Commentary

International Trade in Endangered Species: How can we help?

The US Fish and Wildlife Service seeks suggestions and information from the scientific community for species amendments and resolutions for consideration at the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP II) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), to be held in Indonesia in December 1999. CITES is an international treaty designed to control and regulate international trade in certain animal and plant species that are currently or may become threatened with extinction as a result of trade. Live specimens, parts, or products of species protected under CITES are required to be accompanied by proper CITES documentation whenever imported and/or exported. Currently, 143 countries are CITES Parties, including the United States. Parties to CITES hold biennial meetings to consider amendments to the list of species in Appendices I and II, and make recommendations for the improved effectiveness of CITES. As part of its effort to increase the role of the scientific community in the development of proposals that may be submitted by the United States at COP II, the Service solicits relevant information that will help the Service identify species that are candidates for addition, removal, or reclassification in the appendices, or to identify issues warranting attention from the CITES technical committees. Interested individuals may provide relevant informaiton or submit well-documented proposals concerning wild animal or plant species occurring anywhere in the world. For more information contact Dr. Susan S. Lieverman at the Office of Scientific Authority, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, 4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Room 750, Arlington, VA 22203, phone: 703-358-1708, e-mail: susan_lieberman@fws.gov.

- Susan S. Lieverman

Information Request: Petiveria alliacea

Editor:

As a researcher in the Research Institute for Spice Medicinal Crops. Indonesia, I am really interested to do agronomic research regarding Petiveria alliacea Linne. To support this activity I have tried to search any information, including biology, physiology, and agronomic aspects of this plant. I would be so grateful if I could get any of this information. Sincerely yours,

- Muchamad Yusron Research Institute for Spice and Medicinal Crops Jalan Tentara Pelajar No. 3 Bogor 161111, Indonesia tel; 0251-321879; fax: 0251-327010

Personalia

Stephen A. Spongberg Named Executive Director of the Polly Hill Arboretum

The Polly Hill Arboretum announced the appointment of Stephen A. Spongberg as its first Executive Director, effective February 16, 1998. Recognized as one of the world's leading horticulturists, Mr. Spongberg is currently the Horticultural Taxonomist at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.

Appointed to the staff of the Arnold Arboretum in 1970 after receiving his Ph.D. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Mr. Spongberg has played a major role in the recent development of Arnold's living collection, library, and herbarium. Colleagues cite his quiet, effective leadership and emphasize that Mr. Spongberg "is known particularly for his ability to address or write to audiences ranging from interested amateur to professional scientist with each coming away with a wealth of new information." In recognition of his service to the Arnold Arboretum, Mr. Spongberg will become Curator Emeritus when he assumes his responsibilities at the Polly Hill Arboretum.

Author of more than fifty publications, Mr. Spongberg is a leading scholar of north temperate woody plants, specializing in studies of magnolias, stewartias and mountain ashes. Mr. Spongberg's recent book, Reunion of Trees, is already recognized as the standard on the history of plant exploration, and was designated by the American Horticultural Society in 1997 as one of the "75 Great American Garden Books."

Mr. Spongberg participated in a number of plant collecting expeditions in China, and serves on a number of international commissions and organization boards. He was the editor or the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum and currently sits on the editorial boards of the Harvard Papers in Botany, Arnoldia, and The New Plantsman, published by the Royal Horticultural Society.

In 1996, Mr. Spongberg received the Gold Veitch Memorial Medal, considered one of the highest accolades in the world of horticulture. Presented annually since 1873 by England's Royal Horticultural Society for outstanding contributions to the "science and practice of horticulture," it is the highest award the Society can make to a non-British citizen. Mr. Spongberg is one of only fifteen American recipients of the medal since its inception.

Mr. Spongberg has had a long warm friendship with Polly Hill, and he has greatly admired and supported her studies. For the past forty years, Polly Hill has been investigating which woody plants will grow at her arboretum on Martha's Vineyard. Most of her plants have been grown from seed. Approximately eighty of her selections have been designated as original cultivars, including rhododendrons, magnolias, stewartia, hollies, conifers and dogwoods.

The Polly Hill Arboretum, located in North Tisbury, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard, contains more than 1,600 taxa displayed in a rural landscape setting. Dedicated as an educational and horticultural institution for students of all ages, the Arboretum will officially open to the public on Memorial Day, May 25, 1998.

Craig Greene Named to First Endowed Chair at College of the Atlantic

College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine, has received a $1 million gift from the family of the late Elizabeth Battles Newlin of Northeast Harbor, Maine, and Philadelphia to endow a chair in Botany, the first endowed professorship in the history of the College. Dr. Craig Greene, who has taught botany there since 1980 and is an authority on rare and endangered plants of coastal Maine, has accepted a five-year appointment as the Newlin Chair.

Dr. Greene holds a Bachelor of Science in biology from the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry, a Masters in Science in plant taxonomy from the University of Alberta and a Ph.D. in biology from Harvard University. Among the courses he teaches at COA are plant taxonomy, morphology and diversity of plants, economic botany, natural history, biology and genetics. In his role as associate dean of advanced studies, Dr. Greene is responsible for administration of the college's Masters of Philosophy in human ecology program.

Dr. Greene is recognized as a leading authority on the taxonomy of the grass genus Calamagrostis, the reedgrasses, and on the flora of the Mt. Desert Island region of Maine. His interests also include reproductive biology of flowering plants. For over a decade, he has collaborated with Dr. Christopher Campbell and his students at the University of Maine in studying shadbush (genus Amelanchier), which is especially abundant and diverse on Mt. Desert Island. He was principal investigator for several plant inventories undertaken by Acadia National Park, including a recent survey of freshwater aquatic vegetation. He is a member of the Botanical Advisory Group of the Maine State Planning Office and has served as a consultant for the State of Maine Critical Areas Program.

Dr. Greene's research has appeared in a number of scientific publications, including The American Journal of Botany, The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California and Vascular Plants of British Columbia. He is a contributing author to the Grass Manual of North America and the Flora of North America, both of which are in preparation.

In Memoriam: Prof. Gilbert A. Leisman

The Botanical Society has been notified that Prof. Gilbert A. Leisman of Emporia, Kansas, a member of BSA since 1954, passed away in November 1996.

James A. Weber, 1944-1998

Long-time Botanical Society member James A. Weber passed away January 7, 1998. Jim suffered a fatal heart attack while riding his bicycle home from work on January 7, 1998.

Born in Santa Monica, California, Jim earned the received an A.A. from El Camino Community College. He later received an A.B. in botany from the University of California at Berkeley 1966. At The University of Michigan, he earned an A. M. (1967) and a Ph.D. (1973) in botany, specializing in the physiology and ecology of turion formation in Myriophyllum. He held a variety of positions at The University of Michigan Biological Station: Post-Doctoral Scholar (1973-1978), Assistant Research Scientist (1978-1988), Associate Research Scientist (1988). In the autumns of 1983 and 1984, he was a Visiting Researcher at the Lehrstuhl für Botanik II der Universität in Würzburg, Germany. In September, 1988 Jim joined Environmental Protection Agency laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon as a Research Plant Physiologist. He was a member of the research team investigating the effects of tropospheric ozone (smog) on ecological resources in the U.S. Over the 10 years Jim was at EPA, he published over 15 research papers and 2 book chapters. Jim's research contributed significantly to the most recent changes in the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for tropospheric ozone to protect crops and forests in the U.S. He held a courtesy faculty position since 1992 in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology at Oregon State University.

Professional society memberships included the American Institute of Biological Sciences, American Society of Plant Physiologists, Botanical Society of America, Ecological Society of America, International Society for Ecological Modelling, Northwest Scientific Society, Society of the Sigma Xi (serving as Secretary, Oregon State University Chapter, from 1992 to his death). He served as an Editorial Review Board member for Tree Physiology from 1993 to his death. He served as Co-Editor of The Michigan Botanist Editor (1984-1988), and was a member of several native plant societies, mushroom clubs, and conservation organizations.

Jim is survived by his wife of 27 years, Nancy, of Corvallis.