute of natural history field

guides, uncovering the groups of organisms

that are in dire need of investigation.
The plants are treated by Ethan Freid, resident

Botanist at the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve,

Eleuthra, and long-time affiliate with the

BNT. Ethan knows the Bahamian flora from

Bimini to Inagua and has contributed greatly

tobuildingthenextgenerationofBahamian

botanists.Thecoveragehehasprovidedfor

the guide includes the most common species

from throughout the archipelago. I teach an

economic botany and ecology courses on San

SalvadorIsland.Iwouldnothesitatetousethis

guide as an entry point for students learning

the more common elements of the Bahamian

flora. Along with the web resources presented,

and prepared by Ethan and the Leon Levy staff

(http://www.levypreserve.org/), youcan offer

a solid botanical field course in the Bahamas.
The Natural Historyof The Bahamas: A

FieldGuideshould be in every classroom

intheBahamas,andit supportsanumber

of important standards of the Bahamian

curricula. Most importantly, it is a tool needed

by all Bahamians affiliated with conservation

initiatives in the Bahamas. This is particularly

truefortheBNTanditsmanagementof

more than 32 national parks protecting over

2 million acres of marine and terrestrial

environments. Likewise, the tourist who

wants to skip the cruise and explore the real

Bahamas can toss a copy of this guide in their

backpack and venture out into the natural

beauty of these extraordinary islands.

LITERATURE CITED

Correll,D.S,andH.B.Correll.1982.Flora of the Ba-

hama Archipelago.

Lubrecht & Cramer Ltd.

-Melanie L DeVore, Professor of Biology,

Department of Biological and Environmental

Sciences, Georgia College, Milledgeville, GA

The Nature of Plant

Communities

J. BastowWilson, Andrew

D.Q. Agnew, and Stephen H.

Roxburgh

2019.

ISBN:

9781108612265

Hardcover US$64.99;

370 pp.

Cambridge University Press

Theaimofthisbookisto gobeyondthe

simplecharacterizationofplantcommunities

to the forces that structure plant communities.

The authors sought to offer a new viewpoint

to challenge others to think differently about

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temporal and spatial, in plants (as many see

plants as less lively than animals!). This is a

new way, for me, of considering long-lasting

(perhaps “climax”) communities.
Disturbance, succession, resistance, resilience,

and stability are all considered in the next

section on community-level processes. Many

examples of communities with which I was

previously unfamiliar* are discussed, as well as

some ideas: cyclic succession (though maybe

this is just like a dynamic equilibrium?),

switches (that lead to alternative stable states),

and retrogressive succession. This section

includes a discussion of stability, and whether

or not it occurs in the real world.
In the discussion of niches, the authors

discuss thealphaandbetaniches of plant

species –alphabeing the traits of the plant

species itself,betabeing the environmental

features/habitat. After considering these for

individual species, the authors consider how

the coincidence of plants in communities is

affected by the filtering of the species and their

subsequent competition and coexistence. The

organizationofthebookinthiswayislogical

and plausible.
I always thought ‘guild’ was defined first by

Root (1967) as ‘a group of species using similar

resources in a similar way’, but since most

plants use the same resources, that was not the

original intent. I learned that Drude (1885)

coinedthetermforagroupofspeciesmoving

fromoneregiontoanother.Schimper(1903)

used the term to mean a synusia (such as a

stratum within a community in a forest. And

one of the first experimental plant ecologists,

Tansley, used it to describe ‘guilds of the same

dependent life form, such…as lianes”. Much

more like a group of species working toward

the same end, as a group of human workers in

the same trade.

plantcommunityecology.Ifindtheywere

successful! This book is coauthored by two

prominent, retired professors of Botany

(onewhoworkedinNewZealand,theother

in northern Europe and the Middle East)

and the PhD protégé of one, whose is now

an ecologist at CSIRO in Australia. It is of

decided interest to those of us who have

become plant ecologists with primarily New

World influences.
As with many classic works, this one begins

withautecology,consideringthephysiological

adaptations and movements of plants,

and the challenging question with these

modular organisms: what is an individual?

Modulargrowth,plasticity inresponseto

theenvironment,selectingforchangesinthe

genotype that manifest in altered phenotype.
They go on to consider interactions between

species important in plant communities:

facilitation, interference, but no mention

of tolerance (that in most textbooks on the

subject say is necessary for coexistence in

communities). They spend some time on

the importance of litter, a product of plants

that is useful to many as well. There is a very

interesting table of possible mechanisms of

herbivore-and pathogen-mediatedplant–

plantinteractions,withdiscussionelaborating

the mechanisms with many examples.
But the apparent omission of ‘tolerance’ is

addressed by the chapter titled “Mechanisms

ofCoexistence,”withthefirstdiscussionof

alpha niches and their differentiations to

permit coexistence. This section also covers

fires and other disturbances, pest pressure,

and circular interference networks. It is in this

section that I learn what Spatial Mass Effect

is: the constant immigration of a species into

a patch where its population is maintained

(i.e., the ‘sink effect’). Zoologists will not be

surprised by the inclusion of ‘inertia’, both

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How species interact in communities and

the effects on genotypes of the species feeling

various influences from others and their

environment brings us back to character

displacement. Some attention is even paid

to other trophic levels at the end of the

book,althoughearlyontheauthorsprovide

the disclaimer that although animals are

important, this is a book about plants!
One interesting section of the book considers

exotic species as community structure probes.

Instudyinghowandwhyexoticspecies

outcompete nativesincertainsituations,the

strengths and weaknesses of native species in

their natural interactions with other species

may be revealed. Why and why not introduced

species become invasive or merely naturalized

can be due to plant–plant interactions but also

plants’ interactions with other biota, from

fungi to various animals.
The volume builds to review the theories of

community composition (Clements, Gleason,

Whittaker,Hubbell,Grime,Tilman),

comparing and contrasting them in their

validity and applicability in different situations.

In the final section, Synthesis, the authors

review Heterogeneity, Community Structure,

and Assembly Rules,and the Processes that

govern plant community structure.
The book begins with a glossary that nearly

put me off reading the entire work, since some

of the definitions were not very useful. Maybe

thissection wouldhave been betterlocatedat

the end of the book. The one that particularly

annoyed me was the definition of a leaf, which

was just a quote from F.G. Gregory cited by

L. Croizat in hisPrincipiaBotanica: “Although

no satisfactory definition of a leaf is possible,

I shall assume that we all know what we

aretalkingabout.”However,included were

abbreviations and acronyms that some use

constantlywithout adequate definition—

quite useful, I think. And some other other

definitions brought up phrases with which I

was unfamiliar*, such as “altruistic facilitation,”

“cyclic succession,” “ombrotrophic,” “spatial

mass effect,” and “subvention.” If these are

unfamiliar to you also, you might want to

check out this volume! For anyone working in

thelargefieldofplantecology, andteaching

courses in ecology and other topics, this book

may provide some new food for thought. It

might be used in a graduate seminar course

or as background reading for students new to

the field as they are developing their career

foundations and graduate research plans.

* Maybe some of my unfamiliarity is due to my area

of expertise in plant ecology (evolutionary and

population ecology, plant/animal interactions),

but I have lectured Plant Ecology at the undergrad

and grad level since 1982.

-Suzanne Koptur, PhD, Florida International

University, Miami, FL

Tree Story:The History

ofthe World Writtenin

Rings

Valerie Trouet

2020. ISBN: 9781421437774

Hardbound US$27.00;

246+iii pp.

Johns Hopkins University

Press

What do Genghis Khan, sunspots, Belgian

beer, a Stradivari violin, plagues, Frankenstein,

shipwrecks, and fall of the Roman Empire

have in common? Tree rings. Tree rings are

scribes of history.
This book explains how tree rings can

document weather, sunspots, volcanos, human

events, and many more phenomena both past

andpresent.Wellwrittenwithclarityand

humor, it draws on the extensive research of

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the author and her tree ring research around

the world, providing information both

authoritative and accessible.
Valerie Trouet is on the faculty of the

Laboratory for Tree Ring Research at the

University of Arizona. She deftly takes the

reader to this most unlikely place for tree ring

research—a desert—explaining why the lab

was located there and then from the Sonoran

Desert to expeditions around the world. Her

descriptions of the sites and field experiences

are a worthy natural history journal on their

own.
Trouet describes the global search for

interpretable rings from trees as well as old

buildings,logs,stumps,andcharcoalthatcan

provide a timeline year by year—even season

by season—reaching back thousands of years.

In fact, she makes the case that tree rings are

the most accurate record of climate. These

data are corroborated with ice cores, coral

dating, and several other measures of yearly

growth.
There are 17 chapters, and the final chapter

addresses global climate change. This is a

relevant aspect of tree ring research because

it sets present conditions in the context of

thousands of years of data showing cycles of

drought or varying temperatures and how

that affects humans.
Theotherchapterseachaddressan

archeological, weather, or historical question

for which dendrochronology can provide

insight. For example, the chapter “After the

Gold Rush” treats the role of regular small-

scale fires in California. The frequency of these

was changed from regularly burned patches

by indigenous peoples, whose populations

weredecimated byEuropeandiseases.The

result was few fires, then fuel built up, stoking

hotter and more devasting fires. To determine

the natural frequency of fires, a tree ring

history from fire scars was assembled for the

past 3000 years. These scars are best studied

inthestumpoftreesrecognizedbyfirescars

or“catfaces.”(Cat facesin theSouth mean the

scars on old turpentine trees that do look like

cat faces, unlike the scars in the western trees

using—inexplicably to the author—the same

term). Of more recent interest is the history

of fires in California since the establishment

of the U.S. Forest Service in 1905 and the

resultant development of the “Smoky Bear

Effect,” which caused what the author calls a

“fire deficit” that also led to the build-up of

fuel. In other words, the lack of frequent low-

intensityfiresincreasesfireextentandheat

leading to the disastrous California wildfires

of recent years. In addition, Trouet analyzed

the effects of El Niño and El Niña as reflected

in tree rings. I was disappointed that research

in the longleaf ecosystem of the Southeastern

United States, a fire-dependent system, was

not included.
One of the features of the book is the

author’sdescription ofthe developmentof

her academic career—post-doc, publication

rejection, sometimes the only woman

working on a project, the powerful gain of

collaborativework,andespeciallythewayshe

models how a scientist asks questions based

on hypotheses developed from published data

and field observations, collects and analyzes

data, publishes, and deals with the public.
For this reason,TreeStoryis a great read for

young scientists as well as providing a most

readable and enjoyable presentation of tree

ring research for a wide audience. The book

is a must-read for dendrology, ethnobotany,

and climate change students as well as anyone

interested in the relationship of history with

weather. If tree rings are the scribes of history,

Valerie Trouet is their chief scrivener. Highly

recommended.
-LyttonJohn Musselman, BlackwaterEcolog-

ic Preserve, Old Dominion University, Nor-

folk, VA

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Wild YetTasty:A

Guide to Edible Plants

of Eastern Kentucky

Dan Dourson and Judy
Dourson
2019. ISBN: 978-1-94-
966903-9
Paperback US$14.95; 44
pp.
Kentucky Press

This slim volume discusses 21 edible plants

plus the common morel (Morchella, a genus

of sac fungi), with one page devoted to each

species. The common and scientific name

(usually) is provided along with a paragraph

on identification and habitat and another

paragraph about the edible parts. The best

time to harvest is indicated, and each species

is illustrated with one or more drawings. Two

pagesinthefrontofthebookofferapictorial

descriptionoftermsrelatedtoflowerstructure

or leaf arrangement as used in the text.
I have mixed opinions about the book.

On the positive side, the writing follows a

conversational style that is often engaging

and entertaining. For example, many hikers

will be familiar with the experience of being

snagged by the prickly vines of greenbriers

(Smilax); the authors urge, “So next time

you’re backpacking in Eastern Kentucky and

a Greenbrier snags your leg, just reach over

and take a bite out of it!!” [Note: the two

exclamation points are, in fact, as written in

the book.] I may heed this suggestion next

time I find myself tangled up trailside.
On the negative side, I was disappointed

in this book as a guide to edible plants. A

“Note of caution” regarding the consumption

of wild edible plants on the copyright page

admonishes readers to “be more familiar with

thespeciesthanyouarewithyourownname!”

Certainly, this is excellent advice. However,

Ithink the information andillustrations

for much of the book are insufficient for

confident identification of the species without

priorknowledgeofthem.Typographical

errors throughout are distracting, as are a few

more“technical” errors.(An illustrationof

“basic root types” would more accurately be

called “undergroundstorageorgans,” andthe

scientific name for sumacs is incorrectly listed

asAsiminaspecies—which are pawpaws—

instead of the correct genus, which isRhus.)
Every species included is widespread and

common throughout eastern North America.

I’m not sure why the book is billed as a guide

specifically for Eastern Kentucky, except that

the authors have many years of experience in

theRedRiverGorgewatershedofeast-central

Kentucky. Perhaps the suggestion that the

contents are specific to the region makes the

book more attractive to visitors who come

to eastern Kentucky for various outdoor

recreational pursuits. Non-native and invasive

edible species like garlic mustard (Alliaria

petiolata) are notably absent.
All complaints aside, the book does support

the authors’ goal of “rekindling…that sense of

wonder we all had as kids” and, although it is a

bit pricey for the limited content, people may

be interested in adding it to their personal

botanical libraries as a source of some folksy

commentary about a few well-known edible

plants.

-Melanie Link-Pérez, Eastern Kentucky Uni-

versity

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (100)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

170

Wildflowers and Ferns

of Red River Gorge

and the Greater Red

River Basin

Dan Dourson and Judy
Dourson
2019.
ISBN: 978-1-9496-6900-8
Paperback US$39.95;
488 pp.
Kentucky Press

The Red River Gorge (RRG) and its watershed

are a botanical hotspot and a popular tourist

destination, drawing more than half a million

visitors to east-central Kentucky annually.

Since I was planning to take my Plant

Systematicsclass totheRRGduringaspring

semester fieldtrip, I was eager to review this

bookbyDoursonand Dourson focusing

on the ferns and wildflowers of the area.

Although the shift to remote instruction due

tothe COVID-19 pandemic prevented me

from visiting RRG with my class this spring,

I’ve enjoyed studying its flora by perusing this

book.
When the package containing the review

copy arrived, I was immediately enamored

by the physical attributes of the book inside.

Although a paperback, the rugged cover

mimics those of many vintage hardbound

botanical texts, with the appearance of a green

clothcoverwornaroundtheedgesfrom

frequent use—the hallmarks of a favorite

book that has accompanied its owner on

many a happy exploration of its subject. The

book is the perfect size to slip into a field

bag and to thumb through while on the trail;

conveniently, the book lays open flat when on

a table.
Several dozen pages at the beginning of the

bookprovideinterestingcontextinwhichto

consider the vegetation of the region. A chapter

on the prehistoric history (written by Johnny

Faulkner) details the early human habitation

ofthesandstone cliffsand rocksheltersof

the RRG and discusses artifacts, petroglyphs,

and other evidence that documents human

presencefromnearly13,000yearsago.A

chapter on cultural history (written by Alan

Cornette)describesresourceextractionand

its impact on the vegetation—for example, the

burning of pitch pine and short-leaf pine to

produce tar (pitch) in tar kilns, extraction of

saltpeter, and timber harvesting all influenced

forest composition. A chapter written by

Halard Lescinsky provides an overview of the

400-million-yeargeological historyof the Red

River Watershed and helps readers interpret

the limestone and sandstone features that

characterize the region. All these background

chaptersare generouslyillustrated withfull-

color photographs and figures.
The bulk of the book is devoted to

presentation of the ferns and lycophytes (56

pages) and the herbaceous wildflowers (263

pages) of the Red River Basin. These species

accountsarepreceded by a short sectionthat

describes the basic habitats present along with

a diagram of the habitat profile of RRG (for

example, riparian, lower slope, limestone cliff,

sandstone ridgetop). Abbreviations for the

habitatdesignationsareincludedinthespecies

accounts.Eachspeciesisaccompaniedbyat

least one full-color photograph, and both the

common and scientific names are provided.

Along with habitat and morphological

descriptions, species accounts often include

information about frequency, usefulness to

humansorwildlife,orhowtodistinguish

from similar species.
All 51 species of ferns in Red RiverBasin

are beautifully illustrated by Elijah Hicks;

these illustrations are often annotated and

complement the color photographs. The ferns

are grouped according to their relative size

and typical habitat, such as “Large Wetland

Ferns” or “Medium Woodland Ferns.” The

“Rock LovingFerns”are furtherparsed

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (101)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

171

according to limestone and/or sandstone,

ultimately bringing thenumberofheadings

to more than 20, which seems unwieldy but

possibly facilitatescomparison between

speciesthatmayshareahabitat.IadmitI

foundsomeheadingstobequitecharming:

“ExceedinglyTinyRockLovingGametophyte

Ferns (sandstone)” for the Appalachian

gametophyte or Shoestring fern (Vittaria

appalachiana), and “Peculiar-Looking

Woodland Ferns” for Climbing fern (Lygodium

palmatum) and Southern adder’s tongue fern

(Ophioglossumpyncostichum). There are also

a couple pages of wonderful illustrations

comparing spleenworts (Asplenium) with

proportionate scaling, including a full

pageillustratingtherelationshipsamong

Appalachian spleenworts of RRG. Overall,

the photographs, illustrations, and text do a

great job of emphasizing important characters

foridentificationfortheferns,horsetails,and

clubmosses.
Coverage of the wildflowers is organized

alphabetically by family with no separation

between monocots and eudicots. Within

afamily,Icoulddiscernnoparticular

arrangement of species. There is a “Color

Key”whereuserscanfirst choose the flower

color of an unknown plant and then choose

the appropriate season to find a list of page

numbers with potential matches. Provided

the unknown specimen is covered in the

book,thispossibly workswellformanyplants

but not for those with 16+ pages to consider

(for a spring-blooming white flower, a user

may need to consult 71 pages!). The stunning

full-color photographs (mostly by Dan

Dourson) are outstanding in their usefulness

for identification via image comparison. The

writing inthespeciesaccounts islivelyand

engaging—for example, Virginia bluebells

(Mertensia virginica) are described as “eye-

catching gems” with “flamboyant bell-shaped

flowers.”

There is scant representation of grasses,

sedges, and rushes with only sixpages

devoted to them.Woody vines, shrubs,and

trees receive slightly more coverage than the

graminoids, and the photos emphasize the

flower or inflorescence and often don’t include

many vegetative features. These are not really

criticisms, since these plants are beyond the

primary scope of the book. It concludes with

a species list (compiled by Julian Campbell)

for 1573 vascular plants known from the Red

River Basin along with indications of their

native ranges, indices of common names and

scientific names, and safety tips that include

photos of venomous snakes and arthropods to

watch for in the RRG.
Overall, I think this field guide will be useful

for anyone botanizing in the region; for those

like myself who use technical dichotomous

keys, the images in this book will be a helpful

supplement. Importantly, the Red River

Basin contains five ecoregions and more

than half of Kentucky’s native or naturally

occurring vascular plants; thus, many of the

species covered in its pages are found beyond

thelimitsofthewatershed.Thisbookisan

excellent addition to any collection of books

onthefloraof Kentucky or easternNorth

America. Anyone who loves photographs

of wildflowers or ferns will enjoy looking

through these pages.
-Melanie Link-Pérez, Eastern Kentucky

University

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (102)

PSB 66 (2) 2020

172

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2020 v66 No 2 Summer (103)

Plant Science Bulletin

The Botanical Society of

America is a membership soci-

ety whose mission is to: pro-

mote botany, the field of basic

science dealing with the study

& inquiry into the form, func-

tion, development, diversity,

reproduction, evolution, & uses

of plants & their interactions

within the biosphere.

ISSN 0032-0919

Published 3 times a year by

Botanical Society ofAmerica, Inc.

4475Castleman Avenue

St. Louis, MO 63166-0299

Periodicals postage is paid at

St. Louis, MO & additional

mailing offices.

POSTMASTER:

Send address changes to:

Botanical Society ofAmerica

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St. Louis, MO 63166-0299

bsa-manager@botany.org

The yearly subscription rate

of$15 is included

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Address Editorial Matters (only) to:

MackenzieTaylor, Editor

Department of Biology

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Phone 402-280-2157

psb@botany.org

Plant Science Bulletin

Summer 2020 Volume 66 Number 2

Thank you to Dr. Emily Rollinson for creating this

wordcloudrepresentingconferenceattendees'Twitter

comments during the week of Botany 2020 - Virtual!

If you were a registered attendee to the conference,

remember you have access to the recorded talks for

the next year! You can go back in using your unique

link* and view and review all the talks and posters!

Enjoy!

*the link you used during the conference.

If you need it, email johanne@botany.org

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (104)

2020 v66 No 2 Summer (2024)

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