D'Arcy DEB 9870694 The Bignoniaceae is a family of plants with large showy flowers such as those of catalpa and trumpet creeper. Of about 900 species 800 occur in tropical America, such as members of the tribe Bignoneae, comprising over 400 species of woody vines in about 47 genera. Dr. Al Gentry, the foremost student of the Bignoniaceae, died in an airplane accident three years ago, leaving the world's major collection of Bignoniaceae specimens and a wealth of unpublished information at his home institution, the Missouri Botanical Garden. Gentry's colleague, Dr. William D'Arcy, has lead a small group of specialists, including one postdoctoral associate, to prepare Gentry's database documenting the geographical distributions of all the known species and present it on the World Wide Web. This specialist group is working to finish the taxonomic revisionary work that was underway during Gentry's lifetime. Work still to be done includes computer data-basing of the remaining thousands of species identifications completed by Dr. Gentry for specimens from the American tropics, and preparation of revisions for the remaining genera in the tribe. Identification keys, illustrations of detailed botanical parts, descriptions for new species, and distribution maps are parts of the comprehensive taxonomic treatments being prepared.
