UA9b001f103i001pg001 |
Previous | 1 of 1 | Next |
|
|
Loading content ...
Specials Little Known, But Giant in Scientific Significance WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Although tew Hoosiers and not many Purdue University students and faculty members know of its existence, the Arthur Herbarium in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology is nonetheless a giant in scientific significance. The herbarium, with nearly 100,000 specimens, is one of the largest research, teaching and reference collections of rust fungi in the world, and has an insured value of more than $1.5 million. Why is a collection of rust fungi important? Because rusts are one of the largest natural groups of plant parasitic fungi (5.000 to 7,000 species). These fungi cause plant diseases that are damaging to many of the world's leading crops, such as cereals, forage and range grasses, sugar cane, grain legumes, fruits and vegetables, ornamental flowers and shrubs, forest trees, and coffee. Joe F. Hennen, current curator of the Arthur Herbarium, explains that programs for crop improvement and protection are constantly focused on avoiding the disastrous results of losses due to rusts. "The potential that these pathogens have, if they are not held in check, is catastrophic," he adds. "Serious epidemics of plant rusts have grave international economic, social, and political consequences," he says. Therefore, "agricultural scientists depend upon rust taxonomists to develop theories of classification that will serve as a'framework for predicting, organizing and incorporating new knowledge about the relationships of these fungi," Hennen says. "Classification hypotheses are not static but change as new and old data about similarities and differences are reinterpreted. "The long term goal of Arthur Herbarium personnel is to study the anatomy of as many different rusts as possible so that their relationships to each other are better understood, he points out. Worldwide in scope, the herbarium has been nearly 100 years in developing to its present level. It contains voucher specimens for most of the theories about rust relationships in the Americas and for many other regions of the world. And it is one of the most accessible sources anywhere for new data about the wide array of rusts. Hennen says its scientific value transcends space, time, and personnel boundaries so that it is one of Purdue's most important, internationally significant, scientific resources. If properly maintained and developed, it will continue to be so, the curator says. Currently working with Hennen at the herbarium, and the project areas of each man, are John W. McCain, who is investigating how spores are produced by the coffee rust fungus; Pablo Bui itica of the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture, who is engaged in a taxonomic analysis of certain rusts of soybeans, corn, grapes, and figs; and Ibra I.. Conners, who donates his time to the preparation of a bibliographic index of rusts of the neotrop- ics, including information for more than 2,000 species. Hennen's research is the taxonomy and life cycles of neotropical rust fungi, including rusts on plant families such as Bignoniaceae(vvith Dr. G. B. Cummins), Compositae, and Mal- pighiaccae. He is also doing field study in Brazil to understand the sexual cycles of peanut rust and soybean rust. Source: Joe Hennen (317) 494-4623 Editor: Ed Kirkpatrick 88-Year-Old Canadian Still at Work WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. At the remarkable age of KS-plus years. Canadian-born Ibra L. Conners is still working at what he loves. He's collecting and catalogingTnTormation about plant rusts, an important type of plant disease. Furthermore, he's doing it at Purdue University as a volunteer. Nearly every work day of the year, Conners can be found in the Arthur Herbarium, located in Purdue's Botany and Plant Pathology Department. This month he plans to join his colleagues in an Oct. 22 symposium that will honor the herbarium's founder, Joseph C. Arthur. . Like Arthur, Conners has spent his entire adult life in learning more about plant diseases such as the rusts and helping to catalog the information for future generations. He holds degrees from McMaster and Toronto Universities and has been involved in some form of plant disease work for nearly seven decades. For nine years in the 1920s he worked in the prairielands of Canada, and then did a year of graduate work in Minnesota. In 1929 he went to Ottawa to supervise a Canadian Plant Disease Survey for the National Myco- logical Herbarium, and the next year visited leading mycologieal herbaria to access curatorial methods. As a consequence, he established an herbarium along modern lines. Although unassisted for many years, he a'tained for the Plant Disease Survey an enviable international reputation. After World War II, he was given an assistant and the herbarium and its studies began to expand. In the ensuing years other changes came. One was the recognition of mycology as a separate unit. In 1953, Conners became an assistant to the division chief at one of the branch headquarters but had to sever his connections with the herbarium. Then in 1959, Conners received an extension beyond his normal retirement date to complete a project begun earlier a book containing all published reports on fungi of plants in Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Although delayed, the major effort appeared in 1967 under the title "An Annotated Index of Plant Diseases in Canada and Fungi Recorded on Plants in Alaska, Canada and Greenland." By that time, Conners. then 73, was hard at work on his next project, the assembling of the original descriptions and illustrations, in photocopy, of all the genera of fungi. In 1970, when the Canadian Phytopathological Society wanted a written history of Canadian plant pathology. Ibra Conners was sought to do the work. He traveled from coast to coast gathering firsthand accounts. Since 1977, Conners has been busy at his favorite pastime plant rust work in the Arthur Herbarium. He makes his home with a daughter and son-in-law. Prof, and Mrs. Paul Crane. Crane is a member of the Department of Agronomy staff. Source: John McCain(317)494-4622 Editor: Ed Kirkpatrick 31 7 8 9 11 copyright reserved Purdue UNIVERSITY
Object Description
Purdue Identification Number | UA9b001f103i001 |
Title | Little Known, but Giant in Scientific Significance. |
Creators | Hennen, Joe Fleetwood, 1928- |
Description | Article in the "Specials" about the Arthur Herbarium. |
Extent of Original | 8.5 x 11 in. |
Form/Genre | correspondence |
Type | text |
Language | eng |
Repository | Purdue University Herbaria; Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center, Purdue University Libraries |
Collection Title | UA9, Purdue University Herbaria Correspondence Collection |
Series Title | Correspondence |
Folder Title | Article in the "Specials" about the Arthur Herbarium. |
Rights Statement | Rights held by Purdue University Herbaria |
Date Digitized | 12/04/2014 |
Digitization Information | Original digitized at 600 dpi utilizing an Epson v500 scanner using epson scan software with 24-bit color |
Digital Access Format | jpeg2000 |
Purdue University College or Department |
Purdue Herbaria Botany and Plant Pathology |
Description
Title | UA9b001f103i001pg001 |
Full Text | Specials Little Known, But Giant in Scientific Significance WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Although tew Hoosiers and not many Purdue University students and faculty members know of its existence, the Arthur Herbarium in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology is nonetheless a giant in scientific significance. The herbarium, with nearly 100,000 specimens, is one of the largest research, teaching and reference collections of rust fungi in the world, and has an insured value of more than $1.5 million. Why is a collection of rust fungi important? Because rusts are one of the largest natural groups of plant parasitic fungi (5.000 to 7,000 species). These fungi cause plant diseases that are damaging to many of the world's leading crops, such as cereals, forage and range grasses, sugar cane, grain legumes, fruits and vegetables, ornamental flowers and shrubs, forest trees, and coffee. Joe F. Hennen, current curator of the Arthur Herbarium, explains that programs for crop improvement and protection are constantly focused on avoiding the disastrous results of losses due to rusts. "The potential that these pathogens have, if they are not held in check, is catastrophic," he adds. "Serious epidemics of plant rusts have grave international economic, social, and political consequences," he says. Therefore, "agricultural scientists depend upon rust taxonomists to develop theories of classification that will serve as a'framework for predicting, organizing and incorporating new knowledge about the relationships of these fungi," Hennen says. "Classification hypotheses are not static but change as new and old data about similarities and differences are reinterpreted. "The long term goal of Arthur Herbarium personnel is to study the anatomy of as many different rusts as possible so that their relationships to each other are better understood, he points out. Worldwide in scope, the herbarium has been nearly 100 years in developing to its present level. It contains voucher specimens for most of the theories about rust relationships in the Americas and for many other regions of the world. And it is one of the most accessible sources anywhere for new data about the wide array of rusts. Hennen says its scientific value transcends space, time, and personnel boundaries so that it is one of Purdue's most important, internationally significant, scientific resources. If properly maintained and developed, it will continue to be so, the curator says. Currently working with Hennen at the herbarium, and the project areas of each man, are John W. McCain, who is investigating how spores are produced by the coffee rust fungus; Pablo Bui itica of the Colombian Ministry of Agriculture, who is engaged in a taxonomic analysis of certain rusts of soybeans, corn, grapes, and figs; and Ibra I.. Conners, who donates his time to the preparation of a bibliographic index of rusts of the neotrop- ics, including information for more than 2,000 species. Hennen's research is the taxonomy and life cycles of neotropical rust fungi, including rusts on plant families such as Bignoniaceae(vvith Dr. G. B. Cummins), Compositae, and Mal- pighiaccae. He is also doing field study in Brazil to understand the sexual cycles of peanut rust and soybean rust. Source: Joe Hennen (317) 494-4623 Editor: Ed Kirkpatrick 88-Year-Old Canadian Still at Work WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. At the remarkable age of KS-plus years. Canadian-born Ibra L. Conners is still working at what he loves. He's collecting and catalogingTnTormation about plant rusts, an important type of plant disease. Furthermore, he's doing it at Purdue University as a volunteer. Nearly every work day of the year, Conners can be found in the Arthur Herbarium, located in Purdue's Botany and Plant Pathology Department. This month he plans to join his colleagues in an Oct. 22 symposium that will honor the herbarium's founder, Joseph C. Arthur. . Like Arthur, Conners has spent his entire adult life in learning more about plant diseases such as the rusts and helping to catalog the information for future generations. He holds degrees from McMaster and Toronto Universities and has been involved in some form of plant disease work for nearly seven decades. For nine years in the 1920s he worked in the prairielands of Canada, and then did a year of graduate work in Minnesota. In 1929 he went to Ottawa to supervise a Canadian Plant Disease Survey for the National Myco- logical Herbarium, and the next year visited leading mycologieal herbaria to access curatorial methods. As a consequence, he established an herbarium along modern lines. Although unassisted for many years, he a'tained for the Plant Disease Survey an enviable international reputation. After World War II, he was given an assistant and the herbarium and its studies began to expand. In the ensuing years other changes came. One was the recognition of mycology as a separate unit. In 1953, Conners became an assistant to the division chief at one of the branch headquarters but had to sever his connections with the herbarium. Then in 1959, Conners received an extension beyond his normal retirement date to complete a project begun earlier a book containing all published reports on fungi of plants in Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Although delayed, the major effort appeared in 1967 under the title "An Annotated Index of Plant Diseases in Canada and Fungi Recorded on Plants in Alaska, Canada and Greenland." By that time, Conners. then 73, was hard at work on his next project, the assembling of the original descriptions and illustrations, in photocopy, of all the genera of fungi. In 1970, when the Canadian Phytopathological Society wanted a written history of Canadian plant pathology. Ibra Conners was sought to do the work. He traveled from coast to coast gathering firsthand accounts. Since 1977, Conners has been busy at his favorite pastime plant rust work in the Arthur Herbarium. He makes his home with a daughter and son-in-law. Prof, and Mrs. Paul Crane. Crane is a member of the Department of Agronomy staff. Source: John McCain(317)494-4622 Editor: Ed Kirkpatrick 31 7 8 9 11 copyright reserved Purdue UNIVERSITY |
Tags
Comments
Post a Comment for UA9b001f103i001pg001