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Forensic botany: Case studies in the use of plant anatomy

Article · January 2001

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 # 17 3

Phytomorphology Golden Jubilee Issue 2001

FORENSIC BOTANY: CASE STUDIES IN TIlE USE OF PLANT ANATOMY

DAVID L D1LCHER

Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville FL 32611-7800, USA

e-mail: dilcher@f1mnh.ufl.edu Fax: 1-352-392-2539

Abstract

The use of plant anatomy can be important as a forensic tool in criminal

investigations. Four cases are presented in which the anatomical details of plants or
plant parts were incorporated into investigations. The knowledge of the preparation
of plant fragments. the analysis of these fragments. and the interpretation of the data
obtained - all must be part of forensic botany. Plant anatomists are encouraged to
make themselves available to educate the police about the potential applications of
plant anatomy in their investigations.

Introduction

Knowledge of the anatomy of plants can be both useful and crucial as evidence in some
cases involving criminal conduct. Often the police are looking for all the evidence they can
put together to reconstruct a particular situation, particular intent of an individual. or particular
evidence against someone being held in custody. Over the past several years. police have
sought my help in working on their investigations. Four cases. in which I was able to use the
knowledge of plant anatomy in order to provide some useful information about particular
situations that the police or defense lawyers were investigating. are discussed.
In each case the police presented me with plant material and only a very few sketchy
details of the case. Only after I had completed my analysis and provided my report did they
explain the case in more detail. I explain each case as presented to me, describe the plant
material(s) presented, the investigation undertaken in my laboratory, and the re.'mlts of the case
insofar as I was told about it.
Case Studies
CASE No. I

The police presented me with a "small leather pouch containing some plant fragments, but
told very little about the contents. I spread the contents out on a clean white piece of paper

I would like to th:mlc. Katherine Dilcher and Terry LOll for lheir help with this manuscript.

'"

 TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCES 182

and examined the fragments to see the consistency of the plant materi al. It cons isted of crus hed
or broken fragments of dried leaf material about 5 mm square. From the texture of the leaf
material, which was easily crushed, it appeared that the leaffragments came from a herbaceous
plant. The herbaceous leaf material was thin and contained numerous trichomes. As this
particular case was presented to me at a time when marijuana was a very popular plant for
young college students to be experimenting with, r decided initially to examine the cuticular
features of marijuana. ,Leaf cuticles of Cannabis were prepared from herbarium material
(Dilcher 1974). Both the upper and lower cuticles were examined and photographs made of
these cuticular preparations to include them in the police report. Then cuticular preparations
were made of the upper and lower epidermis of the unknown leaf material from the small
leather pouch.
There was no similarity between the cuticle of marijuana and the cuticle of the unknown
leaf material. It appeared that a rather exhaustive search of a large number of leaves of
herbaceous plants would have to be undertaken to assess the identity of the unknown plant
material from the leather pouch. About that time the police telephoned me to inquire about the
progress of my investigation. 1 told them I had discounted any relationship between the leaf
fragments and marijuana, and at that point they told me to conclude the investigation because
that was the particular information that they wanted, The small leather pouch, they explained
belonged to a vagrant whom they had stopped for questioning. When they found the leather
pouch containing crushed leaf material he was carrying, they suspected that this might be
marijuana which was illegal to possess, so they detained him and asked me to assess the
identity of the contents of his pouch. By cuticular analysis, it became very clear that this was
not marijuana. The case was closed, the pouch returned to the individual and he was released
from police custody,

CASE NO.2

The police asked me to undertake the positive identification of some plant material which
consisted of small flattened conifer need les that were slightly distorted and partially digested,
The leaf fragments were presented to me in a small glass vial containing water. r prepared
cuticular samples of the leaf fragments, and kept some leaves whole to match them with a
living conifer leaf. r compared the cuticular preparations to reference preparations of a variety
of conifers (Dilcher 1969). It was quite clear from the shape and size of the leaves, aOU from
the cuticular patterns of the epidermal cells and the stomata, that these leaves belonged to
Taxus.
When I reported this fLnding to the police they inquired about the toxicology of Taxus,
especially if it is ingested. I asked for some more information about the case. They told me
that the leaf material came from the stomach of a young college student who had committed
suicide. He had ingested some of this plant material and then slit his wrists. Taxus leaves are
known to contain an alkaloid taxine. that may affect the function of the heart (Kingsbury 1964).
The amount of Taxus that was ingested would not have caused the death of this young man hut
might have contributed in (l slight W3Y hy incre3sing his depression.
 DJLCHER - FORENSIC BOTANY
183

CASE NO.3

The police asked me to analyze some material in a glass vial that came from the trachea
of a young boy who was in the custody of foster parents. He had been found asphyxiated and
his foster parents claimed that he had been playing in a barn fUll of hay before he died. They
maintained that he had jumped into a stack of loose hay, sinking deep into the hay and
suffocating. If he had suffocated deep within a stack of loose hay, he might have inhaled some
fragments of straw while trying to breathe. I examined the material that was supplied to me,
with the idea that I might find fragments of the stems or leaves of grass. However, there were
no fragmenl<; of any grass present. Continuing my analysis, I next looked for evidence of
starch grains. These were present and were quite similar to the starch grains found in ground
corn used as animal feed, so it appeared that this boy had inhaled the contents of a bag that
contained ground corn just before he died. I presented this evidence to the police and heard
nothing more of this case.

CASE NO.4

In this particular situation I was asked to evaluate evidence by an attorney trying to defend
a man who had been accused of murdering his wife and, transporting her body to the edge of
a river, and burning it in a 55 gallon oil drum. All this took place in the scrub woody
vegetation that grew along the banks of the river. The particular question that J was asked to
address was whether I could judge, from the fire damage to the stems of the woody plants
growing alongside the 55 gallon oil drum that was set on fire, what season of the year this fire
took place. The climate in which these events occurred was a cool temperate area with a cold
winter; so woody plants produced pronounced annual growth rings. I thought that it would be
possible to approximate whether the damage to the surrounding woody plants had been done
in the spring, summer, or early autumn; so I asked for cross sections of these small diameter
woody plants to examine the annual growth rings. In annual rings, each spring there is a burst
of growth of the vascular cambium that produces relatively large diameter wood cells. Then,
as summer warms up and the wood growth continues, the diameter of the cells decreases and
by the end of the summer very slow growth occurs and small diameter cells are produced.
Thus by judging when during growth of the annual ring the injury to the wood took place, it
would be possible to determine what season during the year the damage cook place. I was
ready for the analysis, but the wood samples never arrived.

Conclusions

The examination of plant anatomy, especially the anatomy and morphology of fragments
and pieces of plant<; sometimes associated with criminal cases, is well accomplished in a plant
laboratory (Lane et al. 1990). Paleobotanists and plant a02tomists are accustomed to working
with plane fragments, such as fragmentary cuticle, stems. wood and pollen. Plant trichomes,
fruits and seeds attached to clothing, or any small parts of plants that may be associated with
a particular criminal investigation, can he analyzed in a modern plant anatomy laboratory. The
 TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCES 184

investigation of plants and plant fragments can be very helpful and may provide crucial
evidence for particular cases. This short report is written to encourage plant anatomists to
communicate with the police and criminal investigators. Our science has a great deal to offer
in the collection and examination of evidence in many crime cases and the investigating
authorities should be made aware of the potential usefulness of plant anatomy in the
investigation of crime scenes. Other botanical sciences such as palynology have played
important roles in solving mysteries and crimes (Bruce & Dettmann 1996, Bryant & Mildenhall
1998. Janen 1998). Many historical aspttts of botany can add to the investigative potential
in solving mysteries and crimes just as physical anthropology has often been used (Maples &
Browning 1994).

Literature Cited

Bruce RG & Detlmann ME 1996 Palynological analyses of Australian surface soils and their potential in foremic
science. For Sci. Int. 81 77-94
Bryant VM & Mildenhall DC 1998 Forensic palynology: a new way to catch crooks, In Nnv Dtvtlopments in
Pal)'nomorph sampling. Extraction, and Anal)'stS, pp. 145-155 eds VM Bryant & 1W Wrenn (American
Association of SU'3tigrapttic PalynologislS Foundation. Contributiom Series Number 33)
Oilcher OL 1969 Podocarpus from the Eocene of North America, Sdtnct 164 299·301
Dilcher DL 1974 Approaches to the identifIcation of fossil leaf remains, Bot. Rtv. 40 1-157
Janen OM 1998 Palynological analysis of the Gondar (Ethiopia) Hanging, In Nnv Dtvtlopmtnts in Palynomorph
sampling, Extraction. and Analysis, pp. 133-143 eds VM Bryant & 1W Wrenn (American Association of
Stratigraphic PalynologislS Foundation. Contributions Series Number 33)
KingsbUry JM 1964 Poisonous Planls oftht Uniud StaUs and Canada (Prentice Hall: Englewood, NJ, USA)
Lane MA, AndersonLC, Barkley TM, Bock JH, Gifford E.M, HaU OW, Norris DO, Rost TL & Stem WL 1990
Forensic Botany: Planu, perpetralOts, pests, poisons, and pot, BioSdtnu ~ 34-39
Maples WE. & Browning M 1994 Dtad Mtn Do 7tH Talts: Tht Strongt and Fascinating Casu of Formsic
ArI1hropologist (Doubleday: New York, USA)
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