OPTIMA Newsletter 38

O P T I M A N E W S L E T T E R O P T I M A N E W S L E T T E R O P T I M A N E W S L E T T E R
organised by Giuseppe Venturella. In the evening,
the volume “Linnaeus in Italy” was presented by
Andres Bjurner, Ambassador of Sweden in Italy,
and Claudio Pogliano, science historian. The evening
was enlivened by a cocktail, offered by the
Swedish Embassy in Italy and “Diritto allo studio
universitario”, and a concert performed by the
Chamber Ensemble of the Pisa University Youth
Orchestra, with a financial contribution by Volvo
Trucks Italy.
Thursday 13 September had been set aside
for the three mid-Congress excursions: one to the
Apuan Alps, guided by Fabio Garbari; one to the
Monterufoli-Caselli Nature Reserve, guided by
Federico Selvi; and the third to the Leghorn hills,
guided by Pier Virgilio Arrigoni.
Symposium 7 on “Tempo and mode of
speciation in Mediterranean plants”, organized by
Tod Stuessy, was held on Friday morning. In the
afternoon, concurrently, Symposium 8 on “The
study and inventory of Mediterranean Compositae”,
organised by Norbert Kilian, and Symposium
9 on “Bryofloristics and bryotaxonomy”, organised
by Rosa María Ros, took place.
Two more concurrent sessions ran on Saturday
morning, Symposium 10 on “Plant-plant and
plant-animal interactions”, organised by José
María Iriondo, and Symposium 11 on “Seaweeds
and freshwater algae in and around the Mediterranean”,
organised by Giovanni Furnari.
The plenary Symposium 12 on “Maintaining
economically important wild plants and relic crops
in the Mediterranean”, organised by Vernon H.
Heywood, took place on Saturday afternoon, followed
by the Closing Ceremony, the last official
act of Werner Greuter in his function of President.
The assembly warmly thanked him for his outstanding
services during the past terms, and at
the same time heartily welcomed Francesco Maria
Raimondo as newly elected President, who was to
benefit of the ongoing support of Greuter in his
new capacity of Secretary.
At the Closing Ceremony, it was officially
announced that the XIII OPTIMA Meeting will take
place in spring 2010 in Turkey. Tuna Ekim presented
the invitation on behalf of himself and his
Turkish colleagues, receiving a warm applause.
Also, reports from the various Commissions who
had met prior to the Congress were summarised;
and the OPTIMA Silver Medals, awarded to the
authors of the best work on Mediterranean plant
taxonomy published in each of the three foregoing
years, were presented as follows:
For 2004, to Ilana Herrnstadt for the book,
jointly authored by Clara C. Heyn and herself,
“The bryophyte flora of Israel and adjacent regions”
(Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities,
Section of Sciences, Jerusalem). – This volume
summaries over 20 years of research in Israel,
a small area with an unexpectedly high bryophyte
diversity, as pointed out by Uzi Plitmann
who presented the Medal.
For 2005, to Toni Nikolić and Jasenka
Topić for their book “Crvena knjiga vaskularne
flore Hrvatske” (Ministarstvo Kulture, Državni
Zavod za Zaštitu Prirode, Republika Hrvatska,
Zagreb). – This sizeable and heavy new Red Data
Book presents, in monographic detail, the treatment
of 760 plant species and subspecies that are
at risk, nearly threatened or potentially under
threat in Croatia. In the absence of the awardees
the Medal, presented by Vernon H. Heywood, was
handed over to Dražena Papeš.
For 2006, to Pier Virgilio Arrigoni for the
first volume of his “Flora dell’isola di Sardegna”
(Società Botanica Italiana & Carlo Delfino, Sassari,
2006). This is the first of a series of volumes
summarising the results the author’s floristic
research of more than 30 years in Sardinia.
The Medal was presented by Francesco
Maria Raimondo.
During the following three days, from 16 to
18 September, about 20 participants took part in
the post-congress excursion to the Elba and Pianosa
islands in the Tuscan Archipelago, guided
by Fabio Garbari and Bruno Foggi.
The Meeting in Pisa was attended by 236
delegates from 25 countries (Algeria, Armenia,
Austria, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic,
France, Germany, Greece, Herzegovina, Israel,
Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, Montenegro, Poland,
Portugal, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, United
26 OPTIMA Newsletter No. 38 May 2009