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Informateur OPTIMANewsletter
OPTIMA Newsletter - 34(e) / Informateur OPTIMA - 34(e)
Printed version ISSN 0376-5016 33, online version: ISSN 2225-6970, published by the Secretariat of OPTIMA
OPTIMA Newsletter is a news journal for the
presentation and discussion of issues pertinent to Mediterranean botany, published by the
Secretariat of the Organization for the Phyto-Taxonomic Investigation of the Mediterranean
Area . The editors welcome the submission of news, items and articles by all interested
parties. Please send articles to:
OPTIMA Secretariat, Dpto. Biología Vegetal, E.U.I.T. Agrícola,
Universidad Politécnica, E-28040 Madrid, Spain. Tel.: + 34 91 3365462. Fax: + 34 91
3365656. E-mail:
iriondo@ccupm.upm.es.
Editors:
J.M. Iriondo and L.J. De Hond
Conservation News Editor: J.M. Iriondo
Fungi News Editor: S. Onofri
Herbarium News Editor: P. Blanco
Web News Editor: J.M. Iriondo
Announcements: S. Pajarón and J.M. Iriondo
Notices of Publications Editor: W. Greuter
French Translation: J. Mathez
Lay out: M.J. Albert
Website
editors |
OPTIMA Secretariat acknowledges the
continuous support of the Departamento de Biología Vegetal and the Escuela Universitaria
de Ingeniería Técnica Agrícola of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.
Contents of N°. 34(e)
Nouvelles de
l’OPTIMA /
OPTIMA News
Conservation News -
Completion of the Seed
Collection Project of Turkish Endemics
Network of Mediterranean
Seedbanks
Fungi News -
Projects of the New OPTIMA
Commission on Fungi
Herbarium News -
The Spanish Bryophyte
Herbaria
Web News -
Cartographic Links for Botanists
Projects -
Cooperation in genus Gagea;
Image Bank of Flora of the Iberian Peninsula;
Erodium
Fruits Wanted!
Meetings -
Specialists Discuss the Future of
Botanical Information at the IBC;
Invitation to Join
the Yearly Meeting of GEP
Announcements
Notices of Publications -
Dicotyledones;
Floras;
Flower books;
Floristic
inventories and checklists;
Excursions;
Biogeography;
Chorology;
Regional studies of flora and vegetation;
Applied botany;
Conservation topics, Red Data books;
Gardens and gardening;
Historical subjects and biography;
Festschrift;
Symposium
proceedings
questionaires and forms
Field News
Work Questionnaire: In order to be able
to provide you the best and most exhaustive information on botanical expeditions taking
place in the Mediterranean area, please take a few minutes and collaborate by filling out
this questionnaire.
Attention
Mediterranean Botanical Database Holders: The
ITN Commission is assembling a list of existing and projected
botanical databases for the Mediterranean area. This effort strongly
depends on the co-operation of OPTIMA members. If your database
or dataset includes specimen records, please participate in the
BioCISE survey.
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NOUVELLES
DE L'OPTIMA
par José M. Iriondo
Il est difficile d'écrire sur quoi que ce soit ces temps-ci dans un
contexte méditerranéen sans évoquer la situation actuelle en Yougoslavie. Nous ne
pouvons que souhaiter que cessent rapidement la violence et les destructions dans cette
région et espérer en un meilleur avenir qui verra régner la coopération et l'amitié
entre tous ceux qui vivent dans la région méditerranéenne.
COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL
En 1998, les membres du Comité ont approuvé le rapport annuel et le rapport financier
pour 1997, soumis par le Secrétaire au nom du Président et du Conseil Exécutif. Le
compte-rendu de la réunion du Comité tenue le 11 mai 1998 à Paris a également été
approuvé par accord tacite.
CONSEIL
Le conseil a donné son accord pour maintenir sans changement les cotisations des
membres de l'OPTIMA pour 1999. Le compte-rendu de la réunion du Comité tenue en mai 1998
à Paris a également été approuvé par accord tacite.
SECRÉTARIAT
Le Secrétariat s'est occupé de la gestion des comptes de l'OPTIMA et de ceux de la
Commission des Publications et de la Commission des Prix, ainsi que de la gestion de la
vente des publications et la tenue des fichiers des membres. Le Secrétariat de l'OPTIMA a
également assuré la liaison entre les membres du Conseil et du Comité et les groupes de
travail et commissions de notre Organisation.
Les autres activités en cours comprennent la publication des Nouvelles de l'OPTIMA et
la mise à jour du site Web de l'OPTIMA. Un annuaire des membres consultable sur ce site
est également en préparation.
DÉCÈS
Le Prof. Dr Clara Heyn, Jérusalem, Israël, est décédée le 27.12.1998 à l'âge de
74 ans.
Le Prof. Dr Karl Heinz Rechinger, Vienne, Autriche, est décédé le 30.12.1998 à
l'âge de 92 ans.
Les notices nécrologiques détaillées de ces deux membres éminents de l'OPTIMA
seront publiées dans le prochain volume de Flora Mediterranea.
Le Point sur les Commissions Commission pour la
Diffusion des Connaissances sur les Plantes Méditerranéennes
Des progrès significatifs ont été accomplis dans
l'élaboration du livre "Paysages végétaux du Bassin méditerranéen". Les
chapitres proposés pour la France, la Corse, l'Italie, la Sardaigne, la Turquie, Israël
et la Jordanie ont été diffusés auprès des membres de la Commission afin de procéder
à la relecture éditoriale. Les chapitres sur l'Espagne, la Syrie et le Liban, et la
Sicile sont en préparation. On cherche encore des rédacteurs pour les chapitres
concernant les Balkans, Chypre et l'Afrique du Nord.
En 1999, nous comptons combler les vides, écrire et mettre
en forme les chapitres de l'Introduction générale et réunir les illustrations et les
cartes adéquates.
Pour plus d'informations, contacter le Prof. Uzi Plitmann,
Department of Botany, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. E-mail:
uzi@vms. huji.ac.il
Commission de l'Herbarium
Mediterraneum
Les activités des membres de la Commission de
l'Herbarium Mediterraneum sont confondues avec celles du Comité Scientifique de la
Fondation Internationale Pro Herbario Mediterraneo.
Sur le front des publications, le vol. 8 de Flora
Mediterranea et les volumes 8 et 9 de Bocconea ont été publiés et financés
par la Fondation en 1998. Par ailleurs, la Fondation a subventionné l'impression de
"La collezione algologica storica dell’Erbario mediterraneo" par B.M.
Ferreri dans le journal Naturalista siciliano. Pour 1999, on compte publier
plusieurs volumes de Bocconea contenant les résultats des Itinera Mediterranea en
Sicile et à Chypre, le catalogue des plantes vasculaires du Nord du Maroc, et les Actes
du IXème Colloque de l'OPTIMA. Le Volume 9 de Flora Mediterranea sera également
publié à la fin de cette année.
Le Comité Scientifique a examiné les candidatures pour
les deux bourses d'études et de recherches de six mois à l'Herbarium Mediterraneum
de Palerme, qui devaient être attribuées à des diplômés de biologie/sciences
naturelles spécialisés en taxinomie végétale/phytogéographie et résidents dans un
pays d'Afrique du Nord ou d'Europe orientale. Après examen approfondi, le Comité
Scientifique a décidé d'attribuer une bourse à B. Tahiri (Maroc) et de partager l'autre
entre E. Kozuharova et D. Uzunov (Bulgarie).
Concernant l'herbier, l'informatisation de la collection
d'environ 350.000 spécimens (cryptogames compris) sera entreprise en 1999.
Commission pour la
Caryosystématique
La publication de la rubrique "Nombres de
Chromosomes Méditerranéens" dans Flora Mediterranea pour les huit années
successives fut à la fois fructueuse et gratifiante. 126 nouveaux comptages (no.
899-1025) ont été ajoutés provenant de huit contrées ou régions différentes, à
savoir la Bulgarie, le Caucase, la Grèce, l'Italie, le Maroc, le Portugal, l'Espagne et
la Turquie.
En ce qui concerne le projet de création d'une base de
données caryosystématique pour les comptages de chromosomes méditerranéens, jusqu'ici
les progrès se résument à la création de plusieurs bases de données dans différents
pays. Il est urgent d'avancer dans la coordination et la standardisation de ces bases. Le
cadre de l'Euro + Med Plant Base peut être utile à cet égard.
COTISATIONS A L'OPTIMA ET DES VOLUMES DE BOCCONEA GRATIS
Par accord avec la Fondation de
l'Herbarium Mediterraneum, il est désormais possible de payer ses cotisations à l'OPTIMA
et d'acheter des volumes de Bocconea en envoyant des spécimens d'herbier à
l'Herbarium Mediterraneum de Palerme. Cette possibilité est d'ores et déjà applicable
selon les modalités suivantes:
- Seuls des échantillons provenant de l'aire globale suivante pourront être acceptés:
pays circum-méditerranéans sauf la France et l'Italie, plus le Portugal et la Bulgarie;
îles atlantiques (Macaronésie); et domaine du "Flora orientalis" de Boissier
(notamment le Moyen-Orient, la Transcaucasie et la Crimée). De préférence, ces
échantillons proviendront du pays de résidence (s'il fait partie de l'aire globale
mentionnée ci-dessus).
- Les spécimens d'herbier doivent être en bon état et comporter des informations
complètes avec des étiquettes lisibles etdéfinitives. Sauf accord préalable écrit,
les spécimens doivent venir du pays de résidence du participant. L'Herbarium
Mediterraneum se réserve le droit de retourner les spécimens jugés de qualité
insuffisante.
- Chaque spécimen d'herbier vaudra 1.67 SFr. Chaque livraison consistera en un minimum de
15 planches d'herbier. Quand un groupe de botanistes de la même institution prévoit
d'envoyer des spécimens d'herbier, une expédition groupée est préférable.
- Chaque collaborateur joindra une copie du bordereau de livraison ci-joint comportant son
nom, le nombre de spécimens d'herbier envoyés, la somme payée et la destination du
crédit (cotisation à l'OPTIMA ou achat de volumes de Bocconea).
- Le paquet contenant les spécimens d'herbier et la lettre seront envoyés à : Pr.
F. Raimondo, Dipartimento di Scienze Botaniche dell'Università, Via Archirafi 38, I-90123
Palermo, Italy.
- Les frais d'expédition seront remboursés aux expéditeurs par l'Herbarium
Mediterraneum.
- A la fin de chaque année, l'Herbarium Mediterraneum virera à l'OPTIMA le montant des
cotisations gagnées par les participants pendant l'année.
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Bordereau à joindre au paquet de spécimens d'herbier (un bordereau
par participant).
Nom: ___________________________________________________
Institution: _____________________________________________________
Adresse: __________________________________________________________
Nombre de spécimens d'herbier
( ) x 1.67 SFr/ spécimen = ___________ SFr.de crédit.
Je souhaite utiliser ce crédit
pour payer ma cotisation à l'OPTIMA (25.-SFr/year): _______ années
de cotisation
Je souhaite acheter un exemplaire
de Bocconea vol. _____ au tarif réduit pour les membres
de l'OPTIMA (voir les prix au début de l'Informateur OPTIMA)
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OPTIMA NEWS
by José M. Iriondo
It is difficult to write about anything these days in a Mediterranean
context and not make mention of the current situation in Yugoslavia. We can only wish for
a quick end to the violence and destruction in the area and hope for a better future in
which cooperation and friendship among the people who live in the Mediterranean area
prevail.
INTERNATIONAL BOARD
In 1998, the Board members approved the annual report and the financial report for 1997,
submitted by the Secretary on behalf of the President and the Executive Council. The
minutes of the Board meeting held in Paris on May 11th 1998 were also approved
by tacit consent.
EXECUTIVE COUNCIL
The Council approved to keep OPTIMA membership fees unchanged for 1999. The minutes of the
meeting held in Paris in May 1998 were approved by tacit consent.
SECRETARIAT
The Secretariat was active keeping OPTIMA’s accounts and the accounts of the
Publications Commission and Prize Commission and managing publication sales and membership
files. The OPTIMA Secretariat also functioned as a liasing centre for Council and Board
members and the working groups and commissions of our organization.
Further activities taking place at this moment include the edition of OPTIMA Newsletter
and the updating of the OPTIMA Website. A membership database that can be consulted
through the OPTIMA Website is also in preparation.
DEATHS
Prof. Dr. Clara Heyn, Jerusalem, Israel, died on 27.12.1998 at the age of 74.
Prof. Dr. Karl Heinz Rechinger, Vienna, Austria, died on 30.12.1998 at the age of 92.
Full obituaries of these two prominent OPTIMA members will be published in the next
volume of Flora Mediterranea.
Updates on Commissions
Commission for the Diffusion of Knowledge on Mediterranean
Plants
Significant progress has been made in the compilation of the book on "The Vegetal
Landscapes of the Mediterranean". The chapters on France, Corsica, Italy, Sardinia,
Turkey and Israel and Jordan have been submitted and distributed among the Commission
members for editorial review. The chapters on Spain, Syria-Lebanon and Sicily are under
preparation. Contributors are still being sought for the chapters on The Balkans, Cyprus
and North Africa.
In 1999, we expect to fill in the gaps, write and edit the chapters of the General
Introduction and compile the relevant illustrations and maps.
For further information, please contact: Prof. Uzi Plitmann, Department of Botany, The
Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel. E-mail:
uzi@vms.
huji.ac.il
Herbarium Mediterraneum Commission
The activities of the members of the Herbarium Mediterraneum Commission are
concentrated in the Scientific Committee of the International Foundation Pro Herbario
Mediterraneo.
On the publishing front, Flora Mediterranea vol. 8, and Bocconea vols. 8
and 9 were published and funded by the Foundation in 1998. In addition, the Foundation
also subsidised the printing of "La collezione algologica storica dell’Erbario
mediterraneo" by B.M. Ferreri in the journal Naturalista siciliano. For 1999,
several volumes of Bocconea are expected to be published including the results of
the Itinera Mediterranea in Sicily and Cyprus, the catalogue of vascular plants of
Northern Morocco, and the Proceedings of the IX OPTIMA Meeting. Volume 9 of Flora
Mediterranea will also be published at the end of this year.
The Scientific Committee evaluated the applications for the two six-month study and
research grants, at the Herbarium Mediterraneum in Palermo, to be awarded to
graduates in biology/natural sciences, specialised in plant taxonomy/phytogeography and
residents in North African or Eastern European countries. Upon thorough consideration, the
Scientific Committee decided to award one grant to B. Tahiri (Morocco) and the second
grant is to be shared by E. Kozuharova and D. Uzunov (Bulgaria).
With regard to the herbarium collection, the computerisation of the c. 350.000
specimens (cryptogams included) will be undertaken in 1999.
Commission for Karyosystematics
The publication of the column "Mediterranean Chromosome Number Reports" in Flora
Mediterranea for the eighth successive year was both fruitful and rewarding. 126 new
reports (no. 899-1025) were added from eight different countries or regions, namely
Bulgaria, the Caucasus, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.
With regard to the project for the creation of a karyosystematic database for
Mediterranean chromosome records, so far progress is being achieved through the creation
of several karyological databases in different countries. These databases urgently need to
be coordinated and standardized. The frame of Euro + Med Plant Base may be helpful in this
respect.
FREE OPTIMA MEMBERSHIP
AND BOCCONEA VOLUMES
Through an agreement with the
Herbarium Mediterraneum Foundation it is now possible to pay OPTIMA membership fees or to
purchase volumes of Bocconea by sending herbarium specimens to the Herbarium
Mediterraneum in Palermo. This offer will be in effect from now on and will be regulated
as follows:
- Only specimens from the following areas are acceptable: peri-Mediterranean countries
(except Italy and France), plus Portugal and Bulgaria, the Atlantic Islands (Macaronesia),
and the domain of Boissier's "Flora Orientalis" (in particular the Middle East,
Transcaucasia and the Crimea). Normally, material from the country of residence (if part
of this area) will be given preference.
- The herbarium specimens must be in good condition and contain complete information with
readable, durable labels. Specimens must come, save prior written agreement, from the
participant’s country of residence. The Herbarium Mediterraneum reserves the right to
return specimens judged to be of insufficient quality.
- Each herbarium specimen will be worth 1.67 SFr. Each delivery will consist of a minimum
of 15 herbarium sheets. When a group of botanists from the same institution plan to send
herbarium specimens, a joint delivery is preferable.
- Each collaborator will include a copy of the enclosed form specifying his/her name, the
number of herbarium specimens sent, the credit earned and whether they wish to use it to
pay OPTIMA membership fees or to purchase Bocconea volumes.
- The package containing the herbarium specimens and the letter will be sent to: Prof. F.
Raimondo, Dipartimento di Scienze Botaniche dell'Università, Via Archirafi 38, I-90123
Palermo, Italy.
- Postage costs will be refunded to the senders by the Herbarium Mediterraneum.
- At the end of each year, the Herbarium Mediterraneum will transfer the sum of OPTIMA
membership fees earned by participants during the year to OPTIMA.
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Form to be included with the delivery of herbarium specimens. One
form per participant.
Name: ______________________________________________________
Institution: __________________________________________________
Address: _____________________________________________________
Nº of herbarium specimens ( ) x 1.67 SFr / specimen = ___________ SFr.
of credit.
I wish to use this credit to pay my OPTIMA membership fees (25.-SFr /
year): _______ years of membership
I wish to purchase a copy of Bocconea vol. _____ at the OPTIMA
member reduced price (see prices at the beginning of OPTIMA Newsletter)
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CONSERVATION NEWS
Completion
of the Seed Collection Project of Turkish Endemics
by TUNA EKIM
This project, supported by the government
though TÜBITAK (Turkish Scientific Research Council), started in 1992 and aimed to
collect seeds of endemic plants of Turkey. About 30 researchers from 16 different
universities participated in the project.
As mentioned in OPTIMA Newsletter nº 31,
several new species were found in the first phase of the collection period and some very
interesting collections were carried out for some plant species which were known only from
the type or which had not been collected for a long time.
At the end of the field work, the western
part of the country had been studied quite intensively, but only a limited area of eastern
Turkey could be examined due to terrorism. Seeds of 1771 taxa belonging to 1622 species
were collected and 518 taxa belonging to 498 species were gained as flowering material. In
all, 2120 endemic plant species were gathered. Numerous non-endemic specimens were also
collected. One new genus (Ekimia), thirty new species and three new records for
Turkey were found.
The seeds are kept mainly at the Menemen
Gene Bank, which belongs to the Ministry of Agriculture. Plant specimens are deposited
mostly in local herbaria in the institutions where the researchers work. Detailed computer
data are kept in the project center, GAZI Herb. A duplicate will be given to the
Biological Information Center (Abant Izzet Baysal Ün.) in the near future.
At the end of the project 62 endemic plant
species, which had previously been considered by the "Flora of Turkey and East
Aegean Islands" and other floristic research records as I (indeterminate) and K
(insufficiently known) under the IUCN categories, were collected. Numerous taxa which had
been known only from type gathering were collected for the second time.
Network of
Mediterranean Seedbanks
by JOSE M. IRIONDO
At the meeting of the OPTIMA
Commission for the Conservation of Plant Resources held in Paris in May 1998, the need for
better cooperation and co-ordination among Mediterranean seedbanks was observed and it was
accorded that the Commission should promote the creation of a network of Mediterranean
seedbanks. The need for such an initiative has also been mentioned in other Mediterranean
fora such as the IUCN Mediterranean Islands Plant Specialist Group or the Symposium on
Threatened Plant Conservation in the Western Mediterranean Region held in Madrid in
January 1999.
Some of the possible benefits of the
creation of a network of seedbanks could be:
- the exchange of technical information on seed preservation.
- the publication of a practical technical guide to help the
establishment of new seedbanks or the creation of a listserver for the same purpose.
- the standardization of seedbank information management.
- global assessment of current holdings in the seedbanks and
needs or gaps for further collection.
- the coordination of seed collecting expeditions.
- the establishment of agreements between seedbanks for the
storage of duplicate collections.
- the creation of a common database on legislation pertinent
to seed collection, storage and distribution in Mediterranean countries.
- the development of a forum to discuss critical issues such
as the policy of accessibility to the collections from public and private sectors.
The purpose of this message is to contact
all Mediterranean seedbanks dedicated to the conservation of wild plants and to gather
information on what the expectations for a Mediterranean seedbank network are. If you are
interested in participating in this initiative please contact and send your opinion to:
Jose M. Iriondo. Dpto. Biología Vegetal. EUIT Agrícola, Universidad
Politécnica, E-28040 Madrid, Spain; E-mail:
iriondo@ccupm.upm.es.
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FUNGI NEWS
Projects of the New Optima Commission on Fungi
by SILVANO ONOFRI & GIUSEPPE VENTURELLA
The OPTIMA Commission on fungi was established during the last OPTIMA
meeting in Paris (May 1998), for promoting and developing research on different
mycological topics such as: biodiversity and conservation, species monitoring and mapping,
elaboration of occurrence-distribution data and red-lists, systematics and phylogeny of
taxa of special interest, ecology of fungal communities, ecophysiology, symbioses and
host-plant interactions, population genetics and speciation processes, potential use /
exploitation of selected species for mushroom cultivation, bioremediation of
agro-industrial waste/residue, fodder production, etc.
At the Planta Europa Meeting in Uppsala (June 1998), it was recommended
to increase attention and activities dealing with conservation of the cryptogams,
including fungi. Therefore, the first activity of the Commission will deal with the
proposal and execution of a specific project on the "Compilation of a Checklist of
Fungi in Mediterranean Countries", starting in Italy, France, Spain and Greece.
The project will be executed according to the following schedule:
- Meeting of interested scientists and representatives from amateur associations
- Selection of the research group
- Preparation of the detailed program and its submission for financial support
- Bibliographical search to sort out records of fungal species of the Mediterranean
countries (separately for each country)
- Collection of data from professional and amateur mycologists
- Compilation of national fungi lists
- Verification of synonymies, authority, validity and priority of each fungal name
- Preparation of an on-line database
- Publication of the checklist (on paper).
The compilation of the checklist is now partially funded by the Italian
Ministry for Scientific and Technological Research, within the Italian national program on
"Cryptogams as biomonitors in terrestrial ecosystems", coordinated by P.L.
Nimis. The compilation of the Italian checklist started, following the layout used for the
Med-Checklist of Mediterranean Lichens. The data on fungal species, or infraspecific taxa,
currently include: name, author, reference, synonym(s) and references of Italian records
for each different region.
A meeting of the OPTIMA Commission, broadened to experienced
mycologists from Mediterranean Countries, will be held in Palermo, in order to designate
Regional coordinators.
A second project will deal with the mapping of Mediterranean Fungal
species. Representatives of CEMM (Confederatio Europaea Mycologiae Mediterraneensis), ECCF
(European Council for Conservation of Fungi) and SBI (Italian Botanical Society) attended
a meeting on the checklisting and mapping of fungal species, held in Pisa on February
17th, 1999. During this meeting it was proposed to combine the two lists which the Italian
Botanical Society (Working Group on Mycology) and the CEMM are working on. The resulting
list is as follows:
Amanita caesarea (Scop. : Fr.) Pers.
Amanita phalloides (Fr. : Fr.) Link
Amanita porphyria (Albertini & Schweiniz : Fr.) Mlady
Auricularia auricula-judae (Bull.) Wettnestein
Auriscalpium vulgare S. F. Gray
Boletus aereus Bull. : Fr.
Boletus impolitus Fr.
Boletus satanas Lenz
Chroogomphus fulmineus (Heim) Courtecuisse
Cortinarius aleuriosmus Maire
Cortinarius bulliardi (Pers. : Fr.) Fr.
Cortinarius croceocoeruleus (Pers. : Fr.) Fr.
Cortinarius ionochlorus R. Maire
Cortinarius orellanus Fr.
Cortinarius suaveolens Bataille & Joachim
Cortinarius trivialis J.E. Lange
Entoloma bloxami (Berk. & Br.) Sacc. (= E. madidum Fr. ss. auct.)
Entoloma lividoalbum (Kühner & Romagn.) Kubika
Entoloma sinuatum (Bull. Ex Pers. : Fr.) Kummer (=E. lividum ss.auct.)
Fistulina hepatica (J. C. Schaeffer : Fr.) With.
Gomphus clavatus (Pers. : Fr.) S. F. Gray
Gyroporus castaneus (Bull. : Fr.) Quélet
Hebeloma radicosum (Bull. : Fr.) Ricken
Hebeloma sarcophyllum (Peck) Sacc.
Helvella crispa (Scop. : Fr.) Fr.
Hydnellum zonatum (Batsch) P. Karsten (= H. concrescens (Pers.) Banker)
Hygrophorus latitabundus Britzelmayr (=H. limacinus ss.auct.)
Hygrophorus marzuolus (Fr. : Fr.) Bresadola
Hygrophorus nemoreus (Pers. : Fr.) Fr.
Hygrophorus penarius Fr.
Hygrophorus personii Arnolds (= H. dichrous Kühner & Romagn.)
Hygrophorus roseodiscoideus Bon & Chevassut
Hygrophorus russula (Fr. : Fr.) Quél.
Hymenochaete cruenta (Pers. : Fr.) Donk
Inocybe asterospora Quél.
Inocybe bongardii (Weinm.) Quél. (incl. var. pisciodora (Donad. & Riouss.)
Kuyper)
Lactarius atlanticus Bon (incl. f. strigipes Bon)
Lactarius chrysorrheus Fr.
Lactarius ilicis Sarnari (= L. curtus ss.auct.)
Lactarius mediterraneensis Llistosella & Bellù
Lactarius necator (Bull. : Fr.) Karsten.
Leccinum lepidum (Bouchet in Essette) Quadraccia
Marasmius alliaceus (Jacq. : Fr.) Fr.
Mycena pelianthina (Fr. : Fr.) Quélet
Omphalotus olearius (DC. : Fr.) Fayod
Phallus impudicus L. : Pers.
Phylloporus rhodoxanthus (Schweiniz) Bresadola subsp. europaeus Singer
Pisolithus arhizos (Scop.) Rauschert
Pseudohydnum gelatinosum (Scop. : Fr.) P. Karsten
Pycnoporus cinnabarinus (Jacq. : Fr.) P. Karsten
Rozites caperatus (Pers. : Fr.) P. Karsten
Russula acrifolia Romagn.
Russula rubroalba (Singer) Romagn.
Russula seperina Dupain
Russula virescens (Schaeff.) Fr.
Strobilomyces strobilaceus (Scop. : Fr.) Berk.
Suillus bovinus (L. : Fr.) O. Kuntze
Tremiscus helvelloides (DC. : Fr.) Donk
Tricholoma acerbum (Bull.:Fr.) Quél.
Tricholoma aurantium (Schaeff.:Fr.) Ricken
Tricholoma bresadolanum Clemençon
Tricholoma equestre (L.:Fr.) Kummer (= T. flavovirens ss. auct = T. auratum ss.
auct.)
Tricholoma squarrulosum Bres.
Tuber aestivum Vittadini
Tuber rufum Pico : Fr.
Verpa digitaliformis (Müll. : Fr.) Swartz
This list of 66 species will be used to start the mapping of Fungal
species of Mediterranean countries. During the meeting on "Mapping grid systems"
(May 1998) it was stated that all European mapping programs should adopt a common
Chorological Grid Reference System (CGRS) based on UTM and MGRS (Military Grid Reference
System).
The basic concept is similar to the grid systems used so far: the grid
cells are 50x50 square kilometers; as an exception cells of a different size are at the
boundaries of the six-degree wide longitudinal zones.
All projects will adopt the CGRS for further mapping, and try to
convert their existing data to it. Thus, this common reference grid will also need to be
used for fungal data.
According to the resolutions made during the last Planta Europa Meeting
(Uppsala, Sweden), the OPTIMA Commission on Fungi will also be involved in: encouraging
nature conservation organizations to employ cryptogamic botanists to facilitate the
conservation of cryptogams; amalgamating the national checklists on fungi in a European
checklist, with an indication of the distribution of each species; encouraging the
publication of Red-lists and the production of popular publications to promote
conservation and raise the status of fungi; including selected threatened fungi on
Appendix 1 of the Bern Convention and Annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive.
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HERBARIUM
NEWS
edited by PALOMA BLANCO
Please send all items suitable for publication under this heading
directly to the editor of this column: Paloma Blanco, Real Jardín Botánico, Plaza de
Murillo, 2, E-28014 Madrid, Spain.
The Spanish
Bryophyte Herbaria
by FRANCISCO LARA
The earliest bryological activity in Spain dates from the 18th century. During the 19th
century, several collections were made in different parts of the country (Casas et al.
1995, Sérgio et al. 1994). But it was not until the early 20th century that a
prominent Spanish bryologist emerged: Antonio Casares Gil. His relevant work served as a
reference for many decades, and his unfinished Flora Ibérica, Briófitas
(Casares-Gil, 1919 and 1932) is still today the only Spanish bryoflora. During the second
quarter of the century, bryological work in Spain was carried out by botanists Pierre and
Valentine Allorge (Casas, 1982; Heras & Infante, 1997), whose activity was plentiful.
The second half of the century has been marked by the work of Creu Casas, pioneer of
present Spanish bryology. Apart from her intense bryological production, she has helped
and encouraged most of the approximately twenty Spanish bryological research groups which
are currently active.
In the last decades, Spanish bryology seems to be in good health (Ros et al.
1996). The Sociedad Española de Briología now has 70 members, including a large
number of young Spanish bryologists. In addition to the individual collecting efforts of
each research team, periodical meetings (Reuniones Briológicas), aimed at
collecting and studying less known areas, have been held since 1969. In 1998, thanks to
the financial aid of the Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior (DGES) of the
Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, a great bryological project that will
culminate with the publishing of the Iberian Bryophyte Flora was started. At this moment,
new or little known areas are being explored as a first phase of the project.
There are bryophyte herbaria all over the country, in consonance with the distribution
of the research teams. We have tried to include the main bryophyte collections in the
following list, but it is not exhaustive. Information has been gathered in most cases
through contact with the different herbarium curators and owners, who kindly filled out a
questionnaire with the needed data.
Institutional herbaria are indicated by their Index Herbariorum acronyms and
private herbaria by names or abbreviations used by their owners.
- ARAN (Sociedad de Ciencias Aranzadi). Started in 1982, it holds 2500
sheets of bryophytes, mainly collected by I. Aizpuru from Guipuzcoa and northwestern
Navarra (North Spain). This collection is now deposited in the Museo de Ciencias Naturales
de Álava, Siervas de Jesús, 24, E-01001 Vitoria. Keeper: Patxi Heras (see VIT).
- BCB (Unitat de Botánica, Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma
de Barcelona, Bellaterra). Started in 1944, it is the largest Spanish herbarium, holding
50.200 bryophyte sheets (approximately 40.000 mosses and 10.000 hepatics). It contains
several exsiccatae and four type specimens. The best represented areas are Catalonia, the
Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic islands. The principal collectors are C. Casas, M.
Brugués and R.M. Cros. Relevant collections include P. Seró and J. Vives herbaria and
exchange collections (Societé d'Exchange des Muscinées, Brioteca Hispánica). Keeper:
Creu Casas. E-mail: rmcros@einstein.uab.es, phone: 34 93 5811989. Botánica,
Facultat de Ciències, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra.
- BCC (Facultat de Biología, Universitat de Barcelona). Started in 1920,
it holds approximately 5.000 numbered sheets of bryophytes (77% mosses and 23% hepatics),
mainly collected by I. Álvaro from Catalonia. Keeper: Antonio Sánchez. E-mail: herbari.bcc@
d3.ub.es, phone: 34 93 4021571. Departament de Biologia Vegetal (Botànica), Avda.
Diagonal 645, E-08028, Barcelona.
- BIO (Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad del País Vasco). Started in
1985, it contains close to 2.000 sheets of bryophytes, collected mainly by M. Infante from
Macizo del Gorbea (Basque region). This collection is now deposited in Museo de Ciencias
Naturales de Álava, Siervas de Jesús, 24, E-01001 Vitoria. Keeper: Patxi Heras (see
VIT).
- FCO-Briof. (Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología de
Organismos y Sistemas, Universidad de Oviedo). Started in 1970, it holds over 2.200
numbered sheets of bryophytes, with a collection of P. Allorge (Bryotheca Iberica
1-250). The northwestern Iberian Peninsula is the best represented area. The main
collectors are R. M. Simó, M. C. Fernández Ordóñez and E. Vigón. Keeper: María
Carmen Fernández Ordóñez. E-mail: mcfernan@sci.cpd.uniovi.es, phone: 34 985
104786. Departamento de Biología de Organismos y Sistemas, Catedrático Rodrigo Uría,
E-33006 Oviedo.
- GDAC (Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología Vegetal,
Universidad de Granada). Started in 1960, it keeps round 5.500 sheets of mosses and 1.000
sheets of hepatics, mainly from Andalusia. The principal collectors are J. A. Gil, J. Varo
and M. L. Zafra. Keeper: J. Eduardo Linares Cuesta. E-mail: elinares@goliat.ugr.es
, phone: 34 958 246329. Departamento de Biología Vegetal (Botánica), E-18071 Granada.
Herbarium information available at
http://www.ugr.es/~herbario
- IBA (Instituto Asturiano de Taxonomía y Ecología Vegetal,
Pravia). Started in 1986, it holds over 8.000 sheets of mosses from
Northern Spain, South America and Morocco, mainly collected by J. Muñoz. Grimmiaceae
is the best represented family. It contains over ten type specimens and seven exsiccatae.
Keeper: Jesús Muñoz. E-mail: jmunoz@ma-rjb.csic.es, phone: 34 91 4203017.
- JACA (Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología, Jaca). Started in 1967, it
contains 500 sheets of bryophytes from montane and subalpine Pyrenean woods, mainly
collected by P. Monserrat. Only a part of the material in this collection has been
identified. Keeper: Daniel Gómez. E-mail: ipegg15@fresno.csic.es, phone: 34 974
361441. Apartado de correos 64, E-22700 Jaca, Huesca.
- LEB (Facultad de Biología, Universidad de León). Started in 1980, it
holds over 1.000 sheets of bryophytes, mainly saxicolous mosses from León province and
surroundings collected by B. Llamas. Keeper: Elena de Paz Canuria. E-mail: dbvepc@
isidoro.unileon.es. Departamento de Biología Vegetal (Botánica), Campus de Vegazana
s/n, E-24071 León.
- MA (Real Jardín Botánico, Madrid). Started in 1755, it holds over
17.000 bryophyte sheets (14.121 in MA-Musci and 2.867 in Ma-Hepat), mainly from the
Iberian Peninsula. It contains several type-specimens and exsiccatae. Important historical
collectors are Antonio Casares Gil Emilio Guinea, Mariano Lagasca and Simon de Rojas
Clemente. Keeper: Francisco Pando. E-mail: pando@ma-rjb.csic.es, phone: 34 91
4203017. Plaza de Murillo 2, E-28014 Madrid. Herbarium information available at
http://www.rjb.csic.es/colecciones/herbario/crypto.htm
- MACB (Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid).
Started in 1964, it keeps over 3500 sheets of bryophytes (data not updated). Important
collectors are M.E. Ron, C. Casas and especially E. Fuertes. Keeper: María Andrea
Carrasco. E-mail: carrasco@eucmax.sim.ucm.es, phone: 34 91 3944781. Departamento de
Biología Vegetal I, Ciudad Universitaria, E-28040 Madrid. Not available for loan.
- MAF (Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Started
in 1893, it contains 2.400 sheets of bryophytes, mainly from the Iberian Peninsula. It
holds some historical collections and exsiccatae (non catalogued and not available for
loan): B. Lázaro Ibiza (including C. Baenitz and C. Touton), D. Dietrich, J. C. Vives (Bryotheca
Catalonica, 1-X-1969), Herbarium Vertizaranenense (61 numbers). Keeper: José
Pizarro, E-mail: mafherb@eucmax.sim.ucm.es, phone +34 91 3941769. Departamento de
Biología Vegetal II, Plaza de Ramón y Cajal s/n, E-28040 Madrid.
- MGC (Departamento de Biología Vegetal, Universidad de Málaga).
Started in 1972, it contains 1300 sheets of bryophytes, mostly from Málaga and Cádiz
(Andalusia), mainly collected by J. Guerra. Keeper: F. David Navas. E-mail: abm@uma.es,
phone 34 952 133342. Apartado 59, E-29080 Málaga. Herbarium information available at
http://www.uma.es/Estudios/Departamentos/BiolVeg/00Indice.html
- MUB (Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia). Started in 1981, it
holds over 8.000 sheets of bryophytes, mainly Mediterranean terricolous mosses, especially
from southeastern Spain and Morocco. The principal collectors are J. Guerra, R. M. Ros and
M. J. Cano. Over 10 type specimens. Keepers: Rosa M. Ros and María Angeles Caravaca.
E-mail: rmros@fcu.um.es, phone: 34 968 364989. Departamento de Biología Vegetal,
Campus de Espinardo, E-30100 Murcia.
- PAMP (Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Navarra). Started in 1970,
it holds over 6.100 sheets of mosses and 1.200 sheets of hepatics, chiefly from beech and
oak forests of the Navarra province (North Spain). The main collectors are A. Ederra, A.
de Miguel, E. Fuertes and J. Martínez Abaigar. Keeper: Alicia Ederra. E-mail: aederra@
unav.es, phone: 34 948 425600. Departamento de Botánica, Irunlarrea s/n, E-31071
Pamplona.
- SALA-BRYO (Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Salamanca). Started in
1983, it holds 3.200 sheets of mosses and 1.600 sheets of hepatics. The Salamanca province
and central-western Spain are the best represented areas. The principal collectors are M.
J. Elías and J. M. García de las Heras. Keeper: María Jesús Elías. E-mail: mjelias@
gugu.usal.es, phone: 34 923 294400 ext. 1569. Departamento de Botánica, Campus Miguel
Unamuno, E-37007 Salamanca.
- SANT-bryo (Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de Santiago). Started in
1979, it holds 3.150 sheets of bryophytes, mainly from northwestern Spain, with a well
represented flora from litoral, atlantic woods and mires. The principal collectors are J.
Reinoso, M.C. Viera, J. Otero, G. Paz and A. García. Keeper: Juan Reinoso. E-mail: bvreinos@
uscmail.usc.es, phone: 34 981 563100 (ext. 13263). Departamento de Botánica, E-15706
Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña.
- TFC-Bry (Facultad de Biología, Universidad de La Laguna). Started in
1971, it holds over 10.000 sheets of bryophytes, mainly from the Canary Islands, the
Azores and the Iberian Peninsula. The best represented floras are those from laurel
forests, historical and recent lavas, volcanic caves and tubes. The principal collectors
are A. Losada Lima, J. M. González Mancebo, C. D. Hernández and E. Beltrán. Keeper: Ana
Losada Lima. E-mail: alosada@ull.es, phone: 34 922 318438-39. Departamento de
Botánica, E-38271 La Laguna, Tenerife.
- VAB-BRIOF (Facultat de Ciències Biològiques, Universitat de
València). Started in 1976, it contains 3.201 sheets of mosses and 900 sheets of hepatics
and anthocerotae. The central-eastern Iberian Peninsula is the best represented area and Pottiaceae
is the most important family of this collection. It has one type specimen. The main
collectors are F. Puche, C. Gimeno, J. G. Segarra and J. J. Herrero-Borgoñon. Keeper:
Felisa Puche. E-mail: puche@uv.es, phone: 34 96 3864633. Facultad de Ciencias
Biológicas, Biología Vegetal-Botánica, c/ Dr. Moliner 50, E-46100 Burjasot, Valencia.
- VIT (Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Álava, Brioteca). Started in 1978,
this is one of the most important Spanish collections, holding 26.000 sheets of
bryophytes. The Basque region and surroundings, the Pyrenees, Continental Equatorial
Guinea, and the Venezuelean Andes are the areas best represented. It has one type
specimen. Bauer Musci Europaei Exsiccatae and Brioteca Hispánica. The material was
mainly collected by P. Heras and M. Infante. Keeper: Patxi Heras. E-mail: bazzania@arrakis.es,
phone: 34 945 181924. Siervas de Jesús, 24, E- 01001 Vitoria.
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS
- BRIO-LU (Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Facultad de
Veterinaria, pabellón II, planta baja, Campus de Lugo, E- 27002 Lugo). Started in 1993,
it keeps 250 sheets of mosses and 50 sheets of hepatics from Extremadura and Galicia
regions, collected by M. C. Viera. Keeper: María Carmen Viera. E-mail: bvcviera@correo.
lugo.usc.es, phone: 34 982 252231 ext. 22435.
- Herbario de Aragón (Monasterio de Cogullada, Cogullada, Zaragoza). The
library of this monastery lodges the historical herbarium of Francisco Loscos y Bernal
(1823-1886), with 99 sheets of mosses and 20 sheets of hepatics. This collection has
recently been revised by Casas et al. (1995).
- Instituto Nacional de Bachillerato "Práxedes Mateo Sagasta"
(Glorieta del Doctor Zubía s/n, E-26001 Logroño). Started in 1870, it contains only a
part of the herbarium of Ildefonso Zubía Icazuriaga (1819-1891) with 40 sheets (35 mosses
and 5 hepatics) from La Rioja province. It has no keeper, but information is available
from J. M. Abaigar (University of La Rioja), E-mail: javier. martinez@daa.unirioja.es.
Available for loan. The remainder Zubia’s collection is in MA and MAF
(Martínez-Abaigar & Núñez-Olivera, 1996).
- Javier Martínez-Abaigar (Universidad de la Rioja, Avda. de la Paz 105,
E-26004 Logroño). Started in 1985, it holds over 3.000 sheets of mosses and 1.000 sheets
of hepatics, mostly from La Rioja (North Spain). The main collectors are J.
Martínez-Abaigar, E. Nuñez-Olivera and A. García-Álvaro. E-mail: javier.martinez@daa.unirioja.
es, phone: 34 941 299276. Available for loan.
- Margarita Acón (Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias,
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, E-28049 Madrid). A personal herbarium started in 1970, it
contains over 800 sheets of Iberian bryophytes collected by the owner. Phone: 34 91
3978101. Not available for loan.
- Rosario García Gómez (Universidad de La Rioja, Avda. de la Paz 105,
E-26004 Logroño). Started in 1980, it contains over 1.500 sheets of mosses and 500 sheets
of hepatics, mainly from La Rioja (North Spain), collected by R. García Gómez and M. C.
de Lemus. E-mail: rosario.garcia@daa. unirioja.es, phone: 34 941 299281. Available
for loan.
- Rosario Oliva Álvaro (Avda. Conde de Vallellano 8, 14004 Córdoba).
Initiated in 1975, this important private herbarium is comprised of over 5.000 sheets of
mosses (ROM collection) and 5.000 sheets of hepatics and anthocerotae (ROH collection),
mainly collected by the owner in Andalucia and other parts of the Spanish Mediterranean
area. The best represented groups are Ricciaceae, Pottiaceae and epiphytic
bryophytes. phone: 34 957 232510. Available for loan.
- Seoane (López Seoane Family, Casa Grande, Cabans, A Coruña) Victor
López Seoane and Ragnar Hult' collection, which is comprised of 89 sheets of mosses and
31 sheets of hepatics. It has recently been revised by Carballal et al. (1991). It
has no keeper, but information is available from M. C. Viera (Univ. Santiago, Lugo),
E-mail: bvcviera@correo.lugo.usc.es. Not available for loan due to the precarious
state of the material.
- Vicente Mazimpaka (Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias,
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, E-28049 Madrid). Started in 1986, it holds over 4.000
sheets of bryophytes, especially Mediterranean epiphytic bryophytes. The main collectors
are V. Mazimpaka, F. Lara, R. Garilleti and B. Albertos. Central Spain, the northwestern
Iberian Peninsula, Morocco and Sicily are the best represented areas. A section of this
herbarium is devoted to the Orthotrichaceae family, the best represented group. It
has seven type specimens. E-mails: vicente.mazimpaka@uam.es, and francisco.
lara@uam.es, phone: 34 91 3978104. Available for loan.
REFERENCES
Casares-Gil, A. (1919) Flora Ibérica. Briófitas (primera parte); hepáticas.
Madrid.
Casares-Gil, A. (1932) Flora Ibérica. Briófitas (segunda parte); musgos.
Madrid.
Casas, C. (1982) Valentine Allorge (1888-1977). Su contribución a la brioflora
española. Acta Botánica Malacitana 7: 39-44.
Casas, C.; Cros, R.M. & Brugués, M. (1995) Loscos y la briología española. Anales
Jard. Bot. Madrid 53: 163-169.
Heras, P. & Infante, M. (1997) El matrimonio Allorge en la Comunidad Autónoma
Vasca. Naturzale 12: 149-166.
Martínez-Abaigar, J. & Núñez-Olivera, E. (1996) The bryological work of
Ildefonso Zubía Icazuriaga (1819-1891) in northern Spain. Nova Hedwigia 62:
255-266.
Carballal, R.; Fraga, X.A.; García, A. & Reinoso, J. (1991) A colección de
musgos, hepáticas e liques de López Seoane e Hult. Pub. Área Ciencias Biolóxicas,
Seminario Estudos Galegos. Ediciós do Castro. A Coruña.
Ros, R.M.; Guerra, J. & Casas, C. (1996) Bryological advances in Spain (1983-1992).
Bocconea 5: 325-334.
Sérgio, C.; Casas, C.; Brugués, M. & Cros, R.M. (1994) Lista vermelha dos
briófitos da península Ibérica. Instituto da Conservaçao da Naturaleza &
Museu, laboratorio e Jardim Botânico, Universidade de Lisboa. Lisboa.
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WEB NEWS
edited by Jose M. Iriondo
In this section we will report on internet addresses with information
relevant to botany in general, with a special emphasis on the Mediterranean Area.
Cartographic Links for Botanists
Interested in the chorology of plants? Resolved to
map the location of the plant populations studied? Eager to know more about the latest
cartographic techniques? Then, you may very well spend some time visiting Cartographic
Links for Botanists compiled by Raino Lampinen at the Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum
of Natural History at
http://www.helsinki.fi/
kmus/cartogr.html. This web page holds a very interesting collection of cartographic
links neatly structured in 14 sections. Saved in your navigator’s favorites button,
this web page can give you quick access to Internet sites with online plant distribution
maps, and/or information on plant distribution mapping projects. In addition, you will get
direct links to the fascinating world of digital mapping. Thus, sections on Geographical
Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) are provided along with links
to free digital datasets, interactive maps, map collections, mapping programs and national
mapping agencies among others.
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PROJECTS
Cooperation
in Genus Gagea For over a decade I have been dealing with
taxonomic issues on the genus Gagea. I have studied the wild taxa in Eastern Europe
and Central and Northern Asia through extensive field work and have continued this
research in a large living collection. Analysis of ontogenetical development and
morphogenesis of over 150 species enabled me to detect an astonishing number of new,
interesting and reliable characters which had not been recognised earlier. Many taxa from
the studied areas turned out to be new. Now I cannot avoid accepting at least 250 species
in the genus instead of the formerly believed 75-120.
My investigation has reached a stage where a precise
knowledge of the Gagea taxa from the Mediterranean area seems essential for
forthcoming success. Therefore, I would like to get in contact with botanists interested
in this plant group to exchange living plants or other material for scientific
investigation. I am also interested in direct scientific cooperation and would be willing
to collect materials of boreal taxa of other genera in exchange.
Please contact: Dr. Igor G. Levichev; Herbarium, Komarov
Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Popov Street, 2; 197376
Sankt-Petersburg, Russia. Tel: +7 812 2344512; Fax: +7 812 2348458; E-mail:
levichev@herb.bin.ras.spb.ru
Image
Bank of Flora of the Iberian Peninsula
I am currently working on the creation of an image
bank on the Flora of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) in which a great number of
endemics, especially from southern Spain and Sierra Nevada are included. So far, a total
of 1000 high-quality images (800x600, 300dpi resolution) have been compiled in one CD-ROM.
I am interested in exchanging these images for others of similar features or in offering
them through some agreement among interested parties. Some examples of the image bank can
be observed by visiting at
http://www.arrakis.es/~jahita/.
Please contact Dr. Francisco Pérez Raya by E-mail:
frperez@platon.ugr.es.
Erodium Fruits Wanted!
For the last few years, we have been
studying the reproductive biology and other aspects of population biology of Erodium
paularense Fern. Gonz. & Izco (subsection Petraea), an endangered taxa of
Central Spain. One of the main causes of reproductive failure is the low formation of
viable seeds. In order to compare these results with those of other related species, and
to characterize seed formation in fruits, we are interested in studying mericarps of the
subsection Petraea species. For each species, we would like to obtain samples from
several populations each containing over 100 non-mature -but totally developed- fruits
(schizocarps), preferably from different plants. We are especially interested in the
following species (although fruits from other Erodium species are also welcome):
E. heteradenum (Pau & Font Quer)
Guittonneau
E. cheilantifolium Boiss.
E. glandulosum (Cav.) Willd
E. foetidum (L. & Nath.) L’Hér.
E. rupestre (Pourret) Guittonneau
E. celtibericum Pau
E. crispum Lapeyr.
E. rodiei (Br.-Bl.) Poirion
Any collaboration will be greatly
appreciated. If you wish to participate in this research studying these or related taxa,
please contact: M. J. Albert, A. Escudero and J. M. Iriondo; Dpto. Biología Vegetal,
E.U.I.T. Agrícola. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid; E-28040 Madrid, Spain. E-mail:
iriondo@ccupm.upm.es.
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MEETINGS
Specialists
Discuss the Future of Botanical Information at the Ibc
During the final symposium session of the XVI International Botanical Congress in
St. Louis on Saturday, 7 August 1999, a group of botanists, librarians and archivists will
speak about the critical need to preserve the record of botanical science, both past and
present. The symposium is sponsored by the Council on Botanical and Horticultural
Libraries (CBHL), and co-sponsored by the Historical Section of the Botanical Society of
America.
Speakers will address such issues as the
changing documentary record in botany; the increasing use of electronic information; the
need for botanical documentation; the physical limitations of books, artwork, manuscripts,
maps, computer files and other material found in botanical libraries and archives. They
will also discuss large-scale preservation strategies that have been recently pursued in
several other scientific disciplines, so that botanists can assess the suitability of such
strategies for the plant sciences. Following the symposium, the papers will be published,
and a future meeting may be convened so that the matters raised can be given a fuller
analysis in all botanical disciplines.
Delegates to the IBC are urged to consider
attending these talks.Further information is available at
http://huntbot.andrew.cmu.edu/CBHL/symposium.html or by contacting Malcolm Beasley
<M.Beasley@nhm. ac.uk>, telephone +44 (0) 171 938 8928 (England), or Charlotte
Tancin <ct0u@andrew.cmu.edu>, telephone 412-268-7301 (U.S.).
Malcolm Beasley (The Natural History
Museum, London) and Charlotte Tancin (Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation),
symposium convenors.
Invitation to Join the Yearly
Meeting of Gep
Since 1995 the GEP (Group of
European Pteridologists) has been increasing its contact with colleagues from eastern
Europe. Thus, each year the group invites one pteridologist from one of these countries to
join its meeting, and take part in its excursions. Either travelling expenses or board is
paid. Applications should be sent to: Prof. R. Viane, co-ordinateur générale, Vakgroep
Biologie, K. L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 GENT, BELGIQUE. Tel & Fax: + 32 9 2645057;
E-mail: ronnie.viane@ rug.ac.be.
Depuis 1995 le GEP (Groupe Européen des Ptéridologues) a augmenté
ses contactes avec des collègues des pays de l'Europe de l'Est. Le groupe a le plasir
d'inviter ainsi, chaque année, un(e) ptéridologue d'un de ces pays pour participer à
ses réunions et à ses excursions. Les frais de voyage ou de logement (selon le cas)
seront remboursés. Les candidatures doivent être envoyée au: Prof. R. Viane,
co-ordinateur générale, Vakgroep Biologie, K. L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 GENT,
BELGIQUE. Tel & Fax: + 32 9 2645057; E-mail: ronnie.viane@rug.ac.be
v v v v
Back to CONTENTS
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Coordinated by S. Pajarón and J.M. Iriondo
Please, send your announcements to S. Pajarón, Dpto. Biología
Vegetal I Fac. Biología, Univ. Complutense, Ciudad Universitaria, E-28040 Madrid, Spain.
E-mail:
SPAJBOT@eucmax.sim.ucm.es
7 June – 30 July 1999
Contact: Education Section, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond,
Surrey, TW9 3AB, UK, Tel: (44) 181 332 5623/ 5638; Fax: (44) 181 332 5610; E-mail:
Courses@rbgkew.org.uk;
http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/education/index.html
· · · · ·
20-23 July 1999
This conference aims to bring together researchers and environmental
managers with interests in the full range of Pteridium biology
("brackenology"), including: Genetics, Taxonomy, Phyto-Chemistry, Physiology,
Climate Issues, Bracken-derived risks to animal and human health, Global & Regional
Distribution, Ecology, Remote Sensing and Bracken control measures, policies and
management.
For additional information visit their website at: http://www.
ibgroup.demon.co.uk/Conference.html, or contact: Liz Sheffield, Stopford Bldg, University
of Manchester, Oxford Rd, Manchester M13 9PT, United Kingdom.
· · · · ·
26-30 July 1999
42nd Annual Symposium of the IAVS (International Association
of Vegetation Science – Bilbao, Spain
The main topic of the symposium will be vegetation and climate.
Contact: IAVS99, Depto. de Biología Vegetal y Ecología
(Botánica), UPV/EHU Ap. 644, E-48080 Bilbao, Spain. Tel: (34) 94 4647700 ext. 2394; Fax:
(34) 94 4648500; E-mail:
iavs99@lg.ehu.
es
· · · · ·
1-7 August 1999
XVI International Botanical Congress – St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
The XVI IBC Saint Louis is being organized by the whole North American
botanical community, including botanical, mycological, and ecological societies,
universities, botanical research institutions, and other sponsors.
The XVI International Botanical Congress will provide a forum for the
presentation and discussion of the latest advances in plant sciences among botanists
worldwide.
In the tradition of previous IBCs, the Scientific Program of the XVI IBC
will consist of invited oral presentations in plenary lectures, keynote symposia and
general symposia as well as contributed poster sessions. The Scientific Program will be
subdivided into the following disciplinary areas:
- Botanical Diversity: Systematics and Evolution
- Ecology, Environment, and Conservation
- Structure, development, and cellular Biology
- Genetics and Genomics
- Physiology and Biochemistry
- Human Uses of Plants: Economic Botany and Biotechnology
Any person interested in plant biology is invited to attend the XVI IBC.
The full registration fee will allow attendees admittance to all scientific sessions and
receptions. For more detailed information you can consult the XVI IBC Web site:
http://www.ibc99. org or write to Secretary general, XVI IBC, c/o Missouri Botanical
Garden, P. O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA; Fax: (1) 314-577-9589; E-mail: ibc16@
mobot. org
· · · · ·
7-10 August 1999
Cycad 99
An international conference of cycad enthusiasts, growers and scientists
will be convened at Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami, Florida, USA, August 7-10, 1999.
Sponsors: Fairchil Tropical Garden, Palm Beach Palm and Cycad Society, and the Montgomery
Botanical Center. Participants: all persons interested in the horticulture, conservation
and science of cycads.
Information: For the latest conference information see: www.
ftg.org/research/cycad99.html. To receive registration forms and abstract submission
forms, please send: Name (please print); Mailing address; Phone; FAX; E-mail; By one of
the following methods: a) Electronic mail: cycad99@ ftg.org; b) by FAX (1-305-661-8953)
addressed to: "Attention: Cycad99"; c) or by post: Cycad 99, Fairchild Tropical
Garden, 10901 Old Cutler Rd., Miami, FL 33156, USA.
· · · · ·
9-11 August 1999
VIII International Aroid Conference
The VIII International Aroid Conference, sponsored by the Missouri
Botanical Garden and the International Aroid society, will meet 9-11 August 1999 at
Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri. This is a three-day conference directly
following the XVI International Botanical Congress and will provide a forum for the
presentation and discussion of all aspects of aroid biology, ecology, taxonomy and
horticulture. Over 50 presentations are scheduled and will include discussions of Araceae
in large and small floristic regions, revisionary works of a variety of genera, glimpses
of the best public and private Araceae collections, and descriptions of succesful
horticultural and breeding techniques currently in use. An unlimited number of posters
sessions will also be made available to those who prefer to have their presentations on
display for the duration of the conference.
For more information please consult the web page at: http://
www.mobot.org/IAS/iac99/ or contact: Secretary General, VIII International Aroid
Conference, Missouri Botanical garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299 USA, e-mail:
<croat@ mobot.org> or <bcsogriff@ lehmann.mobot.org>.
· · · · ·
19 August – 13 October 1999
Contact: Education Section, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond,
Surrey, TW9 3AB, UK, Tel: (44) 181 332 5623/ 5638; Fax: (44) 181 332 5610; E-mail:
Courses@rbgkew.org.uk;
http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/education/index.html
· · · · ·
22-25 August 1999
International Conifer Conference 1999
The 4th International conference follows the tradition of the Royal
Horticultural Society in organizing conferences addressing the major developments in
conifers. The conference will be held 22-25 August 1999, Wye College, Kent, England. This
conference is designed to promote maximum interchange of information between all users of
conifers. Keynote sessions will address major subject areas of current interest. The
conference will have a worldwide geographical coverage from the arctic to the tropics.
Main scientific sponsors: Royal Botanic garden, Edinburgh, Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, The Royal Horticultural Society, Forestry Commissions and the International
Dendrology Society. For more information contact: Miss Lisa von Schlippe, The Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE. Tel.: 0181 332 5198, Fax.: 0181 332 5197,
E-mail: L.von. schlippe@rbgkew.org.uk
· · · · ·
16-19 September 1999
V Conference on Plant Taxonomy
The V Conference on Plant Taxonomy will take place 16-19 September 1999
at the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo. It is located in the University of Lisbon
Campus, which is easily reached by bus or subway.
Lisbon is a charming town and has renewed itself in the recent years. It
offers good conditions for the welcoming of the Conference.
The Conference will comprise four non-concurrent sessions (half day
each) with invited lecturers and related poster sessions. The sessions will be: 1.
Taxonomy and Conservation. 2. Methods in Biosystematics. 3. Taxonomy in the Mediterranean
Basin and in Macaronesia. 4. Tropical Taxonomy. Full-day concurrent excursions are planned
for Sunday 19th.
More information can be found at the web page: http://
www.taxonomia.fc.ul.pt, or contacting: Prof. Ana Isabel D. Correia, Museu, Laboratório e
Jardim Botânico, R. da Escola Politécnica, 58, P-1294 Lisboa Codex, Portugal. Tel.: 351
1 392 1800; Fax.: 351 1 397 0882; E-mail: taxbot@fc.ul.pt
· · · · ·
20 -26 September 1999
2nd European Phycological Congress
From September 20-26, 1999 the Second European Phycological Congress
will be held in Montecatini Terme, Italy. This meeting will provide a broad forum for
phycologists (young and established) from all over Europe and overseas to present and to
discuss many fascinating aspects of phycology, from molecular to organismic subjects,
including terrestrial, freshwater and marine habitats. The Congress will take place at the
"Palazzo dei Congressi" of Montecatini Terme.
There will be Plenary Lectures, Symposia and Posters presentations. Some
of the subjects of the Symposia are: - Long-term variations in algal populations; -The
Molecular Species concept; - Systematics and taxonomy of macroalgae; - Algae of the
Mediterranean Sea; - Population genetics a tool for understanding algal diversity.
More information can be found at the web page: http://
www.incor.it/epc99/, or contacting: Prof. Francesco Cinelli, Universitá di Pisa,
dipartimento di Scienze dell'Uomo e dell' Ambiente, via A. Volta 6, I-56100 Pisa, Italy;
Fax.: +39050449694; E-mail: cinelli@discat.unipi.it
· · · · ·
21-25 September 1999
XIII Congress of European Mycologists - Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
The Scientific Programme will include an opening lecture, thirty invited
lectures divided in the four sessions(conservation, systematics/taxonomy, environment,
other topics) and a permanent poster exhibition.
Contact: Administrative Secretariat of the XIII CEM, Fundación
General U.A. – Dpto. de Congresos, Pº de la Estación, 10, E-28807 Alcalá de
Henares (Madrid), Spain. Telephone: +34 91 880 29 11, Fax: + 34 91 880 27 83, E-mail:
congresos@fgua.es,
http://www.fgua.es/Congresos/programm.htm
· · · · ·
22-25 September 1999
XVII Jornadas de Fitosociología "Valuation and Management of
Natural Spaces"
The congress will take place at the University of Jaén 22-25 September
1999.
The human being has traditionally been immersed in the natural
environment, exploiting and conserving the resources in a well-balanced way; today, the
uncontrolled development is causing great damages in the natural ecosystems. Thus, it
seems necessary the evaluation and management of plant communities to get a close relation
between the currently opposed terms of conservation and development. It is obvious the
necessity of improving the knowledge about composition, dynamics and operation of plant
communities, in order to manage a natural space; this is the reason why the vegetation
sciences contributions provide a useful tool to carry out a right valuation and
management.
More information can be found at: www.ujaen.es/info/ congresos/fitosoc,
or contacting: Secretary of the XVII Jornadas de Fitosociología, Departamento de
Biología Animal, Vegetal y Ecología, Universidad de Jaén, E-23071 Jaén (Spain). Tel.:
34 953 212143; Fax.: 34 953 212141; E-mail: fitosoc@ujaen.es
· · · · ·
23-25 September 1999
First International Symposium on Protection of Natural Environment and
Ehrami Karaçam (Pinus nigra L. ssp. pallasiana var. pyramidata)
– Kütahya, Turkey
Symposium topics: Plant taxonomy and vegetation; Plant ecology and
geography; Genetic variation and protection; Monumental trees; Natural environment and its
protection; Plant physiology and anatomy.
Contact: Yrd. Doc. Dr. Hülya Ölçer, Dumlupinar Üniversitesi,
Fen Edbiyat Fakültesi, Biyoloji Bölümü, Merkez Kampüsü, Kütahya, Turkey. Tel: 0542
267 5868. E-mail: holcer@ges.net.tr
· · · · ·
13-16 October 1999
5th International Conference on the Ecology of Invasive Alien Plants
Invasions of plant species have for a long time drawn the attention of
botanists, agronomists and ecologists. Although this resulted in an ever-increasing body
of scientific literature on "invasion biology" we still do not completely
understand all aspects of this process and its impact on ecosystems. This Conference will
be the continuation of a series of meetings that started in 1992 in Loughborough, GB, and
was continued in Kostelec, Czech Republic, in 1993, in Tempe, AZ, USA in 1995 and in
Berlin, Germany, in October 1997. It will offer the chance to continue discussions of its
predecessors and concentrate on issues identified as important during preceding meetings.
We propose the following topics: 1. What makes a plant invasive? 2. How
can the effects (e.g. economic) of plant invasions be assessed? 3. Cost/effect analyses of
control measures; 4. Early warning, risk analyses; 5. Habitats management and trophic
interactions; 6. Policies; 7. Invasive Plants and National Parks, Nature Reserves,
Protected Areas, Botanical Gardens, Historical Gardens, Parks in Town; 8. Invasive Plants
in Mediterranean Agro-Ecosystems; 9. Modelling plant invasions, computer simulations,
Geographical Information Systems and other mechanisms for compiling information: their
uses and misuses.
The Conference will take place at the town of La Maddalena, in the
Italian National Park of "Arcipelago di La Maddalena", in the North-East of
Sardinia. The Archipelago consist of several islands of granitic rocks and La Maddalena is
a pretty and smart little town on the main island of the Archipelago. It offers a range of
different accommodation to suit all budgets.
For more information contact: Dr. Giuseppe Brundu, Dipartimento di
Botanica ed Ecologia Vegetale, Università di Sassari, Via F. Muroni, 25, 07100 Sassari
(Italy). Tel.: 39 0335 237315; Fax.: 39 079 233600; E-mail:
gbrundu@tin.it, gbrundu@box1. tin.it
· · · · ·
20-21 November 1999
Société Française d’Orchidophilie. 30th anniversary.
14th Conference – Paris, France.
The topics of this conference include biology, biogeography, ecology,
protection, preservation, recording of localities, cartography, taxonomy and culture
techniques.
Contact: C. Blanchon, 3 Rue Rouselle, F-92800 Puteaux, France.
· · · · ·
19-22 December 1999
The Symposium will be held 19-22 December 1999, at the Universidad
Complutense de Madrid organised by both the Departments of Plant Biology of the Faculties
of Biology and Pharmacy. The sessions will take place in the Faculty of Pharmacy.
The Symposium will provide a forum for presentation and discussion of
the latest advances in the field of the traditionally named Cryptogamic Botany. Although,
in the origin, these scientific meetings were national in character, it is intended to
increasingly extend the participation to other European scientists, particularly
Portuguese and from the whole Mediterranean Region. The floor is also open to provide the
opportunity of an ordinary meeting of the Scientific Societies related with these
botanical and mycological specialities.
Contact: Dr. Leopoldo G. Sancho, XIII Simposio de Botánica
Criptogámica, Departamento de Biología Vegetal II, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad
Complutense, E-28040 Madrid (Spain). Tel.: 34 91 394 1769; Fax.: 34 91 394 1774; E-mail:
criptoxiii@ eucmax.sim.ucm.es
· · · · ·
22-25 February 2000
XI Iberian Symposium for the Study of the Marine Benthos
The XI Iberian Symposium of the Marine Benthos will be held 22-25
February 2000 at the Universidad de Málaga. The main topic of the Symposium will be:
"Biodiversity of the marine benthos, estate and perspectives". Scientific
biological works related with the benthic environment, especially about the Atlantic Ocean
or the Mediterranean Sea, could be presented either as oral or poster communications. The
presentations will be divided in the following sections: 1. Anatomy and morphology,
taxonomy, systematics and phylogeny; 2. Reproduction, larval development and cultures; 3.
Population and community dynamics; 4. Organic matter flows and trophic organization; 5.
Biogeography, management and conservation of marine systems; 6. Others.
Contact: Secretaría del XI Simposio Ibérico de Estudios de
Bentos Marino. Departamento de Biología Animal, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de
Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, E-29071 Málaga (Spain). Tel.: 34 952 131857; Fax.: 34
952 132000; E-mail:
mecloute@uma.es.
· · · · ·
11-15 September 2000
Ninth International Conference on Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems (MEDECOS
2000) – Stellenbosch, South Africa
Contact: Dave Richardson, ISOMED Secretary, Institute for
Plant Conservation, Botany Department, University of Cape Town, 7701 Rondebsoch, South
Africa; E-mail: medecos@ botzoo.uct.ac.za; http://www.uct. ac.za/depts/ipc/medecos.htm
v v v v
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to CONTENTS
NOTICES OF PUBLICATIONS
by Werner Greuter
Please send all items for review directly to the
author of this column:
Prof. Dr. Werner GREUTER,
Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin-Dahlem
Freie Universität Berlin
Königin-Luise-Straße 6-8
D-14191 Berlin, Germany.
Phone: (+4930) 838-50132 or 8316010, Fax: (+4930) 838-50218
E-mail:
wg@zedat.fu-berlin.de.
Notices of Publication index
Dicotyledones
A. A. MAASSOUMI - Astragalus in the Old World, check-list.
[Islamic Republic of Iran, Ministry of Jahad-e-Sazandegi, Research Institute of Forests
and Rangelands, Publication No. 1998-194.] - Institute of Forests and Rangelands,
[Tehran], 1998 (ISBN 964-473-034-8). [3] + 618 pages, tables, graphs, map; paper. Price:
16,000 Rials.
By numbers of included taxa, Astragalus is likely the largest non-apomictic
genus of plants. The current CD-ROM version of Index kewensis lists 5626 entries under
this generic heading, as compared to 5184 under Senecio and 4003 under Euphorbia
(but over 7000 under Rubus and almost 11,000 under Hieracium). Discounting
the supra- and infraspecific names there are 5206 binomials (including homonyms,
"isonyms" and misapplications) listed under Astragalus.
Maassoumi's checklist has 2530 accepted species, with c. 900 synonyms. 121 of the
species remain unassigned, the remainder being placed in 8 subgenera and 152 sections. An
estimated 500 additional species (93 sections) are confined to the New World and are not
treated here. Providing a first overview of the old-world Astragalus taxa, largely
on the basis of floristic and (where available) monographic literature, was unquestionably
a meritorious undertaking. The present survey is particularly welcome since Astragalus
is the single group not yet covered by Heller & Heyn's Conspectus florae orientalis.
In his introductoy chapters, Maassoumi provides some numerical data on endemism and
centres of diversity which, being the first to be based on a complete and updated
inventory, are of considerable general interest.
This being said, one should also note that Maassoumi's inventory is in many respects
preliminary and of uneven reliability, depending on the state of available information for
the various sections and areas. The nomenclatural treatment is rather disappointing, with
e.g. some illegitimate junior homonyms being adopted with their legitimate replacement
names listed in synonymy (examples being Astragalus nitens and A. melanocarpus)
- which may be partly due to the neglect of relevant literature (with Med-Checklist
conspicuously lacking from the bibliography).
The statistical basis of the numerical treatments (e.g. of the graphs showing species
diversity distribution by major areas, for the larger sections) is ambiguous, principally
because no distributional data are given for the individual species, but also because the
numbering system adopted is inconsistent (recognised subspecies are numbered as if they
were species; but the species name to which they are subordinated is sometimes numbered
and sometimes not). Worse, the percent figures given in these graphs are in most cases
widely erroneous (e.g., in A. sect. Astragalus, with its 46 recognised
species [or 50 numbered taxa], the percents are based on a total of 71 spcies), but
occasionally correct (e.g. in A. sect. Hemiphaca with its 34 species). W.G.
Christoph OBERPRIELER - The systematics of Anthemis L.(Compositae,
Anthemideae) in W and C North Africa. [Bocconea, 9.] - Herbarium
Mediterraneum Panormitanum, Palermo, 1998 (ISBN 88-7915-024-3). 328 pages, black-and-white
illustrations, paper. Price: Lit 70,000.
Oberprieler's PhD thesis deals with the Anthemis taxa of the Maghreb countries,
which is that part of the total area of this genus in which it had been very inadequately
studied so far. The present revision fills this gap. It is based not only on material from
all major herbaria but also on extensive field work in Morocco and Tunisia (Algeria being
presently off limits, unfortunately, for botanical exploration) and on cultivated progeny
from the newly collected material.
North Africa was known to host some very difficult and ill understood Anthemis
complexes. To study them, Oberprieler has used an impressive range of methods of
investigation, from classical morphology through fruit anatomy, palynology and karyology
to molecular genetics (RAPDs). Morphometric studies with statistical (principal component)
analysis provided a supplementary means to assess the taxonomic groups and their
classification. However, the adopted treatment does not slavishly follow the numbers and
graphs resulting from numerical analysis, but take into account considerations of
phytogeography and chorogensis as well as qualitative features not readily accessible to
statistical interpretation.
As a result, the delimitation, arrangement and interpretation of taxa that is being
proposed looks convincing and well founded, even though Oberprieler does not deny the
possibility of divergent interpretation of the observed facts.
There are 25 recognised Anthemis species growing in the area, one of which is
described as new to science, same as two subspecies. Several new combinations and rank
transfers are proposed, mostly at subspecies rank. There is a good identification key in
two languages (English and French), and the distribution of all taxa is shown by means of
dot maps. The illustration is particularly noteworthy, not only by its abundance and
variety but by its high quality standard. It demonstrates the author's ability not only in
handling laboratory and photographic techniques but also as a botanical artist of high
standing.
Bocconea may take justified pride in hosting this choice example of a modern and
skilful monographic treatment, authored by a promising representative of the uprising new
generation of plant taxonomists. W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Floras
Santiago CASTROVIEJO (gen. ed.), Félix MUÑOZ GARMENDIA & Carmen
NAVARRO (vol. ed.) - Flora iberica. Plantas vasculares de la Península Ibérica e Islas
Baleares. Vol. VI, Rosaceae. - Real Jardín Botánico, C.S.I.C., Madrid, 1998
(ISBN 84-00-07777-6). XLVII + 592, map and drawings, cloth with dust-cover.
Publication of the Rosaceae volume of Flora iberica took somewhat longer
than had been anticipated (see the last review of this Flora, in OPTIMA Newsletter 32:
(5). 1997) - no wonder in view of the notorious difficulty of many of the genera involved.
Now when the book is at hand, one can readily ascertain that the excess time was well
spent. Volume 6 is a worthy member of this most remarkable basic flora for the Iberian
Peninsula and Balearic Islands. Volume 7 on the legume family, which will fill the
temporary gap in numbering that was due to the "premature" publication of vol.
8, may now be expected any time.
Hybridisation combined with apomixis (as in Rubus and Alchemilla, in
particular) or other kinds of anomalous reproductive behaviour (as in Rosa) is the
main source of taxonomic difficulty in this family and has led to a boundless
proliferation of names for taxa that hardly anyone can distinguish and which few will want
to recognise. The problems have been tackled differently for each of the above three
genera. For Alchemilla, Froehner has adhered to the fashionable pulverisation trend
by recognising no less than 83 species, several of which were described as new during the
elaboration of his treatment. To his credit, one must admit that no sensible recipe for a
more synthetic approach has so far emerged. In Rosa, Silvestre and Montserrat have
given full treatment to 19 broadly defined and widely distributed traditional species,
describing the observed variation under each of them and mentioning the cases of presumed
hybridisation (rather confusingly, the hybrid formulae are again listed at the end of the
generic treatment in a completely redundant enumeration). Under the two most polymorphic
main species - Rosa canina and R. dumalis - a number of
"microspecies" (7 in each case) have been tentatively recognised. Finally,
Monasterio-Huelin, who authored the Rubus treatment, has followed the pragmatic
approach proposed by Heinrich Weber in denying recognition to locally arising apomicts,
many of which are known to be unstable or otherwise ephemerous. For the 26 fully treated
species, the criterion of admission was occurrence in an area of at least 50 km2, the
binomials referring to local apomicts being listed under the corresponding section or
series.
In the other genera treated in the present volume, including the second largest (Potentilla
with its 30 accepted species) the taxonomic problems are of the same order of magnitude as
in other large families of flowering plants. The very synthetic approach in genus
delimitation in the Amygdaloideae (Prunoideae) may perhaps be worth
mentioning, where the 10 species of the single genus Prunus have, by authors of the
past, been assigned to no less than 8 different genera (Amygdalus, Armeniaca,
Cerasus, Laurocerasus, Microcerasus, Padus, Persica,
and Prunus).
It is particularly pleasing to note that Flora iberica and its authors are now
fully espousing the cause of nomenclatural stability. One need no longer fear to find
reckless disturbing name changes as in earlier volumes (some of which were subsequently
undone by acts of conservation or rejection of names, as with Xolantha and Quercus
humilis). On the contrary, every effort has been made to avoid whatever change was
avoidable - a choice example being the maintenance of the name Sanguisorba verrucosa
that appeared to be threatened by the discovery of new bibliographic evidence (see Muñoz
Garmendia in Anales Jard. Bot. Madrid 56: 174-176 for further detail). Also, several new
conservation or rejection proposals originated from the context of the treatments in the
present volume.
No less pleasing is it to note the introductory announcement, in this volume, that
adequate funding of the Flora iberica project has been granted for the five-year
period 1998-2002. No botanist will b surprised to be told that writing a good Flora costs
good money - yet many grant-giving agencies are still reluctant to acknowledge this - or
else, they may be unwilling to recognise the importance of Flora writing. Obviously Spain
is a commendable exception to the general rule, in this respect! W.G.
Loutfy BOULOS - Flora of Egypt. Volume one, Azollaceae-Oxalidaceae.
- Al Hadara, Cairo, 1999 (ISBN 977-5429-14-5). XV + 419 pages, 67 plates of drawings + 24
plates of colour photographs, map, hard cover with dust jacket.
Some time ago, in this same column (OPTIMA Newsletter 30: (24). 1995; 31: (11-12).
1997), I had the privilege to present two new checklists for the flora of Egypt published
independently in the same year (1995) by two obviously competing scientists: Nabil
El-Hadidi and Loutfy Boulos. I then volunteered the advice that "The authors of both
books ought better join efforts and smooth out the differences to produce the definitive
floristic inventory (or even a Flora) of their country." The advice was well meant
but perhaps naive.
El Hadidi in 1980 had undertaken the completion of Täckholm & Drar's monumental Flora
of Egypt, stuck after the 4th volume, by the fascicle-wise publication of family
treatments, under the former title, as Taeckholmia, Additional series (see OPTIMA
Newsletter 12/13: 42. 1982). Progress to date has been disappointingly slow. In his 1995 Materials
referred to above, El Hadidi also announced a new, completely revised edition of
Täckholm's Student Flora of Egypt of 1974 - but nothing has happened since.
Now there we are: two national Floras of Egypt are in progress, under identical titles,
of which the newer one chose to completely ignore the earlier, at least in so far as the Taeckholmia
treatments are concerned! This is a rather saddening and unsatisfactory context, which to
some extent mitigates the joy one feels when a promising new Flora appears in print.
Nevertheless there are good reasons to welcome this new book as a most promising step
toward a really good and user-friendly new Egyptian Flora. It offers concise, modern and
reliable information whose value is greatly enhanced by the excellent line drawings (by
various, mainly Kew-based artists) and brilliant colour photographs, representing a
majority (more than 3/4) of the 717 species treated. This first of three planned volumes
covers the Pteridophytes, Gymnosperms, and the first half of the dicots (up to the Oxalidaceae,
in a sequence roughly following the Englerian system). The next volume will complete the
dicot treatment, and the last is to comprise the monocots. If one combines the two
checklists of 1995 (including an erratum sheet to the earlier of them) will count exactly
2122 species of vascular plants growing wild or naturalised in Egypt, which means that the
species now treated do indeed sum up to just over one third of the total.
The book has been printed and published in Egypt, but the quality of paper, print and
binding is above average according to European standards. Our main wish for the volumes
yet to come (apart from a suitable complement to the bibliography to include the El Hadidi
Flora) is that reference to the figures be added under the corresponding taxa. Their
present lack is the single irritating aspect from a user's point of view. Otherwise, just
let us cheer and await, impatiently perhaps, the volumes yet to come. W.G.
M. ASSADI, M. KHATAMSAZ, V. MOZAFFARIAN & A. A. MAASSOUMI (ed.) -
Flora of Iran. No. 19-22: Pinaceae, Taxaceae, Cupressaceae and Ephedraceae,
by M. ASSADI; No. 23: Grossulariaceae, by M. ASSADI; No. 24: Solanaceae, by
M. KHATAMSAZ. - Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, [Tehran], 1998. 58 +
[2], 13 + [2], 112 + [4] pages, figures & maps, paper.
There is no need to introduce Flora of Iran once again, as it has been presented
repeatedly and in some detail in earlier issues (see OPTIMA Newsletter 25-29: (31-32).
1991; 30: (15). 1996; 31: (8). 1997; 32: (10). 1997). Nothing much has changed with
respect to the obvious qualities of the work, which include its regular progress and the
good quality of its illustrations, except that one important and most welcome change has
happened. Starting with family No. 20 (Taxaceae), dot maps are being prepared for
all wild species to show their Iranian distribution.
As for previous instalments, the Flora is based on much original work and, obviously, a
substantial amount of new material, so that it substantially updates Flora iranica,
Rechinger's classic for the region. It is of note that most of the new treatments concern
the early families of Flora iranica (e.g., Ephedraceae were published as its
third instalment, at a time when no descriptions were yet provided except for the keys).
The progress of knowledge is reflected on one hand by new (usually wider) species
circumscriptions, due to the breaking down of former apparent distinctions as more
plentiful material becomes available; and on the other hand by newly discovered and
described species. This time, floristic additions of note include Juniperus oblonga,
Ephedra distachya, Solanum dulcamara, and Lycium makranicum. Three
species (Ribes khorasanicum, Ephedra laristanica, and Hyoscyamus
bornmuelleri) were described as new during the preparation of the respective accounts
(only one new name is, however, validated in the Flora itself: Hyoscyamus subg. Parahyoscyamus).
In summary, the additions neatly balance the "losses" through synonymisation.
W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Flower books
Monique ASTIÉ & Germaine DEBRAUX - Etonnantes plantes sauvages.
- [Privately published?], printed in F-44490 Le Croisic, 1999 (ISBN 2-9513780-??-?). XIII
+ 261 pages, 3 plates of drawings + 110 colour plates, cloth with dust jacket. Price: FFr
350.
"Surprising wildflowers" - a promising title indeed. Two elderly ladies, both
nature-lovers, both professional botanists at the end of a university career, one a gifted
painter, joining effort in producing a flower-book for the layman: one expects a work full
of enthusiasm, learning, hidden treasures; and one is thoroughly disappointed when looking
at the result.
The book, apparently privately published (but the bibliographic details are scant and
the ISBN number, inaccurate), is well printed on heavy, glossy luxury paper, and
adequately bound, but as to contents it does not match modern standards of reliability and
information content. In his gentle preface, Gérard Aymonin draws a comparison with
last-century book awards to successful pupils, with tales on flowers of the various
seasons. But then, even the slightly romantic touch of such flower tales is missing here.
The text is dry and mostly descriptive, although the descriptions themselves are seldom
characteristic for the plant described.
The plants: a random choice of a good hundred (112 to be precise) mostly trivial French
lowland plants from various habitats, painted with love but little skill and taste;
faithful in colour and matching the habit but poor in characteristic detail (convince
yourself by looking at the plate of Silene gallica, where the calyx,
characteristically glandular-villous, is painted as if it were glabrous). These plants are
arranged in 12 groups representing various habitat types, but these habitats are poorly
defined, show wide overlap, and are often uncharacteristic of the associated species so
that the didactic or practical purpose of the grouping remains obscure.
How then is botanical accuracy, where one would expect perfection from two experienced
academic teachers and professionals? The very first plant bears an obsolete, illegitimate
name (a junior homonym): Silene alba. Others are placed in genera no longer upheld
by science, such as Cheiranthus. Some identifications are uninformative, such as Rubus
fruticosus, and one at least is blatantly wrong (a perhaps somewhat scrappy but
unmistakable plant of Lathyrus montanus being misnamed L. nigricans). In
short, the scientific standard is, shall we say, problematic.
One tends to be lenient when art and science are being combined. Yet, frankly, little
would be lost had this book never been produced. W.G.
Wolfgang LANGER & Herbert SAUERBIER - Endemische Pflanzen der
Alpen und angrenzender Gebiete. - Dr. K. Thomae GmbH, D-88397 Biberach an der Riss,
s.d. (pref. dated Apr 1996). 160 pages, colour maps, graphs and photographs, laminated
cover. Price: DM 49.80.
This booklet presents itself as a promotional item produced by a pharmaceutical firm,
but, fortunately, it is also commercially available. In fact, it is quite a gem! The
authors are two pharmacists and nature lovers, both fearless mountaineers and top-level
nature photographers, who have undertaken to find and portray as many of the rare endemic
species and subspecies of the Alpine flora as they could possibly manage.
There are 121 such taxa fully treated here, each shown in one to three colour
photographs that meet the highest standards of aesthetics, neatness, and colour
faithfulness - for which tribute must be paid to the printers as well. For each, there is
a fairly complete and carefully worded description, an indication of the total known
distribution, and a small map to illustrate the area (the latter not always fully
congruent with the corresponding text). Some of the plants here dealt with have rarely if
ever been shown in flower books before. Also, a few of them are not members of the Alpine
flora but endemics of lowland territories in Germany.
The book starts with some general chapters on geology, palaeogeography, evolution and
the like, that provide pleasant reading and are based on a fair knowledge of recent
literature. The authors obviously have higher ambitions than mere flower photography. Yet
it is the latter domain in which they really excel and in which they can take justified
pride. W.G.
Walter STRASSER - Plants of the Peloponnese, southern part of Greece.
- Gantner, Ruggell FL, [1999] (ISBN 3-904144-11-1). - [2] + 350 pages, figures, laminated
cover. Price: DM 40.
Strasser's field vademecum for Peloponnesus flower-hunters (see OPTIMA Newsletter 32:
(12). 1997) is now available in an English language edition, somewhat enlarged with
respect to its German predecessor. It maintains its essential qualities mentioned
previously: the simple but faithful drawings which, having been made an experienced field
botanist, are a most useful help for identification, and its remarkably full if not 100 %
complete coverage. The price, too, remains unchanged.
The numbered, fully illustrated species have increased by 124, and several pages of
drawings have thus been added. Most additions concern the first five among the ten
artificial groupings in which the plants are arranged, as these were the less completely
treated ones. Thus, species numbers increase by 10 % for the pteridophytes, 14 % for the
orchids, and between 17 and 22 % for the grasses and sedges, the trees and shrubs, and the
inconspicuously-flowered herbs. Another addition is a small illustrated glossary, whereas
conversely two of the identification keys for critical groups (brome-grasses and medicks)
were omitted.
This booklet will no doubt be appreciated by many as a light-weight, practical
companion in the field, not only just in the Peloponnesus but in other, neighbouring areas
as well. W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Floristic inventories
and checklists
Rolf WISSKIRCHEN & Henning HAEUPLER - Standardliste der Farn- und
Blütenpflanzen Deutschlands mit Chromosomenatlas von Focke ALBERS. [Henning HAEUPLER
(ed.), Die Farn- und Blütenpflanzen Deutschlands, 1.] - Ulmer, Stuttgart, 1998 (ISBN
3-8001-3360-1). 765 pages, 2 figures, cloth with dust jacket. Price: DM 148.
This new, critical synonymic checklist concerns the wild and natura.lised species and
subspecies (including nothotaxa) of vascular plants found growing in Germany. It is an
impressive work that builds upon much original research into the nomenclature and taxonomy
of the Central European flora, and as such it will be noted and used by many, well beyond
the political boundaries of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Among the salient aspects of the Checklist are its extensive, critical synonymies; its
effort to list types (or type localities) for all names, including synonyms, for which
they have so far been designated; and the presence of special notes highlighting - by the
use of colour print - problems and uncertainties relating to the taxonomic status and
nomenclatural treatment of a great many taxa. Such notes, which may run to several pages,
often reflect, and may in some cases foreshadow, disagreement and controversy among
contemporary authors. They are due to the more than three dozen specialists who are
authoring the individual generic treatments.
The work undertakes to follow modern standards and rules of plant nomenclature, a
rather neglected speciality so far, in Germany as elsewhere in Europe. This fact gains
added importance if one considers that the checklist was commissioned and funded by the
German Ministry for the Environment through the Federal Office for Nature Conservancy,
meaning that the importance of a correct nomenclature as a basis for research and
information transfer has now been recognised by policy maker at the highest levels. The
work endeavours, with some success, to use the right nomenclatural concepts and adequate
terminology, although it characteristically fails in this attempt when it misuses the term
"valid" for in the sense of "correct" while erroneously redefining
"correct" in the sense of "senior legitimate" - perhaps an additional
argument for getting rid of these terms, now widely ambiguous through misuse, in the next
edition of the botanical Code of Nomenclature.
The present volume also includes, as an appendix, a "chromosome atlas" for
the German flora, edited by Focke Albers. It takes Tischler's 1950 list of chromosome
numbers for the Central European flora as a starting point, listing all chromosome counts
based on German plant material that were published subsequently, with citation of their
source, as well as many yet unpublished ones.
The checklist is the first part of a planned trilogy, to be followed by an iconographic
atlas and an update of Haeupler & Schönfelder's chorological atlas of the vascular
plants of Germany, first published in 1988. When this three-volume compendium on the
vascular flora of Germany will be complete, the naturalists of that country will dispose
of a unique tool for their research, one that can stand as a model for the whole of Europe
and the Mediterranean Area. W.G.
Fabio CONTI - An annot[at]ed checklist of the flora of the Abruzzo.
[Bocconea, 10.] - Herbarium Mediterraneum Panormitanum, Palermo, "1998"
[publ. in March 1999] (ISBN 88-7915-010-3). 275 pages, 1 map, paper.
The author of a preliminary flora of the Abruzzo National Park published in 1995 (see
OPTIMA Newsletter 30: (22). 1996) now presents us with a floristic inventory of the whole
Abruzzo, an Italian Region extending from the watershed of the Apennines to the central
part of the peninsular Adriatic coast. This turns out to be one of the floristically
richest among the Italian regions, which with its 3206 listed taxa (species and
subspecies) just exceeds Latium (3185 taxa). No wonder, as the Abruzzo includes the
highest peaks of the Apennine range (the Gran Sasso d'Italia culminates at 2912 m, just
short of the highest Balkan peaks: Mt Rila with 2925 m and Mt Olympus with 2917 m) as well
as Europe's southernmost glacier.
Each taxon is attributed to a habitat category and to one of four frequency classes:
very common, common, uncommon, rare. For the rare taxa, fairly detailed distributional
data and literature source references areprovided. There are special lists of endemic
(separate for Central Apennines, Apennines, and Italy) and regionally extinct taxa (no
less than three dozen). Three new combinations are validated.
This is doubtless a useful list, which suffers to a perhaps minor degree from rather
careless editing. Apart from the awkward spelling mistake in the very title, may I mention
the misleading caption to Fig. 1: the map shown is of the whole Region, not of the
National Park only (which is but a tiny portion of the Region and extends beyond its
boundaries). W.G.
Darinka TRPIN & Branko VRES - Register flore Slovenije.
Praprotnice in cvetnice. Register of the flora of Slovenia. Ferns and vascular plants.
[Zbirka ZRC, 7] - Znanstvenoraziskovalni Center SAZU, Ljubljana, 1995 (ISBN
961-90125-6-9). 143 pages, 8 extra plates with 96 colour photographs, electronic text
file; paper + diskette.
The present, new inventory of the vascular plants of Slovenia achieves at least three
novel goals: it updates the country's current excursion flora, the 1984 edition of
Martincic & Susnik's Mala flora Slovenije; it provides a full set of common
Slovenian names, also indexed separately; and it proposes a series of 7(-10)-element
alpha-numerical, mnemonic codes to designate each taxon (as well as the principal
synonyms), in addition to the sequential numbering. Whether the latter feature will be
found to be useful in a general way remains to be seen, as the problem it addresses
(limited memory space of computer) is rapidly losing importance.
The number of recognised taxa (species, hybrids, subspecies, varieties, formae) is
3216, including a few extinct taxa and doubtful (but not plainly erroneous) records. For
the latter, special cases as well as for all additions, literature references are provided
- a particularly welcome and useful feature of the list. Species that are found only in
the cultivated state, as well as species aggregates and main synonyms, are mentioned and
coded but not numbered. Some further synonyms are mentioned under the accepted taxa but
are neither cross-referenced nor indexed. A further, perhaps not very important drawback
is that the species contents of the recognised aggregates are not apparent from the list
but can only be found by reference to the Mala flora.
The list is also provided in the form of an electronic database, supposedly running
under a Windows surface, on a 31/2' diskette. When trying to install it on one's own PC
[in which attempt I shamefully failed], one might profit from the services of someone
familiar with the Slovenian language, as all the installation commands and help text files
are so written. Most commendably, though, the introductory and explanatory text in the
publication itself is fully bilingual, Slovenian and English.
The concluding iconographical sample of Slovenia's characteristic plants noticeably
includes a number of taxa that are rarely if ever thus portrayed, due to their
unobtrusiveness and apparent lack of appeal - to mention but a small weedy annual such as Hainardia
cylindrica and, tiniest of all, Wolffia arrhiza. W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Excursions
Ina DINTER - Algarve. Skriptum zur botanischen Exkursion vom 13.-24.
März 1999. - Privately assembled/duplicated, D-74348 Lauffen, 1999. 66 numbered
sheets, black-and-while illustrations, plastic front + paper back cover sheets.
Ina DINTER - Toskana. Botanische Studienwanderreise vom 15.-26. Juni
1997. - Privately assembled/duplicated, D-74348 Lauffen, 1997. 53 numbered sheets,
black-and-while illustrations, paper, plastic front cover sheet.
Ina DINTER - Botanische Studienwanderreise. Abruzzen. Bergwelt im
Herzen Italiens. Landschaften - Flora - Kultur. Botanische Studienwanderreise, 15 Tage,
25.07.-08.08.1996 [post-excursion elaboration]. [Natur-Exkursionen, K 9609]. -
Privately assembled/duplicated, D-74348 Lauffen, 1997. 84 sheets, black-and-while
illustrations, plastic front + paper back cover sheets.
Ina DINTER - Malta / Gozo. Naturkundliche Studienwanderreise
15.2.-01.03.1998. - Privately assembled/duplicated, D-74348 Lauffen, 1998. 43 sheets,
black-and-while illustrations, plastic front + paper back cover sheets.
Ina DINTER - Malta. Die Erlebnisinsel. Im Herzen des Mittelmeeres
[post-excursion elaboration]. - Privately assembled/duplicated, D-74348 Lauffen, 1998. 47
sheets, black-and-while illustrations, plastic front + paper back cover sheets.
Ina DINTER - Korfu Griechenland [16. bis 28. Mai 1998,
post-excursion elaboration]. - Privately assembled/duplicated, D-74348 Lauffen, 1998. 90
numbered sheets, black-and-while illustrations, paper, plastic front cover sheet.
Ina DINTER - Karpathos. Skriptum zur botanischen Exkursion vom 2.-15.
Mai 1998. - Privately assembled/duplicated, D-74348 Lauffen, [1998]. 53 numbered
sheets, black-and-while illustrations, paper, plastic front cover sheet.
Mrs Dinter's second "business" (in her "spare time", she is
supposed to run her pharmacy) is obviously prospering. Her guided botanical hiking tours
to various Mediterranean areas, arguably the best prepared and most expertly led in the
German language domain, are numerous, varied, and popular. One can but admire the lady's
unfailing energy in organising her trips, as they demand thorough preparation in terms of
reconnoitring, collecting and identifying, resulting in the compilation of attractive
texts and illustrations for her tour companion pamphlets - after which, each time the
journey has been successfully completed, she will [for the 1995 and later trips] sit down
and reshape those same pamphlets into accounts based on what was observed and experienced
on the actual trip.
These pamphlets (tour-companion [C] version and subsequent "elaboration" [E]
alike) are naturally no more than "grey literature", being produced for the
personal use of the participants, and not commercially available (as they freely reproduce
illustrations and often texts published elsewhere by others, any commercial distribution
would obviously infringe copyright regulations). Yet, beyond their obvious interest as
quick-and-easy introductions into the natural history of the study areas and guides to the
relevant literature, they are of undeniable scientific value as primary sources of
documented floristic information. For this reason, I have tried to put them on record in
the frame of this column, to the whole extent to which they have been made available to me
(see OPTIMA Newsletter 30: (25-26). 1996; 31: (12-13) and 32: (13-14). 1997; 33: (6-7).
1998).
This may be a good time to give a quick survey of the excursions for which documents
have come to my knowledge, with mention, for 1995 and later years, of whether they are of
the [C] or [E] type. With the single exception of the [C] version of the 1997 Corfu trip,
all relevant documents have been or are being presented in this column. The item number of
the new ones are mentioned in parentheses.
- 1993: Samos, April; and Madeira, June;
- 1994: Sicily, April; and Samos, May;
- 1995: Lesvos & Hios April [E]; and Abruzzo, July [E];
- 1996: N. Cyprus, March [C & E]; and Abruzzo, July-August [C & E(14)];
- 1997: N. Cyprus, March [E]; Corfu, April [C & E]; and Tuscany, June [C (13)];
- 1998: Malta, February [C (15) & E (16)]; Karpathos, early May [C? (18)]; and Corfu,
late May [E (17)];
- 1999: Algarve, March [C (12)].
Of the new items presented here, two (Nos. 14 and 17) are closely related to some that
have been discussed earlier and include much the same general texts and illustrations. In
both, however, the species lists (those for the individual localities and the cumulative
list at the end) have bee completely re-written and differ substantially from the earlier
versions. One welcome innovation, which is also found in most of the following items, is
the addition of herbarium voucher numbers in the cumulative lists. The Abruzzo excursion
report (see OPTIMA Newsletter 31: (12) for the [C] version) includes identifications
revised by F. Lucchese (Roma). The 1997 report for Corfu parallels that for 1996 (see
OPTIMA Newsletter 32: (13-14)) except for the omission of the bird lists and limerick
section; in compensation, it cumulates herbarium specimen citations for the excursions of
three consecutive years.
No less than four new trips were planned and carried out since 1997, to the Algarve in
S. Portugal, Tuscany in Central Italy, the islands of Malta and Gozo, As well as Karpathos
in the S. Aegean Sea. The Algarve document (12) is exceptional in not including a
cumulative species list (but it does enumerate the herbarium specimens collected on the
preparatory tour). It offers little in terms of geographical and cultural information but
it has a substantial appendix on economically important plants and their uses, and
includes a particularly rich selection of plant drawings, reproduced from Mabberley &
Placito's guide book to Algarve's botany of 1993, and from the Flora de Andalucía
Occidental of Valdés & al. The Tuscany excursion (13) is in actual fact limited
to the N.W. part of the region, mainly but not exclusively to the Apuan Alps, with some
cultural escapades to Lucca and Pistoia but without deigning Florence, Pisa and Siena of
as much as a look. The botanical illustrations, here, are mainly from Fiori's Iconografia
(magnified and thus with inaccurate scale indications), but also partly from papers by
Bechi & Garbari and Bechi & al. The scale problem with Fiori's drawings is also
apparent in the Malta tour guide and "elaboration" (15 & 16), which are
additionally embellished by some full-page drawings from Raimondo's study of Mt Pellegrino
near Palermo. The trip included a full-day excursion to the neighbouring island of Gozo.
The Karpathos tour companion, which concerns an area with which I am thoroughly
familiar, unfortunately lacks a cumulative species list (an item hopefully to be provided
together with the [E] version). The programme starts in the northern part of the island,
using the harbour of Diafani as an excursion base, from where an optional one-day trip to
the neighbouring island of Saria was being envisaged. From the sixth day onward the group
then hiked through the central and southern parts of the island. The pamphlet includes
general texts taken from Hiller & Kalteisen's 1988 account of the island's orchids.
The species lists are still rather disappointingly incomplete, lacking many of the endemic
or otherwise peculiar taxa (e.g., Silene ammophila subsp. karpathae, S.
insularis, S. discolor), so that one looks forward with some expectation to the
progress hopefully to be embodied in the [E] version. W.G.
Rita EISENBLÄTTER & Eckhard WILLING - Kurzbericht über unsere
Sammelreisen 1998 nach S- und NW-Griechenland für die Flora hellenica. Teil 1: Fundorte.
- Privately duplicated, Berlin, 1998. [34] unpaged sheets, 1 colour photograph, stapled.
Unknown to many, Eckhard Willing is certainly the most assiduous and productive
collector of Greek plants of all times. His exploration of the Greek flora, pastime of
most of his holidays of the past 25 years - often in the company of his first wife
Barbara, more recently with Rita Eisenblätter -, saw him converted twice. The first time,
from a non-collecting plant lover entirely relying on photographic documentation of his
finds he became a skilled and successful collector of herbarium specimens, who keeps
perfecting the drying technique by infrared bulbs first described by Heinrich Weber in
1977 (see Willing & Willing in Phyton (Horn) 32: 119-128. 1992). This happened in the
early 1980s. In 1988, his second conversion took place, from a pure orchid hunter to the
general field botanist he is now. From 1988 to the end of 1998 the numbering of his
collections, which he keeps offering graciously to the Berlin-Dahlem Museum, rose from
about 300 to the present 72.203 (duplicate specimens, which receive additional lower-case
lettering, not being shown in these figures)!
The present, 1998 report on his collecting activities is the first in this format of
which we came to know. It is an impressive document, demonstrating by crude figures and
just a few comments the efficiency and amount of the authors' collecting. In exactly 40
days of field work performed in the Greek provinces of Arcadia and Laconia (in April),
Florina, Ioannina, Kastoria, and Kozani (in July), 11.121 plant specimens were collected:
278 per day on average. This was achieved with just five plant presses, whose contents
used to be dry for over 95 % after 24 hours. From first-hand knowledge, I can add that the
Willing specimens are among the most carefully and beautifully prepared of their kind.
As to efficiency, it is enhanced by the procedure followed by the authors when
collecting, which is based on a chorological approach. Within each prospective mapping
unit (10 ( 10 km UTM grid mesh) the authors will endeavour as complete a floristic
inventory as possible, starting by collecting all species present at their first locality,
but only the additional, not yet documented ones at each subsequent stop. In recent years,
use of a global positioning system (GPS) has significantly improved the precision of
locality data.
Implicit in the title, although not elsewhere spelled out, is the authors' intent of
publishing a second part of their report, presumably to hold the list of specimen
identifications. I will be pleased to come back on this when it becomes available. W.G.
Heinz KALHEBER - Seriphos. 30. August - 3. September 1997. -
Privately duplicated, Runkel, 1998. [10] unpaged sheets, 1 map, stapled.
Heinz KALHEBER - Siphnos. 3.-10. September 1997 und 3.-14. April
1998. - Privately duplicated, Runkel, 1998. [18] unpaged sheets, 1 map, stapled.
These two inventory lists, dated September and October 1998, respectively, are artless
computer printouts that may be one-off products just as well as duplicated
"publications": hard to tell the difference, except that the collecting routes ,
on the island maps, were evidently colour-marked by hand. At any rate, the lists are
source documents of floristic data for two Greek islands of the Cyclades, in the Aegean
Sea, and as such they should not go unnoticed. They include precise locality data and
mention of voucher specimens. W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Biogeography
Tod F. STUESSY & Mikio ONO (ed.). - Evolution and speciation of
island plants. [Papers from a symposium convened by the co-editors at the XV
International Botanical Congress in Yokohama, Japan, August 1993]. - Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge, New York & Melbourne, 1998 (ISBN 0-521-49653-5). XV + 358 pages,
black-and-white illustrations, hard cover. Price: £ 50.
A caveat to begin with: the title is misleadingly broad, perhaps a publisher's trap for
the inadvertent customer. While not properly a symposium volume, the book nevertheless has
it roots in a symposium organised by the editors at the XV International Botanical
Congress in Yokohama, on 30 August 1993, under the title "Speciation of vascular
plants on Pacific islands". Five of the six papers presented at that symposium form
the nucleus of the present book (the sixth, by Warren Wagner on phytogeographic patterns
in Hawai'i, having been omitted), and the seven additional titles, or chapters (not
counting the editors' conclusions and outlook) do little to broaden the theme: the
"island plants" of the title are, in fact, vascular plants of thalassogenous
(sea-born, or "oceanic") islands in the Pacific Ocean.
This being said, the book is excellently edited, to form a much more coherent
contribution to knowledge than a symposium fallout of the usual kind. Geographically it
focuses on the West (Bonin Islands), Central (Hawai'i), East (Juan Fernández) and South
Pacific (various island groups), plus Ullung Island (Korea) in the Japanese Inland Sea.
Case studies of particular genera alternate with considerations of evolution and
speciation under various angles (adaptive radiation, co-evolution, reproductive ecology,
biogeography, chromosomes), not neglecting conservational aspects. Two general overviews
on chromosomal evolution and secondary compounds do consider some examples from outside
the Pacific area, including the Macaronesian (but not any Mediterranan) islands. On the
whole, the book provides pleasant and instructive reading to all interested in island
biogeography. W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Chorology
Oriol de BOLÒS I CAPDEVILA, Xavier FONT I CASTELL, Xavier PONS I
FERNÁNDEZ & Josep VIGO I BONADA (ed.) - Atlas corològic de la flora vascular dels
Països Catalans. Volum 8 [ORCA: Atlas corològic, 8]. - Institut d'Estudis
Catalans, Secció de Ciències Biològiques, Barcelona, 1998 (ISBN 84-7283-431-X). [614]
pages, maps 1520-1815, paper. Price: Ptas 2500.
Publication of this carefully edited and remarkably well organised basic chorological
atlas (see OPTIMA Newsletter 33: (8). 1998, and earlier reviews cited there) continues at
high speed and with great regularity. The 296 distribution maps of the present volume
correspond to the species numbered 927 to 1143 in the Flora manual dels Països
catalans, i.e. to a number of families of small to medium size, from Resedaceae
to Araliaceae. Umbelliferae will come next in sequence.
Same as in earlier volumes, a few species included in the Flora were omitted,
probably because no new, reliable data on their occurrence in Catalonia were available.
They include Helianthemum leptophyllum, Hypericum hyssopifolium, and Cornus
mas. Two further species for which one looks in vain, Polygala vayredae and Drosera
anglica (or longifolia), had their maps published earlier, in vol. 1 (the same
is true for D. rotundifolia, mapped again here in second edition). On the positive
side, a number of taxa have been mapped that are absent from the Flora, having been
recorded or distinguished but recently: Reseda lanceolata, Fumana scoparia, Tamarix
dalmatica, Elatine brochonii, Hypericum linariifolium, and Sida
rhombifolia (a new introduction); one has been described as new but recently (Erodium
aguilellae López Udias & al. 1998), and two may be undescribed to date (Reseda
alba subsp. crespoi O. Bolòs & al. and Helianthemum marminorense
Alcaraz & al.). All in all, a quite remarkable amount of progress for a country whose
flora was deemed to be better known, perhaps, than that of any other Mediterranean area of
comparable size! W.G.
Oriol de BOLÒS I CAPDEVILA - Atlas corològic de la flora vascular
dels Països Catalans. Primera compilació general. Part I: Abies-Lagoecia. Part
II: Lagurus-Zygophyllum. [ORCA: volum extraordinari]. - Institut
d'Estudis Catalans, Secció de Ciències Biològiques, Barcelona, 1998 (ISBN
84-7283-380-1). [8], [5] + 1102 pages, 4407 maps, 2 volumes, paper. Price: Ptas 5000.
At the present speed of production, the regular chorological atlas for the flora of
Catalonia (see above) will be completed in about ten years' time. Nor a terribly long
delay, one may think - yet too long for the ebullient Catalans to wait. As a result, the
present twin volume has been published, showing the present state of knowledge for the
whole Catalan flora in synthetic format, produced directly from the corresponding
database. One may note a few omissions, for reasons unknown, with respect to the maps
published earlier in the fuller format, but also, the corrigenda to earlier maps just
listed in vol. 8 of the Atlas have been taken care of in the present edition.
The maps have been somewhat reduced in size, so that four fit on a page; also, the
chorological data underlying the maps are not documented. This results in a concentration
factor of 8 when the present synthesis is compared to the regular Atlas. What may
perhaps be judged by the local expert as lacking sufficient factual detail will, as a
rule, be fully satisfactory for the purposes of the general plant geographer. For him,
it's all there in a nutshell.
There is a most enjoyable news item in the preface to the present work: the fourth and
last volume of Bolòs & Vigo's Flora dels Països catalans, comprising the
monocot treatments, is now in press and we may hope to hold it before long. With this
achieved, Catalonia will be the most fortunate of all Mediterranean countries, in
botanical terms. Congratulations! W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Regional studies
of flora and vegetation
Octavio RODRÍGUEZ DELGADO, Marcelino J. DEL ARCO AGUILAR, Antonio
GARCÍA GALLO, Juan Ramón ACEBES GINOVÉS, Pedro Luis PÉREZ DE PAZ & Wolfredo
WILDPRET DE LA TORRE - Catálogo sintaxonómico de las comunidades vegetales de plantas
vasculares de la subregión canaria: Islas Canarias e Islas Salvajes. Versión
Español/Inglés. [Materiales didacticos universitarios, Serie biología, 1]. -
Servicio de Publicaciones, Universidad de La Laguna, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 1998 (ISBN
84-7756-457-4). 130 pages, boards.
The present "synonymic" inventory of syntaxa found on the Canary and Salvage
Islands fulfils a double scope: to serve as a quick means of reference for the vegetation
scientist and as a teaching device. While confined to vascular plant communities (to which
cryptogams may be admitted as guests, as in the Eucladio-Adiantetum), it otherwise
aims at complete coverage of all plant communities that have so far been described from
the area, including those which have not yet been validly named.
An expert of plant nomenclature as the present reviewer may perhaps be forgiven when he
cannot help smiling at the zeal with which phytocoenologists start copying the International
code of botanical nomenclature, down to the intricacies of spelling corrections and
conservation proposals. When he then stumbles over double genitive monsters such as "paraliasi"
(when "paralias" is already a Greek genitive noun, meaning "of the
beach") his smile may, unkindly, broaden to a grin. Yet even he will be truly and
honestly impressed by the thoroughness of the synthesis here achieved, the amount of
synonymy generated (no less than 691 numbered synonyms for a total of 263 recognised plant
communities in the rank of association of below), and the wealth of literature faithfully
cited in the appended bibliographical survey. W.G.
Jordi CARRERAS & Josep VIGO - Mapa de vegetació de Catalunya 1 :
50 000. La Seu de Urgell 215 (34-10). - Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya, Barcelona,
1997 (ISBN 84-7283-389-5 & 84-393-4452-X). 73 pages, graphs, map and colour legend,
flexible cover; with folded colour map by Jordi CARRERAS, Empar CARRILLO, Xavier FONT,
Josep M. NINOT, Ignasi SORIANO & Josep VIGO; flexible cover and twin plastic pouch.
The present vegetation map and correlated explanatory text forms part of what appears
to be a major vegetation mapping project which, judging from the title, is planned to
extend to the whole territory of Catalonia (at least, that is, to its Spanish parts). When
presenting two earlier items of this series (see OPTIMA Newsletter 33: (8-9). 1998) I
expressed some puzzlement as to the details of the project and the extent to which other
maps might have been published earlier, and I then promised to provide more details on the
subject when they became available. Our readers will, alas, have to wait some more: in the
present document, there is again no reference whatever to other published or progressing
maps except for the unspecific reference, in one place, to "previous sheets of this
serie[s]".
The area covered belongs to the Central Pyrenees. It is situated roughly to the
north-west of la Seu d'Urgell, which appears in its lower right and corner, and west of
Andorra of which a small portion (not mapped) extends to the top right of the sheet. The
watershed between to major river basins, of the Noguera Pallaresa to the north-west and of
the Río Segre to the south-east, crosses the map slightly above its middle in a ENE to
WSW direction. The highest elevation of the area, the Torreta de l'Orri, is a lateral
extension of this major divide. Except for some bands of hard rocks (limestone, sandstone
or conglomerate) the whole area, including all higher elevations, consists of old, mostly
metamorphic schist. W.G.
César PEDROCCHI RENAULT (ed.) - Ecología de Los Monegros. La
paciencia como estrategia de survivencia. - Instituto de Estudios Altoaragoneses,
Huesca & Centro de Desarrollo de Monegros, Grañén, [1998] (ISBN 84-8127-063-6). 430
pages, photographs, maps and graphs mostly in colour, flexible cover.
The area of los Monegros is a vast hilly plain lying to the left of the Ebro river
along its middle course, east of the old town of Zaragoza. It is an arid area naturally
covered by steppes and salty lagoons, and is one of the big marvels and invaluable
treasures of Europe's and the Mediterranean area's natural heritage, both by the unique
beauty of its landscapes and the richness and originality of its plant and animal
communities. As so many other sites of great naturalistic value, los Monegros have been
and still are at high risk, mainly through the irrational extension of irrigated cultures
to natural areas which are basically unsuited for sustainable exploitation of this kind.
The present book sings a song of love and pride for los Monegros as they were and in
part still are, sung by those who know and who care. It is a remarkable document, most of
all, I should say, by its effort to convey feeling and concern through the dispassionate
display of factual information. It is a scientific work and at the same time, nonetheless,
a work of poetry and of art.
The botanist and biologist will be interested by the general chapters dealing with the
geology, hydrography and climate of the region; by the narration of the means by which
plants of all kinds have managed to survive in the hostile, arid habitats and withstand
its adverse conditions; by the descriptive, richly illustrated chapters dealing with the
various cryptogamic groups as well as higher plants and plant communities; but he will
also read with keen interest the chapters on animal life, for instance the one describing
faunal interactions with a characteristic tree species of the area, Juniperus thurifera.
The specialist will be pleased to resort to scientific inventories of species of algae,
vascular plants, plant communities, and many animal groups, provided in an appendix.
OPTIMA has long taken an active interest in averting the threats of destruction faced
by the wildlife of los Monegros, trying to support local biologists in their fight against
incomprehension and ignorance of the local population and political decision-makers. The
VI OPTIMA Meeting in Delfi in 1989, "bearing in mind the extraordinary biological
interest of the arid areas in los Monegros ... [and] alarmed about the predictable
consequences ... following the implementation of land use projects, implying
irrigation", resolved "to encourage Spanish biologists in their efforts ... to
protect it in its present natural state ... [and] to urge ... authorities to view
favourably proposals made for the conservation of the area in question". The
resolution's impact was at best moderate, and irrigation of natural areas has been and
still is spreading. Last year, the IX OPTIMA Meeting in Paris decided that letters were to
be sent to the competent authorities, renewing the appeal and, specifically, asking for
the establishment of protected areas of land so far unspoilt by agriculture, such as the
Bujaraloz plateau with its salt lakes, the Serreta Negra de Fraga, the Barranco de los
Bojes, the juniper stands of the Retuerta de Pina, and the Serra de Alcubierre. This
letter, which I had the honour to address to the President of the autonomous region of
Aragón, in Zazagoza, remains unanswered to date.
Let us hope that, in spite of the difficulties involved, this marvellous book will help
saving los Monegros from further destruction. Let it not become, as is to be feared, a
requiem for beauty past and irretrievably gone! W.G.
Emanuele BOCCHIERI - L'esplorazione botanica e le principali
conoscenze sulla flora dell'arcipelago della Maddalena (Sardegna nord-orientale). [Rendiconti
del Seminario della Facoltà di Scienze dell'Università di Cagliari, 66, Suppl.]. -
Seminario della Facoltà di Scienze dell'Università, Cagliari, 1996. [4] + 305 pages,
maps and graphs, paper.
Professor Bocchieri has for many years been specialising in the study of the small
islets off the Sardinian coast, and has published numerous papers on their flora and plant
geography. He now devotes a full-scale monograph to the most famous and most finely
patterned of these island groups, the Maddalena archipelago, situated at the north-eastern
end of Sardinia, in the strait between that island and Corsica. It comprises no less than
62 islands and islets with a surface of at least 300 m2, of which 36 have so far been
explored botanically.
The present study is a continuation and update of the earliest in-depth study of
Mediterranean small-island biota, conducted by Vaccari between 1890 and 1908. It is, in
the same time, a geographical complement and counterpart to the exploration of the
circum-Corsican islets by Lanza & Poggesi, published in 1986 (see OPTIMA Newsletter
20-24: (44). 1988). Vaccari had eventually reported 743 plant taxa from the archipelago;
the present figure is 986, of which 811 (755 species, 54 subspecies and 2 varieties) are
considered to be spontaneous).
The core of the present book consists of floristic data, but analysis is also present:
Raunkiaer spectra and representation of families and genera are given for the major
islands, and the phytogeography of some of the characteristic species is discussed. More
is presumably to come. By now, it appears that the "small-island specialists" so
prominent in the Aegean area are rather marginally represented here. Two of three such
taxa that are found around Corsica (Allium commutatum, Lavatera arborea) are
also widespread in the Maddalena archipelago, but the third (Parapholis marginata)
is lacking, while an additional one (Hymenolobus procumbens subsp. revelierei)
is found. An endemic or subendemic element (e.g. Limonium cunicularium, Nananthea
perpusilla, Silene velutina) is of particular note.
The need for regulations to protect the utterly fragile small-island biota, alluded to
in the introduction, is obvious enough when one judges from the material presented here. A
call for such legal action should, perhaps, be more forcibly reiterated elsewhere in a
suitable context. W.G.
Francesco M. RAIMONDO & Rosario Schicchi (ed.) - Il popolamento
vegetale della riserva naturale dello Zingaro (Sicilia). Indagini sulla flora, sulla
vegetazione e sull'uso tradizionale delle piante presenti nella riserva ai fini della
gestione, della salvaguardia e dell'educazione ambientale. [Collana Sicilia Foreste,
3 & Rivista trimestrale Sicilia Foreste, Suppl.] - Dipartimento di Scienze
botaniche, Università degli Studi, Palermo, 1998. 205 pages, graphs, maps, drawings and
photographs (mostly in colour), paper.
The Zingaro area is comprised of a steep coastal strip of difficult access, on the
western side of the gulf of Castellammare in the Trapani Province. When it was declared
nature reserve in 1981 it was still virtually untouched and hardly explored botanically.
It became somewhat better known when, in 1986, an atlas with the drawings and descriptions
of many of its representative plants was produced by Raimondo & al. (see OPTIMA
Newsletter 20-24: ((51-52). 1988).
The present book now includes the results of an in-depth botanical study of the area.
Generously illustrated by colour photographs, it deals with a variety of aspects (not
quite devoid of redundancy) such as climatic data, grid distribution maps of the
(sub-)endemic taxa, baseline data for all species that are used locally, and
characterisation, by relevés, of the various plant communities found. Besides there are
inventories of the fungal, lichen, bryophytic, and vascular flora, the latter in duplicate
(once with area type and growth form indicated, arranged by families; then again with
local distribution given and in alphabetical sequence - the latter being repeated
unchanged for the endemic elements).
The redundancy alluded to above may be beneficial (others might say, dangerous) for
spotting errors and inconsistencies due to careless proof-reading. This concerns
principally the distribution maps, which (quite apart from the fact that the numbering of
the two last unit grid squares is consistently misplaced) show many discrepancies when
compared with the numerical data. In particular, the wrong map has been printed for Vicia
altissima, that for the previous species, Spiranthes spiralis, being used
twice.
I'll stop nit-picking here. The book deserves better than being judged on minor
shortcomings. In a general way, it is an excellent and commendable example of how money
can be generated and put to good use for the promotion of environmental awareness among an
interested lay public in general and the younger generation in particular. W.G.
Zaharias L. KUPRIÔTAKÊS - Sumbolê stê meletê tês hasmofutikês
hlôridas tês Krêtês kai tês diaheirisês tês ôs fusikou porou, pros tên
kateuthunsê tou fusiolatrikou tourismou, tês anthokomias, tês ethnobotanikês kai tês
prostasias tôn apeiloumenôn fytikôn eidôn kai biotopôn. [Contribution to the
study of the chasmophytic flora of Crete and to its utilization as a natural resource, to
the direction of the ecotourism, the floriculture, the ethnobotany and the protection of
the threatened plant species and their biotopes.] - PhD Thesis, Tomeas Biologias Futôn,
Tmêma Biologias, Panepistêmio Patrôn, Patra, 1998. [12] + 197 pages, graphs and maps,
11 extra plates of colour photographs, paper.
The author of this PhD thesis has been in charge of the botanical garden of Iraklion
for many years and could thus explore the flora of his island, both in his professional
capacity and out of personal interest. He thereby became thoroughly acquainted with the
rare and endemic plants of Crete, to which he has recently added a few newly discovered
ones (Allium platakisii, Limonium cornarianum, Scilla talosii). He is
also to be credited with the first Cretan finds of, e.g., Silene fabaria and Allium
pallens, with the rediscovery of Fumana laevipes which had not been seen on the
island since 1817, and with the addition of many new localities to the known distribution
of the rare and endemic plants of the island.
The present work deals with the most famous part of the flora of Crete: the plants
growing in fissures of steep or vertical cliffs. Concretely, 70 cliff systems have been
investigated, scattered all over Crete and the surrounding islets, and within these, 100
cliff faces have been inventoried in detail. The results are given, first in the form of a
straightforward floristic catalogue, then by interpreting the data in various ways.
Classification is the taxonomist's pet activity. Kypriotakis classifies everything, to
start with the cliffs themselves. He divides them up into 7 categories, depending on
whether they occur pair-wise, as in the famous gorges, or singly; and on the altitude and
situation with respect to the sea coast. The plants themselves he will classify, according
to their faithfulness to the cliff habitat, into obligatorily, predominantly, partially,
and facultative chasmophytes. Other classification criteria are threatened status,
suitability for ornamental purposes, edibility, pharmaceutical and aromatic properties,
and potential for the colonisation of disturbed habitats. These latter groupings are
meaningful in so far as they strengthen the case for granting adequate legal and factual
protection to these plants and their habitats, often under threat and easily destroyed.
Of course, as Kypriotakis is thoroughly familiar with his plants, his groupings make
good sense, are meaningful in appearance and show promise as to their usefulness. The
problem, basically, is that the categories are ill defined, the criteria used not clearly
spelled out, and the factual basis of their case-by-case application not mentioned. This
is a pity, as the author must in many cases (even though probably not always) dispose of
valuable data and experience that remains hidden in his brain, or in his unpublished
notes. Take the edible, medicinal and aromatic plants: what parts are used, for which
purpose, and by whom? Or the plants allegedly showing promise as ornamentals of for
disturbed site reclamation: what are the qualities they show, what is known of their
properties in cultivation, ease of propagation, hardiness, longevity, soil retention
faculty? The mere enumerations here provided make us avid to know more, but we are left
hungry. This is meant, not so much as a criticism, but as a plea for more details to
follow.
The results of statistical analyses are valuable in that they confirm and quantify what
one used to suspect: that of the 614 vascular plant taxa found "on the rocks"
(about one third of the total wild flora) a large proportion (32 %) belong to the endemic
element, and that this rate increases when the 80 obligatory chasmophytes alone are
considered, of which more than half are Cretan and three quarters Greek endemics; that
annuals are underrepresented among the cliff plants, their proportion dropping from almost
half (among the optional chasmophytes) to zero (obligatory chasmophytes, among which the
chamaephytes predominate); and that the cliff-face flora is highly diverse, with low
similarity coefficients (of less than one third) even between neighbouring and
ecologically similar localities.
This is a promising start, to be welcomed by Crete's botanical fans familiar with the
language. We are keenly awaiting the continuation. W.G.
Maria PANITSA - Sumbolê stê gnôsê tês hlôridas kai tês
blastêsês tôn nêsidôn tou anatolikou Aigaiou. [Contribution to the knowledge of
the flora and vegetation of the East Aegean islets (Greece).]- PhD Thesis, Tomeas
Biologias Futôn, Tmêma Biologias, Panepistêmio Patrôn, Patra, 1997.[14] + 345 pages,
drawings, maps, graphs (some in colour), 7 extra plates of colour photographs, paper.
Islet biogeography is the new fashion - and most appropriately so, as these minute
biota provide choice natural laboratory conditions for a whole series of essential
questions and, furthermore, are threatened, most fragile habitats in urgent need of
protection. Panitsa's PhD thesis is in the trend, and having all these wonderful islets
virtually on her door-sill (well, not quite: there are quite some boat trips and
adventurous rides on shaky caiques involved!) she was ideally placed for performing this
kind of research.
Her target were 75 islets of varying size, from one half to 16,000 stremmata (ever
heard of a "stremma"? it is 0.1 ha; international units would have been more
user-friendly), widely scattered over the central portion of the E. Aegean Sea. Of these
she inventoried the vascular flora (comparing it with Runemark's earlier results for 22 of
them, thus estimating species turnover) and studied the vegetation. Her total inventory
comprises 725 vascular plant taxa, a few of which are new records for the East Aegean
area. By the sheer bulk of new, accurately documented floristic data, her work is a
remarkable performance.
The thesis includes a thorough statistical analysis of the data as well as a
classification of the observed vegetation patterns into formal plant communities. All this
is of interest and, generally, well done and well presented (there is a detailed and
informative summary in excellent English for the benefit of those unfamiliar with the
Greek language). Minor points of criticism may, of course, been raised. One of the new
(provisional) associations, the "Anthemidetum scopulori", bears witness
of the regrettable spread of Latin illiteracy. The comparison of average numbers of
species per surface unit does not make sense when widely different surface areas are
concerned. Use of the term "sublittoral" ("upoparaliakos") when
supralittoral ("epiparaliakos") is meant, is confusing. Also, inferring the
proportion of "temporary flora" from differences between individual inventories
during short stopovers, perhaps at different seasons, is a bit too bold. But such
imperfections, if regrettable, cannot blur the overall impression of solid scholarly work,
nor will they tarnish the beauty of the colour photographs which, well reproduced on
special, glossy paper, illustrate admirably well the charm of some of the least accessible
land fragments in the Aegean sea. W.G.
Harald KEHL - LöKAT. Eine landschaftsökologische Komplexanalyse zu
den Ursachen extrazonaler Vegetation an der Westabdachung des Amanus (Südost-Türkei).
- Agnos, Neue Kantstr. 31, D-14057 Berlin, 1998 (ISBN 3-00-003156-1). CD-ROM in plastic
case (.pdf file for Windows and Macintosh; with free Adobe Acrobat Reader diskette, on
request). Price: DM 75. [Also available as hard copy: 2 volumes, XII + 655 pages, 6 loose
tables and 8 loose maps (ISBN 3-00-003155-2), at DM 780.]
So that's (perhaps) how the future will look: empty bookshelves, except for the few who
are able and willing to pay ten times the price. Of course, CD publishing is still in a
somewhat experimental phase, rapidly and unpredictably evolving. So, who knows how easily
the present electronic versions can be consulted in, say, ten years' time. But apart from
this uncertainty, honestly, the product that is presently on my CD drive works admirably
well, at a comfortable speed (except for the build-up of some of the more finely grained
images) and with options one could not dream of a little while ago.
Under the acronym LöKAT, Harald Kehl is publishing the results of five years
(1988-1992) of field work in S.E. Turkey, on the western slopes of the Amanus Mountains in
the Hatay Province, up to the subalpine level (2200 m). The stress of his study is on
vegetation analysis and vegetation dynamics, and the bulky appendices (the second of the
two hard-copy volumes) are full to the brim of detailed data of various kinds: soil
analysis results, vegetation tables and their statistical interpretation, and last but not
least a detailed inventory of the flora in tabular form. All these results are adequately
presented, illustrated and discussed in the first volume.
The electronic text is stored as formatted layout mimicking the printed version. The
text is searchable but not printable, and a zooming-in option is provided for the text,
tables and illustrations alike. The Adobe Acrobat Reader, a freeware package needed to
read the disk, can either be downloaded from the Web or from a 51/4' diskette provided on
a complimentary basis.
The switch from leafing through a book to turning the pages on-screen by mouse click
involves changing inveterate habits, but one gets used to it. The searching and zooming
options are great, especially if you think of the small print of some of the hard-copy
tables that requires a hand-lens anyway for comfortable reading. Resolution of some of the
text illustrations (photographs and maps) is not ideal, presumably due to memory space
limitations. But this, frankly, is the only critical point I come to think of. W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Applied botany
Karl HAMMER, Helmut KNÜPFFER, Gaetano LAGHETTI & Pietro PERRINO
- Seeds from the past. A catalogue of crop germplasm in Central and North Italy.
-Istituto del Germoplasma del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bari, 1999. [3], I-II,
[1], III-IV + 255 pages, 8 maps, paper.
This is the companion volume to one that was published in 1992, by the same authors and
under the same general title, for the plants of southern Italy and Sicily (see OPTIMA
Newsletter 32: (19-20) 1997). Dealing with the regions north of Campania and Apulia, it
completes the coverage for the whole of peninsular Italy. The area has been explored by
several germplasm collecting expeditions since 1987, based on a bilateral co-operation
between the renowned crop research institutions in Bari and Gatersleben. The present
inventory, same as the earlier one, is not however a catalogue of the 486 collected
samples, which are mentioned only in general terms, but an enumeration of all cultivated
plants (except mere ornamentals) and their potential wild progenitors found in the area.
This catalogue, which mentions vernacular designations and known distribution (by
regions), documented use, as well as other relevant details of origin, importance, etc.,
comprises entries for 551 different species and 20 additional infraspecific taxa. The
amount of (Italian and dialectal) folk names thus registered is particularly impressive:
their alphabetic index has no less than 10,762 entries, which means that the book is,
among other things, an important source work for ethnographic and linguistic studies.
An alarming undertone pervades this work. The fact that the number of samples
accessioned in the germplasm collection is relatively low (486, as opposed to 1622 for
southern Italy and Sicily, relating to merely 83 species which is a tiny fraction of the
total) reflects a spectacular if not exactly documented genetic erosion. The loss of land
races, which was found to be 75 % in the south, is estimated to be even heavier (c. 90 %)
in central and northern Italy. Documenting and saving what is left is a great challenge of
considerable economic and political import.
Work of the Bari-Gatersleben team continues, its present emphasis being on the areas
not yet covered: Sardinia and the smaller islands. Hopefully, within a couple of years, a
complement for these areas and/or a cumulative inventory for the whole of Italy can be
produced. W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Conservation topics,
red data books
Kerry S. WALTER & Harriet S. GILLETT (ed.) - 1997 IUCN red list
of threatened plants. - International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources, Gland CH & Cambridge UK, 1998 (ISBN 2-8317-0328-X). LXIV + 862 pages, 1
graph, paper.
Normally one would speak of an impressive volume. Shattering, however, is more
appropriate a qualifier. The fact that one out of eight vascular plant species of this
globe has been assessed as being under immediate threat of extinction is evocative of
apocalyptic views such as a bare planet from which trees have disappeared, with the
surviving part of humanity (if any) camped in the midst of deserts.
A second look will do little to reassure you. Not only is the number of listed species
(31,195), or taxa (35,319), shocking, but we are told, and can readily believe, that this
is not all. "Many taxa have had to be omitted ... due to insufficient
information"; and "data, in particular for many parts of Africa, Asia, the
Caribbean, and South America, are either patchy or lacking": two significant
quotation from the introductory matter.
Where does the Mediterranean area stand in this global context? I have tried to extract
a few relevant data from the very instructive tabular surveys preceding the main taxonomic
list. Six Mediterranean countries are among those for which over 5 % of their vascular
flora are at risk: Turkey (1876 species = 21.7 %), Spain (985 species = 19.5 %), Greece
(571 species = 11.4 %) Italy (311 species = 5.6 %), Portugal (269 species = 5.3 %), and
Morocco (186 species = 5.1 %). Summing up the threatened species for the whole
Med-Checklist area, while bearing in mind that, globally, over 90 % of the threatened
species are single-country endemics, one can estimate the total number at just under 5000,
or over 20 % of the c. 24,000 wild vascular flora.
One must be very careful when comparing such figures, especially for areas and/or
floras of widely different sizes. Yet, within the Mediterranean area, one expects that the
rates of threat and endemism will run parallel. The fact that they do not shows that, and
where, the figures are distorted: the countries for which the threat rates are
unrealistically low are Morocco (over 20 % endemism but only 5 % threat), Syria and
Lebanon (8 % endemism and less than 0.5 % threat).
Of the Mediterranean plant species, 38 are presumed extinct (not collected in the last
50 years) and 14, likely extinct. The criterion for presumed extinction is not really
appropriate for some of the less well explore Mediterranean countries, though, and the
figures may be misleading. Another, even more important aspect should be borne in mind
when interpreting the Red List: whereas rarity (R) is listed as the threat reason
in almost half of the cases, rarity is doubtless a natural phenomenon, not necessarily
(and perhaps, in the Mediterranean at least, not usually) caused by man. This does not
mean that rare species should not be listed as requiring particular attention and care,
but rather, that not all the "threat" that is here documented is a man-made
phenomenon.
Twenty years ago, a kind of precursor of the present book was published: the IUCN
plant red data book of Lucas & Synge (see OPTIMA Newsletter 8/9: 56-57. 1979). It
included a selection of 250 case studies of threatened plants, each on two text pages. If
a similar format had been applied now, the result would have been a "book" of
over 70,000 pages! The format chosen had, by necessity, to be as economic of space as
possible. Yet, it has been possible to include citations of literature sources for all
listed entries - a great boon for the critical user, and a most positive aspect that
deserves being underscored.
As it stands, the Red List is a major achievement and a document of much
political weight. It is also, as the authors acknowledge, a work calling for further
refinement and improvement. Gaps and inadequacies of geographical coverage I have already
mentioned, but a better and more equal coverage of the infraspecific categories (mainly
subspecies) should also be aimed at. And then there is, of course, the whole huge domain
of non-vascular plants: will we live long enough to see them treated along comparable
standards? W.G.
Robert SALANON & Vincent KULESZA - Mémento del la flore
protégée des Alpes-Maritimes. - Office National des Forêts, Paris, 1998 (ISBN
2-84207-113-1). pages I-XI + sheets 1-248 + pages 249-284, 248 colour photographs,
flexible cover. Price: FFr 250.
With its less than 4000 km2 the Alpes-Maritimes are a smallish French department, yet
due to their great diversity in terms of altitude, substratum, climate and special
habitats they are likely the richest one from a floristic point of view, hosting almost 60
% (c. 2700 species) of the country's vascular flora. The legal bases for the conservation
of all these riches do exist, but as long as there was no clear guidance as to what
species do in fact benefit of at least some kind of protection, and how they look, the
practical effect of rules and laws was at least questionable.
Salanon & Kulesza's book resolves this difficulty, as it provides the local
authorities, conservation managers and the general public (often the best possible
custodian of our threatened diversity) with all required information. Of the c. 360
species that benefit from at least some degree of protection at the departmental,
national, or international level, 248 are treated in full. The remainder belong to either
of the following categories: orchidaceous taxa protected in a general way by the
Washington convention but not mentioned specifically in legal texts or lists (69 taxa);
plants impossible to protect because they have already disappeared from the department (40
species, including some that were only casuals in the area); and those that in fact never
existed but had been reported due to some kind of error (17 species).
For each of the species presented, the data and illustration are displayed on one page,
with the verso of the sheet blank and unpaged, so that the leaves can be cut loose and
used as a file card. The legal bases of protection are enumerated and numerical references
to relevant literature are added in each case. Besides, there are descriptions, an
illustration (usually a colour photograph of the natural habit, exceptionally of a
herbarium sheet when the plant has not been seen recently), data on general and local
distribution, conservation status, and useful measures to be taken. The threat degree and
protection level vary widely, from the endangered, local endemic to the curious
naturalised alien (Cyrtomium fortunei), from the utterly rare plant not recently
seen in the wild to the common blueberry for which fruit harvest by combing and/or for
commercial purposes is forbidden.
The book is one of those excellent practical contributions to nature conservation that
one is pleased to announce and commend. Among its qualities is the fact that it includes
some pictures that are rarely seen, such as the photograph of flowering Posidonia
oceanica. W.G.
Fausto BONAFEDE, Dino MARCHETTI, Renato TODESCHINI, Michele
VIGNODELLI & Carlo DEL PRETE - Felci e piante affini nella provincia di Modena.
Uno studio preliminare finalizzato al monitoraggio ambientale e alla conservazione della
biodiversità. [Quaderni di documentazione ambientale, 9.] - Settore Difesa del
Suolo e Tutela dell'Ambiente, Provincia di Modena, Via J. Barozzi 340, I-41100 Modena,
1998. 77 pages, maps and graphs, 12 colour photographs on 8 extra plates, flexible cover.
In a way this is a sophisticated interim report, as the working group's efforts to
inventory and monitor the pteridophytes of Modena Province continue and more data keep
being added to the database on which the project relies. The basic idea behind the whole
enterprise is that the ferns and fern allies, owing to their ancestral and in many ways
exposed life cycle, are particularly vulnerable to environmental disturbance and therefore
threatened to an above-average degree (as evidenced by more than half of their species
being on a Reed List for Germany), but that in Italy only a minority of them is known to
be at risk (23 out of 132 species, according to the 1992 Red Data Book for Italy - see
OPTIMA Newsletter 30: (42-43). 1996).
The core of the present report presents grid distribution maps for the 53 taxa (51
species) so far recorded for the Modena Province - a narrowly rectangular area of the
Emilia-Romagna Region, about two dozens km wide, extending from the river Po to the
watershed of the Apennine chain. Mapping is by grid units of 3' lat. by 5' long. (c. 5 x 6
km) and is based on field prospecting by an amateur group (c. 1200 records) and literature
sources (277 records) but not so far on herbarium holdings. Several taxa are new records
for the Province's flora, or confirm older dubious records, but two of the recorded
species (Botrychium multifidum, doubtfully present, and Diphasiastrum
tristachyum) have not been found again.
The overall patterns observed tend to confirm the initial hypothesis of a relatively
high threat for pteridophyte species. Preliminary conclusions define a number of
localities of rare taxa that deserve continued monitoring, and suggest that the list of
species protected by law on a provincial level be widened from the single present one
(hart's-tongue) to a total of 8. It is beyond this reviewer's understanding why the three
Italian Red Book species present (Botrychium matricariifolium, B. multifidum,
Salvinia natans) have been left off that proposed list. W.G.
Mauro BIAGIOLI, Giovanni GESTRI, Bruno ACCIAI & Antonino MESSINA
- Le verdi perle del Monteferrato. Nell'area protetta, alla scoperta di orchidee
selvagge ed altri fiori rari. - Gramma, Perugia, & Municipality of Montemurlo, 1999.
191 pages, drawings, graphs, maps (incl. 3 in colour, one of which as loose insert),
colour photographs, cloth with dust jacket.
Never heard of Montemurlo? Nor had I, but this is now going to change. A hillside
municipality in Tuscany, NW of Florence, Montemurlo has adopted a most remarkable policy
of promoting scientifically-based environmentalists' efforts. The present book, which for
a minor community is a most remarkable achievement, is said to be just a first step in
this direction, with more to follow.
The book is devoted to the protected natural area of Monteferrato, 4500 ha of hilly
country mostly covered by deciduous woodland, not quite reaching 1000 m of altitude, and
shared between the three municipalities of Montemurlo, Prato, and Vaiano. The area has a
fairly complex geology, consisting mainly of limestone, marl and schist but wit a
remarkable nucleus of ophiolithic rocks. The latter accounts for the presence of some of
the rarer specialities among the local flora.
The flora, and within it the orchid family, are the main subject of the text and images
here presented. One must congratulate the authors for having achieved an attractive mix of
science and beauty, writing as they do in a scientifically flawless yet utterly readable
style. The chapter devoted to the general flora (pp. 38-60) is less exhaustive but just as
attractive as the core portion dealing with the orchid family (pp. 61-160, not counting
the indexes). The quality of the photographs, both technically and aesthetically, is
absolutely remarkable.
In short: the book is a jewel. Read it, enjoy it - then go and visit Montemurlo. W.G.
Mohamed FENNANE & Mohamed IBN TATTOU - Catalogue des plantes
vasculaires rares, menacées ou endémiques du Maroc. [Bocconea, 8]. -
Herbarium Mediterraneum Panormitanum, Palermo, 1998 (ISBN 88-7915-008-1). 243 pages, 2
graphs, 1 map, paper. Price: Lit 60,000.
Remember? When I discussed the IUCN Red List (item 34) a couple of pages before,
I ventured the guess that the threat rate recorded there for Morocco (5 %, or 186 species)
was unrealistically low. Now here is a list of the rare, threatened and endemic vascular
plants of Morocco to bear out what I suspected. Of its 2819 entries no less than 2374 are
assigned to one of various threat categories (which figure includes c. 130 erroneous or
doubtful records). Extrapolated to a world scale, the threat can be estimated to affect
700 taxa or 550 species (15 %), three times as much as was previously thought!
These bare figures suffice to fully justify the need for the present inventory. It
includes a first overview of endemism in Morocco, defined widely to include taxa extending
to neighbouring areas (Algeria, Iberian Peninsula, Atlantic Islands, Mauritania), and a
new assessment of the degree of rarity (or vulnerability) of endemic and threatened
non-endemic taxa (species and subspecies). Awkwardly, the category of doubtfully present
and erroneously recorded taxa includes presumed extinctions, but the latter are
exceedingly few. Leaving apart some cases of suspected disappearance from Morocco of taxa
subsisting elsewhere, eight entries remain of species listed as endemics that have
disappeared. One of them was known and documented previously (Trifolium acutiflorum),
a second undisputed extinction (Diplotaxis siettiana) concerns the national
territory of Spain although phytogeographically it rather pertains to Morocco (concretely,
to the Alborán Island). The six remaining presumed extinctions all relate to species of
doubtful taxonomic status: Crepis litardierei, Thymus mentagensis, Alchemilla
litardierei, Elaeoselinum exinvolucratum, E. humile, and Misopates
fontqueri. The latter, incidentally, is one of no less than 28 new combinations
validated within the list - another indication of how badly needed that list was.
Perhaps due to some mishap with the reformatting of electronic text, and certainly to
editorial carelessness, the numbering that must originally have preceded the bibliographic
references has disappeared in the printed version. This means that the numerical
references given in the main text, whenever appropriate, now appear to be meaningless. The
only solution (as long as no erratum sheet has been produced) appears to be renumbering
the bibliography by hand! W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Gardens and gardening
Günther KUNKEL - Jardinería en zonas áridas. - Ediciones
alternativas, Almería, 1998 (ISBN 84-605-7736-8). 145 pages, maps, drawings, photographs,
flexible cover.
To build a garden under arid climate conditions - the idea sounds adventurous and
tempting; the same applies, perhaps, to producing a book on the subject. The present one,
which is written in a refreshingly direct style, has many attractive traits, among which
the drawings by Mary Ann Kunkel are prominent, obviating as they do the paucity of
photographic documents and the absence of colour.
Günther Kunkel is not a newcomer to the subject. You will thus expect to find many
useful ideas among what he writes, and you will not be disappointed. There are thoughts on
landscaping as opposed to formal gardening, on practical ways to minimise wind damage and
evaporation, on the most obnoxious weeds (not always the ones you would think of when
coming from more northerly latitudes), on pitfalls to be avoided. And then, of course,
there is the core section on plants to be used: trees, shrubs, climbers, succulents, very
few herbs (just a handful of bulbs, and almost no annuals). Yes, plenty of ideas.
Do not, however, think of the book as a manual, as which it cannot serve. It gives
little indication of the specific preferences and limitations of the plants presented, on
their hardiness to drought or frost, on their sun of shade tolerance, on specific species
mixes for specific situations. Aridity is not even discussed as a seasonal phenomenon
(although by implication the author deals mainly or exclusively with summer drought
situations). Frost is the only hazard mentioned specifically, and surprisingly, there is
no chapter devoted to water or irrigation (although the need of watering is sometimes
mentioned in passing). There is no advice on how to get at the plants, although the
difficulty of obtaining many of them through the trade, particularly the indigenous ones,
is notorious.
The first two drawings show the development of a garden from nothing to maturity within
just four years, titled: "gardening is no sorcery". Perhaps not. But how, then,
is it done? W.G.
Mary Jaqueline TYRWHITT - Making a garden on a Greek hillside. -
Denise Harvey, Katounia, GR-34005 Limni, 1998 (ISBN 960-7120-14-0; cloth: 960-7120-13-2).
xvii + 247 pages, black-and-white illustrations, paper. Price: £ 10.
Jacky Tyrwhitt, garden architect, successful administrator and organiser, expert of
town and country planning, Harvard professor, spent her retirement building and running
her own Mediterranean garden on the eastern slopes of Mount Imittos. Her home, bequeathed
to the Goulandris Natural History Museum, now hosting the headquarters of the
Mediterranean Garden Society, overtops the vast fertile plain of Mesojia, famous for its
grapes and other agricultural products. There she wrote this book, whose manuscript had
just been completed when she died in 1983. It took fifteen years to show it through the
press, but now it is there, a posthumous monument to the last period of her remarkable
life.
The book is as its author must have been, British to the bone (although her Harvard
past made her be known as the "amerikanida" to the locals). It is a charming mix
of anecdote and fact, spread over twelve chapters each featuring one month. Significantly,
the seasonal cycle starts, not in spring when most flowers blossom but with the other
awakening of Mediterranean nature, in September when the summer drought ends: a turning
point of nature that must have been particularly obvious to one who had spent most of her
life under temperate climates.
Each of the twelve chapters starts with a narration of everyday life (events), of
garden work (jobs), animal life, and of course (how British!) the weather. Then come the
flowers, each lovingly characterised, sometimes with mention of origin, rarely of habitat
preferences. Scientific names are used (revised by no less an authority than William
Stearn!), with equivalent English and Greek vernaculars. Pleasing to note, members of the
wild Greek flora outnumber by far the foreign plants, listed separately at the end. The
concluding bibliography is the only part that has been re-written and updated by the
editors.
In 1980 the Goulandris Museum's live collection of Greek bulbs was donated to the
author. Many of these accessions may still survive and, who knows, have their recorded
source data attached. If so, they would be valuable material for future taxonomic
research! W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Historical subjects and
biography
Franco M. RAIMONDO & H. Walter LACH [i.e.: LACK] (ed.) - Le mele
d'oro. L'affascinante mondo degli agrumi. - Edizioni Grifo, Palermo, 1998 (ISBN
88-86477-01-5). 212 pages, illustrations in black-and-white and colour, paper. Price: Lit
50,000.
This book on the citrus fruits is the expanded Italian version of an exhibition
catalogue originally published in German language in 1996, when the Botanical Museum in
Berlin-Dahlem presented a public show on the "golden apples" (as they were
called in Antiquity) that was to run with unprecedented success for eleven months, until
February 1997. The fourth presentation of this exhibition, the first outside Germany,
started in Palermo on 31 October 1997. The present publication, meant to serve as its
catalogue, but was so ambitiously planned that, when it became finally available, the
exhibition had long left Sicily. The result is fascinating enough to make one condone the
delay.
The book consists of three main portions, of which the first and most sizeable is the
translation of the German original. The texts, by Carsten Schirarend, Marina Heilmeyer and
others, describe and illustrate the mythological, botanical, bibliographical, historical
and cultural aspects. The second part, by Christiane Garnero Morena, Rosario Schicchi and
others, is devoted to citrus cultivation in Italy. The third, essentially by Franco
Raimondo, consists of a treaty on the role of citrus fruits in (essentially pictorial)
art. Same as the earlier chapters, it is brilliantly illustrated by a remarkable choice of
colour reproductions. Throughout the text, summary version in approximate French have been
intercalated.
This volume opens new horizons to all who are culturally interested. While it is
botanical in essence, the range of subjects treated widely exceeds the natural sciences.
It is a fine example of what co-operation of many can ideally achieve - and an attractive
present for many. W.G.
H. Walter LACK - The Flora graeca story. Sibthorp, Bauer, and Hawkins
in the Levant. With David J. MABBERLEY. - Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York
& Tokyo, 1999 (ISBN 0-19-854897-4). xxxi + 327 pages, 69 figures, 9 maps, coloured
frontispiece + 16 extra plates in colour, hard cover with dust jacket. Price: £ 250.
No, don't expect a critique. I couldn't. I just love this book. I like the subject, the
story, the way in which it is told. I can do no more but write its eulogy.
I feel that such books as this one are essential, that more of their kind are needed
because they are vital for our proper understanding of the ways in which our knowledge of
the world around us, and of those parts of the world that are far from home, came about.
We need to be told of how our early predecessors worked, how they thought and felt; and we
must learn to listen to that tale. In the present case the tale is of an English gentleman
who travelled out of his whim through lands then virtually unknown; of the adventures,
hardships and achievements in those foreign countries, his own and of those of his travel
companions; of the fate of the harvest brought home, a harvest that would reshape our
botanical knowledge of Greece and neighbouring areas; and of much of the contemporary
background, historical, political, and cultural, which is needed to fully grasp the
essence and the implications of the story told.
The book has, essentially, three heroes: John Sibthorp, the gentleman just mentioned,
the young and enthusiastic explorer and naturalist; Ferdinand Bauer, the genial artist and
illustrator; and John Hawkins, the broad-minded and erudite amateur and travel mate. The
history of their lives is here artfully interwoven: first come their distinct early years,
then the common adventure of their first Greek journey, their interactions during the
subsequent English interlude, the second journey when Bauer had left the scene, and the
later fates and achievements. A lively narrative that has the merit of being based on
thoroughly researched facts, on an incredible wealth of mostly unpublished documents:
letters, travel diaries, specimens, paintings and drawings. Many of these documents are
reproduced, partly in colour, and add their own unmistakable flavour of authenticity to
what might otherwise been read as a piece of fascinating fiction.
Sibthorp, the central figure, appears as an eccentric and rather egocentric young man
of strong will and energy but rather weak organisational skills. His name might have got
lost for posterity were it not for three lucky moves: the hiring of Ferdinand Bauer's
services for the first travel and for his subsequent years in Oxford (where he was kept in
virtual slavery); the drafting of a will that was as generous as it was precise and
clairvoyant, to secure the spectacular publication of his (and Bauer's) achievements; and
the knitting of a close friendship with Hawkins who, having become sedentary after his
second return from Greece, was to devote the better half of his long and busy life to
making that will become true.
While obligatory reading for all who want to really grasp the historical dimension of
Mediterranean and Oriental botany, this book is not however a Sibthorpian nomenclator.
Rather, it will serve plant taxonomists by directing them to the background information
they should know and may need, and by telling them how to interpret and use that
information. To this end, it includes a dozen appendices (among them an index to
nomenclatural novelties published in the Flora graeca itself and, mainly, its Prodromus).
The narrative of how Sibthorp's scientific heirs, James Edward Smith in the first place,
overcame that legacy's inadequacy (or, more often, stumbled when trying to do so) is not
entirely new, but has never been written more clearly. Detailed itineraries, with maps,
will be of help in locating the presumed origin of potential type material.
This is not a cheap book to buy, but it is worth every penny of its price; and then -
perhaps some kind of consolation - it deals with one of the most costly and most utterly
unaffordable works ever produced! W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Festschrift
Josep VIGO, Xavier LLIMONA, Ramon Maria MASALLES & Josep Maria
NINOT (ed.). - Doctor Oriol de Bolòs. Pioner en l'estudi de la vegetació. [Acta
botanica barcinonensia, 45 & Universitat de Barcelona, Collecció homenatges,
16]. - Universitat, Barcelona, 1998 (ISBN 84-475-2007-2). Pages 1-643 + [1-3] + 645-647,
hard cover.
In a timely fashion for Oriol del Bolòs's 75th birthday on 16 March 1999 a magnificent
festschrift has been published in his honour. It includes exactly 40 papers on a variety
of subjects more or less directly related to the vast thematic spectrum of his own
research.
The three initial papers deal with the life and achievement of this most remarkable
among the living botanists of Catalonia. His biography was written by one of his earliest
doctoral students, Josep Vigo. The two following texts concern Bolòs's contribution to
scientific terminology and to the botanical knowledge of the Balearic Islands. Mycology
and lichenology are represented by three papers, phycology by four, and one is devoted to
bryology. The remainder concern vascular plant taxonomy and geobotany in its widest sense.
Not surprisingly in view of the pride the Catalonian take in their own language and
culture, most of the papers are written in Catalonian (which is however easily understood
by the French and/or Spanish speaking). The exception are five papers in each Spanish and
English, and two in French.
This book is a worthy homage to a great botanist. It would doubtless have grown to
multiple size had contribution not been limited to invited authors. All others, including
myself, will want to join in conveying their best wishes to their illustrious colleague in
Barcelona. W.G.
Notices of Publication index
Symposium proceedings
Pertti UOTILA (ed.). - Chorological problems in the European flora.
Proceedings of the VIII Meeting of the Committee for Mapping the Flora of Europe,
Helsinki, Finland, 8-10 August 1997. [Acta botanica fennica, 162]. - Finnish
Zoological and Botanical Publishing Board, Helsinki, 1999. [2] + XIV + 196 pages,
black-and-white and colour illustrations, hard cover. Price: FIM 440.
Most prominent among the 31 papers of this symposium volume are the contributions
placed at either end. At the beginning three papers report on the Atlas florae
europaeae (AFE) project as a whole, where the most important news are: AFE goes
digital (with examples of what can be made out of the electronically stored data when a
software package like WORLDMAP is used), and where the reassuring message is: AFE
carries on full speed, no interruption can and will be allowed irrespective of changes in
the editorial team. At the end, half a dozen papers are devoted to the taxonomy of
rosaceous genera, Rubus, Rosa, and Alchemilla in particular, well
known to present arduous problems of treatment, as Rosaceae are the subject of vol.
13 of AFE, now in preparation.
The intermediate portion of the book deals first with mapping projects (or problems) of
specific countries or areas (Iberian Peninsula, Britain, Germany, Poland, Finland,
Friuli-Venezia Giulia in Italy, Slovenia, Romania, W. Ukraine and the Crimea, European
Russia), then with methodological approaches (e.g. Barthlott & al.'s world map of
biodiversity), phytogeographical aspects, and stray groups (including two papers on
Mediterranean orchids).
On the whole, a well edited and elegantly produced contribution to Euro-Mediterranean
plant chorology, that provides much pleasant and instructive reading. W.G.
[Julia PÉREZ DE PAZ (ed.).] - [Actas del 9 Simposio de Palinología
promovido por la Asociación de Palinólogos de Lengua Española en Las Palmas de Gran
Canaria, del 30 de Noviembre al 4 de Diciembre de 1992.] [pp. 4-296 in:] Botanica
macaronesica, 23. - Ediciones del Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran
Canaria, 1998. 315 pages, black-and-white illustrations, 4 folded and paged insets, paper.
Volume 23 of Botanica macaronesica is almost entirely devoted to palynological
contributions that were presented almost six years earlier at an APLE symposium held in
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Except for two introductory general papers - by Lugardon of
ultrastructure of Pteridophyte spore walls, in French; Blackmore on "the impact of
palynology on taxonomy", in English - all of the 24 papers included are written in
Spanish, with a summary in English.
Five sections are recognised. The first is devoted to the study of modern pollen
("actupalynology") and includes 5 papers, the two just mentioned and one each on
Iberian umbels, Macaronesian Echium, and ferns from Tenerife. There are 4 papers on
aeropalynology, 1 on pollen biology, 3 on melittopalynology, and 10 on palaeopalynology,
ranging from Carboniferous spores to the pollen analysis of Holocene palaeosoils. Four
items at the end belong, not to the afore-mentioned symposium but to the ongoing series
"Notas corológico-taxonómicas de la flora macaronesica" (Nos 82-85). W.G.
G. ALZIAR & P. EWALD (ed.). - Actes du Colloque "Plantes
introduites - plantes envahissantes" tenu du 8 au 11 octobre 1996 à Nice dans le
cadre des 8è Rencontres de l'Agence Régionale pour l'Environnement Région
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. [Biocosme mésogéen, 15(1)]. - Ville de Nice,
Muséum d'Histoire naturelle & Jardin botanique, Nice, 1998. [5] + 174 pages,
black-and-white illustrations, paper.
The concern about invasive aliens is relatively new, although the phenomenon goes back
to early historical and even prehistorical times. It is at present shared by
environmentalists, agronomists, foresters, and many others. The fact that a small but
choice symposium has been convened in southern France to deal with it bears witness of
this trend.
A special issue of Biocosme mésogéen is devoted to this symposium's conclusions. Most
appropriately, it begins on a critical note: an alien plant, even if naturalised, is not
necessarily an evil to be fought. It is ludicrous to protect the vanishing weed flora of
our corn fields as part of our threatened national biodiversity while at the same time
bedevilling the inoffensive though successful newcomer. Lambinon, the author, is careful
to exclude the real invaders when eventually concluding that, other things being equal, a
xenophyte of remote provenance is by far preferable to the introduction of a foreign
strain or genotype of a species of the native flora.
The 8 other papers here presented all deal with the negative aspects of plant
invasions. They include two case studies (Acacia dealbata invading and displacing
native woodland communities; and the green alga Caulerpa taxifolia monopolising
vast areas of sea bottom off the coast of S. France) as well as several regional surveys
in France (coastal ponds along the Atlantic coast, Landes Department; Bouches-du-Rhône;
Corsica) and Italy (national territory and Sardinia). Island biogeographers will be
interested in an impact assessment of breeding colonies of seagulls on islet floras, near
Marseille.
The symposium participants carried a resolution focusing the attention of all concerned
on the problem and (perhaps rashly) asking for legal and administrative action, not only
to monitor the phenomenon but to prevent new, potentially harmful introductions. In an
appendix, Annie Aboucaya has synthesised the feedback from a relevant questionnaire by
drawing up three lists, valid for the Mediterranean parts of France: the first of
ascertained invasive aliens (36 species of flowering plants, 3 sea-weeds), the second of
potentially obnoxious invaders (46 + 3), the third a "waiting list" (61
species). There is a second list (105 species) of the invasive aliens of Italy on pp.
81-82, and a third with non-native trees used in reforestation in Sardinia (36 species,
pp. 105-106).
When comparing these lists one will find that they differ greatly, and one feels that
their disparity reflects, not only the natural differences, climatic and historical, of
the areas concerned but also the application of widely inconsistent criteria. There is
scope for far more research on the subject, and an urgent need for more and better
co-ordinated information. The symposium at Nizza has been an important step in the right
direction, but only a first, preliminary such step. W.G.
[Mar(ia Antoni)etta COLASANTE (ed.).] - Irises and Iridaceae:
biodiversity & systematics. An international conference organised by the
University of Rome "La Sapienza", the Società Italiana dell'Iris of Florence,
the Linnean Society of London, the Systematics Association. Orto Botanico, Rome, 8-10(11)
July 1998. Abstracts. - Linnean Society of London, 1998. [33] sheets, stapled.
My copy of this abstract pamphlet is from a kind of mopped-up congress document folder,
also including some other documents (provisional and final programme, one-page conference
report). The symposium included two days of lectures, with 10 speakers on each, and an
exhibit of c. 20 posters. The first day was apparently devoted to general subjects
concerning the whole family (overall and molecular phylogeny, phytochemistry, leaf
anatomy, conservation, germination) as well as to Crocus, whereas the second day
concerned the genus Iris only.
The one-page abstracts, each on a separate sheet, concern 20 lectures (18 actually
given, 2 replaced by others) and 11 of the posters. They hopefully foreshadow publication
of the symposium proceedings in full - which, judging from titles and contents, would be
most rewarding to read. W.G.
E. BOZILOVA & S. TONKOV (ed.). - Advances in Holocene
palaeoecology in Bulgaria. [Contributions by Bulgarian palynologists at a symposium on
the history of flora and vegetation on 22-25 July 1993 at Borovetz, Bulgaria]. - Pensoft,
Sofia & Moscow, 1995 (ISBN 954-642-005-0). V + 95 pages, black-and-white
illustrations, paper. Price: DM 20.
In parallel with the second half of the VII OPTIMA Meeting in Borovec, and in the same
tourist resort, a second, completely independent meeting took place that was not even
mentioned in the printed programme (although many OPTIMA members may have become aware of
it through announcements posted on the notice board): a Symposium on the History of Flora
and Vegetation, organised by the Laboratory of Palynology, Department of Botany, of the St
Klement Ohridski State University in Sofija as an inter-Congress event of the INQUA
Commission for the Study of the Holocene. The present booklet, printed in 1995 in time for
being presented at INQUA XIV in Berlin, comprises the Symposium's published proceedings: 6
papers by Bulgarian palaeobotanists on the Late Glacial and Post-Glacial flora and
vegetation of Bulgaria.
The oldest sediments studied, three deep-sea cores from the western Black Sea, off the
Bulgarian coast, date back to 11,000 years B.P., but most of the data clearly belong in
the Holocene period. With the single exception just mentioned, the samples were taken from
peat bogs or lake sediments and concern pollen grains for the most part, with occasional
macro-remains (leaves and seeds) in addition. The results document the horizontal and
vertical spread of woodland, and changes in its composition, first under natural
conditions in the Atlantic phase, then under the more and more prominent influence of Man.
A survey paper, based on several detailed analyses published previously, deals with the
history of beech woods on the Bulgarian territory. The occurrence of such woods is
documented for the Eemian interglacial period already, and relic stands survived the last
glaciation in several refugial pockets in the mountainous areas of southern Bulgaria.
These data corroborate the role of the southern Balkan Peninsula as survival and source
area for many of today's forest trees, from where they spread over central and boreal
Europe at the end of the ice ages. W.G.
Ioannes TSEKOS & Michael MOUSTAKAS (ed.). - Progress in botanical
research. Proceedings of the 1st Balkan Botanical Congress. - Kluwer Academic
Publishers, Dordrecht, 1998. XVI + 632 pages, black-and-white illustrations, hard cover.
If you have a good memory you will perhaps start wondering: First Balkan Botanical
Congress"? Wasn't there another such congress already, years ago? Well, there was -
and yet there wasn't. What you had in the back of your mind was the First International
Symposium on Balkan Flora and Vegetation that was held in Varna, Bulgaria, in June 1973
and whose proceedings were published in Sofija in 1975 (see OPTIMA Newsletter 2: 38-39.
1975). The organisers of the new Congress had a much broader subject than just merely
flora and vegetation studies in mind, and wanted to address all Balkan botanists, not
merely those working on their native country's plants; so, understandably, they changed
the name and restarted the numbering. The success of the Congress was to prove them right.
The index to the proceedings volume lists no less than 141 contributions (even more had
been presented), grouped under 6 different headings. The grouping is not ideal. Few
botanists will find the items of their special field under a single heading, nor will they
be interested in all items of any one group. The 41 subjects treated under the first
heading, "Taxonomy, geobotany and evolution", range from palaeopalynology
through reproductive biology and pollination ecology, phenology, morphology, chorology,
geobotany and vegetation sciences, floristics and taxonomy, to general evolutionary
studies and the history of botanical exploration. At the low end of the scale, there is
what you may call botanical chat, a completely unreferenced note on some new or curious
rarities in the Peloponnesus.
While paper and binding are fine, the publisher has otherwise done a poor job: varying
type sizes, lack of consistent layout, and erratic presence of abstracts irritate the
reader. Worse: in most cases, the space allotted to each paper is insufficient to tell a
coherent story and mention all relevant facts. W.G.
Anonymous (ed.). - Ellênikê Botanikê Etaireia. Biologikê Etaireia
Kuprou. 6° Epistêmoniko Sunedrio upo tên aigida tou Upourgeiou Paideias kai
Politismou Kuprou. Praktika. 6-11 Apriliou 1996, Paralimni-Kupros. [Hellenic Botanical
Society. Biological Society of Cyprus. 6th Botanical Scientific Conference under the
auspices of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus. Proceedings. 5[sic!]-11 April
1996, Paralimni-Cyprus]. - Ellênikê Botanikê Etaireia [s.l., s.d.]. 382 + [2] pages,
black-and-white illustrations, paper.
The sixth biennial meeting of the Greek Botanical Society had taken place in 1994 in
Delfi (see OPTIMA Newsletter 31: (25). 1997). This time the Society went overseas and
joined forces with their Cypriot colleagues.
As there is no table of contents nor any clear structure, the book is difficult to use.
Following 32 pages of introductory matter, including obituary notes (on Ganiatsas,
Anagnostidis, Gavalas, and Marakis) there are a large, indefinite number of short research
papers on various botanical subjects, all in Greek but almost invariably with an English
summary, reproduced photomechanically from typescript. Paper, print and illustration are
of surprisingly good quality, and so, one assumes, are the contents.
A fact of note is that the Meeting selected a national flower for Cyprus: Cyclamen
cyprium, illustrated in colour inside the back cover. W.G.
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