As the California Polytechnic State University herbarium team embarked on digitizing their collection, the Robert F. Hoover Herbarium, they came upon a recurring theme: hundreds of the yet un-digitized specimens told of a far-away place called "Ovamboland." This led to some obvious questions: where is (or was) Ovamboland, and why do we have so many specimens from this mysterious place? Notes from Nature volunteers may have asked these same questions as they have transcribed over 4000 specimens from the Cal Poly Hoover Herbarium.

The flora of Ovamboland is featured in the Cal Poly Hoover herbarium due to the work of Robert J. Rodin, an accomplished botanist with an impressive resume of exploration. Born a Californian, Rodin was stationed in Guam and China while serving in WWII, explored southern Africa as a postdoc, worked as a professor in West Pakistan for several years (during which time he made forays into the Himalayas), spent a year as a Fulbright Professor in Delhi (India), and participated in a National Geographic Expedition to Ovamboland. Rodin was a botany professor at Cal Poly for 23 years, from 1953-1976, and as such, he loaded the herbarium with specimens from his travels and studies.[2]

One of Rodin's specialties was the ethnobotany of Ovamboland. Accordingly, many of his specimens from the region include the Kwanyama (a local language) name for the plant and descriptions of how the locals use the plant. These notes are fascinating windows into the culture of the Ovambo people and speak to a rich relationship of the people with their natural resources. Some species were used as remedies for nosebleeds, swelling, and infertility. Others found uses as arrow shafts, fences, or in the construction of huts.

Thanks to Robert Rodin and many others, we have the privilege of learning how other people around the globe view and treasure their natural resources. These notes remind us that no matter where you are, we as humans are unified in our dependence on plants.

Digitization reveals unexpected discoveries, not only in botany, but in history. Each specimen represents a plant and at least one person: their journey, their interests, and their circumstances.

Prior to the California Phenology Network, the Cal State Herbarium (CSLA) was in "the dark." No specimen data had been transcribed and no specimens were imaged. Now, thanks to digitization efforts from students, technicians, and hundreds of dedicated volunteers (especially on Notes from Nature!), new stories are coming to light.

This month, Notes from Nature volunteers polished off the 5th expedition of CSLA herbarium specimens, containing over 2,800 records from across the globe. The spatial and temporal range of specimens in this collection continues to amaze. Specimens from Australia, Canada, Ireland, and Malaysia were included in the mix, ranging in collection date from 1874 to 2001.

These any many more specimens are being uncovered by digitization efforts of the California Phenology Network and countless others. In aggregate, the data enable powerful research that reveal trends in ecology and evolution. Singularly, the specimens provide snapshots into times past, representing the stories of people, places, and the plants the undergird them all.

One of the primary goals of the California Phenology Network has been to develop data standards for phenological data: community-developed guidelines for formatting and storing phenological data (e.g., data on whether plants are flowering or fruiting). If data standards are developed and widely adopted, phenological data can be shared across the many organizations that gather these data, and researchers can more easily use data from multiple data sources to conduct research.

Let's say, for example, that a graduate student would like to investigate whether the flowering times of red maple (Acer rubrum) have changed over time, and whether this change is different between the West and East Coasts of the U.S. (these types of questions are a hot topic right now...just check out our phenological research page!). This grad student could use phenological data from herbarium specimens in CCH2 to look at West Coast maples, then herbarium-based phenological data from the Consortium of Northeastern Herbaria (CNH) portal for East Coast maples. But what if the data aren't in the same format? How can the grad student be sure that a specimen recorded as "flower present" in the CCH2 follows the same rules as the specimen recorded as "in flower" by the CNH? What if she wants to go a step further and incorporate data from iNaturalist?

Combining datasets from different sources can be a huge headache, especially when data collection protocols data differ widely between sources. For example, some phenological datasets come from herbarium specimens, some from human observers in the field (e.g., the US National Phenology Network), and some from phenocam images (e.g., the National Ecological Observatory Network). To empower greater integration of these data--and therefore phenological research at greater scales than previously possible--the CAP Network has launched a Plant Phenology Standards Task Group within the global biodiversity data standards organization, TDWG.

This task group brings together global experts in data standards and users and providers of phenological data to determine a common format in which phenological data can be stored and shared among data providers. The task group established a charter (which can be found here) and had their first working group meeting on November 3rd, 2021. The group is now working to gather information about what phenological datasets exist, as well as what use cases researchers and data users may have that would need to be addressed by these data standards.

This Task Group is in very early stages, and we welcome input and membership from any interested parties. You can find more information on our GitHub page or by emailing the Task Group conveners, lead PI Jenn Yost and project manager Katie Pearson. Stay tuned for updates, and we're excited to move forward with the process of developing community standards.

WeDigBio is a biannual event that brings volunteers, collections, and curators together to rapidly digitize biodiversity specimens over the course of four days. The California Phenology Network has participated in this event for the past 3 years using Notes from Nature, an online platform where anyone with an internet connection can view specimen images and transcribe their labels into provided data fields.

This year, we saw fantastic engagement across the CAP Network at four events across the West Coast. CSU Long Beach, CSU Fresno, Oregon State University, and the California Polytechnic State University all led events (two of them in-person!), engaging over 250 volunteers across the United States. One virtual volunteer even tuned in from Turkey!

At the virtual event led by Cal Poly, 157 participants received an introduction to herbaria, tour of the Robert F. Hoover Herbarium, and training in how to transcribe a specimen label in Notes from Nature. For the remainder of the 2-hour event, the participants transcribed labels, keeping watch for specimens that would land them on the "Record Board." Could they find the specimen collected the furthest away from California (the winner was Malaysia)? How about a specimen collected on this day in history (we found two!)?

We saw a huge bump in productivity in Notes from Nature over the weekend, totaling over 2800 transcriptions. With 3 transcriptions per specimen, that over 900 specimens transcribed! All five current Notes from Nature expeditions saw significant advancement, and, as we write this, two huge expeditions of over 2000 specimens apiece are within 10% of being complete. That's a lot of progress!

WeDigBio not only moves our numbers forward, but it exposes students and volunteers to the vast diversity and rich history of herbarium specimens in not-too-far-away collections. Herbarium specimens are exciting, and we love passing on this excitement to people who may never have heard of biodiversity collections, much less understood their importance for preserving and protecting biodiversity. WeDigBio is a critical outreach event and a win-win situation for all. Thanks to all who participated!

As catalogs of physical plant specimens, herbaria are fantastic resources for identifying unknown plants, and this utility isn't just for scientific studies or simple curiosity. Sometimes plant identification is a matter of life or death.​

Some herbaria receive samples from herders, farmers, or citizens concerned with the potential poisoning of livestock or pets. Because many plants can be poisonous, identification of unknown plants in grazing areas or farmland can be an important preventative (or investigative) measure to prevent the loss of life. Dr. Alison Colwell, curator of the UC Davis Herbarium, and her team, are frequently called upon to identify plants suspected of animal poisoning. She explains:

"Because UC Davis has a veterinary medical school with a diagnostics program, the herbarium gets referrals when animals are thought to be poisoned by plants, this can happen several times a week, mostly in the summer. There are certain plants that recurrently cause grazing animal poisoning, notably Amsinckia and Plagiobothrys in the spring, and Lupinus seeds in early summer, so I’m starting to know the Who’s Who of poisonous plants in California. Ideally, the owner of the affected animals will go around and pick the remainder of the nibbled plants and send them in. Sometimes we get a big bouquet of everything in the pen/corral/field. Often they will just send photos and if those are in focus and include diagnostic features, we can often do an ID from the photo, but we prefer fresh material to confirm ID against our herbarium specimens under the scope, as we have a very good collection of weedy and toxic species here. Sometimes we get part of a bale of hay and have to pick through it to find the weeds, we keep large plastic pans for that messy procedure. The most challenging ID is the contents of the gut of dead livestock, which is both fragrant and fragmentary. The toxicology folks kindly rinse off the plant parts before sending the sample over, but it will still smell a bit. I’ve come to recognize the odor of the contents of a rumen.

This part of my job is causing me to see landscaping in a different way – these days when I’m walking down a city street, I’m starting to see the plants in terms of their toxicity instead of their attractiveness!

Herbarium staff and other botanists use their knowledge, reference texts, and physical herbarium specimens to conduct this identification process. Not only are herbarium specimens a crucial reference for identification, but they are also used to document the establishment, distribution, and spread of potentially poisonous plants across history.

​Take for example, the specimen below. On the (especially detailed) note, the collector of this plant chronicled the saga of poison hemlock. He notes, "The plant is toxic both to men and beast...." and "...In spite of its poisonous qualities it has been introduced from Europe as an ornamental plant." Poison hemlock is now widespread across the United States (just look at the distribution of this species across California in this map!). Knowing where it came from, the habitats it inhabits, and its potential pattern of spread may help us prevent it from spreading further and help us seek out where it may have quietly become established. There's no replacement for a robust herbarium record of plants, native and introduced.

By the way, did you notice that this specimen hails from the Southern Oregon University? Political boundaries weren't drawn with natural biomes in mind, and a large chunk of the the California Floristic Province is found in southwestern Oregon. To ensure the best possible coverage of the CFP, our friends at the Southern Oregon University Herbarium are now serving a copy of their data in CCH2. This has brought 22,000 new specimens to the CCH2, along with 20,000 images like the one shown above. California herbaria aren't the only ones collecting, digitizing, and curating these resources; the herbarium community is broad and more interconnected than ever in our work to catalog, protect, and promote biodiversity.

Morin, N. Taxonomic changes in North American Campanuloideae (Campanulaceae). ​​Phytoneuron (2020). 49:1-46

If you think that all plant species have already been discovered and named, think again. Even in our own backyard, scientists are continuing to uncover evidence that re-shapes our understanding of plant diversity.

As a recent example pertinent to our California flora, we have taxonomic work of Dr. Nancy Morin, a researcher with the UC and Jepson Herbaria. While working on the Flora of North America, Morin noticed that one particular group of bellflowers, the genus Campanula, appeared to consist of many species that may not be as closely related as scientists may have once thought. Thus, she embarked on a journey of taxonomic revision, the gathering and re-examination of evidence used to delineate and describe species.

Re-defining species is an enormous task, requiring the researcher to gather data of many kinds. To decide the boundaries of the species and characteristics that define then, Dr. Morin had to gather distributional data (where the plant lives), ecological data (the environments in which the plant is found), morphological data (what the plant looks like), historical data (how the plant has previously been named or described), and often, genetic data (the species' DNA). Fortunately, herbarium specimens represent many of these data types, and as more historical records are digitized and imaged, Morin had access to an increasing wealth of botanical data. Dr. Morin downloaded herbarium specimen data from GBIF, viewed specimen images, and spent many hours poring over the physical specimens in and from many herbaria. (In the acknowledgements of her paper, she cited visiting 10 herbaria and receiving loans from 82, eleven of which are members of the CAP Network!)

Upon reviewing the evidence, Dr. Morin concluded that this North American clade of Campanula should actually be split into eight genera consisting of 12 species. Six of these genera are new to western taxonomy, and Dr. Morin took this opportunity to name several after prominent botanists.

Three of the new genera are named after currently living botanists:

• Ravenella is named in honor of Peter H. Raven, current President Emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden and, in Morin's words, an "unstinting [advocate] for plants of the world and their study" (p. 13).
• "Smithiastrum is named in honor of James Payne Smith, Jr., emeritus faculty member in the Biology Department of Humboldt State University; a pioneer in plant conservation, authority on uses of plants especially by native peoples and on the toxicity of plants" (p. 21).
• Furthermore, "Poolea is named in honor of Jackie M. Poole, botanist with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for more than thirty years, an effective and passionate advocate for plant conservation, especially of the Texas flora" (p. 27).

​Not only do these new genera highlight advancement in our understanding of plants' evolutionary relatedness, but they also enshrine the names of important scientists who have paved the way to this understanding through their contributions to botanical science.

In this way, herbarium specimens and the researchers that use them also represent a unique intersection between science and history: the plants, but also the people who tirelessly explore the natural world and eagerly share their discoveries.

This week we pause to remember a biologist near and dear to the California community, a dedicated devotee to exploring and explaining the natural world who passed away this April: Dr. Harry Fierstine.

Dr. Fierstine was a native of California; he earned his PhD at UCLA and then moved to San Luis Obispo, where he taught biology, zoology, comparative anatomy, and ichthyology (the study of fish) at California Polytechnic State University for 29 years. However, like most natural scientists, Dr. Fierstine's curiosity was much broader, and his publications profess an interest across the globe. He studied fossils of marlin from California to Virginia, South Carolina to the Philippines. In one, almost comical study, Dr. Fierstine examined the rostra (beak-like "noses") of supposed swordfish that had been found embedded in the hulls of wooden ships from the early 19th century (Fierstine & Crimmin, 1996). By measuring the rostra and studying their shape, he and a colleague determined that the rostra belonged not to swordfish (Xiphias gladius), but marlins (Makaira spp.). Prior to this study, few scientists had recognized this "spearing" behavior in marlins. Dr. Fierstine contributed much to  our understanding of these enormous, mysterious fish.

Khoury, C.K., Carver, D., Greene, S.L., et al. Crop wild relatives of the United States require urgent conservation action. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (2020). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2007029117 

Our next story of digitized herbarium specimen data fueling novel research stems from a collaboration of nine scientists at the US Department of Agriculture, International Center for Tropical Agriculture in Colombia, Museo de Historia Natural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Peru, Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and NatureServe. These researchers sought to quantify just how threatened crop wild relatives—that is, non-domesticated species that are close relatives of domesticated crops—may be in the United States.

Crop wild relatives are an important focus of agricultural and conservation research because these species may hold genetic information that could add diversity to our current domesticated crops. Lack of genetic diversity (think number of unique genes and gene combinations) can make species susceptible to disease and detrimental mutations. With fewer "tools" in their genetic toolbox, species with low genetic diversity may not be able to adapt to changes in their environment, such as changes in the timing and quantity of precipitation, heat, and pollinator availability. By conserving and potentially cross-breeding crop wild relative species with crop species, we may be able to produce a more genetically robust and sustainable food source for the growing human population.

Using occurrence data (including herbarium specimen records) and data from gene banks, Khoury et al. conducted conservation assessments for 594 crop wild relative plants that are native to the U.S. They used these 276,312 records to quantify how vulnerable the species may be based on how many records exist and how much land the taxa currently occupy.

What they found was concerning: 42 taxa may be critically endangered in their natural habitats, 297 may be endangered, and 166 may be vulnerable. Only 3.9% of taxa that they studied were in little danger of losing critical levels of genetic diversity or going extinct. Khoury et al. also found that 14% of the study taxa are not currently preserved at seed banks or botanical gardens. This could mean that, if these taxa go extinct, we will have little to no ability to utilize their genetic diversity for existing crops.

Data from many California herbaria were included in these analyses, providing the baseline knowledge of where these plants have occurred historically and lending insight into where they may currently exist. Thanks to research like that described in this paper, empowered by specimen data, we can identify which species we are most in danger of losing. Such research is critical to directing future conservation efforts and public policy.

You can do a lot of science with 3 million herbarium specimen records.

By making our digitized specimen data available not only through the CCH2 portal, but also through global aggregators GBIF and iDigBio, researchers across the world can view and use this valuable resource for studies in their fields. Research topics vary from species endemism and distributions, to invasive species, to human health and fire ecology. In this and upcoming blog posts, we will highlight recently-published papers from research communities outside of California that nevertheless use data from California herbarium specimens to explore and explain our natural world in new and exciting ways.

Alpine ecosystems are characterized by inhospitable abiotic conditions; bitter cold, high UV exposure, harsh winds, and rocky, eroding soil are just a few factors that plant species in these areas have faced over evolutionary time. Despite this, thousands of species (2,937 of which are included in this paper) have evolved to live in these environments, and Figueroa et al. wanted to understand how they came to be. Figueroa et al. used species distribution models to compare patterns of diversity due to phylogenetic (i.e., evolutionary relatedness) and abiotic factors. They found that different alpine communities across the Americas—for example, Patagonian versus Rocky Mountain communities--showed different patterns of diversity, suggesting that each region assembled due to unique factors. In other words, harsh climatic conditions alone don't necessarily determine which species can exist in an area, yet assembly does not depend solely on species being at the right place at the right time (the history-filtering hypothesis). They also found that species richness did not follow a simple latitudinal gradient (species in other environments and taxonomic groups have been shown to display a latitudinal gradient in species richness, with highest diversity around the equator).

​This work represents an important use of millions of herbarium specimen records to answer a foundational question in evolutionary biology; and many hundreds of thousands (over 600,000, to be more precise) of these specimens originated from our very own California herbaria! The dataset included specimens from the San Diego Natural History Museum Herbarium, UC Riverside Herbarium, CSU Chico Herbarium, Robert F. Hoover Herbarium at Cal Poly State University, and several others. California herbaria play an important role in shaping our understanding of global evolutionary patterns.

Drought: it's a reality for the warm, Mediterranean climatic region of California, especially as human land use changes the landscape and greenhouse grasses trap heat.

Drought can affect plants in many ways. On a physiological level, lack of water produces stress, which can inhibit plant growth and reproduction. Some plants change in appearance or stature under drought stress, often remaining small in size or limiting fruit set, like what might have happened to the Gilia on the left below. Some plants' foliage may wilt, shrivel, and/or die back, like the discoloring manzanita on the right.

In the face of annual "droughts" during the summer months, many species in California have evolved to be "drought deciduous", meaning they die back in the summer and resume growth and reproduction after winter and spring rains. The iconic species black sage (Salvia mellifera) and California sagebrush (Artemisia californica), for example, are drought deciduous and will often turn brown and lose their leaves in the hot summer months. Still, these plants can be negatively affected by long-term droughts. Too many drought years in a row can kill individuals of even these hardy, well-adapted species.

Drought can also alter plant communities, for example, by allowing drought-tolerant, often "weedy" species to take advantage of the open real estate and weakened competition. The specimens below serve as striking examples; as Laguna Lake in San Luis Obispo shrunk into a cracked, dry bed during the 2012-2016 California drought, three different species of opportunistic goosefoot (Chenopodium) sprung up abundantly in its absence.

Other species can temporarily (or permanently) disappear in the face of ongoing drought, as one astute collector noted in some of her collections. She discovered populations of the native annual "clustered tarweed" (Hemizonia/Deinandra fasciculata) the year after the severe drought of 2002, even though the species was "not seen at all in 2002 during severe drought year" (check out the specimen here!).

​Herbarium specimens document botanical changes and can help us understand the changing distributions of plants as environmental factors shift, as demonstrated by the examples above. We're so lucky to have such a dedicated community of collectors and botanists who are creating and caring for this resource.