BEN # 68

[Adolf Ceska]

BBBBB    EEEEEE   NN   N             ISSN 1188-603X
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BBBBB    EEEEE    NN N N             BOTANICAL
BB   B   EE       NN  NN             ELECTRONIC
BBBBB    EEEEEE   NN   N             NEWS

No. 68                               January 9, 1994

Address: aceska at cue.bc.ca            Victoria, B.C.
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 Dr. A. Ceska, P.O.Box 8546, Victoria, B.C. Canada V8W 3S2
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COMING EVENTS IN VICTORIA, B.C.

January 18, 1994 [Tuesday] - Swan Lake Nature House, 7:30  p.m.:
      "Botany  Night  -  Succulents"  -  Identification  of B.C.
      families: Crassulaceae and Saxifragaceae.

January 19, 1994 [Wednesday] - Newcombe  Auditorium,  8:30  till
      noon:  "Natural  History  Symposium."  (A presentation on
      research  projects  conducted  by  the   natural   history
      curators of the Royal B.C. Museum). 
      Continental breakfast will be served in the Newcombe Lobby
      at 8:00 a.m.
 

FREE BOTANY WORKSHOPS - WASHINGTON NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
From: Kelly McGrew <72075.1615 at CompuServe.COM>

The  South  Sound Chapter of the Washington Native Plant Society
is sponsoring four  workshops  in  Olympia  during  January  and
February  to  help  you learn more about native plants and their
environment.

January 15, 1994 - Fern  Growth  and  Identification  by  Judith
      Jones,  manager  of  Fancy  Fronds,  a  national wholesale
      grower of ferns.
January 29, 1994 - Ecology of the Lowland Forest by Dave  Peter,
      Forest Ecologist with the Olympic National Forest.
February 19, 1994 - Moss Identification by Kelly McGrew, amateur
      bryologist.
February 26, 1994 - Flora of the Puget Sound and It's Origins by
      John  Gamon,  Botanist  at the Natural Heritage Program of
      the Department of Natural Resources.

All workshops will be held at South Puget Sound  Community  Col-
lege.  Sessions  begin  at  8:30  AM  and  will  last  until ap-
proximately noon. If there is interest,  some  instructors  will
offer  a  second  workshop  in  the afternoon from 1:00 PM until
approximately 4:30 PM. There is no charge  for  these  workshops
but  priority  seating  will  be  given to WNPS members. Because
seating is limited you must sign  up  in  advance.  To  sign  up
please   call   Kelly   McGrew  at  206-953-8533  or  e-mail  to
72075.1615 at compuserve.com.


1994 JOINT FIELD MEETING

of The Botanical Society of America, The Torrey Botanical  Club,
and The Philadelphia Botanical Club.
The 1994 Joint Field Meeting will take place Sunday afternoon to
Thursday  morning,  June 26-30, at Frostburg State University in
western Maryland. The field trips will examine plants  of  shale
barrens,  swamps, old-growth forests, bogs and Triassic uplands.
Evening programs  will  deal  with  aspects  of  the  the  flora
visited, with the geology of the region, and with the management
of the threatened species.
The  price  is $175.00 per person. This includes housing, meals,
bus transportation, trip leadership and evening programs.
For further information and  a registration form, send e-mail to
kbilton at cap.gwu.edu (Kathy Bilton)
Kathy Bilton PO Box 886, Shepherdstown, WV 25443


BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF EURASIAN WATERMILFOIL
From: Aquaphyte, vol. 13, no. 2 - Fall 1993

Interest is being shown lately in  the  North  American  weevil,
Eurhychiopsis  lecontei,  as  a  biological  control  agent  for
Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum L.). The weevil has
been associated with declining populations  of  watermilfoil  in
the northeastern United States.

Robert  Creed  and  Sallie Sheldon (Dept. of Biology, Middlebury
College, Vermont) found that all life stages of the  weevil  are
associated  with Eurasian watermilfoil. Adults lay their eggs on
the meristems; larvae burrow into  and  feed  on  the  meristems
before moving down and into the stem. Pupation occurs inside the
stem. Adults feed on the stems, leaves and leaflets of watermil-
foil,  and mate on the plant. They appear to concentrate feeding
on the upper portions of the plant, removing significant amounts
of photosynthetic tissue. Also, stem damage from both adults and
larvae causes watermilfoil to lose its buoyancy  and  sink.  The
researchers  suggest  that the loss of buoyancy may be more sig-
nificant in controlling the plant than the loss of leaves.

The weevils appear to prefer the  exotic  Myriophyllum  spicatum
over  the native milfoil (M. sibiricum = exalbescens). Creed and
Sheldon suggest that the weevil may  have  either  expanded  its
diet  to  include M. spicatum or undergone a host shift from the
native plant to the exotic one.

Ref.: Creed, R.P., Jr. &  S.P.  Sheldon.  1993.  The  effect  of
feeding  by  a  North American weevil, Eurhychiopsis lecontei on
Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum  spicatum).  Aquatic  Botany
45: 245-256.
[See  also "Aquatic caterpillar may control water weed" in BEN #
49]


600-YEAR-OLD CIGARETTES
From: Aquaphyte, vol. 13, no. 2 - Fall 1993

At the Red Bow Cliff Dwelling in Arizona,  hundreds  of  prehis-
toric  cigarettes  have been found, some wrapped in cotton, some
tied together, and others adorned with miniature bows.

K.R. Adams of the Crow Canyon Archeological  Center  in  Cortez,
Colorado,  sampled  a dozen of cigarettes and confirmed previous
suggestions: the 600-year-old smokes are made from the  stem  of
the  giant  reed  (Phragmites  australis),  and  contain tobacco
(Nicotiana spp.). The reed "barrel" of the cigarette was stuffed
with tobacco. The tobacco was lit and  smoked;  the  tough  reed
exterior did not burn, and was used again.

In  her  review  of  other research, the author found that other
"historic North America groups" (Hopi,  Comanche,  etc.)  smoked
parts  of  at  least 13 kinds of plants and at least one kind of
bird feathers.

Ref.:  Adams,  K.R.  1990.  Prehistoric  reedgrass  (Phragmites)
"cigarettes"  with  tobacco  (Nicotiana)  contents: a case study
from Red Bow Cliff Dwelling, Arizona. J. Ethnobiology  10:  123-
139.


AQUAPHYTE

Aquaphyte  is  a  newsletter published by the Center for Aquatic
Plants  and  the  Aquatic  Plant  Information  Retrieval  System
(APIRS)  of  the  University  of Florida (7922 N.W. 71st Street,
Gainesville, FL 32606, USA).  It  is  sent  to  5,000  managers,
researchers  and  agencies  in  87 countries [and it seems to be
free-of-charge  !].  Besides  articles  on  aquatic  plants  and
vegetation,  Aquaphyte  publishes  excerpts  from APIRS bibliog-
raphic data base, book reviews, and announcements of meetings.


THE ALASKA VEGETATION CLASSIFICATION

Viereck, L.A., C.T. Dyrness, A.R. Batten & K.J. Wenzlick.  1992.
The  Alaska  vegetation classification. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GRT-
286, Portland, OR. 278 p. 

Abstract: The Alaska vegetation classification presented here is
a comprehensive, statewide system that has been  under  develop-
ment  since  1976.  The classification is based, as much as pos-
sible, on the characteristic s of the vegetation itself  and  is
designed   to  categorize  existing  vegetation,  not  potential
vegetation. A hierarchical system with five levels of resolution
is used for classifying Alaska vegetation. The  system,  an  ag-
glomerative one, starts with 888 known Alaska plant communities,
which are listed and referenced ...
[Glossary   of   terms,  list  of  species  mentioned,  and  480
references. Great book! Published by:  USDA,  Pacific  Northwest
Research Station, 333 S.W. First Avenue, P.O.Box 3890, Portland,
Oregon 97208-3890, USA]