Santiago Castroviejo’s research while affiliated with Real Jardín Botánico and other places

More than 15 years after the start, the Euro+Med PlantBase project (E+M), which aimed at providing a comprehensive, dynamic and permanently updated online checklist of all vascular plants for Europe and the Mediterranean countries, is now very close to full coverage. E+M is the most detailed resource on plant biodiversity in the Euro-Mediterranean area including the Caucasus, bridging the gap between less detailed global checklists on the one hand, and more heterogeneous floras and checklists on a regional or country level on the other hand. Originally, the database merged all the taxonomic and distributional information from the three largest botanical standard data sources for the region, i.e. from the ESFEDS database (derived from Flora Europaea), the published volumes of Med-Checklist, and the Flora of Macaronesia. Data from more than one hundred national and regional floras and checklists, and from several hundred articles and monographs, have been added to that basic dataset. New literature is regularly screened, critically evaluated and integrated by a network of editors, regional and taxonomic advisers and by the team at the E+M secretariat, which has been established at the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem since 2004. Thus, the dynamic nature of the flora is reflected. As of 31st May 2016, the E+M website gives free access to more than 95% of the European, Mediterranean, Macaronesian and Caucasian taxa in 190 families with 2186 genera and a total of 40783 taxa (30280 species and 10503 subspecies, including the genera with very large numbers of apomictic microspecies such as Alchemilla, Hieracium, Pilosella, the Ranunculus auricomus aggregate, Rubus and Taraxacum). It is expected that editing and online publication of the remaining taxa will be complete by the end of 2016. E+M currently provides 43195 accepted names and an extensive synonymy (a total of 123540 names) with standardized and checked nomenclatural citations, misapplied names, orthographical variants, 144191 common names in 40 different languages, 238461 source-referenced distribution records for 40100 taxa, and literature-based distribution maps. The highest number of species so far has been recorded for Turkey, followed by Italy, Greece and Spain. Suprageneric classification follows “The Flowering Plant Families of the World” (Heywood & al. 2007); an update to a more recent classification system is being planned. E+M, together with Fauna Europaea and the European Register of Marine Species (ERMS), is one of the major contributors to the Pan-European Species-directories Infrastructure (PESI), which has been recommended as the preferred all-taxa inventory for European species.

From the study of the material available, it is concluded that the western Mediterranean populations previously considered as Rhynchospora rugosa should be treated as a separate species, described here as R. modesti-lucennoi.

Schoenoplectus corymbosus is a sedge from tropical wetlands widely distributed in Pakistan, India and Africa. Recent collections confirm its presence in wetlands of southern Spain and Morocco. We consider the presence of this plant in the western extreme of the Mediterranean as a consequence of recent colonization, because it was not collected here until 1999, in spite of its medium–large size. Additionally, it grows in much visited areas like nature reserves (such as Doñana National Park). The populations from Spain and Morocco are characterized here, a description of S. corymbosus and a key for Schoenoplectus from Europe and north Africa is supplied. Finally, the possible natural and recent colonization processes of these new populations are discussed.

Full text available at http://www.floraiberica.es/eng/PHP/familias_lista_.php?familia=Cyperaceae