introduction & tools in the use of plant i.d

8/2/2019 Introduction & Tools in the Use of Plant i.d.

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Plant Identification II

S K Ganesan Jan 2012


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Lecture 1

Title: Introduction & Tools in PlantIdentification


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The learning outcomes of this module are as follows;

To introduce the student to the immense biodiversity of

plants this region.

To inculcate an understanding of ecology so as to enable the

correct matching of plant material to site.

To be able to recognize quality plant materials, installationand early maintenance.

To be able to be able to leverage on plant professionals, e.g.

botanists, urban foresters, arborists, to realize optimal landscape

solutions.


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The list of the topics is as follows;

1st week: Lecture: Tools in Plant identification: Herbarium

2nd week: Field Identification of Woody Plants3rd week: Plants, Trees and People (Including Urban Forestry)

4th week: South-East Asian Plant Geography

5thweek: Site visit to MacRitchie,

6th week: Planting: Installation, Establishment, Formative Pruning

7th week: Field PracticalPlanting, Pruning, Tree Risk Assessment, Tree Climbing

8th week: Field Trip: Design and implementation of an Arboretum,

Yishun Park Dipterocarp Arboretum

9th week: Plant Identification 2; A Review of Themes


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Introduction

What is biodiversity

We are all connected through thetree of life

http://tolweb.org


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From wikipedia - Annonaceae family, also called custard applefamily[2][3] is a

family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs or rarely

woody lianas.[3] With about 2300 to 2500 species and more than

130 genera,[4] it is the largest family in the Magnoliales. Only four

genera, Annona, Rollinia, Uvariaand Asiminaproduce edible

fruits, anona.[4] Its type genus is Annona. The family is

concentrated in the tropics, with few species found in temperate

regions. About 900 species are Neotropical, 450 are Afrotropical,

and the other species Indomalayan.

Compared to the species from the Neotropic area, very little is

known about the species from Indomalaya. Only a few attempts

have been made for the phylogeny-based reclassification of the

family, and those have been hampered by the Neotropic bias in the

available information, with the most of the work having been done

on informal genus groups.[5]


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Some Annonaceae genera from the IndoMalayan region


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Biodiversity HotspotsMyers et al. Nature 403: 853. 2000

Conservation Internationalhttp://www.conservation.org/xp/CIWEB/strategies/hotspots/hotspots.xml


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Deforestation show no signs of reducing.

Cycle of clearing marginal land for agriculture.


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Basically the plants have to move from the place

where they are being cleared and burnt

(UNWANTED) to places where they are

VALUED.

This includes our Parks and Roadsides.

Man as aVECTORfor this movement.


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Threats to biodiversity - Deforestation


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The vision

Why trees?

Sequestering carbon, removing pollutants from

the atmosphere (McPherson et al1994).


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Singapore recognised to be unique

Large trees, planted close together


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To achieve a distinctive city set amidst an

equatorial rainforest.


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Collections of scientific standard with

pedigree (e.g. known wild origin).

In the future, these can provide the seeds to

restore forests in our region.

The collections of scientific standards can be

used for bio-prospecting.


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Label information


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What is the value in this

The ecosystem benefits e.g. water, air quality are

priceless.

The potential of bio-prospecting;

In EUsales of pharmaceuticals derived from

plants US$7 Billion a year (Mahady, 2001).


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Reducing building energy use for cooling and

heating (Akbari et al1992).

Mitigating the heat island effect through evapo-

transpiration (US Dept. Energy, 1992).

Reducing domestic violence (Sullivan and Kuo

1996).


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Filters for biodiversity

Proposal by Santamour (1990) - 10-20-30 rule in

managing diversity in urban plantings. Not more

10% of the total population of any one species,

20% of any one genus, 30% of any one family.

Galvin et al (1999) Maximum protection against

pest outbreaks.


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Makes senseAngsana first extensively planted

In 1802 in the Straits Settlements (Penang,

Malacca, Singapore).

Disease broke out in 1885 in Melaka and

reached Singapore in 1914. One by one these

magnificent trees wilted away.


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Angsana trees again came into the fore with the

launching of the Garden City Campaign in 1967

Outbreak of the wilt in the 1980s lead to

devastation of Avenues of lovely trees.

Large Angsanas continue to succumb.

A reason for this devastation was that the trees

were planted as a monoculture.


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Ideas for the future

Deforestation in Singapore has resulted in 30%

extinction of the vascular flora.


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What can we do about the flora that we have lost.

Surveys that sometimes brings species extinct to

Singapore back from the dead.

But this is small scale.

There are areas in our Parks that have a forest

microclimate.


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The first step would be to create a list of species

lost. The next step would be to source for these

trees.

The third step would be to re-introduce them at

the above Parks.


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List of Malayan endemic trees found in

Singapore.

Locating these trees within Nature Areas in

Singapore.

Propagating them for planting within and

outside Nature Areas.


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A lot of information can be obtained by

consulting existing revisionary works (also called

monographs)

At present I am carrying out this work on trees

from Borneo. There is a possibility of new

species discovery and the revisionary work can

give an idea of the suitability of species tocultivation.


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secateur

foldablesaw

pruningknife

mallet

probe

measuring tape

Tree Inspection Tools


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ExampleCrown Reduction; Upper Serangoon Rdnear

Lim Ah Pin Rd, Singapore,Khaya senegalensis.

14 July 2004 19 July 2004


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The selection of species for the planting list

needs to be carried out with knowledge. The

discipline that is the repository of plant

knowledgeBotany.

Even then, we can only conclude after planting

and observing the tree for a few years.

E.g. Sterculia parviflora


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Botany

Key to the study in Plant identification is

Herbarium Taxonomy

Some of the materials would already been

covered in the module Plant Identification I.

The focus here is on the application.


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Tools in Plant IdentificationThe use of the

Herbarium

For the purpose of plant identification, the

herbarium (singular) is a reference collection of

pressed and dried plant material.

The fundamental unit is the herbarium sheet.

We will analyse the herbarium sheet in short while.


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Herbaria

There are two herbaria (plural) in Singapore;

The Singapore Herbarium, at the Singapore

Botanical Gardens referred to by botanist as

SING

A smaller herbarium at the Biological Sciences

Dept., NUS referred to is SINU


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SING

SING is a famous botanical institution

It has between 600,000 to 700,000 herbarium

sheets.


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Uniqueness of the Sheet

This is collection of a plant at a unique point of time.

Even with duplicates, the sheet is unique because itrepresent another part of the plant

So a sheet is in fact irreplaceable The reason for the large collection in SING is that

unlike other large herbaria in the region is emergedfrom WW2 relatively unscathed.

Sandakan (SAN) in Sabah was bombed. Kepong (KEP) at the Forest Research Institute of

Malaysia, KL was looted.


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The only links to these collections now are their

duplicates in SING;

The Herbarium sheets are part of the research

collections. The research collections are closed

to the general.

Access is granted to researchers.


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Use of SING

How do you make use of the vast resources at

SING.

SING offers the service of plant identification

for a small fee.

These are usually done by experienced generalist

field assistants, not botanist generally as the later

are become too specialised for these.


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Plant I.D. in SING

SING is very fortunate to have a cadre of field

assistants, some of them following the footsteps

of their parents and relatives in the service of

plants.

All of them are equivalent of a professional

botanist in their own right.


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My friends- The Raja Pokok


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Identification of plants by experts

Difficulty in identifying sterile material

You need an expert who will first be recognise the

plant to family level.

Second, to genus and species level.

This is confirmed by referring to specimens at the

herbarium (i.e herbarium sheets) or publications

e.g. monographs

Cl ifi i A i i


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ClassificationA revision

Kingdom

Division (Phylum)

Subdivision

* Class (Angiosperms vs Gymnosperms)

* Subclass (dicots vs monocots)Order

* Family

* Genus

* Species

* Cultivar


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To remember, the following crutch is useful

Kings Play Chess On Fat Green Stools


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Some practical tips

Learning your plant families is absolutely

important

No matter how brilliant one is

Good plant identification requires experience

Singapore for instance has about 2300 species of

plants in the forest. Sabah for instance has

between 13000 to 15000 species.


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Plant Identification Output

From a sample sent to the herbarium you will

get its family, species and common names.

In order to obtain this there are certain

requirements of how to collect plants including

notes

These are now covered.

.8


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Layout by TaxaF. L. Olmsted : famously known for Central Park, NY.

Mooted idea of planting according to botanical/taxonomical families.

Olmsted designed the now famous Arnold Arboretum (1872),

Boston.

Herbarium Taxonomy and Landscaping


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Arnold Arboretum,Boston


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Collections of

woody species of N. American

and East Asian taxa.

Arnold Arboretum,Boston


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