TWINNING PROGRAM WITH GEORGIA, ROMANIA, AND UKRAINE

Shown in the herbarium at the Missouri Botanical Garden (from left) Marine Mosulishvili, Manana Khutsishvili, Giorgi Nakhutsrishvil, Director of the Institute of Botany in Tbilisi, and Tatyana Shulkina.

John Gaskin and Marine Mosulishvili in the Georgian Caucasus

Marine Mosulishvili (right) and Manana Khutsishvili with Georgian students from a special environmental class in Tbilisi.

Manana Khutsishvili and Marine Mosulishvili, Georgian Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany, had the opportunity to visit with Tatyana Shulkina and John Gaskin of the Missouri Botanical Garden in April 1999. The goal of this partnership is to produce an up-to-date computerized inventory of the Georgian flora. During their time in St. Louis, Khutsishvili and Mosulishvili were trained in the use of the TROPICOS database system. Four of the thirteen volumes of the Flora of Georgia series were updated and entered in the computer. John Gaskin traveled to Georgia in May 1999 with some computer equipment donated by the Missouri Botanical Garden, which was set up in the Tbilisi Institute of Botany so that Georgian botanists can continue to enter data. During Gaskin’s stay in Georgia, Khutsishvili and Mosulishvili guided him on multiple collection trips. Over 800 vascular plant specimens were gathered, including plants that are serious exotic invasives in the U.S. A joint program between Gaskin and Mosulishvili was initialized, wherein Gaskin will instruct Georgian botanists in the use of molecular DNA analysis, beginning with a study of endemic orchids. Shulkina plans to travel to Georgia in 2000 to oversee the final compilation of information for six more volumes of the Flora of Georgia.

Update on Activities During 2000

Tatyana Shulkina completed the final visit under her 1999-2000 Twinning grant when she traveled to Georgia May 13 through June 9, 2000. During her stay at the Institute of Botany, she oversaw final compilation of the remaining eight volumes of the 12-volume Flora of Georgia series. It was also decided that other previously unpublished materials would be released in two additional volumes. Data from all the volumes has been entered into the Missouri Botanical Garden’s TROPICOS database, which is available on the internet at http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/vast.html. A print publication on the flora of Georgia is also in preparation.

The two-year Twinning project has generated benefits for all the individuals and institutions involved. Khutsishvili and Mosulishvili gained access to new taxonomic literature and took copies of publications back home to their institute’s library, which for the past 10 years has unfortunately suffered from severe isolation and a lack of foreign reference materials. They also gained experience in using computer programs to manage botanical data. Gaskin had the opportunity to collect many invasive plants during his trip to Georgia, which he will use as material for his dissertation. Shulkina gathered specimens that will be valuable additions to her institution’s collections. The Twinning visits also led to the development of additional collaborative ties between the Georgians and other U.S. institutions, including Monsanto Corporation and the Midwest Consortium of Botanical Gardens and Arboreta, both of which have signed agreements to begin projects involving the Georgians. Finally, Shulkina notes that "the exchange has produced tangible advances in our understanding of the Georgian flora, and in the accessibility of Georgian botanical information to scientists and the general public, and produced new collaboration for scientists from both countries."