Atlas Florae Europaeae news

December 2011

We distributed the circular letter 2011 and a draft of the forthcoming volume 18 (part of Fabaceae). We kindly ask our collaborators to complete the maps for this volume by the end of 2012.

The former planned volume 16 (arboreous Rosaceae, Prunus and Pyrus allies) is divided in two volumes because of its exceeding size. The apomictic genus Sorbus is to occupy a separate volume 17.

We thank all the collaborators who submitted the data for volume 16, wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2012!

April 2011

The AFE maps are being linked with the Euro+Med taxonomic database within the framework of A Pan-European Species directories Infrastructure (PESI). This process takes a long time because of many technical questions to be solved, and is strictly dependent on the availability of updated nomenclature and taxonomy. The family Chenopodiaceae is currently available online, and some few other families are on the way.

December 2010

The circular letter 2010 has been sent to our collaborators along with traditional Season's greetings. The draft of the forthcoming volume 16 is distributed. We kindly ask our collaborators to make draft mapping for the new volume by the end of 2011.

November 2010

The AFE grid has been visualized as overlays that can be viewed with Google Maps or Google Earth. These layers (KLM files) have been created for all AFE territories as well as for the Russian first-level administrative provinces in Europe. You can either download the files and view them by opening in Google Earth, or view them as overlays on Google Maps. The files with instructions are available at http://www.helsinki.fi/~rlampine/gmap/afegrid_kml.html (links are also given on the AFE web pages). From this webpage, you can go to a particular mapping territory by a single click. We hope that this will help you in assigning particular localities to a certain grid cell, and thus spare your precious time in the mapping process.

September 2010

The new volume 15 of the Atlas Florae Europaeae, dealing with the third part of Rosaceae (Rubus), is published in the very end of August 2010. As for the previous volumes, this book is available from the major bookstores at Helsinki, Akateeminen Kirjakauppa (The Academic Bookstore) and Tiedekirja (Scientific Book). The price is 140 euro.

The volume 15 follows its predecessor in the treatment of predominantly apomictic taxa on a very large scale. A new European synopsis of Rubus, containing numerous apomictic microspecies, was developed by the renowned specialist Prof. Dr. Heinrich Weber, a guest Editor of this volume. The treatment is especially detailed for Central Europe, Great Britain and Sweden, whereas extensive and taxonomically rich areas in the Balkans have regrettably fallen out of the evaluation.

The complimentary copies of the volume 15 have been distributed to the collaborators and assistants of AFE in September. We cordially thank everyone involved in compilation of this volume for the efforts on organizing the mapping process on the national / regional level and submitting valuable information to the Secretariat. Our special thanks go to the East European contributors, whose increased activity covered eastern Russian territories with the best precision that we ever achieved. Our apologies go to the Moscow team: because of a sad technical mistake two names, Dr. Tatyana Kramina and Dr. Natalia Shvedchikova, have been regrettably omitted from the credit list.

Preparation of the draft text of volume 16 (Rosaceae: Maloideae & Prunoideae) is at its final stage. The text should be sent to the collaborators along with our traditional Christmas greetings.

Contact information

Post and visiting addresses of the Botanical Museum (incl. sections of cryptogams, fungi and vascular plants):

Botanical Garden & Botanical Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History
P.O. Box 7 (Unioninkatu 44)
FI-00014 University of Helsinki
FINLAND

Fax +358-9-19124456 (for foreign calls; from Finland dial 09-19124456).

If you are planning a visit to the Botanical Museum, please, contact us in some advance.