The Vasculum 16.2 (August 2021)

Message from the President

Greetings to all members (or members-to-be!) of the Society of Herbarium Curators! To those that attended Botany 2021—Virtual!, I hope you enjoyed the many terrific seminars, symposia, social events, and of course, SHC’s “Not Your Average Specimen!” special session. Two years of virtual gathering has been a challenge, but I personally have been rewarded from meeting so many new friends and colleagues, especially from our international community, as a result of being virtual.

For those of you who couldn’t make the SHC Members Meeting at Botany 2021—Virtual!, I’d like to share a few highlights. First, we are excited to welcome President-Elect Anna Monfils and new Member-at-Large Socorro Gonzalez-Elizondo to SHC’s leadership! Anna’s term as President will begin in July of 2023, and Socorro begins her new term now. Thanks to the many members who helped make this year’s election a success! SHC also congratulates Ryan Schmidt, Giovanna Bishop, Jason Karakehian, and Matthew Sheik for their excellent research proposals that earned them SHC Student Grants!

Over the coming year, Abigail Moore and the Grants Committee will be brainstorming ways we might begin to fund international students, through either a dedicated research grant or travel funds. Chaired by Carrie Kiel, the Membership Committee will be looking to build SHC’s outreach efforts and coordinate a membership task force to promote the benefits of the society and increase global membership. SHC will be promoting content over the next year via an ad hoc Social Media and Promotions Committee; huge thanks to Jessica Budke for chairing this important initiative. The Editorial Committee chaired by Melanie Link-Pérez looks forward to continuing to offer Spanish language translations of The Vasculum, as well as publication of our newsletter without the embargo that previously restricted content dissemination to members-only. Finally, be on the lookout for the 2022 Strategic Planning Short Course, offered again in conjunction with iDigBio (many thanks to SHC Past President Austin Mast as well as David Jennings for running the course!).

Looking for ways to contribute? If you have any interest in serving on one of our vacant committees, please let me know. We are soliciting ideas for the 2022 SHC Symposium, to be held at Botany 2022, so if you have thoughts on what topic we might focus on, let me know. As discussed at the annual Executive Board meeting in July 2021, the Society could greatly benefit from having a presence at one of numerous international botanical meetings. If you have interest in helping promote the Society at one of these events, please contact me, as I am very excited about the prospects!

As with the prior year, we are continuously looking for ways to be a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive Society, so please feel free to contact me at any point with your ideas.

And finally, don’t forget about our nascent Endowment or our student research awards if you are looking for ways to give! Feel free to contact myself or Treasurer Maribeth Latvis.

See you all at the SHC Members Meeting at Botany 2022 in Anchorage, Alaska! I can’t wait…

With gratitude,

Erin A. Tripp President, Society of Herbarium Curators (2020-2022)

Curator of Botany (COLO Herbarium), Museum of Natural History Associate Professor, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Colorado—Boulder

Cover Image & Credits

Wendy C. Hodgson of Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona (United States) is featured in Early Career Advice for August 2021. In this photo, Wendy is collecting Hesperoyucca newberryi (McKelvey) Clary (Asparagaceae), in the Grand Canyon. Read the article in this issue of The Vasculum.

The Vasculum, Volume 16, Number 2

Photo credit: Carrie Cannon.

From the Editor

This issue of The Vasculum is full to brimming with inspiration. Pamela Puppo and Lori Thompson describe a partnership between the Herbarium at Marshall University (United States) and the Special Collections archivists there, resulting in an authentic learning experience for students in an Archives Seminar class and numerous benefits for the collection, many of them unexpected. Frederica Bowcutt calls our attention to a recent open access article describing project-based learning involving collections and shares a glimpse into the field guide that has been beautifully illustrated by students involved in the project. In “News from The Society” you will find information about some taxonomic resources that may be helpful and learn how you can contribute to extending the reach of The Vasculum by providing translations for select articles.

Wendy C. Hodgson of Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona (United States) provides our Early Career Advice and shares some engaging stories and photos from her experiences of collecting cacti and agaves, along with excellent suggestions of how herbaria personnel can advocate for their collections. Serena Lee and David Middleton of Singapore Botanic Gardens (SING) describe the new herbarium boxes at SING that were customdesigned to meet the needs of herbarium collections—and their users—particularly in tropical regions. Our featured herbarium is University of British Columbia Herbarium (Canada; UBC), located in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum on the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus.

Interested in serving The Society and joining the Editorial Team for The Vasculum? I have recently embarked on an exciting new adventure and will no longer be in a curatorial position, so after two years as Editor (following two years as Associate Editor) I will be stepping down from this position with SHC. If you love editing and graphic design as much as you love herbaria, contact me to learn more. There is a steep learning curve for the role of Editor and to produce the newsletter, which is currently being done in Adobe InDesign; therefore, I will remain in the position as Editor through the January 2022 issue and will serve in an advisory capacity for the August 2022 issue, so that the entering Editor can work with me closely during at least one entire newsletter cycle.

As always, we invite your article ideas and contributions. Now, get comfortable and enjoy this issue of The Vasculum This is your newsletter. We look forward to your future submissions.

Melanie A. Link-Perez Editor, The Vasculum Beyond the Bean Seed

News from The Society

The Rocky Mountain Herbarium

The Rocky Mountain Herbarium, University of Wyoming, has successfully recruited a Director, Dr. David Tank, and Digital Curator, Ben Legler, who will be joining the faculty in August.

submitted by Burrell (Ernie) Nelson

Taxonomic Resources

The wiki maintained by the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) now has a page on taxonomic resources that includes basic botanical resources on taxon names, nomenclature rules, and assessing the status of taxon names. More will be added over time. https://spnhc.biowikifarm.net/wiki/Taxonomic_ Resources#Botanical_Resources

submitted by Genevieve E. Tocci

SHC Newsletter—Now available in Additional Formats and Languages

In addition to providing a PDF version of The Vasculum (now freely available to all, regardless of membership status, on The Society of Herbarium Curators website), we are offering a flipbook version and have optimized individual articles for easy sharing via social media and email (available here: https://issuu.com/thevasculum). The articles should be optimized for viewing on any device. We will also be using the online ISSUU platform to deliver non-English versions of select articles; from our landing page, select the issue of The Vasculum you wish to read, then when the issue loads, select the article of interest from “Stories Inside” that appears below the flipbook window. Non-English versions (as available) will be listed above or below the English versions. If you are willing to help provide translations, contact the editor; we have found that Google Translate provides a passable “first draft” that someone knowledgeable in the language can edit and correct fairly easily.

We hope you like the additional formats, and that you find it useful for sharing your work and promoting your herbarium.

Recent Article Centers Project-Based Learning

A recent publication by one of our members, Frederica Bowcutt, may be of interest to many readers of The Vasculum. In the article, Bowcutt describes floristic research with undergraduate students that centers projectbased learning. The open access publication illustrates how floristic research can engage students in service learning and citizen science while thinking about issues linked to equity and inclusion.

Bowcutt, Frederica. 2021. “Creation of a Field Guide to Camas Prairie Plants with Undergraduate Researchers: Project-Based Learning Combined with Epistemological Decolonization.” Ethnobiology Letters 12 (1): 21-31. https://www.ojs.ethnobiology.org/index.php/ebl/article/view/1723/902

Above: One of the student illustrators for the field guide, Stella Rose Waxwing, drawing at Glacial Heritage Preserve in spring 2013. Photo: Andrew Jeffers.

Right: Cover of the field guide titled Vascular Plants of the South Sound Prairies. The floristic research was conducted with undergraduate students and includes student illustrations.

DICOTYLEDONEAE-Plants with Two Seed Leaves

Brassicaceae [Cruciferae] Mustard Family

Capsella bursa-pastoris shepherd’s purse

Shepherd’s purse is an annual herb introduced from Europe that has become widely distributed in disturbed ground throughout North America. e simple or branched stems, with tiny sti hairs, are 10 to 50 cm tall and grow from a rosette of shallowly to deeply lobed basal leaves.

e cauline leaves are alternate, sessile and clasping, with a lanceolate to oblongoblanceolate shape and remotely serrate edges. From March to July, many- owered open racemes of tiny 4-petaled owers bloom from the bottom upward, resulting in a progression of fruit along the vertical axis.

e fruits are strongly attened triangularobcordate silicles, like tiny green hearts with somewhat pointed lobes.

Cardamine oligosperma little western bittercress, shotweed

is common and widely distributed little native mustard can be annual or biennial and makes a spicy addition to a salad when picked from an uncontaminated site. It grows in a variety of habitats, but prefers wet areas. Little western bittercress produces one to several stems from a central taproot, reaching 10 to 40 cm in height. e stems are usually freely branched and sometimes have short, sti hairs.

e pinnately compound leaves form a basal rosette; cauline leaves are alternate and resemble the basal leaves. ey are composed of 4 to 10 lateral lea ets, obovate to ovate or sub-orbicular in shape with a few rounded lobes and one considerably larger terminal lea et. White owers are borne from March to July in several- owered racemes, usually bractless, but sometimes with bracts on lower owers. e fruit is an erect linear silique, 1.5 to 2.5 cm long, containing 15 to 32 seeds. ey dehisce ballistically, giving the plant one of its common names.

Above: A page from the field guide titled Vascular Plants of the South Sound Prairies with student illustrations by Kate McSorley of shepherd’s purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris) and shotweed (Cardamine oligosperma).

Partnering with Archivists to Process the Manuscript Collection Present at the Marshall University Herbarium

The Marshall University Herbarium (MUHW) is located on the third floor of the Science Building at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, United States (Fig. 1). It was founded in the 1930’s by Dr. Frank A. Gilbert when Marshall was still Marshall College. Today, MUHW is the second largest herbarium in West Virginia with about 50,000 specimens, including 20 types. Mostly composed of vascular plants, the herbarium also contains small collections of non-vascular plants, fungi, algae, fossils, and some ethnobotanical material, mainly brought from Ecuador by one of the former curators, Dr. Dan Evans between the 1980’s and 2000’s. Apart from these biological collections, the Herbarium also has a small library and many other documents from former curators: letters from 1920‒1930 written by Dr. Gilbert during the early years of MUHW, and research, teaching, and personal documents from Dr. Evans.

Fig. 1. (A) Location of the MUHW Herbarium in the Science Building. (B) General Herbarium view. (C) Detail of one of the cabinets. Photos: Pamela Puppo.

In order to process the documentation present in the Herbarium, the MUHW curator reached out to the chair of the Special Collections Department at Marshall University, whose focus is precisely on manuscript collections like this and their historical relevance to the University and the Huntington area. Coincidently, every spring, the chair of Special Collections teaches a graduate class at the History Department (“HST 640 Archives Seminar”) during which students learn how to process a manuscript collection. So, at the end of 2020 we got together for a guided tour of the Herbarium and to see the documents present at MUHW, and it was decided that for the next edition of the class, the students would work with the Marshall Herbarium documents.

Thus, at the beginning of the Spring 2021 semester, the Archives Seminar class came to MUHW for a tour. Most students did not know what an herbarium was and certainly never imagined Marshall University had its own. We are always happy to show our collection, and this was a great opportunity for students because they were able to see where the collection is housed, the care we take of the material, and hear about the herbarium’s relevance. Most of the time when archivists receive manuscript collections, the collections are already in boxes, and the archivists rarely get to see them in their original setting.

After the students’ visit to MUHW, Special Collections took two filing cabinets from the Herbarium and assigned one drawer to each one of the nine graduate students taking the class. During the semester, students sorted the contents of their drawers and, using prevailing archives theory, determined if the material is unique or has historical value. Things like purchase receipts, reimbursement forms, copies of the same document, material in bad shape (moldy, stained with ink, etc.), or other documents with no historical value were discarded. Students then organized the documents in folders and boxes of archival material according to date or topic and created a finding aid. A finding aid is similar to an index that is used to locate the documents they have previously organized at a folder level. These finding aids are available at the Special Collections website (https://mds.marshall.edu/ sc_finding_aids/) and are fully searchable. Students also did a collection appraisal, where they estimate the cost associated with processing the manuscript collection considering the archival materials they used (folders, boxes, and others) as well as their time (using as reference the minimum wage for West Virginia, $8.75/hour). The average cost estimated by the students was $170 per drawer which, multiplied for nine drawers, gives a total of $1,530 for processing the two filing cabinets!

At the end of the Spring 2021 semester, students presented their findings (Fig. 2). Presentations were hybrid, open to the public (with masks and social distancing), and virtual. Among the attendees were staff from the Special Collections, the Dean of Libraries, faculty from the Biological Sciences and History departments, and some friends

Fig. 2. Students of HST 640 Archives Seminar presenting at the end of the Spring 2021 semester. (A) one of the graduate students, Hallie Knipp, presenting. (B) View of all students. Photos: Pamela Puppo.

of Marshall University and alumni who heard about this presentation through an email that was sent to staff and students from these departments, as well as through the Facebook page of the Biology Department.

Among the documents students processed, some of them had particular historical value (Fig. 3). Those documents included, for example, Dr. Gilbert’s letters from the early 20th century during the establishment of MUHW, photos from his time at the Harvard Botany Club, documents indicating the requirements for Biology to become a major at Marshall College in 1940, and documents that attested to Dr. Gilbert’s participation in WWII. Among Dr. Evan’s documents, students found transcripts of the speeches given by the former president of Marshall University, Dr. Donald Dedmon, after the fatal plane crash of 1970, in which 75 persons lost their lives, including most of Marshall University’s football team. This tragedy is still very much present in the minds and hearts of the Marshall community, so these transcripts have particular historical and sentimental value.

This partnership made us realize the similarities between the archival sciences and biological collections. We both use special boxes and folders to sort and store our collections, we both assess whether a collection is relevant or not, and we both digitize our collections. It was also interesting to see the different foci we have. Archivists are interested in the persons and their historical connections, whereas herbarium curators are more interested in the research these persons did, the outcomes, and their applications. Another important aspect of this partnership is that Special Collections will archive any material that is not necessarily relevant for the Herbarium, such as Dr. Dedmon’s speeches. This, on the one hand, allows us to free some much-needed space in the Herbarium, and on the other hand, helps archivists have these documents at hand for people who might want to study them from a historical perspective.

One of the graduate students that took this class last Spring is currently working as a summer intern for Special Collections. He will be looking into the history of the Herbarium based on Dr. Gilbert’s documents and will also be looking at two Herbarium books present in our collection, one from 1896 and another from 1926 (Fig. 4), and trying to find out who made these books.

Fig. 3. Historically valuable documents at MUHW. (A) Photos of Harvard Botany Club. (B) Letters from Dr. Gilbert, all from the early 20th century. Photos: Pamela Puppo.

Overall, this was a win-win collaboration: students learned, and we got things done. This was a great opportunity for students to get exposed to other types of collections such as biological collections, and also helped us look at our collection with new eyes. For instance, it helped us think about the monetary and historical value of some of these adjacent collections in our Herbarium. Furthermore, this partnership helps us bring new awareness to the importance of MUHW, also by having other departments at our institution advocating for the value of our collections. We are looking forward to continuing this work in future editions of this class, especially since there are still many more documents waiting to be processed at the Marshall University Herbarium.

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the nine graduate students that took HTS 640 last Spring, 2021: Caroline Bruce, Ethan Tackett, Hallie Knipp, Jared Ross, Jed Basler, Patrick McCoy, Payton Salmons, Sara Browning, and Spencer Nicholas.

Pamela Puppo Curator, Marshall University Herbarium Marshall University puppo@marshall.edu

Lori Thompson Chair, Special Collections Department Marshall University

Fig. 4. Old herbarium books at Marshall Herbarium: One (A) from 1896 containing plants collected in Kentucky, United States, the other (B) from 1926 containing algae. Photos: Herbarium archives.

Development of New Herbarium Boxes to Ensure the Longevity of SING’s collections

Introduction

Natural history collections housed in herbaria, museums, and universities are fundamental to research on biodiversity, particularly in the fields of taxonomy, phylogenetics, and biogeography. New applications for these collections have emerged over time in response to societal and scientific demands and often taking advantage of technological breakthroughs. These include the use of collections in DNA sequencing work, testing for chemical and pharmacological compounds, and measuring carbon isotopes to investigate CO2 levels over time. The specimens and their accompanying label data also provide invaluable information on species distributions over time, including the rate of decline of species that require conservation action, the spread of invasives, and a wealth of information available for ecological and biogeographical modelling.

The Herbarium of Singapore Botanic Gardens (SING) houses an estimated 750,000 herbarium specimens, 10,000 specimens in spirit, and 9,000 type specimens. It was founded in 1875 and grew rapidly from the late 1880s onwards due to the activities of prolific plant collectors such as Ridley, Corner, Holttum, Henderson, Carr, and Chew. These collections are mainly from Singapore, Peninsular Malaysia, Malaysian Borneo, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands. The current staff of Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG), alongside activities within Singapore, continue to collect in these regions plus the countries of continental Southeast Asia, Brunei, and parts of Indonesia. This recent collecting activity has often been focused on countries with very low collecting densities, such as Myanmar and Laos, or in areas within better-collected countries where there is high diversity but low collecting density, such as southeastern Vietnam, western Thailand, the Temburong district of Brunei, central Sarawak, and so forth. These collections are integral to the research efforts of the Singapore Botanic Gardens’ staff and have been the basis for the description of over 200 new plant species in the last three years.

The staff of SBG are now engaged on the Flora of Singapore, a project to catalogue and describe the estimated 3,000 species of bryophytes, lycophytes, ferns, gymnosperms, and flowering plants native, naturalised, or casual in Singapore. This work will primarily be based on a study of the approximately 38,000 collections from Singapore in SING, along with dedicated fieldwork and sister projects in the molecular lab. All of these projects require access to well-curated herbarium collections and an infrastructure that guarantees the care and maintenance of these collections in perpetuity.

Originality and innovativeness

Since the collections were moved into the Botany Centre in 2006, the specimens have been housed in cardboard boxes (Fig. 1). These boxes, although perfectly functional for everyday use, are prone to three identifiable major threats: fire, water, and pests.

Fig. 1. SING boxes before the upgrade. Photo: Herbarium Archives.

The Herbarium has a fire-suppression system but the current system is water-based and, if triggered (even accidentally due to a false alarm), could have led to catastrophic water damage to the collections. Earlier systems of pest management, such as fumigation, are now incompatible with ISO standards and have not been available in Singapore since 2006. Our current exemption from the ban on the use of mercuric chloride, the next line of chemical defence for the specimens, could end at any time. SING has other methods for monitoring potential pests (pheromone traps) and dealing with minor pest outbreaks (freezing of the material), but these would be insufficient in the case of a major outbreak. We, therefore, decided to investigate the feasibility of eliminating the remote but real threats to the longevity of the collections through the design and implementation of a new and better storage system.

We looked at various storage solutions and pest management strategies employed in major herbaria around the world. The strategies employed by other herbaria did not suit our needs because they entailed very expensive structural interventions to the entire building of the Botany Centre, a significant reduction in current and future storage capacity, and/or a significant reduction in ease of access to the collections and the consequent additional strain on our manpower.

Various herbaria in the tropics have employed large Ziploc® bags within boxes or on open shelves as an additional barrier for pests. Users generally find that this greatly impedes convenient access to the specimens and, additionally, relies greatly on staff and visitors maintaining the discipline of always ‘rezipping’ the plastic bag after each use. With time, the bags housing specimens that are frequently accessed, such as those under active research, become worn, ripped and/or difficult to close, thereby returning the collection to the vulnerable state identified above.

The idea of plastic boxes surfaced several times during our brainstorming sessions. Plastic as a material is durable, fairly light-weight, waterproof and can be made airtight. Airtight boxes ensure that if there were to be a pest outbreak that the outbreak would be tightly contained and unable to spread through the herbarium. We found that a small number of herbaria had deployed plastic boxes but the feedback we received was rather negative. We continued to toy with the idea of plastic boxes and, in particular, we examined the factors that led to negative impressions of those plastic boxes that had been employed elsewhere to see whether those disadvantages were unavoidably inherent or whether they could be overcome. The two samples we received were made of non-transparent plastic, were not airtight, and one of them was prone to warping. We concluded that the problem was not in the concept of plastic boxes per se but in the existing designs. We, therefore, set out to design a plastic box fully compatible to our needs. The new SING boxes have the following features (Figs. 2 and 3).

1. Air-tight/waterproof, and able to withstand repeated freezing.

2. Transparent, to aid visual inspection of the content of the boxes.

Fig. 2. This is how the new herbarium boxes open for easy shelving and retrival. Photo: SING Herbarium Archives.

3. Easy to handle in terms of acceptable weight and access to the specimens. In addition, they had to be as close in size to our cardboard boxes as possible in order to be housed in our existing compactor system.

4. Stackable, and stable when stacked, up to 10 full boxes high.

5. With a tray to be able to pull out the specimens easily.

6. Various components easily replaceable.

7. With a provision to include labelling of the box’s contents on the front lid.

It was calculated that we would require 23,000 boxes to house our existing collection.

The box was designed in several phases. The initial concept over several rounds was developed with 3D drawings. This was followed by several rounds of boxes produced by 3D printing until we had settled on a design. Finally, the mould was made and boxes were produced using the actual plastic materials with a few more rounds of fine tuning the final design.

Techniques that address current or future challenges faced by National Parks Board (NParks) or the larger landscape industry

The collections housed in the Herbarium of Singapore Botanic Gardens are a valuable record of the plant diversity of Singapore and the wider region over time, and a resource to be used to investigate the research questions noted in the Introduction. The current and future challenge to NParks is how to ensure that the collections are both protected in perpetuity whilst at the same time ensuring that their primary purpose as a resource for research is maintained. Our previous system of cardboard boxes failed on one of these goals, as they could not ensure that the collections were adequately protected for the long term. The design and deployment of the new plastic boxes recognised that both goals must be met: the design of the new boxes ensures that the collections are offered much better protection whilst at the same time ensuring that they are still easy to access in order to study the contents.

We believe that the SING boxes are suitable for use in other tropical herbaria in the region and beyond. Unlike the very specialised and costly equipment employed in herbaria in developed countries, our plastic boxes can be manufactured at a reasonable price and would, therefore, be suitable for developing countries. Because the design and the mould (the two most expensive parts of the project) have already been developed and can be used to manufacture up to 500,000 boxes, we could make the mould available to interested regional herbaria as part of our capacity-building efforts.

Fig. 3. Folders can be pulled out using the white tray below for support (as well as prevent paper cuts!). Photo: Bazilah Ibrahim.

Project Management – Budget and timeline

From the initial idea to the deployment of boxes in the Herbarium took five years.

• 2012–2014 –Survey of international storage systems, development of ideas, provisional price estimates from manufacturers.

• April 2015 – Budget for box replacement approved.

• 26 November 2015 to 6 January 2016 – Tender.

• 17 May 2016 – Letter of award.

• 26 July 2016 – Works order released.

• August, September 2016 – 3D concept drawings.

• October 2016 to March 2017 – 3D-printed samples produced, individually evaluated, and improvements made.

• May to July 2017 – Actual prototypes with mould produced and improved.

• 4 September to 6 October 2017 – 1152 boxes were delivered each day. The Herbarium staff were sorted into teams to deliver the boxes to the collections, move the specimens from the old box to the new, and dismantle and dispose of the old cardboard boxes.

The cost for design, manufacture and deployment of boxes = $1.4 million (c. SGD$61 per box; this is cheaper than commercially produced air-tight boxes of similar size, in spite of its far more complex design).

Fig. 4. Team work! Just a day in the work flow (more staff not in picture). Photo: SING Herbarium Archives.

Collaboration & Partnership

The successful design, manufacture, delivery and deployment of the new plastic herbarium boxes involved many collaborations and partnerships. In the first instance, the Herbarium team contacted many international herbaria to survey the kinds of storage systems they used and learn about the various pros and cons. Secondly, we had to discuss with manufacturers just how feasible our desired outcomes would be. Thirdly, the Herbarium receives many visitors per year and the proof of concept is in the response that our local and international herbarium users have to our new boxes. So far, these have been entirely positive. Additionally, the huge exercise of receiving and installing 23,000 boxes, 1152 per day every day for a month, brought the Herbarium team together in a very positive way with a real sense of achievement (Figs. 4 & 5). For fungal and bryophyte collections, we had cardboard trays manufactured to fit into these boxes so that paper pockets can fit neatly into two columns within these boxes.

How you may procure this design for the use of these boxes in your Herbarium

Since the design cost has already been “absorbed” by us, if you have any enquiries on it, feel free to write to myself (Serena_Lee@Nparks.gov.sg) and we will direct you to the manufacturers who are holding the mould for the design for a quote to your country. The boxes will definitely be only a fraction of what we paid for them and we have been using them for the last 4 years to confirm that the design is as good as we think it is! The acronym on the boxes as well as strap colours can be changed to fit your herbarium.

To date, a few herbaria in Gibraltar, Laos, Vietnam and New Guinea have shown their interest in acquiring such boxes and we have shared our contacts with them.

Serena Lee Senior Manager (Herbarium) Singapore Botanic Gardens

David Middleton Keeper of the Herbarium Singapore Botanic Gardens

Fig. 5. All done! SING Herbarium now. Photo: SING Herbarium Archives.

Early Career Advice Early Career Advice

Wendy C. Hodgson (Fig. 1) is Herbarium Curator Emerita and Senior Research Botanist at Desert Botanical Garden (DES) in Phoenix, Arizona (United States). She has lived in the Sonoran Desert for more than 40 years and her research interests include Southwest United States and northern Mexico floristics, rare and endemic plants, and taxonomy and systematics of Agave and Yucca, including the study of pre-Columbian agave cultivars.

The Vasculum: What challenges do you see early career curators and collections managers facing today or in the near future that were uncommon in your own early career, and how do you think these challenges can be met successfully?

Wendy: One of the challenges I see is to make people understand the relevance of herbaria. Too often significant, often smaller, more regionalized (and significantly important) herbaria are divested into the larger herbaria, or

The Vasculum, Volume 16, Number 2

Fig. 1. Wendy collecting Hesperoyucca newberryi (McKelvey) Clary (Asparagaceae) at edge of cliff, Grand Canyon.

Photo: Carrie Cannon.

unmaintained with no or inadequate staff. It is the role and responsibility of the curator/ manager/director to define the role of herbaria in general, and their herbarium specifically, to a diverse group of stakeholders, including staff, addressing how herbaria are used and their benefits. Herbaria values are inextricably linked to understanding the concepts of biodiversity and conservation – both biological and cultural that are also inextricably linked. We must constantly show that keeping an herbarium program active far outweighs any perceived monetary gain – it does not need to be an either/or situation. We must also provide more programs to teach young (and older) prospective botanists/herbarium curators/ managers. I have seen a solid botany program that stood on its own at a major university change to a program where other moneymaking disciplines completely overshadow botany.

To help fill this void, we offer botany “boot camps” – a rigorous two-day workshop with fieldwork we started in 2008 to anyone who wants to know more about Arizona botany, including basic botany, what botanists/curators do, that provides opportunities to do important, but too often denigrated, floristic work. Floras, also inextricably tied with herbaria, are not as respected as they should be, yet provide the foundation for our knowledge of what occurs in any given area, as well as the discovery of new taxa. Our botany boot camp program and resulting floras, called Plant Atlas of Arizona (PAPAZ), has changed lives, including an individual who quit her job, obtained a master’s degree, and is the herbarium curator/collections manager of a major herbarium in the state. Arizona State University (ASU) offers a master’s degree program in plant biology and conservation in collaboration with the Desert Botanical Garden research staff (which includes the herbarium) that provides students with advanced training in plant ecology, evolution, and floristics as well as in theory and practice of conservation biology. However, we need to do far more to prepare future herbarium curators.

I do not remember hearing so much anti-science rhetoric as we hear today, and I fear this will not abate. This can affect herbaria directly (closing or defunding an herbarium) or indirectly (lack of funds for botany and/or herbarium training). Reaching those unfamiliar with what an herbarium is will remain a constant challenge. Additionally, some might see technology as contributing towards the reduced relevance of herbaria. Rather than an either/or situation, the two can, and should be, used together with the common goal of increasing knowledge, and therefore, appreciation of the plants and plant communities around us.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the need to involve Native Americans in herbarium and botanical/ environmental work (Fig. 2.). We have overlooked their voice and contributions far too long and we need their

Fig. 2. Giving a tour/presentation of the herbarium to Hualapai youth as part of their ethnobotany/linguistics program. Photo: DES Archives.

voice, knowledge, and collaboration now more than ever. Any program focusing on training individuals must investigate funding opportunities that will enable Native students to participate. Additionally, we need to involve Native Americans as teachers/mentors in programs as well.

The Vasculum: What made you first interested in herbaria?

Wendy: I had the pleasure in the 1970s and early 1980s to work with Howard Scott Gentry, world-known agave expert, J. Harry Lehr, former curator of DES, and Donald J. Pinkava, world-known cactus expert and former director of ASU Herbarium. I had no formal training but I soon became intrigued with herbarium specimens, which meshed well with my evolving interest and love for collecting. I also was an illustrator, which helped me appreciate the intricate details of the mounted plant specimens, which, to me, are an art form in themselves. Living in the Southwest, one cannot ignore the spiny and thorny plants that are so prevalent. I realized that part of the difficulty in unraveling taxonomic questions, and hence, conservation of many, was the lack of quality specimens with key information and material (with images). Collecting and processing specimens of cacti, agaves, and the like is not easy and is sometimes painful! Always up for a challenge, I gravitated towards these groups and take great pleasure in seeing a completed herbarium specimen that actually resembles the living plant, supported with detailed plant descriptors. Although many of my early specimens still lacked quality material and/or information compared to those later collected, such a goal fueled my interest in herbarium work.

The Vasculum: What are the important ways herbarium staff can promote and advocate for their collections?

Wendy: No longer should herbaria be a place off limits to most people (Fig. 3). A lack of understanding of the role and contributions of herbaria makes these collections particularly vulnerable to their replacement by offices and parking lots. Advocating for one’s herbarium has been and continues to be required, especially for the smaller, regional herbaria that researchers often overlook. These smaller herbaria often house important, more recent, and data-rich collections from specific areas. Ignoring these herbaria by researchers fosters an incorrect assumption of their having little importance and risks divestment or closure. Whether an herbarium is large or

Fig. 3. Desert Botanical Garden herbarium volunteers, mounting our beloved cacti. Photo: DES Herbarium Archives.

small, it is the duty and responsibility of us who are lucky to work in herbaria to engage with as many of its numerous stakeholders as possible, including land managers, citizen scientists, students, the public, and board members. Whenever we do a tour for any group, the results have been positive, with many exclaiming how they never knew 1) herbaria existed, 2) we have one, and most notably, 3) the value of the collection and individual specimens. Engaging as many stakeholders as possible takes time, and one needs to find a balance between curatorial duties and promoting the herbarium.

I have often wondered if Luca Ghini, who developed the first herbarium from specimens he pressed between papers and glued on cardboard, could imagine the impact of his idea, an idea so simple yet so incredibly important that spans centuries. Herbarium uses/values, including those unknown at present, will continue to increase, especially in these environmentally/culturally challenged times. We need to use the many social platforms as much as possible. If the institution has a marketing department, involve it as well to help promote the herbarium. Develop a website and/or publication that also explains the myriad ways we use an herbarium, including news and happenings, and good examples that a layperson can grasp, while also understanding the relevancy to their own lives. Researchers should always acknowledge the herbaria and their specimens, as well as the very useful consortia of herbaria such as the Regional Networks of North American Herbaria.

The Vasculum: What is the best thing about working in an herbarium?

Wendy: Working amongst specimens (Fig. 4) is the best! Learning about plants – their diversity, distributions, ecological attributes, and the occasional discovery of a new taxon hiding for years within the collection, is exciting and a lot of fun. Even with all the uses (over 100) we know today, many more are unknown and will only be unveiled in the future. Knowing that our collections – a legacy – will be around for decades, maybe even centuries, providing information we can only imagine today, is inspiring. Working in an herbarium, which results in working with other botanists as well as other environmentally-conscience people, is a joy as well. Integral to our own success is the passionate, dedicated volunteer force our Garden is fortunate to have. We have over 20 volunteers

Fig. 4. Examples of cacti and agave herbarium specimens.

Photo: DES Herbarium Archives.

that help in all facets of herbarium curation, including making specimens of the extensive Living Collection that have provenance data. They not only provide invaluable assistance but life-long friendships as well.

The Vasculum: What types of outreach activities do you do for the general public or students?

Wendy: We are very involved in many outreach activities involving the herbarium as well as our own research (Fig. 5). We offer herbarium tours to classes, patrons, board members of the Garden, including Botany Brunch to prospective donors, as well as classes for college and high school students including those in naturopathic and conservation biology studies. We continue to offer PAPAZ training to botanical neophytes and land management agency staff, including Grand Canyon National Park. We provide plant identification services to staff, agencies, students, and the public. I continue to collaborate with Hualapai Nation elders and youth providing 1) specimens from their homeland for their herbarium, 2) assistance in curating their herbarium, 3) taxonomic and ethnobotanical information, and 4) assistance in decades-long vegetation plot assessments along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. We are involved in several activities and collaborations with other land management agencies including the National Park Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management, including workshops on rare species or taxonomic groups and preparation of rare plant guides based on herbarium specimens. Presentations/workshops include a discussion of herbaria in general and our herbarium specifically. We also provide numerous presentations on our research to the public, conservation organizations, and land management agencies, which always include our herbarium work. Additionally, a long-term goal of the Garden’s herbarium is to establish training programs for aspiring botanists and curators.

Herbarium staff also provide botanical expertise to the Exhibits, Education, and Horticulture departments at the Garden, which is conveyed to the public and students who visit the Garden.

The Vasculum: What was your first herbarium-related job?

Wendy: I was fortunate to work with very prominent botanists at the same time as being a fledgling graduate student. In the Garden Herbarium, I worked with Howard S. Gentry and J. Harry Lehr, and in the ASU Herbarium with Donald Pinkava, mounting and filing specimens. This quickly evolved into specimen collecting.

Fig. 5. Desert Botanical Garden volunteers collecting specimens of saguaro at the Garden with future botanists looking on with keen interest (left); the finished product (right).

The Vasculum: What was the species of your first herbarium collection and where did you collect it?

Wendy: I do not know what the first collection was but the eleventh collection recorded and now at ASU was senita, Pachycereus schottii, from Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in 1974, which probably was a voucher for an illustration I was to prepare. Forty-seven years and 33,000 specimens later I find myself still collecting and processing specimens, with a continuing, hard-to-understand emphasis on those pain-eliciting, beautiful, and taxonomically challenging agaves, yuccas, and cacti, often found clinging to cliffs in such beautiful and challenging places like Grand Canyon!

The Vasculum: What was the best herbarium/career advice that you received?

Wendy: Find a career that you love, that you are excited about. Herbarium work is usually not a moneymaker, but it is a lot of fun, fulfilling, and gratifying. And, these specimens will be around for a very long time – take care of them as we do not even know what their use and value will be in the future long after we are gone. Record anything you will not see once you leave the site of collection because you will not remember it later. Unprocessed specimens do no one any good. Process the specimens soon after you collect them, advice I did not heed, and as a result, have probably an 8000-specimen backlog.

The Vasculum: What is the craziest/ most unique/most interesting story you have about working in an herbarium?

Wendy: Like everyone else, I have to wade through many emails each day. One day I received an email from a plant systematist who was visiting the nearby ASU Herbarium. He asked if we had any additional specimens of a plant I collected in 1994 that he determined as a new, undescribed species he was to name after me. We, of course, did have additional collections as ASU received a few duplicates. I like these emails!

Fig. 6. Wendy Hodgson collecting Yucca faxoniana Sarg. (Asparagaceae), Black Gap, southwestern Texas. Photo: Raul Puente.

The Vasculum: Do you have a favorite collection? Where did you collect it and why is it your favorite?

Wendy: This is a tough question as I have so many favorites. If I had to pick one, it would be a collection of an agave in the Grand Canyon. In the 1980s (to the present) I and colleagues had been documenting and surmising the role of unusual agaves we believed represented relict pre-contact agaves selected for and grown by pre-contact cultures that still were found growing in the Arizona landscape today. A colleague told me about an unusual agave growing in the bottom of the Canyon near archaeological features. Collecting in Grand Canyon is not a walk in the park, so to speak. In 1994, we finally made it down to the site and after several hours looking, finally found the plants hiding under cottonwoods. We collected samples (with a permit) and realized that this was not only a new species, but another agave to add to our expanding list of pre-contact domesticated agaves (Grand Canyon botanist Rose Collom first found the species in another canyon 60 years earlier but did not formally name it). More importantly, it provided evidence to those who doubted such agaves could still exist after all these centuries since this large-leaved agave would not have evolved in this location (agaves become smaller the more north they occur). We named the plant in honor of our colleague who first told us of the plants (Agave phillipsiana W.C. Hodgs.; Fig. 7).

The Vasculum: What is the future of herbarium science?

Wendy: I think, and hope, that the future of herbarium science is bright. I truly believe we will not replace herbarium specimens if we understand the information they provide now and in the future. Like so many things, the most significant hurdle/challenge to the future of herbaria is ignorance and lack of understanding. We will always have plants to collect, no matter the condition of the habitat, and there will always be a need to document these plants in an ever-changing world. It is never too late to collect and document plants at any given location and time, providing snapshots of ever-changing landscapes. These plants will always need to be in a facility, hopefully one that is accessible and supported.

Vasculum, Volume 16, Number 2

Early Career Advice is a regular feature of The Vasculum. If you have questions you would like to ask or if there is someone you would like to see interviewed, please contact us (email: winitskys@gmail.com).

Fig. 7. Agave phillipsiana W.C. Hodgs. (Asparagaceae), Grand Canyon.

The UBC Herbarium, Beaty Biodiversity Museum

Overview

The University of British Columbia Herbarium (UBC) originated in 1912 as ‘The British Columbia Provincial Offices Herbarium’; in 1916, the Herbarium was transferred to become part of the newly opened university. The Herbarium now comprises five collections: Bryophytes (253,000 accessioned specimens), Lichens (65,000), Fungi (34,000), Phycological (96,000), and Vascular Plants (252,000), located in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum on the University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus. Our collections make up one of the largest herbaria in western Canada, housing over 700,000 specimens, and increasing by 5,000–7,000 specimens per year. We house specimens from around the world with a particular focus on bryophytes of the northern hemisphere; lichens of North America; macrofungi of British Columbia (B.C.); benthic marine and coralline algae of British Columbia, Washington, and Alaska; and vascular plants of Pacific Rim regions. Our mission is to assemble, curate, and maintain a collection of specimens for the purposes of biodiversity research, education, training, appreciation, conservation, and to contribute to awareness of botanical biodiversity.

History: The Early Years, UBC Herbarium

John Davidson (1878–1970), was a Scottish botanist who moved to Vancouver and initiated the Offices of the British Columbia Provincial Herbarium in 1911; one year later, he was appointed as the first Provincial Botanist of British Columbia by Dr. H.E. Young, B.C.’s Minister of Education (Fig. 1). Davidson, also known as ‘Botany John’ Davidson, was given the responsibility and honour to lay the foundation of British Columbia’s Provincial Botanical Survey by traveling, collecting, corresponding, and encouraging collection activities of amateur plant collectors. He also conducted demonstrations in schools throughout remote parts of British Columbia. By 1915, the collection had expanded to 8,000 specimens, prompting Davidson to ask the Province for more resources to support him and his assistant, Mary Grutchy.

archives reference number CVA 660-641;1913; BC.

Fig. 1. John Davidson sitting at his desk in the Provincial Botanical Office in Vancouver, 1914. City of Vancouver Archives,

Fig. 2. John Davidson’s field kit and Ranunculus acris specimen with the same specimen imaged 111 years later at UBC herbarium, perfectly preserved.

City of Vancouver Archives, archives reference numbers

AM505-S1-: CVA 660-663; 1910; BC.

After four years, due to the stresses of World War I, the Herbarium was deemed unnecessary for the province of British Columbia and was due to close. Davidson convinced the first President of UBC, Dr. Frank Fairchild Wesbrook, to support the establishment of a Botanical Garden and Herbarium to study the flora of B.C. In 1916, the Herbarium collection was moved to a temporary UBC location. John Davidson’s title at UBC became “the demonstrator in charge of UBC herbarium and botanical garden” establishing the first Botanical Garden at a university in Canada. Davidson was also the founder of the Vancouver Natural History Society (now Nature Vancouver).

Although the title of Herbarium Director was not formally specified, John Davidson served informally in this role until his retirement in 1948. Over the course of his 55-year career, he deposited 2,576 specimens (beginning in Scotland in 1899, and ending in British Columbia in 1947; Fig. 2).

After Davidson’s retirement, the Head of the Botany Department was by default the Director of the Herbarium, with their involvement in the Herbarium’s activities varying widely. Two individuals, Dr. T.M.C. Taylor (1950–1969) and Dr. Robert F. Scagel (1972–1986), both organismal botanists, were very actively involved in the Herbarium’s activities. Scagel in particular had a large impact by supporting initial efforts to database the collection in the early 1980s, envisioning a specimen consortium for mapping biodiversity that proved instrumental in positioning the UBC Herbarium as an early leader in these efforts.

Heads of the Botany Department and Directors of UBC Herbarium

Dr. Thomas M.C. Taylor 1950 – 1969

Dr. G.N.H. Towers 1964 – 1972

Dr. Robert F. Scagel 1972 – 1986

Dr. A.D.M. Glass 1986 – 1991

After Scagel’s retirement in 1986 the Herbarium saw very little activity from the Director until Dr. Gerald Straley was appointed as the first ‘free-standing’ Director of the Herbarium in 1991 while also serving as the Research

Scientist and Curator of Collections at UBC Botanical Garden. Straley deposited numerous horticultural and field collections from British Columbia as well as co-authored Vascular Plants of British Columbia and authored the award-winning book, The Trees of Vancouver. After Straley’s death in 1997 the position of Herbarium Director was vacant until Dr. Fred Ganders was appointed in 2000. When Ganders retired in 2005, Dr. Jeannette Whitton was appointed to the position. Whitton is the current Director, the second longest appointment after John Davidson.

Establishment of the Various Herbarium Collections

Bryophyte Collection

The UBC Bryophyte Collection is one of the largest in Canada. It currently consists of more than 218,000 accessioned specimens of hornworts, liverworts, and mosses, and includes tens of thousands of additional specimens in the backlog. Plant ecologist Dr. Vladimir J. Krajina (1905–1993) began the bryophyte collection at UBC in 1949, and by 1960, the collection consisted of approximately 3000 specimens. Dr. Wilfred B. Schofield (1927–2008) was hired in 1960, becoming the first bryologist hired by a Canadian university (Fig. 3).

The vast majority of the specimens were contributed by Schofield (who collected more than 128,000 specimens and was one of the most prolific collectors of bryophytes) and his students, most notably Drs. Judith Harpel (who collected 8,759 specimens primarily from the western United States); Ian Worley (4,277, with a focus on southeastern Alaska); Benito Tan (3,908); Ching Chang Chuang (3,297 most from China and Taiwan); Judith Godfrey (3,291 liverwort specimens); and Terry McIntosh (2,718 specimens, most from the semi-arid steppe of south-central British Columbia). Former student R.L. Halbert contributed 3,505 specimens, mostly collected from throughout Vancouver Island. Postdoc and then research scientist Dr. René Belland co-authored several articles with Schofield, and deposited 7,547 specimens in the UBC Herbarium, rounding out representation from Atlantic Canada.

Schofield began collecting in the late 1940s as an undergraduate student at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, and continued during his time as a graduate student at Stanford and Duke universities, as a faculty member at UBC, and in retirement as Professor Emeritus, when he spent many summers collecting bryophytes in the Aleutian Islands with Dr. Stephen Talbot. Many specimens from within and outside North America were obtained through Schofield‘s extensive exchange program.

Fig. 3. Wilf Schofield in the field in Haida Gwaii, June 21, 1994. Photo: Olivia Lee (1994).

Following Schofield’s death in 2008, Dr. Judith Harpel (1950–2021) accepted the position of Curator of Bryophytes, donating her time to the Herbarium and obtaining several large and important collections, including thousands of liverwort specimens from Dr. Judith and Geoff Godfrey. From 1975 until her retirement in 2019, the Bryophyte, Lichen, and Fungi collections were ably managed by Olivia Lee, who cheerfully curated the collection, assisted researchers, and prepared specimens for loans and exchange.

The Fungi and Lichen Collections

The fungi and lichen collections were contained in a single cabinet until Dr. Robert Bandoni and his students started adding specimens to the collection after he was hired in 1958. Dr. Bandoni’s research in the Tremellales, a type of jelly fungus, was instrumental in the growth of the fungal collection for which he served as Curator until 1989. The collection houses a few of his type specimens including Fibulobasidium sirobasidioides Bandoni, Mycogloea amethystina Bandoni, M. bullatospora Bandoni, M. nipponica Bandoni, Sirotrema parvula Bandoni, and S. pusilla Bandoni, products of his 50 years of collecting. Bandoni co-authored a field guide to common mushrooms of British Columbia with Adam Szczawinski in 1964.

Phycological Collection

In the early history of the Department of Botany, the only faculty member who collected benthic marine algae was Miriam Armstead (née Ashton), who was an instructor. Armstead had taken a phycology course taught by Dr. William Randolph Taylor at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She deposited a small collection of marine algae from Woods Hole, which was the nucleus of UBC’s Phycological Herbarium. In the early 1940s Dr. Andrew Hutchinson (Head of the UBC Botany Department), John Davidson, and R.W. Pillsbury obtained field support from commercial sources interested in benthic marine algae as potential sources of agar. In the course of their work, a few specimens were added to UBC’s Phycological collection.

While earning his B.A. (1946–1948) and M.A. (1948) at UBC, Robert F. Scagel (Fig. 4) was a student under John Davidson’s supervision. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (1952), Dr. Scagel was appointed to the Department of Botany at UBC and became the first Curator of the Phycological Herbarium. When he was hired, this collection included roughly 1,000 specimens. During his long career as Curator (1952–1986), Scagel, his graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows made significant collections of marine algae along the west coast of North America, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, and the Indian Ocean. These collections expanded the Phycological Herbarium to 67,000 specimens by the time Scagel retired in 1986.

Notable Collectors and Specimens

Notable Early Collectors (prior to ~1930)

Davidson’s own first collections for British Columbia including the Garibaldi and Okanagan regions, Davidson obtained specimens from some of the earliest botanical surveys of B.C. including specimens from the work of John Macoun, Geological Survey of Canada (UBC collections cover 1884–1917; 661 specimens); Albert J. Hill, New Westminster, Surveyor (UBC collections cover 1889–1916; 471 specimens); and James R. Anderson, Deputy Minister of Agriculture (UBC collections cover 1894–1910; 231 specimens).

Fig. 4. Robert Scagel in his original office, the “war huts” (1954).

Other early UBC collections include those of Joseph Kaye Henry who was a UBC English Professor in 1908 (back when it was McGill University), and served as the provincial secretary for the Botanical Club of Canada. Henry also wrote the first flora for B.C., The Flora of Southern British Columbia, in 1915. About the purpose of the Flora, Henry wrote, “to determine the plants of British Columbia is at present a task of considerable difficulty. No general herbarium has been established, and descriptions of plants are scattered through many books and scientific publications. To make these descriptions available for the amateur, rather than to attempt an authoritative survey of our Flora, the materials for which, indeed have not yet been assembled in British Columbia, is the general aim of the book” (UBC collections cover 1895–1929; 450 specimens). Eli Wilson, Charles Frederick Newcombe, and Albert J. Hill assisted Henry greatly with his flora. Newcombe and his son, William A. Newcombe, were important collectors of the Pacific Northwest, who sent many northern specimens to Henry to examine and catalogue (UBC collections cover 1896-1934; 323 specimens). Additional early collections include those of Eli Wilson, Armstrong, B.C. school principal in Okanagan (UBC collections cover 1901–1947; 1,117 specimens); A.E. Baggs (UBC collections cover 1910–1930; 245 specimens); J.A. Teit (UBC collections cover 1910–1921; 144 specimens); and W. Taylor, T.M.C. Taylor’s father (UBC collections cover 1912–1947; 895 specimens).

Notable Vascular Plant Collectors (~1930–1990)

The period from 1930–1980 was one of the most active for collecting and depositing specimens in UBC Herbarium. Much of this activity was associated with the Herbarium’s directors, curators, and graduate student researchers. Important collections include those of John W. Eastham (UBC collections cover 1925–1966; 6,500 specimens) who wrote the Supplementary to ‘The Flora of Southern British Columbia’ in 1947; T.M.C. Taylor, Herbarium Director (UBC collections cover 1925–1980; 6,800); Vladimir Krajina, Bryophyte Collection Founder (UBC collections cover 1949–1965; 8,800); Katherine (Kay) Beamish, Vascular Curator (UBC collections cover 1949–1980; 5,700); Dr. Adolf Ceska, Curator, British Columbia Provincial Museum (UBC collections cover 1969–2004; 1,100 specimens); Trevor Goward, Co-curator of lichens (UBC collections cover 1979–1994; 1,400 specimens); Gerald Straley, Herbarium Director and Vascular Curator (UBC collections cover 1972–1997; 5,500).

Present Day Notable Vascular Collectors

Some of our most recent notable collectors of vascular plants include Dr. Helen Kennedy, past Curator of Vascular Plants (UBC collections cover 1969–2006; 1,000 specimens); Frank Lomer, researcher (UBC collections cover 1988–present; 9,700 specimens); Curtis Björk, Co-curator of lichens (UBC collections cover 1998–present; 1,200 specimens); Bruce Bennett, Yukon botanist (UBC collections cover 1998–present; 2,000 specimens); and Dr. Jamie Fenneman, professional biologist (UBC collections cover 2016–present; 1,400 specimens).

Fig. 5. Beaty Biodiversity Museum shared collections and public space. Photo: Derek Tan (2018).

Notable Phycological Collectors

Notable phycological collectors include: Robert Scagel, Herbarium Director, Curator of Algae (UBC collections cover 1945-1976; 3,700 specimens); Louis D. Druehl, researcher (UBC collections cover 1962-1973; 1,800 specimens); Thomas Mumford, researcher (UBC collections cover years 1967-2000; 1,000 specimens); Phil Lebednik, researcher (UBC collections cover 1971-1976; 7,000 specimens); Sandra Lindstrom, Algae Curator (UBC collections cover 1972-present; 6,400 specimens); Michael W. Hawkes, Algae Curator (UBC collections cover 1973-2001; 1,300 specimens); Patrick Martone, Curator of Coralline Algae (UBC collection cover 2003-present; 700 specimens).

Notable Specimens

UBC holds more than 650 type specimens spanning all five collections, including a large set of Calathea G.Mey. (Marantaceae) types in the vascular plant collection (70), and of Pyropia J.Agardh (Bangiaceae) and Porphyra J.Agardh (Bangiaceae) in our algae collection. Type specimens can be searched in the UBC Herbarium database on the Beaty Biodiversity Museum website at https://bridge.botany.ubc.ca/herbarium/index.php or on JSTOR Global Plants, https://plants.jstor.org/ using the repository code “UBC”.

We hold some of the earliest specimens from British Columbia and Canada. We house the first B.C. specimens represented in J.K. Henry’s Flora of Southern British Columbia, duplicate specimens of Calder and Taylor’s collections for the Flora of the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii), and many of the specimens used to define the Biogeoclimatic (BEC) Zones of British Columbia designed by Dr. Vladimir Krajina.

Present Day

In 2010, all UBC natural history collections, including the Herbarium, were moved to the new Beaty Biodiversity Museum. The unique design of the Beaty Museum houses UBC’s 2.1 million natural history specimens in locked cabinets within the museum’s public space (Fig. 5). The move has resulted in enhanced opportunities for research, education, outreach, and community science.

Curators

Dr. Mary Berbee, Fungi

Trevor Goward, Lichens

Curtis Björk, Lichens

Dr. Sandra Lindstrom, Algae

Dr. Patrick Martone, Coralline Algae

Dr. Quentin Cronk, Eudicots

Dr. Sean Graham, Monocots and Early-diverging Angiosperms

Collections Curators

Dr. Karen Golinski

Linda Jennings (Lipsen)

Bryophyte Collection

The major representation is from British Columbia, Alaska, Arizona, California, Oregon, and Washington. Schofield’s collections were also instrumental in setting up a strong exchange program which has increased the diversity of our collection (Fig. 6). The most comprehensive genera represented in the mosses are Andreaea, Grimmia, Hypnum, Isothecium, Philonotis, Racomitrium, Rhytidiadelphus, Schistidium, Sphagnum, and Takakia, and for the hepatics Anastrophyllum, Diplophyllum, Gymnomitrion, Lophozia (s.l.), Marsupella, Ptilidium, and Scapania.

As a tribute to Schofield, the annual Wilf Schofield Bryophyte and Lichen Foray was established in 2009. Since that time the foray has been held in a different part of British Columbia each year and has attracted a following of professional and amateur bryologists and lichenologists.

Lichens and Fungi Collections

The Lichen collection currently contains more than 56,000 accessioned specimens and a large backlog. More than one third of the specimens were collected by Goward, and several thousand specimens were contributed by Björk. The Lichen collection has excellent representation from Canada, including more than 43,000 accessioned specimens, and in particular, B.C. (more than 37,000). Noteworthy collections include Dr. Willa Noble’s Ph.D. research specimens collected from southeastern coastal B.C., Paul Barrett’s Arctic specimens, George Scotter’s Arctic specimens, and Krajina’s Hawai’ian specimens. Once the backlog of Arctic specimens has been processed UBC will have one of the most comprehensive collections. It is also particularly rich in relatively obscure lichens, particularly crustose species, and contains a world class representation of caliciods, cyanolichens (especially Peltigera Willd., Peltigeraceae), and Hypogymnia (Nyl.) Nyl. (Parmeliaceae).

The Fungi collection has grown slowly to the present size of around 33,000 specimens. It is relatively small compared to other major fungal collections but authorities on B.C. fungi, including Oluna Ceska, Paul Kroeger, and members of the Vancouver Mycological Society and the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society (SVIMS), are actively building the collection. Some of the thousands of new specimens they have contributed are new records for the province. The Agaricales (mushrooms) section has expanded rapidly in recent years.

Phycological Collection

The Phycological Collection now holds nearly 85,000 specimens representing a comprehensive northeast Pacific focus, with the second largest coralline algal collection in North America. Genera with comprehensive representation include: most kelps (especially Alaria, Laminaria, and Saccharina), and common green (Ulva) and red algal genera (Chondracanthus, Mastocarpus, Mazzaella, Palmaria, Pyropia, Porphyra, Prionitis, etc.). Algal groups other than green, brown, and red seaweeds (including chrysophytes, cyanophytes, dinoflagellates, and tribophytes) are also represented by a small number of collections. The Alaska representation in the Phycological

Fig. 6. Specially constructed Bryophyte collection storage. Photo: Karen Golinski (2017).

Collection has been significantly augmented since 1972 by donations from Dr. Sandra Lindstrom, Phycological Curator (1995–present, 4,500) from her work primarily on Alaskan and British Columbian seaweeds, describing 12 species new to science with a focus on Mastocarpus Kützing and Pyropia/Porphyra. Patrick Martone, Coralline Curator (2008–present) and his graduate students have been enhancing the comprehension of the coralline algae collection, describing many new species to science.

Vascular Collection

The Vascular collection includes 223,000 specimens representing a comprehensive Pacific Northwest focus, including 150 years of British Columbia history. Nearly half of our collection is from British Columbia and a quarter is from other parts of Canada, with the Northwest Territories and Yukon especially well represented. We also have good geographic representation from surrounding states and provinces including Alberta, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The largest family representation in the collection is Asteraceae (26,000 specimens), followed by Poaceae (17,000 specimens), Cyperaceae (14,000 specimens), Ericaceae (10,000 specimens), and Brassicaceae (7,000 specimens). The most comprehensive genera in our collection are Salix, Erigeron, Saxifraga, Vaccinium, Castilleja, Festuca, Equisetum, Antennaria, and over 10,000 specimens of Carex.

The Vasculum, Volume 16, Number 2

Fig. 7. Collection BioBlitz Activity — UBC undergraduate students using specimens to understand collection data. Photo: Linda Jennings (2018).

Research

UBC faculty, research associates and many researchers from around the world use UBC specimens for research, as we have always had a very active loan program that contributes to global taxonomic studies, phylogenetics, biodiversity and global climate change research. With the new and expanded collection facilities, we have been able to increase our collection and support in research.

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum facilities provided more access for involving undergraduate students in research. Over the past 10 years, we have partnered with instructors teaching a variety of courses, and supported student research projects that allow a wider diversity of student perspectives to engage with the collection, collectors and their data.

The number of undergraduates using the collections in research has increased, with some students progressing from volunteers to independent researchers through their collections experience. Barbara Neto-Bradley (M.Sc. 2020), for example, came to the Herbarium as a volunteer after a tour in a first year class, and eventually conducted an ambitious collections-based research project using grasses collected over the last several decades to explore changes in the flowering time of grasses in relation to changing climate (https://explore.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/ researchers-revealed/b_neto-bradley/).

Graduate students have also benefited from enhanced facilities. Dr. Jamie Fenneman, for example, completed treatments for Antennaria Gaertn. and Symphyotrichum Nees of B.C. as part of his Ph.D. research (completed in 2019; https://explore.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/researchers-revealed/j_fenneman/).

Education, Outreach and Community Science

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum provides new opportunities for large numbers of UBC undergraduate students to contribute to research, during a classroom activity that we call a Collection BioBlitz (https://beatymuseum.ubc.ca/2018/03/22/herbarium-collection-bioblitz/). First and second year students visit the Herbarium to learn about collections, species variation, and how to take good field notes (Fig. 7). Students then help us inventory our collection (Fig. 8) through a 15-minute activity, in which they follow a carefully designed protocol that aims to find specimens not entered in our database, and also confirms the presence of databased specimens. To date, in just 4 years, 800 students have participated, confirming 12,000 kelp specimens, and uncovering 200 specimens lacking digital data, and therefore not available for online searches, a key entry point into our collections.

Fig. 8. Collection BioBlitz Activity — UBC students inventory collection. Photo: Linda Jennings (2018).

The Collection BioBlitz first started out as an idea to have more students understand where specimen data comes from, and hopefully pique their interest in biodiversity and natural history collections so that they will be more likely to use specimens in their future research. This is in fact what we are seeing, with a number of students following a pipeline that involves mentorship from curatorial professionals, faculty in both research and educational leadership streams, and peer mentors including recent undergraduate alumni and current graduate students, together greatly enhancing undergraduate opportunities. An additional key aim of this project is to increase equity and diversity of opportunities for students in the collections, by exposing students early in their careers to the opportunities for research involvement within the collections. Future enhancements aim to increase the cohort sizes able to participate in these activities, using platforms such as Zooniverse and Notes from Nature, which allow students to transcribe label data and discover where species information comes from and how it is translated to the species description, species flowering times, and mapping biodiversity.

Databasing and Imaging

The metadata of over 570,500 UBC specimens has been openly available for nearly 20 years. In addition, 45,000 vascular plant specimens and all of our type specimens have images available, reflecting our priority as a public institution to continually share our digitized information. In addition to hosting our own databases via the Beaty Museum, our records are available through E-FloraBC, the B.C. Conservation Data Centre (BCCDC), Canadensys, the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria (CPNH), the Consortium on North American Bryophyte Herbaria, the Consortium on North American Lichen Herbaria, the Mycology Collections data Portal (MyCoPortal), and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). These efforts have been funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the B.C. Knowledge Development Fund, the Museums Assistance Program (Department of Canadian Heritage), UBC Irving K. Barber B.C. History Digitization Program, and continued support from the UBC Department of Botany and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum.

Future

The UBC Herbarium’s future is driven by our vision statement, to be “a world class herbarium fostering excellence in pursuits that increase understanding, appreciation, and conservation of botanical biodiversity.” Having recently celebrated the Herbarium’s first century and the Beaty Museum’s first decade, we look forward to continuing to build on our traditions as we continue to innovate and incorporate the new tools to support our mission.

The next five years will bring an extension to our young museum facilities, increasing the collections storage, research, and imaging space and ensuring there is room to grow and improve access to and preservation of the collection.

At the core of our collections are the staff, students, volunteers, and botanical knowledge holders who ensure that our collections continue to grow, shed light on Canada’s western flora, and contribute to our ability to address current and future challenges facing plant biodiversity.

References

Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Beaty Museum Databases [web site]. (2021). https://bridge.botany.ubc.ca/herbarium/ index.php

Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Beaty 100 Treasures [web site]. (2021). https://beatytreasures.com/post/125457970113/ field-kit

Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Flicker, Collections Album [web site]. (2021). https://www.flickr.com/photos/ beatymuseum/albums/72157625491243750

Beaty Biodiversity Museum, Researchers Revealed [web site]. (2021). https://explore.beatymuseum.ubc.ca/ researchers-revealed/

Botanical Electronic News, Second Annual Report, No. 409 [web site]. (2009). https://www.ou.edu/cas/botanymicro/

City of Vancouver Archives, Vancouver Naturalists Field Club / Vancouver Natural History Society. JSTOR, Global Plants. (2021). https://plants.jstor.org/

Flora of North America News (1997). Dr. Gerald Bane Straley (1945-1997). Vol. 11(4)

Felicité Dodd, Saskia Wolsak and Linda Jennings (Lipsen) (2014). NPSBC Native Plant Society of British Columbia, Vol. 19 (1)

Godwin, Nicole (2013). The UBC Herbarium: An Institutional History, cIRcle: UBC’s Digital Repository: Scientia Silvica Extension Series. Available at: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ undergraduateresearch/52966/items/1.0103564

University of British Columbia (2021). UBC Calendars, 1920 -1921. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/ ubcpublications/calendars

van der Pouw Kraan, Ashley, (2014). Five early contributors to the UBC Herbarium. cIRcle: UBC’s Digital Repository: Scientia Silvica Extension Series. Available at: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ undergraduateresearch/52966/items/1.0103578

Linda Jennings (Lipsen)

Collections Curator, Vascular Plants and Algae

University of British Columbia Herbarium (UBC)

The Society of Herbarium Curators will participate in Botany 2022 in Anchorage, Alaska. See you there!

SOCIETY OFFICERS AND EDITORIAL COMMITTEE

Erin A. Tripp, President

University of Colorado–Boulder

Tel: 303-492-2462

E-mail: erin.tripp@colorado.edu

Patrick Sweeney, Past President

Yale University

Tel: 203-432-3537

E-mail: patrick.sweeney@yale.edu

Diana Jolles, Secretary

Plymouth State University

Tel: 603-535-3320

E-mail: ddjolles@plymouth.edu

Maribeth Latvis, Treasurer

South Dakota State University

Tel: 605-688-6121

E-mail: maribeth.latvis@sdstate.edu

Melanie Link-Perez, Vasculum Editor

Beyond the Bean Seed

Tel: 513-444-7869

E-mail: mlinkperez@gmail.com

Abby Moore, Associate Editor

University of Oklahoma

E-mail: abigail.j.moore@ou.edu

Harlan T. Svoboda, Associate Editor

U.S. National Arboretum

Tel: 202-245-2715

E-mail: harlan.svoboda@usda.gov

Michael Thomas, Webmaster

University of Hawaii

Tel: 808-375-6275

E-mail: michael.thomas@hawaii.edu