Dr. Ken Cameron, director of The New York Botanical Garden’s Cullman Program for Molecular Systematics Studies and a leading orchid researcher, visited Montgomery Botanical Center (MBC) with his colleagues, Dr. Chengxin Fu and Dr. Xiaodong Zheng, from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China.
On December 1, Dr. Cameron presented his DNA research on Vanilla planifolia — the orchid species with the greatest economic value. In this public lecture—Vanilla Orchid Identification: A Test Case for Plant DNA Bardcoding—held in Montgomery Botanical Center’s Nixon Smiley Meeting Room, Dr. Cameron traced the extensive DNA analysis performed to confirm Vanilla planifolia‘s place in the “family tree” of orchids.
DNA is being studied to help determine the relationships and differences among plant species. Using segments of plant DNA as DNA barcodes reduces ambiguity and works to identify plant tissue for all stages of the plant’s life.
Montgomery Botanical Center educates the community through lectures, seminars, and workshops. MBC is open by appointment to students, educators, scientists, historians, botanical groups, and all others interested in scientific plant collections.