{"id":21,"date":"2013-10-21T16:02:58","date_gmt":"2013-10-21T16:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nybg.org\/science-talk\/?p=21"},"modified":"2013-10-23T17:07:58","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T17:07:58","slug":"a-new-species-of-tropical-tree-with-roots-in-the-history-of-international-commerce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/science-talk\/2013\/10\/a-new-species-of-tropical-tree-with-roots-in-the-history-of-international-commerce\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Species of Tropical Tree with \u201cRoots\u201d in the History of International Commerce"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin M. Torke<\/a> is an Assistant Curator at the Garden\u2019s Institute of Systematic Botany. His specialty is legumes, a large plant family that includes not only beans and peanuts but also hundreds of rainforest tree species.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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\"Arthur<\/a>
Arthur Carl Victor Schott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As an avid history buff, I get excited when my research on neotropical legumes turns up unexpected historical connections. In one recent example, the discovery of a new species of tree shed light on a mostly forgotten episode in the 19th-century international struggle to control shipping commerce.<\/p>\n

From 1857 to 1860, Arthur Carl Victor Schott\u2014a topographical engineer, cartographer, naturalist, and artist\u2014was part of a U.S. Army-sponsored expedition to survey a route for a transoceanic canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, one that passed through nearly impenetrable tropical rainforests in the Darien region of northwestern Colombia. The expedition was destined to become a historical footnote\u2014an alternative route through what is now Panama was ultimately chosen for the now-famous canal\u2014but a small collection of dried plant specimens that Schott gathered during the expedition have ongoing importance.
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\"Virtual<\/a>
Schott’s specimen of a new species of tropical tree<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Originally housed at Columbia College, the collection was brought to The New York Botanical Garden shortly after its founding in 1891. Over 120 years later, I recognized that one of Schott\u2019s specimens, misidentified and misfiled decades previously, represented a new species. Although subsequent collectors have gathered additional material, I plan to name the species \u201cSwartzia schottii<\/em>\u201d in honor of the intrepid explorer who first collected it. I hope that its belated discovery will help focus attention on the importance of conserving its habitat\u2014a few scattered forest fragments, all that remains of the \u201cvast jungles\u201d that Schott encountered in the Colombian Darien.<\/p>\n

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Arthur C. V. Schott photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
\nSpecimen photograph copyright NYBG.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Benjamin M. Torke is an Assistant Curator at the Garden\u2019s Institute of Systematic Botany. His specialty is legumes, a large plant family that includes not only beans and peanuts but also hundreds of rainforest tree species. As an avid history buff, I get excited when my research on neotropical legumes turns up unexpected historical connections…. <\/p>\n

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