1. Field Work, Herbaria, Databases, Floras,
and Monographs for Plant Systematics
Spring 2012

2. Systematics Science of organismal diversity
Discovery, description and interpretation of biological diversity
Discovery and description of the evolutionary tree of life (phylogeny)
Synthesis of information in the form of predictive classification systems
Production of identification tools (e.g., keys, floras and faunas, monographs, databases, etc.)

3. What systematists do (when they are not doing phylogenetics)
Field work
Specimens/herbaria
Databases, keys
Floras, monographs, websites

4. Field Work

5. Important steps in doing field work
Figure out where the plants grow (herbarium specimens, databases)
Make contacts in those countries
Solicit appropriate collecting and export permits
Find the funds to do the field work!
Get the proper equipment (either take it with you or get it when you arrive)

6. Important steps cont’d.
Arrange for transportation (and lodging if visiting a field station)
Collect the specimens (take any necessary measurements in the field; take photos)
Process the specimens (drying, sorting into duplicates)
Make and distribute the labels (including georeferencing)
Arrange for shipping of your duplicates to your institution

7. Collecting Challenges

8. Costa Rica Collecting bamboo leaf samples for DNA
(DNA usually requires a special permit)
Bamboo flowers!

9. Pressing
specimens

10. Specimens are stored in the herbarium
A herbarium is a plant library,
containing pressed and dried
plant and fungal specimens.

11. Fig. 18.2
Fig. 18.2

12. Fig. 18.3

13. Cofre del Perote, Veracruz, Mexico These plants are now
part of the living bamboo
collection at the
Clavigero Botanical Garden,
Instituto de Ecología,
Xalapa, Mexico.

14. Buds and leaves preserved
in alcohol for anatomical study
Leaves in silica gel
for DNA extraction

15. Ada Hayden Herbarium Iowa State University

16. USDA PLANTS Database

17. Collections of Chusquea serpens from Costa Rica

18. Chusquea latifolia
(Colombia)
Chusquea serpens
(Costa Rica)

19. Chusquea latifolia drawings

20. Fig. A2.1

21. Leaf anatomy
and
micromorphology

22. Description and mapping of a new species

23. Chusquea species description per decade

24. (Arundinaria appalachiana) A new bamboo native to the U.S.A.
Hillcane
(Arundinaria appalachiana)
A new bamboo native to the U.S.A.
described in 2006
We still don’t know our own flora completely!

25. Flora of North America http://floranorthamerica.org/
A flora is a taxonomic treatment of plant diversity
in a given region or political unit or habitat.

26. Grasses of Iowa

27. A monograph is a
taxonomic treatment
of a particular taxon,
usually a family or genus
or subdivision of one of
these.