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Category: Research

Herbarium specimen from AABP project - Blakea spindet
Newsletter

Armchair Botany and the Andes to Amazon Biodiversity Program: Volunteers Make Scientists’ Hard Work Accessible

Important botanical science happens in the field. Researchers tramp across habitats, sometimes in remote and rugged regions of the world, collect plant samples, document the distribution of species and study ecosystems in action. Later those scientists return to the lab with boxes of specimens, and a new and equally important phase of research begins. Scientists label, mount and digitize specimens to make them accessible to the global science community. They become a resource that can be studied in multiple contexts–as part of an ecosystem or as a member of a particular plant family, for example.

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Eriocaulon koernickianum or small-heded pipewort. Photo by Don Hunter
Newsletter

Tales from the Conservation Trenches : Saving the Small-headed Pipewort

A well-known issue in global conservation efforts could be described as the Panda Problem. Programs that promote the protection of large, well-known mammals raise more funds than programs for smaller, less “charismatic” species. Yet even the smallest, nondescript species are part of the big picture of life on this planet–and deserve protection.

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Newsletter

Why All the Latin? Taxonomy, Binomial Nomenclature and Carl Linnaeus

When you visit the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, you will notice signs identifying the plants. In the Japanese Garden, for example, you will see signs that read “Acer palmatum (Japanese maple).” Many people know that the part of the name in italics is the formal name of the plant, written in Latin (more or less.) Some people might even know that Acer palmatum is the genus and species of the tree more commonly known as Japanese maple. But why? What is the purpose of giving plants names in a dead language?

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Row of bright blue and white bluebonnets
Newsletter

The Botany of Bluebonnets, Texas’s Favorite Flower

The bluebonnets are in bloom across North Texas, splashing waves of blue across hillsides and plains. Conditions this year were just right for brilliant display of color, and you can expect to see families plunking their kids down in the middle of blooming patches for photos all weekend.

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