OPTIMA Newsletter 38

Publications
ble Spanish botanists are now taking turns as
volume editors, which has the welcome consequence
of ensuring speedy publication of
those parts for which the authors have completed
their work.
Each of the three volumes under review
has a single major family at its core, beside
some minor ones. For volume 15 it is Rubiaceae,
in which Galium (52 species), by Ortega
Olivencia & Devesa, is the largest genus.
Cyperaceae make up the bulk of volume
18, again with an undisputed generic
leader: Carex (92 species), split up sectionwise
among Luceño, Escudero and Jiménez
Mejías. Finally, Orchidaceae, which fill the
near totality of the final volume 21, include
three major genera of comparable size: Orchis
(19 species), authored by Aedo, Epipactis
(14), by Crespo, and Ophrys (12), by
Aldasoro & Sáez.
The “orchid volume” deserves to be discussed
in some detail, as so much interest
has centred on the orchid family recently.
Those favouring a revolutionary approach in
genus delimitation will be disappointed, as
the editors, having given due consideration
to the recent proposals of Pridgeon & Bateman,
have opted for a conservative solution,
identical with the treatment in “Flora Europaea”.
Theirs was probably a wise decision,
as there was, and still is, scant acceptance
of the novel scheme among botanists
and orchidophiles (but see item 20, above).
The notorious splitters, too, must be quite
disappointed, because in Ophrys in particular
the species concept adopted is very broad
(excessively so in the case of O. dyris,
which considered as a subspecies of O. fusca
but belonging in reality to the but distantly
related O. omegaifera complex). In Orchis,
on the other hand, O. conica, a member of
the critical and variable O. tridentata group,
is recognised as a distinct species – which I
definitely consider as excessive.
A word of praise must, once more, be
said on illustration. The drawings (by R.
Tavera for vol. 15, J. L. Castillo for the two
others) is – as in past volumes – of superior
quality, both with respect to scientific accuracy
and artistic skill. Besides there is the
final, surprising innovation of colour plates
in vol. 21, with full-page colour pictures, by
some of Europe’s leading orchid photographers,
illustrating (sometimes twice) every
accepted species and subspecies.
W.G.
28. 27BDaniel JEANMONOD & Jacques GA-
MISANS – Flora corsica. – Edisud, Aixen-Provence,
2007 (ISBN 978-2-7449-
0662-6). 921 + cxxxiv pages, 134 plates
of drawings, 3 maps, 1 vegetation profile,
3 tables; plastic cover.
So far there has been no pocket flora for
the island of Corsica, a surprising fact when
one considers how popular the “Island of
Beauty” is among tourists and nature lovers.
Bouchard’s “Flore pratique” was a scant
surrogate, as even in its third edition of 1978
it is so full of imperfections that it is not
even mentioned in the list of basic literature
of the present book.
The wild flora of Corsica comprises
almost 2400 species, including casual
(10.5 %) and naturalised (6,4 %) aliens.
Endemism is considerable, the 146 strictly
endemic taxa corresponding to 6,3 % of the
indigenous flora – a figure and proportion
that will more than double when endemism
in a wider, Tyrrhenian context is considered.
The new tenets of molecular-based phylogeny
have been followed with respect to
family sequence: three “basal” families
(Nymphaeaceae, Lauraceae, Aristolochiaceae)
precede the monocots, followed in
turn by the dicots starting with Ceratophyllum.
This means that the user, at least initially,
will have to resort frequently to the
index. Family delimitations, at least, have
been kept as is traditional, with deviating
modern alternatives (the Angiosperm Phylogeny
Group’s APG II family concepts)
mentioned in brackets, subtitles or notes.
“Flora corsica” is a product of the “projet
Flore Corse”, based at the Geneva Con-
(18) OPTIMA Newsletter No. 38 2009