HEBERLING LAB

nUnnamed, but not forgotten!
 
Today, we celebrate the 9th birthday of this specimen...that was collected 36 years ago.
 
This specimen was collected on leap day, February 29, 1984 in Brazil by Keiichi Mizoguchi.
 
Fun fact: The Carnegie Museum herbarium includes 85 specimens collected on leap day, collected between 1872 until 1990.  That’s a lot of leap years!
 
Aside from it being collected on leap day, the specimen label might seem even more unique.  Where most herbarium specimen labels have the species name, this one is blank. A big blank spot. The collector did not identify this specimen, nor has anyone else in the past 36 years (yet).  This is an “indetermined” or unidentified specimen.  It is filed in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) based on its flowers, but it is otherwise not identified.
 
We can’t forget about these unidentified specimens.  Especially those collected on leap day!
 
Specimens in the herbarium are arranged by plant family, then genus, then geography (where it was collected), and in nearly every genus, at the bottom of all these folders is a black colored folder labelled “undetermined” (also called “indet.”) that includes those specimens that have not yet been identified to species.  Of the over 525,000 specimens in the Carnegie Museum herbarium, about 2% (= 10,588 specimens), are not (yet) identified to species.
 
This specimen is most likely a member of a species already known to science, but an expert has not yet identified this particular specimen yet.  However, many undetermined specimens may be undescribed (that is, new to science!).  The name and description of new species (alpha taxonomy) is a major purpose of herbaria.  A study in 2010 estimated that of the estimated 70,0000 species yet to be described, over HALF are lying in herbaria right now!  They also found that only 16% of new species descriptions were done within 5 years of specimen collection, and 25% of new species descriptions involved specimens that were more than 50 years old!
Study abstract here: http://www.pnas.org/content/107/51/22169.abstract
 
Taxonomy (branch of science on classification of organisms) is always changing.  Species names are changed, what was once thought to be one plant species or family is split into many, and what was thought to several species is lumped into one.  And with further information or upon review by experts in particular plant groups. specimens are determined to be a different species than what the original collector called it.  Annotation labels are added to specimens all the time – these labels revise the species listed on the original label.  A typical annotation label includes the revised species name and details, the name of the person making the annotation, and the date.
 
Some specimens can have many annotations, which nicely demonstrates the community culture of science as a process with constant revision as we learn more about the world around us.
 
Find this specimen here: http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/individual/index.php?occid=12339031&clid=0

Check back, maybe it'll have a species name on it by next leap year!

Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
Well, please don’t, really. This is a scientific specimen.
 
This tobacco specimen was collected in Ecuador by Hendrik Balslev on February 21 1984. Hendrik Balslev is now a professor at Aarhus University, Denmark, who studies the taxonomy and ethnobotany of plants of the Amazon. This specimen was planted by the Secoya tribe in the “area of tropical rainforest.” The Secoya are a group of indigenous peoples, with a distinct culture and language, living in the Amazon regions of Ecuador and Peru.
 
Tobacco refers to more than 70 species of plants in the genus Nicotiana. In the nightshade family (Solanaceae), tobacco is related to deadly nightshade, potatoes, and tomatoes. They famously contain the addictive alkaloid stimulant chemical nicotine. Nicotine is a neurotoxin for insects, produced by plant for its insecticide properties.  For that reason, tobacco has also been used as an insecticide.
 
Tobacco is a culturally important plant, far beyond a pack of cigarettes. The commonly cultivated species is Nicotiana tabacum. Tobacco has rich, long history of medicinal and traditional use in the Americas, especially Mesoamerica and Caribbean, and with many native American tribes growing and using tobacco for centuries. It was used for smoking, in religious ceremonies, socially, as a sign of peace (peace pipes), as a good for trade, and more. There is evidence suggesting its cultivation in Mexico as early as 1500 BC.
 
When Europeans arrived in the Americas, tobacco was quickly prized and popularized in Europe.  Tobacco was influential in European colonization in North America, becoming a major cash crop. Tobacco was important to the history of the United States, but with a dark side. Many of America’s founding fathers had tobacco plantations, mostly operated through slave labor. The cultivation of tobacco fueled the early slave trade in 17th and 18th century America.  The number of slaves from Africa in the Chesapeake region (Virginia) and North Carolina increased greatly.   
 
A complicated plant – botanically and culturally.
 
Find this specimen and more here: http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/list.php?db=328&catnum=CM321082&othercatnum=1

There's something unique about this specimen. There's a certain aesthetic to the folded, smile-like arrangement of the winter collected stem bent back and forth around the sheet. Fruit pods in the corner. Maybe it is just me.

This specimen of Maryland senna (Senna marilandica), also called wild senna, was collected by Joe Isaac and Mike Takacs on Febrary 15, 2006 in Freeport Township, Greene County, Pennsylvania. 

Wild senna flowers is semi-shrub/herbaceous perennial native to the US, primarily in the midwest and southerneastern states.  It flowers in the summer that develop into characteristic pea-pod like fruits, which makes sense since it is in the pea/legume family (Fabaceae).

It is a species of conservation concern in Pennsylvania, tracked by the state as Rare. More here. 

​Herbarium specimens are critical to determining whether a species is rare or not.

Find this specimen image online at http://midatlanticherbaria.org/portal/collections/list.php?db=328&catnum=CM469516&othercatnum=1​