A black-and-white studio portrait photograph of Emma Lucy Braun, the pioneering American botanist and plant ecologist widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists in the study of eastern North American forests. Shown from the shoulders up against a soft, neutral gradient background, Braun appears in her later years with a calm, intelligent gaze directed straight at the viewer. Her white hair is neatly styled and swept back from her face, and she wears delicate round wire-rimmed glasses. A gentle, knowing half-smile softens her expression, conveying quiet authority, warmth, and scholarly poise. She is dressed in a light-colored, pleated blouse with a gathered neckline and a prominent dark floral brooch pinned at the center of her chest; the visible sleeve features subtle decorative patterning. The tight, centered composition focuses entirely on her face and upper torso, creating an intimate and dignified mood that emphasizes intellect and dignity over ornamentation.

Botanist/plant ecologist E. Lucy Braun is one of the most influential ecologists in North American history.

+ First woman President, Ecological Society of America, 1950
+ Helped establish plant ecology as a rigorous academic discipline

She was born #OTD in 1889. #WomenInSTEM #conservation #ecosky

Herbarium Sheets Are Holding Secrets Their Makers Never Intended When you mount a plant on a sheet, you capture more than botany. A new paper reveals the unexpected historical treasures hiding in herbaria, and why closing them is a mistake.

Herbarium Sheets Are Holding Secrets Their Makers Never Intended
www.botany.one/herbarium-sh...

When you mount a plant on a sheet, you capture more than botany. A new paper reveals the unexpected historical treasures hiding in herbaria, and why closing them is a mistake.
#Botany #PlantScience

"Elders identified former settlements, sacred clearings and fishing sites remembered from oral histories."

Hi @legacyforestinfo.bsky.social, BHL is in the final stages of transitioning from the Smithsonian. To learn more about the #BHLTransition, see the BHL blog: blog.biodiversitylibrary.org/tag/transition. We'll be sharing more news there very soon.

Thanks a lot!

Thank you! Interesting platform, I just hope they can find a reliable partner after losing Smithsonian...

Ok, many thanks for this! Please don´t throw it out! 🙂 We are currently trying to identify best practice for collecting and digitizing legacy data. I understand that you are working with UNEP? Is there a repository or archive for 20th century technical reports that might include legacy forest data?

Fantastic. This is the stuff we are looking for! Do you have more of that?

Hi Lera,
This is Hans Juergen Boehmer, coordinator of the legacy data task force. Sounds interesting. What are these reports about?
Best regards,
Juergen

(PDF) Professor Dieter Mueller-Dombois (1925-2022), obituary PDF | On Dec 15, 2022, Hans Juergen Boehmer published Professor Dieter Mueller-Dombois (1925-2022), obituary | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate

Dieter #Mueller-Dombois would have turned 100 years old these days. He died in 2022, one week before his 97th birthday. His archive on the #vegetation of the tropical #Pacific islands consists of countless notes, documents and slides. Context: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

A box with dozens of unpublished works for the Smithsonian Institute from Dieter Mueller-Dombois´ research in Sri Lanka (former Ceylon) 1967-69. There, he studied effects of elephants on the woody vegetation in a major wild elephant refuge in the island´s southeastern dry zone.

The amount and quality of legacy data in the #Mueller-Dombois archive is overwhelming. This is a box with unpublished works for the #Smithsonian Institute from the period in #SriLanka (former Ceylon) 1967-69. Context: esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2307/...

Early 1980s: Dieter Mueller-Dombois and Mallikarjuna Aradhya pulling a Metrosideros polymorpha sapling out of organic peat somewhere in Hawai´i´s rainforest. Courtesy of Annette Mueller-Dombois.

Dieter´s interdisciplinary research into the causes of large-scale #forest #dieback in forests on the islands of #Hawai´i throughout the 1970s and 80s had a global impact and can be seen as exemplary for modern multi-causal forest #decline #research. Context: muse.jhu.edu/pub/5/articl...

March 1972: Hawai´i, Island of Kaua´i, Alaka´i Swamp area. Aerial photograph of forest dieback. Dying and dead Metrosideros trees stand out in grey against the few remaining healthy, green trees. Note on slide: `Terminal dieback, Alaka´i, March 1972`. Photo by Dieter Mueller-Dombois. The Alakaʻi Swamp (Alakaʻi Wilderness Preserve) is a montane rainforest on the island of Kaua´i in Hawai´i, located on a plateau near Mount Waiʻaleʻale, one of the wettest places on Earth. Although it is called a swamp, it is actually a rainforest.

Prof. Mueller-Dombois has been studying #forest #dieback in the Hawaiian #Islands since the late 1960s. This aerial photograph was taken during a reconnaisance flight over the dieback area in #Alaka´i Swamp, Kaua´i, in March 1972. Photo by D. M.-D.. Context: www.google.de/books/editio...

August 1976, Island of Hawaii (Big Island), Saddle Road area: Professor Dieter Mueller-Dombois, Botany Department, University of Hawaii at Manoa, takes notes on the decline (dieback) of native ohia lehua trees (Metrosideros polymorpha). Photograph by James D. Jacobi.

Let's start with our header. August 1976, Hawaii, Big Island, Saddle Road area: Prof. Dieter Mueller-Dombois, University of Hawaii at Manoa, takes notes on the dieback of native Ohia trees (Metrosideros polymorpha). Photo by James D. Jacobi. Context: scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/c...

IUFRO Task Force 57 was established in 2025 to rescue old forest data from boreal🌲, temperate🌳, subtropical🌵 and tropical🌴 regions. We will focus on numerical data, but other ‘data’ such as old photos, maps, and "lost" reports are also important. We´ll present an interesting selection here...