During The Orchid Show: Brazilian Modern, Plant Talk takes a look at some of the research and conservation efforts of The New York Botanical scientists whose work is focused in Brazil. This interview was conducted by Jessica Blohm, Interpretive Specialist for Public Education.
Dr. Scott Mori holds the giant, woody fruits of the sapucaia, a species belonging to the Brazil nut family.
Photo by Carol Gracie
“The diversity of Brazil is amazing,” Botanical Garden scientist Dr. Scott Mori says. “I grew up in Wisconsin, where there are 74 different species of trees in the entire state. In Brazil, there can be 300 different species of trees in the area the size of two American football fields. That means that every second tree that you look at is something different.”
Scott, who once met Roberto Burle Marx, the inspiration for this year’s Orchid Show, at a party in Brazil, is helping to preserve the Brazil nut family (Lecythidaceae), which includes the Brazil nut we eat and several hundred other species of magnificent, towering trees. Brazil nut seeds are easy to harvest because they are trapped inside woody, cannonball-like fruits that fall from the tree at maturity. These “packages of seeds” are simply picked from the ground and broken open to yield a harvest of 20 to 30 Brazil nuts per fruit. Brazil nuts are an economically important, non-timber forest product in the Brazilian Amazon.
Over the course of 40 years studying New World rain forests, Scott, the Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany, has described 51 new species of the Brazil nut family. His research has demonstrated many co-evolutionary relationships among species of the Brazil nut family and different animals, including bats and bees. Understanding these plant-animal interactions is an important part of understanding the plant’s biology and how best to conserve these plants. Scott co-authored Seed Dispersal by Bats in the Neotropics, which will be released in late April by NYBG Press.
“I am a hard-core scientist,” says Scott. “I go out into the field, collect plants, bring the specimens back here, and study the specimens.” This increased understanding of tropical plants, how they function and what they need to survive, often leads to efforts to conserve the rain forest habitats in which they are found.
Scott has shared his expertise on the Brazilian Amazon with Botanical Garden supporters on dozens of ecotours, combining informal natural history instruction with a myriad of other activities such as swimming in the tea-colored waters of the Rio Negro, hiking in the rain forest, fishing for piranha, early morning birding by canoe, and nocturnal trips for alligator spotting. He will lead his next ecotour, Ten Days in Brazil, October 10–21 with Botanical Garden President Gregory Long and James Miller, Ph.D., Dean and Vice President for Science. For additional information contact Brian Boom, Ph.D., Special Assistant to the President, at bboom@nybg.org or 718.817.8708.
Scott A. Mori, Nathaniel Lord Britton Curator of Botany, has been studying New World rain forests at The New York Botanical Garden for 40 years.
Primary rain forest in central Brazilian Amazon
This forest has as many as 285 different species of large trees in a single hectare (about 2.5 acres) among which are as many as 24 species of the Brazil nut family. The adjacent secondary forest that developed after cutting and burning has as few as one to three different species of large trees and not a single species of the Brazil nut family. Photo by Carol Gracie
Last month I attended a symposium hosted at the Smithonsian Institution titled “Will the Tropical Rainforests Survive? New Threats and Realities in the Tropical Extinction Crisis” This well-organized and engaging symposium served as the basis for subsequent articles in The Economist and The New York Times that have sparked lively debate. After reading these articles, I was prompted to write this blog to clear up some of the misconceptions that have arisen from the symposium.
(For readers who are not familiar with the terminology used to describe forest regeneration after deforestation, I provide a brief explanation of the process after the jump; see below.)
In the first place, there is no debate about the need to preserve primary forest among biologists who have studied tropical ecosystems. On several occasions the speakers and the moderator stated that the protection of primary forest is still a high priority. Moreover, there was no disagreement that primary forest continues to be destroyed at a high rate. There was, however, disagreement about the exact rate of primary forest destruction with the most pessimistic figures being 90% and the most optimistic being 32% lost by 2050. Considering that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimated that just 36% of the world’s forests remained relatively untouched in 2005, I can say that all estimates of primary forest destruction given at the symposium are most likely unacceptable to every single biologist in attendance at the symposium.
Another misconception is that biologists are debating whether secondary forests can protect more than a fraction of the biodiversity found in primary forests, and no speaker in the symposium actually said that secondary forests can possibly protect the vast biodiversity found in more mature forests. What was said is that secondary forests are: 1) the first step in regenerating biodiversity after large-scale disturbance, 2) useful as corridors for plants and animals to move from one area of old-growth forest to the next, and 3) providers of ecosystem services such as protecting soil, maintaining hydrological cycles, and sequestering carbon. I believe that most biologists attending this symposium would agree that old-growth forests do all of these things better than secondary forests but that secondary forests are better than completely deforested areas for providing ecosystem services and protecting biodiversity.
One of my research specialties is the classification, ecology, and evolution of New World tropical species of the Brazil nut family (Lecythidaceae). This family of trees is one of the dominant groups of trees found in lowland rain forests, serves as a symbol of this type of vegetation, and can be considered as the plant equivalent of the panda! As part of this research, my colleagues and I established a 100-hectare plot (250 acres) in primary forest in the Brazilian Amazon in which we located and mapped nearly 8,000 trees of this family. In that plot, we found 38 different kinds (species) of the Brazil nut family and have observed that in the nearby secondary forests that had arisen after cutting and burning of primary forest almost all of these species are gone. If all primary forests were eliminated nearly all of the species of the Brazil nut family would be lost forever because there would be no seed sources left to get them reestablished. If the protection of biodiversity is a goal, then secondary forests by themselves are not the answer and this, in my opinion, is not under debate by tropical biologists.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden. Charles Darwin (shown in bronze in a sculpture in the Rare Book Room) was born on this day in 1809, sharing the exact same birthday as Abraham Lincoln—though a world away in England.
Last spring the Botanical Garden celebrated his work with plants in the Garden-wide exhibition Darwin’s Garden: An Evolutionary Adventure as a lead-in to this bicentennial year, which also marks the 150th anniversary of his groundbreaking book. (We can’t tell you the name of it here, because it’s one of the questions in the short quiz below).
During the show, some of the world’s leading Darwin experts had gathered to discuss the far-reaching legacy of Charles Darwin and the implications of his thinking for science and society today in a special two-part symposium, Darwin: 21st-Century Perspectives, hosted by the Garden and the American Museum of Natural History, and which you can hear by clicking here.
If you first need a Darwin 101 refresher before listening to these scholars, test yourself with these few questions. The answers are provided after the jump.
Or, if you want to learn about Darwin in song, check out this snippet taped partly in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory recently of live performer and Darwin scholar Richard Milner. Milner performed his Charles Darwin: Live & In Concert at the Botanical Garden during last year’s exhibition and was featured this week in The New York Times.
And now for the quiz…
1. Darwin sailed to the Galápagos on a ship named…
a. Sundew
b. Retriever
c. Beagle
d. Albatross
2. Darwin began his formal studies in botany at…
a. Oxford
b. Cambridge
c. Glasgow
d. Edinburgh
3. How many children did Darwin have?
a. 10
b. 7
c. 3
d. None
4. Darwin is known as the founder of which famous theory?
a. Relativity
b. Big Bang
c. Quantum Mechanics
d. Evolution by Natural Selection
5. What was the title of Darwin’s book that changed the way scientists view all life?
a. Inherit the Wind
b. The World As I See It
c. Origin of Species
d. The Diversity of Life
Living museums such as The New York Botanical Garden face a 55 percent cut in New York State funding this fiscal year, and the budget for zoos, botanical gardens, and aquaria may be completely eliminated in the next fiscal year. If Governor Paterson’s proposal is passed by the New York State Legislature, it will destroy a program that has provided consistent and steadily increasing support for the Garden for over 30 years.New York Times reporter Andrew Revkin recently blogged about the situation on Dot Earth. In response, the Garden’s Vice Presidents for Science, Education, and Horticulture each posted comments to the blog regarding why botanical gardens matter.
Their insightful remarks are so moving that we are presenting them here in Plant Talk in a three-part series beginning today. We hope their stories will inspire you to comment, to send a letter of support to state government leaders, and to forward the Save the Planet widget to your friends so that they, too, can help.
James S. Miller, Ph.D., is Dean & Vice President for Science and the Rupert Barneby Curator for Botanical Science.
I grew up in a part of Maryland where I could walk out the door of our house and into the woods, where I learned to appreciate and value the diversity of plants and animals through regular contact. The world was a simpler place with fewer than 3 billion people.
As the current world population approaches 7 billion, an ever-increasing percentage of children are growing up in urban environments where contact with nature is more difficult, certainly less frequent, and as development continues, the places where one can experience natural environments become fewer and fewer. I fear that more people today do not have the regular contact that allowed me to develop an affection for nature, which guides my fervent desire to preserve it so that future generations can appreciate the wonder of the plants and animals that share our planet.
In this light, I feel that botanical gardens can provide us with the opportunity to see and learn about plants and experience the spectacular diversity that they present. Just as we can learn about animals at a zoo, we can learn to care about plants at botanical gardens and appreciate their importance to us as food, medicines, other materials, and understand that they define the environment in which all terrestrial life exists.
Our only hope for preserving the amazing biological diversity on Earth is the opportunity to learn enough about plants in botanical gardens and elsewhere so that future generations care enough to make their continued protection and sustainable use a priority.
Hear from the Garden’s own Fran Coelho and Jeff Downing as they explain in their own words just why botanical gardens matter.
Nick Leshi is Associate Director of Public Relations and Electronic Media.
When I talk about The New York Botanical Garden, one phrase I tend to repeat over and over is: “No matter what the weather is like outside, there is always something to see and do here, both indoors and out.” In addition to the beauty of the Garden’s grounds and living collections in every season, there are also great indoor attractions. One of my absolute favorites is located on the fourth floor of the Library building—the permanent exhibition Plants and Fungi: Ten Current Research Stories.
The exhibition, housed in the grand Britton Science Rotunda and Gallery, allows visitors to explore the important research being conducted by Botanical Garden scientists here in the Bronx and around the world. Massive mural images of the Garden’s founders, Nathaniel Lord Britton and Elizabeth Knight Britton, overlook a map showing the corners of the world where our scientists have traveled for field research to solve some the mysteries of nature and to better understand the role of plants and fungi in our lives, part of the Garden’s overall mission as an advocate for the plant kingdom.
The rotunda features multiple displays illustrating the “William C. Steere Tradition,” with information on mosses, lichen, and three panels on mushrooms and berries. It educates the public on the legacy and influence of the man for whom the adjacent William and Lynda Steere Herbarium is named and where over 7 million plant and fungi specimens are archived. Computer terminals in the Gallery allow visitors to access the online specimen catalog from the C.V. Starr Virtual Herbarium.
Other computer stations in the exhibition provide audio-video presentations explaining Garden scientists’ research on rice, cycads, brazil nuts, squashes, ferns, and vanilla orchids. Visitors young and old can see how modern tools such as DNA fingerprinting as well as classic techniques of plant exploration are used, and how scientists are studying vital topics like genetic diversity in rice and a nerve toxin in cycads that may provide insight into neurological diseases.
You can meet some of the scientists in person and hear them discuss their research as part of the 2009 Gallery Talks series Around the World with Garden Scientists in the Britton Science Rotunda and Gallery. Robbin Moran, Ph.D., kicks off the series this Saturday, January 24, at 1 p.m. with his presentation “The Fascinating World of Ferns” and provides a behind-the-scenes tour of the Herbarium.
George Shakespear is Director of Science Public Relations.
One of the pleasures of working at The New York Botanical Garden is meeting scientists from around the world and learning about their fascinating botanical exploration, biodiversity research, and conservation projects. The Garden is a nexus of international plant science, where scientists come to consult the incomparable collections in our herbarium and library, to confer with the Garden’s staff scientists, or, as happened the week before last, to accept a well-deserved award and to share information on current projects.
I attended the presentation by distinguished economic botanist and former Botanical Garden scientist Sir Ghillean (Iain) T. Prance on two current (and very different) projects. In the largest tract of rain forest in northern Argentina, he has been studying the ethnobotany of the Guaranà people, documenting their use of plants. The Guaranà are threatened by the expanding timber extraction industry. One result of his team’s documentation has been the purchase of more than 12,000 acres of land by the World Trust Fund to return ownership to the GuaranÃ. Sir Prance also talked about his systematic studies of Barringtonia, a genus of flowering plants.
Prance was in New York to receive the Gold Medal of The New York Botanical Garden. The medal, the highest honor conferred by the Botanical Garden and awarded very infrequently, acknowledges contributions made by individuals in the fields of horticulture, plant science, and education. Iain Prance served for more than a quarter century at the Garden, arriving as a post-doctoral researcher and departing as Senior Vice President for Science. In 1988, he returned to his native Great Britain to become Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (1988–1999). He was knighted in 1995.
Prance is perhaps the most prominent scientist in botanical exploration of Amazonian Brazil and is vitally interested in the documentation of the use of plants by indigenous peoples in Amazonia. That led him to found in 1981 the Garden’s Institute of Economic Botany, whose programs continue to thrive and grow.
Karen Daubmann is Director of Exhibitions and Seasonal Displays.
If you’re walking or driving along the perimeter of the Botanical Garden on Kazimiroff Boulevard, you might be detecting a pungent, foul odor in the air. You might also be seeing people collect what seems to be the source of that smell.
It is the time of year that female ginkgo trees drop their fleshy fruit, which when crushed by passing cars or pedestrians release a stench that has been likened to rotten butter, vomit, or dog excrement. It is what gives the ginkgo tree a bad name.
Though they smell terrible, the female cones, once harvested and processed, reveal seeds known as “white nuts” or “ginkgo nuts.” These seeds are a delicacy in Chinese and Japanese cooking, used in stuffing, soups, and even desserts. This treat is also nutritious, containing 13% protein and 3% fats. That is why female ginkgo trees are sought out at this time of year by those who envision making Bird’s Nest Soup and other traditional Asian dishes. Ginkgo seed hunters carry gloves and Ziploc bags while wearing shoes with soles that can be easily washed.
Are you familiar with the ginkgo tree? These stately trees—mature trees can reach 100 feet tall—have light-gray bark and fan-shaped leaves. As they age, the crown of the tree gets wider, and in autumn its turn golden yellow. Ginkgo, or maidenhair tree, is known as a “living fossil,” because it was a common tree species when dinosaurs roamed Earth, about 225 million years ago. Ginkgo was thought to be extinct until several plantings were discovered in eastern China.
Learn why the ginkgo tree is unique after the jump.
Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.
With the recent wet weather you may have noticed that mushrooms are, well, mushrooming—in moist areas of your garden, on a pile of mulch, in a nearby woodland.
Here at the Botanical Garden, from the end of June to the first frost you may see Dr. Roy Halling, Curator of Mycology, walking about the grounds after a significant rainfall in search of his favorite subject. He has dedicated his life’s work to studying mushrooms. “I want to know what they are, where they grow, and how they are related to each other.”
The casual observer can see about 40 to 50 different types of mushrooms at the Garden over the course of the season. Roy’s top three spots are Twin Lakes, the bottom of Azalea Way, and the Arthur and Janet Ross Conifer Arboretum. At the base of pines and oaks are the best places to look because of the symbiotic relationship between the roots of these trees and mushrooms.
Although, after almost 25 years on staff at the Garden, he knows where to look, he’s not always certain what he’ll find. “I search near Twin Lakes and used to find mushrooms there. The oak tree is still there, but there are different mushrooms now. The others either aren’t there or they’ve moved.”
Moved? Yes, mushrooms will travel—or actually not return and appear elsewhere—according to their nutrient needs.
Roy travels, too. He’s been to many parts of the world and has co-authored a guide to mushrooms of Costa Rica, but his specialty has been researching the fungi (the group to which mushrooms belong) of Australia and Southeast Asia. His current project, with a grant from the National Geographic Society, is to explore for and document the mushrooms on the world’s largest sand island, Fraser Island, north of Brisbane. Roy has found that fungi provide the nutrients for the survival of the rain forest that otherwise implausibly exists on this island.
Learn more about Roy and his work with mushrooms after the jump.
Dr. Scott Mori holds the giant, woody fruits of the sapucaia, a species belonging to the Brazil nut family.
Primary rain forest in central Brazilian Amazon
