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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
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DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY

The Plant Press

From The Plant Press, Vol. 24, No. 2, April 2021.

Registration opens for the 2021 Smithsonian Botanical Symposium

Smithsonian Botanical Symposium

Registration is now open for the 18th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium, “Plant symbiosis: The good, the bad, and the complicated,” to be held 13-14 May 2021. This symposium will be held in a virtual setting and be spread over two days.

If you wish to attend both days of the symposium, be sure to register for each day:

Plants, like all organisms, exist in collaboration and competition with other life forms. As primary producers, plants form the basis of most food webs. In many cases they also depend on insects, vertebrate animals, bacteria, and/or fungi to survive and reproduce. Sometimes these interactions are especially close and long lasting and such symbioses are among the most fascinating relationships in the natural world. The 18th Smithsonian Botanical Symposium will explore current research in the diversity of plant symbioses, examining the relationships plants have with insects, fungi, bacteria, and even other plants. Speakers will include botanists, ecologists, microbiologists, and geneticists whose research unravels the complicated relationships that plants have with their collaborators and competitors in the natural world.

In addition, the 18th José Cuatrecasas Medal in Tropical Botany will be awarded at the Symposium. This prestigious award is presented annually to an international scholar who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The award is named in honor of Dr. José Cuatrecasas, a pioneering botanist who spent many years working in the Department of Botany at the Smithsonian and devoted his career to plant exploration in tropical South America.

Schedule for Thursday, May 13, 2021 (Eastern Time)
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4oSefPMrToecWGgkIn62sQ

  • 1:00 pm – Welcome
  • 1:10 pm - Presentation of the José Cuatrecasas Medal
  • 1:20 pm - Naomi Pierce (Harvard University), "Context dependent evolution of the African ant acacia, Vachellia drepanolobium, and its multitude of symbionts"
  • 1:40 pm - Jay Bolin(Catawba College), "Hydnora from fungus to foul flower: the natural history of the strangest plants in the world"
  • 2:00 pm - Posy Busby(Oregon State University), "Assembly and function of the leaf microbiome"
  • 2:20 pm - Panel Discussion

Schedule for Friday, May 14, 2021 (Eastern Time)
https://smithsonian.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kZLs2Iv5S8aQCl5OI87ZPA 

  • 1:00 pm – Welcome
  • 1:10 pm - Leonora Bittleston (Boise State University), "Convergent interactions in carnivorous pitcher plant microcosms"
  • 1:30 pm - Dong Wang(University of Massachusetts Amherst), "Indentured servitude: host control of intracellular bacteria in the nitrogen-fixing symbiosis"
  • 1:50 pm - Manuela Dal Forno (Fort Worth Botanic Garden | Botanical Research Institute of Texas), "The lichen dilemma: unveiling diversity in multi-species symbioses"
  • 2:10 pm - Panel Discussion