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February 11, 2005|Volume 33, Number 17



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This detail is of a watercolor by Lili Bates of an Amur Honeysuckle, one of the invasive plants in Connecticut. Peabody Museum director Michael Donoghue is one of the world's foremost experts on the honeysuckle family.



In another Peabody display, guests can
see species of plants that are pests

Art meets botany in the exhibition "Landscape Under Siege: Invasive Plants of Connecticut," on view through November at the Peabody Museum of Natural History.

The show features specimens of "invasives" -- non-native species that can harm the environment, economy or human health -- from the Peabody's botanical collections, along with watercolors and etchings by members of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.

Due in part to New England's large commercial ports, many non-native plants have been introduced over the centuries and now make up at least one-third of the region's flora. Many of these are considered "invasive." Among the most recognizable of these are the Norway Maple and Purple Loosestrife.

The Yale Herbarium at the Peabody Museum has played an important role in the study of invasive species. The herbarium was founded in 1864 by Daniel Cady Eaton, one of the first botany professors in the United States, who donated his personal library and plant collection. Today, the Yale Herbarium holds 350,000 specimens and is renowned for historical material that dates back to the first half of the 18th century.

The herbarium's collections have been augmented by material sent to curators for identification and comment, particularly on newly found and introduced species. These records can help track the introduction of a particular species. For example, on August 3, 1919, H.L. Wells sent in a specimen of an unusual raspberry bush he found while out walking near Old Lyme. This specimen, on view in the exhibition, is one of the first documented specimens of Wineberry.

Among the other invasive species featured in the show is one that is not commonly recognized as an invasive: the Common Reed, Phragmites australis. Although it has been in New England for at least 4,000 years, non-native strains of this plant have also been introduced. Recent research by a Yale student on specimens at the Yale Herbarium indicates that these non-native strains have invasive tendencies and have now gone beyond their original range in New England and are encroaching into wetlands that contain rare native species.

Another species represented in the exhibition -- Lonicera japonica, or Japanese Honeysuckle -- is of particular interest to the Peabody's director, Michael J. Donoghue, the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Donoghue is one of the world's foremost experts on the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae) and has done research on the genes that control flower development in Lonicera japonica as part of his study of species evolution within the Caprifoliaceae and closely related families.

"Landscape Under Siege: Invasive Plants of Connecticut" was organized in collaboration with the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators. Dr. Nico Cellinese, manager of the Peabody's botany collections, is co-curator of the exhibition with Kathie Miranda, president of the Greater New York chapter of the Guild of Natural Science Illustrators.

For further information call (203) 432-5050 or visit the website at www.peabody.yale.edu.


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Campus Notes


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