Que planta é esta ? /What is this plant ? #2

É domingo! Vamos ao segundo desafio:

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It´s Sunday! Let´s face the second challenge:

#2

#2

Que planta é esta ? A resposta!/What is this plant ? The answer! #1

E agora a resposta para o desafio #1:

A foto é um close up da flor de Magnolia champaca (L.) Baill. ex Pierre, também conhecida pelo sinônimo de Michelia champaca. O nome popular é magnólia-amarela ou michelia aqui no Brasil, sendo uma árvore nativa do Sul e Sudeste da Ásia. As flores amarelas são muito chamativas (ver fotos abaixo) e perfumadas.

Parabéns para Luiz Melo que acertou a espécie e Carla Feio e Yannisd pelo gênero correto!

Um novo desfio em breve!

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 And now the answer to the challenge #1:

The photo is a close up of the flower of Magnolia champaca (L.) Baill. ex Pierre, also known by its synonym Michelia champaca. The popular name is yellow jade orchid tree or champaca (in Asia). The species is a tree native to South and Southeast Asia. Its yellow flowers are very showy (see photos below) 

and fragrant .

Congratulations to Luiz Melo who hit the species, and Carla Feio and Yannisd for the correct genus!

A new challenge soon!

Photo by Milton Groppo

Photo by Milton Groppo

Que planta é esta ? /What is this plant ? #1

Hoje nós temos um pequeno desafio, só para relaxar (é sexta-feira aqui no Brasil).

Lembro-me de quando eu era estudante de graduação, havia alguns concursos nos Congressos Brasileiros de Botânica  pedindo para a audiência tentar identificar algumas exsicatas. O problema era que as plantas eram apenas partes de raízes, troncos ou ramos estéreis. Havia um sistema de pontos, e as pessoas ganhavam mais pontos se pudessem identificar as espécies tão perto quanto possível (até família, gênero ou espécie). Havia prêmios aos vencedores, como livros.

Com o mesmo espírito, logo abaixo você pode ver uma parte de uma imagem de planta. Pode me dizer qual planta é essa? Deixe o seu palpite nos comentários, em português ou inglês (será respondida amanhã à noite).

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Today we have a little challenge, just to relax (it is Friday here in Brazil). 

I remember when I was a undergraduate student there were some contests in the Brazilian Botanical Congresses asking the audience to try identifying some exsicatae. The problem was plants were just portions of roots, trunks or sterile branches. There was a system of points, and people earned more points if they were able to identify the species as close as they could (till family, genus, or species). There were prizes to the winners, like books. 

Taking the same spirit, below you can see a portion of a picture of a plant. Can you tell me what plant is this? Leave your guess in the comments, in Portuguese or English (will be answered tomorrow at night).

#1

Chilean Pitavia (Rutaceae) is closer to what? And a new subfamilial classification in Rutaceae (Citrus family)

My main research line is focused in Plant Systematics, especially in the family Rutaceae, popularly known due to Citrus (oranges, lemon, tangerines...), and Ruta (rue). This family was introduced to me by my advisor, Dr. José Rubens Pirani, from Instituto de Biociências-USP. Together with Dr. Jacquelyn A. Kallunki, from New York Botanical Garden, another great especialist in neotropical Rutaceae, we have conduced some joint projects.

In December (2012), almost in the Xmas Eve, it was published (Phytokeys, 19: 9–29, doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.19.3912) a paper dealing with an enigmatic Rutacean genus: Pitavia (el "Pitao"). This genus is monoespecific (only P. amara recognized) and endemic to continental Chile (see some photos below). We had no idea on how to position it in a phylogenetic context. Was it positioned close to the Neotropical groups of Rutaceae? Or close to Pacific genera instead?

Pitavia - habit (from http://www.panoramio.com/photo/345484)

Pitavia - flowers (from http://www.flickr.com/photos/fjbn/3639605174/)

The opportunity in studing this group arose when Dr. Klaus Kubitzki (Hamburg Institut für Allegemeine Botanik Germany) kindly sent me a silica-gel leaf sample, so we performed a molecular phylogenetic study. Dr. Alexandre Antonelli (University of Gothenburg, Sweden) helped a lot in the Bayesian Inference analysis.

As the sampling in Rutaceae was large, we were able to propose a new subfamilial circunscription to this family, recognizing only two monophyletic subfamilies, instead 6-7 recognized before: Cneoroideae and Rutoideae. As a consequence, Aurantioideae (the famous Citrus and its allies) was reduced to tribal rank as Aurantieae under Rutoideae.

And what about Chilean Pitavia? Read the article and find out (doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.19.3912)
OK, here are some cladograms:

    

Combined analysis (note new subfamilies circunscription  in far right vertical bars) . From Groppo et al. (2012).

Synapomorphies to some internal clades. From Groppo et al. (2012)

Richard Brummitt - our respects

Today we have bad news: Dr. Richard Brummitt, from The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, passed away last Wednesday (September, the 18th). Those working with plant taxonomy surely have used the very famous Brummitt & Powell's Authors of Plant Names (see image below). A note from Kew staff was distributed via Brazilian Herbaria Net ("Rede Brasileira de Herbários"):

"We are very sad to announce that Dick Brummitt passed away last Wednesday. Dick retired in the late 1990s after a long and distinguished career at Kew but was a familiar face in HLAA over the years since. Dick was one of the 'greats' of plant nomenclature and among his many achievements was lead author of 'Vascular Plant Families and Genera' and 'Authors of Plant Names'. He was a prime mover in the establishment of nomenclatural databases at Kew. His knowledge of the 'International Code of Botanical Nomenclature' was second-to-none and his work on the Nomenclature Committee of the IAPT was widely recognised. He also had broad interests in tropical African botany especially in Leguminosae and Convolvulaceae"

Dick will be very sorely missed.

Dave"

It was hard to find an image from Richard Brummitt in internet. I could find only one (see below). Dr. Brummitt is in the far right side, together with other Kew Convolvulaceae Group members :

http://convolvulaceae.myspecies.info/content/kew-group-dick-brummittjpg

Brummitt & Powell´s Authors of Plant Names, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (cover of 2010  edition)

There is also a little wikipedia page about Richard Brumitt:

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kenneth_Brummitt

New species of flowering plant honours Brazilian botanist

A new species of flowering plant (angiosperm) from the Espírito Santo sate, in the Brazilian Atlantic Rain Forest domain, Kuhlmanniodendron apterocarpum Groppo, Favaretto & Fiaschi (family Achariaceae), the second species of the genus Kuhlmanniodendron, was recently described this year in Systematic Botany journal, the ASPT official (note ASPT: American Society of Plant Taxonomists). The genus name, Kuhlmanniodendron ("Kuhlmann tree") is a tribute to John Geraldo Kuhlmann (1882-1958), a Santa Catarina citizen settled in Rio de Janeiro, director of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden from 1944 to 1951, one of the biggest Brazilian botanists. The research involved people from our Department, as me,  Dr. Claudia Ines da Silva (palynologist), Bruno Favaretto (a.k.a "Pastel"), a undergraduate student, and colleagues from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte and from the Instituto de Biociências de São Paulo, USP. Morphological, anatomical, palynological, phytochemical and molecular sequencing data were used to a  better understanding of the the phylogenetic position of the species in a broader context. The article can be obtained at 
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1600/036364413X662114

Flower, by Jomar Jardim

Plate, drawings by Bruno Favaretto

Our page

Hi, 

Besides our blog we have a page of the Laboratory (in Portuguese), thanks to (and again!) Anelize Barboza. The page is not up-to-date, but we´ll try to put things back on track. Access the page at http://sites.ffclrp.usp.br/sistematicadeplantas/

15,000 records!

With a collection of Ilex conocarpa, a relative of our maté (Ilex paraguariensis) made by Rafael C. Peres in Serra do Cipó,  Minas Gerais state, our Herbarium reached 15,000 records. This number represents an increase of 100% since 2005, the year I became its keeper. Thanks to the students and our staff member Maria Helena Pires (photo), who patiently mounts all our sheets. Sky is the limit!

Maria Helena Pires and her desk

Herbário SPFR é fiel-depositária/ Herbarium SPFR as an Official Depository

Ministry of Environment logo

Desde 2012 nosso Herbário é oficialmente reconhecido como Coleção Fiel-Depositária pelo CGEN (Conselho Gestor do Patrimônio Genético), órgão subordinado ao Ministério do Meio Ambiente. Isso possibilita que a coleção receba materiais-testemunha de estudos taxonômicos, de biologia da conservação, farmacológicos, químicos e de médicos. Este foi um grande passo para que a coleção seja mais útil e visível para um público mais amplo. A portaria que formaliza a coleção como Fiel-Depositária pode ser vista em: http://www.mma.gov.br/patrimonio-genetico/conselho-de-gestao-do-patrimonio-genetico/instituicoes-fieis-depositarias/credenciamento-das-instituicoes.
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Since 2012 our Herbarium is officially recognized as an Official Depository Collection by  CGEN (something like "Board of Genetic Heritage Management"), under our Ministry of Environment. This enables the collection to receive vouchers from different studies in different fields as plant taxonomy, conservation biology, pharmacology, chemical and medicine. That was a large step to our efforts in making our colletion more usefull and visible to a larger public. The order which formalizes the collection as an Official Depository Collection can be seen at http://www.mma.gov.br/patrimonio-genetico/conselho-de-gestao-do-patrimonio-genetico/instituicoes-fieis-depositarias/credenciamento-das-instituicoes.

Logo

Our Lab logo

Yes, we have a logo of the Laboratory!

The logo design was first thought by myself: two leaves with a text in a circle. The graduate student Bruno Favaretto (a.k.a. "Pastel") did a first draft by hand. However, the logo was greatly enhanced by the graduate student Anelize Barboza, in a really fine job. We have used the logo in presentations, posters and documents. Thanks guys!

Presentation

Milton Groppo

Hello, my name is Milton Groppo, and this is the blog of the Laboratory of Plant Systematics, Department of Biology, Faculty of Philosophy, Sciences and Letters of the University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. I am a Professor in the Department and Head of the Laboratory. Associated with the Laboratory there is a scientific collection, the Herbarium of the Department of Biology (Herbarium SPFR).

I started doing this blog because I began to realize that there are not only interesting news related to the scientific community, but also to the work done in our laboratory, our field trips and the people who work in it. News about our Herbarium also be placed here, as well as issues related to my classes at undergraduate and graduate programs. I hope you enjoy this space.