The Academy of Natural Sciences and the Philadelphia Botanical Club
Time: 1:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Place: Auditorium, The Academy of Natural Sciences
Register online
The Philadelphia Botanical Club and the Academy of Natural Sciences celebrates the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of On The Origin of Species with a symposium on plants and evolution. This symposium will cover both the historical and philosophical implications of the theory of evolution and current research into plant evolution. The speakers include: James Lennox, University of Pittsburgh; Karl Niklas, Cornell University; and Tatyana Livshultz, The Academy of Natural Sciences.
Although Darwin's theories and writings are familiar to many, the importance of botany in his work is less well known. However, six of the ten books he authored following the publication of The Origin of Species were on botanical subjects while a seventh dealt with domesticated plants as well as domesticated animals.
Arguably the most significant of these botanical works was The Various Contrivances by which Orchids are Fertizlised by Insects (1862). In it, Darwin marshaled a compelling case that the orchid's remarkable diversity is better explained by natural selection than by divine design. The first speaker, historian of science James Lennox, will explore how the crucial correspondence between Darwin and Harvard botanist Asa Gray helped Darwin in developing his theory and helped each of them to clarify their own philosophical views on evolution and natural theology.
Darwin freely acknowledged weaknesses in his case for evolution by natural selection. Salient among these was the “abominable mystery”: the sudden appearance and rapid rise of flowering plants in the fossil record. The second speaker, evolutionary biologist Karl Niklas, explores the genetic and reproductive attributes that make angiosperms uniquely successful among the land plants.
Modern biology relies on evolutionary principles to investigate and understand the workings and diversity of life. The final speaker, Academy botanist Tatyana Livshultz, will present her research on the evolution of complex pollination mechanisms in the Apocynaceae (a diverse group of flowering plants) and the careful balance between mutualism and antagonism for the pollinator and the pollinated.