The Plant Press

From The Plant Press, Vol. 29, No. 1, January 2026.

Research activities

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) hosted a Natural History Research Experiences (NHRE) symposium on July 31, 2025 in the Coralyn W. Whitey Q?rius Science Education Center at NMNH. At the symposium, 14 NHRE undergraduate interns, in collaboration with their research mentors, presented their research posters describing the work they performed during the summer. During the symposium, Department of Botany intern Madison Conn presented, “Chemistry does not correlate with species boundaries in a complex of South African lichens,” in collaboration with Ian Medeiros and Eric Schuettpelz. Botany intern Carter Keyworth presented, “Tracking the morphological, phylogenetic, and geographic evolution of Cissus in Mexico,” in collaboration with Alberto Coello, Angélica Gallego-Narbón, and Jun Wen. 

Alice Tangerini traveled to Madison, Wisconsin from November 13-15, 2025, at the invitation of Joseph Walston, President of the Plant Sciences Graduate Student Council (PSGSC) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to give a lecture and share samples of her botanical illustrations at the 15th Annual Plant Sciences Symposium. Tangerini presented a lecture on “Fifty Years of Botanical Illustration,” and provided a display of artwork, representing techniques used over half a century in illustrations drawn for the Department of Botany. After her lecture, attendees visited Tangerini’s table of artwork and even sampled drawing with pen and ink on drafting film that she had provided.

As a part of the series, “Smithsonian Sea Science in Sixty Seconds,” a video was posted in the fall to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History YouTube page in which Barrett Brooks provides “Algae Fast Facts”. Most people think about land plants when they hear the term “botany,” but Brooks directs our attention to aquatic photosynthetic organisms called algae. Both a researcher and collections-support specialist for the museum’s botany collection, Brooks highlights just how important algae were to the evolution of life on Earth.

To ring in the holiday season, a video about mistletoe was posted in December to Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History Facebook and Instagram pages. The video features Gary Krupnick narrating a script written by Botany Research AssociateMarcos Caraballo-Ortiz, an expert in parasitic plants. Displaying specimens, photographs, and illustrations, Krupnick describes how the unique lifestyle of mistletoe have influenced cultural traditions.