OPTIMA Newsletter 38

time lag that was used to fill gaps in the
coverage by mapping four offshore islets,
one at the northern tip of Fuerteventura and
three in a similar position near Lanzarote.
Project director Marcelino del Arco and his
team of 12 can be proud of their achievement.
The seven map sheets, one for each of
the main Canary Islands, are printed on both
sides, with explanatory text covering the
verso. The recto bears a large map of the
actual vegetation at its centre (scale varies
according to island size, between 1 : 55 000
for La Gomera and 1 : 170 000 for Fuerteventura),
flanked by smaller maps (one of
them showing the potential natural vegetation),
vegetation profiles, and the legend of
colour codes. The mapped vegetation units
are associations (for woody formations), alliances
or orders (herbaceous formations)
defined by the sigmatistic method of Braun-
Blanquet. Aerial photographs in colour were
used to establish their distribution.
The book is for a large part devoted to
the characterisation of vegetation types, first
for the archipelago as a whole then in the
context of the individual islands. Among the
appendices, a list of species characterising
vegetation units, a glossary, and an extensive
bibliography are of note.
As to the CD-ROM, it again includes, in
separate pdf files, the printed book and map
sheets, and in addition it offers the possibility
to zoom into the vegetation maps and see
their every detail, which is more than the
printed version since the original mapping
was done at a 1 : 20 000 scale.
W.G.
86. 85BMarkus VON GAISBERG – Die Vegetation
der Fußstufe von El Hierro) Kanarische
Inseln). [Dissertationes Botanicae
(ISSN 0070-6728), 395.] – Cramer,
Berlin & Stuttgart, 2005 (ISBN 3-
443-64308-6). 364 pages, 97 black-andwhite
figures (photographs, maps,
graphs), 22 tables + 1 folded table in
pouch; hard cover.
Publications
Markus von Gaisberg, one of the authors
of the distribution atlas of the El
Hierro flora presented above (item 59), has
chosen the lower belt of that island as subject
for his PhD thesis. That thesis has
grown into the present, stately book, well
written and nicely presented. El Hierro, the
smallest and presumably youngest of the
Canary Islands, was also arguably the least
explored botanically. Looking at the steep
flanks of this volcano tip emerging abruptly
from a more than 3000 m deep sea floor, one
can easily imagine how arduous it is to explore
them. This is the terrain that Gaisberg
and his colleague Stierstorfer have thoroughly
investigated for several years. Their
field data, electronically stored, have already
helped writing three books, and more may
yet come. One positive aspect of their work
is that it was not done in splendid isolation.
Rather, they sought and received the support
of Canarian botanists and institutions, principally
Wolfredo Wildpret and his team of
the University of La Laguna on Tenerife.
W.G.
87. 86BJosep GESTI PERICH, Lluís VILAR I
SAIS & Susan WATT – Plantes vasculars
del quadrat UTM 31T EG07 Castelló
d’Empúries. [ORCA: Catàlegs
floristics locals, 16.] – Institut d’Estudis
Catalans, Secció de Ciències Biològiques,
Barcelona, 2005 (ISBN 84-7283-
825-0). 95 pages, maps, graph; paper.
The rhythm of publication of this series
of floristic inventories of individual 10 ×
10 km squares of the chorological mapping
grid for Catalonia has apparently slowed
down. Last time (see OPTIMA Newslett. 37:
83. 2004) there were three such fascicles to
be presented, published in 2002 and 2003.
Since then but a single one has been printed.
Castelló d’Empúries is situated in the
extreme northeast of Spanish Catalonia,
close to the Mediterranean Sea. The area of
its grid square is comprised of lowlands
barely exceeding 50 m of altitude and can be
2009 OPTIMA Newsletter No. 38 (45)