Circular letter December 2011

To the Members of the Committee for Mapping the Flora of Europe

Dear colleagues,

Along with our Season’s greetings, please find enclosed for your kind review a draft text of the forthcoming volume 18 of Atlas Florae Europaeae covering the genera from Cercis to Calophaca of the Fabaceae (Leguminosae) according to the system of Flora Europaea. The text was compiled by Editor-in-chief Arto Kurtto.

The taxonomy and circumscriptions of the genera included in the current draft, especially those of Cytisus, Genista and their allies, have been much studied recently. Resulting from these studies, the generic concept used in this draft is mostly broader than in Flora Europaea, and a rather long list of deviations from Flora Europaea is consequently provided. As to the species and subspecies concepts, we did our best to follow the most recent well-justified revisions, though it must be admitted that the concepts still differ widely among different authors and also show a significant geographical discrepancy.

Some of the genera included in the current draft have species cultivated and run wild. Please take particular care that your chorological records of non-native taxa conform with the AFE policy (for details, see the Introduction of vol. 14). Only those records of aliens which refer to established populations or colonies (with seed or vegetative reproduction) are to be mapped, whereas the casuals (ephemeral, solitary or first-year-sown plants), even if regularly met, are not to be recorded.

As to the chorological records, precise background information (e.g. citations of herbarium specimens) is not required for this volume. However, at your own concern and to facilitate the editorial work you may include such information, especially for the most critical taxa and non-native taxa, where extra verification may be needed at the stage of editing, and also for disjunct occurrences.

A slight change in the structure of the text has been implemented: if a synonym is included in one of the accepted subspecies, its name does not appear again under the species heading. There are no novel changes in the mapping territories, but please remember that from vol. 16 onwards the former territory SM (Serbia and Montenegro) is divided into Cg (Republic of Montenegro), Ko (Republic of Kosovo) and Se (Republic of Serbia), both in the text and on the base map.

We would particularly appreciate your careful consideration of the notes and questions given in the text box titled ‘Data wanted’. Please note that the current draft reflects the information available to the Secretariat, and some country records and even some taxa may be overlooked. If you want to add or correct something, we would be glad to receive your corrections, additions and suggestions with references to the sources of information (in a free text format).

Comments on the text are welcome by e-mail to the editor, Arto Kurtto. We need your response, including chorological data, by the end of 2012 at the latest.

For the mapping of volume 18 of Fabaceae, a taxon list (file taxon.txt, part of the AFE Data Editor program for submitting the data in a digital format) is available at the web site of Atlas Florae Europaeae, or, on request, by other means. In order to begin the mapping of Fabaceae, you need to replace the existing file taxon.txt of the package AFE Editor 2010 (which currently contains Rosaceae) by the new version containing both Rosaceae and Fabaceae (the Fabaceae will appear at the end of the taxon list). The program as a whole, as well as instructions to install and use it, are also available for downloading at the same web site.

We warmly thank those collaborators who already submitted the chorological data for vol. 16. Some data are not received yet; please observe that the deadline for this submission is set at the end of this year (2011). In reconsideration of the available information, we decided to divide the planned volume 16 into two volumes due to a large number of apomictic species in Sorbus and certain difficulties connected with the treatment of these species. The printing order of the new volumes will be vol. 16 (Maloideae excluding Sorbus, Prunoideae) and vol. 17 (Sorbus). Both volumes are currently in the process of editing. Volume 16 is expected to be finalised in the autumn of 2012, and volume 17 should follow soon thereafter. The chorological data for vols. 16 and 17 may be submitted all at once or in the sequence of these volumes.

With best wishes,

Pertti Uotila, Arto Kurtto, Alexander Sennikov