The Flora of China is a Sino-American collaborative project to publish for the first time an English-language flora (in 25 volumes) and to develop a computerized database on the names, characteristics, and distributions of ca. 30,000 species of native, naturalized, and economically important vascular plants. The published and computerized accounts will be used worldwide in basic and applied research, horticulture, conservation, and land management. Manuscripts will be written by Chinese authors in collaboration with hundreds of foreign botanists, especially from the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, and Russia. All accounts will be reviewed before publication. The Flora of China is expected to be completed in 15 years. The U.S. centers are Missouri Botanical Garden (coordination center), Arnold Arboretum, California Academy of Sciences, and Smithsonian Institution. Word-processing/data-entry is done at the Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming, and Nanjing centers. Funding is requested for editorial assistants salaries, Editorial Committee meetings, equipment, and communications. by the end of this grant period volumes 17 and 16 (2329 species) will be published, vol. 15 (1135 species) will be in press, and vols. 18, 24, and 4 (3269 species) will be near completion. This project marks a new stage in the promotion of botanical interchange between China and the U.S., and internationally.
