Flora Mesoamericana - Phase 3

美国中部热带地区的蕨类植物、针叶树和开花植物估计有17000种，这是密苏里植物园在Gerrit Davidse博士领导下一个雄心勃勃的多国研究项目的目标。《中美洲植物志》以传统出版的丛书的形式，作为并行的计算机数据库，是维管植物的概要目录，提供了植物基本特征的描述，全面的鉴定指南，每个物种的地理范围的摘要，以及所有植物分类的标准化综合。中美洲包括巴拿马、哥斯达黎加、尼加拉瓜、萨尔瓦多、洪都拉斯、危地马拉、伯利兹，以及墨西哥的恰帕斯州、金塔纳罗奥州、坎佩切州、尤卡坦州和塔巴斯科州。分类学工作由密苏里植物园、墨西哥城国立大学和大英自然历史博物馆的工作人员贡献。中美洲植物学家的合作规划和参与是该项目的主要特点。植物分册正在墨西哥通过国立大学以西班牙语出版；计算机数据库最初是在圣路易斯和伦敦建立的，并将扩展到墨西哥城站。第一次出版的卷将处理单子叶植物（草，莎草，百合，和亲戚）和蕨类；接下来的几卷将讨论双子叶植物和裸子植物。这一广阔地区的丰富植物资源没有可比的清单，其中部分植物资源由于人类的干扰和开发而迅速变化。

A complete inventory of the estimated 17,000 species of ferns, conifers, and flowering plants of the Middle American tropics is the goal of an ambitious multi-investigator, multi- national program of research coordinated at the Missouri Botanical Garden, under Dr. Gerrit Davidse. Flora Mesoamericana, in the form of a traditional published series of books and as a parallel computerized data base, is a synoptic inventory of the vascular plants that provides descriptions of basic plant features, a comprehensive identification guide, a summary of geographical ranges for each species, and a standardized synthesis of the taxonomy of all the plants. Mesoamerica includes Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, plus the Mexican states of Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Yucatan, and Tabasco. Taxonomic work is being contributed by staff members of the Missouri Botanical Garden, the National University in Mexico City, and the British Museum of Natural History. Cooperative planning and participation of Mesoamerican botanists are major features of the project. The flora volumes are being published in Spanish in Mexico through the National University; the computer databases initially are being developed in St. Louis and in London, and will be extended to the Mexico City station. The first published volumes will treat the monocots (grasses, sedges, lilies, and relatives) and the ferns; subsequent volumes will treat the dicots and the gymnosperms. There is no comparable inventory of the rich plant resources of this vast region, portions of which are changing rapidly through human disturbance and development.