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"New York Botanical Garden"
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Assessing the economic value of traditional medicines from tropical rain forests
Current methods for the harvest of medicinal plants from forests and fallows involve both destructive and nondestructive practices. Based on our observations in Belize, the process of gathering medicinal plants often resembles the harvesting of trees for timber, a more destructive approach. Although this process can be highly destructive for a specific site, provided the harvested area is sufficiently small and that harvests occur over long enough rotations, we suspect that the overall process could be sustainable. It is this approach of long rotations and clearing that we evaluate in this paper. Experiments are underway, however, in Belize to extract medicines more continuously from a plot by removing small amounts of plant material from each tree. As we learn more about the possibilities of this alternative extraction method, it too can be evaluated from both an ecological and an economic viewpoint.
Journal Article
Flora illustrata : great works from the LuEsther T. Mertz Library of the New York Botanical Garden
\"The renowned LuEsther T. Mertz Library of The New York Botanical Garden counts among its holdings many of the most beautiful and pioneering botanical and horticultural works ever created. More than eight centuries of knowledge, from the twelfth century to the present, are represented in the library's collection of more than one million cataloged items. In this sumptuously illustrated volume, international experts introduce us to some of the library's most fascinating works--exceedingly rare books, stunning botanical artworks, handwritten manuscripts, Renaissance herbals, nursery catalogs, explorers' notebooks, and more. The contributors hold these treasures up for close inspection and offer surprising insights into their histories and importance.\"-- Dust jacket.
Book
A formal classification of the extant cycads
My previously published provisional classification of the Cycadeles is here formally published. This classification is based upon a cladistic analysis of characters ranging from gross morphology to phytochemistry. Encephalartos is lectotypified.
Journal Article
Comparison of detritus dynamics in two tidal freshwater wetlands
We have examined the generation and persistence of detritus in two contrasting tidal freshwater wetlands on the Hudson River. These wetlands offer a difference in vegetation, with Tivoli South Bay dominated by a floating-leafed macrophyte (water-chestnut, Trapa natans) and North Bay a typical Typha marsh. In South Bay, there was a large amount of water-chestnut dry biomass (400 g/m^2) available to enter the detritus pool, but there was no increase in the standing stock of benthic organic matter following senescence of water-chestnut. Our estimates show that mineralization plus leaching of dissolved material are sufficient to remove much of this detritus. In the Typha marsh, there is a large amount of detritus generated (@?25% of annual primary production) and this material persists as a thick layer. Decomposition of this litter is very slow (0.3/yr). A portion of the litter may be exported because decomposition alone cannot account for the observed rate of disappearance from the marsh surface. Microbial abundance was used to estimate the amount of heterotrophic biomass supported by these different types of detritus. Bacterial growth on water-chestnut detritus is relatively slow (10^6 cells@?mg^-^1@?d^-^1), resulting in a turnover of bacterial biomass in 10-36 d. Bacterial and fungal biomass associated with Typha were low, and could not account for the observed increase in nitrogen content.
Journal Article
The house gardens of Santa Rosa: diversity and variability in an Amazonian agricultural system
Most research on house gardens suggests that this agricultural production type reaches its greatest development in areas of high population density. Gardens in low density areas such as the Amazon Basin have, to date, attracted little attention. A sample of house gardens in a ribereño village of the Peruvian Amazon is described and their great species diversity and variability in size and composition are discussed. The processes by which gardens in the village evolve and change are outlined. The study indicates that many young people of the village have a continuing interest in maintaining complex house gardens. More research on Amazonian house gardens is urged. /// Estudios científicos recientes indican que las huertas estan mas desarollados en áreas con densidades poblacionales altas. Huertas en áreas con pocos habitantes, como en la cuenca Amazónica, hasta ahora han recibido muy poca atención científica. En este trabajo se describe un muestreo de huertas en un pueblo ribereño en la Amazonía Peruana, y se discuta la diversidad de especies presentes, y la gran variabilidad en área y composición. En este trabajo tambien se describe la evolución de las huertas en el pueblo. Nuestro estudio indica que muchos moradores jóvenes del pueblo mantienen su interes en las huertas complejas. Mayor investigación científica sobre las huertas Amazonicas es necesaria.
Journal Article
A sweetmeat plant, a perfume plant and their weedy relatives: a chapter in the history of Cyperus esculentus L. and C. rotundus L
Tubers of Cyperus esculentus (tiger nuts) and C. rotundus were used in the ancient eastern Mediterranean as food, perfume and medicine. Tiger nuts that were consumed in Egypt, either boiled in beer, roasted or as sweets made of ground tubers with honey, were found in tombs from the 4th millennium B.C. to the 5th century A.D. C. rotundus tubers, a dietary staple in a Stone Age Egyptian community, were used much later in perfumes and medicine by the Egyptians, Mycenaeans and Greeks, and recorded by Theophrastus, Pliny and Dioscorides. An Egyptian preparation made of Cyperus tubers, other plant ingredients, honey and wine, described by Dioscorides, is similar to one in the Ebers papyri, demonstrating its continuity over 1600 years. Cyperus perfumes are mentioned in Mycenaean documents and by classical authors. Classical authors' views on weeds, and whether C. rotundus is described as a weed by Dioscorides, are reviewed. The domestication of C. esculentus, and the evolution of both nutsedges towards weeds are discussed. /// Les tubercules de C. esculentus (amandes de terre) et C. rotundus ont été utilisés depuis l'antiquité en Méditerranée orientale dans le préparation d'aliments, de parfums et en médecine. Des amandes de terre, consommées en Egypte, bouillies dans de la bière, ou rôties et comme friandises, hâchées au miel, ont été découvertes dans des tombes datant du 4e millenaire av. J.C. Les tubercules de C. rotundus, aliment de base dans une communauté paléolithique en Egypte, ont été utilisés beacoup plus tard dans la préparation de parfums et en médecine par les Egyptiens, les Mycénniens et les Grecs. Théophraste, Pline et Dioscoride les mentionnent. Un plat égyptien décrit par Dioscoride et composé de tubercules de Cyperus, de miel, de vin et d'autres ingredients végétaux se trouve être similaire a une recette des papyrus d'Ebers. Ceci met en évidence l'utilisation continue du Cyperus pendant 1600 ans. Des documents mycéniens et des auteurs classiques le citent. Nous rapportons les connaissances des auteurs classiques sur les mauvaises herbes el la classification, par Dioscoride, de C. rotundus parmi les mauvaises herbes. Nous discutons de la domestication de C. esculentus et de l'évolution des deux souchets en mauvaises herbes.
Journal Article
Cladistics of the spermatophyta
A cladistic interpretation of seed plant phylogeny is presented that supports the traditional morphological hypothesis: [Cycadales-(Ginkgoales-(Confiferales-(Gnetales-Angiosperms)))]. Gnetales and Angiosperms are supported as sister groups of the Anaspermae. A sister-group relationship between Coniferales and Ginkgoales represents a paraphyletic group, because Coniferales and Anaspermae share a common ancestry (Mesospermae). Ginkgoales and Mesospermae are sister groups of the Cladospermae. Cycadales are supported as the most archaic Spermatophyta. A posteriori consideration of fossil taxa supports the conclusion that data from the fossil record are useful for confirming plesiomorphies of extant taxa. Fossil taxa with apomorphic character states are discussed as biasing for superficial accelerated transformations, which are probably unacceptable from the standpoint of morphological homology.
Journal Article
Some aspects of air pollutant effects on terrestrial ecosystems and prospects for the future forest decline
This paper briefly discusses some aspects of air pollution, including acid deposition, and its effects on terrestrial ecosystems. Data on precipitation chemistry at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in New Hampshire shows declines in concentrations of hydrogen ion, sulfate, ammonium, and chloride since 1964. Using these long-term trends, predictions of sulfate deposition in the year 2000, using different SO2emission scenarios, are made. Numerous air pollutants such as mineral acids, ozone and toxic metals can stress terrestrial ecosystems and contribute to forest decline. Because of the potential severity and unpredictability of combinations of such anthropogenic stresses, as well as natural stresses, (e.g. drought), on terrestrial ecosystems, it would seem prudent to reduce anthropogenic stresses as much as possible in order to protect these valuable natural ecosystems.
Journal Article