Mason Heberling

​When in candy cane form, it is easy to forget where the flavor came from.  Peppermint (Mentha x piperita) is actually a hybrid between two other mint species, water mint (Mentha aquatica) and spearmint (Mentha spicata).  It is commonly grown for food or medicinal herb in gardens.  It is also well known to escape garden settings and spread aggressively.  Like other mints, this species is in the plant family Lamiaceae, which includes many strongly scented kitchen herbs.  Members of the mint family are well recognized by their unique flowers and characteristically square stems.
 
This peppermint specimen was collected on August 29, 1965 by Norman R. Farnsworth in an open field at Ranalli’s Drive-In, eight miles north of Etna off Route 8, outside of Pittsburgh, PA.
 
Farnsworth (1930-2011) received his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, where he researched medicinal plants.  He was an influential professor and researcher in the field of pharmacognosy (study of medicinal drugs derived from plants).  He was a founding member of the American Society of Pharmacognosy.
 
The Carnegie Museum herbarium includes 1,108 specimens collected by Farnsworth.  Each specimen is quickly recognizable, with an envelope attached to each sheet that includes a standard typed description of the results of chemical screenings he did on the specimen.

Hopefully you have some peppermint that is fresher than than this for your recipes this year!

 
‘Tis the season for spices.
 
Nutmeg is well known, but what is it?  Nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) is an evergreen tree native to the Maluku Islands, an archipelago in Indonesia.  In fact, the Maluku Islands were even once known as the “Spice Islands” because nutmeg, mace, and cloves are endemic to the islands (meaning they are native there and nowhere else).  However, the species are now widely cultivated across the world. 


Both nutmeg and mace are made from Myristica fragrans, also known as fragrant or true nutmeg. The spice called nutmeg is made by grinding the seeds of this species, while mace is made from the fleshy seed covering (outgrowth from seed called an aril). 
 
This nutmeg specimen from the Carnegie Museum herbarium was collected in Trinidad on August 17, 1924 by Edward H. Graham.  Graham was an assistant in botany and later assistant curator of botany at the museum (from 1922-1937).
 
This specimen was collected as part of Graham’s research toward his PhD from the University of Pittsburgh.

Specimen image available online:
http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/individual/index.php?occid=12088342&clid=0

High resolution specimen image available online here!

Not all plants have leaves.  Beech drops (Epifagus virginiana) is one such example. This specimen was collected on November 16, 1884 growing on the root of a beech tree (Fagus grandifolia) at the back of a cemetery in Allegheny county.  The specimen was collected by John Shafer, who a decade later became the first curator of botany at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History.  Beech drops is a parasitic plant – rather than having leaves to photosynthesize, the species produces root-like structures (called haustorium) that parasitizes roots of beech trees. 

The genus “Epifagus” refers to this parasitism on beech (“epi”= upon; “fagus” = beech).

Beech drops are in the  broomrape family (Orobanchaceae), which is comprised mostly of parisitic plants.

Check out the beautiful, distinctive purple and white flowers in late summer to autumn.

Photo taken September 12, 2018 at Riddle Run, Springdale, Pennsylvania.

Perhaps not the most beautiful specimen in the collection, but check out the prickly stem! Former Carnegie Museum curator Otto Jennings described this species as “an obnoxious weed of farmlands and waste places” (1953).  This leafless specimen of Carolina nightshade (Solanum carolinense) was collected on November 9, 1915 in “Pittsburgh district” by Frank R. Alker. Carolina nightshade (also called horse nettle, wild tomato, and many other names) is in the potato/tomoato family (Solanaceae).  It is commonly found in disturbed and anthropogenic (human-made) environments, such as those in cities. 
 
Horse nettle is native to the Southeastern US, and now widely distributed as a naturalized species across the world. Although native to parts of the US (probably including PA), it is considered a noxious weed in some states.
 
This specimen is available virtually online at http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/individual/index.php?occid=12257516&clid=0

Botanical signs of fall are everywhere, to name a few --  colorful leaves, apples, squash, pumpkins, and the many wild and cultivated fall flowers. Among the most popular plant flowers in fall are those in the genus Chrysanthemum (in the sunflower family, Asteraceae), or best known as simply “mums.” They are native to Asia, but many horticultural varieties exist. Mums have been cultivated by humans for at least several thousand years, with evidence in Chinese writings dating back to 15th century BC.
 
This beautiful mum specimen was collected in “Fall” in 1914 by John Jones at Phipps Conservatory, Schenley Park, Pittsburgh.
 
High resolution image available here: http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/individual/index.php?occid=11826736&clid=0

​Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) collected on October 19, 1929 near Penn Hills (Rosedale), PA by W.R. Van Dersal. This species is in the cashew family (Anacardiaceae), which is includes many painfully irritating species like poison ivy and poison sumac (although both of these species are not closely related, but in different genera).
 
For some reason, staghorn sumac is one of those species that I find iconic in Western PA.  Common along roadsides, farms, and old fields.  Its leaves are often brilliant red in the fall.  The fruit persist on branches through winter.
 
Sumac specimens in the Carnegie Museum herbarium are now imaged and online!  Searchable at midatlanticherbaria.org.
 
High resolution image of this specimen can be found here: http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/individual/index.php?occid=12232607&clid=0
 

Fall allergies causing you grief?  
 
Ragweed is a plant many people are (all too) familiar with.  Or at least their bodies are.  Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) is actually native to North America, but has been introduced across the world.  In many cases, this plant (or other ragweed species) are to blame for seasonal pollen allergies known as “hay fever.”  In summer and early fall, ragweed plants produce copious numbers of pollen grains, which are dispersed in the wind.  Don’t blame those insect-pollinated plants with showy flowers for your allergy troubles.  Wind pollinated plants like ragweed are your culprit. 
 
This ragweed specimen was collected by Bonnie and Joe Isaac in Lawrence county, Pennsylvania on October 8, 1995.  Bonnie is the collection manager in the Section of Botany at the museum, an active plant collector and field botanist, and an expert on the plants of Pennsylvania.
 
Although ragweed is native in the US, historical records (pollen deposited in sediment cores) suggest that this species was far less common in North America before European colonization.  This is perhaps not too surprising considering the species thrives in disturbed habitats that came with European colonization and urbanization.  A study published in 2014 by Martin and colleagues in the journal Molecular Ecology extracted DNA from nearly 500 historic herbarium specimens dating back to the 1800s to measure the genetic makeup prior widespread changes to the landscape in the late 19th century. Combined with data from recent collections, they found shifts in the genetic makeup of ragweed populations as the species was expanding in the United States. 
 
Read the study abstract here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/mec.12675

​Corn is a staple crop known well by many across the world.  Corn is used in a variety of ways including human food (from corn on the cob to corn syrup), animal feed, ethanol production, and especially this time of year, fall decoration and corn mazes. Corn is an economically important crop worldwide, with over 81 acres expected to have been harvested in the US alone this year.  But where did this plant come from?
 
Corn, better known to many as maize (Zea mays), is a domesticated plant.  Yes, plants can be domesticated, just as your pets.  Corn was domesticated from a wild grass species known as teosinte in Mexico approximately 8,700 years ago.  Like many other food crops, corn was domesticated by humans through artificial selection – that is, through selective breeding for traits of interest over many generations, causing the evolution of a species.  In the case of corn, teosinte evolved through human intervention by selecting seed from plants with desirable traits (such as large cobs), planting those seeds, again selecting the “best” plants, and repeating over decades.  Eventually, teosinte evolved from a many branching grass with small seed cobs to what we recognize as corn today – tall, unbranched plants with large, tasty cobs. 
 
This specimen is of a species of teosinte (Zea mays subspecies parviglumis) that is thought to be the close relative of the domesticated crop we know today (Zea mays subspecies mays).  This specimen was collected near the site of domestication in Mexico on October 2, 1982 by Hugh Iltis, a botanist and geneticist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studied teosinte species and an influential conservationist.   Note the species name on the label “Zea mays L. subsp. parviglumis var. parviglumis Iltis and Doebley” – his name at the end denotes Iltis was one of the scientists who named the taxonomic variety new to science in 1980. It was also collected in the “type locality,” meaning from the same spot where the specimen used to describe the species was collected. 

​Many invasive species in our region were ironically first introduced intentionally.  The tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is one such example, originally praised with enthusiasm as a lovely garden tree, fast growing, well behaved, resistant to pests and pollution – therefore an excellent urban street tree.  Tree-of-heaven was introduced first to Europe from northern China, then to North America in the 1780s to a garden in Philadelphia.  Decades later (and several additional introductions), it grew in popularity to become widely available and adopted for use in town and city plantings through the mid-1800s, including New York City.  By the 1900s, it was widely naturalized in both urban and rural areas across much of the United States.  It is now recognized by most states as an invasive species.  Tree-of-heaven was the namesake tree in Betty Smith’s 1943 classic novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
 
This specimen was collected by Sue Thompson and Lawrence LaSpoda on September 28, 1983 in Panther Hollow, not far from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.
 
Keep an eye out for this weedy tree, which is common throughout the city and along highways.  Its seeds are especially noticeably this time of year and persist on the tree into the winter.