Davidsonia

Davidsonia - A Journal of Botanical Garden Science. Volume 14, Number 3, July 2003.

Editor, Iain Taylor writes about the importance of peer review in science journals.

During conservation status report work on Bidens amplissima, many plants were found that resembled B. amplissima but lacked the trilobed leaves ascribed to the species. Herbarium investigations revealed that most plants with this form had been identified as B. cernua because of this lack of trilobed leaves. However, these plants more closely resembled B. amplissima than B. cernua in other leaf and achene characters. Multivariate statistical analysis of morphological characters from herbarium specimens unambiguously separated them into two groups. One group was B. cernua, and the other, including all the unlobed and trilobed-leaved specimens, was B. amplissima. Recognition of unlobed B. amplissima has resulted in an increase in the number of localities for the species, a range extension for the species into Washington State with its addition to the flora of the United States, and loss of its endemic status in British Columbia. This discovery was important for assessment of the status of B. amplissima and has broad conservation implications. Our results highlight the need for careful review of the taxonomy of species, particularly within difficult taxonomic groups, when conducting status assessments. Primary data re-evaluation may be critical where status designation has implications for both landowners and governments, and where conservation and protection policies are presently evolving.

The forty or so species in the genus Abies Miller are distributed widely around the Northern Hemisphere, with centres of diversity occurring in southern Europe, Asia, the Himalayas and western North America. UBC Botanical Garden has a small but significant collection consisting primarily of local and Asian species, but has identified the genus as one of its target groups and there are plans to expand the collections. As a group, the silver firs are easily recognizable; they are mostly densely pyramidal in youth, with conspicuously whorled branches, flattened needles and neat, upright cones, which are produced with the greatest frequency on older plants. The common name derives from the often highly visible whitish, wax-covered stomatal bands on the undersides of the needles of many species.

This paper is a discussion of impacts arising from use of pesticides, introduction of new plants for horticulture and the increasing interests in ‘organic’ gardening. Consideration of these practices in a broad context of benefits and harm allows us to begin addressing commercial and public perceptions from an ethical perspective. Past experience with all forms of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides and biological control agents points to a need for a greater effort to learn from the past. Introduction of new cultivated material cannot be fully predicted to be free of invasive risks. The increasing complexity and generally low level treatment of human and industrial waste makes it increasingly difficult to assume that ‘natural’ soils are as pristine as we may like to think in moving towards ‘organic’ gardening practices. Biomagnification of toxic materials in soil by food plants may compromise their perceived safety of such ‘organic’ production.

The August installment of Judy Newton's popular series describing what to see at the UBC Botanical Garden each month of the year.

The Editors of Davidsonia highlight some of the most interesting and important titles from the thousands of recently published papers in the plant sciences.