Flora Europaea

Infobox Book
name = Flora Europaea


image_caption = Flora Europaea vol 2 front cover
author = eds. T. G. Tutin, V. H. Heywood, N. A. Burges, D. H. Valentine, S. M. Walters, D. A. Webb
country = flagicon|UK United Kingdom
publisher = Cambridge University Press
release_date = 6 December 2001
media_type = Hardback (5 vols) + CD
pages = 2392
isbn = 978-0521805704

The "Flora Europaea" is a 5-volume encyclopedia of plants, published between 1964 and 1993 by Cambridge University Press. The aim was to bring together all the national Floras of Europe into a single, authoritative publication, allowing any plant found wild or widely cultivated in Europe to be identified to subspecies level. Information on geographical distribution, habitat preference and chromosome number is also given, where known.

The "Flora" was released in CD form in 2001, and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has made it [http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/FE/fe.html available online] .

History

The idea of a pan-European Flora was first mooted at the 8th International Congress of Botany in Paris in 1954. [cite book | last = Newbould | first = Palmer | authorlink = | title = Obituary: Alan Burges | publisher = Independent | date = 4 Nov 2002 | location = London | pages = | id = ] In 1957, Britain's Science and Engineering Research Council provided grants to fund a secretariat of three people, [cite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = The House of Lords enquiry:- Systematic Biology in the UK - transcript of committee Tuesday 5 February 2002 | work = | publisher = The Systematics Association | date = | url = http://www.systass.org/links/systass-lords-transcript.shtml | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-08-31 ] and Volume 1 was published in 1964. More volumes were issued in the following years, culminating in 1980 with the monocots of Volume 5. The royalties were put into a trust fund administered by the Linnean Society, which allowed funding for Dr John Akeroyd to continue work on the project.cite web | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = E+M About | work = | publisher = Euro+Med Plantbase | date = | url = http://www.emplantbase.org/information.html#19 | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-08-31 ] A revised Volume 1 was launched at the Linnean Society on 11th March 1993.

Work is underway on a second edition, although there is now more emphasis on EU-funded online projects like Euro+Med PlantBase.

Volumes

Volume 1

:Published 1964

Volume 2: Rosaceae to Umbelliferae

:ISBN-10: 052106662X :ISBN-13: 978-0521066624 :Published : 1 Dec 1968 (486 pages)

Volume 3: Diapensiaceae to Myoporaceae

:ISBN-10: 052108489X :ISBN-13: 978-0521084895 :Published : 28 Dec 1972 (399 pages)

Volume 4: Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae)

:ISBN-10: 0521087171 :ISBN-13: 978-0521087179 :Published: 5 Aug 1976 (534 pages)

Volume 5: Alismataceae to Orchidaceae

:ISBN-10: 052120108X :ISBN-13: 978-0521201087 :Published: 3 April 1980 (476 pages)

Volume 1 Revised: Lycopodiaceae to Platanaceae

:ISBN-10: 052141007X :ISBN-13: 978-0521410076 :Published: 22 April 1993 (629 pages)

5 Volume Set and CD-ROM Pack

:ISBN-10: 0521805708 :ISBN-13: 978-0521805704 :Published: 6 Dec 2001 (2392 pages)

Editors

The editors named on every edition are :

:Tom Tutin (1908-1987) - Professor of Botany at University of Leicester:Vernon Heywood (1927- ) - Chief Scientist, Plant Conservation, IUCN and professor emeritus at University of Reading:Alan Burges (1911-2002) - Professor of Botany at University of Liverpool:David Valentine (1912-1987) - Professor of Botany at Durham University

For the Revised Edition of Volume 1 only ::David Moore - Professor Emeritus at University of Reading

For the CD set only ::Max Walters (1920-2005) - Director, Cambridge University Botanic Garden:David Webb (1912-1994) - Professor of Botany at Trinity College, Dublin

ee also

* Species Plantarum - the first attempt at an encyclopedia of plants

Geographical Codes

The geographical distribution is indicated by a series of two letter codes.

References

External links

* [http://www.fmnh.helsinki.fi/english/botany/afe/index.htm Atlas Florae Europaea] Helsinki-based group creating maps to complement the "Flora Europaea"
* [http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/FE/fe.html Flora Europaea online edition]