{"id":1825,"date":"2014-12-19T14:43:26","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T19:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nybg.org\/science-talk\/?p=1825"},"modified":"2014-12-19T14:43:11","modified_gmt":"2014-12-19T19:43:11","slug":"discovering-new-plant-species-in-the-field-and-in-the-herbarium-part-three","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-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Discovering New Plant Species in the Field\u2014and in the Herbarium, Part Three"},"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. Read Part One<\/a> and Part Two<\/a> of this series for more information.
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"This<\/a>
This Central American rain forest is one of only two places where Dacryodes patrona<\/em>, a new tree species described by Dr. Daly, has been found.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the first post in this series<\/a> about the process of discovering and describing new plant species, I noted that the average lag time from when a new species is first collected in the field to when its name and description are published is a shocking 35 years.\u00a0After publication, new species\u00a0often languish in the herbarium and scientific journals, even if the information they represent has important conservation value. But sometimes we beat these odds by publishing new species in a relatively short time, and having the results makes a difference.
\n
\nEarlier this year, a colleague from the Missouri Botanical Garden<\/a> commented on a remarkable and barely accessible place near the Caribbean coast of Panama where one of the rainiest and hilliest rainforests in the world is controlled by a huge mining operation that, at least up to now, has committed to taking action to conserve biodiversity in that forest.<\/p>\n

I told him I had material of a new species from that very place and that it represented the first record of the genus Dacryodes\u2014<\/em>a group of about 70 related tropical tree species in the family I study\u2014<\/em>in all of Central America. There were (and are) only two collections known of that species, and I had been waiting to see more before publishing it. Still, when I re-examined the material, the specimens had flowers and fruits and were adequate for writing a complete description. I completed the manuscript that week and submitted it for publication. After being peer-reviewed and revised, it has now been published.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A botanical illustration of Dacryodes patrona<\/em> by Bobbi Angell. A scientifically accurate illustration such as this is prepared for every new plant species.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new species is always exciting, especially when it is the first record of an entire genus for a major region. More important, the fact that it is already considered endangered means that the mining company must, according to its own rules, develop a Conservation Action Plan to ensure that the species does not become more threatened as a result of mining activities. One of the two known specimens was collected in the mining \u201cfootprint,\u201d meaning its habitat will not survive, but the other is in Donoso, a proposed conservation area that the company has said it will create. The specimen from that area strengthens arguments for establishing the reserve.<\/p>\n

The species name patrona<\/em> is Latin for defender, protector, or ally, reflecting my hope and intention that this rare, new species can be used to help conserve part of the unique flora of western Col\u00f3n Province. As the botanist who collected this species wrote to me, it \u201cwill help support the idea that the area has a diverse and under-studied flora, and hence that conservation has to be taken seriously by the mining company\u2026. New species known only from the mine site are the best evidence we can present.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unlikely ally in the rain forests of Central America may hold the key to saving a rare new species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":1837,"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":[96,146,416,415,403,417],"yoast_head":"\nDiscovering New Plant Species in the Field\u2014and in the Herbarium, Part Three - 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-three\/\" \/>\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 Three - 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