Announcing: World Gesneriad Research Conference 2010

The Gesneriad Research Center at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is pleased to announce

World Gesneriad Research Conference 2010

WGRC 2010 will be a three-day scientific meeting to be held in Sarasota, Florida in September or October 2010 focused on research in Gesneriaceae. Experts and students are invited to make presentations about research on Gesneriaceae and to discuss, promote and plan for continued research-based advancements in this important plant family. Plant enthusiasts and horticulturalists will also be encouraged to attend the presentations and to
participate in discussion groups. Associated activities such as field trips will be a major part of WGRC 2010; these activities will be open to all conference attendees.

We are soliciting ideas and proposals for activities at WGRC 2010. Possible topics of interest include systematics, biogeography and ancestral range history, taxonomy and monography, pollination biology and ecology, conservation, horticulture, etc.

STEERING COMMITTEE

John L. Clark, University of Alabama
John R. Clark, Gesneriad Research Center
Eric H. Roalson, Washington State University
Laurence E. Skog, Smithsonian Institution

Bruce K. Holst, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Jeanne Katzenstein, The Gesneriad Society, Inc.
Melissa McDowell, Suncoast Chapter, The Gesneriad Society, Inc.
Peter Shalit, The Gesneriad Society, Inc.

TO PARTICIPATE

To participate and/or to receive additional information please send an email to the Committee Chair, John R. Clark, at gesneriadresearch@gmail.com by 15 April 2009 with the following information:

Name, Institution, mailing and email address, current position.

Research Interests.

Symposia concept(s).

How you wish to participate (poster, oral presentation, symposium chair, other).

Which month you prefer the conference to be held (September or October 2010).

Potential conflicts that should be considered (e.g., other meetings).

NOTE: Please forward this mailing to other researchers and students that may be interested in participating. You may receive this message more than once.

Sincerely,

WGRC 2010 Steering Committee

Selbyana - a source for gesneriad publications

Selbyana is the peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. The journal has been published annually since 1975. Through its history, Selbyana has included a wealth of papers on gesneriads including valuable contributions by Hans Wiehler and Larry Skog.

The latest issue of Selbyana (Volume 29(2), 2008) contains four papers on gesneriads featuring 5 new species descriptions. Among these are two articles that John L. and I have co-written on new species of Drymonia. There is also a great new publication by John Boggan, Larry Skog and Eric Roalson on the genera Amalophyllon, Niphaea, and Phinaea. Last but certainly not least is an editorial by Wesley Higgins (Director of Systematics at Selby Gardens and Editor, Selbyana) on "The Two John Clarks" - a must read, I must say!

Reprints are available for many published issues of Selbyana, including the current one. These vary in price depending on the issue, but average around 20-30 dollars each. Orders can be placed from the Selby Botanical Gardens Press page on Selby's website:

Selby Botanical Gardens Press

Please note that the website is not currently up to date on pricing and availability. Please contact either me or Wes Higgins (whiggins@selby.org) for current information.

Several recent issues that may be of interest to gesneriad folks are 24(1), dedicated to Hans Wiehler (including "In Memoriam: Hans Wiehler 1931-2003, by J.R. Clark), 24(2) that includes "An Annotated Checklist of Gesneriaceae Type Specimens in the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens Herbarium (SEL)" by J.R. Clark, Holst and Skog, and issue 25(2) which is the "Special Issue: Gesneriaceae" featuring contributions by Skog, J.L. Clark, Chautems et al., and Roalson et al. This issue also contains the important biography on Hans Wiehler by Lee Desmon.

Finally, I would like to encourage anyone interested in the scientific side of taxonomy and tropical botany to consider subscribing to Selbyana. Annual subscriptions are $52 per year. Selbyana has been a vehicle for publishing gesneriad research, as well as important papers on bromeliads, orchids and other tropical plant groups, for over 30 years. Subscriptions help us to continue this valuable tradition. In return, Selbyana makes a great addition to any personal library focused on botany and plants. Consider having your local chapter subscribe and keeping the issues as part of your organization's library or archives.

~ John R. Clark

Important Drymonia specimen produces fruit at Selby Gardens

Drymonia pendula (Poeppig) Wiehler can be found throughout the Andean tropics and is one of the more striking species in the genus (shown here on display in Selby's Display House). The plant is characterized by long slender peduncles that terminate in conspicuous inflorescences flanked with red, showy bracts. The tubular corollas protrude from a mass of red calyces and are yellowish with blushed lobes. The species is undoubtedly pollinated by birds.





We have one specimen of this fascinating plant growing at Selby Gardens. Collected in 1998 by Bruce Holst in Peru (MSBG 1998-0223A), our specimen has been flowering for some time. Recently, several fruit have been produced. As if the flowers weren't spectacular enough, the fruit are rather showy themselves. As is evident in the photograph, the calyx remains attached (the red, leaf-like structures). The fruit itself consists of a yellow pericarp that reflexes at maturity while the inner, fleshy endocarp splits longitudinally to reveal hundreds of small seeds.

Recent happenings at the GRC

Time is most definitely zipping by. It has been well over a month since my last post and I more than owe this blog's followers an update.

First off, The GRC promotional brochure is almost complete and almost ready to be printed. We have finalized the text and images and we are now waiting on the penultimate proofs. The literature promises to be an informative and eye-catching promotion of the GRC and we are looking forward to having it for mailings, events, fundraisers and other opportunities.

On a similar note, we have been receiving a great deal of publicity in the last month, including a small article in a Sarasota regional paper, The Pelican Press. The piece featured the newly formed GRC, my position as director, and the plans for the new molecular program at Selby.

I also had the pleasure of being interviewed by our local NPR radio station. A short sound bite was aired on December 4th that introduced listeners to gesneriads, the GRC, and molecular systematics. You can listen to the segment at WGCU-NPR's website:

Gesneriad Research Center on WGCU-NPR


Just today (22 December 2008), Selby Gardens issued a press release on the new Drymonia that John L. and I are co-describing in the next issue of Selbyana. The press release can be seen on my website:

Selby Gardens Researchers describe New Species.


Images and details of this species can also be seen on my website:

Drymonia decora

Research is moving forward as well. As part of the Gesneriads of the Interface Zone project, we have requested and begun receiving herbarium specimens from around the world representing the Cyrtandra samoensis complex of species. Cyrtandra samoensis is the only species of Pacific cyrtandras that is widely dispersed. As you may recall from my previous posts and articles, most Pacific cyrtandras are geographically restricted to single archipelagos or even single islands. Researching how C. samoensis compares with other closely related species in the complex is needed to understand why this species has been able to disperse broadly while other closely related species have not. In turn, this information may help us to understand more broadly how and under what conditions certain species of cyrtandras become more greatly dispersed. Ultimately, this information will be used to test our hypotheses of how, when and why the genus Cyrtandra has managed to cover a third of the planet's circumference.

One final project that I have mentioned little, if at all, is a potential collaboration and field project in Costa Rica that we have established for Selby Research. I, along with Stig Dalstrom, Selby Gardens Orchid Identification Center Curator (pictured here with a Drymonia macrantha), recently returned from a week-long networking trip to Boracayan, Costa Rica - the wildlife refuge where we discovered Drymonia decora in 2003. The plan is to set up a collaboration with Boracayan and a Costa Rican research affiliate to conduct an all-vascular plant inventory of the refuge. We have already documented over 10 species of gesneriads from Boracayan. Our planned inventory project will most likely uncover more gesneriad species as we explore this botanically rich region of Central America. Look for more updates on this exciting endeavor in the coming year.

Okay...enough for now. Happy New Year!

~ John R.

More on technical issues

Sorry to trouble everyone with non-gesneriad issues, but my last two posts have caused a great deal of confusion warranting yet another clarification:

In my last post, I mentioned that the link and image could be seen "below." This was out of context - in your email there is nothing "below" and you will have to go to the actual blog to see the updated previous post ("A visit with John L." - the post with the link as well as the image).

When you sign up for email updates (which many of you have done...thanks!), you will occasionally receive an email like this one that contains all or part of the most recent post (I imagine you are reading this straight from your email and not directly from the blog site).

At the bottom of the message, you should see a sentence that reads, "You are subscribed to email updates from Gesneriad Research Center"

To go directly to the blog, click on this link. I encourage everyone to actually visit the blog from time to time. I will be continually updating images and other features and you may not know about these changes from reading only the email updates.

Thank you again for all the input and help. I always appreciate your comments and suggestions!

~ JRC

"Technical Difficulties"

Several readers mentioned the striking absence of a link in my previous post! The omission has since been remedied and an image has also been included (see below).

Thanks and enjoy!

JRC

A visit with John L.

Over the last couple of days, I have had the pleasure of visiting John L. Clark at his University of Alabama home in Tuscaloosa. He graciously invited me to give a talk as part of his departmental seminar series and I seized the opportunity. While here, I have had a great time talking gesneriad science and research with John L., as well as exploring opportunities for continued collaboration with him.

John L., as many of you know, has been making great strides in his own research including new species descriptions, more intensive fieldwork in Ecuador and Cuba, and basic research in gesneriad systematics.

John L. asked that I inform GRC blog readers of his newest outreach/educational project: gesneriad podcasts!! Follow this link (either click on or copy and paste into your browser) to download his first cast - 2008 Gesneriad Cuban Expedition:

http://bama.ua.edu/~jlclark4/links.html

John L., one of the few American botanists to gain access to Cuba's diverse and largely pristine flora since the Revolution in the 1950's, has made several discoveries of long lost gesneriads including Rhytidophyllum rhodocalyx, a species previously known only from the type herbarium specimen. I for one am looking forward to what else John L. will be rediscovering (or newly discovering) on future trips to this intriguing island paradise.

~ John R.