{"id":1817,"date":"2014-12-12T14:21:47","date_gmt":"2014-12-12T19:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nybg.org\/science-talk\/?p=1817"},"modified":"2014-12-12T14:22:29","modified_gmt":"2014-12-12T19:22:29","slug":"discovering-new-plant-species-in-the-field-and-in-the-herbarium-part-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/12\/discovering-new-plant-species-in-the-field-and-in-the-herbarium-part-two\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering New Plant Species in the Field\u2014and in the Herbarium, Part Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

Douglas C. Daly, Ph.D.<\/a>, is the Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany and the B. A. Krukoff Curator of Amazonian Botany at The New York Botanical Garden<\/a>. Among his research activities, he is a specialist in the Burseraceae (frankincense and myrrh) family of plants.
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"The<\/a>
The oil-rich fruit of the newly described species Dacryodes urut-kunchae<\/em> attracts many game animals. (Photo: David Neill)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When plant scientists discover new species\u2014as I discussed in the first post of this series<\/a>\u2014their discovery is often\u00a0an extremely rare plant, and frequently\u00a0the specimens they\u00a0see are incomplete. For example, there might be fruits but no flowers, and we have to search for more specimens or wait for other scientists to send us more examples before we can thoroughly describe and publish a species as new. But when a region is first explored botanically, sometimes we are amazed to find that a conspicuous member of the plant community has no name.
\n
\nThis was the case in the remote Cordillera del C\u00f3ndor in Ecuador. When botanist David Neill set up a study plot there on a sandstone plateau, 10 percent of the trees (a lot for a tropical forest) belonged to a species he didn\u2019t recognize in the plant family that I study, the Burseraceae. He sent me some excellent specimens, and from its small, leathery, gland-dotted leaves and fruits that looked like miniature olives, I knew immediately that it was a new species of Dacryodes, <\/em>a genus of about 60\u00a0species of tropical trees.<\/p>\n

The species turned out to have cultural importance for the indigenous\u00a0Shuar\u00a0community, as well as for the Aguaruna communities in the Andean piedmont across the border in Peru, where it was\u00a0found independently. The local peoples\u00a0wrap the resin produced from the trunk in a cone-shaped bundle with leaves and burn it for illumination. The oil-rich fruit also attracts game animals and other wildlife; it is eaten by the spectacled bear, the oilbird, the Andean cock-of-the-rock, the wattled guan, the white-tailed trogon, and many species of toucans.<\/p>\n

I gave\u00a0the plant the scientific name\u00a0Dacryodes uruts-kunchae.<\/em> The\u00a0species name is based on what it is called by the indigenous people to whom this tree was nothing new, even though\u00a0it certainly was news to the outside world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Doug Daly continues his journey through the identification of a new plant species in part two of his South American adventure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":1820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[183,96,405,411,403],"yoast_head":"\nDiscovering New Plant Species in the Field\u2014and in the Herbarium, Part Two - Science Talk Archive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/12\/discovering-new-plant-species-in-the-field-and-in-the-herbarium-part-two\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Discovering New Plant Species in the Field\u2014and in the Herbarium, Part Two - Science Talk Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Doug Daly continues his journey through the identification of a new plant species in part two of his South American adventure.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/12\/discovering-new-plant-species-in-the-field-and-in-the-herbarium-part-two\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Science Talk Archive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-12-12T19:21:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-12-12T19:22:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Dacryodes-uruts-kunchae-DNeill-15743_close.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"722\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Douglas Daly\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/\",\"name\":\"Science Talk Archive\",\"description\":\"Exploring the science of plants, from the field to the lab\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2014\/12\/discovering-new-plant-species-in-the-field-and-in-the-herbarium-part-two\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Dacryodes-uruts-kunchae-DNeill-15743_close.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/Dacryodes-uruts-kunchae-DNeill-15743_close.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":722,\"caption\":\"The oil-rich fruit of the newly described species Dacryodes urut-kunchae attracts many game animals. 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