Informateur OPTIMA Newsletter

OPTIMA Newsletter - 33(e) / Informateur OPTIMA - 33(e)

Printed version ISSN 0376-5016 33 (1)-(16) (July 1998), published by the Secretariat of OPTIMA.
Web version installed June 16, 1999. Page editors

inside this issue,
Recommendations for Botanical Database Design
The Spanish Lichen Herbaria
The Med-Checklist of Mediterranean Lichens

Contents of N°. 33(e)

Nouvelles de l’OPTIMA / OPTIMA News
Conservation News - MIPSG’s Top 50
ITN News - Recommendations for Botanical Database Design; Attention Mediterranean Botanical Database Holders
Herbarium News - The Spanish Lichen Herbaria
Lichen News - The Med-Checklist of Mediterranean Lichens
Web News - Directory of Medicinal Plant Conservation
Personalia - OPTIMA Medals; 1997 FONDENA Prize
Meetings - IX OPTIMA Meeting
Announcements
Notices of Publications - OPTIMA; Cryptogams; Floras; Flower books; Floristic inventories and checklists; Excursions; Chorology; Regional studies of flora and vegetation; Applied botany; Conservation topics, Red Data books; Gardens and institutes; Bibliography and documentation; 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

 

DE PARIS, EN ROUTE POUR UN NOUVEAU MILLÉNAIRE

Les Colloques de l'OPTIMA ont toujours été une excellente occasion d'établir des contacts entre groupes, de partager des idées et de donner le départ à de nouvelle initiatives, et le 9ème Colloque de l'OPTIMA qui vient de se tenir à Paris en est un bon exemple. Les réunions des commissions de l'OPTIMA au début du congrès furent très productives, et des avancées significatives de leurs programmes peuvent être envisagées dans un futur proche. Une brève actualisation de leurs activités est présentée dans ces pages. Si vous souhaitez être informé de façon plus approfondie, ou collaborer activement aux activités d'une commission particulière, vous êtes prié de contacter le secrétaire correspondant. Une liste des membres et secrétaires de chaque commission se trouve à la fin de ce chapitre. Dans ce numéro, une place particulière est donnée au monde stupéfiant des lichens méditerranéens. Faites nous parvenir vos commentaires sur ce sujet comme sur d'autres, nous consacrerons de la place dans cet informateur pour faire connaître vos opinions.

J.M. Iriondo

 

COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL

En 1997, les membres du Comité ont approuvé le rapport annuel et le rapport financier pour 1996, soumis par le Secrétaire au nom du Président et du Conseil Exécutif. Le Comité a également élu S. Pajarón et F. Fernández-González comme vérificateurs des comptes pour 1997.

En 1998, le Comité a approuvé la recommandation de la Commission des Prix d'attribuer la Médaille d'Or de l'OPTIMA au Pr. W. Greuter.

Au 9ème Colloque de l' OPTIMA de Paris, le Comité a décidé :

  • De dissoudre le Comité de Programme pour le 9ème Colloque de l'OPTIMA, en le remerciant pour les services rendus, et de mettre en place un nouveau Comité de Programme pour le 10ème Colloque de l'OPTIMA qui doit se tenir à Palerme en 2001.
  • De mettre en place deux nouvelles Commissions: la Commission mycologique, dont la mission est de promouvoir les études et les programmes de recherche sur les Champignons, et la Commission Sisyphus, chargée de coordonner la participation de l'OPTIMA à la nouvelle Initiative Euro-Méditerranéenne en Systématique Végétale.
  • De nommer S. Pajarón et F. Fernández-González vérificateurs des comptes pour 1998.
  • De soutenir l'appel de la Commission pour la diffusion et la mise sur réseau de l'Information à collaborer à la préparation d'un répertoire des Bases de données Méditerranéennes existantes ou en projet.
  • D'approuver la participation de l'OPTIMA au projet de la Fondation pour l'Herbarium Mediterraneum d'organiser une exposition sur l'histoire des explorations et de la recherche botaniques en région méditerranéenne à Palerme en 2001, à l'occasion du 10ème Colloque de l'OPTIMA.

 

CONSEIL

Le Conseil a approuvé la recommandation de la Commission des Prix d'attribuer les Médailles d'Argent de l'OPTIMA au Dr. Mes pour "Origin and evolution of the Macaronesian Sempervivoideae (Crassulaceae)." 1995; au Dr. Díaz-Lifante et au Pr. Valdés pour "Revisión del género Asphodelus L. (Asphodelaceae) en el Mediterraneo occidental." 1996; et aux Dr. Raffaelli et Dr. Baldoin pour "Il complesso di Biscutella laevigata L. (Cruciferae) in Italia." 1997.

Au 9ème Colloque de l'OPTIMA de Paris, le Conseil a procédé aux nominations suivantes :

  • V. Heywood et B. de Montmollin comme membres de la Commission pour la Conservation des Ressources végétales
  • G. Venturella comme membre de la Commission pour l'Herbarium Mediterraneum
  • C. Del Prete comme membre de la Commission pour la diffusion et la mise sur réseau de l'Information.

 

DÉCÈS

† Pr. Dr. D. Lausi, Trieste, Italie, décédé en 1997.

† Pr. Dr. F.A. Stafleu, Utrecht, Hollande, décédé en 1997.

† Pr. Dr Dmitrios Voliotis, Athènes, Grèce, décédé en Avril 1998.

 

LE POINT SUR LES COMMISSIONS

 

LE TROISIÈME RÉPERTOIRE SUR LA RECHERCHE EN COURS EST EN ROUTE!

Au 9ème Colloque de l'OPTIMA tenu à Paris en Mai 1998, la Commission pour la recherche en cours a décidé de lancer une nouvelle campagne destinée à produire un Répertoire nouveau et actualisé des recherches en cours. Ce troisième Répertoire comprendra non seulement les projets de recherche en cours, mais également les domaines d'intérêt et les compétences des botanistes. Un nouveau questionnaire a été mis au point, vous le trouverez dans ce numéro de l'Informateur OPTIMA. Prenez quelques minutes pour le remplir SVP!

Les informations collectées alimenteront une base de données, dont il est envisagé d'extraire une version imprimée et une diffusion sur Internet. Si vous êtes intéressé à participer de façon plus active à ce projet, prenez contact SVP avec : Dr. Stephen L. Jury, Secretary, OPTIMA Commission for Current Research, Centre for Plant Diversity and Systematics, Plant Science Laboratories, The University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AS, UK. Tel. +44 (0)118 975 3676, E-mail:s.l.jury@reading.ac.uk

 

ÉTAT D'AVANCEMENT DE "PAYSAGES VÉGÉTAUX DU BASSIN MÉDITERRANÉEN"

Le livre "Paysages végétaux du Bassin méditerranéen" est en cours de préparation par la Commission pour la diffusion des connaissances sur les plantes méditerranéennes. Un chapitre d'essai a été rédigé et revu par les membres de la Commission, et distribué aux membres de la Commission et aux collaborateurs. Plus précisément, les auteurs des chapitres concernant les introductions générales, Israël et la Jordanie, l'Italie, l'Espagne, la Syrie et le Liban, et la Turquie sont au travail et un premier jet de ces chapitres devrait être terminé pour le 15 Septembre 1998. Des contacts sont actuellement en cours pour la France, les Balkans et l'Afrique du Nord.

Pour plus d'informations, prendre contact avec le Pr. Uzi Plitmann, Department of Botany The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904 Israel. E-mail: uzi@vms.huji. ac.il

 

LA BULGARIE ET LE SUD DE LA FRANCE

ACCUEILLERONT LES DEUX PROCHAINS ITINERA MEDITERRANEA

A la dernière réunion de la Commission pour la recherche floristique, il a été décidé que les Itinera Mediterranea des deux prochaines années se dérouleraient en Bulgarie et en France. Il a également été convenu que dorénavant deux Itinera Mediterranea seraient organisés par période de trois années de façon à ce qu'ils ne coïncident pas avec les Colloques de l'OPTIMA qui se tiennent tous les trois ans. Ainsi, l'Iter suivant se tiendra probablement en Arménie en l'an 2002. La durée des expéditions sera de deux ou trois semaines selon la destination. Le nombre minimum de membres de l'expédition a été fixé à 10, et le maximum à 12. En dessous de 10 participants, l'expédition n'aura lieu que si les organisateurs sont en mesure de couvrir les dépenses supplémentaires.

Pour plus d'informations, prendre contact avec le Pr. Benito Valdés. Dpto. Biología Vegetal y Ecología Universidad de Sevilla Apdo. 1095 E-41080 Sevilla Spain. Tel.: +34 954 557047; Fax: +34 954 557059; E-mail: bvaldes@cica.es

 

NOUVELLES DU TRAVAIL DE TERRAIN: LE RETOUR!

La rubrique "Field Work News" est en cours de réactivation et tous les membres de l'OPTIMA seront sollicités de donner des informations sur leurs expéditions par un questionnaire. Les renseignements obtenus seront organisés en base de données et rendus accessibles sur Internet.

Pour plus d'informations, contacter  : Pr. Benito Valdés. Dpto. Biología Vegetal y Ecología Universidad de Sevilla Apdo. 1095 E-41080 Sevilla Spain. Tel.: +34 954 557047; Fax: +34 954 557059; E-mail: bvaldes@cica.es

 

 

UNE NOUVELLE INITIATIVE:

LA COMMISSION MYCOLOGIQUE DE L'OPTIMA

Au cours de la dernière réunion du Comité International, la création d'une Commission mycologique de l'OPTIMA a été décidée. La Commission encouragera les études et les programmes de recherche sur différents thèmes mycologiques, tels que : biodiversité et conservation, inventaire et cartographie des espèces, élaboration de données chorologiques et de listes rouges, systématique et phylogénie des taxons d'intérêt particulier, écologie des communautés fongiques, écophysiologie, symbioses et interactions avec les plantes hôtes, génétique des populations et processus de spéciation, utilisation et exploitation potentielles d'espèces sélectionnées pour la culture des Champignons comestibles, bioremédiation des déchets et résidus agro-industriels, et production de fourrage.

La Commission mycologique de l'OPTIMA s'est réunie pour la première fois à Paris le 13 Mai. Il a été convenu que la Commission commencerait à travailler à la compilation d'un Catalogue des espèces méditerranéennes de Champignons en Italie, France, Espagne et Grèce. Une proposition sera soumise à l'Union Européenne pour subventionner un projet sur la biodiversité fongique dans les habitats méditerranéens. A cet effet, un groupe de travail de coordinateurs régionaux a été mis en place.

Pour plus d'informations, contacter : Pr. Silvano Onofri; Tuscia University, via S. Camillo de Lellis, Blocco D, I-01100 Viterbo Italy.

 

INTENSE ACTIVITÉ A L'HERBARIUM MEDITERRANEUM

L'Herbarium Mediterraneum de Palerme travaille dur dans différents domaines d'activité et s'affirme comme une institution clé dans les études de Botanique méditerranéenne. Voici quelques-unes des dernières nouvelles :

1.- Sur le front des publications, trois volumes de Bocconea, financés par la fondation pour l'Herbarium Mediterraneum, doivent être publiés en 1998. Un quatrième volume de Bocconea sera publié avec un financment extérieur. Le volume 8 de Flora Mediterranea sera également publié vers la fin de cette année.

2.- La Fondation a approuvé un accord avec l'OPTIMA destiné à faciliter l'acquisition de spécimens d'herbier par l'Herbarium Mediterraneum en autorisant certains paiements à l'OPTIMA sous forme de spécimens d'herbier. Cette possibilité sera offerte aux botanistes des pays circum-méditerranéens. Des informations détaillées sur cet accord figurent dans un encadré séparé à la fin de la rubrique Nouvelles de l'OPTIMA dans cet informateur.

3.- La Fondation pour l'Herbarium Mediterraneum financera une exposition sur l'histoire des explorations botaniques de la région méditerranéenne. Cette exposition sera organisée à Palerme et coïncidera avec le 10ème Colloque de l'OPTIMA. Ultérieurement, l'exposition pourrait circuler dans les institutions botaniques d'autres pays. Une publication sur ce même sujet est également envisagée.

 

NOUVELLES OFFRES DE LA COMMISSION DES PUBLICATIONS DE L'OPTIMA

Un total de quatre volumes de Bocconea sont prévus pour publication en 1998. Ces volumes traiterons de la Flore du Maroc, des plantes menacées du Maroc, du genre Anthemis et des résultats de l'Iter Mediterraneum en Sicile et à Chypre. Comme cela a été signalé plus haut, le volume 8 de Flora Mediterranea sera également publié vers la fin de l'année.

Les Actes du 8ème Colloque de l'OPTIMA à Séville sont maintenant disponibles pour les membres institutionnels avec une remise de 50% et pour les membres ordinaires avec 25% de remise sur le prix normal. Acta Botanica Malacitana est également offert aux membres de l'OPTIMA avec 33% et 50% de réduction. Consulter la rubrique "Publications Offer" au début de cet Informateur pour plus de détails.

Les membres de la Commission sont à la recherche de nouvelles publications à proposer aux membres de l'OPTIMA. Les offres qui en résulteront seront publiées dans les numéros à paraître de l'Informateur OPTIMA.

 

 

COLLABOREZ AVEC LA COMMISSION DE L'OPTIMA POUR LA DIFFUSION

ET LA MISE SUR RÉSEAU DE L'INFORMATION!

L'importance de l'acquisition et de la diffusion de données sous forme électronique est actuellement unanimement reconnue. La Commission est prête à soutenir de tels efforts :

  1. En fournissant un forum sur Internet pour l'échange d'informations. Ceci a été partiellement réalisé par le Site WWW de l'OPTIMA actuellement localisé à Berlin. Le BGBM de Berlin a également proposé de fournir des listes de diffusion automatiques par courrier électronique pour les Commissions et autres groupes de l'OPTIMA.
  2. En réunissant une liste de recommandations pour la réalisation de bases de données botaniques, incluant la définition des données de niveau terrain et des sources pour données normalisées. Ceci afin de garantir autant que possible la compatibilité entre nouvelles bases de données, permettant de les mettre en réseau ultérieurement.
  3. En élaborant une liste des bases de données botaniques existantes ou en projet pour la région méditerranéenne. Le succès dépend fortement du degré de coopération des membres de l'OPTIMA. Les propriétaires de bases ou de séries de données susceptibles d'être utiles à d'autres sont une fois de plus encouragés à se manifester. Si vos bases ou séries de données comportent des enregistrements de spécimens, vous êtes prié de participer au projet BioCISE (voir http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/ Biocise/TheProject/Survey/default.htm). Pour d'autres bases de données vous devriez communiquer les renseignement suivants au président de la Commission ou au Secrétariat de l'OPTIMA : nom de la base de données, contenu, disponibilité, adresse de la personne responsable.

 

ATLAS DES ORCHIDÉES MÉDITERRANÉENNES POUR L'AN 2001!

La Commission pour la cartographie des Orchidées de la région méditerranéenne a continué à accumuler des informations nouvelles et espère éditer un atlas chorologique des orchidées méditerranéennes pour le prochain Colloque de l'OPTIMA. Les données seront présentées sous forme de 20-30 cartes à grille UTM avec des informations sur la morphologie, l'iconographie, le statut de protection et la biologie.

 

COLLABORATION ENTRE LA CCRV ET LE MISPG

La Commission de l'OPTIMA pour la Conservation des ressources végétales va collaborer avec le Mediterranean Islands Specialist Plant Group de l'UICN sur de futurs projets de conservation de plantes dans la région méditerranéenne.

 

 

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX ET... X

Le Comité de Programme du 10ème Colloque de l'OPTIMA a été mis en place par le Comité International au cours de sa dernière réunion à Paris et s'est déjà mis au travail pour préparer le prochain Colloque de l'OPTIMA qui se tiendra à Palerme en l'an 2001.

 

COLLABOREZ AVEC

L'HERBARIUM MEDITERRANEUM

POUR GAGNER

DES COTISATIONS A L'OPTIMA

ET DES VOLUMES DE BOCCONEA

 

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 :

  1. Cette offre concerne en premier lieu nos membres domiciliés dans un pays óu la disponibilité de devises est limitée ou leur transfert à l'étranger compliquée et laborieux; les membres d'autres pays ne sont cependant pas exclus.
  2. 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).
  3. Elle est ouverte aux membres de l'OPTIMA des pays circumméditerranéens, y compris la Bulgarie, l'Ukraine et le Portugal.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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).
  7. 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.
  8. Les frais d'expédition seront remboursés aux expéditeurs par l'Herbarium Mediterraneum.
  9. 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)

 

OPTIMA NEWS

 

FROM PARIS TOWARDS A NEW MILLENIUM

The OPTIMA Meetings have always provided an excellent opportunity for establishing contacts among groups, sharing ideas and starting new initiatives and the IX OPTIMA Meeting held in Paris is a good example of this. The meetings held by the OPTIMA Commissions at the beginning of the congress were highly productive and significant advances are envisioned in their programs in the near future. On these pages, a short update of their activities is presented. If you wish to have further information or to actively collaborate in the activities of a certain commission please contact the corresponding secretary. A list with the members and secretaries of each commission is provided at the end of this section. Special treatment is given to the amazing world of Mediterranean lichens in this issue. Send us your comments on this and other topics and we will dedicate some space in our next newsletter to publish your opinions.

J.M. Iriondo

 

INTERNATIONAL BOARD

In 1997, the Board members approved the annual report and the financial report for 1996, submitted by the Secretary on behalf of the President and the Executive Council. The Board also elected the auditors, S. Pajarón and F. Fernández-González, for 1997.

In 1998, the Board approved the recommendation of the Prize Commission to attribute the OPTIMA Gold Medal to Prof. W. Greuter.

At the IX OPTIMA Meeting held in Paris the Board made the following decisions:

  • To disband the Programme Committee for the IX OPTIMA Meeting, with thanks for services rendered, and to establish a new Programme Committee for the X OPTIMA Meeting to be held in Palermo in 2001.
  • To set up two new Commissions: The Commission on Fungi, with the mandate to promote studies and research programmes on mycological topics and the Sisyphus Commission, with the task of coordinating the participation of OPTIMA in the new Euro-Mediterranean Initiative in Plant Systematics.
  • To elect S. Pajarón and F. Fernández-González as auditors for 1998.
  • To support the call for collaboration of the Commission for Information Transfer and Networking in the preparation of a directory of existing or projected Mediterranean databases.
  • To endorse the participation of OPTIMA in the Herbarium Mediterraneum Foundation initiative to hold an exhibition on the history of botanical explorations and investigation in the Mediterranean in Palermo in 2001 in coincidence with the X OPTIMA Meeting.

 

EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

The Council approved the recommendation of the Prize Commission to award the OPTIMA Silver Medals to Dr. Mes for "Origin and evolution of the Macaronesian Sempervivoideae (Crassulaceae)."1995; Dr. Díaz-Lifante and Prof. Valdés for "Revisión del género Asphodelus L. (Asphodelaceae) en el Mediterraneo occidental." 1996; and, Dr. Raffaelli and Dr. Baldoin for "Il complesso di Biscutella laevigata L. (Cruciferae) in Italia." 1997.

At the IX OPTIMA Meeting held in Paris the Council made the following nominations:

  • V. Heywood and B. de Montmollin for membership on the Commission for the Conservation of Plant Resources
  • G. Venturella for membership on the Herbarium Mediterraneum Commission
  • C. Del Prete for membership on the Commission for Information Transfer and Networking

 

DEATHS

† Prof. Dr. D. Lausi, Trieste, Italy, died in 1997.

† Prof. Dr. F.A. Stafleu, Utrecht, Holland, died in 1997.

† Prof. Dr Dmitrios Voliotis, Athens, Greece, died in April 1998.

 

UPDATES ON COMMISSIONS

 

THE THIRD REGISTER OF CURRENT RESEARCH IS NOW UNDER WAY!

At the IX OPTIMA Meeting held in Paris in May 1998, the Commission for Current Research decided to launch a new campaign to produce a new and updated Register of Current Research. The Third Register will include not only current research projects but also research interest and the expertise of botanists. A new questionnaire has been formulated and is included in this issue of OPTIMA Newsletter. Please take a few minutes to fill it out.

The information will be gathered and put in a database format. From this database, a published printout and its implementation on the Internet is envisioned. If you are interested in a more active participation in this project, please contact: Dr. Stephen L. Jury, Secretary, OPTIMA Commission for Current Research, Centre for Plant Diversity and Systematics, Plant Science Laboratories, The University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, RG6 6AS, UK. Tel. +44 (0)118 975 3676, E-mail: s.l.jury@reading.ac.uk

 

PROGRESS ON

"VEGETAL LANDSCAPES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN"

The book "Vegetal Landscapes of the Mediterranean Basin" is being prepared by the Commission for the Diffusion of Knowledge on Mediterranean Plants. A sample chapter has been completed, revised by the members of the Commission, and distributed among Commission members and contributors. Moreover, authors of chapters on general introductions, Israel and Jordan, Italy, Spain, Syria and Lebanon and Turkey are working and a first draft of these chapters is expected to be completed by 15 September 1998. Contacts are now under way to find authors for France, the Balkans and North Africa.

For further information, please contact Prof. Uzi Plitmann, Department of Botany The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904 Israel. E-mail: uzi@vms.huji. ac.il

 

BULGARIA AND SOUTH FRANCE WILL HOST THE NEXT TWO ITINERA MEDITERRANEA

At the last meeting of the Commission for Floristic Investigation, it was decided that the Itinera Mediterranea for the next two years would take place in Bulgaria and France. It was also determined that from now on two Itinera Mediterranea would be organized every three years in such a way that they do not coincide with the OPTIMA Meetings that are held once every three years. Thus, the following Iter will tentatively take place in Armenia in the year 2002. The length of the expeditions will be two or three weeks depending on the destination. The minimum number of members for the expeditions was set at 10 and the maximum at 12. If the number of participants is less than 10, the expedition will only take place if the organizers want to cover the extra expenses.

For further information please contact: Prof. Benito Valdés. Dpto. Biología Vegetal y Ecología Universidad de Sevilla Apdo. 1095 E-41080 Sevilla Spain. Tel.: +34 954 557047; Fax: +34 954 557059; E-mail: bvaldes@cica.es

 

FIELD WORK NEWS IS BACK AGAIN!

Field Work News is being reactivated and all OPTIMA members will be asked for information on their expeditions in a questionnaire. The collected data will be structured into a database and made available on the Internet.

For further information please contact: Prof. Benito Valdés. Dpto. Biología Vegetal y Ecología Universidad de Sevilla Apdo. 1095 E-41080 Sevilla Spain. Tel.: +34 954 557047; Fax: +34 954 557059; E-mail: bvaldes@cica.es

 

A NEW INITIATIVE: THE OPTIMA COMMISSION ON FUNGI

At the last meeting of the International Board, the creation of an OPTIMA Commission on Fungi was approved. The Commission will promote studies and research programs on different mycological topics, such as: biodiversity and conservation, species monitoring and mapping, elaboration of occurrence-distribution data and red lists, systematics and phylogeny on taxa of special interest, ecology of fungal communities, ecophysiology, symbioses and host plant interactions, genetic population and speciation processes, potential use/exploitation of selected species for mushroom cultivation, bioremediation of agro-industrial wastes/residues, and fodder production.

The OPTIMA Commission for Fungi held its first meeting in Paris on 13 May. It was decided that the Commission would start working on the compilation of a checklist of Mediterranean fungal species in Italy, France, Spain and Greece. A proposal will be submitted to the European Union for funding a project on fungal biodiversity in Mediterranean habitats. For this purpose a working group with regional coordinators has been established.

For further information please contact: Prof. Silvano Onofri; Tuscia University, via S. Camillo de Lellis, Blocco D, I-01100 Viterbo Italy.

 

INTENSE ACTIVITY AT THE HERBARIUM MEDITERRANEUM

The Herbarium Mediterraneum at Palermo is working hard in several areas and consolidating itself as a key institution in the study of Mediterranean Botany. Here is some of the latest news:

1.- On the publishing front, three volumes of Bocconea, financed by the Herbarium Mediterraneum Foundation, are expected to be published throughout 1998. A fourth volume of Bocconea will be published with external funding. Volume 8 of Flora Mediterranea will also be published by the end of this year.

2.- The Foundation has approved an arrangement with OPTIMA to facilitate the acquisition of herbarium specimens for the Herbarium Mediterraneum through an exchange of herbarium specimens for OPTIMA fees. This offer will be available to botanists from Circummediterranean countries. Detailed information on this arrangement can be found in a separate box at the end of the OPTIMA News section in this newsletter.

3.- The Herbarium Mediterraneum Foundation will fund an exhibit on the history of botanical explorations in the Mediterranean. This exhibit will be organized in Palermo and will coincide with the X OPTIMA Meeting. At a later date the exhibit could be taken to botanical institutions in other countries for display. A publication on this subject is also envisioned.

 

NEW OFFERS FROM THE  OPTIMA PUBLICATIONS COMMISSION

A total of four volumes of Bocconea are planned to be published in 1998. In these volumes the Flora of Morocco, the threatened plants of Morocco, the genus Anthemis and the results of the Iter Mediterraneum to Sicilia and Cyprus will be covered. As mentioned before, volume 8 of Flora Mediterranea will also be published by the end of this year.

The Proceedings of the VIII OPTIMA Meeting in Sevilla are now available to institutional members at a 50% discount and to ordinary members at a 25% discount off the regular price. Acta Botanica Malacitana is also being offered to OPTIMA members with a 33% and a 50% discount. Check the "Publications Offer" section at the beginning of the newsletter for further details.

Commission members are searching for new publication offers for OPTIMA members. The resulting offers will be published in forthcoming issues of OPTIMA Newsletter.

 

COOPERATE WITH THE  OPTIMA COMMISSION

FOR INFORMATION TRANSFER AND NETWORKING!

The importance of data acquisition and dissemination in electronic form is now commonly recognized. The ITN Commission is ready to help in such efforts by:

  1. Providing an Internet-based forum for the exchange of information. This has been achieved in part by the OPTIMA World Wide Web Site currently stationed in Berlin. The BGBM in Berlin has also offered to provide automated e-mail distributions lists (listservs) for OPTIMA Commissions and other groups.
  2. Assembling a list of recommendations for the design of botanical databases, including field-level data definitions and sources for standardized data content. This is to ensure as much as possible the compatibility of new databases, making their later networking feasible.
  3. Assembling a list of existing and projected botanical databases for the Mediterranean area. This effort strongly depends on the co-operation of OPTIMA members. Holders of databases or datasets, which may be useful to others, are once more urged to let us know. If your database or dataset includes specimen records, please participate in the BioCISE survey (See http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/Biocise/TheProject /Survey/default.htm). For other databases please send the following data to the Commission’s chair or to the OPTIMA Secretariat: Database name; content; availability; responsible person’s address.

 

ATLAS OF MEDITERRANEAN ORCHIDS BY THE YEAR 2001!

The Commission on the Mapping of Orchids in the Mediterranean Area has continued gathering new information and hopes to print an atlas showing the distribution of Mediterranean orchids by the next OPTIMA Meeting. The data will be presented in the form of 20-30 maps in a UTM grid with information on morphology, iconography, protection status and general biology.

 

JOINT COLLABORATION BETWEEN CCPR AND MISPG

The OPTIMA Commission for the Conservation of Plant Resources will collaborate with the Mediterranean Islands Specialist Plant Group of the IUCN in future plant conservation initiatives in the Mediterranean area.

 

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX AND ... X

The X OPTIMA Meeting Programme Committee was established by the International Board at its last meeting in Paris and it is already working on the preparation of the next OPTIMA Meeting which will take place in Palermo in year 2001.

v v v v

 

COLLABORATE WITH THE HERBARIUM MEDITERRANEUM

AND EARN OPTIMA MEMBERSHIP FEES

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:

  1. This offer concerns primarily those members who live in countries with limited currency availability or from which money transfer is difficult or laborious; members from other countries are not however excluded.
  2. 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.
  3. The offer is open to OPTIMA members from Circummediterranean countries including Bulgaria, the Ukraine and Portugal.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. Postage costs will be refunded to the senders by the Herbarium Mediterraneum.
  9. 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.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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)

 

 

CONSERVATION NEWS

 

MIPSG’S TOP 50

The Mediterranean Islands Plant Specialist Group of the IUCN is preparing a list with the fifty most endangered plants of the Mediterranean Islands. The progress and the prospects of this initiative were reviewed at the last meeting held in Paris on 12 May 1998. At the same meeting, the preparation of a programme on Mediterranean island flora to be submitted to the IUCN Office for the Mediterranean was also discussed. The OPTIMA Commission for Conservation of Plant Resources also participates in this program.

For further information on these initiatives, please contact Bertrand de Montmollin – bio conseils, Serre 5, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Email: biolconseils @access.ch

 

ITN NEWS

 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR BOTANICAL DATABASE DESIGN

by W. Berendsohn

 

During its meeting in Paris, the OPTIMA Commission for Information Transfer and Networking recognised the paramount importance of compatible database designs for future networking of databases in the Mediterranean area. As a first step, the Commission decided to provide a selection of standards and available standard data that can be used in the design of new databases.

The Taxonomic Databases Working Group (TDWG) has endorsed several of the standards cited below (see http://plants.usda.gov/npdc/18tdwg.html for more information). An extensive list of references regarding data models and standards for biological collections is published and constantly updated under http://www.bgbm.fuberlin.de/TDWG/acc/Referenc.htmA list of available computer programs for collection management is also being built as part of the activities of TDWG's Accessions Subgroup (http:// www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/TDWG/acc/Software.htm).

The following list will be maintained as a part of the OPTIMA Website under http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/OPTIMA/ITN/recommendations.htm.

For geographical areas, the schemes brought forward for Med-Checklist and Flora Europaea have been omitted, because they will be replaced by the results from a working group within the Euro-Med Plant Base Project. Likewise, differing standards or updates are currently being developed for economic botany, authors and literature citations. The web pages will constantly be updated to keep you informed of the latest developments.

1. DATABASE STANDARDS:

Field-level database exchange standards for herbaria:

Conn, B.J. (1996) (ed.): HISPID3. Herbarium Information Standards and Protocols for Interchange of Data.Version 3. Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. [TDWG standard] [Electronic version: http://www.rbgsyd.gov.au/hiscom/ hispid_ top.html]

Field-level database exchange standards for botanical gardens:

IUCN/WWF (1987): The International Transfer Format (ITF) for Botanic Garden Plant Records. Plant Taxonomic Database Standards No. 1. Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh. [See Wyse Jackson (1997) for latest version.] [TDWG Standard]

Wyse Jackson, D. (compiler) (1997): International Transfer Format for Botanic Garden Plant Records (version 2.00 draft 3.2.). Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Richmond. [proposed TDWG standard] [Electronic version: http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/BGCI/news.htm]

Field-level standards for botanical names:

Bisby, F. (1995): Plant names in botanical databases. Plant Taxonomic Database Standards No. 3, Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh. [TDWG Standard].

Taxonomic descriptions:

Dallwitz, M.J. & Paine, T. A. (1986): Users guide to the DELTA system. CSIRO Division of Entomology Report No. 13, pp. 3-6. [TDWG Standard] [Updates and further information under http://biodiversity. uno.edu/delta/]

 

2. STANDARD DATA:

Authors of plant names:

Brummit, R.K. & C.E. Powell 1992. Authors of plant names. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. [TDWG Standard] [Searchable database: http://www. rbgkew.org.uk/web.dbs/webdbsintro.html. Dataset can be purchased from RBG Kew and is included in the Index Kewensis CD-ROM.]

Bibliography:

Bridson, G.D.R. & Smith, E. R. (1991): Botanico-Periodicum-Huntianum/supplementum. Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh. 1068 pages. [TDWG standard as to abbreviations for titles of periodicals. To be used in conjunction with Lawrence (1968).]

Lawrence et al. 1968. Botanico-periodicum-huntianum. Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh. [TDWG Standard]

Stafleu, F. A. & Cowan, R. S. (1976-): Taxonomic literature, ed. 2 and its Supplements. Reg. Veg. 125 etc. [Key fields for this standard are currently being automated as a cooperative project between the Royal Botanic Garden-Edinburgh, the USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center and IAPT.] [TDWG Standard]

Geography, Ecology, and Conservation:

FGDC (1997): Appendix I: National Vegetation Classification System: The Upper Levels (Table). FGDC Vegetation Classification and Information Standards. Federal Geographic Data Committee, Vegetation Subcommittee. Federal Geographic Data Committee Secretariat, Reston. [150K Table under http://www.nbs.gov/fgdc.veg/standards/ appendix1.htm . Part of the standard vegetation classification system for use by U.S. Federal Agencies and their cooperators.]

Hollis, S. & Brummitt, R. (1992): World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions. Plant Taxonomic Database Standards No. 2, International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases for Plant Sciences (TDWG). Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh. [TDWG Standard] [Electronic version available under http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/TDWG/geo/ default.htm]

ISO (1988): Codes for the representation of names of countries. Third edition; ISO 3166: 1988 Aug 15; 53 p. [A list of all the countries represented in this version of ISO-3166 along with their 2-letter, 3-letter, and numeric codes, prepared for the MUSE project: gopher://muse.bio.cornell.edu:70/00/ standards/iso/iso-3166.]

ISO (1994): Codes from ISO 3166. Updated by the RIPE Network Coordination Centre, in coordination with the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency at DIN Berlin. http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/outerspace/mirror-packages/german/iso-3166.html

ISO (1997): Some Codes from ISO 3166. Updated by the RIPE Network Co-ordination Centre. Source: ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency. http://www. chemie.fu-berlin.de/outerspace/mirror-packages/ german/iso-3166.html

IUCN (1994): IUCN Red List Categories. Prepared by the IUCN Species Survival Commission. As approved by the 40th meeting of the IUCN Council, Gland, Switzerland, 30 November 1994.

Leon, C., Mackinder, D., Rooney, P. & Synge, H. (1995): Plant occurrence and status scheme (POSS). World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK. Unpublished. [TDWG Standard]

Takhtajan, A. (1986): Floristic Regions of the World. Floristic regions of the world. University of California Press. Bishen Singh, Dehra Dun. [Pp. vii-xiii accepted as standard phytogeographical regions by TDWG.]

Economic botany:

Cook, E. M. (1995): Economic Botany Data Collection Standard. Prepared for the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases for Plant Sciences (TDWG). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. [TDWG Standard]

Institutional abbreviations:

Heywood, C. A., Heywood, V. H. & Wyse Jackson, P. S. (1990): International Directory of Botanical Gardens. Koeltz, Koenigstein.

Holmgren, P. K., Holmgren, N. H. & Barnett, L. C. (1990): Index Herbariorum, Pt. 1: The Herbaria of the World (ed. 8). Regnum Vegetabile 120. [TDWG Standard] [An updated version - not yet accepted as TDWG standard, is being made available under http://www.nybg.org/bsci/ih/ ih.html]

§ § § § §

 

 

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. Holders of databases or datasets, which may be useful to others, are once more urged to let us know. If your database or dataset includes specimen records, please participate in the BioCISE survey (See http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/Biocise/TheProject /Survey/default.htm). For other databases please send the following data to the Commission’s chair or to the OPTIMA Secretariat:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Database name:

 

 

 

Content:

 

 

 

Availability:

 

Responsible person’s address:

 

 

 

Back to General Index

HERBARIUM NEWS

edited by PALOMA BLANCO

 

THE SPANISH LICHEN HERBARIA

by ANA ROSA BURGAZ

Data on Spanish lichenology history is scarce, although works by a few authors such as Bellot (1967), Silvestre & García-Rowe (1982) and Llimona (1991) have contributed to this knowledge.

History in Spain has been marked by many tragic incidences during the last two centuries, facts which remain reflected in our Science History and likewise in our Lichenology. A consequence of this has been the dispersion and loss of many historical herbaria. Although his main work was never published, Simón de Rojas Clemente (1777-1827) was considered the first Spanish lichenologist, (Llimona, 1991). Other botanists had also shown their interest in lichenology studies before 1850 (Colmeiro, 1858). At the end of the last century a new uneasiness for this subject clearly appeared. In 1896, Líquenes de Andalucía by Francisco de las Barras was published. Afterwards, other short works were published by Blas Lázaro e Ibiza, Benito Vicioso and especially, P. Longinos Navás with his El Género Parmelia en España. At the beginning of this century, new collections and explorations took place. Manuel Llenas Fernández studied Cataluña and Central Spain, and Luis Crespí Jaume with the Portuguese lichenologist, G. Sampaio, studied Pontevedra lichens. This activity was dramatically stopped because of the Civil War from 1936-1939. In the seventies, Crespo (1973) and Llimona (1974) started the current period in Spanish lichenology. Since 1985, thanks to the financial aid from the Dirección General de Investigación, Ciencia y Tecnología (DGICYT), among others, it has been possible to explore new areas. Quite a lot of lichen herbaria have appeared which will allow us to publish the Spanish Lichenological Flora in the near future.

There are lichen herbaria in most of the country’s research centres, but the main funds are held in those where, nowadays, there is a group of active lichenologists working (Sancho, 1995).

Even though the following herbaria list is not exhaustive, we have tried to include the main institutions and private herbaria we know. Information has been gathered by personal contact consulting all the different herbarium curators, who were kind enough to give us all the needed information.

Institutional herbaria are indicated by their Index Herbariorum abbreviations and private herbaria by the names or abbreviations used by their owners.

  • BC (Institut Botànic, Barcelona). Contains over 3,550 sheets which formally constitute the Museo de Historia Natural de Barcelona old collection, with material from Central Europe and Nordic countries, received as exchange from 1830 until 1926. It also keeps the Roger-Ruy Werner’s (1901-1977) lichen collection, with 2,820 sheets including 9 lichenicolous fungi and 196 of his lichen type specimens, mainly from north Africa, some from central Europe and a few from Spain (Llimona 1979).
  • BCC-LICH (Facultat de Biología, Universitat de Barcelona). Started in 1962, it holds nearly 85,000 specimens with a good representation of the Mediterranean element. 14,000 of them are registered and numbered sheets, some type material and some exsiccatae from Follmann and Vezda. At the same time, it holds more than 59,000 specimens from private collections of the teachers of the Departamento de Biología Vegetal, among them Dr. Llimona’s collection with nearly 12,000 sheets, and 59,000 registered but unnumbered sheets collected by botanists including X. Ariño, M. Barbero, M. Boqueras, A. Canals, M. Giralt, A. Gómez-Bolea, N. Hladun and P. Navarro-Rosines.
  • BIO (Facultad de Ciencias, Vitoria). Started in 1985, it holds over 4,000 sheets of lichens, mainly saxicolous, from northern Spain. One type specimen. All material was collected by Gustavo Renobales.
  • FCO (Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Oviedo). It holds 130 sheets of lichens from Asturias, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca, collected at the beginning of the seventies by Rosa María Simó.
  • FCV (Facultade de Ciencias do Mar e Bioloxía, Universidade de Vigo). It holds 2,600 sheets of epiphyte lichens from Galicia, northwest Spain, collected by Josefina Alvarez.
  • GDA-Líquenes (Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Granada). The old herbarium keeps 10 sheets from Mariano Amo y Mora’s (1809-1894) collection. This Spanish botanist was influenced by the Swede E. Fries. The namely Colección de la Academia Malagueña de las Ciencias keeps over 50 sheets of lichen samples, collected by different Spanish botanists during the last century, and a folder with Harmand’s (1918) exsiccata. The present collection, started in 1978, holds 4,500 sheets of lichens, some type material, mainly saxicolous and terricolous, from the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco, primarily collected by Manuel Casares Porcel. G. Fulgensia is well represented.
  • LABORATORI DE BOTÀNICA (Dpto. Biología, Fac. Ciències, Universitat Illes Balears). Started in 1979, it contains 700 sheets of lichens mainly from the Balearic Islands and holds one type specimen and over 50 exsiccata. The material was mainly collected by L. Fiol and M. Mus.
  • LEB-LICH (Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de León). It contains over 5,400 sheets of lichens, mainly saxicolous, from the northwest of the Iberian peninsula collected by Arsenio Terrón.
  • MA-LICH (Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid). It holds 12,150 sheets of lichens, among them 34 sheets of type material and 38 different exsiccata. Some lichen specimens were collected during the Royal Botanical Expeditions of the XVIII and XIX centuries to South America and the Philippines. These are kept inside each of the main historical Herbaria, but most of the others are kept in the MA-Lichen Herbaria, mainly from the Iberian Peninsula. They were collected in 1830, 1890-1920, 1950..., by Barras de Aragón (19 sheets), L. Crespí (697), B. Vicioso (357), C. Cortés Latorre (349), J. Cuatrecasas (28), P. Merino (21). The majority of the specimens are from this decade, collected by active lichenologists who send their duplicates there. Information on collections is provided on http://www.rjb.csic.es/herbario/crypto/ cryphola/htm
  • MACB (Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid). Started in 1968, it contains 5,500 sheets of lichens, mainly from Spain, Portugal, Finland, Morocco, Andorra and Austria. Good collections of G. Cladonia and G. Peltigera. Two sheets of type material. The material was mainly collected by A. R. Burgaz, R.. Carballal, I. Martínez, E. Seriñá and F. J. Sarrión. Collection information is provided on http://www.ucm.es/info/vegetal
  • MAF-LICH (Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid). It keeps 5,732 sheets of lichens and some type material, mainly collected by L. Balaguer, A. Crespo, E. Barreno, L.G. Sancho, A.G. Bueno, V.J. Rico, F. Valladares and others. The eldest is the Blas Lázaro Ibiza’s lichen collection, with over 1,000 sheets, which served to elaborate the exhaustive Compendio de la Flora Española (1906-1920). Most of the others are from the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands. Many samples are from the Antartida (still unnumbered) and Follman’s and Vezda’s exsiccata. Good representations of G. Umbilicaria and G. Parmelia.
  • MGC (Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga). Contains over 500 sheets elaborated in the eighties with specimens collected in Abies pinsapo forests from SW Spain. Collection information is provided on http://www.uma.es/Estudios/Departamentos/BiolVeg/00Indice.html
  • MUB (Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Murcia). Holds 8,000 sheets of lichens from the Iberian peninsula, north and southwest Africa, central Chile and south U.S.A. Well represented Arthoniales and Lichinales, including type material. The material was mainly collected by J.M. Egea, P.P. Moreno and P. Torrente.
  • SALA-LICH (Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de Salamanca). Started in 1980, it keeps over 2,500 sheets of lichens mainly epiphytes and lichenicolous fungi, from the western Iberian peninsula, Portugal, Argentina and Switzerland collected by Bernarda Marcos.
  • SANT-LICH (Facultade de Bioloxía, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela). Started in 1982, it contains 9,500 sheets of lichens from the northwest of the Iberian peninsula, Austria and Morocco. There is a good representation of Atlantic and Mediterranean-Atlantic flora. The material was mainly collected by L. Bahillo, R. Carballal, A. García, M.E. López de Silanes, G. Paz, C. Pérez and M. J. Sánchez-Biezma.
  • SEVB (Facultad de Biología, Sevilla). Keeps a small historical collection of Boutelou and F. Barras de Aragón (Silvestre & García-Rowe 1982).
  • SEVF (Facultad de Farmacia, Sevilla). Contains over 6,700 sheets of lichens, saxicolous and epiphytes, from the Iberian peninsula, north Africa and Australia mainly collected by Jorge García-Rowe.
  • TFC-LICH (Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife). Holds 2,341 sheets of epiphytes and saxicolous lichens, mainly from all the Canary Islands including small islands like La Graciosa, Montaña Clara and Alegranza. It also holds sheets from Austria, Germany, Switzerland, south Chile and Venezuela. It keeps one holotype. Good representation of G. Ramalina, G. Roccella and Stictaceae. The material was mainly collected by C. Hernández and L. Sánchez.
  • TFMC (Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre, Santa Cruz de Tenerife). Keeps 6,797 sheets, mostly from the Canary Islands and other Macaronesian areas (Azores, Madeira, Salvajes and Cabo Verde), and also from the Galapagos Islands, Venezuela and Chile. It holds 15 isotypes. Good representation of G. Ramalina, G. Roccella and Stictaceae.
  • VAB-LICH (Facultat de Ciències Biològiques, Universitat de València). Contains over 10,000 sheets of lichens and lichenicolous fungi. Among them the Beltrán collection with over 300 sheets, collected during 1907-1935, from Spain and Europe exchanged in several exsiccata. The main collection is from Spain, other parts of Europe and North America (California). G. Parmelia, G. Physcia s.l. and G. Xanthoria specimens are very abundant. The material was mainly collected by V. Atienza, E. Barreno, V. Calatayud and S. Fos.

 

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS
  • Colegio Nuestra Señora del Recuerdo (Plaza Duques de Pastrana 5, E-28036 Madrid) contains the herbarium of Longinos Navás (1858-1938) with 390 sheets of lichens (Rowe & Espinosa-Roji 1996).
  • Instituto Nacional de Bachillerato "Práxedes Mateo Sagasta" (Logroño) keeps the 87 sheet lichen collection of Ildefonso Zubía (1819-1891). (Etayo 1996).
  • RCAXII (Real Colegio Alfonso XII, San Lorenzo del Escorial, Madrid) keeps over 200 sheets of lichens from Europe including the collections of Graells (27 sheets), Lange (95), Persoon (38) and others.
  • Rosario Arroyo, personal herbarium, with over 4,000 sheets of G. Ramalina. Presently in the Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
  • Etayo (Javier Etayo, Navarro Villoslada 16, E-31003 Pamplona) One of the most important collections of lichens in Spain. It contains over 16,000 sheets of epiphytic lichens and lichenicolous fungi. It started in 1985 from the Macaronesian Islands, France, Mexico and Panama collections.
  • Seoane (López Seoane Family, Casa Grande, Cabans, A Coruña). Victor López Seoane (1834-1900) was a Spanish encyclopedist with interest in Natural History. His heirs presently hold a lichen collection of 54 sheets collected by him and 59 collected by the Finn Ragnar Hult (1857-1899) who visited Spain in April 1899. (Carballal & col. 1991).
  • Isabel Martínez Moreno, personal herbarium, with over 3,000 sheets of lichenicolous fungi and lichens. Currently held in Facultad de Biología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.
  • Victor J. Rico, personal herbarium, with over 5,000 sheets, with saxicolous lichens mainly from the "Sistema Central" mountains. Currently held in Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

 

REFERENCES

Amo y Mora, M. (1870) Flora cryptogámica de la Península Ibérica. Granada.

Bellot, F. (1967) Una época en la Botánica española (1871-1936). Discurso leido en la sesión del 23 de noviembre para su ingreso como Académico de número. Instututo de España. Real Academia de Farmacia. Madrid.:11-61.

Carballal, R.; Fraga, X.A.; García A. & Reinoso J. (1991) A colección de musgos, hepáticas e liques de López Seoane e Hult. Pub. Area Ciencias Biolóxicas, Seminario Estudos Galegos. Ediciós do Castro. A Coruña.

Colmeiro, M. (1856) La botánica y los botánicos de la península Hispano-Lusitana. Madrid.

Crespo, A. (1973) Composición florística de la costra liquénica del Herniario teucrietum pumili en la provincia de Madrid. Anales Inst. Bot. Cavanilles 30:57-68.

Etayo, J. (1996) Líquenes en el herbario de Ildefonso Zubía(1819-1891). Acta Bot. Malacitana 21: 270-274.

Lázaro Ibiza, B. (1906-1920) Compendio de la Flora Española. Madrid.

Llimona, X. (1968) Visio general dels líquens de Catalunya. Treb. Soc. Cat. Biol. 26: 59-65.

Llimona, X. (1974) Las comunidades de líquenes de los yesos de España. Resumen Tesis Doctoral. Secret. Pub. 1-18. Universidad de Barcelona.

Llimona, X. (1979) Roger-Guy Werner. Collect. Bot. (Barcelona) 11: 475-504.

Llimona, X. (1991) Història natural dels Països Catalans, vol 5. Fongs i liquens. Fundació Enciclopèdia Catalana. Barcelona.

Rico, V. J. & González-Bueno, A. (1990) Los líquenes del herbario M. Amo y Mora (1809-1894). Acta Bot. Malacitana 15: 341-343.

Rowe, J. G. & Espinosa-Roji, F. (1996) Enumeración de los líquenes del herbario de Longinos Navás S. J. Lagascalia 18(2): 125-150.

Sancho, L. G. (1995) Situación actual de los herbarios de líquenes españoles. Clementeana 2: 2-3.

Silvestre, S. & García-Rowe, J. (1982) Líquenes en los herbarios Boutelou, de la Universidad y del antiguo Museo de Historia Natural de Sevilla. Collect. Bot. (Barcelona) 13: 375-380.

Ana Rosa Burgaz is a professor at the Departamento de Biología Vegetal I de la Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

 

LICHEN NEWS

 

THE MED-CHECKLIST OF MEDITERRANEAN LICHENS:

REPORT FROM THE OPTIMA COMMISSION FOR LICHENS

by P. L. NIMIS

The OPTIMA Commission for Lichens met in Paris, at the Museum National d’ Histoire Naturelle, on May 9, 1998. Eight members were present: P.L. Nimis (chairman), E. Barreno, A. Crespo, J.M. Egea, M. Grube, V. John, X. Llimona and M.R.D. Seaward (meeting secretary). After a brief welcome by J.M. Iriondo, Secretary General of OPTIMA, Nimis outlined the past and present situation regarding the publication of checklists for the c. 60 operational geographic units (countries and their subdivisions) currently identified as constituting the Mediterranean study area.

The initiative aiming at a compilation of an inventory of Mediterranean lichens was started in 1989 by the OPTIMA Commission for Lichens (Nimis 1996). The catalogue of Italian lichens was the initial contribution (Nimis 1993), followed by checklists for several other Mediterranean or Southern European regions: Israel (Galun & Mukhtar 1996), Macaronesia (Hafellner 1995), Morocco (Egea 1996), Tunisia (Seaward 1996), Turkey (John 1996) and the Ukraine (Kondratyuk et al. 1996). Further checklists will be published by the end of 1998: Cyprus (by Litterky & Mayrhofer), Portugal (Carvalho), and the Iberian Peninsula (Hladun & Llimona), and others are in preparation for Crete (resp.: M. Grube et al.), Croatia (resp: S. Ozimec, Osijek), Montenegro-Serbia (resp: S. Savic, Beograd), Slovenia (Suppan et al. 1998), Algeria (resp.: J.M. Egea, Murcia), Syria (resp.: V. John, Bad Durkheim), and Albania (resp. J. Hafellner, Graz and M. Tretiach, Trieste). The currently available checklists vary greatly in the number of species. Italy, with c. 2,300 infrageneric taxa, is the country with the highest number, followed by the Iberian Peninsula with c. 1,900 species. The total number of species in the Mediterranean region at large is still hard to estimate, but, including lichenicolous fungi, it will certainly exceed 3,000 taxa. Available data from other large regions such as Australia (2,494 species, Grgurinovic 1994), the North American continent excluding Mexico (3,799 species, Esslinger & Egan 1995), and Scandinavia (Norway and Sweden: 2,602 species, Santesson 1993) may be compared with this number.

To date, six checklists have been published both in paper form and on the internet (Israel, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey, the Ukraine). The checklist of Slovenia was provided on the internet only. The checklist of Macaronesia was published in paper form only. Two were in an advanced stage of preparation (Iberia and Cyprus), and four were in preparation (Algeria, Greece, Portugal and Serbia). Among the remaining countries, Albania and Egypt might possibly be prepared, whereas, S France, Libya, and Lebanon were doubtful or difficult.

 

LICHEN BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION ON-LINE

After the introduction by Nimis, consideration was then given to a more consistent format for gathering and publishing checklists. A presentation was given by Martin Grube (Graz) on the content of the lichen OPTIMA internet site, based on the database at Graz and using the Italian lichen flora as a model, its potential application, and methods for updating. Several checklists were linked and are now collectively searchable, providing a first nucleus of a general checklist of Mediterranean lichens. Of particular importance was the production of a Thesaurus of synonyms, accessible via internet, which facilitates the linking of several checklists, even when they follow different nomenclatural standards. Thought was given to updating published checklists. Guidelines for the presentation of all OPTIMA data were considered, particularly in terms of supplementary information (biogeography, habitat, etc.), definition, editorial standards and abbreviations. Authors of checklists were encouraged to update them also by increasing the number of geographic subdivisions, when feasible.

An information system for the Mediterranean checklists was created on the internet (Grube & Nimis 1997) to provide quick access to the available information and to enable the automatic creation of a Med-checklist. Existing checklists are already available on the Web as plain text files, which may be searched or printed. Information on individual countries can be accessed via a 'master' page (http://bkfug.kfunigraz. ac.at/~grubem/medlich.htmlx). Large checklists, such as that of Italy, are segmented into several parts for quicker access. The pages on individual countries contain links to literature references and to an entry form for short additions or comments. The e-mail addresses of individual contributors are included with each contribution, so that these pages may serve as a kind of small discussion forum. Direct changes in the checklist files are not possible. The checklist author has to filter the newly-added information, or contact the contributors for further details. Large amounts of data cannot be processed by the entry forms, and should be sent directly to the checklist authors.

Access to the data was made more flexible by reformatting the checklists into relational databases. For this purpose we are using the database system Oracle 7.3. Lichenological information for five countries is already in a databased format: Israel, Italy, Morocco, Slovenia, and Turkey, and can be accessed directly via the World Wide Web. Thus, a link to the database query form is included in the country-specific page. At the moment, information about the geographic distribution of a taxon in the countries can be retrieved and, when available, data on synonymy, ecological parameters and other remarks can also be retrieved. In the query page for Italy, checklists for administrative regions can be extracted from the database as well. For the Italy pages, a simple Java program was included to plot the geographic distribution of a taxon. The program, which will be later extended to all OGUs involved in the project, is invoked on the client-side and can also support more sophisticated mapping of biodiversity information.

Taxonomic concepts in these five floristic tables are not homogeneous. For example, the extreme generic splitting of Parmelia s.lat. was deliberately not accepted in the checklist of Italy (Nimis 1993), while it is accepted in the checklist of Turkey (John 1996). This could make it somewhat difficult to directly extract data from the database for the automatic generation of a joint checklist. To circumvent problems caused by taxonomic inconsistencies, a thesaurus of synonyms, which is continuously updated, was introduced. This is a simple table which contains information on synonymy by associating synonyms with accepted names. All names are linked to a reference. Basically, this is an implementation of the "potential taxon" concept proposed by Berendsohn (1995, 1997). For practical reasons, the names accepted in the tables will be those accepted in the checklist of Italy, which is the richest, and is continuously updated as far as nomenclatural matters are concerned. The thesaurus table is automatically invoked to look up the accepted name whenever a name entered by the client is not found. The thesaurus, however, will also permit the user to choose the taxonomic concept to be applied in his own output. Considering the fact that in modern lichen taxonomy general agreement is still wanting, especially for generic delimitations, the use of the "potential taxon" concept appears to be the most practical and flexible option. The thesaurus is a useful tool in standardizing the information, and it will be the place where taxonomic changes will be introduced. Whenever an entry is changed in the thesaurus, so-called triggers will automatically alter the information in other relevant entries in the floristic tables, or in the thesaurus itself.

 

STANDARDIZING FURTHER INFORMATION

Some non-geographic nor taxonomical information is already available in the existing databases (e.g. the ecological indicator values of V. Wirth). A major effort, however, has been made for standardizing further non- strictly geographical information for the entire checklist of Italy. For every infrageneric taxon, seven additional fields are now available in a database format:

1: Growth-form: a) non-lichenized fungus, b) lichenicolous fungus, c) crustose, d) crustose endolithic, e) crustose placodiomorph, e) foliose, f) foliose umbilicate, g) fruticose, h) fruticose filamentous, g) squamulose. This system is still provisional, and rather rough: work is in progress for developing a new system of morpho-functional categories, more sensitive to ecological variation.

2) Photobiont: a) Ch (all green algae other than Trentepohlia), b) Trentepohlia, c) filamentous cyanobacteria, d) coccale cyanobacteria

3) Reproductive strategy: a) mainly sexual, b) mainly by soredia and soredia-like structures, c) mainly by isidia and isidia-like structures, d) mainly by thallus fragmentation.

4) Substrata: a) siliceous rocks in general, b) base-rich siliceous rocks, c) metal-rich siliceous rocks, d) calciferous rocks, e) terricolous-muscicolous in general, f) as before, on calciferous ground, g) as before, on acid substrata, h) epiphytic, i) epiphytic with optimum on base-rich bark, l) foliicolous, m) lignicolous.

5) Altitudinal range: for each species the occurrence in one or more of the following vegetational belts is given: 1) evergreen Mediterranean belt, 2) deciduous oak belt (submediterranean), 3) Fagus-belt (Mediterranean-montane and Northern Temperate), 4) Coniferous, boreal belt of the Alps and N Apennines, 5) Above treeline (both the Alpine and Oromediterranean belts).

6) Coastal-maritime flora: this field allows the selection of those lichens which are almost exclusively found along the coast, near the sea, without distinguishing between strictly maritime and coastal species at large.

7) Oceanicity-continentality: a) suboceanic species, with a mainly western distribution in Eurasia, and bound to mild-humid climatic conditions, b) true oceanic species, c) subcontinental species.

A further field concerns the rarity/commonness of a species. This information has been organized into eight categories: 1) extremely common, 2) very common, 3) common, 4) rather common, 5) rather rare, 6) rare, 7) very rare, 8) extremely rare. The assignment of a species to a given category was based on the number of specimens present in the Lichen Herbarium of the University of Trieste (TSB) which contains more than 30,000 samples, most of which were collected in Italy in the last 15 years. The herbarium is fully computerized, and can be searched on the Internet (http://www.univ.trieste.it/~biologia/leggi.html). The largest part of the specimens from Italy were gathered during many floristic surveys carried out throughout Italy, visiting hundreds of localities. All species found in each locality - including trivial and common ones - were collected and stored in the herbarium. For this reason, the number of specimens found in TSB can be considered a good estimate of the rareness-commonness of a species. The estimates were carried out considering the total number of samples present in each altitudinal belt (e.g. a species found above treeline is - of course - considered as common only within this altitudinal range). For two categories: "extremely common" and "extremely rare" some additional criteria were used. The "extremely common" marker has been applied only to species which are very common at least in two altitudinal belts, and throughout the country (e.g. Physcia adscendens). The "extremely rare" marker has been applied to all species which are very rare, and which fulfill two further requirements: 1) they have not been described recently, 2) they do not belong to critical or very poorly-known taxonomic groups. In this way, the list of "extremely rare" lichens practically corresponds to a red-list of lichens from Italy. This solution is much more realistic than the rigid application of the IUCN criteria, which are difficult to use in a country in which lichenological research stopped almost completely for almost a century, and revived again only a few decades ago.

By the end of 1998, further ecological parameters will be added. Such data permit much more complex queries. For example, someone interested in endolithic lichens occurring on the Temples of Agrigento could ask for the list of endolithic calcicolous species occurring in the Mediterranean belt of Sicily; people carrying out a biomonitoring study using epiphytic lichens near Vicenza could rapidly obtain a list of epiphytic species occurring in the submediterranean belt of Veneto; material for lichens and forest continuity in the montane belt of the Gran Sasso National Park could be obtained from, e.g. a list of epiphytic macrolichens with a suboceanic distribution occurring in the beech belt of Abruzzo. More complex cross-queries will provide a consistent base of data for biogeographical comparisons, on the line of that provided for the whole of Italy by Nimis & Tretiach (1995): an example concerning two regions of Italy (Trentino-Südtirol and Calabria) is in preparation by M. Grube, including a comparison of altitudinal profiles in the two regions in terms of number of species, growth-forms, reproductive strategies, types of photobiont, substrata, incidence of oceanic vs. continental lichens, etc.

 

CONCLUSIONS

The progress of national checklist projects directly stems from the activities of the OPTIMA Commission for Lichens. Their coordination is supported by the on-line representation of the available data, and databased biodiversity information offers individual authors a consistent "added value" to their data, provided by the links to many different data sources. Considering the increasing speed in the accomplishment of the project witnessed during the last few years, the authors are optimistic about presenting a fully computerized general checklist for all hitherto investigated countries in a very near future. For well-investigated OGUs, it will be possible to more rigorously quantify floristic similarities among climatically similar, but geographically distant areas. To date, phytogeographical evaluations are only possible within Italy, which is the most thoroughly investigated country. However, international co-ordination and the database approach provided by the OPTIMA Commission for Lichens will soon permit the inclusion of several other countries in quantitative studies of lichen phytogeography in the Mediterranean region.

Once the questions of standardization are solved, it will be most interesting to additionally incorporate databased herbarium information. This could have a great impact on environmental studies. When properly analysed, information from historic collections can be an invaluable tool for documenting changes in climate and biodiversity (Shaffer et al. 1998). During the Paris meeting, Seaward proposed to establish an inventory of herbaria holdings of Mediterranean material, the information being derived by Internet via IAL. Nimis proposed to achieve this goal through BioCISE (Biological Collection Information Service in Europe - Resource Identification), a multidisciplinary Concerted Action project funded by the European Commission (DG XII), whose aim is to identify and analyse databases of biological collection objects in Europe. The results of the BioCISE survey will be made public on the World Wide Web and will serve to formulate a proposal for the creation of a European Biological Collection Information Service. All curators of Herbaria containing Mediterranean lichens are warmly invited by the Commission to respond to the BioCISE questionnaire (http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/biocise/ TheProject/Survey/).

Continuous on-line interaction among different centres is now possible. This leads to the "publication" of a product that is updated on-line by a continuous stream of new information, filtered by the responsible person(s) for a given checklist. This is exactly what is needed for biodiversity inventories. Although checklists have been and will continue to be published in the traditional form, their continuous updating on the Web provides the possibility of a new type of "publication", one that would have not been possible in the past and that is particularly adapted for open-ended works such as gene-banks and biodiversity inventories. The creation of a working space on the Internet for the lichen Med-checklist project has two advantages: (a) facilitating the exchange of information among specialists from different countries, (b) making immediately available to the scientific community the most up-to-date information on lichen biodiversity in southern Europe and the Mediterranean region.

Finally, Nimis raised the question of finance; to date, $ 23,000 had been committed from his own research budget, for which many participants were most grateful, but alternative sources should be sought, both by individuals and collectively. In spite of the restricted budget, however, the project is proceeding well, and perhaps even faster than originally expected.

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

All members of the OPTIMA Commission for Lichens are acknowledged for discussions and suggestions. I am particularly grateful to M.R.D. Seaward (Bradford) and M. Grube (Graz) who kindly provided material and information for this text.

 

REFERENCES

Berendsohn, W.G. 1995: The concept of "potential taxa" in databases. Taxon 44: 207-212.

Berendson, W.G. 1997: A taxonomic information model for botanical databases: the IOPI model. Taxon 46: 283-309.

Crovello, T.J. 1981: Quantitative biogeography: an overview. Taxon 30: 563-575.

Egea, J.M. 1996: Catalogue of lichenized and lichenicolous fungi of Morocco. Bocconea 6: 19-114.

Esslinger, T.C. & Egan, R.S. 1995: A sixth checklist of the lichen-forming, lichenicolous, and allied fungi of the continental United States and Canada. The Bryologist 98: 467-549.

Galun, M. & Mukhtar, A. 1996: Checklist of the lichens of Israel. Bocconea 6: 149-171.

Grgurinovic, C. (ed.) 1994: Flora of Australia, vol. 55, Lichens. Lecanorales 2, Parmeliaceae. - Australian Biol. Res. Study, Canberra.

Grube M. & Nimis P.L. 1997: Mediterranean lichens on-line. Taxon 46: 487-493.

Hafellner, J. 1995: A new checklist of lichens and lichenicolous fungi of insular Laurimacaronesia including a lichenological bibliography for the area. Fritschiana 5: 1-132.

John, V. 1996 Preliminary catalogue of lichenized and lichicolous fungi of Mediterranean Turkey. Bocconea 6: 173-216.

Kondratyuk, S., Navrotskaya, I., Khodosovtsev, A. & Solonina, O. 1996: Checklist of Ukrainian lichens. Bocconea 6: 217-294.

Nimis, P.L. 1993: The lichens of Italy. An annotated catalogue. Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali. Torino. Monogr. 12: 1-897.

Nimis, P.L. 1996: Towards a checklist of Mediterranean lichens. Bocconea 6: 5-17.

Nimis, P.L. & Tretiach M., 1995: The lichens of Italy, a phytoclimatical outline. Crypt. Bot. 5: 199-208.

Santesson, R. 1993: The lichens and lichenicolous fungi of Sweden and Norway. STB Förlaget, Lund, 240 pp.

Seaward, M.R.D. 1996: Checklist of Tunisian lichens. Bocconea 6: 115-148.

Shaffer, H.B., Fisher R.N. & Davidson C. 1998: The role of natural history collections in documenting species declines. Tree 13: 27-30.

Suppan, U., Prügger, J., Mayrhofer, H., Grube, M. & Batic, F. 1998. Towards a check-list of Slovenian lichens. Sauteria (in press).

 

WEB NEWS

 

DIRECTORY FOR MEDICINAL PLANT CONSERVATION

The IUCN Species Survival Commission informed, on behalf of Uwe Schippmann Co-Chair IUCN Medicinal Plants Specialist Group, that the Directory for Medicinal Plant Conservation is now available on the Internet as a searchable database, with support of the Zentralstelle für Agrardokumentation und information (ZADI). The directory can be found at http://www.dainet.de/genres/mpc-dir.

The directory characterizes 139 medicinal plant projects and institutions, based in more than 80 countries worldwide, with information on their status, objectives, activities, geographic interest, databases, publications, funding resources, and contact address.

The hardcopy version of the Directory of Medicinal Plants Conservation by M. Kasparek, A. Gröger & U. Schippmann can be ordered at: BfN-Schriften-vertrieb im Landwirtschaftsverlag, Postfach 480249, D-48079 Münster, Germany, Fax: (49) 2501 801 204 (price 19,80 DM plus postage).

The database does not contain information on projects of strictly Mediterranean scope. However, several projects or institutions from many Mediterranean countries are cited, their geographical reach ranging from local to the whole of Europe. Amendments and corrections to its contents are highly appreciated by the authors.

 

PERSONALIA

 

OPTIMA MEDALS

OPTIMA GOLD MEDAL

Prof. Werner Greuter, founder of OPTIMA and current President of the Organization, was awarded the OPTIMA Gold Medal at the IX OPTIMA Meeting held in Paris in May 1998. This medal is awarded every three years to a botanist who, by his or her activity, is considered to have made an outstanding contribution to the phytotaxonomy of the Mediterranean area. The text of the address delivered upon presentation of the award is reproduced below.

 

"Monsieur le Président, chers Collègues,

Il y a des hommes qui ont une telle volonté d’agir dans le sens de l’évolution de la communauté dont ils sont membres, que leur action positive finit par les identifier à la structure même dont ils sont la cheville ouvrière.

Au sein de notre organisation un tel homme existe. Werner Greuter non seulement fut l’instigateur , mais le fondateur et l’ame d’OPTIMA, dont il fut le secrétaire jusqu’en 1995, date de son élection à la Présidence.

Rendre hommage à Werner Greuter, ce n’est pas seulement évoquer ses mérites scientifiques, bien connus par les botanistes , mais c’est aussi penser à l’homme.

Fils d’un médecin de nationalité Suisse qui avait la direction d’un hopital à Genes et étudiait la flore de la Sardaigne, jeune homme Werner Greuter n’osait pas lui aussi "herboriser".

Aujourd’hui il est:

  • Directeur général du Jardin botanique et du Muséum botanique de Berlin-Dahlem;
  • Professeur Fachbereich Biologie de la Libre Université de Berlin,
  • Secrétaire de l’Association Internationale pour la Taxinomie des plantes (IAPT);
  • Rapporteur général pour la nomenclature botanique,
  • Editeur de Regnum Vegetale;
  • Co-éditeur de Taxon, de Flora Mediterranea et de Boccanea;
  • Membre d’une vingtaine de Comités internationaux et de 25 Sociétés scientifiques;
  • Auteur de plus d’une centaine de publications, monographies ou articles scientifiques;

Aujourd’hui c’est l’ami et l’éternel chercheur que nous souhaitons honorer.

Tout au long de sa carrière il n’a jamais cessé de stimuler les jeunes botanistes en suivant leurs travaux avec beaucoup de sévérité parfois ,pour continuer la route d’une rigoureuse coopération scientifique internationnale partagée.

Son apport à l’enrichissement de la culture scientifique est fondamental. Il a était l’instigateur et le fondateur de nombreuses sociétés scientifiques qu’il continue à animer. Ses monographies et articles ont souvent résolu toute une série de problèmes d’ordre systématique, taxinomique et phytogéographique notament en ce qui concerne la flore de la Méditerranée. Nous pouvons en particulier rappeler sa contribution à la connaissance de la flore et de la Biogéographie de la Crète et son travail sur la taxinomie des Caryophyllaceae et Compositae. En ce qui concerne la dernière famille il faut citer sa très belle monographie sur le genre Ptylostemon .

Le role du Prof. Greuter fut également fondamental pour permettre la poursuite d’ une continuitè de la nomenclature botanique, au Congrés international de Saint Petersbourg.

Aujourd’hui son effort porte sur une unification des Codes biologiques et une standardisation de la nomenclature.

En ce qui concerne son travail sur la flore de la Méditerranée nous souhaitons que très rapidement soit publié Med-checklist .

 

C’est à l’unanimitè que la Commision des Prix d’OPTIMA a décidé que lui soit attribué la Médaille d’or, et qu’elle lui adresse tous ses souhaits de longue continuation et espère en son soutien et en son action au sein d’OPTIMA et pour la Botanique.

C’est pour moi un très grand honneur, mais aussi une grande joie d’adresser au Prof. Greuter les félicitations de tous les membres d’OPTIMA."

F. M. RAIMONDO

 

OPTIMA SILVER MEDALS

The OPTIMA Silver Medal is awarded every three years to the authors of the best papers or books on the phytotaxonomy of the Mediterranean area that were published in the preceding three-year period. At the IX OPTIMA Meeting held in Paris in May 1998, the following botanists received this medal: T.H.M. Mes for his Doctoral Thesis "Origin and evolution of the Macaronesian Sempervivoideae (Crassulaceae)." (Utrecht, 1995); Z. Díaz-Lifante and B. Valdés for "Revisión del género Asphodelus L. (Asphodelaceae) en el Mediterraneo occidental." (Boissiera 52,1996); and, M. Raffaelli and L. Baldoin for "Il complesso di Biscutella laevigata L. (Cruciferae) in Italia." (Webbia 52(1):87-128,1997).

The text of the addresses delivered upon presentation of the medals for 1996 and 1997 is reproduced below. The text corresponding to the medal for 1995 was not available at the closing of this edition.

 

"Report on the attribution of an OPTIMA Silver Medal to Z. Díaz-Lifante and M. Raffaelli (Universidad de Sevilla) for their paper "Revisión del género Asphodelus L. (Asphodelaceae) en el Mediterraneo occidental" (Boissiera 52, 1996):

This is an excellent taxonomic revision of the genus Asphodelus in W. Mediterranean (plus Macaronesia). In fact, it covers the whole genus, as all species are represented in W. Mediterranean and it is the area where the centre of evolution of this genus is found.

It is based on direct observations of almost 800 natural populations from Morocco, Portugal, Spain, France and Italy as well as about 3,800 herbarium sheets from 42 herbaria.

The authors are so modest that they presented us a taxonomic revision, but it has indeed the value of a monograph, since either both authors or Dr. Díaz-Lifante alone have published a series of papers on the genus whose results are incorporated in this revision and used to make taxonomic decisions.

Palinological characters have proved to be very useful in separating sections and karyological differences have often been essential in recognizing infraspecific categories.

After a short history of this genus, there is a long chapter on the taxonomic value of morphological, biological, palinological and karyological characters.

For each species, the correct name and synonyms together with typification, description, indication of chromosome numbers, distribution and ecology, and a series of important comments dealing with nomenclature, typification, variability and infraspecific taxa are given.

A detailed list of herbarium material studied, together with dot distribution maps and a full page illustration for each recognized taxa are added.

Five natural sections with a total of 19 taxa are distinguished, three subspecies as new to science are described and six new combinations are established.

A chapter on natural hybrids and a short evolutionary synthesis close this revision.

I would like to stress again the number of wild populations studied: about 800 all over W. Mediterranean. Also the study including biological and reproductive aspects has taken six years.

With great pleasure, I would like to congratulate the authors with this merited prize."

E. GRABIELIAN

 

"Rapport pour l'attribution d'une médaille d'argent de l'OPTIMA à Mauro Raffaelli & Lucilla Baldoin (Université de Florence) pour leur travail "Il complesso di Biscutella laevigata L. (Cruciferae) in Italia" (Webbia 52(1):87-128, 1997):

Le travail que je vous présente est une excellente révision pour l'Italie de ce groupe polymorphe que constitue le complexe de Biscutella laevigata. Il révèle à quel point l'application méthodique à des groupes difficiles des méthodes et des techniques les plus classiques de la taxinomie végétale reste d'actualité.

Ce travail fait en effet largement appel à la morphologie macroscopique et microscopique (MEB) des organes végétatifs et reproducteurs, exploitant avec intelligence et bonheur les riches herbiers italiens, notamment celui de Florence. Le regroupement d'échantillons de récoltes différentes opérées dans des localités voisines a ainsi permis aux auteurs de reconstituer ce qu'ils appellent des "populations artificielles" d'exsiccata qui leur ont révélé les caractères soumis à variation géographique.

Le principal résultat scientifique est cependant fondé sur l'étude caryologique, qui a mis en évidence l'existence jusqu'ici passée inaperçue de populations diploïdes (2n=18) dans les Préalpes de Vicenza et les Monts Lessini (Vénétie). Isolées reproductivement de toutes les autres populations qui sont tétraploïdes, ces populations constituent une espèce nouvelle pour la science, B. prealpina, bien caractérisée morphologiquement entre autres par ses scapes torsadés en hélice.

L'étude analytique fine de la variation géographique des dimensions, de la forme et de la pilosité des feuilles, des pétales et des siliques ainsi que de la phénologie de la floraison et de l'écologie conduit les auteurs à dénoncer comme inconsistants un certain nombre de taxons infraspécifiques préalablement décrits. Pour Raffaelli & Baldoin, B. laevigata est donc représentée en Italie par 5 sous-espèces:

  • la sous-espèce type, la plus largement répartie dans la péninsule, et la subsp. lucida, localisées à basse altitude sur les reliefs du Trentin et de Vénétie;
  • trois sous-espèces décrites pour la première fois
  • subsp. ossolana, endémique à aire restreinte d'altitude élevée dans le Piedmont;
  • subsp. prinzerae, sur substrat ophiolitique à basse altitude des pré-Apennins de la région de Parme;
  • subsp. australis, largement répandue dans les Abruzzes à altitude moyenne.
  • la subsp. hispidissima (stat. nov.), localisée sur des calcaires détritiques de la région de Trieste à basse altitude.

Ces résultats fondamentaux sont mis à la disposition des utilisateurs à l'aide d'une clé de détermination copieusement illustrée de dessins précis, qui permettra sans doute aux botanistes d'identifier finement et sans difficulté les Biscutella gr. laevigata qu'ils rencontreront en Italie.

Mauro Raffaelli et Lucilla Baldoin nous donnent donc avec cette publication le bel exemple d’un travail qui satisfera à la fois les taxinomistes à la recherche d'informations précises sur un groupe complexe, et les chercheurs de terrain, floristes et écologues, qui disposeront avec cette révision d'un précieux outil d'identification. Ils méritent donc parfaitement l’attribution de la médaille d’argent de l’OPTIMA.

En présentant mes chaleureuses félicitations aux auteurs, il ne me reste évidemment qu'à souhaiter l’extension de telles recherches sur le groupe dans l'ensemble de son aire, puisque Med-Checklist énumére 23 espèces dans l’agrégat Biscutella laevigata, et 9 sous-espèces de B. laevigata!...

J. MATHEZ 

 

 

1997 FONDENA PRIZE

Last December 1997, Prof. César Gómez-Campo received the 1997 FONDENA Prize from King Juan Carlos I of Spain. The FONDENA Prize for nature protection is awarded to a person, association or institution whose creative work or investigation is considered to represent an important contribution to fauna and/or flora conservation in Spain. Prof. César Gómez-Campo, is an active member of the OPTIMA Commission for Conservation of Plant Resources, having served as Secretary of this Commission until 1995. This prize recognized his pioneering work, research and initiatives in the creation of seedbanks for endemic and threatened plant species in Spain and throughout the Mediterranean. Prof. Gómez-Campo had been previously awarded with the Spanish National Prize in Environment.

 

MEETINGS

 

IX OPTIMA MEETING – PARIS (11-17 MAY 1998)

The IX OPTIMA Meeting has recurrently appeared throughout this issue of OPTIMA Newsletter. Nevertheless, in this section a brief overview of the happenings and activities is provided.

Over 250 people from 18 countries arrived in Paris to participate at the Meeting. Radiant sunny weather lasted the whole week and this beautiful city was getting ready for the other major international event, to be held a few weeks after our meeting,.

The Meeting was held for seven intensive days and consisted of twelve multidisciplinary symposia.

On May 11th, at the Opening Session, Prof. Francesco di Castri gave the Opening Plenary Lecture dedicated to Mediterranean biodiversity in the context of a global economy. The symposia covered a wide range of subjects related to Mediterranean botany. Following the tradition of past meetings where special attention is given to the area where the meeting is held, two symposia were assigned to French activities in Botany. Two additional symposia were reserved for the study of specific groups of life forms: Taxonomy, distribution and ecology of Mediterranean Bryophytes and Fungal diversity in the Mediterranean area. Another two symposia were dedicated to the study of plant life under specific environmental conditions: Plants and serpentine formations in the Mediterranean and Plant life at the southern limits of the Mediterranean region. The advances of the current "information age" in Mediterranean botany was put in evidence in three symposia dedicated to Data resources for Mediterranean botanists: Mediterranean databases. Finally, conservation, molecular techniques and ethnobotany also had their share with Knowledge and conservation of biodiversity in Mediterranean islands, Molecular phylogenies of Mediterranean groups and Usage of plants in the Mediterranean region. The contents of the symposia were further complemented by two poster sessions on these topics.

At the Closing Plenary Meeting, our President, Prof. Werner Greuter was awarded the OPTIMA Gold Medal. Three OPTIMA Silver Medals, awarded to the authors of the best papers or books on the phytotaxonomy of the Mediterranean area that were published in the preceding three-year period, were granted to Dr. Theodorus H.M. Mes from Holland (1995), Dr. Zoila Díaz-Lifante and Prof. Benito Valdés from Spain (1996), and Dr. Lucilla Baldoin and Prof. Mauro Raffaelli from Italy (1997).

On the organizational front, ten OPTIMA Commissions which play an active role in different areas of Mediterranean botany held their meetings. A report of their activities was presented at the Closing Plenary Meeting.

In addition, the International Board approved the creation of two additional commissions, one dedicated to the study of Mediterranean Fungi and the other to the coordination with the Euro-Mediterranean Initiative in Plant Systematics.

The Proceedings of the IX OPTIMA Meeting will be published in Bocconea. A new Program Committee is already working on the organization of the next OPTIMA Meeting which will be held in Palermo, in 2001.

I wish to express my most sincere gratitude to Prof. Jacques Moret and to all members of the Organizing Committee for their hard work and enthusiasm in the enormous task of organizing this successful meeting, and for giving participants a chance to meet and share our experiences in the marvellous city of Paris. I also wish to thank the members of the OPTIMA Programme Committee for all their dedication and commitment in making each one of the symposia a great success.

J.M. Iriondo

Index

ANNOUNCEMENTS

 

19-25 July 1998

Conservation Biology at the Molecular Level: Identifying Management and Evolutionary Units - Florence, Italy.

A symposium to be held in association with the VII International Congress of Ecology-1998.

Contact: Dr. Tim King or Dr. R. Kent Schreiber, US Geological Survey, Leetown Science Center, 1700 Leetown Road, Kearneysville, West Virginia 25430, USA. E-mail: Tim_King@usgs.gov

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20-26 July 1998

3rd International Symposium on the Taxonomy of Cultivated Plants – Edinburgh, U.K.

Contact: Dr. Crinan Alexander, Royal Botanic Garden, Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR, U.K. Tel: (44) 131 552 7171; Fax: (44) 131 552 0382; E-mail: c.alexander@rbge.org.uk

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10-15 August 1998

VIIth IOPB Symposium: Evolution in Man-made Habitats - Amsterdam

The symposium of the International Organization of Plant Biosystematists will comprise six non-concurrent plenary sessions and specially scheduled poster sessions. The topics are: 1. Evolution of disturbed habitats; 2. Evolution of crops – Domestication: simulating evolution; 3. Evolution of crops - Mapping of special traits; 4. Evolution of invasive plant species - Adaptation and life cycle; 5. Evolution of crop-wild relative complexes; 6. Evolution of invasive plant species - Apomixis: clonal vs. sexual speciation. A four-day post-symposium excursion will visit a series of dune habitats along the Dutch coast.

Contact: Dr. Hans den Nijs, ISP-Hugo de Vries Laboratory, Kruislaan 318, 1098 SM Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Tel: (31) 20 525 7660; Fax: (31) 20 525 7662; E-mail: IOPB98@ bio.uva.nl

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12-14 August 1998

Tenth Wildland Shrub Symposium – Ephraim, Utah

The Shrub Research consortium in concert with the Great Basin Environmental Education Centre is sponsoring the symposium at Snow College. The symposium theme is Shrubland Ecotones. There will be a mid-symposium field trip to the Great Basin Experimental Range and to hybrid zones in Salt Creek in the Uianta National Forest.

Contact: Dave Lanier, Great Basin Environmental Education Center, 150 East College Avenue, Ephraim, UT 84627, Tel: (1) 801 2837261; E-mail:davel@storm. snow.edu

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23-28 August 1998

Sixth International Mycological Congress - Tel Aviv, Israel.

Contact: Congress Secretariat, P.O. Box 50006, Tel Aviv 61500, Israel. Tel: (972) 35140014; Fax: (972) 35175674; E-mail: MYCOL@ Kenes.ccmail.compuserve.com; http://Isb380.plbio.1su.edu/index.html

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14-18 September 1998

Fifth International Botanic Gardens Conservation Congress -Cape Town, South Africa.

Contact: Prof. Brian J. Huntley, National Botanical Institute, Private Bag X7, Claremont, South Africa 7735. Fax: (27) 21 761 4687; E-mail: bgci98@nbict.nbi.ac.za.

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21-25 September 1998

XV Eucarpia General Congress "Genetics and Breeding for Crop Quality and Resistance" - Viterbo, Italy.

The XV Congress of the European Association for Research on Plant Breeding.

Contact: XV Eucarpia Congress-Genetics and Breeding for crop Quality and Resistance, University of Tuscia, 01100 Viterbo, Italy. Fax: (39) 761 357256; E-mail: eucarpia@ unitus.it Complementary information at: http://www.unitus. it/confsem/eucarpia/eu.html

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28 - September 1998

Monocots II: The 2nd International Conference on the Comparative Biology of the Monocotyledons and 3rd International Symposium on Grass Systematics and Evolution - Sidney, Australia

Contact: Karen Wilson, Monocots II, Royal Botanic Gardens, Mrs. Macquaries Road, Sidney NSW 2000, Australia. Tel: (61) 2 9231 8137; Fax: (61) 2 9251 7231; E-mail: karen@ rbgsyd.gov.au

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19 April – 14 May 1999

International Diploma in Botanic Garden Education – Kew

In association with Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI).

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

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7 June – 30 July 1999

International Diploma in Herbarium Techniques – Kew

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

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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

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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:

  1. Botanical Diversity: Systematics and Evolution
  2. Ecology, Environment, and Conservation
  3. Structure, development, and cellular Biology
  4. Genetics and Genomics
  5. Physiology and Biochemistry
  6. 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

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19 August – 13 October 1999

International Diploma in Plant Conservation Techniques – Kew

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

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22-25 August 1999

International Conifer Conference – Kent, U.K.

The conference will have worldwide geographical coverage and its main topics will include cultivation and propagation techniques, diversity and distribution, ecology and vegetation, forestry and economic uses, growth and reproduction, landscape uses, sustainability and species conservation and taxonomy and evolution.

Contact: Miss Lisa von Schlippe, The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE U.K. Tel: (44) 0181 332 5198; Fax: (44) 0181 332 5197; E-mail: L.von.schlippe@ rbgkew.org.uk

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July-August 2000

Ninth International Conference on Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems (MEDECOS 2000) – Stellenbosch, South Africa

Contact: Dave Richardson, ISOMED Secretary, Instittute for Plant Conservation, Botany Department, University of Cape Town, 7701 Rondebsoch, South Africa; E-mail: medecos@ botzoo.uct.ac.za

 

Back to General Index

NOTICES OF PUBLICATIONS

by Werner Greuter

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Notices of Publications Index

OPTIMA

 

  1. [Jacques MORET (ed.)] - IXème Colloque d'OPTIMA. IX OPTIMA Meeting. Paris, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, 11-17 mai 1998. 11-17 May 1998 [programme, abstracts, list of participants]. - OPTIMA, Paris, 1998. 58 + [100] + 18 pages, paper with clamp back.

The present document was available to the participants of the IX OPTIMA Meeting in Paris upon registration, and consists of four parts: the last version of the scientific programme, on pages 5-16; the lecture abstracts, pp. 17-58; the poster abstracts on 100 unnumbered pages; and the address list of participants on a second run of 18 numbered pages.

Although last-minute printing ensured that this volume is a good match of conference reality, inevitably some changes in participation and programme were unpredictable and are not reflected. Yet, the recorded participation (250 addresses from 21 countries) is fairly accurate. One striking feature of the Meeting, not surprisingly, is the unprecedented attendance from North African countries, all of which except Libya were represented.

There were 12 half-day symposia with lectures and 11 thematic groups of posters. Lecture abstracts are 40 in number, including the 3-pages version of Francesco Di Castri's opening plenary lecture; they are followed by 91 abstracts of poster presentations. Half a dozen additional abstracts were available as loose handouts at the Meeting and are not accounted for here. Even so, the number of posters was only about two-thirds of those shown at the two previous Meetings - the main reason, obviously, being the early date in the midst of the summer term of European universities.

The full proceedings will be published as a volume of Bocconea, which registered participants are entitled to receive for free. Other interested persons may place a subscription order in writing to the Herbarium Mediterraneum in Palermo. W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Cryptogams

 

  1. Ruprecht DUELL (ed.) - Moose Griechenlands. Bryophytes of Greece, with collaboration of Barbara DÜLL-WUNDER. [Bryologische Beiträge, 10.] - Duell-Hermanns, Bad Münstereifel, 1995. [4] + 229 pages, map and drawings, paper. Price: DM 65.

The renowned German bryologist Ruprecht Düll had previously published a list of Cretan bryophytes (in 1966) and its update (in 1973). Building upon Preston's checklists of Greek mosses and liverworts of 1981 and 1984, on other published records, and on his own, his pupils' and correspondents' gatherings, he has now produced a new, greatly expanded inventory of the Greek bryoflora, listing 151 species of Hepaticae and 455 of Musci, not to count numerous infraspecific taxa.

The book consists essentially of two parts: the checklist proper, which gives concise summaries of known within-Greece distribution for each taxon, with but erratic reference to the relevant sources; and a series of papers with original specimen lists, with locality data, for given regions or individual islands: the Halkidhiki Peninsula and Rodhopi Mountains, the islands of Thasos (with E. Damm), Kerkira, and Kefallinia (with F. Preuss), Thessaly, and Rhodes, to which E. Sauer has added an enumeration of specimens from Greece kept in the herbarium at Saarbrücken. This, incidentally, is the only mention of a herbarium in which one may look for vouchers, the reader being left to guess that all other materials referred to are likely kept in Düll's personal herbarium.

Whereas the introductory geographical texts, both for Greece as a whole and the special areas treated in the accessory papers, are in German, the essentials (titles, explanations of symbols and abbreviations) are bilingual (German and English), and the locality data and stray notes in the main checklist are in English only. This will greatly enhance the usefulness of the book for an international readership, in agreement with the author's stated intent that it should assist in the much needed further bryological exploration of the country. In spite of some minor shortcomings (e.g. the unaccountable proliferation of the symbol x meaning "new for Greece", when at the same time older literature records are cited), Düll has certainly, by this publication, laid the foundations for an epoch of renewed activity and rapid progress in his field of study. W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Floras

 

  1. Luis VILLAR, José Antonio SESÉ & José Vicente FERRÁNDEZ - Atlas de la flora del Pirineo Aragonés. I (Introducción. Lycopodiaceae-Umbelliferae). - Consejo de Protección de la Naturaleza de Aragón & Instituto de Estudio Altoaragoneses, Huesca, 1997 (ISBN 84-89862-04-4, this volume84-89862-03-6, the whole work). Pages XCI + 648, maps and drawings, 54 colour photographs on 16 extra plates, 2 loose, transparent overlay maps, hard cover.

This Flora, planned in two volumes, deals with the vascular plants of that portion of the Central Pyrenees that belongs to the Spanish province of Aragon, from the French border on the watershed line in the north to the Ebro Valley in the south. When complete, it will include treatments of 2300 species, each illustrated by an original drawing of c. 6 ( 6 cm, often showing diagnostic details to aid identification. These drawings are meant, to a degree, to replace keys and descriptive matter which were omitted so as not to duplicate those of the monumental Flora iberica.

One essential feature of the present Flora are the distribution maps, which were produced from a database system presently holding over 100,000 herbarium records, 40,000 literature records plus an unspecified number of field observations. Most of this huge bulk of information has been assembled by Aragonese botanists during the last 30 or so years, when the herbarium in Jaca was built up; however, the main herbaria in Madrid and Barcelona were also consulted. The three data categories are represented by different symbols in a grid map consisting of 138 meshes of 10 ( 10 km, based on the UTM system.

Apart from the illustrations and maps, the treatment includes detailed indication of habitat, phytosociology, as well as local and general distribution. Vernacular designations are added whenever available, based on local sources. Life form and uses are shown by means of funny little pictograms which, while initially somewhat reminiscent of guide booklets for camping or hiking tourists, give lots of information in a nutshell. There are full indexes covering almost every imaginable feature except the colour photographs, which are gorgeous but for the time being remain anonymous as to author, and difficult to spot (a temporary drawback that will no doubt be taken care of in the second volume).

It has taken less than 6 years to prepare this first volume, covering the pteridophytes, gymnosperms, apetalous and choripetalous dicots (i.e., those groups that were included in the two first volumes of Flora europaea). During this period, over 8000 new specimens were collected and about 50 species newly added to the flora. This work is one more demonstration of the astounding productivity and skill of Spanish botanists, features for which Spain may be rightly envied by the other countries of Europe. W.G.

  1. Daniel JEANMONOD & Hervé Maurice BURDET (ed.) - Compléments au Prodrome de la flore corse. Asteraceae - I, par Jacques GAMISANS & Daniel JEANMONOD. - Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques, Ville de Genève, 1998 (ISBN 2-8277-0813-2). 340 pages, black-and-white illustrations, laminated cover.

My last review of this Flora (in OPTIMA Newsletter 32: (5)-(6). 1997) was decidedly unkind but concluded with the wish that the continuation of the series might be worthy of its beginnings. I am glad to find my wish satisfied. The present fascicle is the largest published so far. It gets the treatment of the Compositae off the ground, which is by far the most sizeable family still to be dealt with, and is a major step towards the conclusion of the whole work. It has been written by two authors who are at the same time skilled botanists and keen experts of Corsica, and who have shared the treatment of individual genera among themselves.

The layout and general style of the Flora has not of course been changed, and its somewhat archaic habit of extensive and rather unpalatable specimen enumerations remains. What also remains is the generous illustration policy with original plant drawings [by Sierra Ràfols] and scanning micrographs of cypselas for most species treated, as well as grid distribution maps.

The contents of this instalment are left rather vague. There is an introductory statement that it is meant to include the Asteroideae in the sense of Bremer, implying that the tribes Lactuceae and Cardueae, belonging to the Cichorioideae, are not treated - which is indeed so. On searching, one will however find that the four Corsican genera of Senecioneae, although keyed out individually at the onset, are also missing: Senecio, Petasites, Tussilago, and Adenostyles (misnamed Cacalia, in disrespect of Art. 57 and Rec. 14A of the Code; incidentally, two other generic names adopted here will have to change: Asteriscus and Chrysanthemum, but the need for these changes was not yet apparent when this volume went to print). This leaves us with 9 tribes and 44 genera (including aliens) that are treated here.

The basic treatments are rather terse, sometimes disappointingly so. Indication of status is often quite cursory, and while the date of first known record is mentioned for Eupatorium adenophorum, for other recent xenophytes (e.g. Aster squamatus and the Conyza species) one is left to infer it from the specimen and/or literature citations. Species only doubtfully present, or to be excluded, are not set off typographically against the full members of the flora, which may easily induce into error a reader unfamiliar with the French language. Another apparent shortcoming is the lack of reference to non-Corsican subspecies, particularly when only the typical subspecies is known to occur on the island, as with Bellis annua, Anacyclus radiatus, or Gnaphalium uliginosum. Depending on what it is contrasted against, Achillea millefolium subsp. millefolium can have quite different meanings...

There are other treatments, however, which are rich in critical detail and discussion of variation, distribution, taxonomy, etc., and which are important contributions to a better understanding of critical groups and complexes. Examples of this kind may be found in Eupatorium, Filago, Helichrysum, Xanthium, Anthemis, and other genera (invariably those authored by Jeanmonod).

This new addition to the Briquet legacy that makes of Geneva the Mecca of Corsican botany, while not exempt of weaknesses and minor defaults, is in general terms worthy of the great tradition into which it places itself. W.G.

  1. Dimitrios PHITOS, Arne STRID & Sven SNOGERUP (ed.) - Flora hellenica. Volume one, edited by Arne STRID & Kit TAN. - Koeltz, Königstein, 1997 (ISBN 3-87429-391-2, this volume; 3-87429-390-4, the whole work). Pages [I]-XXXVI, 1-392, [393-513], 515-547, coloured frontispiece, maps, hard cover. Price: DM 280.

This is the first volume of the long expected and much needed Flora hellenica, developed under a steering (editorial) committee composed of Dimitrios Phitos (chairman), Arne Strid (secretary), and Sven Snogerup. The Flora aims to cover all wild vascular plants that can be found within the current political boundaries of Greece, including the Aegean Islands. This volume treats 27 families, four of the gymnosperms and the rest ranging from Salicaceae to Caryophyllaceae, following as a rule the same sequence as in Flora europaea. Vascular cryptogams were left for the last volume.

The introduction includes a section on the organisation of the Flora as well as useful chapters on geography, geology, climate, vegetation, phytogeography, and history of botanical exploration of the country. Here the reader would perhaps have appreciated some information on the Flora Hellenica Project, the plan of the work (number of volumes, intended periodicity, etc.), and even some kind of brief presentation of the contributors of treatments of genera.

Families comprising a remarkable number of species are Chenopodiaceae, Polygonaceae, Amaranthaceae, and especially Caryophyllaceae. The treatment of the latter is really impressive, including accounts of genera such as Arenaria (20 species) by D. Phitos, Cerastium (23) and Dianthus (44) by A. Strid, Minuartia (30) by G. Kamari and, the most striking, Silene (119 species and 19 additional subspecies) contributed by W. Greuter (with collaborators). Nomenclatural novelties were kept at a minimum - 12 in total - and are listed at the end of the volume.

For each species a complete description, relevant synonyms and type information are provided, as well as environmental (habitat, substrate), altitudinal, phenological and geographical ranges. In many cases, useful comments on variation, differences with close taxa, or other aspects are added. Descriptions are adequate in length and terminology (although their omission in families containing only one genus and in genera including one species might be considered a drawback). Each species description includes a few diagnostic phrases in italics, a feature that users will welcome. Chromosome numbers follow immediately after species and subspecies descriptions. Examined material is cited only exceptionally, and neither illustrations nor references to published illustrations - except in a few cases - are provided.

Distribution in Greece is indicated by reference to the 13 floristic regions into which the country has been divided for the purpose of the Flora. An special map in the introduction shows the limits and acronyms of regions; the actual names of regions in continental Greece and Crete can be found on a second map, but designations of other insular regions (IoI, Kik, WAe, EAe and Nae) remain unexplained. Geographical information is complemented, for almost every species and subspecies, by useful distribution maps. As many as 722 such maps were automatically generated from a database and are reproduced in block at the end of the volume, at an adequate scale (six to a page) and accompanied by captions including data on habitat, altitude, geography, etc. The volume ends with a long list of cited literature and an extensive index to scientific names.

The 110 genera, some 600 species and 122 additional subspecies treated in this book may still represent a small fraction of the rich Greek flora, but the number of endemics included - 101 species and 54 subspecies, if my counts are accurate - clearly demonstrates the enormous value of this volume as well as of the whole project. Needless to add, this is a most useful and highly recommended book. We eagerly await the next volume and, eventually, completion of the whole work. Juan B. MARTÍNEZ-LABORDE

  1. Karl Heinz RECHINGER (ed.) - Flora iranica. Flora des iranischen Hochlandes und der umrahmenden Gebirge. Persien Afghanistan, Teile von West-Pakistan, Nord-Iraq, Azerbaidjan, Turkmenistan. Lfg. 173, Cyperaceae, by Ilkka KUKKONEN. - Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz (ISBN 3-201-00728-5, the whole work). 307 pages, 42 extra plates of drawings, paper. Price: DM 339.

Rubiaceae, pteridophytes and, as the juiciest morsel, the huge genus Astragalus: if my record is correct, that's about all that remains to be done before Flora iranica is complete. By now it is the most voluminous Flora ever edited (and to a major part, written) single-handedly by one botanist, the most species-rich, and since Boissier's Flora orientalis was completed over a century ago, the one covering the largest territory.

Karl Heinz Rechinger, the hero of this whole huge venture and now well in his nineties, has had skilled and efficient help for producing the current, new volume. Cyperaceae, after all, are a special kind of plants (they deter even grazing bovines), attracting a particular sort of botanists; one will thus readily sympathise with Rechinger for having handed them over to a passionate expert in the field: Ilkka Kukkonen, who has authored the text as a whole and has, to no one's surprise, written a flawless account. Assistance in editorial matters was available through Ian Hedge, an old crack of Flora iranica and excellently suited for the task. While his role is duly acknowledged in print, one vitally important contribution remains, as usual, unmentioned, being tacitly understood: without the devoted help, restless activity and punctilious care of Wilhelmina Rechinger not only the present volume but many of its precursors would look less palatable than they do - or might not exist at all!

The Flora iranica area is not a centre of diversity of Cyperaceae, yet with 20 genera and 189 species they are a sizeable part of the territory's vascular flora. Carex (85 species) and Cyperus (45 species) are the largest genera, followed by Schoenoplectus (12) and Eleocharis (11). Under Schoenoplectus the single new combination here proposed was validated: S. lacustris subsp. hippolyti (misspelled 'Hippolytii' but in fact based on Scirpus hippolyti V. Krecz., a species dedicated to Ippolit Krascheninnikov whose forename had been correctly hellenised Hippolytos by the original author).

Sedges are not aesthetically attractive plants, so one neither expects nor will find colour plates. Even the traditional herbarium sheet photographs of Flora iranica would have been of little use and were justifiably omitted. Much more appropriate, and extremely welcome, are Marja Koistinen's careful and detailed drawings of diagnostic details (and sometime habit) of most of the species, that fill no less than 42 plates. Condoning the not very practical and somewhat confusing numbering of figures and lettering of scale bars, one will find that these figures are the most attractive and unrestrictedly useful feature of the present volume. W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Flower books

 

  1. Jacques GAMISANS & Jean-François MARZOCCHI - La flore endémique de la Corse. - Edisud, Aix-en-Provence, 1996 (ISBN 2-85744-777-9). 208 pages, maps, coloured graphs, and colour photographs, laminated cover.

This book is a hymn to the beauty and originality of the Corsican flora, written and illustrated by two of its keenest lovers and experts.

The endemic flora of the island has been defined very loosely for the purpose of this book, to comprise not only endemics of Corsica proper, or those of the W. Mediterranean islands in general, but also to include many taxa extending to Sicily and Italy, the Alps or Pyreneees, S. France, Spain, N. Africa, and even as far east as Croatia and Serbia (Cardamine chelidonia) or Crete (Lepidium hirtum subsp. oxyotum). A detailed list at the end, which includes many complementary informations, enumerates 296 such endemic taxa, of any rank down to the simple forma but discounting hybrids.

The iconographic treatment which is at the core of the book concerns no less that two thirds (197) of the endemic plants of Corsica. Each is illustrated by one, rarely two excellent colour photographs of which the only drawback is lack of documentation: except for the few landscape pictures the locality is never mentioned, nor is the photographer named (which one assumes to be Marzocchi for the most part, just as Gamisans is the likely author of most of the text). The text for each taxon is brief and lacks descriptive features but mentions distribution and ecology. Arrangement is by habitat, each altitudinal belt (coastal, thermo-, meso- and supramediterranean, montane, oromediterranean, subalpine, alpine) as well as wetland plants and ubiquists being treated separately, usually introduced by a few landscape pictures.

This is a unique documentation, both in terms of its beauty and coverage. The one third of Corsican endemics lacking from the main treatment is of scant importance: it largely consists of doubtfully distinct or doubtfully present taxa, or apomicts (Taraxacum, Hieracium), or utterly non-photogenic plants (many grasses). What is there is a virtually complete photo-atlas of the stenochorous element of the island flora. The book's avowed scope is to make Corsicans aware of the priceless botanical patrimony in their trust and of the need to preserve it - a scope which I dare say it fulfils ideally, to the benefit of local people and visitors alike. W.G.

  1. Dêmêtrios MPAMPALÔNAS - Maurobouni Krousiôn.. Oikotouristikos odêgos. - Anaptuxiakê Kilkis, Kilkis, 1995. 239 pages, black-and-white and colour maps, colour photographs, laminated cover.

There are several "Black Mountains" in Greece, and the Mavrovouni of this book is not the best known among them. It is not even recognised in the Greek mountain flora, being much too low (1179 m) to qualify as a "real" mountain. It is an innocent-looking wooded ridge on the divide between the provinces of Kilkis and Serres, in northern Greece, not far from the state border with S.W. Bulgaria. It has not achieved botanical fame in the past, nor does its commonplace flora justify such fame. Yet it was made the subject of a botanical primer which is in the same time a première. How did this come about?

It all goes back to the European rural development programme LEADER having promoted the building of tourist bungalows in the small village of Protokerasia, on the southern slopes of the mountains. Tourist development plans included the set-up of a small "botanical museum", for which Dimitrios Babalonas (as he pronounces his name, and writes it when unaffected by the bonds of ISO transcription standards) and his team of the botanical institute at Salonica took responsibility. This booklet, illustrated by the author's own plant photographs, is a by-product of these efforts. Calling itself an "eco-touristic guide" and entirely written in Greek, it bears witness of the present efforts to promote the eco-touristic fashion within Greece but is equally well suited for use in biological teaching of school-classes.

Having leafed through this booklet you will perhaps fancy the prospect of hiking holidays in Protokerasia, where you will no doubt be heartily welcomed. Do not be deterred by the apparent lack of extraordinary plants, nor by finding some of the pictures to be rather mediocre and/or ill suited for identification. This booklet was never intended for a major item in terms of science or bibliophily. Yet some of the names mentioned in the picture captions, which are obviously wrong, might usefully be reconsidered and rectified if and when a reprint is envisaged. I can offer the following (non-exhaustive) suggestions: "Aristolochia pallida" is A. rutunda; "Silene conica" is S. subconica; "Hieracium hoppeanum" is likely a Picris; "Onobrychis pindicola" is Astragalus cf. monspessulanus; and "Salix purpurea" features its close vicarious relative, S. amplexicaulis. W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Floristic inventories and checklists

 

  1. Jean-Pierre LEBRUN & Adélaïde STORK - Enumération des plantes à fleurs d'Afrique tropicale. Vol. IV - Gamopétales: Clethraceae à Lamiaceae, avec la collaboration de Laurent Gautier, Genève (Sapotaceae). - Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques, Genève, 1997 (ISBN 2-8277-0113-8). 712 pages, 2 figures, laminated cover. Price: SFr 100.

The fourth volume of Lebrun & Stork's Enumération brings this major checklist to its conclusion. It covers most of the African continent, filling the gap between Med-Checklist and the Flora of Southern Africa (neither so far completed): a substantial sector of the world's tropical zone, in which, as we now know, about 26,300 species of flowering plants (excluding gymnosperms) are presently recognised. Last time we reported on this work (in OPTIMA Newsletter 30: (20). 1996) the estimate still stood at 24,000, which means that the increase as compared to the expected figure is substantial. Yet the African tropics, contrary to South Africa and Madagascar, do not range among the areas with greatest botanical diversity on a world scale.

This final instalment is more than twice as thick (and costly) as each of its predecessors. This is due at least in part to the larger number of species covered, but also to a somewhat more generous practice of synonym citation, to a substantial bulk (95 pages) of additions and corrections to previous volumes, and to the presence of a cumulative, synonymic index to families and genera - a most welcome item, especially as it also covers the end-of-volume additions and novelties that else might easily confuse or discourage the user.

It is good to have this work completed. As we all know (think of Med-Checklist), any incomplete torso of such an inventory is a constant source of irritation. Regular updating of the list would of course be desirable. It might be more easily achieved, and of more immediate use, if it were possible to transfer the integrated contents of the Enumération to a database, ideally in a format that can be searched via the Internet. Would this, perhaps, be a task that could be assumed or monitored by the AETFAT? W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Excursions

 

  1. Ina DINTER - Botanische Exkursion. Nordzypern, das Kleinod im Mittelmeer. 15 Tage 09.-23.03.1997. [Ausarbeitung]. - Privately assembled/duplicated, D-74348 Lauffen, 1997. 77 numbered sheets, black-and-while illustrations, paper and plastic front cover sheet.

This is the 1997 version of the elaborate post-excursion document of which the 1996 issue has been presented last time (in OPTIMA Newsletter 32: (13). 1997). It is unaltered as to the introductory matter, itineraries and location maps, and literature list, but the specimen enumerations have been adapted (usually expanded) to what was actually observed in 1997. The identifications of orchids were revised by a specialist, H. Baumann. The cumulative plant list at the end now takes 12 pages instead of 7, due to many additions and a new format that provides for the mention of herbarium vouchers (collected 1994-1997 and kept in Ms Dinter's private herbarium), which adds to the scientific relevance of the document. In compensation, the bird list and pre-excursion plant list have been dropped. W.G.

  1. Ulrich KULL & Stergos DIAMANTOGLOU - Kreta. Allgemeiner Exkursionsbericht. Kumulative Pflanzenliste der Exkursionen 1974-1995 zugleich Führer zur botanisch-geologischen Exkursion der Gesellschaft für Naturkunde in Württemberg April 1998. [Arbeiten und Mitteilungen aus dem Biologischen Institut der Universität Stuttgart, 23.] - Stuttgart, 1998. [2] + VIII + 365 pages, black-and-white illustrations, paper.

What a surprising book! Allegedly a cumulative report on excursions of Stuttgart University students to Crete during 22 years, laid down in preparation of a botanical-geological excursion of the Land's natural history society in 1998, this is in reality a full-scale naturalistic, historical, cultural and socio-political manual for German-speaking travellers to the island. The link to the student excursions themselves is tenuous if at all apparent, although the authors may indeed have drawn on preparatory seminar work (doubtless including their own) of prospective participants. Not even a record of excursion dates or itineraries is included (the years 1984, 1989 and 1992 are casually mentioned in the preface, plant lists from spring 1981 have been duplicated [OPTIMA Newsletter 14-16: 67-68. 1983], 1974 and 1995 can be assumed from the title). The only direct fall-out of excursion activities, the plant lists (non-cumulative and by localities only) at the end, are the one really weak chapter, with but erratic mention of vouchers and blatantly incomplete species inventories.

As an old Cretan crack I have read this book with interest at first, then with growing fascination. It is hard to imagine how such a thorough coverage of so many subjects could have been achieved (ever and again one finds the most recent literature cited and sensibly incorporated into the overall picture). Ulrich Kull and his Greek co-author, both scientifically active in general botany, are masters in abstracting and synthesising in a fluid and utterly readable style the piecemeal results of authors in all fields of science and humanities. Just try it out: read the chapters on geology, past climate, islands and plant evolution, history from antiquity to World War II and up to the present day, local crafts and culture, and you have it. There is a stress on the description of archaeological, mainly Minoan sites and geological strata; a whole chapter, devoted to pharmaceutically important Cretan plants, has been reproduced from an otherwise unobtainable duplicated report by the Schönfelders; but you will also delight in reading small essays on, e.g., the Cretan date palm (my personal favourite) or - quoted from Erhard Kästner's book - the local taverns.

Sorry if I sound too enthusiastic. I just happen to like the book and to be sorry for all those who, due to their insufficient mastery of the German language, will be unable to share my pleasure as a reader. But, well - I will have to find something to criticise, too, so as to do justice to my nasty reputation. So there we go: that most original (judging from its epithet) and obviously new species discussed on p. 100, Bellevalia brevispina, is not described, let alone validated, so that we may never learn what it really is... W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Chorology

 

  1. 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 7 [ORCA: Atlas corològic, 7]. - Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Secció de Ciències Biològiques, Carme 47, E-08001 Barcelona, 1997 (ISBN 84-7283-380-1). [375], [768] pages, maps 1146-1519, paper.

The floristic mapping scheme for Catalonia, governed by the Organisation for the Mapping of plants of the Catalan Countries has been referred to repeatedly in this column (see OPTIMA Newsletter 20-24: (45-46). 1988; 30: (28). 1996; 31: (13-14). 1997; 32: (17-18)). Suffice it here to confirm what I wrote last time, that the speed of production of the chorlogical atlas for Catalonia has become admirably and commendably high. The set of 374 new maps included in vol. 7 - the largest so far produced in one go - completes the serial treatment up to and including species No. 926 in the Flora manual dels Països Catalans, i.e., to the end of the Cruciferae. Other sizeable families here treated are the Lythraceae, Onagraceae, Thymelaeaceae, and Papaveraceae.

As in earlier volumes, some previously numbered species and a few subspecies were omitted, mostly because their wild occurrence has not so far been confirmed beyond doubt. Again, a number of additions compensates these apparent losses: Vella lucentina recently described as new, Diplotaxis ilorcitana previously neglected, Ludwigia repens, Oenothera glazioviana, Myriophyllum heterophyllum, Thymelaea gussonei, Fumaria melillaica, Sisymbrium crassifolium subsp. arundanum, and Lepidium cardamines, all recently discovered in Catalonia. The sad fact that one species, Trapa natans, is now apparently extinct in the territory covered should also be noted. W.G.

  1. T. NIKOLI6, D. BUKOVEC, J. SOPF & S. D. JELASKA - Kartiranje flore Hrvatske. Mogu6nosti i standardi. [Natura croatica, 7, Suppl. 1]. - Hrvatski Prirodoslovni Muzej, Zagreb, 1998. [2] + 62 pages, graphs and maps, 8 loose, transparent overlay maps, laminated cover.

This pamphlet, written in Croatian but with summary, captions and subtitles in English, discusses and defines the bases for a new project of mapping the flora of Croatia. With Toni Nikoli6's Index florae croaticae (see OPTIMA Newsletter 32: (12-13). 1997) nearing completion, a standard for defining the taxonomic mapping units now exists. However, brainpower is still scarce, available data are old (only one fifth on average, we are told, dates from less than 50 years ago!) and often too vaguely located to be useful for mapping purposes. New field prospection and the use of computing facilities (GIS in particular) are therefore essential pre-requisites for the project to succeed.

Much of the text, and all its illustrative and tabular material, relate to the problems of grid mapping. There is an in-depth methodological discussion, involving comparison of three grid systems, their filtering effects, and interconvertibility of data: the German (now Central European) MTB [Meßtischblatt] system using geographic co-ordinates and mesh dimensions of 6' latitude by 10' longitude; Croatia's similarly based "national grid" reflecting their topographical maps 1 : 25,000, where the meshes are 15' by 15'; and the UTM system applied among others by the Atlas florae europaeae, using 50 km (or 10 km) squares in transverse Mercator projection. W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Regional studies of flora and vegetation

 

  1. Jordi CARRERAS & Josep VIGO - Mapa de vegetació de Catalunya 1 : 50 000. Puigcerdà 217 (36-10). - Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya & Direcció General del Medi Natural, Barcelona, 1997 (ISBN 84-393-4213-6). 66 pages, map and colour legend, flexible cover; with folded colour map by Jordi CARRERAS, Ramon M. MASALLES, Ignasi SORANO & Josep VIGO; flexible cover and twin plastic pouch.

  1. Empar CARRILLO & Josep VIGO - Mapa de vegetació de Catalunya 1 : 50 000. Gósol 254 (35-11). - Institut Cartogràfic de Catalunya & Direcció General del Medi Natural, Barcelona, 1997 (ISBN 84-7283-373-9 & 84-393-4375-2). 95 pages, graphs, map and colour legend, flexible cover; with folded colour map by Jordi CARRERAS, Empar CARRILLO, Xavier FONT, Josep M. NINOT, Ignasi SORANO & Josep VIGO; flexible cover and twin plastic pouch.

These two maps and correlated explanatory texts are part of a series which, one supposes, will once cover the whole of Spanish Catalonia. Curiously, there is no concrete mention anywhere of other planned or published maps of this series, just the cursory statement (item 15, p. 39) that various maps have been published so far, plus the explicit citation of one such map (No. 255, published in 1994) among the references. When taken together, the latter and the two present sheets cover a continuous territory in the high ranges of the Pyrenees. To complete the mapping project (if it exists as such), no less than 86 sheets of the national topographic map 1 : 50,000 are to be taken care of.

Each folded map sheet bears, in recto colour print, the vegetation map proper along with detailed, colour-coded captions, two roughly north-to-south directed, schematic vegetation profiles, and three ancillary, smaller maps showing the topography, relief, and geological substrata. The potential vegetation is represented by different colour shades, the actual vegetation by symbols and numbers. A full and fully coded English version of the captions can be found at the end of each explanatory brochure.

The Puicerdà map overlaps in its eastern half with a vegetation map with the same scale, previously published by two of the same authors - Vigo & Masalles - as an annex to the former's book on the plant cover of the Vall de Ribes (see OPTIMA Newsletter 32: (19). 1997). Both maps include the Puigmal (2910 m) as their highest point, but they differ not only in range and colouring but also in the degree of detail presented, this new one being more finely differentiated. As it concerns a border area, it also shows that the French territory is not being treated, which is in some contrast with the traditional claim of Catalan botanists of being in charge of their plants on either side of the national frontier.

The Gósol map and booklet do not transcend the boundary of Spain. The Sierra de Cadí, culminating at 2648 m, is at its core, and indeed its main reason of being appears to be the fact that much of the mapped area (the Parc natural del Cadí-Moixeró) is protected. The nature conservancy office has apparently co-funded the work, and taken charge of half of the printing. This being so, it is hard to understand why the Park is barely mentioned in passing in the text, and its boundaries do not appear on any of the maps.

Hopefully I will soon be able to report on further published maps of this series, and perhaps provide an overview of the presently somewhat mysterious overall scheme of publishing. W.G.

  1. Theofanês KÔNSTANTINIDÊS - Ê hlôrida kai ê blastêsê tôn oreôn Geraneia Pateras kai Kithairôn. - Thesis, Ethniko kai Kapodistriako Panepistêmio Athênôn, Athêna, 1997. [3] + IX + 465 pages, black-and-white figures, graphs and maps, one colour map, paper.

The PhD thesis of Fanis Konstantinidis, placed under the joint supervision of Professors Yannitsaros (Athens) and Phitos (Patras), deals with a group of three rather low and fairly well isolated mountains of the Greek mainland, in the south-western corner of Attica, that were most imperfectly explored so far: Mt Yerania (1351 m) lies to the west of Megara, just opposite Korinthos, whereas Mt Pateras (1132 m) and Mt Kitheron (1409 m) are situated to the north of Megara, all three bordering the easternmost extension of the Korinthian gulf.

The core of this work is a thorough, most valuable new floristic inventory of the area, whose result is indeed impressive. The number of known vascular plant species has increased about fourfold, to reach a total of 1210 (including 12 pteridophytes). In terms of single mountains, the rate of new records lies between 80 and 85 %! Several species found were new to Greece, or at least to Central Greece (Sterea Ellas), and one (Centaurea cithaeronea, described separately beforehand) proved to be new to science. In total, more than 4000 specimens were collected for the purpose of this study.

There are other chapters in this thesis besides the floristic catalogue. The obligatory series of (partly new) chromosome counts may be mentioned, although they are of little relevance in this particular context. More important is an intelligently written analysis of phytogeographical affinities, concentrating on the Greek endemic element and providing newly assessed threat categories for the rarer ones. Using the new IUCN criteria, several endemic taxa were found to be rare, 8 of them, vulnerable, and a single one endangered: Trinia guicciardii, a dioecious, taxonomically somewhat controversial umbel only known from Mt Kitheron and Mt Parnonas.

The vegetation is as one would expect for low, genuinely Mediterranean Greek mountains, and the concluding chapter dealing with it is by consequence rather short. The Mediterranean forest belt, dominated by Pinus halepensis woods and their degradation stages, ends at about 800 m of altitude, being replaced by fir woods (Abies cephalonica) above. Mt Yerania has some ophiolithic areas as its peculiar feature, on which a dozen of "serpentinophytes", mostly with links to Euboea, were found to grow.

Altogether, this is a valuable, careful and well written work which yields good promise for the future of Greek botany in general and of the author himself in particular. W.G.

  1. Giôrgos SFÊKAS - Ekthesê gia tê hlôrida tês periohês gyro apo tên tehnêtê limnê Plastêra (Megdoba) tou nomou Karditsas 1996. - Privately published, [Athens], [1998?]. 30 numbered sheets, plastic front and paper back cover sheet, stuck-in map on back cover.

This is a duplicated report on the flora of the Plastira Lake and its surroundings, visited by George Sfikas in 1995 and 1996 on behalf of the Department of Ecology of Athens University. It principally consists of a 25-page enumeration of 514 species of vascular plants believed to occur in the area. This list is stated to be based both on a compilation of published records (in which respect it is, however, blatantly incomplete) and on the author's own collections.

Plastira is a large artificial lake that originated when, due to construction of the Tavropou dam at a date not specified, the former plain of Nevropolis was flooded. That plain, together with its surroundings, was one of the classical sites of Greek botany, having been extensively explored by Heldreich and Haussknecht on their 1885 expedition to northern Greece. It would be a meritorious undertaking to check which of the plants collected on the plain in 1885 still exist in the surroundings, and which have gone. However, Sfikas claims to be confident that all can eventually be found again, so he lists old and new records indiscriminately (or so he states), which is a real pity. The coverage of his list in fact extends much beyond the lake and its surroundings (his letter "N.", for Neuropolis), also comprising the hills to the east ("A.P."), the mountain slopes to the west ("D.P."), as well as Mt Borlero ("Mp."), Mt Voutsikaki ("B."), Mt Kazarma ("Ka."), and Mt Karava ("K.").

It so happens that, with Brigitte Zimmer, I shortly visited the area in question in June 1995, collecting less than 90 species - of which 20 are absent from Sfikas's list, including several additional genera and one family (Valerianaceae). We actually were in search of a plant that has obviously disappeared, having been collected on the plain in 1885 and identified as Isoetes setacea but more likely conspecific with the (presumably now extinct) Greek endemic I. heldreichii. This I mention to show how important from the point of view of conservation a thorough balance of the wins and losses consequent to the dam construction might be.

As both its presentation and contents show, this is an unambitious and very preliminary list. What I have written above is not therefore meant as a criticism but as an encouragement to produce a better and more definitive document. This would require a more thorough literature search (Isoetaceae, too, are unmentioned!) and further field work (e.g. at the southern end of the lake, obviously not visited, where a critical but immature Silene species was observed, belonging to the group of S. congesta and S. flavescens but growing outside the known distribution range of either). W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Applied botany

 

  1. Alonso VERDE, Diego RIVERA & Concepción OBÓN - Etnobotánica en las Sierras de Segura y Alcaraz: las plantas y el hombre. - Instituto de Estudios Albacetenses, [Serie I, Estudios No. 102], Albacete, 1998 (ISBN 84-87136-80-x). 351 pages, 1 figure, 2 maps (one with colours), black-and-white and some colour photographs, laminated cover.

Do we witness a resurgence of ethnobotany, lately? If so, we should better hurry: time is running short, and any large-scale field survey of the kind that underlies this book is largely a last-minute rescue operation. World-wide, even in apparently remote areas, the TV-driven technological wave breaks in and old, oral traditions are lost forever in a matter of one or two generations. What cultural and practical riches we are losing we shall never know, except when, as was here done, a faithful record is made and kept for the future.

The mountainous south-western part of Albacete Province is an area with a varied, still strong rural and pastoral tradition. The present book, which follows established ethnographical procedures, mirrors faithfully this plurality in its many-faceted approach. Following some preliminary matter it starts with a chapter on vernacular plant designations, their linguistic roots and the way in which they are formed, with an interesting side-view on the role of binominal designations, prefiguring scientific binomials, in popular parlance. The next major chapter concerns the plants' role in folk lore, from ritual uses to myths, songs and children's plays. Follows the main and largest chapter on actual plant uses: for ornament and crafts, as food and fodder, dies, tans, perfumes and incenses, fire wood, cosmetics, medicines and poisons, spices... The variety of plant uses is boundless, incredible for a city-dweller of our time, yet endearing and enriching at the same time.

Throughout the main text, plants are referred to by their vernacular designations alone. An extensive (100 pages!) bidirectional list at the end provides the equivalence between popular and scientific names, serving as a dictionary to the botanical reader. What is wanting, though, is an index. Without page references to each mention of the various plants in the descriptive chapters the book is hard to consult and, for most purposes, virtually useless. This is the single but, unfortunately, major criticism one has to spell out for an otherwise fascinating, well written and moderately well illustrated volume. W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Conservation topics, Red Data books

 

  1. Linus SVENSSON (ed.) - Understanding biodiversity. An agenda for research into biodiversity prepared by the European Working Group on Research and Biodiversity (EWGRB). - Commission of the European Communities, Directorate-General XII for Science, Research and Development, Stockholm & Brussels, 1997. 122 pages, paper. [Electronic version at: http://www.oden. se/~ewgrb/scientificagenda.html<]/font>

Groups and programmes concerned with the study and/or preservation and/or valorisation of biological diversity are presently springing up like mushrooms after a mild autumn rain. It is difficult to keep track of them, not to mention the problem of knowing which are influential or (alternatively?) competent. The group that has been established under the acronym EWGRB operates under the umbrella of the Directorate-General XII (science, research and development) of the Commission of the European Communities, in Brussels. Few of its twenty plus members are active in biological research and, unsurprisingly, none is a plant taxonomist. Among the 50-odd participants to the Conference on Research and Biodiversity (Stockholm, April 1997) that stands at the basis of the present report there happened to be a single systematic botanist of renown. Major botanical institutions and organisations in biological systematics known to me were not among the 500 recipients of the questionnaire on which the report also draws.

Predictably the document, being largely influenced by governmental policies, is pervaded by an anthropocentric view of biological diversity, which is defined as "a strategic stock forming the basis for the sustainable use and development of ... agriculture, forestry, fishery, tourism and related industrial sectors... Furthermore, [it] is related to the quality of life ... in a more cultural sense, forming the physical [!] environment of every-day life and recreation..." As biologists we have learnt to live with this kind of prose, yet as an introduction to and general philosophy of a research agenda one will swallow twice before reading on. Having poked one's way through several poorly proof-read pages of mediocre English, one will find some reward.

For many years, and officially since its VI Meeting in Delfi 9 years ago, OPTIMA has voiced the need for more research on the systematics and biology of threatened plants, and of taxonomic and floristic research in general, as being a prerequisite for the effective and rational conservation of botanical diversity. In recent years, the Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity has forcibly endorsed such claims, recognising the existence of a "taxonomic impediment" and proclaiming a Global Taxonomic Initiative. The Darwin declaration, just published (on paper and on the Internet: http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/flora/webpubl/ darwinw.htm), has been operational in this respect and should be freely quoted and spread by all systematic biologists.

This new understanding of the vital role of biological systematics for conservation policy transpires, perhaps still too modestly, in several points of the EWGRB Document. Two themes of a brainstorming meeting of experts held in parallel to the Stockholm Conference were "What biodiversity is where" (being relevant to faunistic and floristic work), and "Making systematics operational" (which, for a realist, means: fund it). By way of consequence the main conclusions mention, among others, the following "tentative research priorities": Use of existing knowledge on biodiversity; Taxonomic skills and identification tools; Research on distribution and change in biodiversity; and Research on single species. All this is spot on from the point of view of OPTIMA, and more of the same is needed. Taxonomists: be prepared! W.G.

  1. Jacques LAMBINON - Introduction of non-native plants into natural environments / Les introductions de plantes non indigènes dans l'environnement naturel. [Nature and environment / Sauvegarde de la nature, 87.] - Council of Europe / Conseil de l'Europe, Strasbourg, 1997 (ISBN 92-871-3389-1, English; 92-871-3388-3, French). 29 / 28 pages, paper.

Having been commissioned by the Standing Committee of the Berne Convention to write a text on invasive plants and the problems they may cause, Lambinon chose not to add yet another manual to the vast literature on the topic, nor produce extensive lists for a catalogue, but rather, to dwell on some aspects that had been somewhat neglected in the past and whose presentation might be useful and thought-provoking. He has managed to write a small but utterly readable report that will, I believe, prove useful and welcome to many.

The first point he raises is the often surprisingly difficult distinction between native and introduced plants, a problem of which I had become well aware when starting to compile Med-Checklist, if not before. The second aspect follows therefrom: whether introduced plants do not also, sometimes at least, have a positive heritage and conservational value. Think of the poppy and cornflower, old introductions now regressing in many areas - to which I might add the example, from zoology, of the Cretan cri-cri goat introduced into the island by the Minoans in prehistoric times, that has provided the logo for the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature. A third problem, again related, is that of deliberate introductions, including re-introductions of plants that have disappeared or become depleted in the wild.

The concrete cases of invasive aliens and the danger they may present for the indigenous flora are dealt with in the fourth and final part, together with possible measures to forestall or remove such threat - to name: research [sic!], combat, and monitoring.

Altogether, this is a commendable brochure and a good example of how to spend public money in a modest yet efficient way. W.G.

  1. Cesar GÓMEZ CAMPO [& 27 co-authors] - Libro rojo de especies vegetales amenazadas de las Islas Canarias. - Gobierno de Canarias, [no locality], 1996 (ISBN 84-920730-9-8). 663 pages, maps, 14 colour photographs on 7 extra plates, paper.

This new red data book for the endemic flora of the Canary Islands closely resembles, in its concept and layout, the one for peninsular Spain and the Balearic Island published by the same Gómez-Campo a decade earlier (see OPTIMA Newsletter 25-29: (55). 1991). Again 300 species are treated, each on two opposite pages, with the same subheadings and the same familiar distribution maps with blue grid circle imprints. The Canary flora being almost as rich in endemics as the Spanish mother land (which has the seventy-fold surface area!), and richer perhaps in very rare and local species, maintenance of the sacred figure 300 can be easily justified, as it permitted application of the same strict selection criteria as before: only taxonomically good (or uncontroversial, or at least new) species were admitted, preferably limited to a single island (or two, rarely more), and local even there. One will thus search in vain for flagship endemics such as the dragon tree or Canary date palm, neither being sufficiently threatened. Out of the three hundred listed species only a dozen non-threatened ones are treated, and even those that are simply rare were for the most part left out, whereas the endangered (105) and vulnerable (118) category each accounts for more than one third of the total! The list of excluded taxa, Gómez-Campo admits, is quite interesting - but then, of course, he does not publish it.

In spite of the heavy danger under which hundreds of the archipelago's endemics are presently placed, there is one circumstance that entitles to prudent optimism: in spite of previous claims that some species had completely vanished all that were ever described have again been found in recent times, so that no documented case of extinction exists (although one can of course theorise that several may have disappeared in the early phase of human colonisation, before anyone could describe and name them). We are not too late to save the whole lot for posterity - but a major effort of conservation will certainly be needed to achieve this goal.

This book is a perfect example of strict and consistent editing - no minor task if one thinks of the large number of contributing authors. This also means, unfortunately, that its weaknesses such as the absence of illustrations (for which the habitat photographs at the end are no real compensation) and of any comments on taxonomic affinities are general throughout. This is particularly regrettable in the case of that half dozen species not so far described or validly named but nevertheless included, of which no one except their inventor and prospective author (Arnoldo Santos) knows what they look like. They are: Argyranthemum vincentii, Cheirolophus anagensis, C. puntallanensis, Helianthemum cirae, H. lini, and Parolinia ariadnes (misspelled 'ariadnae'). Here, therefore, is my plea to Arnoldo: go ahead and publish them now! W.G.

  1. [Amerigo A. HOFMANN (ed.)] - Progetto di ricostituzione e valorizzazione delle pinete della costa grossetana. Piano integrato di lotta fitopatologica in ambiente forestale mediterraneo con particolare riguardo alle pinete di pino domestico della fascia costiera della Provincia di Grosseto. Accademia Italiana di Scienze Forestali, Firenze, 1995. 93 pages, drawings, graphs, colour map, paper.

The sandy coast of Tuscany is covered by extensive pine groves which in recent years have shown clear signs of degradation and even dieback. Since these woods are a prominent feature, not only in the landscape but in the region's economy, the said phenomena have caused general alarm and resulted in a complex, large-scale programme of study and reclamation funded from national and European sources. Two simultaneously published booklets, the present one and item 29 below, deal with the situation, the latter resulting from a conference held in Grosseto in October 1993, whereas the former, partly building on it, brings conclusions and concrete action plans on several levels.

There are about 13,000 hectares of coastal pine woods in Tuscany, made of three species: Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), maritime pine (P. pinaster), and umbrella pine (P. pinea), of which the latter is the most widespread and most spectacular. Its native status is in doubt, and one believes that Phoenicians or Etruscans may have brought them in from southern Anatolia in the remote past. However this may be, the present woods were for the most part planted in historical times, are often privately owned, and are is a sensitive state of ecological balance. Dieback phenomena were observed in the early nineties, partly due to insect attack (aphids, moths and beetles) which, however, were diagnosed as being secondary afflictions consequent to low rainfall in consecutive years, to air pollution, to high salinity of the ground water resulting from excessive water demand for irrigation and tourism, and also to the direct treading and wheeling damage caused to the woods by beach visitors.

Measures here proposed include continued monitoring, dune reclamation, biological control of phytophagous insects, as well as limitation of direct access and groundwater pumping. It all seems logical and coherent, and one just marginally wonders where all the available funding (nowhere quantified) may have gone. W.G.

  1. Ja. P. DIDUH, V. S. TKACENKO, P. G. PLJUTA, I. A. KOROTCENKO & T. V. FICAJLO - Porivnjal'na ocinka fitoriznomanitnosti zapovidnih stepovih ekosistem Ukraïni z metoju optimizaciï rezimiv ïh ohoroni (Phytodiversity comparative estimate of preserved steppe ecosystems in Ukraine for optimization of conservation regimens). - Institut botaniki im. M. G. Kolodnogo, Nacional'na Akademija Nauk Ukraïni, Kiïv, 1998 (ISBN 966-02-0425-6). 76 pages, maps, graphs, paper.

This study of Ukrainian steppes and the problems of their conservation was made possible by funding through international programmes and U.S. state agencies, which also accounts for the presence of an extensive (8 pages) English summary version as well as bilingual captions for the tables and graphs.

The large Eurasian steppe biome has its western limit in the Ukraine, where steppes once covered two fifths of the national territory. Steppe destruction, which in recent times is often due to afforestation with non-native trees using powerful modern technology inclusive of slope terracing, is an important problem, as the Ukrainian steppe floras are rich in endemic species, many of which are under threat. Having been formed under a more xeric climate combined with grazing pressure, steppes at present are a fragile ecosystem in precarious equilibrium, which will turn into woodland naturally when fully protected.

Nine steppe reserve areas have been studied with respect to their floristic diversity and ecology. The results here presented include graphic representations of tolerance ranges for various ecological parameters of the main classes and alliances of steppe vegetation and of a selection of representative species (Stipa spp. and Carex humilis). The conclusion is drawn that, whereas every reserve is a unique ecosystem requiring its own individual management, as a rule of thumb not more than one quarter of the area should be fully protected and the remainder subject to some degree of grazing or ploughing. W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Gardens and institutes

 

  1. Maria Lisete CAIXINHAS - Flora da estufa fria de Lisboa. - Verbo, Lisboa & São Paulo, 1994 (ISBN 792-22-1541-8). 143 pages, colour photographs and map, cloth with dust jacket.

The "estufa fria" in Lisbon is unique among greenhouses in many ways, to begin with is extraordinary size of over one hectare. Also, it is not a "house" really, being covered by what, judging from the photographs, is only a light thatching of lamellate shades. It has been built into a quarry in the midst of the Eduardo VII Park, where almost a century ago gardeners started sheltering their more delicate species against the northerly winds. The area was first thatched in the twenties, with restructuring and enlargement in 1933 and 1947, and is most irregular in outline. Plants kept there, though introduced, grow quite naturally, with but little care and without any heating, yet flower and often set fruit freely, and many do propagate themselves. The Estufa Fria was never thought of as a botanical garden surrogate, and as the photographs show labelling is minimal, but Lisbon people take pride in its ingenious build which, with a sheer minimum of artefacts, creates a moist and suitably mild climate all the year round.

There has never before been a guide or published catalogue of the Lisbon greenhouse, in spite of the many visitors and frequent use in school class teaching. Lisete Caixinhas has now authored a beautifully printed and gorgeously illustrated book with the descriptions and colour photographs of 181 species identified by her, alphabetically arranged within the four main groups: pteridophytes, gymnosperms, dicots, and monocots. She presents us with a colourful bouquet of common ornamentals, e.g. maidenhair ferns and hydrangeas, mixed with extreme rarities such as the palm Howea belmoreana from Lord Howe Island in the Pacific, almost extinct in the wild. As plant lists are provided for the individual flower beds, the book will offer excellent guidance to the visitor, to make up for the deficient labelling.

We are told that work on the holdings of the two adjacent glasshouses, a temperate house for succulents and a tropical hothouse, is well under way. Let us hope that it will yield a book or books that are equally enjoyable and instructive as the present one. W.G.

  1. Vasile CRISTEA, FELICIAN MICLE & FLORIN CRI-AN - Le Jardin Botanique "Alexandru Borza" (Cluj-Napoca, Roumanie). [L'uomo e l'ambiente, 27.] - Università degli Studi, Camerino, 1997. 150 pages, black-and-white illustrations, laminated cover.

Once again, Franco Pedrotti has opened the pages of his socio-ecological Camerino serial to the presentation of a subject from Rumanian botany, and to Vasile Cristea as an author (see OPTIMA Newsletter 31: (17-18). 1997). The subject, this time, is the Botanic Garden of the "Babeî-Bolyai" University of Cluj-Napoca. The booklet, written in an elegant French whose meaning I assume can sometimes be fully grasped only by those fluent in Rumanian, deals for one half with historical aspects and for the second, with a description of the Garden itself, its main open-air sectors and greenhouses (6 large public ones plus 7 old ones used as nurseries; the photographs of the succulent and Mediterranean greenhouse, Nos. 32-33, having been inverted), as well as the botanical museum and herbarium.

The first, historical part is full of interesting facts and documents but also curiously patchy. Some data are well hidden or may be completely missing, such as surface area and species number of the Garden (the last edition of the International directory of botanical gardens, more explicit, gives such figures: 14 hectares and 10,000 species). One finds an abstract of the past of Cluj's academia, and details of the two earlier University gardens, the first founded in 1807 at the Reformed College under the impact of Cserey, the second initiated by the Society for the Transsylvanian Museum and, after 1872, run by the Hungarian University by botanists such as Kanitz and Richter. After World War I, when the Rumanian University took the place of the former Hungarian one, the Garden moved to its present location under the great Alexander Borza whose name it presently carries (since when, again we are not told). There is not even the slightest of hints at the existence of a second botanical garden in Cluj-Napoca, at the Institute for Agronomy, which is both larger (20 hectares) and older (founded 1903) than the present one!

An interesting chapter is the one devoted to the Garden's directors: after Borza who was in charge for 28 years until 1947 (including the period of wartime exile of the whole institution to Timiîoara when the Hungarian Soó took command in Cluj), there were no less than 7 directors, a new one every six years on average. Since 1996 two changes have occurred, and the next is imminent. What this may mean in economically difficult times I cannot tell, but it seems obvious that our Rumanian colleagues have to fight hard for their Garden's survival. Let us wish them good success! W.G.

  1. Emanuil PALAMAREV & Ana PETROVA (ed.) - Bblgarska Akademija na Naukite. Institut po Botanika.50 godini. (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Institute of Botany. 50 years.). - Vanjo Nedkov, Sofija, 1997. 74 pages, photographs mostly in colour, paper.

When this brochure commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of one of the Balkan's most prestigious and active botanical institutions was published, one of its most renowned representatives and head of its historically central department had, sadly, just died: Stefan Kozuharov, whom many will remember as a friend and scientist alike. Let us take this pamphlet, meant as a festive birthday present, as also being a memorial for him and his work.

Through its fully bilingual (Bulgarian and English) text and its many colour photographs, mostly of staff, this publication is a pleasantly informative portrait of the Institute of Botany of which, following a general historica outline, it describes the departments (Flora and Florogenesis, Phytocoenology and Ecology, Palaeobotany and Pollen Analysis, Taxonomy and Ecology of Fungi), Laboratories (Biology and Chemistry of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Anatomy and Embryology of Plants, Chemotaxonomy and Phytomonitoring), and services (Botanical Garden, Library, Herbarium). The stress is on research activities and programmes, in which respect the whole Institute, in spite of recent budgetary cuts, can show a record to be proud of. Its ongoing activity is much needed in a time when it becomes increasingly apparent how little we still know, in actual fact, about one of the richest and most critical floras of Europe, that of the Balkan Peninsula. W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Bibliography and documentation

 

  1. Alfred HANSEN & Per SUNDING - Botanical bibliography of the Canary Islands. [Sommerfeltia supplement, 5]. - Botanical Garden & Museum, Oslo, 1994 (ISBN 82-7420-023-3). 116 pages, paper. Price: NoK 130.

As any botanical bibliography, the present one (announced with some delay) is of great promise. The unequalled experience of the two authors in the field of Macaronesian floristics is in itself a guarantee for a high degree of reliability and completeness. By consequence, one will hardly be surprised at the great number of items cited, said (I didn't try to check!) to be 2738. The coverage is stated in the preface to encompass "all disciplines of botany and all plant groups". A special effort has been made to include papers on plant substances, at least those that are of some taxonomic relevance, whereas physiological papers have apparently hardly been considered. A number of entries refer in fact to unpublished works (as is stated for several theses) not to bibliographic items in the strict sense, and a few concern articles in newspapers (a random selection only, I suppose). Preface matter is scant, and the bibliographic list is virtually co-extensive with the whole work.

The one main drawback of this bibliography is the absence of any kind of subject index. In the era of data-basing, the option of searching by subject ought to be a standard feature of any bibliography. But then, obviously, the present literature list is not a by-product of an electronic database, having been built and kept as a plain text file. This helps explain the absence of standardisation of journal abbreviations and (a regrettable trait, as it too easily leads to error and confusion) the generalised use of the term "Ibid." to replace repetitive journal titles.

When and if, as one hopes, updating of this bibliography is being considered, it would be most desirable to transfer all data to a searchable database format, preferably available for on-line consultation. W.G.

Notices of Publication index

Symposium proceedings

 

  1. Vernon H. HEYWOOD & Melpo SKOULA (ed.). - Identification of wild food and non-food plants of the Mediterranean region. Proceedings of the First Regional Workshop of the MEDUSA Network "Identification, Conservation, and Use of Wild Plants of the Mediterranean Region" held on 28-29 June 1996 at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania, Greece. [Cahiers options méditerranéennes, 23]. - Mediterranean Agronomic Institute, Chania, 1997. [6] + III + 165 pages, paper.

The 1996 Workshop held in Hania had as its main concrete outcome the set-up of a new network on the "identification, conservation and use of wild plants in the Mediterranean Region" called MEDUSA (see OPTIMA Newsletter 32: (28). 1997). This recent initiative is, obviously, of utmost interest for all botanists working on Mediterranean taxa.

The Proceedings volume includes papers of two kinds. In the first half, one will find brief but informative presentations of some of the major programmes and institutions that are playing an active role in the creation and running of MEDUSA. Reading these, one will get a rough impression of how complex and intricate the web of players in the field, mostly known only by their acronyms, has become. They include, in particular, the International Council for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ICMAP), Leiden University's Ethnosystems & Development programme LEAD, the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute's West Asia & North Africa Network (IPGRI-WANANET), and the programme on the Development of Integrative Vegetation & Ecosystem Research, Systematic Inventorying, Taxonomic Assessment & Surveying (DIVERSITAS).

The second, larger half brings contributions from 9 out of 10 of the Mediterranean countries initially represented on the MEDUSA Steering Committee: Algeria, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Tunisia, and Turkey - Spain being curiously lacking. Many bring extensive tabular surveys of the wild flora locally used by man, or of some of its components (medicinal plants in particular, and in one case, ornamental trees), among which the 17-pages inventory of useful plants from Turkey (the only one to include fungi along with vascular plants) is particularly impressive. W.G.

  1. Claudio BINI & Serena MAIANI (ed.). - Salvaguardia delle pinete littoranee. Atti, 21-22 ottobre 1993, Grosseto. - Regione Toscana, Firenze, 1995. 183 pages, graphs, maps, paper.

This volume comprises the proceeding of a conference centred on dieback phenomena in the coastal pine woods of Tuscany, a subject discussed in more detail under a simultaneous twin publication, item 22 above, where relevant background information can be found. The texts of 5 lectures, 11 communications, and the contribution of 22 discussants at a round table conference are here included. W.G.

*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) 83006-132 or 8316010, Fax: (+4930) 838-50218
E-mail: wg@zedat.fu-berlin.de.

Notices of Publication index

 

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