FNA Banner
Volume 17, No. 2
July-December 2003
View PDF file  View PDF file

 

VOLUME 4 GOES TO PRESS

Throughout the fall, FNA Volume 4, Magnoliophyta: Caryophyllidae, part 1, underwent final technical editing, reconciling reviewer comments and other changes with authors and editors, composing, and proofreading. The volume was sent to Oxford University Press on 28 October 2003, and publication is expected before the end of the year.

Volume 4 treats the following families in the Caryophyllales (Pink order): Phytolaccaceae, Achatocarpaceae, Nyctaginaceae, Aizoaceae, Cactaceae, Cheopodiaceae, Amaranthaceae, Portulacaceae, Basellaceae, and Molluginaceae. Included are descriptions of 117 genera, 6 of them endemic to the flora area and 22 introduced, and 652 species, 230 of them endemic and 115 introduced. There are 89 taxa of conservation concern: 39 in Cactaceae, 21 in Chenopodiaceae, 15 in Portulacaceae, 12 in Nyctaginaceae, and 2 in Amaranthaceae.

The volume is dedicated in gratitude to the Chanticleer Foundation and its founder, Adolf G. Rosengarten Jr.


REPORT FROM THE FNAA

COMMITTEE MEETINGS

The Flora of North America Association (FNAA) Editorial Management Committee and the Executive Committee met on 10 October 2003 at the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG). The Board of Directors (BOD), having been duly elected by the outgoing Editorial Committee, were seated for the FNAA and met on 12 October.

Reorganization of the FNAA is now complete as of these meetings. The BOD succeeds the old Editorial Committee (EC) as the governing body of the FNAA. Members of the BOD are: Theodore M. Barkley, Botanical Research Institute of Texas; Mary E. Barkworth, Utah State University; Sharon E. Bartholomew-Began, West Chester University; David E. Boufford, Harvard University; Luc Brouillet, Université de Montréal; Marshall R. Crosby, Missouri Botanical Garden; Claudio M. Delgadillo, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de

 

México; Bruce A. Ford, University of Manitoba; Craig C. Freeman, University of Kansas; Kanchi Gandhi, Harvard University; Ronald L. Hartman, University of Wyoming; Robert W. Kiger, Carnegie Mellon University; Aaron Liston, Oregon State University; John McNeill, Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh; Nancy R. Morin, The Arboretum at Flagstaff; David F. Murray, University of Alaska; J. Scott Peterson, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Richard K. Rabeler, University of Michigan; Leila M. Shultz, Utah State University; Lloyd R. Stark, University of Nevada; John L. Strother, University of California, Berkeley; Frederick H. Utech, Carnegie Mellon University; Dale H. Vitt, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; Grady L. Webster, University of California, Davis; Richard H. Zander, Missouri Botanical Garden; and James L. Zarucchi, Missouri Botanical Garden.

The new Executive Committee (EXC) and Editorial Management Committee (EMC) are the successors to the old Management Committee (MC). The EXC will handle the business aspects of the FNAA. Membership consists of Luc Brouillet, Chair, President of FNAA; Peter Stevens, Interim Executive Director; James Zarucchi, Vice-President and Editorial Director; Theodore Barkley, Secretary; Nancy Morin, Treasurer; and Directors-at-large Craig Freeman, Robert Kiger, Aaron Liston, Richard Rabeler, and Richard Zander. Members will serve three-year terms, with the intent that the terms will be staggered in the future. The EXC includes two subcommittees: a nominating committee, with members Craig Freeman, Aaron Liston, and Marshall Crosby; and a finance committee, with members Mary Barkworth, Nancy Morin, and Scott Peterson.

The EMC oversees the preparation and production of the volumes, which must appear at the rate of two per year in order to retain funding from the Chanticleer Foundation. The EMC consists of James Zarucchi, Chair, with members Theodore Barkley, Mary Barkworth, Luc Brouillet, Craig Freeman, Kanchi Gandhi, Robert Kiger, and Richard Zander.

A number of topics were discussed at the committee meetings. It was agreed that the post of Executive Director and CEO should be replaced with that of a Vice President for Development and Business Affairs, whose chief job would be to secure funding for the project (see Positions Available, p. 11). The search for a qualified candidate will be conducted by Luc Brouillet, Scott Peterson, Peter Stevens, James Zarucchi, and Bill Thomas of the Chanticleer Foundation.


COMMITTEE REPORT

The outgoing EC elected as Directors Emeritus a number of people who have had great interest and involvement in the project but who have retired or changed the focus of their careers. The following former EC members were elected to the post of Director Emeritus: George W. Argus, Marie L. Hicks, Marshall C. Johnston, Barbara M. Murray, Alan R. Smith, Richard W. Spellenberg, John W. Thieret, Barbara W. Thiers, and Rahmona A. Thompson.

The FNA Web site (http://www.fna.org) is being updated and enhanced, and these efforts are being coordinated by Kristin Pierce at MBG, with valuable technical assistance from Hong Song and Myriam Fica. An immediate goal is to have an interactive Web site with manageable information of use to FNA authors, and in a wider sense to serve as a basis for an encompassing database on the North American flora. Corrections, additions, and other materials relevant to the site should be sent to Kristin Pierce ( kristin.pierce@mobot.org).

The preparation of a new FNA Editorial Handbook has been coordinated by technical editor Claire Hemingway, with input from production coordinator Kay Yatskievych and technical editors Helen Jeude, Mary Ann Schmidt, and Beth Polen. The handbook provides a detailed explanation of how treatments are prepared for publication. More than a style manual, it is filled with "how to" information on the computer tools important for building the final treatments for publication. It partially supplants the old Contributors Guide and should be available on the Web site in late January. A new and abbreviated Contributors Guide will be prepared specifically for use by FNA authors, and it will be added to the site when complete.

Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey, FNA Art Director, emphasized that for artists to remain on schedule, contributing authors must be timely in supplying specimens and other necessary information.

The Flora of North America (FNA) project is a cooperative program to produce a comprehensive account of the plants of North America north of Mexico. The FNA Newsletter, edited at the Hunt Institute and printed at the Missouri Botanical Garden, is published twice a year by the Flora of North America Association to communicate news about the FNA project and other topics of interest to North American floristic researchers. For more information, please see the FNA Web site, http://www.fna.org.

Readers are invited to send appropriate news items to:
Elizabeth A. Polen, Newsletter Editor
Flora of North America
Hunt Institute, Carnegie Mellon University
5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 Items can also be sent by e-mail to: kiser@andrew.cmu.edu.

Contributors should be mindful that the artists require guidance as to exactly which part of a plant is to be illustrated or emphasized, and that photographs and other materials are essential for maintaining the highest quality of art in the volumes. Accuracy is particularly important since the art in all future volumes will be reproduced in a much larger format.

The next meeting of the FNAA committees is planned for Fall 2004 in St. Louis, in conjunction with the Missouri Botanical Garden's annual Systematics Symposium.


CENTERS

Botanical Research Institute of Texas

The three volumes of Compositae (FNA volumes 19, 20, and 21) are on track for completion and submission to the publisher by the end of 2004. As of the end of 2003, 415 genera and 2,508 species are recognized. Treatments are in hand for all but 39 genera, and these remaining treatments all are in preparation by reliable authors or are otherwise accounted for. The treatments for the other 356 genera are moving through the editorial pipeline. Work on the illustrations is in progress, coordinated by FNA Art Director Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey. In accord with FNA policy, each genus is being illustrated, and genera with numerous species will have illustrations for about one of every six species. The participants in the FNA Asteraceae project are acutely aware that the past 30 or so years have seen significant advances in our knowledge of the family, so the project is geared to assimilate the new understandings and make hem useful to the consumers of botanical information.

On another matter, Dr. Luc Brouillet has spent nearly the entire calendar year 2003 at BRIT, on sabbatical leave from his permanent post as professor of botany at the Université de Montréal, Canada. Luc is one of three members of the Compositae Editorial Committee (the "CompEd"), along with John Strother at the University of California, Berkeley and Ted Barkley at BRIT. The CompEd is charged with managing the preparation of the three Asteraceae volumes. During his stay at BRIT, Luc took part in much critical editorial work as well in the preparation of numerous taxonomic treatments. His presence has been a marvelous contribution to the project, and he will be sorely missed at BRIT when he returns home to Montreal.

— Ted Barkley, Lead Editor, FNA Editorial Center at BRIT

Bryophyte Flora of North America

The three volumes of the Bryophyte Flora of North America (BFNA) project have progressed, after three years of operation of the FNA Bryophyte Center (managed in St. Louis by Richard Zander and Patricia Eckel), to 40% of the generic treatments submitted.


BFNA Vol. 1 (FNA Vol. 27) includes introductory material and most of the acrocarpous mosses. Sixty percent of genera and 59% of species have been submitted, and 38% of the volume is illustrated. One of the introductory chapters ("Economic Uses") has been submitted, but the authors of the other chapters are waiting until the last six to eight months before finalizing their treatments to best survey the recent literature and to summarize taxonomically and phylogenetically the family and generic concepts, these presently somewhat fluid because of ongoing molecular phylogenetic work. Estimated publication date is 2005.

BFNA Vol. 2 (FNA Vol. 28) describes the remainder of the acrocarpous mosses, pleurocarpous mosses, and keys to mosses. For this volume, 43% of genera and 37% of species have been submitted, and the volume is 16% illustrated. Estimated publication date is 2007.

BFNA Vol. 3 (FNA Vol. 29) treats the liverworts and hornworts. Fourteen percent of genera and 18% of species have been submitted, and the volume is 1% illustrated. Estimated publication date is 2009.

The BFNA Web site lists 146 generic peer-reviewed treatments available for public use, or 33% of the genera in the bryophyte flora.

Authors who have published treatments in the past four months include Dana Griffin III, Robert Ireland, Ronald Pursell, Dale Vitt, Joseph Yip, and Richard Zander.

The Bryophyte Center welcomed John Spence, who worked on his treatment of the large genus (ca. 90 species) Bryum (Bryaceae) at the Missouri Botanical Garden herbarium during the month of November.

—Richard Zander, Lead Editor, BFNA Editorial Center

Grass Center

FNA Volume 24, Poaceae, Part I, is well underway at the Grass Center. Approximately 37% of the treatments have been sent out for regional review, and another 5% will be ready shortly after the holidays.

Funding issues continued to be a challenge. The editors at the center wish to thank the many recipients of complimentary copies of FNA Volume 25 (Poaceae, Part II) who responded to the appeal to pay the actual cost of obtaining and sending the volume. Their generosity was vital to the Center's continued progress this fall.

The Grass Center received additional funding from the FNAA in August. In September, the Center was awarded further funding from the Bureau of Land Management and the Natural Resources

Conservation Service, and a $49,000 grant from the Fish and Wildlife Foundation. These grants will cover expenses through August 2004, including preparation of some illustrations, and hiring a replacement for Michael Piep, who has accepted the position of Assistant Curator of the Intermountain Herbarium.

Some ambiguities with the Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant have made it difficult to know the exact amount of the grant and when it will be delivered. Our commitment to the Foundation is to deliver all Volume 24 generic treatments for regional review by 31 July 2004, in exchange for funding.

Dr. M. J. Harvey spent a week at the Intermountain Herbarium annotating about 825 specimens of Agrostis and reviewing his treatment of the genus. The result will, he agreed, be an improved treatment. His visit was also beneficial to the herbarium and for our ability to edit the Agrostis treatment. We thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Harvey's visit and are grateful to him for taking the time to assist us in this manner.

The generic treatments and illustrations from Volume 25 have been posted to the Web ( http://herbarium.usu.edu/webmanual/), with the addition of notes to some of the genera, reflecting information received after publication. Some Volume 24 treatments also are available on the site, and more will be added as time permits.

—Mary Barkworth, Lead Editor, Grass Center


POSITIONS AVAILABLE

Vice President for Development and Business Affairs, Flora of North America Association. The FNAA seeks an experienced person to help develop and implement a fund-raising plan. Responsibilities will include financial planning, identification of and contact with potential sources of funding, and grant writing. The successful candidate will prepare specific plans for marketing FNA products and services, supervise their implementation, and represent FNA to external entities with regard to publicity and public relations. He or she will work with national editorial centers and the publisher on product development for online products and print volumes. The VP is responsible to and will work closely with the Chair of the Executive Committee.

Candidates should have experience with collaborative scientific endeavors and an ability to work effectively within a large, decentralized organization of institutions and volunteers; an ability to create innovative strategies; experience in fund-raising from public and private sources; and an appreciation of the environment and biodiversity. This is a half-time position, available immediately and open until filled. Terms of appointment are flexible. To apply, send a CV and letter of interest to Peter Stevens, Missouri Botanical Garden, P.O. Box 299, St. Louis, MO 63166-0299; peter.stevens@mobot.org.


ELECTRONIC RESOURCES

University of Colorado Database

The University of Colorado at Boulder database of vascular plant specimen labels from Colorado, housed at the University of Colorado Museum (Herbarium COLO), is now searchable online at http://cumuseum.Colorado.
edu/Research/Botany/Databases/search.php
. Of the ca. 90,000 Colorado specimens, approximately 70,000 records have been entered to date. Questions and comments may be directed to Tom A. Ranker, Associate Professor and Curator, ranker@colorado.edu.

Ethnobotany of Native America

Dan Moerman's Ethnobotany of Native America online database has received a new, simpler, and more attractive interface, new functionality, and a new URL. Search results will now yield links to the USDA PLANTS database, which has botanical, taxonomic and distributional data on most of the plants of the United States, many with photographs. The new address is http://herb.umd.umich.edu. For further information, contact Professor Moerman, dmoerman@umich.edu.

New Image Gallery, Native Plant Information Network

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center announces a new plant image gallery as part of its Native Plant Information Network, http://www.wildflower.org/?nd=npin. The gallery ( http://www.wildflower.org/?nd=gallery) contains over 11,500 plant images, representing 174 families and 4,322 species. Users access images using a variety of search features, including Latin, common, and family name searches, or simply by selecting a category from one of the pull-down menus. Look for the gallery and other sections of the Native Plant Information Network to grow in the near future. Anyone who wishes to contribute to the image gallery, or who has questions or comments, may contact Dr. Damon Waitt, dwaitt@wildflower.org.

TENN Web Site

The University of Tennessee Herbarium (TENN) Web site now has more than 6,000 images and 2,807 distribution maps of the native and naturalized vascular plants of Tennessee. The site provides a browse option by family, genus, and common name; a search option by name, county, and state-/federal-listed rare plants; a checklist of the state flora; and a state (by county) diversity map. To view the site, go to http://tenn.bio.utk.edu/vascular.

Kew Herbarium Catalogue

Users may now access some basic data from Kew's fledgling Herbarium Catalogue (database of herbarium specimens) via the ePIC (electronic Plant Information Centre)information resource discovery service.Initial steps

have been taken toward digitizing the over seven million collections, and about 78,000 specimens are now available, the bulk of which form the spirit collection. From the Web interface at http://www.kew.org/epic/, users can query plant information from nine databases held at Kew, including IPNI, bibliographies, collections and taxon datasets, and the Kew Web site, in one action. For more information, contact Mark Jackson, Applications Development Manager, M.Jackson@rbgkew.org.uk.

G. W. Clinton Botanical Correspondence

Online

The botanical correspondence of George W. Clinton (1807_1885), first president of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, with Elizabeth Atwater (1812_1878) and Charles Mohr (1824_1901) is archived at http://ridgwaydb.mobot.org./resbot/hist/corrauth/
CorrAuth.htm
. The correspondence was edited by P. M. Eckel of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and questions may be directed to her at patricia.eckel@mobot.org.

Pullen Herbarium

The Pullen Herbarium, University of Mississippi, has unveiled a new Web site at http://herbarium.olemiss.edu/. With support from the National Science Foundation, the herbarium staff has completely modernized the collection with new cabinets and a compactor, and has built this searchable Web interface. Users can search the database for the 25,000 herbarium records that have been digitized (of the 65,000+ specimens in the vascular plant collections), and can browse mounted duplicates available for exchange with other herbaria. Also available is the Preliminary Checklist of Mississippi Plants, by Lucile McCook and John Kartesz. Comments are welcome and may be directed to Lucile M. McCook, Curator, bymccook@olemiss.edu.

Monograph and Serial Information

Researchers who need information about botanical monographs and periodicals have two excellent online resources at their disposal. The Karlsruher Virtueller Katalogue (KVK), a service of the University Library Karlruhe, is a database of 75 million books and serials in library and book trade catalogues worldwide. Entries are available in German, English, and Spanish. For the English language site, see
http://www.ubka.uni-karlsruhe.de/hylib/en/kvk.html
.

The Zeitschriftendatenbank (ZDB) is the world's largest specialized database for serial titles (journals, annual, newspapers, etc., including e-journals) and contains over a million bibliographic records of serials dating back to the 16th century, from all countries and in all languages, held in 4,300 German (and some foreign) libraries, with holdings information. The ZDB does not contain the contents of journals, but it is an outstanding source of bibliographic information. It may be found at http://zdb-opac.de.


CONFERENCES AND COURSES

International Triticeae Symposium

The fifth International Triticeae Symposium will take place 6-10 June 2005 in Prague. The tribe Triticeae includes the important cereals wheat, barley, rye, and oats, as well as numerous fodder species in genera such as Agropyron, Elymus, Leymus, Psathyrostachys, Roegneria, and others. The symposium will be an interdisciplinary meeting of geneticists, taxonomists, phylogeneticists, genetic engineers, agriculturists, and breeders.  

Contributors to key lectures and oral presentations are needed. For more information and registration forms, visit http://www.vurv.cz.triticeae.

Northeast Ecology and Evolution Conference (NEEC)

The Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, will host the second Northeast Ecology and Evolution Conference (NEEC) 26-28 March 2004. Entirely organized by graduate students, NEEC 2004 will feature talks and posters by graduates, post-doctoral students, and upper-level undergraduates from many fields of biology, including the botanical sciences. Conference information, including registration materials and the call for papers, may be found at http://www.eeb.uconn.edu/NEEC/, or by contacting Chris Martine, one of the NEEC co-chairs, at (860) 486-4156, christopher.martine@uconn.edu.

Sixth International Flora Malesiana

Symposium

The International Flora Malesiana Symposium, held every three years, will take place 20-24 September 2004 in Los Baños, Philippines. Hosted jointly by the University of the Philippines - Los Baños and the National Museum of the Philippines, the symposium's main scientific sessions and workshops will be held on the university campus, about 65 km south of Manila. The five-day series provides a forum for Flora Malesiana (FM) members to report scientific research findings and progress on particular plant groups or flora of areas, exchange ideas, and conduct workshops on approaches to enhancing and managing the FM Project. The symposia also serve as a catalyst for significantly increasing publication of plant biodiversity information and for multiplying expertise on the taxonomy and biology of plants of the Malesian region. Further details regarding the program, speakers and associated fees, and other information may be obtained by contacting flmales6@lagu
na.net
.

Ferns for the 21st Century

An international Pteridophyte symposium, "Ferns for the

21st Century," will be held at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 12-16 July 2004, with the support of the Linnean Society of London, the British Pteridological Society and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Keynote speakers are Stephen Blackmore, Peter Crane, Mitsuyasu Hasebe, Kathleen Pryer, Gar Rothwell, and Alan Smith. Further details are available at http://www.rbge.org.uk/rbge/web/science/news.jsp, or by sending email to pteridophytes@rbge.org.uk.

SPNHC 2004: Emergency Preparedness,

Response and Salvage

The American Museum of Natural History will host the nineteenth annual meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections 11-16 May 2004. The theme of the meeting will be "Emergency Preparedness, Response and Salvage." One day of the conference's technical sessions will be devoted to talks focusing on this theme, and the meeting will be followed by a one-day workshop dealing with practical issues in responding to the critical first 24 hours after a disaster. Papers and posters are needed, and abstracts should be submitted by 18 February 2004. For more information on SPNHC 2004, visit http://www.spnhc.org, or contact Chris Norris, norris@amnh.org.

Intensive Course in Molecular Systematics

The Centre for Plant Diversity and Systematics at The University of Reading will offer a 10-day intensive course on molecular systematics from 23 March to 2 April 2004. The course will include in-depth coverage of methods in molecular systematics and comparative sequence analysis, as well as the treatment of theoretical issues in formal lectures alongside hands-on experience in practical workshops. More details are available at http://www.plantsci.rdg.ac.uk/molecularcourse.htm, or from Mrs. Grace Barter, Molecular Systematics Intensive Course, Plant Sciences Laboratories, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AS; molecular.systematics@reading.ac.uk.

Graduate Study in Floristics, Rocky Mountain Herbarium

The Rocky Mountain Herbarium (RM) seeks students interested in pursuing an MS degree in broad-scale floristics. The RM has completed 44 intensive inventories (over 450,000 numbered collections) in Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming over the past quarter century, with the goal of producing a critical flora of the Rocky Mountain region. Relevant documents describing the floristics program, the flora of the Rocky Mountains project, checklists for Wyoming and for Colorado, and the Atlas of the Vascular Plants of Wyoming are at http://www.rmh.uwyo.edu and http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/botany/. For details, contact Ronald L. Hartman, University of Wyoming, Rocky Mountain Herbarium, Department of Botany, Dept. 3165, 1000 East University Ave., Laramie, Wyoming 82071; rhartman@uwyo.edu; (307) 766-2236. The deadline for graduate applications is 1 February 2004.


AWARDS AND FUNDING

Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle Prize

The Geneva Société de Physique et d'Histoire naturelle (SPHN) is pleased to announce that in 2004 it will award the Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle Prize in botany, recognizing the author or co-authors of the best monograph on a genus or family of plants. Monographs for consideration should be recently produced and may be either unpublished or published after 31 December 2001.

Two copies of the manuscript, along with the author's curriculum vitae, must be submitted to the following address by 31 March 2004: Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle Prize, Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de la Ville de Genève, Case postale 60, CH-1292 Chambésy/GE, Switzerland.

For more details on the monograph requirements or other information, write to prix-candolle.cjb@ville-ge.ch, or visit http://wwwcjb.unige.ch/events/dc/prixdc.html.

Assembling the Tree of Life

A flood of new information, from whole-genome sequences to detailed structural information to inventories of earth's biota, is transforming 21st-century biology. Along with comparative data on morphology, fossils, development, behavior, and interactions of all forms of life on earth, these new data streams make even more critical the need for an organizing framework for information retrieval, analysis, and prediction. Phylogeny, the genealogical map for all lineages of life on earth, provides an overall framework to facilitate information retrieval and biological prediction. Currently, single investigators or small teams of researchers are studying the evolutionary pathways of heredity usually concentrating on phylogenetic groups of modest size. Assembly of a framework phylogeny, or Tree of Life, for all 1.7 million described species requires a greatly magnified effort by large teams working across institutions and disciplines. This is the overall goal of the Assembling the Tree of Life activity. The National Science Foundation invites research proposals from multidisciplinary teams to conduct creative and innovative research that will resolve phylogenetic relationships for large groups of organisms on the Tree of Life. Teams of investigators also will be supported for projects in data acquisition, analysis, algorithm development and dissemination in computational phylogenetics and phyloinformatics. Full proposals are due by 5 March 2004. For more information, see http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2004/nsf04526/nsf04526.htm.

PUBLICATIONS

Hawthorns and Medlars

Hawthorns and Medlars: A Royal Horticultural Society Plant

Collector Guide, by James B. Phipps, with Robert J. O'Kennon and Ron W. Lance. November 2003. Timber Press, Inc. Hardcover, 180 pp., including 75 color photos. ISBN 0-88192-591-8. $24.95, plus shipping and handling.

Hawthorns and Medlars is the first in the new Plant Collector series from Timber Press, published in collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society. This book, authored by FNA contributor James B. Phipps, focuses on those hawthorns (Crataegus) and medlars (Mespilus) of greatest interest to horticulturists, including some 70 wild species, many of which are seldom cultivated outside of botanic gardens or arboreta yet might be welcome additions to the list of generally cultivated forms. A substantial range of ornamental cultivars and the best-known horticulturally created hybrids are also treated, with detailed information on how best to grow, propagate, and hybridize these plants.

To order, contact Timber Press, Inc., 133 S.W. Second Ave, Suite 450, Portland, OR 97204-3527; (503) 227-2878; http://www.timberpress.com; publicity@timberpress.com".

Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Saskatchewan

Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Saskatchewan and the Provincially and Nationally Rare Native Plants in Saskatchewan, by Vernon L. Harms. 2003. University Extension Press, University of Saskatchewan. Paperback. ISBN 0-88880-471-7. $39.95

From FNA reviewer Vernon Harms comes a complete, updated checklist of the native and naturalized vascular plants found in Saskatchewan, including a subset of provincially and nationally rare plants, with their rarity ratings from a variety of sources. This is not an identification guide but a reference list with full botanical names, author-date citations, synonyms, common names, and abundance estimates, intended for specialists such as botanists, environmentalists, and researchers. To order, see http://www.extension.usask.ca/ExtensionDivision/
publications/ULearn/index.html
, or contact U-Learn, Extension Division, University of Saskatchewan, Rm 125 Kirk Hall, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5C8; (306) 966-5565; u.learn@usask.ca.

Water and Wetland Plants of the Prairie

Provinces

Water and Wetland Plants of the Prairie Provinces, by Heinjo Lahring. November 2003. CPRC Publications. 326 pp. ISBN 0-88977-162-6. $29.95 US, $34.95 CDN

More than 400 species of water and wetland plants found across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are included in this field guide, designed for use by both amateur and professional


botanists. Water and Wetland Plants features over 300 color photographs and over 300 line drawings; scientific names, including synonyms and origins, and common names; detailed plant descriptions; habitats and distributions; discussion of special features, including traditional uses as food or medicine, and unique or harmful characteristics; and comparisons to and descriptions of related species.

Since many of the northern wetland plants are circumpolar in distribution, the guide is useful in other parts of Canada, the United States, and Eurasia. To order, contact the Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK S4S 0A2; (306) 585-4758; fax (306) 585-4699; canadianplains@uregina.ca; http://www.cprc.uregina.ca.

Flora of the Hudson Bay

Flora of the Hudson Bay Lowland and Its Postglacial Origins, by John L. Riley. January 2003. NRC Research Press. Softcover, 237 pp. ISBN 0-66018-941-0. $49.95

The Hudson Bay Lowland is the Earth's largest more-or-less continuous temperate wetland landscape. Occupying 3.5% of the surface area of Canada, or 325,000 km2, it is five times larger than the floodplain forests along the Amazon River. The Hudson Bay Lowland is one of the least populated regions in the western hemisphere, and among the last regions of North America to have its flora and vegetation documented. This book documents 816 native and 95 non-native vascular plants in the context of the distinct geological history and ecology of the area. The text and annotated checklist are complemented by distribution maps and color illustrations. To order, visit the NRC Research Press Web site, http://pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/, or write to Monograph Orders, NRC Research Press, M-55, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6 Canada; (800) 668-1222; monographs.cisti@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca.

Herbage Ethnobotany Database CD-ROM

The Herbage Ethnobotany Database, by Tim Johnson. Third Edition. April 2003. Holisticopia. CD-ROM. $200.00

The Herbage Ethnobotany Database contains a database of more than 28,000 concise monographs of medicinal plant species characteristics and an inventory of claimed attributes and historical uses by cultures throughout the world. Monographs are linked to hundreds of thousands of articles and images via the Web, providing an exhaustive tool for in-depth global herb research. Each species listing has links to image and article searches.

The CD-ROM presents information from diverse fields, including botany, ethnobotany, entheobotany, and Asian traditional medicine. It addresses the global use of all plant families

and organizes monograph information into 12 categories, including plant family and indigenous use. It is compatible with any Windows or Macintosh computer.

For a limited time, the CD-ROM may be ordered directly from the author for $70.00. Send a check or money order to Tim Johnson, 309 Cedar St #33, Santa Cruz, CA 95060; (831) 426-6268. Further information is available at http://www.holisticopica.com/herbage/.

OTHER NEWS

Murray Returns as Regional Coordinator, Alaska

Dave Murray, Professor of Botany at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and Curator Emeritus of the Herbarium, University of Alaska Museum, has resumed his role as Regional Coordinator for Alaska. He may be reached at ffdfm@uaf.edu.

New Journal Seeks Papers

Phyloinformatics is a new, nonprofit, international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal dedicated to publishing high quality papers on the use of informatics in taxonomy and phylogenetics. All published papers are offered as a free PDF download from http://phyloinformatics.org, and there are no page charges for authors or subscription fees for readers. The journal seeks papers describing new research developments in computational taxonomy, and short descriptions of new software or new algorithm implementations, databases and network services. For more information, visit the Web site, or write to Dennis DeGreve, Editor, at editor@phyloinformatics.org.

DEATHS

PAUL H. MONSON, 77, Professor Emeritus at the University of Minnesota - Duluth, died on 9 August 2003. He made a valuable contribution to knowledge of the flora of the glaciated region of the north-central United States, especially for aquatic and wetland plants. Dr. Monson conducted comprehensive surveys of the vascular flora of Voyageurs National Park and Grand Portage National Monument for the U.S. National Park Service.

CRAIG W. GREENE, author of the Calamagrostis treatment for FNA Volume 24, died on 2 October 2003 following a long struggle with pancreatic cancer. Greene earned his Master's in Plant Taxonomy from the University of Alberta, where he worked with John G. Packer, and earned his Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University, where his major advisor was Reed C. Rollins. Greene joined the faculty of the College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1980. The College awarded him the Elizabeth Battles Newlin Chair in Botany and has named its botanical laboratory in his honor.


FNA logo Copyright © 2000 Flora of North America Association. All rights reserved.
Please contact our Webmaster for comments on this site.