Commission for the Mapping of Orchids in the Mediterranean Area
The Secretariat of the project was active and enthusiastic, achieving substantial
progress in mapping work during 1990. The screening of institutional herbaria for relevant
orchid specimens was almost totally completed for Greece, Turkey and N Africa. Similarly,
and in spite of the much increased number of new relevant publications, the screening of
literature for distribution data is nearing completion.
In 1994 the Secretariat made increased endeavors to promote the protection laws for
endemic orchids in the Mediterranean countries (see Eur. Orchid., vol. 26, 1994). For the
same purpose ten threatened species of orchids were treated for the Red Data Book of the
flora of Greece.
In 1995 the mandate of this Commission was renewed at the Sevilla Meeting. Data
collection still needs to be completed for France, Lebanon, Caucasia, Spain and Syria.
Computerization of the collected data for map generation has begun and approximately 1/5
of the information has already been processed.
This Commission is in
its last term. Prof. Del Prete is in charge of having the text of the “Atlas of
Mediterranean Orchids” reviewed from a scientific point of view. Hopefully, the
chorological Atlas will soon be published and made available to OPTIMA members
at a reduced price.
