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BEN # 230
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BBBBB EEEEE NN N N BOTANICAL
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No. 230 August 25, 1999
aceska@victoria.tc.ca Victoria, B.C.
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Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
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RUBUS ARMENIACUS - A CORRECT NAME FOR HIMALAYAN BLACKBERRIES
From: Adolf Ceska <aceska@victoria.tc.ca>
Himalayan blackberry is the most common introduced blackberry in
British Columbia. This species is an aggressive invader that was
introduced for its excellent fruit and has become naturalized in
many parts of the world. In the Pacific Northwest it occurs from
California to British Columbia. Several scientific names have
been used for this plant. In North America it has been most
often called "Rubus procerus" or "Rubus discolor."
Eurasian blackberries are an extremely variable complex of small
apomictic species. The original Linnaean "Rubus fruticosus L."
has been treated as a broad complex of many species that belong
into several sections and subsections. "Rubus crux botanicorum -
Rubus is the botanists' cross," was the saying I heard from my
first botany teacher who gave up, trying to understand this
complex. The study of this genus has developed into a special
branch of plant taxonomy called batology (from the Greek "batos"
- bramble), and batologists are botanists devoted to this study.
Two European batologists, Dr. Josef Holub in the Czech Republic
and Prof. H.E. Weber in Germany helped me to answer the question
of the correct name for our Himalayan Blackberries. [Dr. Holub
died of a heart attack on July 17, 1999, while he was on a
botanical field trip.]
Last year I sent several specimens of our Himalayan blackberries
to Dr. Holub and he identified them as Rubus armeniacus Focke.
Dr. H.E. Weber also identified Rubus armeniacus on his earlier
trip to the Pacific Northwest:
"Rubus armeniacus Focke is, indeed, a troublesome weed in the
Pacific Northwest. I saw it first there at the freight depot in
Vancouver and later at many other places locally covering hec-
tares of (waste) ground in British Columbia, Washington, and
Oregon. In California it is rarer and seems not to go south
beyond San Francisco." (H.E. Weber, pers.comm. 1998)
"The plant is native to Armenia and was for the first time
introduced to Germany about 1835 by Booth, named 'Rubus
fruticosus fr. maximo Booth' and, because of its large, sweet
fruits, became the most frequently cultivated blackberry in
Europe. Obviously it was introduced to America 1885 by Luther
Burbank, and before 1885 to New Zealand. The cultivar 'Theodore
Reimers' is not markedly different from the wild plant as repre-
sented by the garden escapes." (H.E. Weber, pers.comm. 1998)
Rubus armeniacus is "a common garden escape in nearly all
European countries (including the British Isles and, of course,
northern Germany). It occurs locally plentiful on railway em-
bankments, waste ground, etc., somewhere also established in the
wild. Moreover it is a garden escape e.g. in New Zealand,
Australia (seemingly not in its typical form there), S-Africa,
etc." (H.E. Weber, pers.comm. 1999).
Rubus armeniacus has been for a long time erroneously called
either Rubus procerus or R. discolor. According to Dr. Holub and
Dr. Weber, Rubus procerus Muller is not a valid name since it is
a younger taxonomic synonym of R. praecox Bertol. "Rubus praecox
is an European species that ranges from central Germany to
Spain, Italy, Austria, to the northern Balkan states, and to the
Ukraine. It does not occur in the British Isles and in northern
Europe. It occurs solely as an indigenous species living in the
wild, i.e., it's NOT a weedy species." (H.E. Weber, pers.comm.,
1999)
The other name occasionally used for the Himalayan blackberry,
Rubus discolor Weihe & Nees, has to be treated as a synonym of
another European species, Rubus ulmifolius Schott. It is an
illegitimate, superfluous name, since in their description of
Rubus discolor, Weihe & Nees cited also the type of Rubus ul-
mifolius - cf. Art. 52.1 & 52.2 of the International Code of
Botanical Nomenclature (Dr. Holub, pers. comm., 1998).
In the Pacific Northwest the name Rubus armeniacus has been
correctly applied to the Himalayan blackberry by Dr. Kim Hummer,
who gave the history of this species in North America at the
following web site:
http://www.ars-grin.gov/ars/PacWest/Corvallis/ncgr/cool/
rub.aliens.html
Acknowledgements: In this note I have summarized my correspon-
dence with Drs. Josef Holub, Kim Hummer, & Heinrich E. Weber.
I greatly acknowledge all the information I had received from
them about this topic.
CURATOR OF THE HERBARIUM AND ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
OF PLANT MOLECULAR SYSTEMATICS IN ALASKA
The University of Alaska Museum and Department of Biology and
Wildlife seek qualified applicants for a tenure track position
as Curator of the Herbarium and Assistant Professor.
The appointee is expected to curate and develop the herbarium,
teach one course per year (systematic botany or course in an
area of specialty), supervise graduate students, and establish a
vigorous, extramurally funded research program complementing
evolutionary and plant biology at UAF. The position will be
affiliated with the Institute of Arctic Biology. The herbarium
comprises the largest collection of Alaska vascular plants.
Available facilities (http://mercury.bio.uaf.edu) include: core
DNA laboratory, spatial ecology laboratory, supercomputer, a
modern greenhouse, and collaboration with the Bonanza Creek
Long-Term Ecological Research site. Applicants with experience
in managing and using traditional museum collections; a back-
ground in comparative biology and theory of phylogenetic
analysis; and experience in using molecular techniques are
preferred. A completed Ph.D. is mandatory and post-doctoral
experience is preferred.
A Collection Manager, laboratory space and start-up funds are
included. The appointment should begin in August, 2000.
Send applications including statements of research interest,
teaching philosophy, and curatorial experience, curriculum vitae
and three letters of reference by September 3, 1999 to:
Dr. A. Dave McGuire, Chair
Curator of Herbarium Search Committee
Biology and Wildlife Department
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7000
Phone: (907) 474-7656 Fax: (907) 474-6967
E-mail: ffadm@uaf.edu
VIAGRA AND CUT FLOWERS
BEN would like to draw your attention to the following article
published in the British Medical Journal:
Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy. 1999. Viagra makes flowers to stand up
straight. British Medical Journal 319 (No. 7205 - July 31,
1999): 274.
According to this article, Viagra (sildenafil citrate) is good
not only for treating male impotence. Israeli and Australian
researchers have discovered that small concentrations of the
drug dissolved in a vase of water can also double the shelf life
of cut flowers, making them stand up straight for as long as a
week beyond their natural life span.
Professor Yaacov Leshem, a plant researcher at Bar-Ilan Univer-
sity in Ramat Gan, Israel, and Professor Ron Wills of the food
technology department of the University of Newcastle, Australia,
have already tested Viagra on strawberries, legumes, roses,
carnations, broccoli, and other perishables. In this latest
research they found that 1 mg of the drug (compared with 50 mg
in one pill taken by impotent men) in a solution was enough to
prevent two vases of cut flowers from wilting for as much as a
week longer than might be expected.
They have also patented a safe, cheap process for increasing the
shelf life of fruit, vegetables, and cut flowers using nitric
oxide. An unexpected finding of Professor Leshem's group is that
Viagra has a similar effect on plant ripening. It increases the
vase life of flowers by retarding the breakdown of cyclic
guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) (the production of which is
mediated by nitric oxide).
For the full text of this article see
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/319/7205/274/a
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