1991 PBIO Newsletter

Ohio University

BotanyliT 1 44- 1 flfl I CCC” College ofArts and SciencesvewsLeLLer Athens, Ohio 45701

REPORT FROM THE CHAIR

As Dickens observed, “It was the best of times,it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom,it was the age of foolishness . . .“. These thoughtsare particularly apropos this year.

The major event has been the initial stagesof the Porter renovation; when completed thedepartment will occupy the fourth and fifth floorsand most of the third floor. To date, our dealingswith the architect, Dan Carmichael of Columbus,have been very positive; he has successfullytranslated our varied requirements into asatisfactory floor plan and has patiently workedwith us in designing our teaching and researchfacilities. Thus we have experienced “the springof hope”, which we trust will not be followed by“the winter of despair”. We are uneasy that theuniversity has not indicated where the facultywill be housed during the renovation, and we areparticularly concerned that graduate and facultyresearch could be interrupted.

“It was the best of times” for Jan Salick whoreceived a major new grant to support her researchon the development of nontimber forest products inNicaragua, and Gar Rothwell who was the recipientof the university’s Outstanding Graduate Facultyaward. It was “the worst of times” when there wasa midyear decrease in budgets and postponementof our search for a new ecologist, after we hadreceived some outstanding applications. However,the continued generosity of alumnae and alunmiallowed us to continue acquiring plants for thebotanical garden and to partially support studenttravel, even during a bare bones budget year.Consequently, I hope you are able to make at leasta small gift, designated to the Department ofBotany, when Dean Eckelmann invites you toparticipate in this year’s College of Arts andSciences Annual Roll Callfor Excellence.

Ivan K. SmithProfessor and Chair

Dr. Warren Wistendahl standing next to ancientwhite oak at Dysart Woods. This tree is now dead.

2 Botany Newsletter 1991

DYSART WOODSLast year, Ohio Valley Coal Co. proposed

expanding its mining operation in BelmontCounty next to Dysart Woods. Dysart Woods is aRegistered National Natural Landmark, located inSmith Township, Belmont County, Ohio. It is oneof the last remnants of the virgin forest whichformerly covered southeastern Ohio and theeastern United States. It was obtained from theDysart family in 1963 by the Ohio Chapter of theNature Conservancy. In 1966, the Dysart WoodsLaboratory was purchased from the NatureConservancy by Ohio University. The firstdirector of the laboratory was DR. WARREN A.WISTENDAHL. Mter his retirement, directorshipwas taken over by DR. IRWIN A. UNGAR. Thelaboratory as a whole covers about 455 acres.About 50 acres of this are virgin forest; theremaining 405 are old farmland in various stagesof secondary succession with much younger trees.The 50 acres of forest are part of less than 1000acres of virgin forest which remain between theAppalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River.

The woods of the preserve are a mixedmesophytic deciduous forest. The largest, dominanttrees are white oaks (Quercus atha) which probablyrange in age from 300 to 400 years. Otherprevalent, large trees are wild black cherry (Prurtusserotina), red oak (Quercus rubra), white ash(FraxLraLs americana), American beech (Fagusgrartdfolia), sour gum (Nyssa sylvatica), sugarmaple (Acer saccharum) and tulip poplar(Liriodertclron tulpfera). A number of the whiteoaks are from 105 to 170 feet tall and 29 to 47inches in diameter. Unfortunately, since 1984 someof the larger white oaks have died but their largetrunks are still standing. The largest tree currentlyis a tulip poplar, which is 160 feet tall and 66inches in diameter. Some of the largest trees maybe as much as 500 years old.

Dysart Woods is a magnificent reminder ofwhat the eastern forest once looked like. It servesvisitors from all over the nation as well as Ohio’seducational institutions, including the BelmontCounty public schools. The woods are a significantresource for the teaching of science. Students andfaculty of Ohio University have used and continueto use the woods for teaching and for variousresearch projects in ecology.

Because of its value and importance,preservation of Dysart Woods has to have toppiiority. One of the problems faced in maintainingthe forest is the possibility of coal mining whichmight destroy the vegetation, adversely affect thehydrology and change the quality of water in thearea, lower the level of the water table or lead toground subsidence which might destroy the trees.Belmont County is very heavily mined. In 1970 asuccessful effort was made to establish a bufferzone around the preserve to avoid strip mining.

In January, 199 1 , protection of Ohio’s largesttract of virgin woods was given top priority in aprecedent setting agreement between the Divisionof Reclamation of the Ohio Department of NaturalResources and Ohio University. What thereclamation agency did was approve a three-yearuniversity proposal to monitor and evaluate thepotential effects of longwall mining on DysartWoods. This study will allow adequate time toevaluate the hydrologic system around Dysart priorto initiation of full coal extraction under the bufferzone. The study will use a network of 22 wellsequipped with automatic recorders to continuouslymonitor water levels. Supervision of well drillingwill be by DRS. MOlD AIIMAD and JEFF SMITHof O.U.’s Department of Geological Sciences whilevegetation monitoring will be continued by DRS.WISTENDAIIL and UNGAR. The study is designedto provide information to determine if longwallmining adjacent to the woods will have adverseeffects.

Dysart is open to the public. Brochures onthe forest may be obtained through the BotanyDepartment or from the caretaker’s home at thewoods. [Portions of the above extracted from TheMessenger, January 13, 1991, and an article byIrwin in The Journal of the Ohio Native PlantSociety, Vol. 8 (3): 5-9.]

BOTANICAL GARDEN ANDGREENHOUSE

Much to the credit of HAROLD BLAZIER,Manager of the Greenhouse and Garden, BETTYMOORE, and many volunteers several rooms insidethe greenhouse have been rearranged to provide anattractive display area for visitors. Outdoorperennial beds planted last year are now an arrayof color and scents for all to enjoy. The mission ofthe botanical garden is to provide a collection ofplants that serves the interests of the faculty andstudents as well as to provide an opportunity foroutreach to the larger Athens community. -To thisend the local chapter of the Ohio Native PlantSociety has provided volunteers to propagatenative plants in the greenhouse. In exchange, thebotanical garden has received some of the choicenative plant seedlings that are now thriving in theperennial beds. The remaining seedlings were soldat the society’s wildflower sale on May 24. Some ofthe proceeds from this sale have been donated tothe department’s botanical garden fund.

Botany and the Physical Plant (through theefforts of its director, W. ChARLES CULP) haveinitiated several projects of mutual benefit thisyear. Tree seedlings donated to the university byDawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio, are beingmaintained in the botanical garden until they are

Botany Newsletter 1991 3

large enough to be planted out on campus. Wehave provided physical plant with a list of treesand shrubs we would like the university to acquire;these will not only help beautify the campus butwill also enrich the department’s trees and shrubs,woody plants, and taxonomy courses.

Earlier this year the department was awardeda grant from the Institute of Museum Sciences, afederally funded institute located in Washington,D.C. This grant enabled the department to bring inan outside evaluator of our botanical gardenfacilities and operation. GREGORY ARMSTRONG,Director of the Arboretum, University of Wisconsin—Madison, toured the garden and greenhouse andmet with the department’s botanical gardencommittee (JIM BRASELTON, Chair, JEANANDREWS, HAROLD BLAZIER, PHIL CANTINO,BETTY MOORE) as well as with various universitypersonnel. He has provided us with recommendations that will aid greatly in our furtherimprovements in the garden. Included in these wasa recommendation that we computerize our recordssystem. This aspect has been enhanced by a recentworkshop at Dawes Arboretum on the use ofcomputers in plant records and mapping, whichwas attended by JIM BRASELTON, JUDYDOWLER, and HAROLD BLAZIER.

Another area we are focusing on is our plantcollection policy, which addresses cataloguing,mapping, labeling and documenting the historyand origin of our plants. Through the efforts ofJEAN ANDREWS we have mapped and cataloguedthe outdoor collection. We are specificallyinterested in providing attractive, durable plantlabels throughout the garden and greenhouse.Plant labels currently cost $8.00 each; for ourcurrent collection of 600 plants this representsan investment of nearly $5000. The departmentis most interested in purchasing a $6500 label-making machine which will allow us to make ourown labels for our current collection as well as forthe collections of the future. Our current budgetrestrictions prevent this purchase. To this end,however, we have established a “Botanical GardenLabel Machine Fund” for anyone interested incontributing to the purchase of this equipment.

If you have the opportunity to visit Athensthis coming year, be sure and stop by the botanicalgarden and greenhouse and see the improvementswe have made. Be sure and let Harold Blazier knowwho you are. If you have time and like hands-onexperience, bring your favorite gardening clothes asHarold will be happy to put you to work for a fewhours weeding, mowing the hillside, or repottingplants!

AWARDS AND HONORSUndergraduate Awards—Our annual awards

ceremony was held this year on May 23, inconjunction with our spring picnic at Stroud’s RunState Park, just east of Athens. Despite a briefsprthkle and one thunderclap it was a splendidday, complete with games and a feast which royaltywould enjoy. The event was attended by about sixtypeople including most faculty and graduatestudents, spouses, children of all ages, and manyundergraduate majors. Departmental guests inattendance were awardees and their families,LARRY and BETTY LARSON, and JEAN andWARREN WISTENDAIIL. During the evening feast,our chair, DR. IVAN SMITH, introduced eachstudent and presented them with their award.C. Paul and Beth K. Stocker Scholarships for the1991-92 academic year were awarded to first yearstudents TRISH ELLEN MCANDREW and GINNYREBECCA HUGHES. They are botany majors inthe Honors Tutorial College and College of Arts andSciences, respectively. They have come to OhioUniversity from opposite ends of the state. Trishhails from Lakewood, near Cleveland, and Ginnywas raised in Proctorville, along the Ohio Rivernear Chesapeake. Ginny Is currently “actiondirector” and secretary for Amnesty Internationalon campus. Both ultimately would like to earntheir doctorates in some aspect of botany orconservation biology. Wolfe Awards, given eachyear to outstanding students with an interest inconservation and ecology, were given to juniorTODD B. CIIADWELL of the Honors TutorialCollege and senior JEFFREY GOCIIENAUER. Toddworked fall and winter quarter as a PACE studentin the laboratory of DR. LLOYD. This springquarter and summer he has an internship with theDepartment of Energy at Arid Lands EcologyReserve on the side of Rattlesnake Mountain in theState of Washington. He writes that it is the seconddriest part of the country and that part of his workwill be sampling growth rings of sagebrush forcarbon- 14, to view its correlation with the HanfordNuclear Power Plant, which is nearby. This comingacademic year, Todd will be a student in the StudyAbroad Program at the University of Wales,Swansea. Todd has also worked at thedepartment’s greenhouse and botanical garden,volunteering hours of his time, donating hundredsof plants, including our carnivorous plant collectionas well as most of the orchids and many of theferns. RONALD ANDREW (ANDY) REED andJEFFREY GOCHENAUER were named OutstandingGraduating Seniors in Botany from the HonorsTutorial College and College of Arts and Sciences,respectively. Jeff came to Ohio University fromDalton, Ohio, and has distinguished himselfacademically with a 3.8 G.P.A. in botany. His long-term goals include employment working outside,trying to find better ways for human beings to livein harmony with nature. Andy came to Ohio


University from north central Ohio near MalabarFarm State Park. He says he was predestined tobecome a biologist because his father runs anoutdoor education school, the Mohican OutdoorSchool for elementary-aged children. AtWorthington High School, Andy participated intheir “Alternative” academic program, during whichtime he traveled to the Whale Museum in the Stateof Washington and conducted research on seaweedecology and the survival and distribution of herringeggs. Andy is the third in a line of brothers tograduate from Ohio University. He has been activein our alternative agriculture program in Athens,and in Belize, Central America, where he workedon tropical medicinal plants in a program organizedwith the help of JAN SALICK through the NewYork Botanic Garden. He currently works forEquinox Botanicals and appears at the Farmers’Market each week selling their products. His longterm goals include earning his doctorate in somearea of ethnoagriculture or ethnobotany.

The Botanical Society of America recognizedboth REED and GOCHENAUER with their “YoungBotanist Award.” This award honors “excellenceand outstanding promise as a contributor to theadvancement of knowledge in the botanicalsciences.”

College ofArts and Sciences—Last year,DR. MARK LITTLER (MS, 1966) was named the“Outstanding Alumnus of the Year” by the Collegeof Arts and Sciences but was unable to attend theawards ceremony because he was leading an NSFexpedition to exploremarine habitats of theYucatan Peninsula.Fortunately Mark was ableto visit in January, whenhe presented a seminarentitled “Sailmg with theSoviets: a comparison of

.contrasting geochemicalreef environments in the ‘

Indian Ocean”, and was -

presented with the above —.

awardbytheDeanata ,

dinner m his honor IMark received his master sdegree working withDR. J. HERBERT Dr. Mark LittlerGRAFFIUS in phycology (photo courtesy ofand his doctorate in The Athens Messenge,)

marine botany from theUniversity of Hawaii,Manoa, in 1971. Since leaving Honolulu, he servedon the faculty of the University of California, Irvine,and was Chair of the Department of Botany at theSmithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Hecurrently is a senior botanist at the Smithsonian.Mark’s wife, DIANE LITTLER, also studied botanyat Ohio University but received her BS degree from

the University of Hawaii. Diane is currently aresearch associate at the Smithsonian. Mark andDiane’s research focuses primarily on tropical reefsand includes fantastic underwater photography. Hesays that reefs are Important because they mayprovide evidence for global warming and thegreenhouse effect. Their work on reefs has led themvirtually around the world, including Australia, theCaribbean, Bahamas, Galapagos Islands, andBrazil. In the Bahamas, they recorded the deepestknown plant life 265 meters below the surface.Mark and Diane were also members of the fIrstjoint American—Soviet research expeditioninvestigating the causes and effects of seaweeddeclines. The results of this investigation will soonbe published in Coral Reefs. The success of thisinitial expedition has led to a continuation of theirjoint research. Mark has published over 100articles, research papers and books. He hasreceived more than 45 research grants for work inmarine botany, three Exceptional Service Awardsfrom the Smithsonian, and in 1985, the Medal ofMerit award from Ohio University. Mark and Dianeare frequent visitors to Athens as his parents, BOBand PAULINE UTTLER, reside here on CountryClub Lane.

DR. PHILIP D. CANTINO has been elected toa three year term on the Council of the AmericanSociety of Plant Taxonomists.

DR. GAR ROTHWELL has recently beennamed Ohio University’s Outstanding GraduateFaculty Member for 1990- 199 1 . This award is givenon the basis of merit by the university to a singlefaculty member each year. One of the perks of theaward is the opportunity to address the graduatestudents at commencement in 1992.

GRANTS

DR. NORMAN S. COHN received a ResearchChallenge Grant from Ohio University in theamount of $6000 to continue his work on kineticstudies of RNA and differential gene expression indwarf and wild-type peas.

JUDITH JARDINE, CAROLYN KEIFFER andDR. TOM VIERHELLER received a grant from theHamilton County Park District to study the causeof a major decline of three tree species within theurban area of Hamilton County. They will becollecting soils, leaves and pathogen data atShawnee Lookout and Woodland Mound Parksthis summer.

DR. JAN S.ALICK received a grant of $96,000from the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA) tosupport a project entitled “Research and Develop-ment of Non-Timber Forest Products in the SanJuan Region of Nicaragua”, a buffer zone next to


Si-a-Paz Park. Research wifi stress the ecology andsocioeconomic base of non-timber forest products.She also received a grant from ConservationInternational for “Learning Conservation from LocalPeople”, which will pay her expenses for travel toand in Borneo and Indonesia. During this trip shewill visit the Kenyah, an indigenous group of peoplein Apo Kayan, the largest tropical rainforest park inSoutheast Asia. Her primary goal is to obtaininformation on their ethnobotany and how theymanage the rain forest.

DR. ALLAN M. SHOWALTER received a$12,250 fellowship from the Ohio University Post-Doctoral Fellowship Committee to bring in a oneyear postdoc to work on potato tuber lectin genes,their structure, evolution, and function. He alsoreceived $1000 from the university’s TeachingFund to purchase a camcorder for taping studentpresentations and a PACE position grant for anundergraduate research assistant.

DR. iVAN K. SMITH received a grant of $1400from the Museum Assessment Program to aid inassessment of the Ohio University BotanicalGarden.

WOMEN IN SCIENCEAs part of the Women in Science Program,

sponsored by Ohio University and organized byDR. JAMES TONG of the Department ofChemistry, the Department of Botany and otherscience departments presented a poster display and

various lectures and labs in Clippinger Laboratoryon May 3. The purpose of the program is tointerest young women of middle and high schoolage in science and potential careers in science.This year, 500 young “academically strong” womenfrom all over Ohio attended the daylong activities.Botany’s educational display, organized by faculty,graduate students and staff, included videotapes onpollination biology and on the complexity of tropicalrainforest ecosystems. HAROLD BLAZIER selecteda variety of plants from the greenhouse for display.A display board highlighted the research andaccomplishments of the women of the department.These included everything from research in tropicalforests to DNA sequencing. Harold also propagated500 houseplants in the greenhouse which weregiven out, with instructions on their care andupkeep, to the visiting women.

PROFILE: MICHAEL T. HOLMES(BS, 1988; MS, 1990)

Michael Holmes has come a long way fromhis early years, fishing and swimming in the OhioRiver in Portsmouth. He was the seventh of eightchildren born to MARY and STEVE HOLMES. Inhis early years he played Little League football andbaseball and idolized his older brother PATRICK.He also dabbled in swimming, a sport which wasto lead to his participation on the PortsmouthSwimming Team and to teaching swimming at thelocal YMCA. In 1981, he became the OutstandingSwimmer and Co-Captain of the team. It was atthis time that Michael began visiting his family andfriends at the various university campuses aroundOhio seeking a place where he could pursue acollege degree. After graduating from PortsmouthHigh School, he spent his first two years of collegelife at the University of Cincinnati, and continuedto teach swimming for the Boys’ Club of America.His older sister, SABRINIA, a chemical engineerfor the Department of Defense, became a stronginfluence on his decision to pursue a career Inscience. His grandmother, PEARLIE HOLMES, andher strong love for plants, helped him realize thatplants were the most important organisms onearth, medicinally and spiritually, and governedthe survival of not only humans, but all other life.Thus, in January, 1986, prepared with theinfluence of his sister and grandmother, Michaelcame to Ohio University to finish his collegeeducation studying plant biology in ourdepartment.

As an undergraduate, Michael began learningthe basics of soil sciences under the supervision ofJAMES C. CAVENDER. He became hooked onmicrobial communities through soil sciences aswell as cultivation experiments of cellular slime

Botany vanpurchased in 1990 withfunclsfromthe College ofArts and Sciences. With the van arestudents in Art Trese’s plant pathology course (leftto right): Steve Woodward, Ron Bryan, Dixie D&on,Dr. Trese, Jude Jardine, Alan Rees


molds from African soils. In 1988, he graduated asthe department’s outstanding senior in field biologyand received a “Young Botanist Award” from theBotanical Society of America. During the summerimmediately following graduation Michael workedfor the Ohio Department of Natural Resourcessurveying Scioto County for potential naturalareas. Scioto Is notorious for its clear cutting andselective logging. In fall, 1988, Michael returned toOhio University in pursuit of a master’s degreeunder the supervision of Dr. Cavender. His workhere has included a study of the seasonaldistribution and taxonomy of cellular slime moldsof the Tikal, Guatemala, area. For his studies hetravelled to Tikal several times. During these tripshe assisted in the course in Integrative TropicalBotany and collected hundreds of soil samples.From these he has isolated several new speciesof slime molds and has provided a wealth ofinformation on soil microbial communities.

In March, 1991, Michael was selected forand attended the National Minority EnvironmentalConference In Oakland, California. This meetingwas designed to introduce students of color toenvironmental issues. It included various lecturesand discussions as well as an environmentalcareer day in conjunction with both private andgovernmental agencies. Discussions included suchcritical topics as pollution and toxic wastes that areoften a component of communities of color. Paneldiscussions were also held with local communities’leaders who are working on cleanup projects fortheir local environment. During this meeting,Michael was able to apply directly for summerinternships.

This summer, Michael will be working with ateam of botanists at Stanislaus National Forest inthe foothills of the Sierra Nevada, just outside ofYosemite National Park in the gold mining countryof California. He will be conducting a survey forrare and endangered species of plants beforetimber extractions. This will include searches forrare Clarkia in the evening primrose family. In thefall of this year he will enroll in the doctoralprogram at Oregon State University, Corvallis,in botany and plant pathology, continuing hisinterests and research in soil microbial activityand their effect on mycorrhizal roots.

During the past 25 years, Michael has comea long way, from the banks of the Ohio throughAthens to Guatemala and Belize and on to theforests of the Pacific Northwest. Although we aresorry to see him go, we wish him well, and we arehappy that he has taken advantage of the opportunities Ohio University provided. In return, he hasprovided us with a great deal of comradeship andan example of a work ethic above reproach,including a willingness to work hard but carefullyin the field and in the lab. Michael will make it inthe academic world, and he will contribute a greatdeal to it in the future. Although we will not beable to claim him as one of our doctoral productswe certainly will claim him as one of ourexceptional graduates of both our undergraduateand graduate master’s program.

FACULTY NEWS

Cell and Molecular Biology

DR. JAMES P. BRASELTON spent most of thepast year revising his textbook, An Introduction tothe World ofPlants, which is used for Botany 100,“The World of Plants”. The publisher, HunterTextbooks, Inc. , of Winston-Salem, felt that thebook deserved wider use than Ohio University.They have sent examination copies to severaluniversities in Canada and the United States. Todate, the text has been selected for courses at theUniversity of British Columbia, Clackamas Collegein Oregon City, Oregon, and Miami (Ohio)University. Responses from potential users includeone which suggests that “This should be requiredfor all science majors in the 90’s.” Illustrations forthe textbook were done by REBECCA SAMSON,biological illustrator and wife of graduate studentSTEVEN WAGSTAFF.

The laboratory of DRS. NORMAN S. COHNand JOHN P. MITCHELL has been involved withRNA kinetic studies, examining the differencesbetween dwarf and wild-type pea plants (Pisumsativum L.). By the exogenous application ofgibberellin, dwarf peas will produce a smallpopulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) not found

Michael T. Holmes (Left) with Andy Swanson


in untreated plants. They have used three cloneswith genes of different nucleotide lengths, havesequenced them and have found that the genes areexpressed differentially over time in dwarf and wild-type plants following stimulation by gibberellin. InOctober, Norm and John and graduate studentsCIIENZITAO JIAN and LIU-LAI WU presented twopapers at the Third International Congress of PlantMolecular Biology at the University of Arizona,Tucson, on gibberellin regulated increases inspecific mRNAs in the developing shoots of pea andon invertase chloroplast DNA (cDNA) prepared fromgibberellin treated dwarf pea plants. Dr. Cohn alsopresented a paper at a small international meetingon Botanical Microscopy held in Durham, England.wu is examining the how, why, where and whenof invertase activity increases after gibberellintreatment, e.g., does a localized breakdown ofsugar by this enzyme have anything to do withincreased stem elongation. In March of this year,CIIENZIIAO JIAN finished her doctoral work in hislab. A botany Honors Tutorial College student,SHAWN BAKER (recipient of Dr. Cohn’sDistinguished Professor Scholarship) is presentlyon a coveted six month research internship atArgonne National Laboratory, supported by theDepartment of Energy. He will return to Athensthis fall for his senior year.

In his spare time, Norm chaired a sessionfor Ohio legislators in a program sponsored by theInstitute for Contemporary History. He describeshis role as a moderator of a panel presentationon developments in science and engineering ofimportance to the citizens of the State of Ohio.During winter break he participated in a workshopon incorporating ethical issues into classroompresentations. This was in conjunction withdeveloping a Tier III course. He Is also still singingopera and dabbling in Athens City politics.

Research in ALLAN M. SHOWALTER’s labcontinues to focus on three related cell wallproteins: extensins, glycine-rich proteins, andsolanaceous lectins. To date, he and his studentJIN ZHOU and postdoc DOMINIQUE RUMEAUhave succeeded in isolating and characterizingfive classes of extensin and extensin-likecomplementary cDNA clones from tomato. Theyhave also isolated and characterized two wound-regulated tomato extensin gene clones. JIN ZHOUrecently graduated having completed the DNAsequencing and transcript mapping of these twoextensin genes for her doctoral dissertation.GRATTEN WELCH, first year graduate student,will make use of these extensin gene clones ashe attempts to clarify the mechanisms by whichwounding activates their expression. ADRIANBUTT, postdoctoral fellow, first year graduatestudent SUNGHAM KIM, and Allan are in theprocess of isolating an extensin gene whichencodes a glycine-rich protein (instead of anextensinfl, including Its cellular location and

function. Adrian moved to Athens in Decemberfrom Michigan State University with his wife, SUE.Allan, postdoctoral fellow JOHN CROSBY, andgraduate student WU MIN are interested inobtaining cDNA clones encoding the potato tuberlectin, a close relative of extensin proteins and onethat may be quite important in cell-to-cell inter-actions, including plant-to-pathogen interactions.They have constructed a cDNA library for potatoand are currently analyzing several cDNA cloneswhich may encode this lectin. John Crosby arrivedthis spring, with his wife JULIETTE, from theUniversity of Maine.

This past November, Allan presented a paperto the Ohio Plant Biotechnology Conference inColumbus on extensin genes. This summer hehas been invited to speak on his research to theAmerican Society of Plant Physiologists at theirannual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico,and to the Third International Congress of PlantMolecular Biology meeting in October in Tucson,Arizona.

Systematics and Morphology

DR. PHILIP CANTINO and his doctoralstudent, STEVEN WAGSTAFF, attended theInternational Conference on Labiatae (mints) inApril at the Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, England.American participation in the conference wascoordinated by Dr. Cantino. The conferencebrought together specialists on mints fromthroughout the world. It provided Phil and Steve anopportunity to establish contacts and initiate newcollaborative relationships with other researchersstudying the family. In one of the three lead-offpapers to set the tone of the meeting, Philpresented an overview of the systematics ofLabiatae from a phylogenetic perspective, includingevidence that the family is polyphyletic as currentlydelimited. This hypothesis was originally suggestedby DR. MONES ABU-ASAB (PhD, 1990) and hasbeen further confirmed by more recent work. Theirwork suggests that genera traditionally included inLabiatae evolved from several different subgroupsof Verbenaceae. This conflicts with the traditionalview that the mint family Is monophyletic, sharinga single ancestor. In a related paper at Kew, Monespresented a survey of the pollen of the moreprimitive Labiatae and their verbenaceous relatives.Mones is currently on a postdoctoral fellowship atthe Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

STEVEN WAGSTAFF presented a paper andposter at the Kew meeting, both based upon hisdoctoral research on phylogeny and characterevolution in the mint tribe Mentheae (whichincludes most of the commercially important mints,including thyme, oregano, and peppermint). Steve’sposter concerned pollen morphology while his talkfocused on molecular systematics. He has beenworking this past year with ALLAN SHOWALTER


studying cDNA restriction site variation inMentheae. Thus, Steve has applied bothmorphological data as well as molecular data tohis studies, an innovative project which generatedconsiderable interest at Kew. It is noteworthy thatSteve was the only graduate student, among28 speakers, invited to present his work at thisconference.

In other activities, Phil has been active inpreservation efforts for a natural area to functionin teaching and research by faculty and graduatestudents of botany and zoology. This area is knownas the Ridges, located just south of campus onrecently acquired land at the Athens Mental HealthHospital.

DR. JAMES C. CAVENDER and graduatestudents MICHAEL HOLMES, ANDREWSWANSON, and EDUARDO VADELL attendedthe annual meetings of the Mycological Society ofAmerica held at Madison, Wisconsin. During thesemeetings they presented a paper on the ecology ofdictyostelid fungi at Tikal, Guatemala, and a paperon possible phyletic relationships of cellular slimemolds. This past year, Jim, Eduardo and Andyvisited Belize and Guatemala to collect researchmaterials as well as participate in the course“Integrative Tropical Botany”. Other participantsincluded botany undergraduates TRACINASTEWART and PAUL NEIDHART. This year,the tropical botany students as well as HANKHUGGINS and MARK COHEN of the BelizeAgroforest Research Center and JEANNINECAVENDER, graduate student in the Yale Schoolof Forestry, went on a postcourse trip through themagnificent Rio Dulce region of Guatemala and onup to Lake Atitlan in the highlands. Hank andJeannine climbed Volcan San Pedro. Thisexpedition then visited the ancient Mayan cityof Copan in Honduras, which has been studiedextensively by faculty in Ohio University’sDepartment of Anthropology.

Eduardo worked with DR. EDWARD COXat Princeton University, learning methodology ofalpha-karyotyping as it is applied to dictyostelids.Thus, he was able to determine chromosomenumbers for a number of species collected at Tikal.Eduardo will return to Princeton this summer tocontinue this work. Andy Swanson is completinghis master’s research on the distribution ofdictyostelids in tropical and subtropical soils ofBelize and Guatemala. Jim Cavender alsopresented a paper on the effect of slash and burnagriculture on cellular slime molds in the CentralMrican Republic at a symposium on tropicaldeforestation hosted by the Department ofEconomics of Ohio University.

DR. GENE K. MAPES continues to teach atthe university’s regional campuses at Belmont andChillicothe. During the summer she did field work

in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas funded by grantsfrom the National Science Foundation, theUniversity of Kansas Museum of Natural History,and the Kansas Geological Survey. She is particularly interested in the effects of disarticulation anddegradation by biotic and abiotic factors (e.g.,herbivores, water, wind, water currents) on plantremains prior to their fossilization. These effectsare known as taphonomic effects. Her specificinterest currently is the evidence for paleo-wildfiresin the charcoalified wood, leafy twigs, seeds andcones of early conifer fossils. In December andJuly, she and her husband, ROYAL, led aworkshop in tropical field studies in the Bahamas.This workshop emphasizes integrative scienceeducation, using the Bahamian land, water,animals and plants to study distributions andecosystems and their interrelationships. This pastyear they also emphasized fIre ecology of theBahamian pine. The workshop was attended by agroup of enthusiastic nurses, schoolteachers, andOhio University students in journalism,environmental studies and business.

This past fall, Gene was awarded support fromthe Mead Corporation to attend a week long “PaperKnowledge” seminar, discussing the harvesting andprocessing of trees and other fiber sources toproduce paper products. DR. ROYAL MAPES, newchair of the Geological Sciences Department, andGene presented an invited paper at the GeologicalSociety of America meetings in Arlington, Texas,on glacial-eustatic events, biostratigraphy andpaleoecology. This paper demonstrated the unusualoccurrence of Late Pennsylvanian plant fossils indeep water “dysaerobic” marine sediments.

DR. GAR W. ROTIIWELL is editor of aspecial volume of the Review of Paleaeobotanyand Palynology that contains papers from the first“Paleobotany in Canada” conference. He is alsocollaborating with DR. WILSON STEWART on asecond edition of Stewart’s popular text“Paleobotany and the Evolution of Plants”. Thissummer, Gar will present a paper on evolutionaryradiations in ferns at the annual meeting of theCanadian Botanical Association in Edmonton. He,and graduate student RUDOLPH SERBET, will alsopresent a paper on the most ancient fossil evidencefor seed plants. This past April, Ohio Universitywas co-host of the 9th Midcontinent PaleobotanicalColloquium. This is currenily the most activeregional paleobotanical meeting in North America.Activities included field trips to Steubenville forcoal balls. This particular location has provided awealth of research fossils for his lab for the past15 years. In May of 1990, Gar and Rudy presenteda paper on pollination biology of the most primitivegymnosperms at the Third InternationalSenckenberg Conference, held in Frankfurt amMain, Germany.

Several students in his lab have or are about


to finish their degrees. DR. MARY LOUISE“COOKIE” TRIVETT has accepted a postdoctoralresearch fellowship at Arizona State University,Tempe, with DR. KATHLEEN PIGO (MS, 1982).This fellowship will focus on Southern Hemispherefossil plants. BAI LI completed his master’s degreethis past winter and will begin his doctoral work atCleveland State University this fall.

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

DR. IRWIN A. UNGAR was on faculty leavethis past year at Oxford University, England. Hewas completing a research text on the biology ofhalophytic plants which will be published by CRCPress this coming September. Irwin reported that itwas cold this winter in England and that things areterribly expensive. His new graduate student,CAROLYN KEIFFER, reports that this first year ingraduate school has been more exciting than shecould have imagined. This included initiating hergraduate career by participating in theOrganization for Tropical Studies (0Th) ecologycourse in Costa Rica. This is an intensive coursedesigned to introduce students to tropicalbiodiversity and conservation. From this course,nine educational packets were produced includinglecture material and slides for presentations tointroductory college classes and the public-at-large.She has presented several of these packets to localgroups including the Nature Conservancy, AthensGarden Club and the Ohio University Ecology Club.This summer she will participate in research forHamilton Parks and teach a project challengecourse for area school children with TOMVIERHELLER. This course is a two weekintroduction to botany, designed to stimulateinterest in plants and basic ecology. Carolyn’sgraduate research currently is planned to includework on halophytes for AMOCO Oil Co., includingdesalinization of oil and gas well drilling sites.Another of Irwin’s students, JUDITH (JUDE)JARDINE, will finish her master’s research thiscoming fall. Jude presented a portion of her workon a comparison of the composition of DysartWoods in 1968 and 1990 to the ecology section atthe 100th annual meeting of the Ohio Academy ofScience held in April at Columbus.

ROBERT M. LLOYD and T. LEE GREGG,with undergraduate botany PACE studentsTODD B. CIIADWELL and JOHN STRYKER areworking on theHartford fern (climbing fern),Lygodium palmatum., which is found sporadicallyin southeastern Ohio and has been considered forlisting on the potentially threatened plant list forOhio. Although the species may be “threatened” itappears to be a colonizer, growing in vacant, open,wet sites with clay soils. These sites includeseepage along old roads, road banks and roadsides. This past year, Todd was instrumental infmding new sites in Ohio as well as collecting

material in Kentucky. Lee and John have beenperfecting extraction and staining of variousisoenzyines separated by starch gel electrophoresis.Expression of these Isozymes is used to surveyindividual genes for allelic diversity and fordifferences and similarities between plants andpopulations. To date they have gotten results for20 enzyme systems which code for about 40 geneloci. Of these, only one (AK]] varies. Althoughmany of the other genes show “fIxed heterozygosity”of duplicated loci, expressed in both the gametophyte and sporophyte generations, recombinantsappear to be lacking and plants in all but two ofthe sampled populations appear to be geneticallyidentical. This is all very curious as gametophytesexual development appears to be one which wouldincrease the probabffity of recombination.

Graduate student ROBERT G. HAMILTONhas completed his dissertation and has accepteda position starting this September as assistantprofessor of biology at Mississippi College, Jackson.His research has focused on life history features oftwo athyrioid ferns in the genera Deparia andDiplazium. Although these species grow side by sidein the local forests, one has tropical ancestry andthe other temperate. Bob has shown that thisancestry has led to different adaptive strategiesin the local habitat. This past spring, he andJANELLE PRYOR were married. Janelle iscompleting her dissertation in paleobotany withGar Rothwell. GARY K. GREER, a doctoral studentfrom Humboldt State University in California, willbe johflng the lab this summer to continue hisresearch on antheridiogens and gametophytes innature.

JAN SALICK has left Athens this summer forher “annual” six months’ research in the tropics.She has spent a great deal of time this past yearin interdisciplinary activities, teaching and advisingin International Studies, Latin American Studies,and Southeast Asian Studies. She serves theOrganization for Tropical Studies as the OhioUniversity representative and she Is a member ofthe Las Cruces Advisory Committee. She is alsoan Associate Scientist at the Center for TropicalAgriculture (CATIE), Costa Rica. This past year shepresented a paper on management of non-timberforest products in the Peruvian Amazon to theSociety for Economic Botany at Madison, Wisconsin, and an invited paper to the InternationalSymposium on Agroecology, held in Padova, Italy,on increasing agricultural diversity withunderexploited tropical crops. At Ohio Universityshe was an ecology session leader and discussantat the annual Baker Peace Conference. Jan hasgiven many public lectures on conserving tropicalrainforest to the local Peace Corps, schools andrainforest action groups. She has also servedthe Country of Nicaragua as an advisor onconservation and resource management.


OTHER DEPARTMENTAL NEWSThe department’s search for a new ecologist

this past year was postponed due to budgetaryrestraints on the university imposed fromColumbus; we intend to continue the search thiscoming academic year. Plans for the renovationof Porter Hall are well underway. Sometime thiscoming year, either during the December break ornext summer, botany and psychology will move outof Porter Hall. Botany faculty may be housed in atleast five different locations, including GrosvenorHall, Old Engineering Building, the Ridges (AthensMental Health Hospital buildings), the BotanicalResearch Facility at the greenhouse, and theBotany Building. Porter Hall will be gutted and newinterior walls, lecture rooms, offices and labs willreappear during the following two years. Facultycurrently housed in the Botany Research Facilityat the greenhouse (NORMAN COHN, JOHNMITCHELL, JAMES CAVENDER, ART TRESE,IVAN SMITH) will be moved to the renovatedPorter. All botany teaching labs will be moved intoPorter and the Botany Building will be dismantled,making room for additional parking spaces. Pleasenote these plans because if you visit Athens laterthis coming year we may not be where you thinkwe are.

RECENT FACULTYAND STUDENT PUBLICATIONSBateman, R. M., and G. W. Rothwell. 1990.

A reappraisal of the Dinantian fioras atOxroad Bay, East Lothian, Scotland.I. Floristics and the development of whole-plant concepts. Transactions of the RoyalSociety of Edinburgh (Earth Sciences) 81:127-159.

Braselton, J. P. 1990. Ultrastructure and karyologyof Tetramyza parasitica (Plasmodiophoromycetes). Canadian Journal of Botany 68:594-598.

Braselton, J. P. 1990. An introduction to the worldof plants, 2nd ed. Hunter Textbooks, Inc.,Winston-Salem, NC. 123 pp.

Cavender, J. C. 1990. The Dictyostelids inMargulis, L., J. 0. Corllss, M. Melkonian,and D. J. Chapman (Eds.), Handbook ofProtoctista. Jones and Bartlett Publs., Boston.

,pp. 88-101.

Hamilton, R. G. 1990. Frond emergence patterns intwo species of athyrioid ferns. EvolutionaryTrends in Plants 4: 117-120.

Rumeau, D., E. A. Maher, A. Kelman, and A. M.Showalter. 1990. Extensin and phenylalanine

ammonia-lyase gene expression altered inpotato tubers in response to wounding,hypoxia, and Erwinia carotovora infection.Plant Physiology 93: 1134-1139.

Salick, J. 1990. Use and maintenance of geneticresources: Crops and their wild relatives, inCarroll, et al. (Eds.), Agroecology. McGraw-HillPubl. NY.

Showalter, A. M., J. Thou, D. Rumeau, S. G.Worst, and J. E. Varner. 199 1 . Tomatoextensin and extensin-like cDNA’s: structureand expression in response to wounding. PlantMolecular Biology 16: 547-565.

Trese, A. T., and S. G. Pueppke. 1990. Modulationof host gene expression during initiation andearly growth of nodules in cowpea, Vignaunguiculata (L) Waip. Plant Physiology 92:946-953.

Vierheller, T. L., and I. K. Smith. 1990. Effect ofchilling on glutathione reductase and totalglutathione in soybean leaves, in H. Rennenberg, C. Brunold, L. J. Dekok, and I. Stulen,Sulfur nutrition and sulfur assimilation inhigher plants. SPB Pubi., The Hague,Netherlands. pp. 261-265.

STUDENTS COMPLETINGGRADUATE DEGREESM.S. : Bai Li, Andrew Swanson, Rudolph Serbet

Ph.D. : ChenZhao Jian, Robert G. Hamilton,Mary L. Trivett, Jin Thou

VISITORS TO THE DEPARTMENTFred B. Abeles, U.S.D.A., ARS, Appalachian

Research StationGregory Armstrong, University of Wisconsin,

MadisonCarole Cramer, Virginia Polytechnic InstituteTerry L. Graham, Ohio State UniversityMark Jacobs, Swarthmore CollegeMark Littler, Smithsonian InstitutionNalini Nadkarni, Selby Botanical GardenDean Della Penna, University of ArizonaRuth A. Stockey, University of AlbertaVirginia J. Streusand, Dow ElancoRobert E. Tatum, Ohio Department of

TransportationThomas J. Volk, Forest Products Research Lab,

MadisonZeqi Thou, Harvard Medical School


DEPARTMENT OF BOTANYPERSONNEL

FacultyJames P. Braselton, ProfessorPhilip D. Cantino, Associate ProfessorJames C. Cavender, ProfessorNorman S. Cohn, Distinguished ProfessorJ. Herbert Graffius, Associate ProfessorRobert M. Lloyd, ProfessorJohn P. Mitchell, ProfessorGar W. Rothwell, ProfessorJan Salick, Assistant ProfessorAllan W. Showalter, Assistant ProfessorIvan K. Smith, Professor and ChairArthur T. Trese, Assistant ProfessorIrwin A. Ungar, Professor

Adjunct FacultyTheodora Lee Gregg, Adjunct Assistant ProfessorGene K. Mapes, Adjunct Associate ProfessorThomas Vierheller, Adjunct Assistant Professor

Faculty Emeriti

Arthur H. Buckle, Associate Professor EmeritusLaurence A. Larson, Professor EmeritusMonroe T. Vermilion, Associate Professor EmeritusWarren H. Wistendahi, Professor Emeritus

Postdoctoral and Research AssociatesAdrian ButtJohn Crosby

Staff

Judith Dowler, Department SecretaryBrenda S. Ingraham, Technical TypistCarolyn S. Keiffer, Technical AssistantElizabeth D. Moore, Technical AssistantHarold Blazier, Greenhouse Curator

Graduate Students

Doctoral StudentsJackie M. Hardy Adams, Finley A. Bryan, D. BryanBishop, Robert G. Hamilton, Michael T. Holmes,ChenZhao Jian, William Jira Katembe, Carolyn S.Keiffer, Sunghan Kim, Janelle Pryor, Dan Purdom,Tao Sang, Mary Louise Trivett, Eduardo Vadell,Steven J. Wagstaff, Gratten Welch, Liulai Wu,Mm Wu, Wuqiao Yuan, Jin Thou

Master’s StudentsRonald Bryan, James E. Cauffman, Judith K.Jardine, John Klock, Bal LI, David M. Niedosik,Mary Peders, Rudolph Serbet, Bambang Soeharto,Andrew Swanson, Phil Zito

NEWS OF ALUMNIMONES ABU-ASAB (Ph. D., 1990) has beenworking on a postdoctoral appointment at theSmithsonian Institution. He will finish thisappointment in August and will be moving toWalter Reed Research Institute where he wasawarded a one year postdoctoral fellowship to workwith DR. CAROLYN DEAL. Mones will be usingmolecular techniques and electron microscopy tostudy bacteria that cause gonorrhea . . . quite aswitch from Labiatae pollen!

RICHARD ALLISON (MS, 1979) writes that he is“alive and well in East Lansing” where he is anassistant professor in the Department of Botanyand Plant Pathology at Michigan State University.Richard earned a Ph.D. in plant molecular biologyat North Carolina State University. His currentresearch focuses on the interactions betweenviruses and plants that result in disease.

K. ARUMUGANATITAN (Ph.D. , 1987) Is still atCornell working with sorting plant chromosomesby flow cytometry and constructing chromosome-specific DNA libraries. “I am hoping to stay here afew more years since the project Is going so well.There is no other person in the world doing suchresearch. Two of my manuscripts have beenaccepted for publication. I have just finishedwriting ‘Estimation of nuclear DNA amounts ofplants using flow cytometry’ which will bepublished in Plant Molecular Biology Reporter.”

ANN M. BARTUSKA (MS, 1977) is a WetlandsStaff Specialist for Forest Environmental Research,USDA-FS, in Washington, D.C. She writes that“For the last two years I was Assistant Director,Southeastern Forest Experiment Station of theUS Forest Service.” Effective as of May of this yearAnn will begin a new assignment as a wetlandsspecialist. “My job responsibilities are diverse, butthe major task is to develop a National Wetlands!Riparian Research Program for the Forest Service.My husband, MARK WALBRIDGE, Is a wetlandsecologist on the faculty of George MasonUniversity.”

TOM BRENNAN (BS, 1988) is working for LadatAnderson, Inc., in Arlington, Virginia. He is on theenvironmental science and policy team, fundedprimarily by government contracts. Currently heheads a project for the Department of Agricultureassessing the potential risks of importing pestswith logs from Siberia used for lumber. He isalso involved in a project evaluating the risks tohumans and the environment associated with thespraying of malathion in Southern California forcontrol of the Mediterranean fruit fly. He recentlyattended a conference in Portland, Oregon, on therisks of pathogens in timber importation and itsrelationship to economics.


FRANCIS W. COLLINS (BS, Agr. 1948) is a retiredbiologist currently living in Milan, Illinois. He writesthat after he left O.U. he went to Michigan StateUniversity for graduate work. After a year heaccepted a position in Kentucky as a field wildlifebiologist. In 1953, while working, he attended theUniversity of Louisville and earned a master’sdegree. He then worked for the MissouriDepartment of Conservation on a waterfowl refuge.In 1959, he accepted a job with the Corps ofEngineers in the Rock Island District. “Over thenext 28.5 years I worked for the Corps and becamechief of the Environmental Branch. I retired in1985 (and) I now do biological consulting for aprivate engineering firm.” In his spare time, Franciscarves and paints miniature wildfowl which heshows and sells. “I also hunt and fish when I canfind time.” Francis spent 1 1 weeks in Alaskaphotographing Alaskan brown bears. In 1985, heretired from the Air Force after 23 years of service.He is married with four children and fourgrandchildren.

DONNA COUCH (MS, 1971) has been “on the roadagain” as a sales representative for Winthrop, Inc.She is involved with computer utilization andprogram development. She is also a member ofthe company’s Strategic Framework DevelopmentCommittee. According to their MarketingDepartment and Epsilon Computers, Donna isthe most “logically enhanced intuitive genius” indiagnostic imaging. She works conventions, as well,sometimes hitting three cities in a week’s time.Results of this include total loss of her biologicalclock (somewhere between Atlanta and California),lost laundry in San Diego, and an intimateknowledge of all major airports and car rentalagencies in the United States. She says she hasbeen in Cleveland so infrequently that her motherforgot what her voice sounds like and her cats “runfrom me whenever I appear where I used to live ...“

LESLIE G. DYBIEC (BS, 1987) is EducationCoordinator for the Inniswood Metrogarden,940 Hempstead Rd., Westerville, Ohio.

PATRICIA L. FINE (BS, 1986) is living in Kettering,Ohio, and is a student at Wright State UniversitySchool of Medicine. She writes, “I am completingmy last year of medical school.” She plans to entera residency in pediatrics in July of this year and isengaged to be married.

ROBERT GOLDBERG (BS, 1966) is a facultymember at UCLA and was organizer of the 1991Keystone Symposium on Molecular and CellBiology, held in January at Keystone, Colorado.The symposium covered the subject of the geneticdissection of plant cell processes.

MICH B. REIN (BS, 1976) was recently mentionedin a July 5, 199 1 , Science article on transgenicplants. He and other researchers at Scripps Clinicand Research Foundation, La Jolla, California,

have genetically engineered tobacco plants toproduce functional human antibodies. Mich saysthat these “plantibodies” are “not quite the same asthose produced by traditional monoclonal antibodytechniques” but their behavior is such that theymay be useful for diagnosing and treating humandiseases. This summer he and his colleagues willbegin tests on the behavior of the plantibodieswhen injected into mice.

DIANE IRWIN (MS. 1986) has completed herdoctorate at the University of Alberta and Is nowin the Department of Geology at the University ofPennsylvania, Philadelphia.

JACKIE JARDINE (BS, 1990) will visit Teustepe,Nicaragua, Athens’ Sister City, this spring to delivermedical and education supplies. She has also beeninvolved in implementation of the Teustepe CreditUnion where farmers and local merchants will beeligible for low interest loans with no collateral.

IIAMID KARIMI (Ph.D., 1984) Is working for theCity of Washington, D.C. , in the water hygienedepartment in the area of pollution and education.He is involved in environmental monitoring ofcreeks, rivers, etc., in and around the Districtof Columbia.

GARY KAUFFMAN (MS. 1986) is now working forthe North Carolina Department of Transportation,where he is involved with erosion control and ahighway wildflower planting program similar tothe one in Ohio.

DAVID KURZ (MS, 1990) is director of the VintonCounty Library in McArthur, Ohio. They haverecently broken ground for a new $802,000 facility,which will have computerized records, space for40,000 volumes, and a meeting room for 50 people.The library serves 3000 patrons as well as countyresidents who participate in the mail-a-book andbookmobile programs.

VIRGINIA S. MORAN (MS, 1986) is living inEvergreen, Colorado. She is a natural resourcespecialist for the National Park Service-DenverService Center. Ginny writes that “After a stintwith Wyoming Game and Fish in Cheyenne, I wasoffered a permanent position with NPS. Ironicallyenough, I work on the “eastern team” and in myinterview, I was asked ‘How well do you know theflora of the eastern U.S.?’ Sheese—ye’ old spawninggrounds keep calling me home??” Ginny has visitedsome of the most beautiful places in the east toassist on projects in parks that need to meetenvironmental regulations. “I’m more of anenvironmental lawyer these days than a botanist!”She urges botany students at O.U. to learn aboutthe NEPA and U.S. environmental laws. “This Iswhere the jobs are (and unfortunately, the $$).Preparing litigation plans for endangered species isvery interesting work as it is dealing with weflandregulations.” She says that after experience as a bitof an ‘eco-freek’ . . . the way to change any system


is to get in it! She says we need the federalenvironmental agencies but we need to hold themaccountable. Ginny suggests that she will probablygo off for another degree In a year or two,“academia beckons again . . . doth we heed thecall?” And, if anyone’s ever in the Denver area,give her a call at the park service.

JiM NELLESSEN (Ph.D., 1989) is a postdoctoralresearch assistant in the Department of Botanyand Microbiology at the University of Oklahoma.Jim is working on an Environmental ProtectionAgency databank project. He writes that “My firstyear in Oklahoma has gone well. My work involvesputting together and organizing data on theuptake, accumulation, translocation, andbiotransformation of organic chemical pollutantsand heavy metals by vascular plants.” Thisinformation then goes into a computer databank.The data comes from the published scientificliterature. His main objective is to establish aframework for adding heavy metal data to theexisting databank (UTAB). UTAB will be used toassess food chain contaminants and the environ-mental fate of chemical pollutants. “Once the dataare all amassed it will be interesting to see whatkind of overall picture can be derived from it. I sortof feel like a Gutenberg, being on the cutting edgeof translating thousands (seriously, thousands) ofscientific papers and the data contained within,into a microcomputer. It’s incredible what thesePC’s will hold these days.” In his spare time, Jimhas been camping, hiking and exploring Oklahoma,New Mexico, and Colorado. “The West andSouthwest are very interesting environments. Thereis a sense of majesty to the Great Plains that isuniquely its own. If one wanted to get away fromcrowds of people the place to go would be theOklahoma or Texas panhandles!” Jim joined theSierra Club a year ago and has travelled a numberof times on their outings. One of these was toOuachita National Forest in southeast Oklahomawhere he discovered a new state championbasswood tree (Tilia americana) at almost 3 ft. dbh,and a new population of umbrella magnolia(Magnolia tripetala). “Oklahoma is quite diverse,from bald cypress swamps (even some crocs!) toarid buttes and lava flows in the panhandle.” [Ed.note: And don’t forget Skiatook’s Hillside Mission’scemetery, where a lot of ancestral Lloyds areburied! Park Hill, Oklahoma, was home to theCherokee Female Seminary, which opened onMay 7, 1851. The curriculum of the FemaleSeminary included Latin, algebra, botany, vocalmusic, geography, grammar and arithmetic forsecond and third year students. The FemaleSeminary contributed vastly to Park Hill’sreputation of being “the Athens of the CherokeeNation.”]

ED NEWMAN (BS, 1981) has been named OhioUniversity’s recycling coordinator after serving forseven years as a registered sanitarian for the

Athens Health Department. He has instituted avigorous recycling program which collectsnewspapers, paper, aluminum cans, glass andplastic once a week from university buildings.While working for the Health Department, Ed wasinvolved with educating the public about recycling,monitoring local Athens County dumpsites, andworking with the County and southeast Ohio solidwaste policy committee. He is co-founder of theSoutheastern Ohio Recycling Terminal (SORI], anonprofit volunteer organization that promotessolid waste management. Ed says the recyclingsaves money by channeling materials back into theeconomy. It also cuts down on harmful chemicalswhich reach the air by burning. He believes that wewill have to change our way of thinking if we wishto save a large part of the environment and survivedown the road . . . i.e., “We have to re-toilet trainourselves.” It is primarily through the efforts ofEd and his colleagues that recycling is a majorcomponent of waste management by the City ofAthens.

SEAN O’IIEARN (BS, 1989) Is working as anenvironmental education specialist in Paraguay asa member of the Peace Corps. He says he hopes tointegrate his university and technical backgroundwith the realities of daily life in Paraguay.

ED PERKINS (MS, 1974) is farming in WaterlooTownship in southern Ohio. Ed contributed anarticle to The Athens Messenger in April on “Fragiletropical forests being destroyed by the thousandsannually”. He states that only 42% of the tropicalforest still exists and that an area greater than thearea of the State of Ohio Is cleared every year toestablish cattle ranches, farms and roads. Tropicallands cannot sustain logging and farming. InCentral and South America, land cleared for cattlewill support cattle ranching for only three to sevenyears, then it becomes unproductive and isabandoned. In Costa Rica, two thirds of the beefraised are exported to the United States and CostaRicans now eat 40% less beef than they did in1960. Much of their beef is used in fast foodhamburgers in the U.S. Due to deforestation,4000 to 6000 species go extinct every year andlocal and worldwide climatic conditions will change,including global warming due to the increase inatmospheric carbon dioxide.

KATHLEEN PIGG (MS. 1982) is on the faculty atArizona State University, Tempe. She has recentlyreceived a National Science Foundation grant tostudy the Gondwana forest in Antarctica andAustralia.

DAVID M. SPOONER (MS, 1976) is a botanist forthe USDA, ARS and assistant professor, Depart-ment of Horticulture, University of Wisconsin,Madison. David writes that “After graduating fromOhio University I bought ten acres of land nearStewart, Ohio, in Athens County and lived therefor two years. I then worked for three years as


an endangered species botanist with the OhioDepartment of Natural Resources, Division ofNatural Areas and Preserves, searching for rarespecies and potential natural preserves in south-eastern Ohio. I then worked at the Ohio StateUniversity with Dr. Tod Stuessy in systematicbotany, for five and one-half years, and collectedSimsia and other Compositae for six monthsthroughout Mexico, Central America, Colombia,and Ecuador.” After receiving his Ph.D. from OhioState, David was hired in his present position atWisconsin. In this position, he is studying thesystematic relationships of over 200 species of wildpotatoes, using morphology, cytology and DNAtechniques. He also serves as wild potatogermplasm collector for two or three months eachyear in Latin America, e.g., Mexico in 1988, Chilein 1989, Argentina and Chile ffl 1990, and Ecuadorin 1991. “I have great memories of Ohio Universityand owe a lot to Dr. Lloyd for insisting on a ‘hardscience’ research focus while there. I still havemany friends in the Botany Department and lookforward to returning from time to time.”

CHENZHAO JIAN VIERIIELLER (Ph.D. , 1 99 1) isworking as a postdoctoral research assistant at theNew York Medical Center. Her research deals witha study of skin cancer and the cloning of a gene fora DNA repair enzyme. This past spring, she andTOM VIERIIELLER were married.

THOMAS J. yOLK (BS, 1980) received his Ph.D.from the University of Wisconsin working on thegenetics of morels, wood rotting fungi, and othercultivated mushrooms. He currenfly is at the forestproducts lab in Madison and continues his fieldwork on hunting morels and their ecology.

FLOYD R. WEST (BS, 1945) retired in 1982 asEmeritus Professor of Biology, Broome CommunityCollege, Binghamton, New York. He writes that histeaching career lasted 35 “most gratifying” years,including 19 years in public high schools In Ohio,and 16 years at the community college level. Sincehe retired he has served as a hospital worker,worked in the office and box offices of theBinghamton Symphony, but “best of all is my workas curator of a collection of mounted birds andmammals at the Roberson Center for the Arts andSciences. A new exhibit every three or four monthskeeps me busy planning and executing meaningfuldisplays.” Floyd also participates in Lyceum, aneducational program for retirees, which gives himan opportunity to conduct some classes in naturestudy “for my peers.” Through his association withthe Roberson Museum he also gives presentationson bird and mammal skeletons several times ayear to elementary students. He also writes: “TheWesley Foundation Co-op (1939-45) has had fourreunions on campus (‘83, ‘85, ‘87, ‘89) and at ourfirst reunion my wife and I spent a pleasantafternoon with MR. VERMILLION, one of myfavorite professors. At another time I spoke withDR. BLICKLE on the phone—another of myfavorites and on at least one occasion I toured theBotany Department. FRANK ROTH (‘42, I believe)and I have kept in touch over the years. Frank wasan excellent botany/zoology major.”

NECROLOGY

WADE E. JEFFERS, August 24, 1990, London,Ohio

THOMAS L. VIERHELLER (Ph.D., 1990) has beenserving the department this year teaching ecology,plants and people, and principles of biology.This coming fall Tom will join the faculty at thePrestonburg branch of the University of Kentuckyas an assistant professor of biology.

Drs. Tom and Chenzhao Jictn Vierheller in thedepartment’s greenhouse

Documents

1991 PBIO Newsletter