Morphological studies of the pollen grains of Wadi El-Natrun plants, West Nile Delta, Egypt

Pollen morphology is regarded as an additional tool for solving taxonomic problems at the family, generic, or species level. Seventy-three flowering plants, trees, shrubs, and herbs were collected from the Wadi El-Natrun region (West Nile Delta, Egypt) from March to July 2008. They were extracted for their pollen grains. The pollen was mounted on glass slides, examined using a light microscope, photographed, and identified. The identified pollen grains were conserved in the herbarium of the Environmental Studies and Research Institute (ESRI) Minufiya University, Sadat City, Egypt, as reference key pollen from the Wadi El-Natrun area for palynologists, botanists, taxonomists, and workers in other, related, sciences.     

A new comprehensive database of alien plant species in Chile based on herbarium records

There is an urgent need for comprehensive national databases on alien plant species, especially in developing countries. Despite the fact that plant invasions are considered a major threat to biodiversity, they have been poorly studied or not considered a conservation priority in South America. We aim to assess alien plant distribution in Chile, using the first comprehensive public alien plant database, and discuss the implications of using herbarium records to develop national databases of alien plants. We used herbarium records to assemble a comprehensive national database of alien plants. We calculated the number of alien and native species and specimens recorded in each 10 × 10 km cell. We evaluated sampling efforts and tested for relationships between alien and native species collections, as well as other spatial patterns along the latitudinal gradient. Alien and native species richness was positively correlated. Alien plants were mostly collected in central Chile, with few species collected in both the extreme north and south. However, native plants were strongly collected in central Chile, as well as in both extremes of the country. Alien and native plants followed the same pattern of accumulation along the latitudinal gradient, with native plants being relatively more collected than alien plants. Herbarium records provide valuable baseline information to evaluate plant species distribution. However, there are important gaps in this database, (e.g. variable sampling effort for alien and native plants, incomplete information on life-history traits). Given scientists and land managers increasing demand for baseline information and the high cost of collecting such data in developing countries, herbarium records should be used more frequently for research and management of plant invasions.     

A forgotten collection: the Libyan ethnobotanical exhibits (1912-14) by A. Trotter at the Museum O. Comes at the University Federico II in Naples, Italy

Background

The Ethnobotanical Collection from the Libyan territories of the botanist Alessandro Trotter is included in the Oratio Comes Botanical Museum at the Faculty of Agraria at the University Federico II in Naples. Trotter explored different territories of Libya, mainly Tripolitania, between 1912-1924, collecting plant specimens and the drugs most frequently sold in the markets. The Libyan herbarium currently includes over 2300 sheets of mounted and accessioned plants. The drugs, mostly acquired by Trotter from Tripolitanian markets, were identified and packed in 87 paper sheets or boxes. Trotter added ethnobotanical information for each species when available.

Methods

A database of the herbarium species and the drugs has been carried out, after a taxonomic update. Nomenclature has been revised according to the African flowering plants database and the World Checklist of selected plant families, and a comparison with currently available ethnopharmacological data from North African has been attempted.

Results

In this study, ethnopharmacological data related to about 80 species of flowering plants and to 4 lichens are presented. The plants are mainly from Mediterranean or Sub-Saharan habitats and belong to 37 different families; Lamiaceae was the most cited family, with 10 accessions. Generally, the aerial parts of the plants are the most frequently used (28 species), followed by leaves (15 species), flowers and seeds (9 species), fruits (7 species) and hypogean organs (roots, rhizomes, tubers: 5 species). Plants were generally processed in very simple ways: infusion or decoction of the plants were prepared and orally administered or used for topical applications. A wide range of conditions was treated, ranging from mental disorders to skin affections. All the organs of human body are considered, but the pathologies of gastro-intestinal tract, respiratory system and those related to traumatic accidents were the most frequently mentioned. The comparison with the recent ethnopharmacological research in Maghreb and its neighboring countries reveals a high correspondence; almost all the plants cited by Trotter are still used in the folk medicine of at least one of the North African countries, and the therapeutic uses of each plant appear consistent over time.

Conclusions

The information collected by Trotter is an important contribution to tracing plant utilization in Libyan folk medicine over the last century.     

广西植物标本馆标本数字化信息统计与分析

为更了解广西植物标本馆概况与各类标本构成情况,该文以标本馆信息数据库的标本信息为基础,分别从标本的种类、石山植物标本、采集地、采集年代及采集人等5个方面进行了统计与分析。结果显示,在统计的20万份维管植物标本中,共隶属314科2504属11452种;石山植物标本份数占45.35%,含205科1021属2700种;广西采集的标本份数最多,共100372份占总份数的50.19%;在50年代标本采集量最大,达87997份占总份数的44.00%。并提出了几点建议。     

Biological collections in an ever changing world: Herbaria as tools for biogeographical and environmental studies

Plant specimens stored in herbaria are being used as never before to document the impacts of global change on humans and nature. However, published statistics on the use of biological collections are rare, and ecologists lack quantitative data demonstrating the relevance to science of herbarium specimens. I found 382 studies with original data that used herbarium specimens to document biogeographical patterns or environmental changes. Most studies are less than 10 years old, and only 1.4% of the herbarium specimens worldwide have been used to answer biogeographical or environmental questions. The vast majority (82%) of papers dealt with vascular plants, but some studies also used bryophytes, lichens, seaweeds and fungi. The herbarium specimens were collected from all continents, but most of the studies used specimens from North America (40% of studies) or Europe (28%). Many types of researches (conservation, plant disease, plant invasion, pollution, etc.) can be conducted using herbarium specimens. Climate change, and especially phenological reconstructions, are clearly emerging research topics. By group, small herbaria (<100,000 specimens) are consulted as often as very large herbaria (>1,000,000 specimens) for biogeographical and environmental research, but in most cases, only large facilities provide specimens collected worldwide. The median number of specimens per study in papers using computerized collections (15,295) was much higher than for papers that did not include electronic data (226). The use of molecular analyses to investigate herbarium specimens is still relatively unexplored, at least from biogeographical and environmental points of view. Combined with recently developed procedures to correct biases, herbarium specimens might provide in the near future exciting additional spatio-temporal insights that are currently unimaginable.     

Herbarium specimens demonstrate earlier flowering times in response to warming in Boston

Museum specimens collected in the past may be a valuable source of information on the response of species to climate change. This idea was tested by comparing the flowering times during the year 2003 of 229 living plants growing at the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, with 372 records of flowering times from 1885 to 2002 using herbarium specimens of the same individual plants. During this period, Boston experienced a 1.5°C increase in mean annual temperature. Flowering times became progressively earlier; plants flowered 8 d earlier from 1980 to 2002 than they did from 1900 to 1920. Most of this shift toward earlier flowering times is explained by the influence of temperature, especially temperatures in the months of February, March, April, and May, on flowering time. Plants with a long flowering duration appear to be as useful for detecting responses to changing temperatures as plants with a short flowering duration. Additional studies using herbarium specimens to detect responses to climate change could examine specimens from specific, intensively collected localities, such as mountain peaks, islands, and unique habitats.     

辽宁省牛膝菊属(Galinsoga Ruiz. et Pav.)植物的补充研究

牛膝菊（Galinsoga parviflora Cav.）和粗毛牛膝菊（Galinsoga quadriradiata Ruiz. et Pav.）为辽宁省两种重要入侵植物,目前国内文献对这两种植物的形态描述有混淆。根据沈阳农业大学植物标本室收藏的标本并比对采集于沈阳市附近的标本,作者明确这两种牛膝菊属植物的主要区别在于冠毛：前者的舌状花无冠毛或冠毛为细短毛,管状花的冠毛羽筛状,先端钝;后者的舌状花和管状花的冠毛均呈羽筛状,先端尖。该性状差异可为准确鉴别该属杂草提供形态学依据。     

Historical ozone concentrations and flavonoid levels in herbarium specimens of the Antarctic moss Bryum argenteum

Depletion of stratospheric ozone since the mid 1970s has led to significant increases in ultraviolet B (UVB) irradiation over Antarctica. The detrimental effects of UVB on plants are many, but plants produce photoprotective flavonoids that reduce cellular damage. We used herbarium samples of the moss Bryum argenteum collected in Antarctica to compare the levels of flavone aglycones in plants collected before and after the formation of the ozone hole. The interpretation of historical data is difficult, because environmental conditions immediately before sample collection are unknown. Factors such as cloud cover can have a significant influence on UVB dose at ground level, modifying the flavonoid content of the specimen and adding considerable variability to the results. Nevertheless, our results revealed significant relationships between total flavone concentration and pooled year classes ( P = 0.001). Furthermore, regression analysis showed a significant negative relationship of total flavone concentration and the level of ozone immediately before the time of collection ( P = 0.016). In addition, the ratio of luteolin (an ortho -dihydroxylated flavone) to apigenin (a monohydroxylated flavone) increased significantly with several environmental parameters. These included (a) increasing modelled midday UVB radiation ( P = 0.002), (b) increasing modelled midday UVB/PAR ratio ( P < 0.001), and (c) decreasing ozone concentration ( P < 0.001). We emphasise the utility of this ratio in interpreting the historical ozone trends rather than relying on changes in total flavone concentrations alone. These results illustrate that herbarium specimens may reveal historical levels of UVB radiation.     

Some ethnobotanical notes from northeastern India

This paper deals with the ethnobotany of 48 plants from Northeastern India. The information was derived from specimens deposited in the herbarium of the Botanical Survey of India at Shillong (ASSAM). Vernacular names of plants and voucher specimens are mentioned. The importance of ethnobotanical studies of herbarium materials is discussed.     

内蒙古赤峰地区的锈菌 Ⅰ.柄锈菌属和单胞锈菌属

报道了内蒙古赤峰地区的锈菌 2属 4 8种和变种 ,其中 14个种和 2个变种为内蒙古新记录 ,13种植物为中国新记录寄主 ;列出了锈菌种名、寄主植物、采集地点及标本号。所有引证标本均保存于赤峰学院菌物标本室 (CFSZ)。     

甘肃锈菌名录

报道了甘肃省的锈菌计24属150种,主要基于作者1992、2003和2005年在祁连山及其邻近地区所采的标本。涉及的地区包括祁连山系的冷龙岭、走廊南山和乌鞘岭、敦煌、安西、嘉峪关、酒泉、民勤等荒漠地区、阿尼玛卿山东部地区以及渭河、洮河和白龙江流域。早期采集者邓叔群、相望年、余积厚、张天宇等在天水等地采集的少量标本也作了引证。本名录总共引证了约600号标本,绝大多数标本是首次被引证。所有标本保藏在北京中国科学院菌物标本馆(HMAS)。本名录包括锈菌和寄主植物名称及采集地(仅列县、市名),所引标本号均为HMAS的馆藏编号。目前对甘肃的菌物区系仍知之甚少,本名录仅作今后进一步深入研究的基础资料。     

Metagenomic analysis of historical herbarium specimens reveals a postmortem microbial community

Advances in DNA extraction and next‐generation sequencing have made a vast number of historical herbarium specimens available for genomic investigation. These specimens contain not only genomic information from the individual plants themselves, but also from associated microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi. These microorganisms may have colonized the living plant (e.g., pathogens or host‐associated commensal taxa) or may result from postmortem colonization that may include decomposition processes or contamination during sample handling. Here we characterize the metagenomic profile from shotgun sequencing data from herbarium specimens of two widespread plant species (Ambrosia artemisiifolia and Arabidopsis thaliana) collected up to 180 years ago. We used blast searching in combination with megan and were able to infer the metagenomic community even from the oldest herbarium sample. Through comparison with contemporary plant collections, we identify three microbial species that are nearly exclusive to herbarium specimens, including the fungus Alternaria alternata, which can comprise up to 7% of the total sequencing reads. This species probably colonizes the herbarium specimens during preparation for mounting or during storage. By removing the probable contaminating taxa, we observe a temporal shift in the metagenomic composition of the invasive weed Am. artemisiifolia. Our findings demonstrate that it is generally possible to use herbarium specimens for metagenomic analyses, but that the results should be treated with caution, as some of the identified species may be herbarium contaminants rather than representing the natural metagenomic community of the host plant.     

C. S. Rafinesque’s North American vascular plants at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque (1783–1840) proposed about 2700 generic names and over 6700 binomials in approximately 1000 known publications. His herbarium at one time supposedly contained some 50,000 specimens, but after his death part of it was destroyed by rats, and Elias Durand, who eventually purchased the collection, discarded virtually all of the specimens. Because of these circumstances, plant taxonomists have had difficulty in typifying Rafinesque’s names. This paper summarizes the information on the labels of 275 specimens of Rafinesque’s vascular plants from the United States and Canada that are known to exist at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. These specimens come from four sources: (1) Rafinesque’s own herbarium, (2) Charles Wilkins Short’s herbarium, (3) the William Hembel collection, and (4) the herbarium of Rev. Lewis David von Schweinitz. Of the 275 specimens still extant, 51 (18.5%) are considered to be possible types. These type specimens are enumerated with (1) the complete data on the specimen, (2) the original source herbarium, and in most cases (3) the current accepted name of the taxon.     

Checklist of Wadi Hassan flora,Northeastern Badia,Jordan

In this study, we survey the plant diversity of Wadi Hassan, which is located in the Northeastern Badia of Jordan, about 120 km east of Amman. All plant species were collected and herbarium specimens have been prepared, identified and deposited at the University of Jordan herbarium(Department of Biology,Faculty of Science). The final plant checklist includes 206 species belonging to 138 genera and 35 families.The most diverse families are Compositae(20.5%), Cruciferae(10.2%), Leguminosae(8.3%) and Boraginaceae(6.8%), followed by Caryophyllaceae and Gramineae(5.4%). These six families represent 60% of the total families recognized in the study area, while nine families each are represented by only one species. Most plants recorded are annual plants(61%), some plants are hemicryptophtes(18%) and camaephytes(15%), while the least frequent life form class was the phanerophyte shrub and perennial(0.5%). Chorological characteristics of the recorded flora show that Saharo-Arabian Region elements, IranoTuranian elements and Mediterranean elements constitute(58%) of the total flora. This research shows that even small portion of the Jordan Badia such as the Wadi Hassan plant community has high species diversity. Thus, we recommended further of the unexplored Wadi plants communities of the Jordan Badia.     

Is Shape of a Fresh and Dried Leaf the Same?

Plants kept as dried herbarium specimens share many characteristics with their living counterparts, but there are some substantial differences between them. Due to dehydration, leaves of herbarium specimens change not only their mass and colour, but in many cases change their dimensions, too. The present study aimed to determine whether leaf shape changes during the drying process. A total of 794 pairs of fresh and dried leaves or leaflets of 22 plant taxa were studied. The shape of the blades was quantified using elliptic Fourier analysis combined with principal component analysis. In addition, area and mass of the leaves were measured. Statistical tests were applied for comparing fresh and dried leaves. The results indicate that the preservation process of pressing and drying plants for herbarium purposes causes changes in leaf shape. In general, the shape changes were directional. As the shape of fresh and dried plants is different, it is strongly recommended that shape analyses should be performed on datasets containing either of the leaf types.     

Species-level phenological responses to ‘global warming’ as evidenced by herbarium collections in the Tibetan Autonomous Region

In recent years attention has been given to assess the impacts of warming on the plant flowering phenology. There is a growing realization that herbarium-based collections could offer a reliable and relatively time-saving baseline data source to identify these effects. This article examines the magnitude and trends of warming effects on the average flowering timing (AFT) of plants in Tibet Autonomous Region using analysis of herbarium specimens collected for 4 decades. Mixed model with randomized blocks was used to analyze a set of 41 species (total 909 specimens) which were collected during the period of 1961–2000. Results showed that an earlier AFT emerged within 40 years period in comparison to the recorded data of the year of 2000 (0.5 days per year), and that 7.5 days early flowering was contributed by mean summer (i.e., June–August) temperature. It is proposed that temporary shifts in flowering phenology responding to continuing temperature rise could quantify the extent to which climate affects plant species. Analysis of well recorded herbarium specimens could provide a reasonable indication on the impacts of rising temperature on plant phenology. The result of this study could also facilitate a bridge between the scientific knowledge and indigenous knowledge of Tibetan communities.     

重庆市种子植物区系新资料

在调查重庆市野生植物资源的过程中,发现了棕榈科Arecaceae石山棕Guihaia argyrata、玄参科Scrophulariaceae鹿茸草Monochasma sheareri、大戟科Euphorbiaceae棒柄花Cleidion brevipetiolatum、苦苣苔科Gesneriaceae紫花苣苔Loxostigma griffithii、杜鹃花科Ericaceae红粉白珠Gaultheria hookeri、虎耳草科Saxifragaceae双喙虎耳草Saxifraga davidii等6种重庆市新记录植物。其中,石山棕属Guihaia、鹿茸草属Monochasma、棒柄花属Cleidion和紫花苣苔属Loxostigma也是重庆市新记录属。凭证标本存放于重庆市药物种植研究所标本馆(IMC)。     

Historical herbarium specimens in plant molecular systematics — an example from the fern genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Lindsaea</Emphasis> (Lindsaeaceae)

We extracted, amplified and sequenced DNA from historical herbarium specimens and silica-dried samples of the fern genus Lindsaea in order to study the sequencing success between the two kinds of samples. High quality sequences were obtained from 57% of the herbarium samples. The specimens age was found to be of little importance for sequencing success when less than 75 years, but the colour of a specimen was found more indicative of sequencing success. Shorter DNA fragments were sequenced successfully twice as often as longer fragments from the herbarium material; in relatively recently collected silica-dried material longer sequences were obtained almost as frequently as short ones. No obvious differences in sequencing success between material originating from different herbaria was observed. We conclude that by using specifically designed DNA extraction protocols and by sequencing short DNA fragments from carefully selected specimens, herbarium material and type specimens can be successfully used in molecular systematics. Typical material or specimens from the type locality (topotypes) should be preferred, when placing a species in a phylogeny.