The Compositae in the Flora of North America north of Mexico (CFNA) is a project to account for all members of the plant family Compositae (also called the Asteraceae) that occur outside of cultivation in North America north of Mexico. There are some 2,600 species distributed among 425 genera in North America north of Mexico, making it by far the largest family of plants in the region. The CFNA incorporates the work of some 70 contributing authors, who are recognized as experts in their groups. Their contributions are based on their own field studies, plus herbarium, laboratory, and library work. The CFNA is associated with the Flora of North America (FNA) program, whose goal is to account for all of the vascular plants and the bryophytes that occur in the continent north of Mexico. Curiously, no continent-wide consideration of the whole flora has ever been done. The products of the CFNA are being presented in three volumes in a style and format compatible with the FNA. The work is being published in hard copy by the Oxford University Press, but as sections are completed they are posted on the FNA website (www.fna.org). A future goal is to make all materials available in electronic format, so that the information can be both easily managed and revised, as needed. The CFNA is managed at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) in Fort Worth, and the work is coordinated by the Compositae Editorial Committee (CompEd) consisting of T. Barkley at BRIT, L. Brouillet at the University of Montreal, and J. Strother at the Univeristy of California - Berkeley. In addition, there is a technical editor and assistants, plus the services of botanical artists. Members of the family Compositae are both abundant and conspicuous in North America, and among them are the sagebrushes, ragweeds, goldenrods, and of course, sunflowers. Many members of the family are serious weeds, some are toxic, and some are of positive economic significance. The family is of great concern to environmentalists, ecologists, agronomists, horticulturalists, weed scientists, and others, and ultimately to the general public. The traditional concepts of the family, i.e., the concepts employed in standard American and Canadian regional floristic works (e.g., The Jepson Manual of the Higher Plants of California) stem from the middle of the 19th century. Research of the past quarter century has shown that these concepts require extensive revision so as to depict natural affinities and lineages. This is not mere ivory-towerism, for it has been made abundantly clear that an accurate knowledge of interrelationships among organisms is essential to understanding both how to manage our environment and what kinds of things may happen in the future. The products of these sophisticated studies usually circulate only among other botanists, but it is the goal of floristic studies such as the CFNA to translate these findings into works that are useful to the consumers of botanical information. The contributing authors are obliged to make their treatments reflect current understanding. Respect is given to the 19th century botanists who created a useful understanding of the family, and it is hoped that the schemes being incorporated into the CFNA will be equally useful for years to come. The treatments include keys, botanical descriptions, and considerations of nomenclature for all entities, plus statements of range and habitat, small distribution maps, and information on legal status, toxicity, usefulness, weediness, etc. About a quarter of the species are illustrated by line drawings prepared for the CFNA. The goal is to present the three volumes treating the Compositae in North America north of Mexico at the end of 2004.
