Format: ORAL

Carmen Ulloa Ulloa1, Hctor M. Hernndez2, Fred Barrie1, Gerrit Davidse1, Sandra Knapp3

1 Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis, Missouri, United States 2 Instituto de Biología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Ciudad de México, Mexico 3 Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom

Flora Mesoamericana is an international collaborative project organized by the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Institute of Biology of the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico and the Natural History Museum in London. Its main objective is to carry out a monographic inventory of the vascular plants existing in the Mesoamerican region, based on a critical analysis of the best available information. Our current estimate is 20,119 species of vascular plants occur in n the region, 41 of which are endemic (8,222 spp.). According to the definition established by the organizers, Mesoamerica extends south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to and including Panama, with a total area of 778,238 km2. In this presentation, a brief account of the history of the project will be given. Likewise, some aspects of its organization, the working method and the results achieved will be described, as well as how the information contributes to larger projects like the World Flora Online. The first volume was published in 1994 and a total of eight volumes have been printed to date, treating 138 families, 1,724 genera, and 11,998 species, representing a 60% of the estimated number of species in the flora. The contents of all volumes, published in Spanish, are also available in a slightly different format on the Internet (http://www.tropicos.org/Project/FM). The progress to date has only been possible thanks to the generous participation of 246 botanists from numerous institutions around the world. Based on the current production rate, we estimate that the remaining five volumes will be released over the course of the next 10 years.