Have you ever thought about how plants are used in our daily lives? From the food we eat to the medicines we take, plants play a crucial role. Today, we’re going on a fascinating journey through the world of economic botany with Chris Niezgoda, the collections manager of flowering plants. Economic botany is all about how people use plants for various purposes, like food, medicine, and even making hats!
Storing plant collections can be tricky. Museums and institutions often face challenges because they have to keep everything in boxes, jars, and even liquids. Chris shows us some of the storage solutions they use, like new boxes that help preserve the artifacts better than old shoe boxes or Kodak boxes. These boxes can be expensive, but they are essential for keeping the collection safe.
One of the interesting items in the collection is Valerian root from 1907, which was used as a stimulant tonic. There’s also Kalaa wood from Thailand, believed to cure snake bites. Imagine using it as a charm while juggling snakes!
The collection includes teas from around the world, like Spain and Paraguay, and spices and herbs, such as parsley from Germany. Each jar has its own story, making the collection even more intriguing.
We also see a doormat made from pine fibers from Georgia, a state known for its pine trees. There’s a collection of fibers from the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, still in great shape after over 100 years.
Date palms are important in the food industry, and we learn about their different parts, like the inflorescence and infructescence. The collection also includes musical instruments made from gourds, which are essential in economic botany. Imagine having a concert with gourd instruments!
The collection features beautiful hats made from plant parts, showcasing intricate weaving techniques. One hat is made from the double coconut, the largest seed in the world, which only grows in the Seychelles islands.
Resins are used in paints, varnishes, and decorative objects like jewelry. The collection includes tools for rubber tapping, showing how trees are scored to collect rubber sap.
Keeping liquids in their original containers is a challenge because they can evaporate over time. The collection includes olive oils from 1893, and while efforts are made to preserve them, evaporation is inevitable. Maybe one day, someone will invent a way to stop it!
This journey through the world of economic botany shows us how plants are used in so many creative and practical ways. From ancient remedies to modern-day uses, plants continue to be an essential part of our lives.
Imagine you’re an inventor in the world of economic botany! Choose a plant and design a new product using its parts. It could be a food item, a medicine, or even a piece of clothing. Present your creation to the class and explain how it benefits people.
Become a museum curator for a day! Design a storage solution for a plant collection. Consider factors like preservation, cost, and space. Share your design with classmates and discuss the pros and cons of different storage methods.
Bring in samples of teas and spices from around the world. Taste and compare them, then research their origins and uses. Create a poster or presentation about your findings and share it with the class.
Explore the sounds of nature by creating a simple musical instrument using plant materials. It could be a gourd drum or a reed flute. Perform a short piece of music for the class and explain how your instrument works.
Learn about traditional weaving techniques using plant fibers. Try your hand at weaving a small mat or bracelet. Discuss the cultural significance of weaving in different societies and how it relates to economic botany.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
—
So I’m standing here with Chris Niezgoda, who is the collections manager of flowering plants in botany, and we’re going on a tour of the economic botanical collection. Economic botany is the use of plants by people, whether for food, medicinal purposes, or other uses like making hats. We have boxes, glass jars, and liquids, which makes storage a challenge, and that’s why many museums and institutions struggle with it. As you can see when we open these drawers, these are nice, new boxes. For many years, after they were off exhibit, they were stored in the bottoms of exhibit cases or in closets.
– Oh, wow.
– Kodak boxes, old shoe boxes, which makes my heart stop because our aim is to preserve everything.
– A box like this costs about $5-$10.
– Per box? For 12,000 artifacts?
– Per box. Whereas a box like this costs under a dollar.
– You have Valerian root.
– Yes! This is from 1907. It was used as a stimulant tonic in cases of hysteria, epilepsy, etc.
– Kalaa wood from Thailand is said to have properties for curing snake bites and is used by native jugglers as a charm. So, you attract the snakes, get bitten, and then use it to cure your snake bite, I guess.
– Well, now I know when I’m juggling snakes…
– We have collections of teas! I mean, how much more botanical can you get?
– Tea! Oh! Old tea! Yeah.
– This is one of my favorites, just the box.
– That’s a nice box. This one’s from Spain, this one’s from Paraguay, another one from Paraguay…
– And these are just spices and herbs and other byproducts. Is that parsley?
– From Germany. And why we have parsley from Germany—who knows?
– I’m sure every jar has a story.
– Here’s a finished product. It’s under plastic, but isn’t that beautiful?
– Wow. Is that a rug of some sort?
– It’s like a doormat made of pine fibers from Georgia. We have a lot of pine material from Georgia; it’s a big pine-growing area.
– Oh, neat! Isn’t that pretty?
– And these are all fibers, and this one came from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, so this is from 1904, again something over 100 years old but in great shape.
– Yeah, it looks beautiful.
– A trunk of a date palm.
– I was looking for my date palm trunk!
– Right, and here we had a Stanley Field expedition in British Guiana, which is now Guyana, and they brought back a date palm.
– Wow. Now you know.
– Date palms are very important in the food industry, so…
– That makes sense. What is this?
– This is the part of the palm that has the flowers initially, and fruits would be attached to it.
– Okay, so it naturally looks like this?
– Yes, with flowers it’s called an inflorescence. When fruits are attached, it’s called an infructescence. Looks like I could wear it as a hair extension.
– We have musical instruments.
– I’ve played one of those in music class.
– Oh really? Okay.
– Maybe you should come up and play. We can have a concert.
– Yeah! Let’s have a gourd concert. That’d be fun.
– So these are all part of the same set. Gourds are very important in economic botany. You can see they make canisters out of them.
– Hats! I love the hats!
– Here are the hats. I love the hats, too. They’re beautiful.
– Can you see someone wearing that?
– It has flowers carved out of plant parts. It’s gorgeous. I would wear that. I can’t even believe how they make lace out of the bark, too.
– All these beautiful weaving techniques—just think of the effort involved.
– Do you know what it’s made out of?
– Yes, this is the double coconut.
– Okay. Have you seen that?
– Yes, I have. We have one.
– This is a model to show you what the inside of a double coconut is, but the double coconut only grows in the Seychelles islands, off of India. Now they don’t allow any exportation of it because it’s been lost on some of the islands due to overuse. It takes a long time for these things to germinate, but…
– Yeah, I mean, that’s a huge seed. Is that considered a seed?
– That’s the seed. It’s the largest seed in the world.
– Wow. Really?
– And that’s the finished product—do you need a hand?
– This is it before all the fibers are taken off.
– Wow. That is huge!
– So this is a pretty big fruit. You can imagine how big a tree you need to have a fruit this big.
– Yeah. That’s massive.
– Do you need a hand getting it back up there?
– Probably. We have a magic broom. People have to come up with ways to sweep their houses, and why not use something from nature? This one is from 1912, so 100 years old.
– Wow. This is made out of corn husks. It’s a little doll.
– It’s cute! I like how he has a mustache.
– Oh, here’s the ukulele.
– Oh wow!
– Remember you were talking about your musical band? Well, here’s the ukulele.
– It’s beautiful. And it’s from koa wood, which is used for ukuleles. It’s from 1928.
– Oh, it’s beautiful. And shoes!
– And shoes! Botanical shoes! Wow.
– Botanical shoes. You can imagine sandals that look very much like those worn today. Let me just take the…
– They don’t have a lot of arch support, but, you know, you’re walking around, you need something to protect your feet, and these were from Venezuela.
– Oh, and these are some of my favorite things, just because they’re so beautiful. These are wooden shoe forms.
– Oh! Wow. Look at that. Isn’t that gorgeous? They would use forms like this to shape the leather and make shoes. Here we have arrows with points made of legume wood. This is from the New Hebrides, 1906. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be shot by one of these.
– Wow! Isn’t this beautiful?
– Yeah, what is that?
– This is just a resin shaped into a spiral form, similar to a snail or some kind of invertebrate.
– Wow, fossil gum…
– Yeah, again, 100 years old.
– Wow, it’s beautiful. This is from north Guinea, in Africa. Isn’t that gorgeous?
– Yeah, it’s beautiful.
– Same type of resin, but now fashioned into…
– …a little sculpture. Wow. From New Zealand.
– What can you learn from a resin?
– Well, resins are used in paints and varnishes, and decorative objects like amber jewelry. So if you had this collection, you’d be able to take some information from it, take a sample, and then analyze the chemical composition to see the differences between various resins.
– Oh, there are the tools—the rubber-tapping tools. You can see that they would score the tree with this instrument and then collect the rubber in little tin cups.
– Oh, okay. And here we have the bark. You can see how they scored the bark for the rubber to run, for the sap to run, and then collect it.
– Down here is our— we try to keep all the liquids together.
– Yeah, wow. But this is a great collection.
– This is an interesting collection. We try to keep everything in the original containers. They have to remain upright because we don’t want them leaking or evaporating.
– We don’t want to replace the corks or have them evaporate. I mean, it is going to evaporate because cork is porous, but we try our best to keep them upright, so we designed these little trays. More things in bigger jars. We have lots of olive oils: 1893, Spain.
– We’ve got olives; we want to sell olives.
– But you are slowly losing all of the liquid. Is there anything to do to stop that, or what are you going to do in another hundred years when it’s all gone?
– Somebody else’s problem in a hundred years.
– You’ll be retired by then.
– I’ll be retired by then, yes, yes.
– You can do everything possible to preserve these collections, and yet you can’t stop something from evaporating.
– Right. So someone at home should invent a way to prevent these liquids from evaporating. That’s your homework.
—
This version maintains the essence of the conversation while removing any informal or potentially inappropriate language.
Plants – Living organisms that typically grow in soil and use sunlight to make their own food through photosynthesis. – Example sentence: Plants are essential for life on Earth because they produce oxygen and provide food for many organisms.
Economic – Related to the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. – Example sentence: The economic importance of agriculture is significant because it provides food and raw materials for industries.
Botany – The scientific study of plants, including their structure, properties, and biochemical processes. – Example sentence: In our botany class, we learned how different plants adapt to their environments.
Collection – A group of objects or specimens gathered for study, comparison, or exhibition. – Example sentence: The museum’s collection of rare plant species helps scientists study biodiversity.
Spices – Aromatic substances obtained from plants, used to flavor food. – Example sentence: Many spices, such as cinnamon and pepper, come from tropical plants and have been traded for centuries.
Fibers – Thread-like structures obtained from plants or animals, used to make textiles and other materials. – Example sentence: Cotton and flax are examples of plant fibers used to make clothing.
Resins – Sticky substances produced by some plants, often used in varnishes and adhesives. – Example sentence: Pine trees produce resins that can be used to make products like turpentine.
Oils – Liquids derived from plants or animals, often used in cooking or as fuel. – Example sentence: Olive oil is a healthy cooking oil that is extracted from the fruit of olive trees.
Hats – Head coverings that can be made from various materials, including plant fibers. – Example sentence: Straw hats are often made from woven plant fibers and are popular for sun protection.
Uses – The ways in which something is utilized or applied. – Example sentence: The uses of plants are diverse, ranging from providing food and medicine to producing oxygen and improving air quality.
