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plants

August 7, 2019 by wpengine

30 years ago today: A milestone for Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Bonnie Isaac in the museum herbarium
Bonnie in the lower herbarium at the Carnegie Museum in the early 1990s.

On August 7, 1989, Bonnie Isaac started at the Carnegie Museum. She was initially hired at the museum to work on a project to database the plant collection, making it searchable and therefore more useable to understand the occurrence and distribution of plants across Pennsylvania (and beyond). Since then, a lot has happened. Thirty years later, Bonnie is now Collection Manager in the Section of Botany and Co-chair of Collections.

It is no exaggeration to say Bonnie’s influence on the Section of Botany has been monumental. And continues to be.

As one of the top plant collectors over the Carnegie Museum’s 120+ year history, she has actively contributed to the growth of the herbarium, collecting several tens of thousands of specimens from across Pennsylvania and North America. These specimens now reside in herbaria across the world and are actively used by researchers around the world to make exciting discoveries.

yellow jewelweed specimen collected by Bonnie Isaac and Joe Isaac
Collected on this day, eight years after she started working at the Carnegie Museum, this specimen of pale touch-me-not (aka yellow jewelweed; Impatiens pallida) was collected by Bonnie Isaac (and her spouse, Joe Isaac) on August 7, 1997 along the roadside at Neff Barrens, Huntington County, PA. Largely thanks to Bonnie, this specimen (and many more!) can be found online.

Bonnie played a pivotal role in the digitization of the Carnegie Museum herbarium, one of the first of its size to have all specimens in the entire collection with label data entered into a database and publicly available online. A huge accomplishment that took over a decade of her career to complete, the collection database has increased the research value and led to a massive increase in specimen use. The digitization of the herbarium continues today through a project facilitated by Bonnie and funded by the National Science Foundation to make high resolution digital images and georeferences (assign latitude/longitude to plot on a map) to all specimens collected in the region.

Bonnie Isaac collecting plants
Bonnie pressing plants in the field in 2017.

Although she’s humble about it, Bonnie is an incredible field botanist and leading expert on the plants of Pennsylvania, especially those rare and threatened species of conservation concern. An expert in natural history collections management and methods, Bonnie has a specialized diploma on herbarium techniques from Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, England. She has a master’s degree from Youngstown State University, where she studied the ecology and distribution of a rare species.

Bonnie’s science and botanical knowledge impacts conservation decisions. Since 2001, she has served as a member of the Vascular Plant Technical Committee of the Pennsylvania Biological Survey, serving at various times over the past decades as president and recording secretary, which advised the state in determining the status of endangered and threatened plant species. She is currently working on a project funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources through the Wild Resources Conservation Program, revisiting many historic sites of 10 threatened species across the state to assess their current rarity status.

Beyond the walls of the museum, Bonnie has a huge impact on botanical research in Pennsylvania and fosters a public appreciation for the role of plants in our lives and ecosystem health. She is a founding member of the “Pennsylvania Botany Symposium,” a group of committed volunteers who provide education and networking opportunities for professionals, amateurs, and students of botany, including a biennial symposium that gathers Pennsylvania botanists of all levels. Bonnie is also very active in the Botanical Society of Western Pennsylvania, one of the oldest botanical organizations in the country.  She has served as President of the organization since 2005.

And if that is not enough – she is friendly, too!

Happy work-iversary, Bonnie!

Check back for more! Botanists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History share digital specimens from the herbarium on dates they were collected. 

Mason Heberling is Assistant Curator of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Bonnie Isaac, Botany, herbarium, plants, Section of Botany

July 12, 2019 by wpengine

Who Likes Teaberry? Collected 56 Years Ago

teaberry specimen

This specimen of eastern teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens), also called American wintergreen, was collected on July 12, 1963 by Leroy Henry (Carnegie Museum Curator of Botany at the time) and Dean Ross in a cranberry bog in Somerset county, Pennsylvania.

It is perhaps best known by many as a unique wintergreen flavor of chewing gum and ice cream, especially in Pennsylvania. Atlas Obscura says Teaberry ice cream: “sometimes looks like Pepto-Bismol and smells like Bengay.” Penn State Berkey Creamery calls it  the  “best treat of a bygone era.”

Teaberry is in the heath (blueberry) family, Ericaceae.  It is a small shrub growing along the ground, found across the Eastern US and has distinctive evergreen leaves.

Find a high resolution image of this teaberry specimen (and more) online at midatlanticherbaria.org.

Check back for more! Botanists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History share digital specimens from the herbarium on dates they were collected. They have embarked on a three-year project to digitize nearly 190,000 plant specimens collected in the region, making images and other data publicly available online. This effort is part of the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Project (mamdigitization.org), a network of thirteen herbaria spanning the densely populated urban corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York City to achieve a greater understanding of our urban areas, including the unique industrial and environmental history of the greater Pittsburgh region. This project is made possible by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 1801022.

Mason Heberling is Assistant Curator of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Anthropocene, Botany, collected on this day, Leroy Henry, Mason Heberling, plants

July 8, 2019 by wpengine

A Plant Popular During the Revolutionary War

Ceanothus americanus tea plant specimen

Happy Independence Day! What better way to celebrate than with herbarium specimens of New Jersey tea (Ceanothus americanus), named for the fact that it was used as a substitute for tea by colonists and American soldiers during the American Revolutionary War. There was presumably a shortage of black tea, which was imported. Although the leaves contain no caffeine, it fit the bill. The plant also has a much longer history before European settlement.  Tribes of the Missouri River used the leaves for tea as well, and tribes of the Great Lakes used the plant to treat digestive ailments.

New Jersey tea, also called Indian tea, can be found not only in New Jersey, but across the eastern United States.  It is in the buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae), which is unsurprisingly also family to introduced shrub/tree, common buckthorn  (Rhamnus cathartica).

Ceanothus americanus tea plant specimen

These specimens were both collected in Pennsylvania on the 4th of July.  One in Luzerne county by Alfred Twining 1907, who wrote a flora of Northeastern PA ten years later.  Many of his specimens are at the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science, and Art in Scranton, PA.

The other Independence Day New Jersey Tea specimen was collected by Robert Leberman in Crawford county in 1986.  Leberman established the bird banding program at the Carnegie Musuem of Natural History’s Powdermill Nature Reserve in 1961.  It continues today as the longest running, year-round banding research operation in the country.

New Jersey Tea is a beautiful shrub, important for many pollinators, and food source for other wildlife. The plant is also sold commercially by many native plant nurseries to plant in your yard or garden.

All plants have a cultural history and a scientific one. As you remember the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution, think too about New Jersey Tea’s impact on our country. Did John Hancock drink it before signing? (Totally made that up).

Find high resolution images of these specimens (and 290 more!) online: http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/list.php?db=328&taxa=Ceanothus+americanus&usethes=1&taxontype=2

Check back for more! Botanists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History share digital specimens from the herbarium on dates they were collected. They have embarked on a three-year project to digitize nearly 190,000 plant specimens collected in the region, making images and other data publicly available online. This effort is part of the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Project (mamdigitization.org), a network of thirteen herbaria spanning the densely populated urban corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York City to achieve a greater understanding of our urban areas, including the unique industrial and environmental history of the greater Pittsburgh region. This project is made possible by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 1801022.  

Mason Heberling is Assistant Curator of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Anthropocene, Botany, collected on this day, Mason Heberling, plants

June 21, 2019 by wpengine

Cow Parsnip: All collected 112, 85, and 59 years ago!

cow parsnip specimen

Whoa, this plant will catch your attention!  Although towering in at up to eight feet tall with leaves two feet wide, Cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum, aka Heracleum lanatum) is not a tree, but herbaceous (non-woody). This species is the largest member of the carrot family (Apiaceae) native to North America. It can be found along shaded roadsides, waterways, and the edge of woods. Its flower structure consists of many small white flowers on short stalks connected at a single point – an umbrella of flowers – botanically known as an “umbel.” Umbels are characteristic of the carrot family (think of the perhaps better recognized Queen Anne’s lace, Daucus carota, which is also known as “wild carrot”).

These specimens were all collected on June 21 – but years apart in 1907 (Westmoreland county, PA), 1934 (Pittsburgh), and 1960 (Beaver county, PA).

cow parsnip specimen

This species is often confused with giant hogweed. Cow parsnip is often confused for the non-native plant called giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum). Giant hogweed has hit the news media in the past few years and is on many people’s radar, as it is considered a significant public human health concern. This plant is highly poisonous and designated as a federal noxious weed. The sap of giant hogweed causes “phytophotodermatitis,” meaning serious skin inflammation occurs when contacted skin is exposed to sunlight.  Skin rashes can be very severe.  The sap can cause temporary or permanent blindness. Cow parsnip has a similar set of chemicals in its sap, and although not as poisonous, be careful around these plants.

Giant hogweed can be 8-20 feet tall with leaves up to 5 feet wide!  It is thought to be eradicated in Pennsylvania. Although similar to the Pennsylvania native species cow parsnip, giant hogweed is noticeably larger in height and flower size. (see herbarium specimen here – it took 6 sheets!)

See here for a nice comparison between these similar species.

Given the size of members of the genus, the name Heracleum (derivative of Hercules) is quite fitting.

cow parsnip specimen
cow parsnip specimen

Specimen records and images for this species in the CM herbarium are now publicly available online.

Check back for more! Botanists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History share digital specimens from the herbarium on dates they were collected. They have embarked on a three-year project to digitize nearly 190,000 plant specimens collected in the region, making images and other data publicly available online. This effort is part of the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Project (mamdigitization.org), a network of thirteen herbaria spanning the densely populated urban corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York City to achieve a greater understanding of our urban areas, including the unique industrial and environmental history of the greater Pittsburgh region. This project is made possible by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 1801022.

Mason Heberling is Assistant Curator of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Related Content

Collected On This Day in 2001: Giant Hogweed

Collected On This Day in 1982: One Specimen Isn’t Always Enough

Pressed Flowers Come Alive by Telling Their Pollination Story

Carnegie Museum of Natural History Blog Citation Information

Blog author: Heberling, Mason
Publication date: June 21, 2019

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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Botany, collected on this day, Mason Heberling, plants

June 7, 2019 by wpengine

Collected 189 Years Ago: Strawberry Bush

strawberry bush specimen

This is a special specimen. The Carnegie Museum of Natural History herbarium is full of specimens of scientific and historical importance. And this is a notable one, collected in June 1830 by William Darlington in West Chester, Pennsylvania. William Darlington (1782-1863) was an important figure in the history of Pennsylvania botany. Darlington was a physician, politician (US House of Representatives 1815-1823), and as you might guess – a botanist! At the University of Pennsylvania, Darlington studied botany under Benjamin Smith Barton, a well-known botanist who also trained Meriwether Lewis (of the Lewis & Clark Expedition). He spent most of his life in West Chester, PA. He wrote some of the earliest botanical works, including a flora of Chester County in 1826 and others on agriculture. Many of his specimens are among the earliest documentation of Pennsylvania’s flora and are preserved in the William Darlington herbarium at West Chester University.

This particular specimen is of the native shrub Euonymus americanus, commonly called “strawberry  bush.” Despite the name, it is not related to strawberries, but is in the bittersweet/spindle family, Celastraceae. You may recognize some similarities with the related species from East Asia, burning bush (Euonymus alatus), which is commonly planted due to its bright red fall color (around Cathedral of Learning in Pittsburgh, and many other places).  However, burning bush should not be planted, as it is invasive, spreading into natural areas.

label from strawberry bush specimen

In the Carnegie Museum herbarium, there are 62 specimens collected by Darlington between 1828 and 1840, mostly from Chester County, PA.

How’d some of Darlington’s specimens end up at the Carnegie Museum? This specimen is part of Jacob Wolle’s personal collection, who was the grandfather of William Holland, the first director of the museum.

This specimen image is now publicly available online.

Read more about Darlington and  other influential figures in the history of botany in Pennsylvania at Herbarium World.

Check back for more! Botanists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History share digital specimens from the herbarium on dates they were collected. They have embarked on a three-year project to digitize nearly 190,000 plant specimens collected in the region, making images and other data publicly available online. This effort is part of the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Project (mamdigitization.org), a network of thirteen herbaria spanning the densely populated urban corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York City to achieve a greater understanding of our urban areas, including the unique industrial and environmental history of the greater Pittsburgh region. This project is made possible by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 1801022.  

Mason Heberling is Assistant Curator of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Botany, Mason Heberling, plants, William Darlington

May 31, 2019 by wpengine

Poison Ivy – Collected on This Day

poison ivy growing as a shrub

Watch out for poison ivy!  It is a fascinatingly cool plant but can also be dangerous.  This flowering specimen of poison ivy was collected on May 31, 1903 by John Shafer (the first curator of botany at Carnegie Museum) and O.P. Medsger in the Laurel Highlands of southwestern PA.

poison ivy herbarium sheet

What is Poison Ivy?

Poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) is a woody vine found in forest understories, but does especially well on forest edges. It is very common in urban and suburban areas. It takes many forms, climbing high up a tree, along the ground, or even a short shrubby thing. The leaves take a range of shapes, but as the adage goes (“leaves of 3, let it be”), it has three leaflets.

poison ivy in a tree

Poison Ivy Chemistry – What Causes the Rash?

Poison ivy is known for its chemistry, producing a class of organic compounds call urushiol. These are found in the plant’s sap and on leaves/stems/roots. Urushiol causes a nasty rash to those who touch it. Not all people have a reaction (but most are sensitive). Don’t be too confident if you haven’t had a rash before – it can develop with repeated exposure.  Incredibly itchy, the rash can become a serious health issue if infected, especially if its oils get in contact with your eyes, face, or throat.  The rash can appear days after exposure and can last for weeks.

poison ivy rash

Research indicates poison ivy will get more poisonous with climate change, both in terms of growth and producing higher quantities of forms of urushiol particularly toxic to humans.

Is Poison Ivy a Weed?

Some people call Poison ivy because of its fear-causing rash, but it is native to eastern North America.  The species has a wide distribution across our region, and across the world (native subspecies in China). Although native, the species seems to be getting more common as we create more forest edge habitat.   The colorful foliage can be quite beautiful in the fall, and the berries are a food source for birds and other animals. Humans seem to be the only ones allergic to it.

poison ivy colored foliage in autumn
poison ivy berries

Plants Similar to Poison Ivy

Poison ivy is often confused with other non-poisonous and poisonous plants.

Some common confusions:

  1. Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), a vine in the grape but different leaves, and not with leaves of three
  2. Box elder maple (Acer negundo), a tree that has compound leaves unlike most stereotypical maples,  but with samaras (aka “helicopter” seeds)

Poison ivy and some other rash-causing plants are in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae) – which also includes poison oak (not found in Pennsylvania, but in western USA), staghorn sumac (not rash causing), poison sumac (rash causing, but you likely won’t come across it unless in very wet habitats)….and even a few familiar species like  pistachio,  cashew, and mango (some people are allergic).

What an amazing plant.

This specimen image is now publicly available online: http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/individual/index.php?occid=12232529&clid=0

Check back for more! Botanists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History share digital specimens from the herbarium on their collection dates. They have embarked on a three-year project to digitize nearly 190,000 plant specimens collected in the region (like Poison ivy!) making images and other data publicly available online. This effort is part of the Mid-Atlantic Megalopolis Project (mamdigitization.org), a network of thirteen herbaria spanning the densely populated urban corridor from Washington, D.C. to New York City to achieve a greater understanding of our urban areas, including the unique industrial and environmental history of the greater Pittsburgh region. This project is made possible by the National Science Foundation under grant no. 1801022.  

Mason Heberling is Assistant Curator of Botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Botany, conservation, herbarium, Mason Heberling, pennsylvania, plants

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