Collections Notebook

When you collect an herbarium specimen (see Herbarium Specimens), you need to write down the information about where you collected it, how big the tree was, what color the flowers and/or fruits were, and, maybe, what the plant is used for. You do this because if you don't you will forget these things, and you need the information to fill out the label that goes with the specimen. All botanists carry a collections notebook in the field for recording this information. My collections notebook from the mid- 1980's when I was working in the Peruvian Amazon is shown above.

Couple of things to note if you can make them out in the image. After 28 years, two of the collections, Nos. 183 and 189, still don't have a name. Collections Nos. 186 and 188, a Caryocar and a Couepia were determined by Sir Ghillean Prance, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew for eleven years and Vice-President for Botanical Science at NYBG before that and the person who hired me. No. 187, a Pourouma (see Uvilla), was determined by the late C.C. Berg, Dutch botanist, great guy, and world expert on the Moraceae, an enormous plant family comprising over 40 genera and 1000 species. 

I love looking through all of the stuff that's inside this old collections notebook, but the cover (see below) is also pretty fantastic. Was all that I could find at the time in Iquitos, Peru, but the bunny holding the tulip with the little bird on it seems perfect. [NOTE: I especially like the fact that I drew a moustache on the bunny for some reason].   

Fearless (From The Archive)

"Any way that you could climb up there and get a couple of branches with flowers?"

Villagers that have grown up in the forest can be creative and fearless tree climbers. And this is free-climbing, i.e. with no ropes, belts, or back-ups. A quick scan of the Dipterocarpus tree revealed that it was covered with flowers.  And this species is a mast fruiter that only flowers and fruits every couple of years.  So I posed the question to my local assistant.  The image below shows him sizing up the tree and making a quick decision about the costs (to him) and the benefits (to me) of climbing it.

He decided to try it.  The image below shows him about 15 m up the tree, carefully climbing the lianas and dangling a long collecting pole that he has tied around his waist. Goes without saying, but these guys are fearless. [NOTE: The climb was a complete success and we got some beautiful specimens of Dipterocarpus oblongifolius Blume. The climber is a Dayak; the tree is one of several conspecifics growing in lowland forest in the Sanggau district of West Kalimantan].

Full disclosure: The actual question, posed in my halting Bahasa, was undoubtedly simply "bisa?" (Can you do it?).

Rattan Bundles

A pan through the back of the truck that we used in the field last year in central Vietnam (see Pressing Plectocomiopsis). The bundles are filled with rattan specimens. Fifteen of these collections have been found to be new species to science (thx, Andrew). [Note: The background music is what the driver had playing (continually) on the radio. The red box of "Choco-Pies" belonged to Andrew].

Fearless

"Any way that you could climb up there and get a couple of branches with flowers?"

Villagers that have grown up in the forest can be creative and fearless tree climbers. And this is free-climbing, i.e. with no ropes, belts, or back-ups. A quick scan of the Dipterocarpus tree revealed that it was covered with flowers.  And this species is a mast fruiter that only flowers and fruits every couple of years.  So I posed the question to my local assistant.  The image below shows him sizing up the tree and making a quick decision about the costs (to him) and the benefits (to me) of climbing it.

He decided to try it.  The image below shows him about 15 m up the tree, carefully climbing the lianas and dangling a long collecting pole that he has tied around his waist. Goes without saying, but these guys are fearless. [NOTE: The climb was a complete success and we got some beautiful specimens of Dipterocarpus oblongifolius Blume. The climber is a Dayak; the tree is one of several conspecifics growing in lowland forest in the Sanggau district of West Kalimantan].

Full disclosure: The actual question, posed in my halting Bahasa, was undoubtedly simply "bisa?" (Can you do it?).

Herbarium Specimens (from the Archive)

Some of my work involves collecting herbarium specimens. The specimen, ideally, will have leaves, flowers, and fruits, and all of these plant parts need to be carefully pressed and dried so that they can be mounted on an herbarium sheet. Big fruits sometimes need to be sliced up to press and dry.   The top image shows the fruits of Rhigospira quadrangularis, or "yahuar huayo", being sawed into slices at the IIAP field station outside of Jenaro Herrera in Peru (see Jenaro Herrera). The fruit slices and leaves will be folded into newspapers and dried in the plant drier shown glowing in the background.

The bottom image shows one of the herbarium sheets made from the Rhigospira collection.  This specimen is in the herbarium of the Chicago Field Museum; duplicates of the same collection are deposited in the IIAP herbarium and NYBG. [NOTES: That's my wife sawing through the Rhigospira fruits (thx, Elysa).  Close inspection of the herbarium label suggests that I had mis-identified the species and that it was later corrected by A. Leeuwenberg.  And yes, the glowing plant drier did eventually catch on fire.  Originally posted on December 4, 2008].

Pressing Plectocomiopsis

Andrew and Biu Van Thanh made over 120 collections of 40 different palm species during the fieldwork in Vietnam.  Some of the collections look a lot like new species, e.g. the species of Plectocomiopsis being pressed in this video. [NOTE: The specimen was collected in the Son Thanh Nature Reserve]. 

Herbarium Specimens

Some of my work involves collecting herbarium specimens. The specimen, ideally, will have leaves, flowers, and fruits, and all of these plant parts need to be carefully pressed and dried so that they can be mounted on an herbarium sheet. Big fruits sometimes need to be sliced up to press and dry.   The top image shows the fruits of Rhigospira quadrangularis, or "yahuar huayo", being sawed into slices at the IIAP field station outside of Jenaro Herrera in Peru (see Jenaro Herrera). The fruit slices and leaves will be folded into newspapers and dried in the plant drier shown glowing in the background.

The bottom image shows one of the herbarium sheets made from the Rhigospira collection.  This specimen is in the herbarium of the Chicago Field Museum; duplicates of the same collection are deposited in the IIAP herbarium and NYBG. [NOTES: That's my wife sawing through the Rhigospira fruits (thx, Elysa).  Close inspection of the herbarium label suggests that I had mis-identified the species and that it was later corrected by A. Leeuwenberg.  And yes, the glowing plant drier did eventually catch on fire].