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Welcome to the ASPT website! The American Society of Plant Taxonomists promotes research and teaching of taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny of vascular and nonvascular plants. Organized in 1935, the Society has a membership of over 1300. The Society publishes several publications, supports funds for a variety of honorary and charitable activities, and conducts scientific meetings each summer. For more information on these activities, see the links to the left. For more information on careers in taxonomy and systematics, click here!
News:
The ASPT Council is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Asa Gray and Peter Raven award. See the Newsletter for details!
Fire Damage to the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden:
"For those concerned about the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, please be aware that the Garden sustained significant damage from the Jesusita Fire. During the evening of May 5, several structures were lost, including Director Ed Schneider’s home, a structure used by the horticulture staff for offices, equipment, and staff, and three lath/screen houses.
The Herbarium and Library Collections and research lab and the buildings in which they are housed remain unscathed and unaffected.
Some parts of the Garden’s living collections, including the Redwood, Desert, and Meadow sections, our Children’s Discovery Garden, and Tea House survived intact, others did not. Much of the Canyon Section’s riparian zone was severely scorched. Initial estimates indicate that about 2/3 of the Garden’s 65 acres were burned.
The Garden’s spectacular scenic view of chaparral up Mission Canyon to La Cumbre Peak has now been converted into a typical, early post-successional fire-scape, although it looks like some big cone spruce and patches of chaparral remain on some of the higher ridges.
Water service to some parts of the Garden was restored on Monday, followed by restoration of power on Wednesday morning. Damage assessment to the living collections has begun and a professional recovery team has begun precautionary clearing of the AC system in the surviving buildings. News releases are being posted on the Garden’s website at sbbg.org.
At least 77 homes were lost in Mission Canyon and elsewhere. We are humbled by the experience, but we are deeply moved by the enormous, truly heroic effort of fire fighters and strike teams from throughout the State of California who continue to provide assistance. We are particularly grateful to the Long Beach Fire strike team who defended our primary structures, including the herbarium, and the Santa Barbara County Fire Department who provided water trucks to save many of our remaining container plants in the past few days." --Dieter Wilken
A new volume of Systematic Botany Monographs is now available (Volume 86: Monograph of Psittacanthus (Loranthaceae)).
2009 Botany Seminars at the Humboldt Institute on the coast of Maine!
Systematic Botany is now ranked among the top 100 journals in Biology and Medicine!
See the announcement for The International Organization of Systematic and Evolutionary Biology (IOSEB) meeting here.
2009 Travel Grants for Students!See the results here!
See the announcement for the 28th Annual Meeting of the Willi Hennig Society From June 22-26, 2009 in Singapore here.
Donation of the Graham Palynological Collection to The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. See the press release here!
CollectionsWeb is excited to work with the Coalition on the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) in an effort to increase public understanding of the nature of science and its value to society. A key objective of COPUS is to create new forums for communication and to develop new opportunities for engaging the public with science. Participants in COPUS are leading the celebration of Year of Science 2009 -- a grassroots celebration of how science works, why science matters, and who scientists are.
CollectionsWeb is serving as a thematic hub for natural history collections. This means that we want to help you learn how to get involved in this exciting endeavor. Please visit our web site (http://www.collectionsweb.org/get_involved/getinvolved_yearofscience.htm) to determine how you can involve your natural history collection in the Year of Science 2009. We at CollectionsWeb would love to see a strong showing from the museum community, and we encourage you to be an active member in this exciting initiative.
