The Bean Bag

Number 49February 2002

News

Fourth International Legume Conference

The Fourth International Legume Conference, "Legumes Down Under", was held in Canberra during the first week of July 2001. There were over 100 participants at the conference with people from all over the world. The organisers were very pleased that there were very few logistical or technical problems and that the weather was cooperative. It was a very useful time for legume workers to get together and to continue the work on legume phylogeny and other topics.

The conference had a strong focus on Systematics with other sessions on Phytochemistry, Utilization, Electronic and Web Based Tools, Symbiosis and Rehabilitation, Developmental and Structural Morphology and Legume/Animal Interactions.

Currently manuscripts, taken from papers given at the conference, are being reviewed for two publications of the Advances in Legume Systematics series. One volume (Advances X) will be published at The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and focuses on higher-level systematic studies. The second volume (Advances XI) will be published by CSIRO Publishing, will also be labeled as a special issue of Australian Systematic Botany and focuses on Acacia systematics and utilization.

Over a dozen participants also attended a post-conference symposium in Western Australia entitled "The Conservation and Utilization Potential of Dryland Acacias." A volume of papers from this symposium is also being prepared.

Several collaborative projects were discussed including the Bean Tree Workshop and ILDIS. It is hoped that the conference has facilitated and reinforced cooperation and transfer of knowledge among legume workers and that this work will continue.

On behalf of the conference organizing committee Joe Miller would like to thank all the participants for visiting Canberra. We would also like to thank our many sponsors of the conference. We look forward to the next International Legume Conference and associated legume symposia at various meetings to continue our important work in legume research.

Organizing Committee: Joe Miller, Mike Crisp, Jim Grimes and David Morrison.

Nodulation in Legumes - not the end of the story!

Janet I. Sprent

Book Announcement

Janet Sprent's new book summarises the processes leading to nodulation in legumes and also the current list of those species known to nodulate. The last entry was made in March 2001, but there is already new information available. Two new genera of bacteria capable of nodulating legumes have been reported as well as another slant on the infection process. Much of the new information emerging is from the tropics and this is likely to be only the tip of the iceberg!

Please let Janet (jisprent@aol.com) know of any new material that you have, on any aspect of nodulation, so that it can be incorporated in an up-date of the book which is already planned.

Nodulation in Legumes by Janet I. Sprent (xii + 146pp. Softcover, ISBN 1 84246 013 7) is published by The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, price £27.00 / Euro 43.20 and can be purchased from http://www.kewbooks.com and in the near future (expected April 2002) directly from RBG, Kew at http://www.kew.org/publications.

Nitrogen Fixation Conference

If you are working on nodulation in a developing country and would like to be considered for funding to attend the next European Conference on Nitrogen Fixation, to be held in Norwich, England Sept 6-10 2002, please email jisprent@aol.com with an indication of what you are doing and a brief CV.

A limited amount of funding has been obtained from the EU and it will be distributed competitively with a preference for young (post MSc or PhD) researchers.

The Leguminosae of Madagascar

Barbara Mackinder

The Leguminosae of Madagascar, edited by David J. Du Puy is the product of a project that originally aimed to produce a checklist of the Leguminosae of Madagascar. However it quickly became clear that the knowledge of the family in Madagascar was very incomplete and that a full flora account and fieldwork would be needed.

Jean-Noel Labat, Jean Bosser and Jean-François Villiers from Paris collaborated on the book, as did Raymond Rabevohitra from Madagascar. Sadly J.-F. Villiers died before completion of the book.

The book deals with 573 native species of which 80% are endemic to Madagascar. Six genera and 129 species were described as new to science during the project. The book is generously illustrated with line drawings and colour photographs.

The Leguminosae of Madagascar, (720 pp. Hardcover, ISBN 1 900347 70 9) is published by The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. It can be purchased from http://www.kewbooks.com and in the near future (expected April 2002) directly from RBG, Kew at http://www.kew.org/publications for £65.00 / Euro 104.00 plus post/packaging.

Molecular sampling needs in Leguminosae

Gwilym P. Lewis and Brian D. Schrire

At a recent UK Legume group meeting, it was agreed that we should compile a list of genera that have not yet been sampled molecularly. In consultation with Marty Wojciechowski, Matt Lavin, Toby Pennington, Melissa Luckow and Pat Herendeen, we present below a list of critical genera (Table 1) for which no known molecular data is currently available.

If you are in a position to collect silica-dried leaf material of any of these genera (i.e. you have in place collecting permits for those areas where these genera are known to grow), please let Gwil Lewis or Brian Schrire at RBG, Kew know and they can put you in touch with the relevant specialist seeking to access this material. Alternatively, if you have already extracted DNA from any of these genera kindly also let us know so we can keep the list below updated. The overall aim of targeting these critical genera is to have available at least one species of each of the 720 genera of legumes, thus moving closer towards a full molecular legume phylogeny. We envisage this as Phase 1 of a legume gap-filling exercise, to be followed by a more detailed list including those paraphyletic or large genera where more detailed sampling is necessary. We present such a list for the Caesalpinioideae and tribe Mimoseae in Table 2 below.

Contact e-mails: G.Lewis@rbgkew.org.uk or B.Schrire@rbgkew.org.uk

The Rupert Barneby Award

James L. Luteyn

The New York Botanical Garden is pleased to announce that Aaron Liston, currently at the Department of Botany & Plant Pathology, Oregon State University, is the recipient of the Rupert Barneby Award for the year 2002. Dr. Liston will be studying the phylogenetic systematics of Astragalus and Trifolium.

The New York Botanical Garden now invites applications for the Rupert Barneby Award for the year 2003. The award of US$ 1,000.00 is to assist researchers to visit The New York Botanical Garden to study the rich collection of Leguminosae. Anyone interested in applying for the award should submit their curriculum vitae, a detailed letter describing the project for which the award is sought, and the names of 2-3 referees. Travel to the NYBG should be planned for sometime in the year 2003. The application should be addressed to Dr. James L. Luteyn, Institute of Systematic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden, 200th Street and Kazimiroff Blvd., Bronx, NY 10458-5126 USA, and received no later than December 1, 2002. Announcement of the recipient will be made by December 15th.

Anyone interested in making a contribution to THE RUPERT BARNEBY FUND IN LEGUME SYSTEMATICS, which supports this award, may send their check, payable to The New York Botanical Garden, to Dr. Luteyn.

Rupert Barneby, 1911-2000 (Obituary)

Gwilym P. Lewis

Rupert was born on October 6, 1911, in Monmouthshire, on the English-Welsh border. He went to Harrow Public School from 1924-1929 and to Trinity College, Cambridge University from 1930-1932 where he gained a B. A. in History and Modern Languages.

One of Rupert's early enthusiasms in legumes when collecting in Spain and N. Africa prior to the Second World War was the Cytisus-Ulex-Stauracanthus complex and it is evident that he entered the United States in 1937 with beans already a main focus of his botanical interest. He took up permanent residency in the United States in 1941.

His main research interests were xerophytic Floras, the taxonomy of the Leguminosae and Neotropical Menispermaceae. He described 1,160 species new to science in upwards of 140 publications, all of which are learned papers and many of which are monumental tomes. Of the 25 species named by other botanists in his honour, over a third are species of legume. Four genera honour him, and three of these are legumes, Barnebydendron Kirkbride, Barnebyella Podlech and Rupertia Grimes. Eight of his own legume publications (some coauthored): North American Astragalus, Daleae Imagines, The American Cassiinae, A monograph of Mimosa, A conspectus of Erythrina and three volumes on the New World Ingeae (including his last major work, Calliandra) describe in total 1,900 species.

Rupert's passing leaves an echoing gap in New York and in the world of botany.

Bean Bag readers’ attention is drawn to"Ruperti Imagines: a portrait of Rupert Barneby" by Douglas Crase in Brittonia 53(1): 1-40 (2001).