"Synthesis of North American Flora" by Kartesz & Meacham

Tue Dec 14 08:18:39 CST 1999

BEN # 237, December 14, 1999:

SYNTHESIS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN FLORA - KARTESZ ON THE CD-ROM
From: Adolf Ceska <aceska at victoria.tc.ca>

Kartesz, J.T. & C.A.  Meacham.  1999.  Synthesis  of  the  North
   American Flora, Version 1.0. North Carolina Botanical Garden,
   Chapel Hill, NC. ISBN 1-889065-05-6 [CD-ROM] Price: US$495.00

   Ordering information: North Carolina Botanical Garden, Campus
   Box 3375, Totten Center, Univ. North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
   Chapel  Hill, N.C. 27599-3375. Credit card orders may also be
   placed by telephone; please contact Amy Farstad at the  BONAP
   office at: 919-962-0578.

For almost two decades, "A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular
Plants  of  North  America  ..."  has  been a standard botanical
reference for North American flora. It was originally  published
in  1980  and  thoroughly updated in 1994. When the 1994 edition
was published, it was obvious that the next step would  have  to
be  an  electronic  version  of  this  work. Soon after the book
edition, the list became available on  the  USDA  web  page.  In
1998,  a  set  of electronic databases was announced as "Digital
Floristic Synthesis of North America", and it was advertised  by
Patricia  Ledlie  Bookseller,  Inc.  [see  BEN  # 187]. For some
reason the deal fell through,  but  in  August  1999  the  North
Carolina  Botanical  Garden completed this project and published
"Synthesis" on a CD-ROM (the orders  previously  placed  through
Patricia Ledlie will be honored).

The  backbone  of the "Synthesis" is the updated Kartesz (1994):
"A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Plants  of  the  United
States,  Canada, and Greenland." In the "Synthesis" this list is
expanded into a comprehensive database. Common names  are  added
to  the  taxonomical lists and about 135 "biological attributes"
are listed for all species,  hybrids,  and  infraspecific  taxa.
These   "biological  attributes"  include  state/provincial  and
national rarity and endemism, nativity, weediness, habit  (tree,
shrub, vine, etc.), habitat, trophic level, duration, etc.

The "Synthesis" software was written by Dr. Christopher Meacham,
plant  taxonomist  and  software  specialist  at the Jepson Her-
barium, University of California at  Berkeley.  The  program  is
designed  for  IBM-compatible computers running Windows 3.1, 95,
98, NT, or 2000 operating systems, with at least 25 MB of avail-
able hard-disk space, a Pentium or faster processor,  and  mini-
mally  32  MB  of RAM. The program can also be used on Macintosh
computers running Virtual PC software,  although  it  is  recom-
mended  that the computer have components that are comparable to
or better than those indicated above.

The program running the "Synthesis" database is slick. It is one
of the fastest, smartest, and the most user-friendly software  I
have  ever encountered. By a click of the mouse you can selected
names (with or without the authority,  and  with  or  without  a
common  name) and copy them into a Word or WordPerfect document.
You don't have to type your species  lists  any  more,  and  the
insertion  of  species name in any document is almost automatic.
The program displays species' distributions  in  North  American
states  or provinces and with the use of "mouse-over" technique,
it displays instantly the source of information for the species'
distribution in the selected state or province. I was  surprised
and  flattered  to  see  BEN  as a source of several records for
British Columbia. Boolean search enables you to  make  lists  of
species  with  selected  attributes for selected areas. The pos-
sibilities are endless.

I browsed through the database and found only very few mistakes.
For instance, Asplenium viride is still  listed  as  A.  tricho-
manes-ramosum,  Carex enanderi is listed with a wrong authority,
etc. Some spelling mistakes and occurrences based on unvouchered
reports will  be  cleaned  by  the  feedback  of  users  of  the
database.  I  wish,  however,  that  the  database would include
several more fields, namely  the  total  distribution  for  each
species, Raunkier life forms, and chromosome numbers.

This  "Synthesis"  should  be  on  a  computer  of every serious
botanist in North America. I don't understand the pricing policy
of CD-ROM products, but I believe that the price  US$495.00  for
"Synthesis" is too high and out-of-reach of average botanists or
smaller  botanical institutions in North America. I am convinced
that the North Carolina Botanical Garden would sell at least  30
times  more  copies  if  they  charged  $49.50 (one tenth of the
actual price) for a copy. As a consolation for those who  cannot
afford "Synthesis", most of the information is also available on
the following web site: http://plants.usda.gov/plants/
But on a long run, if you have to write a fair amount of botani-
cal names, the "Synthesis" will save you time and nerves.

Further  information  about  BONAP and ongoing work by John Kar-
tesz, a "Synthesis" order form, and an ongoing listing of  post-
publication  updates to the "Synthesis" database, are all avail-
able on BONAP's web site (http://www.bonap.org).

P.S. I noticed that Dr. Kartesz published 41  new  nomenclatural
combinations  at  the  back  of the title insert for the CD-ROM.
That's quite a brave challenge  to  the  International  Code  of
Botanical  Nomenclature;  I  wonder if such a publication can be
considered valid.

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