Botanical monographs

Contact: E. Robbrecht

Other researchers: Petra De Block, Peit Stoffelen, Steven Dessein

All floristics work is based on monographic and phylogenetic research. Revisions and monographs form the basis for new concepts regarding the delimitation of taxa and consolidation of taxonomic knowledge. In the National Botanic Garden the Rubiaceae is currently selected for this kind of special study. Much research is done in collaboration with the Universities of Vienna (Austria) and Leuven (Belgium). The Rubiaceae team formed by the researchers of our department and of Leuven University, is the largest in the world. Results are published in international journals; when voluminous, they find a place in the monograph series published at the National Botanic Garden (Opera Botanica Belgica).

Biogeographical considerations are another output of the monographic work. In this context the Garden publishes a series of distribution maps of African plants (Distributiones Plantarum Africanarum).