Early Career Advice (Wendy Hodgson)

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 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 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 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 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.

Wendy: 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 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.

Wendy: 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.

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!

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.

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).