Penn State Herbarium (PAC), Whitmore 13 Alfred Traverse, Curator 2013 Annual Report

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1 2013 was a good, productive year for PAC. Use of the herbarium Penn State Herbarium (PAC), Whitmore 13 Alfred Traverse, Curator 2013 Annual Report The Activity Sign-In sheets show 429 person-visits during the year. This compares with 395 in The actual total is probably about 500, as some visitors neglect to sign in. Tours of the herbarium Informal tours in Whitmore 13 occur frequently, occasionally by persons who accidentally see the sign on the door: HERBARIUM, and want to know what that is. Formal, arranged tours 1. Two people came from Forestry Resources because of their interest in plants--especially trees--and the herbarium's contribution to their study. 2. Four staff members of the Penn State Arboretum came to learn how we preserve data about plants-- especially by the preparation of herbarium specimens. 3. Seven people came from the Centre County Historical Society, prompted by what they had heard from the Penn State library staff members about the Evan Pugh herbarium that came to Penn State with the first president. The CCHS members spent an entire Saturday morning in 13 Whitmore, learning how to make herbarium specimens and how they are organized in PAC, the history of our herbarium and much more. 4. Twenty-three students and a faculty member from the course, Horticulture 232, came for a two-hour tour as part of that course. The tour was similar to that for CCHS. (One of the students has worked many hours since that tour as a volunteer assistant.) Work in PAC by botanists from other institutions 1. Nuri Benet Pierce, San Diego State University, a recognized authority on the Chenopodiaceae, worked in PAC for about a week in June. PAC is an important collection for her work, because H.A. Wahl, long time PAC curator, was a world authority on that family and assembled in PAC a large specimen collection. Attached is an copy that illustrates the scope of Benet Pierce's work. 2. Denise Fernando, University of Melbourne, Australia, was at Penn State for much of the year. She is well known for her work on accumulation by trees of various metallic elements. She wanted to learn techniques for collection and preparation of herbarium specimens, in order to make voucher specimens to accompany her specimens for the chemical work. We instructed her in collection and preparation of specimens of Acer rubruin, her subject tree species here. During the autumn months Ms. Fernando also helped in the herbarium as a volunteer, mounting specimens, preparing labels and labeling specimens, etc. Attached is a copy of one of many s from Denise during her work in PAC. 1

2 Status of the collection At the end of 2012, the count of accessioned specimens was 105,492. On 31 December, 2013, the count was 106,623, meaning that 1,131 specimens were added in Many of the new specimens were from Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the "Land" in which Heidelberg is located. A prominent German botanist, Ulrich Kull, has taken a keen interest in PAC, because of its starting core, "Dr. Pugh's Herbarium," including Pugh's collections made in the Heidelberg area in the spring and summer of 1856, and the herbarium of G. W. Bischoff, Heidelberg botany professor and Director of the Heidelberg Botanical Garden. Pugh bought a large part of Bischoff s herbarium at auction during his time in Heidelberg. Professor Kull is especially interested in the collections in the Heidelberg area made by Pugh. He collects the same species from Baden-Württemberg, to illustrate points of difference in the distribution of the species. He is also interested in the collections made by other German botanists, specimens of which were obtained by Pugh through his purchase of part of the Bischoff herbarium. PAC's public exhibitions in Forest Resources Building, Bigler Road In 2012, personnel from the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum in the Deike Building visited PAC and were very impressed with its status as an important scientific collection. They suggested that funding support for PAC might be obtained as a "museum." To do so would require that PAC have a public display about its work somewhere on the University Park campus. After some disappointment in the College of Science, we were successful in obtaining an invitation to exhibit in the Forest Resources Building from Dr. Michael G. Messina, Director of Forest Resources. We were given use of a case near the entrance to their building for exhibitions which change from time to time.. We had exhibits in Forest Resources all during The plan is to change the exhibit every six months. Jan.-June, 2013, the theme was "What is a Herbarium? The exhibit stressed how specimens are prepared and the features of plant material that make a herbarium possible, and as a scientific record, important. July-Dec., 2013, the exhibit was about the acquisition of "PACMA", the herbarium of the institution that was for decades the Penn State School of Forestry (PSSF), located in Mont Alto, PA. One part of the PSSF herbarium of special interest to forestry is the Herbarium of Trees and Shrubs of Dr. John Harshberger, Professor of Botany at the University of Pennsylvania. Harshberger left this herbarium to PSSF by his will, in Publication about the Evan Pugh collections, the original heart of Penn State's herbarium Dr. Barney Lipscomb, editor of BRIT (= Botanical Research Institute of Texas), an important publication in systematic botany, expressed an interest to the curator in publishing an article on "Dr. Pugh's Herbarium." It was published in December, 2013; a reprint of the paper is attached as an Appendix to this report. Impact of DNA research on plant classification and nomenclature, and on PAC As a result largely of genetic chemical studies, DNA research, there have been dramatic changes in plant classification and nomenclature. The Emeritus curator of PAC, Dr. Carl S. Keener, and I decided that we must make some effort to bring PAC into at least approximate agreement with the Flora of North America publications. We began this work earnestly in Some of the changes involve only a few dozen or hundreds of specimens, for example, the abolition of the maple family, Aceraceae--they are now all in Sapindaceae--Or, the transfer of such familiar plants as foxglove (Digitalis) from Scrophulariaceae to Plantaginaceae. However, with some of the large families, such as Poaceae (grasses), Cyperaceae (sedges), Asteraceae, (sunflowers), Brassicaceae (mustards) and Orchidaceae, it is a matter of thousands of specimens requiring new labels, new folders and many hours of physical labor in moving folders from 2

3 one part of the herbarium to another. This labor will continue at least through the year One important aspect of the work is to bring PAC into accord with Rhoads & Black, The Plants of Pennsylvania (2nd ed.) The authors of that important work have accepted most of the changes to names and assignments from the many volumes of the Flora of North America published so far. For visitors to PAC, concurrence of arrangement of our specimens with Rhoads & Black and the Flora ofna volumes is helpful. Status of volunteer workers in PAC We continue to profit from the help of AnaLu MacVean, a professional herbarium curator (Guatemala Herbarium, Missouri Botanical Garden Herbarium). Ms. MacVean drives over from Hollidaysburg several days a month to help us in PAC. She has been working on a list of all of Dr. Pugh's specimens and is now expanding this project to look especially at the hundreds of specimens Pugh obtained in 1856 from the herbarium of Dr. Bischoff, and thus from many other German botanists. Cohn Mellace and Nicholas Schmidt, Penn State undergraduates, both of whom also assisted us throughout 2012, have worked about every week of 2013, mounting specimens, preparing specimen folders, and helping us in many other ways. ALFRED TRAVERSE, PH.D., CURATOR Appendix 1 Paper on Dr. Pugh's Herbarium Appendix 2 s from botanists from other institutions who used PAC in

4 APPENDIX 2A Al Traverse From: Sent: To: Subject: Al Traverse Friday, June 28, :39 PM 'Nun i Benet Pierce' RE: I am printing this out to take to PAC. I have sent you some questions via Pacherbarium. I hope you can be as specific as possible about what I need to do. I don't like to depend on my interp. of FNA. WE have just had a very destructive hail storm. Stones size of large grapes. Covered ground. Best, Al Alfred Traverse 1245 Westerly Parkway, #59 State College, PA , USA Phone: From: Sent: To: Subject: Nun i Benet Pierce [mailto:nuribpierce@gmail.com] Thursday, June 27, :00 AM Al Traverse; Alfred Traverse Hi AL, Thank you again for all your help in every respect. Thank you very much. Here is the typewritten text that I also left at PAC. Please let me know if something is amiss and I will make sure I work on it. Take care and thank you for all you do for the Chenopodium herbarium plants! Nuri Chenopodium sp. * New Genus Dysphania left out C. pumilio to start folder. DYSPAHNIA PUMILIO Other species under Dysphania, to be found in Flora of North America. Several are at PAC in the NA, Central Am. and S. America collections. * Folder of C. carnosulum must now be C. littoreum. C. carnosulum is a S. American plant. * Of the Folders that were C. desiccatum (there were 9) --Open one for C. pratericola Rydb (specimens of this are in folder # 1) --Folders # 2 and # 9 are the true specimens of C. desiccatum A. Nels. or C. desiccatum var desiccatum but this is the old name. 4

5 --Folders #'s 3,4,5,6,7,8 should stay as C. desiccatum var leptophylloides They will eventually be reevaluated and moved. Some of these folders are back in the cabinet. * Loan accession numbers - 17 specimens PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC PAC Mike Simpson will request these officially. 5

6 APPENDIX 2B Al Traverse From: Sent: To: Subject: Categories: Al Traverse [atraverse comcast.net] Monday, September 30, :37 PM 'Denise Fernando' RE: finalising my voucher samples Red Category Hi Denise: It's fun to work with you and your maple specimens. Thursday is the best day, but phone me to arrange another time, if necessary Al Alfred Traverse 1245 Westerly Parkway, #59 State College, PA , USA Phone: From: Denise Fernando Sent: Monday, September 30, :06 AM To: Subject: finalising my voucher samples Hi Al, As I mentioned earlier, I had most of last week off doing some last-minute sightseeing in NYC and Hew Haven CT while the weather is OK - and before heading back to Australia in 6 weeks. Later this week I'll be delivering a departmental seminar, so at the moment I'm very busy preparing. Unfortunately therefore I won't make it to the PAC Herbarium on Thursday 3rd October as intended. However, I have penciled in next week Thursday 10th October to finalise my vouchers by attaching labels etc. that I've already typed up on your PC - just need to print and cut them to size. I really appreciate your time, expertise and tutelage in helping me get these vouchers lodged. I hope your wife's recovery is coming along well. I'll see you Thursday next week if that fits in with your plans. Otherwise, any day Mon (7th Oct) -Thurs (10th Oct) of that week is fine if you'd like to suggest an alternative day. Kind Regards, Denise Dr Denise Fernando Department of Botany Biological Sciences 1 La Trobe University Bundoora, Vic Australia d.fernando@latrobe.edu.au 6