Just another day in the Arctic – working with tropical plants
Research Associate of the Herbarium (ALA) at the UA Museum of the North, UAF and former faculty member in the Institute of Arctic Biology Dr. W. Scott Armbruster is one of the world experts on the genus Dalechampia L. (Euphorbiaceae). His research collections are deposited at ALA, and we are so excited to see him visit every summer and early fall and work up the many specimens he has collected over the years, and the new species he has and is describing. We just accessioned and mounted 8 additional isotypes of Dalechampia during his visit. By his own admission Scott says he wanted to study evolution when he entered graduate school. ‘Well you cannot study evolution directly…’ was the answer he got from one of this advisors, ‘but you can study pollination biology and get a better understanding of evolution’ was the advise Scott got. This led to a long, and accomplished career using Dalechampia as a model system.
Together with his Ph.D. advisor Dr. Grady Webster, the team has amassed an impressive description of new taxa, revisions and contributed greatly to our understanding of tropical biodiversity. Each named a species of Dalechampia in honor of the other, of course Scott started in 1984 naming Dalechampia websteri Armbr. in Brittonia. He writes: In recognition that G. L. Webster was the first to realize that this taxon was “a species new to Panama and perhaps new to science” (Webster and Burch 1968, p. 314). Unfortunately, Webster did not have flowering material and was unable to do more than speculate. This taxon was also recognized as a distinct species and referred to as Dalechampia “La Selva” by Armbruster (1982). Grady Webster described Dalechampia armbrusteri Webster in 1989. He wrote: This species is appropriately dedicated to my friend and colleague Dr. W. Scott Armbruster, leading student of the pollination ecology of Dalechampia and collector of the species at the type locality.
UAF also hosts Scott’s living Dalechampia collection in the IAB greenhouse. These plants are cared for by greenhouse manager Dr. Mel Durrett, who does an awesome job keeping these tropical babies happy even when temps plummet below -40F. Check out the collections at the IAB Greenhouse https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1405054639115599874
Here are a few of his foundational papers on pollination biology of Dalechampia and a full list of Scott’s publications can be found on Google Scholar:
Armbruster WS. 1984. The role of resin in angiosperm pollination: ecological and chemical considerations. American Journal of Botany 71: 1149–1160.
Armbruster WS. 1985. Patterns of character divergence and the evolution of reproductive ecotypes of Dalechampia scandens (Euphorbiaceae). Evolution 39: 733–752.
Armbruster WS. 1988. Multilevel comparative analysis of morphology, function, and evolution of Dalechampia blossoms. Ecology 69: 1746–1761.
Armbruster WS. 1990. Estimating and testing the shapes of adaptive surfaces: the morphology and pollination of Dalechampia blossoms. American Naturalist 135: 14–31.
Armbruster WS. 1993. Evolution of plant pollination systems: Hypotheses and tests with the Neotropical vine Dalechampia. Evolution 47: 1480-1505.
