Modern Plant Biosystematics: Commemorating 50 years of the International Organization of Plant Biosystematists

The history of the International Organization of Plant Biosystematists (IOPB) dates back to 1960, when the Committee on Biosystematic Terminology of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) was created, and to 1961, when this Committee became an autonomous organization, named IOPB, within the IAPT. The main idea of the organization followed approaches contained within the classical studies of Clausen, Keck and Hiesey (Clausen, 1951) and the coining of the term biosystematics (“biosystematy”) by Camp & Gilly (1943), which emphasized determining the natural units of the plant world. This involves using experimental taxonomy, cytotaxonomy, cytogeography, genecology, biometry, microevolutionary and speciation studies as opposed to traditional taxonomy. Among the first members of the IOPB executive committee were Tyge W. Böcher, Wacław Gajewski, Claude Favarger, Vernon H. Heywood, Harlan Lewis, Áskell Löve, Børje Lövkvist, Hermann Merxmüller and David H. Valentine. Some recollections of the first Secretary-General of the IOPB, Vernon H. Heywood, are presented in the first paper of this series. In 1983 IOPB became independent from the IAPT and started to publish its own Newsletter. The first President of the independent organization was William F. Grant (Montréal). He was followed by Krystyna M. Urbanska (Zurich), Shoichi Kawano (Kyoto), Peter H. Raven (St. Louis), Bengt E. Jonsell (Stockholm), Konrad Bachmann (Amsterdam), Tim Lowrey (Albuquerque), Gonzalo Nieto Feliner (Madrid), and Karol Marhold (Bratislava/Prague). The current President-Elect is Ilse Breitwieser (Lincoln, New Zealand). Considerable focus in IOPB has been on publishing chromosome number reports. The one hundred parts of the series “IOPB Chromosome Number Reports”, edited first by O.T. Solbrig and Á. Löve and later by Á. Löve only, were published in Taxon from 1964 to 1988. Under the editorship of C.A. Stace this activity continued in the IOPB Newsletter, where eighteen parts of the IOPB Chromosome Data were published from 1989 to 2002. Since 2006 chromosome number records have been published under the heading “IAPT/IOPB Chromosome data” again in Taxon, with ten parts already published (available online also from the web page www.iopb.org). Recently, the IAPT and IOPB have also taken over responsibility for publishing the Index to Plant Chromosome Numbers, plus maintaining its database. The importance of this activity does not diminish in the age of molecular systematics, and in fact—quite the opposite—information on ploidy level is crucially important for the interpretation of molecular data, especially at the specific level. Moreover, recent advances in flow cytometry have opened up new possibilities for biosystematic research, enabling largescale analyses of genome-size evolution, identification and delineation of taxa, studies of polyploids, as well as evolutionary experiments (Kron & al. 2007). IOPB has organized symposia since 1983 at more or less regular intervals. Symposia were devoted to particular topics, reflecting at the same time current stages of biosystematic research throughout the world. Their topics were as follows: Biosystematic categories and their formal taxonomic recognition (Montréal, Canada, 1962), Plant Biosystematics: 40 Years Later (Montréal, Canada, 1983), Differentiation patterns in higher plants (Zürich, Switzerland, 1986), Biological approaches and evolutionary trends in plants (Kyoto, Japan, 1989), Experimental and molecular approaches to plant biosystematics (St. Louis, U.S.A., 1992), Variation and evolution in arctic and alpine plants (Tromsö, Norway, 1995), Plant evolution in manmade habitats (Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1998), The origin and biology of desert floras (Albuquerque, U.S.A., 2001), Plant evolution in Mediterranean climate zones (Valencia, Spain, 2004), Evolution of plants in mountainous and alpine habitats (Vysoké Tatry, Slovakia, 2008), and Evolution of plants from tropical to high mountain ecosystems with focus on Asia (Aurangabad, India, 2010). The next symposium will take place in 2013 in Lincoln, New Zealand. Several books and special journal issues have resulted from these symposia (Heywood & Löve, 1963; Grant, 1984; Urbanska, 1987; Kawano, 1990; Hoch & Stephenson 1995; Den Nijs & al., 1999; Van Raamsdonk & Den Nijs, 1999; Lowrey, 2002; Nieto Feliner, 2005). They reflect development of the methodological approaches applied to biosystematics in the last decades and still serve as useful sources of information and insights. After the Valencia symposium in 2004, it was acknowledged that the main reasons for the split of IOPB and IAPT back in 1983 had disappeared, and that there was no particular reason to keep these two organizations separated. It was decided, therefore, that IOPB should become an interest group of the IAPT and instead of publishing a separate newsletter, to have its own column in Taxon. Organization of regular meetings still remains one of the main activities of this group. Modern Plant Biosystematics: Commemorating 50 years of the International Organization of Plant Biosystematists