Instructors: Scott A. Mori and Nathan P. Smith
Introduction: The course will be presented in Portuguese but the reading materials and text on slide shows will be in English. When we have problems explaining what we mean, we will call on those who speak English well to help us.
Goals of the course: At the end of the project the students should have learned the following: 1) what the instructors and their colleagues have learned about the classification, ecology, and evolution of Lecythidaceae over the course of their careers, 2) how monographs and floras are published electronically, and 3) how research on Lecythidaceae applies to their own research.
Resources: All papers assigned for reading are available on the Lecythidaceae Pages of The New York Botanical Garden at http://sweetgum.nybg.org/lp/index.php.
The Lecythidaceae Pages are being partially moved to The Brazil nut family (Lecythidaceae) pages at http://lecythidaceae.myspecies.info/. These pages will be used to demonstrate how Scratchpads (http://scratchpads.eu/) can be utilized by botanists to produce websites dedicated to the presentation of data about plants they study.
Grading: Students will be graded on 1) their presentations, 2) a short description of their project, 3) one exam, and 3) class participation.
OCTOBER 7
Student introductions: where the students come from, the University they are working at, research interests, short description of their mentors’ research interests, what they want to learn from the course, and their long-term career goals.
Class projects. Each student will give a 15 minute presentation followed by a 10 minute discussion on some aspect of systematic botany with the goal of improving all of our research skills. The students can decide what they want to present, but may also chose from among the topics listed below. The presentations will be on the last day of the course.
- A review of Brazilian electronic media of use in plant systematics.
- A review of online resources of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (need to include IPNI).
- A review of resources available for preparing online distribution maps.
- Species Concepts discussion based on: Luckow, M. 1995. Species concepts, methods, and applications. Systematic Botany 20(4): 589–605.
- The use of various characters, e.g., leaf venation, stomatal types, vascular bundles in the petiole, bark, etc. in the classification of tropical plants.
- The number of branch orders in pachycaul versus leptocaul trees of species of Lecythidaceae.
- Explain how botanical plates can be prepared by botanists using digital images, scanning, and PhotoShop. The student selecting this project will make a plate of a species found in the Jardim Botânico using digital methods.
- What is Image J and how can it be used by plant systematists?
- International Code of Nomenclature. What are the most important rules that need to be learned by taxonomists?
- Research the sources of funding for doing research on systematic botany.
- How many plant families possess cortical bundles.
- Write a Lucid Key to five species of found on the grounds of the botanical garden. The student will need to download a free copy of Lucid. The older versions may be downloaded free-of-charge from the Lucid home page and report .
General Reading:
Mori, S. A. & G. T. Prance. 1990. Lecythidaceae – Part II: The zygomorophic-flowered New World genera (Couroupita, Corythophora, Bertholletia, Couratari, Eschweilera, & Lecythis. With a study of secondary xylem of Neotropical Lecythidaceae by Carl de Zeeuw. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21(II): 1-376.
Mori, S. A., N. P. Smith, X. Cornejo & G. T. Prance. 18 March 2010 onward. The Lecythidaceae Pages (http://sweetgum.nybg.org/lp/index.php). The New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, New York.
Prance, G. T. & S. A. Mori. 1979. Lecythidaceae-Part I. The actinomorphic-flowered New World Lecythidaceae (Asteranthos, Gustavia, Grias, Allantoma & Cariniana). Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 21: 1-270. Mori, S. A., A. Berkov, C. A. Gracie & E. Hecklau. 2012. Tropical Plant Collecting. From the Field to the Internet. TECC Editora, Florianópolis, Brazil.
Lecture: Introduction to the Lecythidaceae Pages by Scott Mori
Reading:
Mori, S. A. 2007. Introduction to the Brazil nut family. The Encyclopedia of Life. http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150771/.
Mori, S. A. 2009. Brazil nuts are seeds, not nuts. Plant Talk of The New York Botanical Garden. http://www.nybg.org/plant-talk/2009/08/science/brazil-nuts-are-seeds-not....
Mori, S. A. 2013. The Cannon ball tree. Plant Talk of the New York Botanical Garden. http://www.nybg.org/plant-talk/2013/01/science/the-cannon-ball-tree/.
Mori, S. A. 2013. The sapucaia tree. Plant Talk of The New York Botanical Garden. http://www.nybg.org/plant-talk/2013/02/science/the-sapucaia-tree/.
Pyle, R. L. 2011. Across the ages. Taxonomy comes of technological age. Youtube video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSzL2NwRemU&feature=youtube.
Lecture: Introduction to Scratchpads by Scott Mori
Reading:
Smith V.S., Rycroft S., Scott B., Baker E., Livermore L., Heaton A., Bouton K., Koureas D.N., Roberts D. (2012). Scratchpads 2.0: a virtual research environment infrastructure for biodiversity data. Accessed at http://scratchpads.eu on 2012-11-19
Lecture: My career as a tropical botanist by Scott Mori.
Reading:
Mori, S. A. 2012. My career. Pages 2-58 in Mori, S. A., A. Berkov, C. A. Gracie & E. Hecklau. 2012. Tropical Plant Collecting. From the Field to the Internet. TECC Editora, Florianópolis, Brazil.
Garden: Visit species of Lecythidaceae in the Jardim Botânico.
Lecture: Tropical plant collecting by Scott Mori.
Reading:
Bortolus, A. 2008. Error cascades in the biological sciences: the unwanted consequences of using bad taxonomy in ecology. Ambio 37(2): 114-118.
Castilho, C. V. et al. 2006. The use of French tree spikes to collect botanical vouchers in permanent plots: evaluation of potential impacts. Biotropica 38(4): 555-557.
Mori, S. A. 1998. Botanical vouchers: Seldom discussed problems and recommendations for inventories. Mesoamericana 3: 337–338.
OCTOBER 8
Garden: We will make a collection of a fertile collection of Lecythidaceae (includes photographing the features used in classification of the family).
Lecture: Vegetative characters of Neotropical Lecythidaceae by Scott Mori.
Lecture: Reproductive characters of neotropical Lecythidaceae
Projects: Work on projects.
OCTOBER 9
Demonstration: Entering collection data into a database. Managing and attaching images to collection records.
Lecture: Phylogeny of Neotropical Lecythidaceae by Scott Mori.
Flower dissections: Dissect material available.
Lecture: Actinomorphic clades of neotropical Lecythidaceae by Scott Mori.
Lecture: Zygomorphic-flowered clades of neotropical Lecythidaceae by Scott Mori.
Projects: Prepare presentations.
OCTOBER 10
Lecture: Ecology and biogeography of neotropical Lecythidaceae.
Reading:
Mori, S. A., P. Becker & D. Kincaid. 2001. Lecythidaceae of a central Amazonian lowland forest. Implications for conservation. Pages 54-67 in: in: R. O. Bierregaard, Jr., C. Gascon, T. E. Lovejoy & R. C. G. Mesquita (eds.). Lessons from Amazonia. The ecology and conservation of a fragmented forest. Yale University Press, New Haven & London.
Lecture: Pollination and dispersal biology of neotropical Lecythidaceae.
Reading:
Mori, S. A. & J. D. Boeke. 1987. Chapter XII. Pollination. In: S. A. Mori & Collaborators, The Lecythidaceae of La Fumée Mountain, French Guiana. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 44: 137-155.
Moraes de Potascheff, C., S. A. Mori & J. Lombardi. 2013. Pollination ecology of the Cerrado species Eschweilera nana (Lecythidaceae subfam. Lecythidoideae). Brittonia 00: 000-000.
Lecture: Species concepts in Lecythidaceae by Scott Mori.
Reading:
Ducke, A. 1948. Arvores Amazônicas e sua propagação. Boletim do Museu Goeldi de Historia Natural e Ethnographia. Belém 10: 81-92.
Kincaid, D. T., P. J. Anderson & S. A. Mori. 1998. Leaf variation in a tree of Pourouma tomentosa (Cecropiaceae) in French Guiana. Brittonia 50(3): 324-338.
Luckow, M. A. 1995. Species concepts: assumptions, methods, and applications. Systematic Botany 20(4): 589-605.Medri, M. E. & E. Lleras. 1979. Ecofisiologia de plantas da Amazônia. 2 - Anatomia foliar e ecofisiologia de Bertholletia excelsa Humb. & Bonpl. (Canstanha-do-Pará) - Lecythidaceae. Acta Amazonica 9: 15-23.
Herbarium: Examine specimens of the clades of neotropical Lecythidaceae.
Exam: The students will be presented with images of Lecythidaceae and asked to answer questions about them.
Projects: Prepare presentations.
OCTOBER 11
MORNING
Lecture (9 to 10 am): Tropical conservation by Scott Mori
Break
Presentations
Student 1: 10:00 to 10:25
Student 2: 10:30 to 10:55
Student 3: 11:00 to 11:25
Student 4: 11:30 to 11:55
AFTERNOON
Presentations
Student 5: 1:00 to 1:25
Student 6: 1:30 to 1:55
Student 7: 2:00 to 2:25
Break (to 3:00)
Student 8: 3:00 to 3:25
Student 9: 3:30 to 3:55
Student 10: 4:00 to 4:25
student 11: 4:30 to 5:00
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