Wayne D. Longbottom

Posted on by Carol Ann McCormick

(b. July, 1966 ) 1 

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Herbarium (NCU) curates about 400 vascular plant specimens collected by Wayne D. Longbottom.  Most were collected in Mr. Longbottom’s home state of Maryland, but we also curate specimens he collected elsewhere in the southeastern United States:  Delaware, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia.  Other herbaria in North America curating Mr. Longbottom’s specimens include the Academy of Natural Sciences (PH: vascular plants, bryophytes), Austin Peay State University (APSC: vascular plants), Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT & BRIT:VDB : vascular plants), Brigham Young University (BRY: vascular plants), Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CM: vascular plants), Clemson University (CLEMS: vascular plants), Northern Arizona University (ASC: vascular plants), Delaware State University (DOV: vascular plants), Duke University (DUKE: vascular plants), Eastern Illinois University (EIU: vascular plants), Field Museum (F: vascular plants), Florida State University (FSU: vascular plants), George Mason University (GMUF: vascular plants), Harvard University Herbaria (GH: vascular plants), Illinois Ntural History Survey, Illinois Department of Natural Resources (ILLS: vascular plants), Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (SEL: vascular plants), Maryland Department of Natural Resources (TAWES: vascular plants), Miami University (MU: vascular plants), Mississippi Museum of Natural Science (MMNS: vascular plants), Missouri Botanical Garden (MO: vascular plants, bryophytes), Morris Arboretum, University of Pennsylvania (MOAR: vascular plants), New York Botanical Garden (NY: vascular plants, bryophytes, algae), Newberry College (NBYC: vascular plants), Northern Kentucky University (KNK: vascular plants), Ohio State University (OS: vascular plants), USFWS:PRR (Patuxent Research Refuge: vascular plants), USDA Agricultural Research Service (SWSL: vascular plants), Towson University (BALT: vascular plants), Troy University (TROY: vascular plants), University of Alabama (UNA: vascular plants), University of California, Riverside (UCR: vascular plants), Florida Museum of Natural History (FLAS: vascular plants), University of Kansas (KANU: vascular plants), University of Maryland (MARY: vascular plants), University of Michigan (MICH: vascular plants), University of Minnesota (MIN: vascular plants), University of Mississippi (MISS: vascular plants), University of South Carolina, Columbia (USCH: vascular plants), University of South Florida (USF: vascular plants), University of Texas at Austin (TEX: vascular plants), University of Vermont (VT: vascular plants), University of Wisconsin, Madison (WIS: vascular plants), Valdosta State University (VSC: vascular plants), and California Academy of Sciences (CAS: bryophytes).  3,4,5    

DOV, NY, MARY, USF are major respositories of Mr. Longbottom’s vascular plant specimens. 3,4

Wayne D. Longbottom. Photo by Wes Knapp. 2 

“I started collecting plants in April of 1989 as a requirement for a Plant Taxonomy class at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland, taught at that time by Professor Dave Williams. Prof. Williams asked me what I hoped to get out of the class. I said “I want to be able to tell a Northern Red Oak from a Southern Red Oak” his answer was “I think I can help you with that” and the adventure began. Recognizing my extraordinary interest in plants and plant collecting, Prof. Williams arranged independent study for me in ‘Herbarium Techniques’. I was hooked. At the end of the first year I had collected over 400 specimens.

It seemed I had what it takes; the collector’s bug and a love of the outdoors. Once your eyes have been opened to the beauty, majesty, and excitement of wild plants, you can never close them again!

Eventually I discovered the wonderful genus Carex and the enormous plant group; the sedges. This led me to meet Dr. Rob Naczi of the New York Botanical Garden, who enlisted me to help him with the determination and categorization of sedges of the Southeast United States. This was an especial pleasure for me as I was able to team up with my old professor, Dave Williams, now retired in Florida. Together, with Dave and others, I have spent many happy hours in the field.

I was never able to get an advanced degree in botany. Life, like it or not, happens. But, in some ways, I’m glad I didn’t. I know PhD botanists who don’t spend nearly as much time in the field as I do. They end up doing lots of paperwork. Of course, paperwork is botany, too. But I prefer my botany outside, knee deep in the salt marsh, mosquitoes biting, breezes rustling in the Phragmites and Spartina, with marsh wrens, red-winged blackbirds and seaside sparrows singing their songs of challenge and love.”  2 

 

PUBLICATIONS:

Longbottom, Wayne D., Robert F. C. Naczi, and Wesley M. Knapp. “Flowering Plant Species New to Delaware and Maryland.” Bartonia, no. 69 (2016): 5–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44089926.

Knapp, W.M., R.F.C. Naczi, W.D. Longbottom, C.A. Davis, W.A. McAvoy, C.T. Frye, J.W. Harrison, and P. Stango, III. 2011. Floristic discoveries in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. Phytoneuron 2011-64: 1–26. Published 15 December 2011. ISSN 2153 733X

 

SOURCES:

  1. Ancestry.com. U.S., Index to Public Records, 1994-2019 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2020. Original data:Voter Registration Lists, Public Record Filings, Historical Residential Records, and Other Household Database Listings.
  2. Briscoe, Laura and Wayne D. Longbottom. 2019. “Wayne Longbottom” in The Hand Lens. New York Botanical Garden. https://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/the-hand-lens/explore/narratives-details/?irn=7021 accessed on 19 August 2024.
  3.  Index Herbariorum, Barbara Thiers, editor.  https://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/ accessed on 19 August 2024.
  4. SERNEC Data Portal. 2024. http//:sernecportal.org/index.php. Accessed on August 19.
  5. Biodiversity occurrence data published by: Consortium of Bryophyte Herbaria (accessed through the Consortium of Bryophyte Herbaria Portal, https://bryophyteportal.org/portal, 2024-08-19).