| BEN |
| BOTANICAL ELECTRONIC NEWS |
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| ISSN 1188-603X |
| No. 148 November 2, 1996 | aceska@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Victoria, B.C. |
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During field work for the BC Conservation Data Centre this past summer I had the privilege to record occurrences of two vascular species that were new to me and are apparently new to the BC Flora.
TRICHOSTEMA OBLONGUM (Labiatae-Lamiaceae) has up to now remained unmentioned in the provincial botanical literature. Hitchcock and Cronquist (1973) give the range of this plant as "Wn and adj Ida to Cal and W Nev".
Trichostema oblongum Benth. is a small, annual member of the mint family (Lamiaceae) with strongly aromatic, oval leaves and small blue flowers in the leaf axils. Distinctive features of the plant are the odd upward bend of the flower and the bundled style and filaments arching over the corolla from the back. Our plants were only 2.5 to 5 cm tall at flowering time. Collections and photographs of this species were obtained by Ron Walker and myself on July 12, 1996, ca. 10 km west of Castlegar. The habitat was a vernally moist site within a large, south-facing forest opening caused by shallow soils over bedrock. Trichostema grew in a carpet of moss (Aulacomnium androgynum) together with scattered Cystopteris fragilis, Juncus cf. bufonius, Perideridia gairdneri, Dodecatheon pulchellum, Deschampsia danthonioides, Mimulus guttatus, Orobanche uniflora, Lomatium spp., etc. Other rare species in the same opening, but not directly associated with Trichostema were Heterocodon rariflorum, Mimulus breweri, Botrychium simplex and an as yet unidentified terrestrial Isoetes. ERIGERON OCHROLEUCUS VAR. SCRIBNERI (Compositae-Asteraceae) was reported by Henry (1915) to occur in British Columbia. However, "no collections are known to date" (Douglas, 1989). Douglas included this taxon in his treatment of the Asteraceae of BC as "yet to be collected in British Columbia", as it is known from several stations just east of the BC/Alberta border (Douglas, 1995).
Erigeron ochroleucus Nutt. is a linear-leaved, smallish fleabane (our specimens ca. 8 cm tall) with short, grayish foliage, a single, large head, and woolly involucral bracts. The short ray flowers are variably light coloured (in our specimens light blue). Our plants belong to var. scribneri (Rydb.) Cronq. Jenifer Penny and I collected this plant in the Rocky Mountains on the south- and southeast-facing slopes of Mt. Gass between 2300 and 2500 m elevation. The plants were consistently found on wind-exposed, stony limestone slopes bearing only a short, discontinuous cover of vegetation. Associated species on these dry sites were primarily Dryas octopetala and Kobresia myosuroides, sometimes also Erigeron grandiflorus, Townsendia parryi, Oxytropis sericea, and Antennaria alpina.
Any information on these two species from British Columbia would be appreciated by the author
1793: JOHANN FRIEDRICH ESCHSCHOLTZ is born at Dorpat, now Tartu, Estonia. Following education at Dorpat University, now Tartu University, Eschscholtz will serve as naturalist and physician on Kotzebue's voyages around the world from 1815 to 1818. His specimens from the voyage will be given to Dorpat University, and he will become curator of the Dorpat zoological collections in 1822.
1880: ALFRED LOTHAR WEGENER is born in Berlin. In 1912 he will read a paper titled "Die Herausbildung der Grossformen der Erdrinde (Kontinente und Ozeane) auf geophysikalischer Grundlage" ["The geophysical basis of the evolution of large-scale features of the earth's crust"] before the Geological Association of Frankfurt am Main. It will be expanded in 1915 into "Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane" ["The Origin of Continents and Oceans"], the first comprehensive account of the
theory of continental drift. On this day in 1930, his fiftieth birthday, while on an expedition to Greenland, Wegener will leave his base camp for the western coast and will not be seen again.
Today in the Historical Sciences is a feature of Darwin-L, an international network discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences. Send the message INFO DARWIN-L to listserv@raven.cc.ukans.edu or connect to the Darwin-L Web
Server (http://rjohara.uncg.edu) for more information.
I received a note from Sylvia Sharnoff thanking me and others in the lichen discussion group for help on her National Geographic article. She asked me whether we could give her some more and urgent help. As many of you know Steve and Sylvia Sharnoff are collaborating with Ernie Brodo to produce a richly colour-illustrated book on Lichens of North America.
Sylvia writes:
If you are willing, Please E mail or send a letter of support to:
From: "Brodo, Irwin" (IBRODO@MUS-NATURE.CA)
Request for funding for "Lichens of North America"
For the past three and a half years, Irwin M. Brodo of the Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN) has been working with California photographer/lichenologists Steve and Sylvia Sharnoff on a popular, illustrated guide to the lichens of North America. The plan is to produce a treatment of 790 illustrated macro- and microlichens, with comparative notes on many others. Descriptions, keys and distribution maps would be provided for each illustrated species. Introductory chapters would cover morphology, chemistry, phytogeography, uses, methods for lichen study, and basic classification.
The CMN policy regarding the production of guidebooks, requires researchers to completely fund such projects from outside sources to cover all operational and labour costs (i.e., including salaries of all staff working on the book). In the case of the "Lichens of North America" project, the remaining work is estimated to cost CAN$53,540 (ca. US$40,000). Work on the book may not proceed until the complete funding is in place.
At this point, all the photography has been completed and the photographs selected. The introductory chapters are in 1st draft stage (130 pages). Species treatments are complete for 219 species, and the writing of keys has begun. Data for almost all the distribution maps have been gathered, and final maps have been drawn for ca. 260 species. It is estimated that about nine months of additional work is needed to complete the manuscript.
Donors or supporters will, of course, be acknowledged in the book. Anyone knowing of potential sources of funding is urged to contact the museum's Grants Officer, Ms. Martha Johnson, Canadian Museum of Nature, P.O. Box 3443, Station 'D', Ottawa, Ontario K1P 6P4, with a copy to Irwin Brodo, Research Division, at the same address.
From: Darrell Wright (dwright@emf.net)
Lichen students the world over are groaning at the decision of the Canadian Museum of Nature to withdraw support for Dr. Brodo's efforts to bring The Lichens of North America book to publication. It is particularly needed at this time as a tool for conservationists who, with the help of excellent materials like this, will eventually be able to obtain regulatory protection for these remarkable organisms. It would be a first class tribute to the Canadian Museum of Nature to help with its publication. Please ensure that the Museum supports this effort.
Submissions, subscriptions, etc.: aceska@freenet.victoria.bc.ca.
BEN is archived on gopher freenet.victoria.bc.ca. The URL is:
gopher://freenet.victoria.bc.ca:70/11/environment/Botany/ben. Also archived at http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/
NOVEMBER 1 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu Reply to: darwin-l@raven.cc.ukans.edu
UPROAR ON THE LICHENS-L DISCUSSION LIST AND REQUEST FOR SUPPORT
From: "Professor David Richardson, Dean of Science" (DRICHARD@Science.stmarys.ca)
The Middle Management of the Canadian Museum of Nature have declared that guidebooks must be fully funded from outside sources and have forbidden Ernie to finish it except on his own time. They have also cut contract negotiations with Yale University Press. Ernie will be meeting the Interim President of the museum Mr Colin Eades on November 7th. Between now and then we need to generate as much support as possible.