News & Events

• Breaking with tradition, four new vining Solanum species are published exclusively online. Our very own pioneer botanist Sandy Knapp has published four new Solanum species, Solanum aspersum, Solanum luculentum, Solanum sanchez-vegae and Solanum sousae in the electronic only journal, PLoS ONE. To get around the current ICBN stipulation that publication of new species is only valid if it is done so with the distribution of printed matter to the public, and not solely through an electronic medium, Sandy has printed copies of the online article and sent them to a number of libraries. Read more about this exciting test case, for electronic publication of new species names, in Nature News. Also find out why PLoS Biology's Senior Editor, Catriona MacCallum is proud to be able to publish Sandy's paper.
• Journey across Tanzania hunting for wild spiny aubergines. Maria Vorontsova from the Natural History Museum, London and Eric Tepe from the University of Utah are in Tanzania hunting for rare species of wild spiny aubergines, Solanum subgenus Leptostemonum. The spiny Solanums are called Endulelei in Swahili and local villagers from across the country have been helping us find them. The rainy season has just began! Read more in Maria's blog and in the Museum's news.
• Collecting eggplants in South China. Sandy Knapp (NHM) visited South China from 17 February to 8 March 2010 to collect eggplant relatives with colleagues Jin Xiu Wang and Tian Gang Gao from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They went through Guangxi and Guangdong provinces and finished off on the southern island of Hainan - finding amazing things along the way! Read about the trip in the blog Sandy posted during the trip.

More news & events

Field work

• Collecting Solanaceae from the Amazon, Andes, and Western Coast of Ecuador (January to February, 2009).
• Stephen Stern & Eric Tepe report on a successful five-week trip into fascinating cloud forests and steaming lowlands. With help from the Herbario Nacional (QCNE) Stephen, Eric and Freddy worked their way down the eastern slopes of the Andes, picking up a new species from the Herpystichum clade on the way.
• Exploring Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago (December, 2008)
• Stephen Stern takes a lone trip in search of the unusual Solanaceae that inhabit the Iwokrama Reserve in Guyana and areas of Tobago.

More field work reports

Resources

• Contact us online Enquire about the project or send us your comments using our online enquiry and feedback form.
• Citing us Guidelines for citing information on the Solanaceae Source website.
• SOL newsletters Keep up to date on the progress of the International Solanaceae Genomics Project (SOL)

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