sd-sample article S.L. Yap and others 67 SCIENCE DILIMAN (JULY-DECEMBER 2013) 25:2, 67-77 An Account of the Accessioned Specimens in the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium, University of the Phil ippines Dil iman Sandra L. Yap* Institute of Biology University of the Philippines Diliman Sarah Cristina W. Estacio Institute of Biology University of the Philippines Diliman Joanne Rae C. Pales Center for Integrative and Development Studies University of the Philippines Leonard L. Co† Institute of Biology University of the Philippines Diliman ABSTRACT _______________ *Corresponding Author T h e U n i v e r s i t y o f t h e P h i l i p p i n e s H e r b a r i u m w a s e s t a b l i s h e d i n 1 9 0 8 a n d o r i g i n a l l y l o c a t e d i n E r m i t a , M a n i l a . T h e m a j o r i t y o f i t s p r e - w a r collections were destroyed during World War II, and no formal records of its specimens were preserved. Since then, multiple efforts to restore and improve the Herbarium have been proposed and implemented, most notably its move to the UP Diliman campus. In 1999, the Herbarium was of f i c i a l l y r e n a m ed a s t h e J o s e Ve r a S a n to s M e m o r i a l H e r b a r i u m a fte r the noted grass expert, who initiated rehabilitation work in the Herbarium after the war. The Herbarium is registered with the international code P U H i n t h e I n d e x H e r b a r i o r u m , a g l o b a l d i r e c t o r y o f p u b l i c h e r b a r i a managed by the New York Botanical Garden. To assess the accessioned ( u n i q u e l y n u m b e r e d a n d r e c o r d e d ) c o l l e c t i o n o f t h e H e r b a r i u m , a n e l e c t r o n i c d a t a b a s e o f i t s a c c e s s i o n s w a s c r e a t e d . T h e H e r b a r i u m c u r r e n t l y c o n t a i n s 1 4 , 6 4 8 a c c e s s i o n s , 1 2 , 6 8 1 ( 8 6 . 6 % ) o f w h i c h w e r e c o l l e c t e d i n t h e P h i l i p p i n e s . T h i s i s c o m p r i s e d o f 3 0 9 f a m i l i e s , 1 9 0 3 genera, and 4485 distinct species. Thirty-nine type specimens form part of the collection, only one of which is a holotype. On the basis of major ISSN 0115-7809 Print / ISSN 2012-0818 Online Specimens in the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium 68 plant groups, angiosperms make up 71% of the collection. Unsurprisingly, Family Poaceae has the largest number of specimens at 2,759 accessions. The earliest dated Philippine specimen was collected by E.D. Merrill in 1902, and roughly half of the total accessioned specimens were collected in the 1950s and 1970s. The two most prolif ic collectors were Santos and Leonardo L. Co, with 2,320 and 2,147 specimens, respectively. Luzon is the most well-represented island group with 2,752 specimens collected i n M e t r o M a n i l a a l o n e . At p r e s e n t , P U H Cu r a to r J a m e s V. La F r a n k i e i s w o r k i n g o n t h e e x p a n s i o n o f t h e c o l l e c t i o n a n d u p g r a d i n g o f t h e herbarium to encourage future educational and research activities. Keyword s: Herbarium, botany, museum, collection, Philippine flora INTRODUCTION The University of the Philippines Herbarium was established in 1908, during a period dubbed as the “Golden Age of Philippine Botany” (Pelser and others 2011). American botanist Elmer D. Merrill (1876-1956) led much of the floristic research conducted at the time, unsurpassed in Asia until he left the country in the early 1920s (Robbins 1958). The Herbarium was originally located in Ermita, Manila then the main campus of the University of the Philippines (UP) system. Given its proximity to the Bureau of Science herbarium (now the Philippine National Herbarium, or the PNH), the UP herbarium was largely overlooked. Merrill, who was head of the UP Botany Department from 1912 to 1918, lamented the usage of the Herbarium merely as an instructional tool; to him, herbarium work necessitated museum activities (Asis 1975). The lack of funds given to the Herbarium also greatly impeded its development. Tragically, the Herbarium and its collections were destroyed during the liberation of Manila in 1945, during the Second World War. Most, if not all, specimen accessions prior to the war were not preserved. In 1946, after the war, the rehabilitation of the Herbarium was under taken by D r. Jose Vera Santos † (1908-1987). Most of the initial specimen accessions came from Santos’ personal collection. By 1949, the Herbarium was housed in UP Diliman, at Pavilion 4, in what was then known as the College of Arts and Sciences. Much of the Herbarium’s collections at the time were either stored in cabinets along the corridors of Pavilion 4 or in faculty rooms and laboratories. It was only in 1978 that the Herbarium’s collections were consolidated and a room dedicated to its purpose was secured. The bulk of the work in organizing and expanding the Herbarium’s collections were done by Leonardo L. Co † (1953 -2010) and Dr. S.L. Yap and others 69 Prescillano M. Zamora† (1933-2010), then director of the Institute of Biology (LL Co, unpublished notes). Efforts to improvise and expand the Herbarium were formalized in 1989 by Zamora, with the main purpose of restoring damaged specimens and acquiring new specimens. The Herbarium gained international recognition in 1990, when it was listed in the Index Herbariorum with the acronym PUH. In 1999, it was off icially renamed as the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium. (As a sidenote, there appears to be a discrepancy in the Herbarium’s name that was registered in the Index Herbariorum (Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium) and the name used in off icial documents f iled at the Institute of Biology regarding the Herbarium’s renaming (Jose Vera Santos Herbarium)). This study aimed to assess the accessioned collection of the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium (alternatively referred to in this article by its acronym PUH) by analyzing the scope of its collections in terms of taxonomic composition, geographic distribution, and chronological breadth. METHODS An electronic database of the Herbarium accessions was created (Note: This database will be made available to interested parties upon request.). Logbooks containing specimen accessions were encoded into an MS Excel f ile. Entries for each accession include the following: family, genus, species epithet, subspecies or variety, collector, date of collection, and locality in which the specimens were collected. A review of the database was done to determine the taxonomic composition of the collections, the representation of collectors, the number of collections per decade, and the representation of each province in the Herbarium. For the purpose of analysis, outdated nomenclature was corrected based on the APG III system for Angiosperms (APG III 2009), and according to the online database on the Plant List (www.theplantlist.org). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium contains 14,648 accessions, 12,681 (86.6%) of which were collected in the Philippines. The entire Herbarium collection is comprised of 309 families, 1903 genera, and 4,485 distinct species. Angiosperms make up the majority of the collections, comprising 71% of the total specimens (Figure 1). Bryophytes and pteridophytes make up 12% and 11% of the collections, respectively, while only one percent of the collections are gymnosperms. Five Specimens in the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium 70 Figure 1. Representation of the four major plant groups in the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium based on the number of collections. While fungi and algae collections continue to be housed in the Herbarium, no accession numbers have been given for said specimens at this time. percent of the collections have either unclear taxonomic aff iliations (unresolved identif ication) or are lacking in data (specimens that have not been identif ied or those with genera or species that could not be found on any database). Out of the 309 families, Family Poaceae has the largest number of specimens at 2,759, followed by Fabaceae (690), and Asteraceae (539) (Table 1). The Herbarium’s namesake, Santos, specialized in grasses, and a great number of the specimens under Poaceae were collected by him. The PUH’s earliest dated specimen collected in the Philippines is the grass Echinochloa crus-galli (Poaceae), collected by Elmer D. Merrill on April 26, 1902. As the Herbarium and its contents were destroyed during the war, the origins of 392 pre-war specimens in the PUH cannot be determined. The Herbarium also Table 1. The top ten famil ies based on the number of herbarium collections *Dicranaceae is a family under the major plant group Bryophytes, comprised of mosses, liverworts and hornworts. Rank Family Number of collections 1 Poaceae 2,759 2 Fabaceae 690 3 Asteraceae 539 4 Cyperaceae 517 5 Malvaceae 334 6 Rubiaceae 326 7 Euphorbiaceae 322 8 Dicranaceae* 295 9 Lamiaceae 277 10 Moraceae 247 S.L. Yap and others 71 houses specimens dating from as early as the 1860s collected from overseas or acquired from exchanges with other herbaria. The rise in the number of collections in the 1940s and 1950s (Figure 2) was mostly due to the contributions of Santos and his undergraduate students, during the post-war rehabilitation of the Herbarium. From the 1970s onwards, most of the specimens added to the Herbarium were collected by Leonard Co. A sizeable backlog of specimens has yet to be processed, mounted, and given accession numbers, and this may explain why very few collections have been added from the 2000s up to the present. Jose Vera Santos has the most number of collections in the Herbarium with 2,320 specimens collected (Table 2), followed closely by Leonard Co (2,147). Together, their Table2. The top ten collectors based on the number of collections Rank Collectors Number of collections 1 Jose Vera Santos 2,320 2 Leonardo L. Co 2,147 3 R.S. Francia 488 4 A.R. Alvarez Jr. 346 5 D.T. Busemeyer, A. Ipolito & J.F. Barcelona 272 6 Liborio E. Ebalo 209 7 Mary Strong Clemens 206 8 M.Q. Lagrimas 200 9 Juan V. Pancho 195 10 Prescillano M. Zamora 189 Figure 2. The number of specimens in the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium collected in the Philippines from the 1900s to present. Note that collections prior to 1940 were mostly destroyed during World War II. Specimens in the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium 72 collections make up roughly 30.5% of the total number of collections in the Herbarium. Once his unprocessed specimens are added to the Herbarium, Co will likely overtake Santos in the size of collections in the Herbarium. Based on the number of collections per province, Luzon is the most well-represented island group. Of the 10 provinces listed in Table 3, seven are found in Luzon. Metro Manila tops the list with 2,572 accessions recorded to have been collected from the area. Laguna comes in second with 2,335 specimens, a majority of which are from Mount Makiling and the UP Los Baños campus. In contrast, three provinces in Mindanao are represented by only one specimen (Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, and Surigao del Sur; see Figure 3). Table 3. The top ten provinces based on the number of collections Rank Province Number of collections 1 Metro Manila 2,572 2 Laguna 2,335 3 Benguet 951 4 Quezon 811 5 Mountain Province 653 6 Palawan 528 7 Rizal 430 8 Oriental Mindoro 305 9 Basilan 279 10 Zambales 264 There are currently 39 type specimens deposited in the PUH; the majority (28) of these are isotypes (Table 4). There is one published holotype and two additional holotypes collected by Zamora that were not published before his death. The earliest type specimen in the Herbarium is an isosyntype of Aristida culionensis Pilger ex Perkins (Mez and Pilger 1904) collected by Merrill in 1902, while the most recent is an isotype of Vacciniumoscarlopezianium Co (Co and others 2002) collected by Co in 1991 from the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park in San Mariano, Isabela. All herbaria will always be biased toward certain geographic regions or taxonomic groups, or both. These biases may be considered as both strengths and limitations of a herbarium. The flora of Luzon is relatively well-represented in the UP Herbarium’s collections. Most specimens in the Herbarium are incidental collections, with the exception of groups that were of special interest to contributors, such as grasses (Santos) and ferns (Zamora and some of Co’s early collections). The S.L. Yap and others 73 Figure 3. The number of collections per province in the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium. Specimens in the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium 74 PUH Scientific name Type Category Publ ication Accession # 11016 Acrosorusnudicarpus P.M. Zamora & Co Isotype Zamora and Co 1980 9990 Ancistrachneancylotricha Isotype Quisumbing and Merrill 1928 (Quis et Merr.) St. Blake 12297 Andreaeanivalis var. baileyi Holz. Type Holzinger 1924 (undef ined type specimen) 10059 Aristidaculionensis Pilger ex Perkins Isosyntype Mez and Pilger 1904 11017 Aspleniummantalingahanum Isotype Zamora and Co 1980 P.M. Zamora & Co 10111 Centothecaphilippinensis Isotype Monod de Froideville 1971 (Merr.) Monod de Froideville 8780 Cheilanthesdilimanensis P.M. Zamora Holotype Zamora 1974 10163 Cheilanthesdilimanensis P.M. Zamora Paratype Zamora 1974 10164 Cheilanthesdilimanensis P.M. Zamora Paratype Zamora 1974 10112 Digitariaphilippinensis Henr. Isotype Henrard 1950 10072 Dimeriaciliata Merr. Isotype Merrill 1928 9988 Echinochloastagnina (Retz.) Beaun Isotype Quisumbing and Merrill 1928 12315 Fissidensmanateensis Grout Type Holzinger 1926 (undef ined type specimen) 12178 Fissidenspringlei Cardot Isotype Cardot 1909 10099 Garnotiaacutigluma var. longiaristata Isotype Santos 1950 (Santos) Jansen 83 Garnotiamindanaensis Santos Isotype Santos 1950 6302 Garnottialongiaristata var. Isotype Santos 1950 basilanensis Santos 9690 Grammitisalepidota M.G.Price Paratype Price 1973 12317 Grimmiamoxleyi R.S. Williams Type Williams 1926 (undef ined type specimen) 5284 Isachnelutaria Santos Isotype Santos 1943 10136 Miscanthusfloridulus Isotype Merrill 1910 (Labill.) Warb. ex K. Schum. & Lauterb. 9963 Monostachyacentrolepidioides Merr. Isotype Merrill and Merritt 1910 1842 Opuntiacharlestonensis Clokey Isotype Clokey 1943 1843 Opuntiamultigeniculata Clokey Isotype Clokey 1943 14580 Pandanusleonardocoi P.M. Zamora Holotype Unpublished 14581 Pandanuspricei P.M. Zamora Holotype Unpublished 3274 Potentillacryptocaulis Clokey Isotype Clokey 1938 7060 Premnaodorata Blanco Isoneotype Munir 1984 10366 Pronephriumbalabacensis Isotype Zamora and Co 1980 P.M. Zamora & Co 12680 Rottboelliaparadoxa de Koning & Sosef Isotype Veldkamp and others 1986 374 Scheffleraheteroclada Frodin Isotype Frodin 1986 309 Scheffleraminutipetiolata Frodin Isotype Frodin 1986 10071 Schizostachyum lima (Blanco) Merr. Isotype Merrill 1916 10081 Schizostachyumlumampao Isotype Merrill 1916 (Blanco) Merr. 11015 Sphaerostephanoscartilagidens Isotype Zamora and Co 1980 P.M. Zamora & Co 11918 Taiwanobryumrobustum Veloira Isotype Veloira del Rosario 1959 11931 Thamnobryumquisumbingii Isotype Iwatsuki and Tan 1977 (Veloira) Z. Iwats. & B.C. Tan 11932 Thamnobryumquisumbingii Paratype Iwatsuki and Tan 1977 (Veloira) Z. Iwats. & B.C. Tan 12120 Trichosteleumaequorum FL. Ex Dixon Type Dixon 1916 (undef ined type specimen) 10687 Vacciniumoscarlopezianum Co Isotype Co and others 2002 10863 Xanthostemonfruticosus Isotype Wilson and Co 1998 Peter G. Wilson & Co Table 4. A l ist of the type specimens in the Jose Vera Santos Memorial Herbarium S.L. Yap and others 75 Herbarium also has an unoff icial policy of not collecting replicates, especially for common, ornamental, or agricultural species. Another important feature of the Herbarium is that it reflects, in part, the state of floristic research in the country, which appears to have stagnated in the past two decades based on accessioned specimens. A major overhaul of the Herbarium is currently under way. Under new management, led by Curator James V. LaFrankie, an estimated 26,000 specimens (Baja-Lapis and others 2004) are now being processed and accessioned, including some 6,000 specimens collected by Co. The addition of these specimens will allow for further analyses of the Herbarium’s collection, and consequently, of how much or how little of the Philippine flora is represented in PUH. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank the Center for Integrative and Development Studies and the Institute of Biology for funding the study, Herbarium staff Ramon Bandong and Edwin Balbin for providing Herbarium records, the team of student assistants who encoded logbook records, and Dr. James V. LaFrankie for reviewing a draft of the manuscript. REFERENCES APG III. 2009. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classif ication for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III. Bot. J. Linn.Soc. 161: 105-121. Asis CV. 1975. Quisumbing and friend. Nat. Appl. Sci. Bull. 27(1-2): 1-73. Baja-Lapis AC, Servaz-Audije BN, Linatoc AC. 2004. A compendium of extant botanical co l l e c t i o n s i n t h e P h i l i p p i n e s . La g u n a , P h i l i p p i n e s : A S E A N Re g i o n a l Ce n t r e f o r Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC). Cardot J. 1909. Revue Bryologique 36: 69. Clokey IW. 1938. Notes on the flora of the Charleston Mountains, Clark County, Nevada. Bull. 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Robbins WJ. 1958. Elmer Drew Merrill 1876-1956: A biographical memoir. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences. Santos JV. 1943. New grasses from the Philippines and South India. J. Wash. Acad. Sci. 33: 135-140. Santos JV. 1950. A revision of the grass genus Garnotia. Nat. App. Sci. Bull. 10: 3-175. Veldkamp JF, de Koning R, Sosef MSM. 1986. Generic delimitation of Rottboellia and related genera (Gramineae). Blumea 31(2): 281-307. Veloira del Rosario NE. 1959. Two new mosses from the Philippines.The Bryologist 62(2): 104-108. S.L. Yap and others 77 Wilson PG, Co LL. 1998. Xanthostemon fruticosus (Myrtaceae), a new species from the Philippines. Sida 18: 283-286. Zamora PM. 1974. A new species of Cheilanthes. Kalikasan 3: 193-195. Zamora PM, Co LL. 1980. New species of ferns (Filicopsida) from Palawan, Philippines. Nat. App. Sci. Bull. 32: 43-52. _______________ Sandra L. Yap, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines, Diliman. She received her PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Sarah Christina W. Estacio is a University Research Associate I and MS Biology student at the Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines Diliman. She graduated with a BS Biology degree from the same institution. Joanne Rae C. Pales is a licensed Forester having completed a BS Forestry degree from University of the Philippines Los Baños. She was a Research Assistant for the Flora of the Philippines project funded by UP-CIDS. Leonardo L. Co, PhD, was the Philippines’ premier botanist up to his untimely death in 2010. He taught at the Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines Diliman after many years of ‘botanizing’ all over the Philippines while working for Conservation International-Philippines.