Flora of North America
Editorial Committee (2000–)

URL: http://www.fna.org/FNA/index.html (click The Project link)

SITE SUMMARY: Flora of North America is a multi-national project in progress that will culminate in a multi-volume print publication published by Oxford University Press and featuring an online counterpart which is represented on this Web site especially by the Project Introduction, Scope and Rationale, Content, History and Volume One, plus the FNA Newsletter, and Editorial Centers. Endorsed by the American Society of Plant Taxonomists, the Canadian Botanical Association and the Botanical Society of America; and sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation and other organizations, the FNA Project (the only one of its kind), and the criteria (or basic aspects), have been set up for botanical researchers to make standard identification records ("authoritative, up to date information" of about 21,000 species) of all known plants in North America, especially the U.S. and Canada.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS AND ACTIVITIES

1. See Introduction to the Project, paragraph six, part one. Identify how North American non-cultivated plant species descriptions are determined to be authoritative, in general and also for this Project.
2. Identify the basic aspects (also known as treatments) for a botanical specimen, as noted in part two of the sixth paragraph of the Introduction to the Project.
3. Study Volume One, Chapter Fourteen, at the FNA Volumes Online area. (Its url is cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.) Cite four aspects of classic botanical historical note related to the basic aspects for Flora of North America. Cite similarities and differences between the historical aspects and the basic aspects (which you found when answering Question/Activity no. 1 above). (Hint: See A.P. de Candolle, G. Bentham and J.D. Hooker, H.G.A. Engler and K. Prantl, and C.E. Bessey.)
4. Study further Volume One, Chapter Fourteen, at the FNA Volumes Online area (found as found as cited in Question/Activity no. 3 above). What have "major schemes of classification of flowering plants … attempted to portray" in the past century? Choose one botanist or botanist team from the past, then describe the botanist's or botanists' theory and how it influenced, or does not hold up, with reference to the theory through time and present-day viewpoints. (Note also Chapter Fifteen for second item just above.)
5. See the beginning and the conclusion of Volume One, Chapter Fifteen, at the FNA Volumes Online area (found as cited in the Related Internet Sites section below). What can be said of the validity of taxonomic schemes in general, and regarding particular ones (e.g., the Linnaean one)?
6. Read Volume One, Chapter Eleven, at the FNA Volumes Online area (found as cited in the Related Internet Sites section below). Read especially the sections Defining and Delimiting Species, Toward a Broader Biological Species Concept (paragraph thirteen), and New Ideas on the Treatment of Genera. Briefly define species and genera. Describe the problem of defining and delimiting species.
7. See Volume One, Chapter Ten, at the FNA Volumes Online area (found online as cited in the Related Internet Sites section below). See first paragraphs. When did the American conservation movement start to gain momentum? Describe one early conservation effort by a person and by a government. How is each effort still important today? Read the section Importance of Conserving Biodiversity, state the "four main lines of reasoning" regarding plant conservation, then give details of one, and describe how your chosen "line" would affect you and the world around you. Read the section Contributions of Plant Conservation Efforts, then cite an organization, national agency or law, and describe its conservation effort(s). Read the section Present and Future Challenges, then give one example of what needs to be done, and explain why it is important. Option: For the first and third activities just above, see also the writings at the Web sites: Evolution of American Conservation Movement and U.S. EPA Laws and Regulations. (Their urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.)
8. See the area for the FNA Volumes Online, or the area for the FNA Editorial Centers. (Their urls are cited in the Related Internet Sites section below.) Find a volume, then chapter, or center. Follow links to plant information, choose a plant, and describe the plant's features following the basic aspects (which you found when answering Question/Activity no. 1 above). Next, describe that plant in the different ways botanists described plants in past times (which you found when answering Question/Activity no. 3 above).

RELATED INTERNET SITE(S)

Flora of North America—Published Volumes Online

http://www.fna.org/FNA/volumes.html

Click Volume One Contents link, then link to Introduction by Nancy Morin and Richard Spellenberg, noting especially Historical Background, FNA Project, and Resources. Note also links to fifteen chapters sub-divided by topics, including Arthur Conquist's A Commentary on the General System of Classification of Flowering Plants (Chapter Fourteen); James L. Reveal's Flowering Plant Families—An Overview (Chapter Fifteen); G. Ledyard Stebbins' Concepts of Species and Genera (Chapter Eleven); and George Yatskievych and Richard Spellenberg's Plant Conservation in the Flora of North America Region (Chapter Ten). (Volume Two on Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms, Volume Three on Magnolisphyta, and Volume Twenty-Two on Magnoliophyta, will soon be online.)

FNA Newsletter

http://www.fna.org/FNA/newsletter.html

Links go to the current issue, and archive of past issues for updates on the FNA Project.

Flora of North America—Editorial Centers

http://www.fna.org/FNA/administration.html

Scroll to, then click, the link to the Editorial Centers. Links go to particular editorial centers where botanical scientists are providing information for the FNA Project. Note these institutions' noted botanical scientists in charge of their institutions' FNA affiliation.

American Society of Plant Taxonomists—Newsletter

http://www.sysbot.org (click newsletter link)

Evolution of American Conservation Movement, 1850–1920

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amrvhtml/conshome.html

EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) Laws and Regulations

http://www.epa.gov/epahome/rules.html