7. Taxonomic Treatments:

7.1 Treatments will be from the level of family down to species or infraspecific taxon. Infrafamilial and infrageneric taxa (subfamily, tribe, subtribe, subgenus, section, subsection, series, and subseries) should be used sparingly. They may be useful for certain large families (e.g., Asteraceae and Fabaceae) or genera (e.g., Carex). For a particular genus a hierarchical system including subgenera, sections, subsections, series, and subseries may exist in the literature, but for the Flora of China it might be sufficient to use only genera or in large genera to additionally use subgenera or sections.

7.2 The treatments at each level will be similar (see below), but characters always present at a higher level will not be repeated at lower levels (i.e., if all members of a family have alternate leaves, this character state will not be repeated in the descriptions of the lower taxonomic units). In general the treatments at each level will be as follows:

a. Families: The family name will be given without an author, bibliographic citation, or synonyms. A concise description will be given plus a statement concerning the number of genera, the family distribution worldwide, and the number of genera in China. If subfamilies and tribes are used, their treatment will be the same as for the family.

b. Genera: The genus name will be followed by the author(s), bibliographic citation, synonymy (but see section 9), description, number of species, distribution worldwide, and number of species in China. If subgenera, sections, or series are used, their treatment will be the same as for the genus.

c. Species: The species name will be followed by the author(s), bibliographic citation, synonymy (but see section 9), description, flowering and fruiting time, chromosome number (if published), habitats, altitudinal range, and distribution. Any necessary discussion will be in a separate paragraph (see section 22).

d. Infraspecific Taxa: Subspecies and varieties will be treated in essentially the same way as species (but see paragraphs 12.1, 12.3, and 12.4). Quadrinomials will not be used. Forms (forma) will not be treated or included.