Premium
THE PRESENT STATE OF TROPICAL FLORISTICS
Author(s) -
Prance Ghillean T.,
Campbell David G.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
taxon
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.819
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1996-8175
pISSN - 0040-0262
DOI - 10.2307/1221097
Subject(s) - tropics , flora (microbiology) , herbarium , floristics , geography , productivity , habitat , ecology , agroforestry , forestry , biology , species richness , genetics , macroeconomics , bacteria , economics
Summary An analysis is made of the growth rate of tropical herbaria and only a few areas, Central America, Pacifica and the West Indies appear to have adequate collecting rates. In spite of recent calls for accelerated collecting in the tropics, the overall rates have not increased greatly even though the threat of destruction of natural habitats and species loss is an increasingly serious problem. Some key areas in greatest need of tropical Holistic inventory in the near future are suggested. In the Neotropics, Atlantic coastal Brazil, the Colombian, Chocó, Bolivia, Rondônia and Acre in Brazil, and Guyana stand out as in need of further inventory. The collections of Chrysobalanaceae between 1972 and 1986 are analyzed and although many new species have been found, a large amount of material of common species has been repeatedly re‐collected, collections of both Chrysobalanaceae and the Projeto Flora Amazonica program are still yielding at least one new species per every 100 numbers collected, indicating continued inadequate inventory of the Neotropics. Tropical flora programs are discussed and it is suggested that there is a need for many more florulas of carefully selected small areas of the tropics. An analysis of the productivity of Flora Neotropica shows that in order to provide an adequate monographic basis for local floras there is an urgent need to increase the rate of production of monographs of tropical groups. This survey indicated that the work force in systematic botany is far too small for the urgent tasks that face it over the next few years.