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.