Botany 2000

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Botany 2000 is the name for a scientific program, organized under the auspices of UNESCO. While a similar UNESCO program, ASOMPS, focus on promotion of collaboration and co-operation between scientists in Asia, Botany 2000 is composed of activities in Asia and Africa. Activities in Europe are confined to support of herbaria in countries in transition and reconstruction e.g. Georgia.

UNESCO Specialised agency of the United Nations

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) based in Paris. Its declared purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through educational, scientific, and cultural reforms in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter. It is the successor of the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.

Asia Earths largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern Hemispheres

Asia is Earth's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the Eastern and Northern Hemispheres. It shares the continental landmass of Eurasia with the continent of Europe and the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with both Europe and Africa. Asia covers an area of 44,579,000 square kilometres (17,212,000 sq mi), about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Asia is notable for not only its overall large size and population, but also dense and large settlements, as well as vast barely populated regions. Its 4.5 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population.

Africa The second largest and second most-populous continent, mostly in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres

Africa is the world's second largest and second most-populous continent, being behind Asia in both categories. At about 30.3 million km2 including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area. With 1.2 billion people as of 2016, it accounts for about 16% of the world's human population. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Isthmus of Suez and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The continent includes Madagascar and various archipelagos. It contains 54 fully recognised sovereign states (countries), nine territories and two de facto independent states with limited or no recognition. The majority of the continent and its countries are in the Northern Hemisphere, with a substantial portion and number of countries in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Botany 2000 program was accepted by the UNESCO General Conference in 1989.

Activities in Africa and Asia subsume activities in predecessor networks such as the:

The Botany 2000-Asia program is the new name for the former Southeast Asian Cooperative Program on Descriptive Botany (SEABOP) and of the work being carried out by the majority of the other organizations involved in the Asian Coordinating Group for Chemistry (ACGC).

Botany 2000-Asia is implemented by UNESCO's New Delhi Office and focuses on the taxonomy, and biological and cultural diversity of medicinal and ornamental plants, and their protection against environmental pollution, as well as ethnobiological classification and biological systematics and the correct documentation of useful plants through collection of voucher specimens. Within the framework of the project Botany 2000-Asia, UNESCO supports also the computerization of holdings and locations in herbaria throughout Asia.

Taxonomy (biology) The science of identifying, describing, defining and naming groups of biological organisms

In biology, taxonomy is the science of defining and naming groups of biological organisms on the basis of shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped together into taxa and these groups are given a taxonomic rank; groups of a given rank can be aggregated to form a super-group of higher rank, thus creating a taxonomic hierarchy. The principal ranks in modern use are domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. The Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus is regarded as the father of taxonomy, as he developed a system known as Linnaean taxonomy for categorizing organisms and binomial nomenclature for naming organisms.

Biodiversity Variety and variabiity of life forms

Biodiversity refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity typically measures variation at the genetic, species, and ecosystem level. Terrestrial biodiversity is usually greater near the equator, which is the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics. These tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 percent of earth's surface, and contain about 90 percent of the world's species. Marine biodiversity is usually highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest, and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans. There are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, but will be likely to slow in the future.

Systematics The study of the diversification and relationships among living things through time

Biological systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees. Phylogenies have two components: branching order and branch length. Phylogenetic trees of species and higher taxa are used to study the evolution of traits and the distribution of organisms (biogeography). Systematics, in other words, is used to understand the evolutionary history of life on Earth.

Under the Botany 2000-Asia program some conferences were held:

Point Walter point into Swan River, Western Australia

Point Walter is a point on the Swan River, Western Australia, notable for its large sandbar that extends into the river. It is located on the southern shore of Melville Water, and forms its western end. Point Walter is located in the suburb of Bicton, approximately 12 kilometres (7 mi) south of the Perth central business district, and 7 kilometres (4 mi) north-east of Fremantle, and is on the opposite side of the river to the suburbs of Mosman Park, Peppermint Grove, and Dalkeith.

Neville Marchant, Director of the Western Australian Herbarium in Perth, has been involved in the Botany 2000-Asia programme since its inception.

The Western Australian Herbarium is the State Herbarium in Perth, Western Australia. It is part of the State government's Department of Parks and Wildlife, and has responsibility for the description and documentation of the flora of Western Australia.

The UNESCO Office, New Delhi also published the Botany 2000-Asia Newsletter four times a year. A typical issue contains news on workshops, training courses, databases, projects and forthcoming meetings as well as reports on unauthorized collection and export of medicinal plants from the region. The editor requests one to two page articles and reports of seminars and meetings of general relevance to botany and ethnobotany in Asia. Apart from producing the newsletter, the UNESCO Botany 2000-Asia program sponsors occasional workshops on the taxonomy, ethnobotany and chemistry of various plant families, as well as training courses in herbarium techniques and curation.

Botany science of plant life

Botany, also called plant science(s), plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek word βοτάνη (botanē) meaning "pasture", "grass", or "fodder"; βοτάνη is in turn derived from βόσκειν (boskein), "to feed" or "to graze". Traditionally, botany has also included the study of fungi and algae by mycologists and phycologists respectively, with the study of these three groups of organisms remaining within the sphere of interest of the International Botanical Congress. Nowadays, botanists study approximately 410,000 species of land plants of which some 391,000 species are vascular plants, and approximately 20,000 are bryophytes.

Ethnobotany science of the study of plants in relation to their use by humans

Ethnobotany is the study of a region's plants and their practical uses through the traditional knowledge of a local culture and people. An ethnobotanist thus strives to document the local customs involving the practical uses of local flora for many aspects of life, such as plants as medicines, foods, and clothing. Richard Evans Schultes, often referred to as the "father of ethnobotany", explained the discipline in this way:

Ethnobotany simply means ... investigating plants used by societies in various parts of the world.

Phytochemistry study of phytochemicals, which are chemicals derived from plants

Phytochemistry is the study of phytochemicals, which are chemicals derived from plants. Those studying phytochemistry strive to describe the structures of the large number of secondary metabolic compounds found in plants, the functions of these compounds in human and plant biology, and the biosynthesis of these compounds. Plants synthesize phytochemicals for many reasons, including to protect themselves against insect attacks and plant diseases. Phytochemicals in food plants are often active in human biology, and in many cases have health benefits. The compounds found in plants are of many kinds, but most are in four major biochemical classes, the alkaloids, glycosides, polyphenols, and terpenes.

Botany 2000-Africa is implemented by UNESCO's Nairobi Office and deals with the conservation and use of the medicinal flora of Africa.

Some of the activities of the Botany 2000-Africa program are published in: S. Edwards and Z. Asfaw (Editors): The Status of Some Plant Resources in Parts of Tropical Africa. Botany 2000: East and Central Africa; NAPRECA Monograph Series No. 2. Published by Natural Products Research Network for Eastern and Central Africa (NAPRECA), Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, 1992.

The UNESCO Botany 2000 program is different from the annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America (BSA), who organised an annual scientific conference named Botany. This Botany 2000 : New Frontiers in Botany conference was held in Portland, Oregon on 6-10 August 2000.

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Botanical garden well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names

A botanical garden or botanic garden is a garden dedicated to the collection, cultivation, preservation and display of a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names. It may contain specialist plant collections such as cacti and other succulent plants, herb gardens, plants from particular parts of the world, and so on; there may be greenhouses, shadehouses, again with special collections such as tropical plants, alpine plants, or other exotic plants. Visitor services at a botanical garden might include tours, educational displays, art exhibitions, book rooms, open-air theatrical and musical performances, and other entertainment.

Pharmacognosy study of medicines derived from natural sources

Pharmacognosy is the study of plants or other natural sources as a possible source of drugs. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources".

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is a 15-acre (6.1 ha) botanical garden located at 900 South Palm Avenue in Sarasota, Florida. The Gardens are located on the grounds of the former home of Marie and William Selby.

The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) is a global botanical research institute and learning center located in the Cultural District of Fort Worth, Texas. BRIT moved to its new 70,000-square-foot (6,500 m2) facility adjacent to the Fort Worth Botanic Garden from their original downtown location in spring 2011.

The Blatter Herbarium, in St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, is a major Herbarium in India. It is listed in the Index Herbariorum, published by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy and New York Botanical Garden. The Herbarium specializes in the vascular plants of western India; algae, mosses, and fungi of Mumbai; seed samples of medicinally and economically important plants of Maharashtra, and wood samples of Maharashtra. The institute holds the largest botanical collection in western India.

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa, known by its acronym PROTA, is an international programme concerned with making scientific information about utility plants accessible in Africa, supporting their sustainable use to reduce poverty.

<i>Voacanga africana</i> species of plant

Voacanga africana is a small flowering plant in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae, that grows to 6 m in height. It is native to tropical Africa. The small tree has leaves that are up to 30 cm in length, and the tree produces yellow or white flowers, which after being successfully pollinated bear fruit with a green exocarp and yellow mesocarp surrounding the seeds. The fruit naturally splits in half when it is ripe.

Botanical Survey of India

Botanical Survey of India (BSI), founded 13 February 1890, is Government of India Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's organization for survey, research and conservation of plant resources, flora and endangered species of India, including by collecting and maintaining germplasm and gene bank of endangered, patent and vulnerable plant species.

<i>Blumea</i> (journal) scientific journal

Blumea - Journal of Plant Taxonomy and Plant Geography is a peer-reviewed journal of botany published by the National Herbarium of the Netherlands.

ASOMPS is the abbreviation for Asian Symposium on Medicinal Plants, Spices and Other Natural Products, which is a series of scientific conferences held in Asia at different locations.

<i>Aerva lanata</i> species of plant

Aerva lanata is a woody, prostrate or succulent, perennial herb in the Amaranthaceae family of the genus Aerva, native to Asia, Africa. It has been included as occurring in Australia by the US government, but it is not recognised as occurring in Australia by any Australian state herbarium. The plant sometimes flowers in the first year.

Brian Burtt British botanist

Brian Laurence Burtt ("Bill"), was an English botanist and taxonomist who is noted for his contributions to the family Gesneriaceae. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation B.L.Burtt when citing a botanical name.

<i>Aframomum corrorima</i> aframomum citratum

Aframomum corrorima is a species in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae. The spice, known as Ethiopian cardamom, false cardamom, or korarima, is obtained from the plant's seeds, and is extensively used in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine. It is an ingredient in berbere, mitmita, awaze, and other spice mixtures, and is also used to flavor coffee. In Ethiopian herbal medicine, the seeds are used as a tonic, carminative, and laxative.

<i>Acronychia pedunculata</i> species of plant

Acronychia pedunculata is a large shrub or small tree of the understory, gaps and fringes of low country and lower hill tropical forests of tropical Asia. Leaves: elliptic to subolong, often with tapered base. Twigs more or less angular, glabrous. Flowers: greenish white; I-acillary, corymbose panicles, about 14 mm (0.6 in) across in inflorescences of 4–24 cm (2–9 in) wide. Flowering: February–April, July–August. The fruits are cream to brownish yellow drupes, slightly angled, 0.5–1.5 cm (0.2–0.6 in) in diameter with a short apiculate tip. Leaves and fruits, and other parts of the plant, contain aromatic oils with a resinous scent. In Sri Lanka, the flowering time is February–April and July–August.

Rosette Mercedes Saraiva Batarda was a Portuguese botanist and taxonomist who was married to Abílio Fernandes (1906–1994), another Portuguese botanist and taxonomist. She is denoted by the author abbreviation R.Fern. when citing a botanical name.

The University of Michigan Herbarium is the herbarium of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States. One of the most-extensive botanical collections in the world, the herbarium has some 1.7 million specimens of vascular plants, algae, bryophytes, fungi, and lichens, and is a valuable resource for teaching and research in biology and botany. The herbarium includes many rare and extinct species.

Maureen Elizabeth Church Welsh botanist and illustrator

Maureen Elizabeth Church, was a Welsh-born botanist and skilled, self-trained botanical illustrator. Her preferred technique was that of line drawings and her work is in the permanent collections of the Forest Herbarium in Oxford, the East African Herbarium in Nairobi, the Herbarium at Kew, and the University of Edinburgh.

Lily May Perry (1895-1992) was a Canadian-American botanist who worked at Arnold Arboretum and is most known for detailed compilation of information on medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia and her assistance with the Flora of New Guinea. Perry also has the legacy of authoring the third highest number of land plant species among female scientists, in total naming 414 species.

Hermenegild Santapau (1903-1970) was a Spanish born naturalized Indian Jesuit priest and botanist, known for his taxonomical research on Indian flora. He was credited with the Latin nomenclature of several Indian plant species. A recipient of the Order of Alphonsus X the Wise and the Birbal Sahni Medal, he was honoured by the Government of India in 1967, with the award of Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award for his contributions to the society.

Kanchi Gandhi botanist

Kancheepuram (Kanchi) Natarajan Gandhi is Senior Nomenclature Registrar and Bibliographer at Harvard University in the Department of Botany in the Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries. He manages a botanical classification project to identify and classify all plants in the Western world through his role at Harvard, where Harvard's newly adopted “open-access digitization policy” assigns to the public domain most of the images of plants he and others have classified and preserved.

References

  1. ↑ Proceedings were published as: R. Kiew (Ed.) 1994. The taxonomy and phytochemistry of the Asclepiadaceae in tropical Asia : proceedings of Botany 2000-Asia International Seminar and Workshop, Malacca, June 1994. Publ. by Herbarium, Department of Biology, Universiti Pertanian Malaysia, vi, 101 pp., ill.
  2. ↑ Proceedings were published as: Te-Lin Wu; Qi-Gen Wu; Z.-Y. Chen (Eds.) 1996. Proceedings of the Second Symposium on the Family Zingiberaceae. Publ. by Zhongshan University Press, Guangzhou - 510 275, Peoples Republic of China, v, 306 pp., ill., ISBN   7-306-01218-5
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