Leading botanist known for dedication and attention to detail

MAURA SCANNELL, who died earlier this month at the age of 87, was one of Ireland’s leading botanists with a unique understanding and appreciation of the importance of plants in Irish culture.

When she retired from her position as head of the National Herbarium in 1989, she had established the largest collection by any single botanist.

She published more than 200 scientific studies, and her nomination for the National Botanic Gardens Medal in 2008 was in recognition of her extraordinary contribution. In 1995, she was also made an honorary member of the Botanical Society of the British Isles.

Born in Cork, Scannell was one of seven children reared by Patrick and Margaret Scannell in Douglas.

Read full article: IrishTimes.com

The secret life of plants revealed

Botanists around the world have agreed on a standard plant DNA bar code, which will enable scientists to apply genetic technologies to find new medical cures and save endangered species. An international team of 52 scientists, including botanists from the University of Johannesburg, agreed that two chloroplast genes, matK and rbcL, should be adopted as the DNA bar code for land plants. Read more>

Profile: Luthur Burbank

Luther Burbank
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born: 7 March 1849 (1849-03-07) Lancaster, Massachusetts, USA
Died: 11 April 1926 (aged 77) Santa Rosa, California, USA
Fields: Botany

Luther Burbank (7 March 1849 – 11 April 1926) [1] was an American botanist, horticulturist and a pioneer in agricultural science.

He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank's varied creations included fruits, flowers, grains, grasses, and vegetables. He developed a spineless cactus (useful for cattle-feed) and the plumcot.

Burbank's most successful strains and varieties include the Shasta daisy, the Fire poppy, the July Elberta peach, the Santa Rosa plum, the Flaming Gold nectarine, the Wickson plum, the Freestone peach, and the white blackberry. A natural genetic variant of the Burbank potato with russet-colored skin later became known as the Russet Burbank potato. This large, brown-skinned, white-fleshed potato has become the world's predominant potato in food processing.

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New Mexico: Native Plant Society hosts noted botanist

William A. Weber, a noted botanist, world traveler and professor emeritus at the University of Colorado in Boulder, will talk about mentoring young botanists during his keynote speech at the annual meeting of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico in Taos, Aug. 6-9. The meeting also features a trip to the Aldo Leopold house, a garden walk with landscape designer Judith Phillips and other trips to explore Rio Grande riparian areas and sub-alpine sites at Wheeler Peak. Weber, who turns 91 in November, is a noted naturalist and lichen expert. He has named dozens of the little symbiotic joinings of fungi and algae or cyanobacteria. Weber, who speaks several languages, has published or edited more than 20 books and 200 scientific papers. The Native Plant Society of New Mexico works to educate people about the importance of native plants. Workshops at the annual meeting will cover such topics as seed collection and propagation, grass identification and photographing native plants. To register, contact Ann Smith at 575-737-9611. The annual meeting will be at the Best Western Kachina Lodge in Taos. Rooms are available by calling 575-758-2275.

Profile: Jagadish Chandra Bose a plant physiologist

Sohoni Das
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SF Hindu Examiner

Jagadish Chandra Bose was a physicist, biologist, botanist and a pioneer in the field of radio and microwave optics and made very significant contributions to plant physiology. He was able to show the similarities between the behavioral response of plant and animal tissue. He had laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian Subcontinent. Born in Mymensingh, Bengal (Eastern India and now Bangladesh) during the colonial rule in India, graduated from St Xavier’s College, Calcutta, and joined Presidency College of University of Calcutta as a Professor of Physics. He retired and then founded the Bose Research Institute, the first scientific research institute in India.

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Like father, like son

Fellow botanists have a lot in common
By Tim Johnson, Free Press Staff Writer • June 21, 2009

Photo: Tom Vogelmann of Jericho holds a 1954 photo him and his father, Hub, on Tom’s second birthday

JERICHO — This is a story about the family Vogelmann, father and son. They’re next-door neighbors.

Hub, the father, grew up in a city, married, had three sons, moved here to the country, and tried his hand at raising beef cattle — grass-fed, back before that was fashionable.

Tom, the eldest, proved adept at haying. He was a bit of a handful, into everything, but he was good at tossing bales into the barn.

Hub had a day job, and he used to joke that’s what made it possible for him to lose money on the cattle. Tom helped out but “he always had a mind of his own — it was ‘get out of my way,’” Hub recalled the other day.Tom smiled knowingly. They were sitting on Tom’s porch in the late afternoon sun, reminiscing.

Hub’s day job was professor of botany at the University of Vermont. He was there 36 years, retiring in 1991.

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Mushroom a sexy find - with a racy name

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Tuesday, June 16, 2009

A bizarre African mushroom that triggers snarky laughter and double-entendre jokes, has brought a fresh measure of dubious fame to an eminent Bay Area botanist and his colleague working on a tiny cluster of African islands far older than Darwin's fabled Galápagos.

The fungus is a new plant species called Phallus dreweseii, and aside from provoking snide giggles, it bespeaks the extraordinary biodiversity of those remote islands that are now threatened by the world's appetite for oil.

The botanist is Dennis A. Desjardin, a world-roaming mycologist at San Francisco State University. His colleague - for whom Desjardin named the mushroom - is Robert Drewes, a herpetologist best known for the huge variety of frogs he has discovered throughout Africa.
Drewes has led three major expeditions to the island nation of São Tómé and Príncipe, located in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa. Because so little is known of the plant and animal life on the islands, Drewes has encouraged specialists in every field of biology to explore their mist-shrouded mountains, grasslands and forests.

Desjardin was there two years ago, and along with Bryan Perry, his San Francisco State student, has recently published a report on his latest discovery in Mycologia, the leading journal of fungus science.

The new plant species, he said in an interview, is "a tiny little thing, barely 2 1/2 inches long and thinner than your little finger.

"I found it growing out of an old rotting log in a forest on a mountaintop, and after I spotted the first one, I saw several more right in the same spot," he said.

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