A floral biologist’s past fifty years: some thoughts and experiences

657 At the XVIIth International Botanical Congress in Vienna, Austria (July 2005), we held a symposium entitled “Generalist flowers: their evolution, biology and animal associations”. By happy coincidence, this year also marked the 80th birthday of Professor Dr. Stefan Vogel, a 20th century pioneer in floral morphology and biology. Stefan Vogel, who makes his home near Vienna, graciously allowed us to dedicate our symposium in honor of his eightieth birthday. Professor Vogel still goes regularly to work at the Institute of Botany, Vienna, and like all true field botanists, eagerly into the field whenever possible. Indeed, it was in Cartagena, Colombia (on the occasion of the VIIIth Latin American Botanical Congress, 2002), that the first author had the pleasure of making his acquaintance. Carrying his Olympus stereo dissecting microscope in his suitcase and lens in hand, we explored coastal dry forest remnants not far from Santa Marta, in 40°C temperatures, revisiting an area he hadn’t been to for 50 years. We then mounted the Andes to visit a reserve near Villa de Leyva, reuniting us with Gerhard Gottsberger. Not entirely prepared for the cold, we wrapped ourselves in blankets, and Stefan set-up his microscope and camera so that he could study and photograph the flowers collected during the day (Fig. 1). His laser eye rarely missed sighting an interesting flower as we walked along and his encyclopedic knowledge of natural history greatly enriched our experience. The beauty of natural history is that it provides a harmonious, immediate, readily understandable and realistic explanation of phenomena. It operates on a human level, which is the most practical one. Atomistic approaches see the parts (smaller and smaller divisions) with great acuity but often loose sight of the whole. Too atomistic a view can lead to the comparing of points and not systems (functional GENER ALIST FLOWERS SYMPOSIUM