Systematics Research to Inform the Plant Sciences and Conservation

George E. Schatz, Curator, Africa and Madagascar, Missouri Botanical Garden
George is a Curator in the Africa and Madagascar Department, and has been at the Garden since 1987.  Research is primarily on the flora of Madagascar, currently working on Diospyros, and also on mesoamerican Annonaceae.  The past 3 years he has coordinated the plant Red Listing projects on behalf of IUCN in the Caucasus and East Africa, and serves on various Specialist Groups (Madagascar Plant SG and Global Trees SG) of IUCN/Species Survival Commission, as well as the Biodiversity Assessment and Plant Conservation Sub-Committees of IUCN/SSC.

• Title: Systematics research to inform the plant sciences and conservation

From its founding, the Missouri Botanical Garden has pursued an active program of systematics research as part of its overall mission to discover and share knowledge about plants.  As principal scientific advisor to Henry Shaw, George Engelmann purchased the Bernhardi herbarium of 62,000 specimens in Europe in 1857, and established the botanical library in 1859, creating the foundation for the Garden’s research efforts.  Today, the herbarium has grown to over six million specimens, and the library holds over 160,300 volumes, including 1,100 pre-Linnaean works.  Leading the botanical sciences into the information age, the Garden provides free access to its TROPICOS database with over one million scientific plants names, 3.76 million specimen records, and nearly 100,000 images, and through its Botanicus Digital Library to 1.18 million scanned pages of taxonomic literature.  Garden researchers, including those in the Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development and the William L. Brown Center, work together with colleagues in 36 collaborating countries to document and conserve the world’s flora.  As a microcosm, the Madagascar program highlights the Garden’s initiatives to inventory, document, and disseminate information on indigenous plant resources, while focusing on local training and capacity building.  Current conservation projects in Madagascar include the creation of new protected areas to ensure the long-term persistence of wild populations of one of the world’s most widely cultivated ornamental plants, the Royal Poinciana (Delonix regia).