This book has grown out of the requests by many users of FloraEuropaea (Tutin et al., 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980) for information on the sources of the chromosome numbers cited in that work. During discussions about the publication of these data it became apparent that there is also a demand for a basic checklist of the taxa recognised in the Flora, and that these two requirements could readily be met in the same volume.

The Checklist

Apart from the fundamental value of FloraEuropaea to all modern taxonomic studies of European plants, the names and sequence of taxa it presents are widely used for arranging herbaria and libraries concerned with these plants. It is intended that the handy format of this checklist will facilitate these latter activities, as well as being useful in recording and assessing local floras within Europe.

The sequence of taxa is exactly the same as that used in FloraEuropaea except that the Rubiaceae, which for technical reasons had to be published in volume 4 rather than in volume 3, have been positioned correctly in the Checklist. All species and subspecies ‘accepted’ in FloraEuropaea (i.e. those prefixed by a number or a letter) are included here. Those unnumbered taxa of doubtful status are only included if a chromosome number is given for them in FloraEuropaea, as is also the case for the agamospecies (‘microspecies’) listed, but not described, within the ‘species-groups’ of apomictic or partially apomictic genera.