Connell Memorial Herbarium (UNB IH)

Sedges have edges and much, much more….

by Susan Belfry, March 2025

Recently, there have been some challenging plant specimens offered to the participants in the Botany Blast (plant ID) sessions at the Connell Memorial Herbarium. ‘Friends of the Herbarium’ and the public gather once a month to identify or confirm the identity of specimens received by the herbarium. These sessions offer a lab space with microscopes, dissecting tools and an extensive library of plant keys to practise and improve your plant identification skills.

Amongst those of us still learning the plant keys and the terminology, we would expect to encounter some difficulties and frustration in this task. However, when we see the more experienced botanists among us being stumped as to what the plant is, then we don’t feel quite so bad. I am referring to a batch of sedges in the Carex genus that we had been working on – collected in the month of June in New Brunswick. The plant keys to the Carex genus often rely on small floral characteristics such as the achenes that are enclosed in a sac, called perigynium. Sedges may look very different in the spring versus in the summer or fall when they have gone to seed. So the timing of its collection with respect to its reproductive cycle can influence how easy it is to identify. So the Carex specimens, collected in June, had not developed enough to show some of these important, distinctive features needed for a definitive identification.

A note in the book, “Sedges of Maine: A Field Guide to Cyperaceae” confirms our frustration on that day at our Botany Blast session:

“It is easiest to identify sedges with mature fruits ….Attempting to identify immature material often results in frustration and puzzlement, but with practice and field experience, one can identify some immature species based on a combination of vegetative characteristics and habitat.”¹

Even when you know what to look for, and the plant displays all these features, one must focus on very fine details, such as the length and shape of the inflorescences or the arrangement of the scales on the flower spikes. These features can be hard to see without a good hand lens (at least 10x and up to 20x to observe some features).

For those specimens that you cannot identify in the field and if a specimen must be collected for further study, it is advised to take only one plant for every 20 plants in a population. Roots are usually not needed for identification other than to record whether the plant is rhizomatous (stems occurring singly) or tufted (many stems arising from a central clump). However, the roots are an important characteristic for some species in the Carex genus, particularly in the section Limosae. I learned about this distinquishing feature in our last plant ID session.

The Limosae section of Carex contain three species: Carex limosa,Carex magellanica and Carex rariflora. All three are in New Brunswick and herbarium specimens can be found in the Connell Memorial Herbarium. These Carex species have a distinctive yellowish, velvety fuzz on the roots. In the “Flora of New Brunswick” this descriptive feature is mentioned within the Sections key to Carex – “…roots covered with a yellowish felt”.²

Enlargement of root of *Carex rariflora,* (UNB 64604).³

In conclusion, sedges have more than just edges on their leaves to help you identify this incredibly diverse group of plants. The combination of subtle morphological differences and seasonal changes requires close observation and sometimes even special tools to make accurate identifications. The next time you encounter a sedge, take a moment to appreciate its beauty and complexity—but also recognize that identifying it might require more than a passing glance.

References:

“Sedges of Maine: A Field Guide to Cyperaceae” Matt Arsenault, Glen H. Mittelhauser, Don Cameron, Alison C. Dibble, Arthur Haines, Sally C. Rooney, and Jill E. Weber. The University of Maine Press, Orono, Maine. 2013. Page 17.
“Flora of New Bunswick” Harold R. Hinds, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB. 2000. Page 518.
Carex rariflora (Wahl.) Sm., Canada, Quebec, ARA Taylor (UNB #64604).
Source of achene images: https://sedgesofmarin.org/glossary.html

Next Botany Blast Session

Wednesday, March 19, 2025 – Room 13, Bailey Hall, UNB – Fredericton, 11:00-3:00pm

Botany Outing – Belleisle Creek Marsh Trail – July 12, 2024

On July 12th, 2024, the ‘Friends of the Herbarium’ made a botanical outing to the Belleisle Creek Marsh Trail, near Hatfield Point in Kings County.

This interesting location was suggested by Liz Mills and she was joined by Bev Schneider, Robyn Shortt and Gart Bishop. The full report, including a plant list with geo-locations, compiled by Liz Mills, will be available in early 2025 on the CMH website – under Resources and ‘Friends Outings Reports’ [https://unbherbarium.lib.unb.ca/page/friends-outings-reports]

This is a well-established trail along a grassy road that separates a wetland, bound by a marsh and a creek.

Three sites were explored. The first was a marshy habitat where water flowed with a bit of a current into the marsh (25-30 cm depth). The predominant plants were alders, willows, water plantain, Scirpus, Carex, blue flags, Sparganium, grasses, Juncus, pickerelweed and white water lily.

At a second site, along the trail (berm) separating the marsh from the creek, there were stands of deciduous trees and predominately silver maples. The path was bordered, on the marsh side, with Cornus species, milkweed, Canada Lily, Carex, Juncus, cattails, Rumex and Scirpus. On the creek side, there were typical species of a silver maple flood plain: nettles, merry bells, Stachys sp., and dodder.

The third site, where the path leaves the silver maple habitat, was in full sun along the edge of the marsh. There are several places here where the water trickles from the marsh to the creek. The diversity of plants was abundant: grasses, Carex, Scirpus, Fraxinus sp., Lindernia sp., Galium sp., asters and goldenrods.

It was a beautiful summer day exploring the plants of New Brunswick!

Text: Liz Mills. Photos: Liz Mills. Blog editor: Susan Belfry

For more information on the Belleisle Creek Trail:

https://www.hikingnb.ca/Trails/LowerSJRiver/BelleisleCreek.html

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Biota NB – Open House, 25th August

Loch Alva Protected Natural Area

BioBlitzes!

The New Brunswick Invasive Species Council (NBISC) will be hosting a two BioBlitzes between July 27^th and August 3^rd, 2024, both virtual and in-person! These events are a fantastic opportunity for community members to come together and help us track and manage invasive species across New Brunswick.

Virtual BioBlitz:
Date: July 27^th – August 3rd, 2024
Details: Participants can join from anywhere, exploring their local areas across New Brunswick and reporting findings through the “NBISC Invasive Species BioBlitz 2024” iNaturalist project.

In-Person BioBlitz: “I Spy Invasive Species at Boars Head”
Date: July 27, 2024
Location: Boars Head Nature Preserve, Saint John, NB

Time: 10:00am-1:00pm

Details: Join the New Brunswick Invasive Species Council, the Nature Trust of New Brunswick, and like-minded nature enthusiasts as we explore Boars Head Nature Preserve while identifying invasive and native plant and wildlife species as part of a BioBlitz. Whether you’re a budding enthusiast or a seasoned expert at identification, this event is for you!

Event page link:

Big Backyard BioBlitz
August 1–5, 2024 for Nature Conservancy Canada

Whether you’re heading to the cottage, the campsite or your own back deck, make the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Big Backyard BioBlitz part of your experience. It’s a fun and easy way to boost your nature knowledge and enjoy the health benefits of getting outside.

sign up here

Volunteer Profile: Two UNB students spend their spare time in the herbarium.

Keelie Taylor (left) and Hannah Lazaris-Dellen (right) in the Connell Memorial Herbarium.

We have been so fortunate to have Keelie Taylor and Hannah Lazaris-Dellen volunteering in the Herbarium for the past 24 months! Both are UNB students who have dedicated many hours to helping us add and organize specimens to our collection.

Keelie is finishing her Masters degree in Biology working with algae. Her interest in herbaria started with volunteering at the University of Victoria, databasing the collection and repairing herbarium specimens. Since 2023 Keelie has been helping us with all aspects of the work required to maintain a plant collection: mounting, databasing, scanning specimens, filing and keeping the collection up-to-date with naming convention. She plans to finish her Masters by the end of this summer and move to BC to further her studies.

Hannah has now graduated with her B.Sc in Chemistry/Biology and plans to leave us soon to attend St.Mary’s University for a MSc degree in Environmental Science. She has volunteering in the herbarium for the past 2 years, finding time between her classes to drop in and mount plant specimens. This is her favourite task. Her project for her Masters will be studying the microdiversity on Sable Island.

Thank you both for all of your help, curiosity and enthusiasm. We wish you all the best in the next phase of your lives, and would love to hear from you from time to time!

Rev. James Fowler, NB Botanist

by Dr. B. Schneider

As volunteers in the Connell Memorial Herbarium, we often handle herbarium sheets that have been filed for many, many years. Recently a sheet, showing a plant collected by Rev. James Fowler, initiated a conversation which led to the question of how many New Brunswick specimens did Fowler submit to the Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium at Kew, United Kingdom? The following is the result of that query.

Rev. James Fowler was an early New Brunswick botanist. He was born in 1829 at Bartibog, NB, and died in Kingston, Ontario in 1923. He attended university in Halifax where he was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1857. A serious bout of laryngitis forced him to leave the ministry and after he recovered he became a teacher and eventually became Science Master at the Provincial Normal School. Throughout his life he seriously pursued his avocation, the study of natural history. He was a botanist of distinction and set a goal to collect all the plants of New Brunswick. This led him to communicate with other botanists and exchange specimens enhancing his collections. One of his significant contributions to NB botany was his list of NB plants from 1878 and 1880. This list has been used by other leading botanists ever since.

Fowler was generous with his large personal plant collections. For example, he sent 1000 specimens to the NB Museum. In the early 1900s he did a thorough study of the plants around St. Andrews, NB, and found many foreign plants. He became famous for his collection of a Knotweed which was named after him. This honour was given to him by botanist B. L. Robinson of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard, naming the plant Polygonum fowleri, Fowler’s Knotweed. This plant grows along sea beaches and sandy coastal marshes. Our herbarium has specimens collected from the Acadian Peninsula, Kent County, along the Fundy coast and from the Fundy islands.

Fowler did his early collecting in Kent County around Bass River and Richibucto and later concentrated on the St. John River valley. Fowler became familiar with the flora of much of NB and noticed a greater number of Arctic plants here than would be expected at this latitude. His explanation for this unfortunately was not correct but the explanation (the plants being protected in niches after the retreat of the ice sheet and the presence of cold currents along the Fundy coast, long winters and fog) was made using all the information he had at the time.

Although Fowler pursued botany in New Brunswick, a remote area at the time, he stayed in close touch with the leading botanists. He was in close touch with the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, with Asa Gray of Harvard, and occasionally attended high level meetings like the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Royal Society of Canada. He visited such places as Oxford, Cambridge and Paris. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of Canada in 1891.

In 1880, Asa Gray recommended Rev. James Fowler for a position at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. He became professor of natural history there and unfortunately took his large collection of New Brunswick plants with him. It is not known how many plants were in this lot. At that time we not only lost one of our greatest botanists but a substantial number of collected NB plants. Fowler achieved a lot botanically for the province and we were very fortunate that he worked here for many years. He is buried at Cataraqui Cemetery at Queen’s University. The university named their large herbarium, Fowler Herbarium, after him. It currently contains 140,000 specimens.

Rev. James Fowler submitted 516 specimens to the Connell Memorial Herbarium from the years 1866 to 1908. Most of those submissions were of plants collected from New Brunswick. In the years from approximately 1904 to 1908, the specimens were collected from the province of Quebec. One specimen which is listed as ‘unknown collection date’ lists ‘event date’ as 1865 (accession number 3095). Most of the specimens collected in 1866 were from New Brunswick. Specimens were submitted in 1866 from Richibucto, Bass River, Rothesay, Eel River, Baie Verte, Belledune and Point La Nim. A few specimens have the source listed as ‘probably Bass River’. At least 7 specimens collected in 1866 are listed as from New Brunswick but show no location.

A good example of one of his specimens is accession number 2223, Amelanchier laevis Wieg. , Smooth Shadbush, collected from Bass River, Kent County, northeast of Smiths Corner. Attached is a digital version of the herbarium sheet and an enlargement of the label.

These images show the beauty of the Smooth Shadbush specimen and the script on the attached tag may be that of Rev. James Fowler.

Fowler submitted 67 specimens to the Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium at Kew but only one is from New Brunswick. The date of submission of that plant is unknown but it was identified as Salix pyrifolia which today is known as Salix purpurea L. See the herbarium sheet below and an enlargement of the specimen label.

It is interesting to think that that plant was sent to the United Kingdom in the 1800s or early 1900s and still exists today as a historical record from New Brunswick. Rev. James Fowler contributed greatly to New Brunswick botany including raising us to the global consciousness. Thanks go to Richard Fournier for his help in searching the Kew Herbarium files for this record.

References

Connell Memorial Herbarium. unbherbarium.lib.unb.ca/page/connell-memorial-herbarium.

Kew Herbarium Catalogue. apps.kew.org.

Young, C. Mary. Nature’s Bounty. UNB Libraries, University of New Brunswick. 2015.

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More than meets the eye: genetic variation in NB’s black elderberry, Sambucus canadensis.

By Tanya Germaine, Graduate Student, UNB Biology

As a young girl I would ask my mom why some plants were different colours and grew different heights. Or why some plants grew different leaves and at different times. During my undergrad years, I learned that genetics and environment can act independently or simultaneously. I now know that the colour of a flower is related to the genotype and phenotype. These traits are adaptable and fluid in the wild through natural selection and easily influenced by humans through unnatural selection.

I took a couple of biology courses that required a specific species as our topic of research. Like most students, I spent weeks trying to find something that actually interested me and more importantly, that hadn’t been well researched up to that point. My husband’s aunt had recently dropped off elderberry desserts and elderflower syrup, accompanied by stories of her ancestral use of the plant. This was my lightbulb moment and I immediately began my research, reading anything I could about elderberries. I wound up doing two entire projects on them in my undergrad before deciding to make them the focus of my master’s as well.

Elderberry, or Sambucus canadensis,is an under-researched and versatile plant with an array of applications by both indigenous and settling peoples dating back to ancient times. Current and historical uses include culinary, homeopathic medicine, dye, and ornamental. Like many other thousand plants, S. canadensis has the potential to be used in medicine and pharmacology, in addition to global food security. [However, as there is a significant lack of research on this species to date, work must be done to fill this knowledge gap before its widespread use.] The ultimate goal of my research is to produce a quality cultivar with optimal traits of interest (berry production, taste, size, and colour, and plant vigour and growth in local conditions) through a breeding program with native plants. During my three field seasons, I collected thousands of berries and seeds from every eco-region in New Brunswick.

In addition to using them in my own research, I am donating a significant amount of seed stock to the Department of Natural Resources Canada Seed Lab in Fredericton, New Brunswick to aid in the conservation of native plants in a changing climate.

However, before we can implement a breeding program and create the ideal elderberry cultivar, we must first understand how and why there is variation in physical traits among populations of elderberry. This includes variation in leaf shape and colour and vegetative growth rates, as well as in berry size, quantity and chemical composition. My research project is designed to effectively and economically answer these questions.

I am less interested in which particular genes are driving the observable physical variations, and more interested in whether there is a relationship between the aforementioned variation and the genetic basis of different populations of elderberry. In an effort to develop a methodology that is more cost effective, I am using readily quantifiable traits such as the root development of softwood cuttings that are genetic clones of a mother plant, seed germination and the chemical composition of berries that can be compared between different populations. Additionally, I am using common garden methods to determine early growth variation across populations of different genetic makeup. Common garden experiments, or transplant experiments, allow estimations of the interactions between genes and the environment as these interactions are visible in a plant’s phenotype (what you see) and local adaptations (environmental effects on observable traits). To account for the genetic diversity of wild elderberry populations in New Brunswick, I sampled from 12 different field locations and used a single transplant site (my land on UNB campus). The first year of my research project included 20 populations instead of 12, but I quickly realized that although my project was cost-effective, it was not time effective. This downsizing was necessary to ensure timely completion of my research while maintaining an appropriate sample size parameter. Six individuals in each of the 12 populations were sampled and processed within a two-week collection period. Since elderberries are capable of asexual reproductive methods (E.g., suckering), each plant per population was at least 10 feet from one another to decrease the likelihood of clonal plants.

While my research is still ongoing, I hypothesize that successful early plant growth is influenced by early root development in S. canadensis clonal softwood cuttings. Additionally, I predict that larger root area influences base stem diameter and yields healthier plants in less time. Since genotype and environment are limiting factors for optimal growth and composition, transplanted plants will perform best under similar native environmental conditions. Additionally, maternal plants with optimal growth will produce successful clonal individuals, combined with ideal environmental conditions and transplant location. I will be defending my master’s thesis in 2024, for those still curious as to how elderberry populations differ across New Brunswick.

In the Connell Memorial Herbarium, there are 47 specimens of Sambucus canadensis and 82 specimens of Sambucus racemosa / Sambucus racemosa ssp. pubens.

Text: Tanya Germaine. Images: Tanya Germaine, Connell Herbarium.

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2024 – Botany Blast Workshops

Next workshop: Wednesday, February 21st, Room 129, starting at 11:30 am.

Please note the later starting time and different location. Room 129 is on the second floor. Come in front door of Bailey Hall, go up the stairs one level, turn right, and then right again and Room 129 is further along the hall on the left.

The Plant Identification Workshops are held every 3rd Wednesday of the month, 11:00 am to 3:00 pm in the Biology Department, Bailey Hall, UNB Fredericton campus. Drop into the Connell Memorial Herbarium, Room 17, Bailey Hall or contact Robyn (plants@unb.ca) to confirm the location and parking arrangements.

Everyone, novice or expert, is welcome to join us in learning to identify plants, how to use plant keys and to work on the recently acquired collections in the herbarium.

For more information contact: Robyn Shortt, plants@unb.ca.

A great opportunity to learn or practice the art of plant identification. Everyone is welcome.

James Robb’s UNB Vascular Plant Collections Revisited

by Rick Fournier

This article follows Jillian Richard’s 2018 post about James Robb (Richard, 2018).

James Robb left Scotland and arrived in Fredericton by steamboat from Saint John (Young, 2015). He was hired in September 1837 to teach Chemistry and Natural History at King’s College in Fredericton (UNB archives and special collections, 2017). He realized that he needed teaching specimens and soon embarked on gathering expeditions.

He collected botanical specimens near King’s College and around Fredericton in May, June, and early July of 1838. He also collected by canoe above Fredericton (Mouth of Keswick River and adjacent islands) with the help of a Maliseet guide (Young, 2015). He was also able use the carriage road to Saint John in New Maryland and Fredericton Junction to further his collections.

In mid-July 1838, he embarked by canoe and on foot on a collecting tour of the province. Along with a Maliseet guide he canoed up the Saint John River to the mouth of the Grande Rivière in today’s Madawaska county. This had been a trade portage to the Restigouche River for millennia by the Maliseet and Micmac nations. The collection trip is depicted in Mary Young’s book (Young, 2015: map 2 page 188).

He returned to Fredericton with a dozen botanical specimens and a good knowledge of the physiography and geology of New Brunswick, all notions that he would teach to his students.

James Robb spent the next 6 years collecting botanical specimens mostly in the vicinity of Fredericton. He occasionally collected in Saint John and Dorchester. He does not appear to have exchanged specimens, except a single collection (Accession no. 2165) by Mrs Parker (Mrs. Neville Parker, née Elisabeth Wyer) of St. Andrews. By 1848 he had amassed over 600 botanical specimens, after which he followed other pursuits. His botanical collections are the first for the province of New Brunswick and the UNB Connell Memorial Herbarium appears to be the sole repository of all of his specimens collected in New Brunswick.

His last specimen collection was Black Snakeroot (Sanicula marilandica L.) in June 1858, in Red Rapids, near Tobique, in Victoria County. (Accession #2603 CMH)

He would pass away prematurely 3 years later (Bailey, AG. 1976) (Bailey, LW. 1898).

In keeping with the previous note (Belfry, 2023), James Robb’s writing style is quite distinctive and is easily identified on botanical notes. He was writing with a steel pen that you dip in a bottle of ink. This is evident on high magnification where the edges of letters are ragged. His writing has a constant 25 to 30 degree right hand slant. As well, many of his letters are exaggerated upward and downward. This has permitted the identification of specimens that had been unknown as to the collector.

James Robb’s Botanical Note on Voucher Accession #55800 (UNB-CMH)

Bibliography:

Bailey, Alfred G. 1976. Robb, James. Dictionary of Canadian Biography IX. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 665 – 667. Also at: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/robb_james_9E.html

Bailey, Loring Woart. 1898. Dr. James Robb – First Professor of Chemistry and Natural History in Kings College, Fredericton – A Sketch of his Life and Labours. Bulletin of the Natural History Society of New Brunswick (BNHSNB) Volume 16, Article 1, pp 1 – 15.

Belfry, Susan. 2023. Can you read this botanical note? Posted November 17, 2023 on: https://unbherbarium.wordpress.com/.

Richard, Jillian, 2018. Collectors Stories: James Robb (1815 – 1861). Posted February 28, 2018 on: https://unbherbarium.wordpress.com/tag/collectors/.

UNB Archives and Special Collections. 2017. James Robb. At https://unbhistory.lib.unb.ca/James_Robb.

Young, C. Mary. 2015. Nature’s Bounty: Four Centuries of Plant Exploration in New Brunswick. At https://naturesbounty.lib.unb.ca/.

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Text and map: Rick Fournier Images: Connell Memorial Herbarium

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2024 – Botany Blast Workshops

Starts January 17, 2024

Everyone, novice or expert, is welcome to join us in learning to identify plants, how to use plant keys and to work on the recently acquired collections in the herbarium.

For more information contact: Robyn Shortt, plants@unb.ca.