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Informateur OPTIMANewsletter
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 :
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 :
- 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.
- 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).
- Elle est ouverte aux membres de l'OPTIMA des pays circumméditerranéens, y compris la
Bulgarie, l'Ukraine et le Portugal.
- Les spécimens d'herbier doivent être en bon état et comporter des informations
complètes avec des étiquettes lisibles etdéfinitives. Sauf accord préalable écrit,
les spécimens doivent venir du pays de résidence du participant. L'Herbarium
Mediterraneum se réserve le droit de retourner les spécimens jugés de qualité
insuffisante.
- Chaque spécimen d'herbier vaudra 1.67 SFr. Chaque livraison consistera en un minimum de
15 planches d'herbier. Quand un groupe de botanistes de la même institution prévoit
d'envoyer des spécimens d'herbier, une expédition groupée est préférable.
- Chaque collaborateur joindra une copie du bordereau de livraison ci-joint comportant son
nom, le nombre de spécimens d'herbier envoyés, la somme payée et la destination du
crédit (cotisation à l'OPTIMA ou achat de volumes de Bocconea).
- Le paquet contenant les spécimens d'herbier et la lettre seront envoyés à : Pr.
F. Raimondo, Dipartimento di Scienze Botaniche dell'Università, Via Archirafi 38, I-90123
Palermo, Italy.
- Les frais d'expédition seront remboursés aux expéditeurs par l'Herbarium
Mediterraneum.
- A la fin de chaque année, l'Herbarium Mediterraneum virera à l'OPTIMA le montant des
cotisations gagnées par les participants pendant l'année.
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Bordereau à joindre au paquet de spécimens d'herbier (un bordereau
par participant).
Nom:
Institution:
Adresse:
Nombre de spécimens d'herbier ( ) x 1.67 SFr/ spécimen = ___________
SFr.de crédit.
Je souhaite utiliser ce crédit pour payer ma cotisation à l'OPTIMA
(25.-SFr/year): _______ années de cotisation
Je souhaite acheter un exemplaire de Bocconea vol. _____ au
tarif réduit pour les membres de l'OPTIMA (voir les prix au début de l'Informateur
OPTIMA)
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
-
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.
- Only specimens from the following areas are acceptable: peri-Mediterranean countries
(except Italy and France), plus Portugal and Bulgaria, the Atlantic Islands (Macaronesia),
and the domain of Boissier's "Flora Orientalis" (in particular the Middle East,
Transcaucasia and the Crimea). Normally, material from the country of residence (if part
of this area) will be given preference.
- The offer is open to OPTIMA members from Circummediterranean countries including
Bulgaria, the Ukraine and Portugal.
- The herbarium specimens must be in good condition and contain complete information with
readable, durable labels. Specimens must come, save prior written agreement, from the
participant’s country of residence. The Herbarium Mediterraneum reserves the right to
return specimens judged to be of insufficient quality.
- Each herbarium specimen will be worth 1.67 SFr. Each delivery will consist of a minimum
of 15 herbarium sheets. When a group of botanists from the same institution plan to send
herbarium specimens, a joint delivery is preferable.
- Each collaborator will include a copy of the enclosed form specifying his/her name, the
number of herbarium specimens sent, the credit earned and whether they wish to use it to
pay OPTIMA membership fees or to purchase Bocconea volumes.
- The package containing the herbarium specimens and the letter will be sent to: Prof. F.
Raimondo, Dipartimento di Scienze Botaniche dell'Università, Via Archirafi 38, I-90123
Palermo, Italy.
- Postage costs will be refunded to the senders by the Herbarium Mediterraneum.
- At the end of each year, the Herbarium Mediterraneum will transfer the sum of OPTIMA
membership fees earned by participants during the year to OPTIMA.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 pioneeri | | |
