Living botanical collections include germplasm repositories, long-term experimental plantings, and botanical gardens. We present here a series of vignettes to illustrate the central role that living collections have played in plant biology research, including evo-devo research. Looking toward the future, living collections will become increasingly important in support of future evo-devo researc...

The metric and dimensional assumptions that underlie the geometric representation of similarity are questioned on both theoretical and empirical grounds. A new set-theoretical approach to similarity is developed in which objects are represented as collections of features, and similarity is described as a featurematching process. Specifically, a set of qualitative assumptions is shown to imply t...

A new species from Ecuador, Symplocos limonensis, is here described and illustrated. It resembles Symplocos clethrifolia but differs by having larger leaves with evident (i.e., not concealed) areoles on lower surface, sessile inflorescences, smaller white corollas, and fewer stamens. The species is only known from three collections in the Andean forests of Morona-Santiago Province in southern E...

Certain canonical resolutions are described for free associative and free Lie algebras in the category of non-associative algebras. These resolutions derive in both cases from geometric objects, which in turn reflect the combinatorics of suitable collections of leaf-labeled trees.

Species loss due to human activities is occurring at an unprecedented pace ( Barnosky et al., 2011 ), and over the last few decades, botanic gardens have responded by expanding their conservation activities ( CBD, 2010 ). Botanic gardens play a particularly critical role in the development of ex situ (off -site) collections of threatened plant species, and the botanic garden community has helpe...

BACKGROUND Genomic research depends upon access to DNA or tissue collected and preserved according to high-quality standards. At present, the collections in most natural history museums do not sufficiently address these standards, making them often hard or impossible to use for whole-genome sequencing or transcriptomics. In response to these challenges, natural history museums, herbaria, botani...

Genetic resources provide basic material for selection and improvement through breeding to ensure food security needs of the world’s rapidly rising population. Conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources are important components of ex-situ collections. Management of ex-situ collections requires creative and adaptive decisions tailored to operating conditions that are specific and co...