Flora of North America: The Flora of North America is a collaborative project to provide information in printed and electronic form on the vascular plants and bryophytes growing spontaneously in North America north of Mexico. Three volumes–an introduction, the ferns and gymnosperms, and the first families of dicots–have already been published. This information with many additional files and links to other sites is available on the World Wide Web. Volume 3, Magnoliidae and Hamamelidae, was published in June 1997. It contains treatments for 32 plant families with 128 genera and 741 species, including oaks, elms, plane trees, poppies, buttercups, dephiniums, magnolias, birches, walnuts, and other related dicots. Of the 649 native species described, 67 per cent are endemic to the flora area. In the past 20 years, 13 of the species have been described as new (seven alone in the buttercups), and hierarchical changes for various taxa are reflected. Volume 22, the first installment of the non-grass monocots containing 30 families came out in March 2000. Treatments for Volumes 23 (Cyperaceae) and 26 (Liliales and Orchidales), are being reviewed and edited. Treatments based on original observations, as well as a critical evaluation of existing literature, are being written by specialists throughout the world. The Garden is one of several editorial centers for the Flora in the U.S. and Canada. Altogether, more than 30 U.S. and Canadian institutions participate in the project. James L. Zarucchi is Managing Editor at the Flora of North America office at the Garden. Doug Harrison assists part-time with manuscripts. Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey continues as Illustrations Coordinator on a part-time basis, and Barbara Alongi, Bee Gunn, John Myers, Libby Zimmermann, and Susan Reznicek are contributing illustrations.
Missouri: The Flora of Missouri project, an ongoing effort to update and compile information on the state's flora, is jointly sponsored by the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Missouri Department of Conservation. One of its main goals is a two-volume revision of former MO curator Julian A. Steyermark's Flora of Missouri, first published in 1963. Information from the 1990 Catalogue of the Flora of Missouri, published in the Monographs in Systematic Botany from the Missouri Botanical Garden series, has been computerized and is updated regularly. The 586 plates of new art prepared for the Flora were computerized in 1996. An expanding database of specimen label data for use in preparation of county dot maps presently contains about 90,000 records from MO and other Missouri herbaria. In late February 1999, the project reached a milestone with the publication of Volume 1 of the revised Steyermark's Flora of Missouri, which includes the introductory chapters and treatments of nearly 800 species of pteridophytes, conifers, and monocots. This volume was published by the Missouri Department of Conservation in collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden Press. The second volume, which will include treatments of the dicot families, will follow in three or four years. In contrast to the first volume, Volume 2 will include selected treatments by outside contributors. Botanists continue to increase MO's holdings of the state's flora by about 5,000 specimens per year. The Flora of Missouri project is directed by George Yatskievych. He is assisted by Sarah Tofari and John Archer. Pat Walker and Kathleen Wood continue to volunteer their services to the project.