Preface
| The first draft account of the Chenopodiaceae was prepared by Dr S.M.H.Jafri (Karachi) in 1986. Sadly before the manuscript could be finalised and vetted, the same year he died in December. After that time there were a number of new collections made throughout Pakistan. One such was a joint expedition organized by the University of Kassel, Germany (H. Freitag & G. Kothe) and the University of Karachi (A. Ghafoor & S. Omer) to the desert of Baluchistan. This resulted in several new records and species for the flora of Pakistan. Later in 1997, the account of the family for Flora Iranica was published. By this time it was obvious that in many genera, Jafri's manuscript was quite outdated. I.C.Hedge (Edinburgh) then suggested that the best way forward would be for a Pakistani botanist to come and work in Edinburgh in order to bring the existing accounts in line with the Flora Iranica account. This was arranged in summer 1997 when, with a grant from the Edinburgh Botanic Garden Sibbald Trust, Saood Omer (Karachi) was able to work on updating accounts of a number of genera, but not able to finalise them. Subsequently, shortly after his return to Karachi, Saood Omer accepted a job in Saudi Arabia and later emigrated to Canada. The draft left by him was checked and updated by I.C.Hedge. The editors were very happy when specialists on some of the larger and more complex genera offered to contribute: H. Freitag (Salsola & Suaeda); G. Kothe-Heinrich (Halothamnus); P. Uotila (Chenopodium). Because of these circumstances, it was inevitable that the generic and species accounts vary in their degree of detail. The editors wish to thank I.C.Hedge (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh) for his helpful advice and active co-operation during the many years of gestation of these accounts. |
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