Collection(s) : Faune et flore tropicales
Paru le 09/11/2023 | Relié 493 pages
Professionnels
With about 2500 species distributed all around the world, the tropical family Annonaceae is among the largest families of Angiosperms, and one of the largest ones with woody species. It is well represented in the three Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana), with 140 species distributed in 19 genera. This geographic perimeter is part of the larger and more important biogeographic region of the Guiana Shield, whose floristic composition has close affinities with the Amazonian Basin. Annona, Duguetia, Guatteria and Xylopia are the most diversified in the area as well as in the whole South American continent.
This volume contains an authentic and thorough taxonomic treatment of the species present in the area, according to the usual methods of taxonomy, nomenclature and classification. Not only a book for the use of specialists, it is also a user-friendly tool for all scientific purposes, thanks to a detailed general introduction including informations about the biology of the studied species, detailed identification keys in english and in french, rich illustrations such as line drawings and photographs of living plants, distributions maps and, last but not least, easy access to information hosted by botanical databases for specimens and literature.
The authors are all specialists of the family or part of it, the book presents an updated synthesis of their various researches and publications.
Paul J.M. Maas is a plant taxonomist for over 50 years. For most of his career he worked in the Utrecht Institute of Systematic Botany (U), specialized in the flora of tropical America (the Neotropics). He traveled all over the Neotropics to study in the field several plant families such as Annonaceae and Costaceae.
Lubbert Y.Th. Westra is a plant taxonomist, who worked for the largest part of his career in the Utrecht Institute of Systematic Botany (U). He is involved in the research on the family of Annonaceae, a multidisciplinary project started in Utrecht almost 40 years ago.
Heimo Rainer is a plant taxonomist with a special interest in Annonaceae and historical Botany. Since the mid-1990s he is working on a monograph of the genus Annona. He did intensive field work all over the Neotropics.
Uwe Scharf studied terrestrial ecology at the University in Halle (Germany) and is a specialist of plant ecology, morphology and taxonomy. He contributed to the project « The genus Guatteria in the Guianas » at the Herbarium of Utrecht University (U), presently transferred to Leiden. He is currently based at Potsdam University.
Hiltje Maas-van de Kamer has worked as a plant taxonomist in close cooperation with her husband Paul Maas on various Neotropical plant families. One of her specialities is the family of Cannaceae, for which she published, with Paul Maas, a worldwide monograph in 2008.
Roy H.J. Erkens is a botanist interested in the evolution of plant biodiversity. He studied biology at Utrecht University and obtained his PhD in 2007 while working at the Utrecht Herbarium (U). He is currently associate professor in plant evolutionary biology at Maastricht University.
Tinde van Andel is a tropical ecologist who became interested in the use of non-timber forest products by Carib, Arawak and Warao Indians in Guyana then in the Caribbean and in West and Central Africa. She currently teaches Ethnobotany at the Wageningen University and studies historic plant collections in Leiden.
Susana Arias Guerrero is a plant taxonomist, who started to study biology in Granada, then continued her career in the Leiden Herbarium (L), working on the families of Euphorbiaceae and Annonaceae. Since the beginning of 2023, she has been a Collection Manager of the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Section Botany (L).
