Language: English
A description of all 801 species of ferns and related plants in Taiwan. Taiwan is one of the global diversity centres of pteridophytes (ferns, and plants allied to them) with more ca. 800 species distributed over an area of 35,800 km2.
This book supplement to Ferns and Fern Allies of Taiwan provides a second update to known taxa of Taiwan and its neighbouring smaller islands and islets:
– new species, subspecies
– extensively illustrated with a total of more than 1400 images
– revised keys for the safe identification of species
– comprehensive background information
– updated recommendations for conservation needs
– distribution and frequency information for new and selected other species
– description of vegetation zones and habitats for new and selected other species
– scientific names accompanied with Chinese name, pinyin transcription and commonly used deviating scientific names
– amended bibliography
– amended index containing synonyms, misapplied names and names in alternative taxonomic combinations
Ralf Knapp was born in Eberbach, Germany in 1969, and now lives in Taipei, Taiwan since 1998. More than 14 years ago he came to Taiwan to work in his profession as an electrical engineer for a German company in their Taipei office. After marrying a Taiwanese, he could intensify his studies of Taiwanese pteridophytes and gymnosperms, which he started some 9 years ago. Prior to moving to Taiwan, he had been working on Central European vascular plants, and for some years he was invited to join a program of the Bavarian Ministry of Environmental Protection focusing on monitoring and protection of rare and endemic plants. During his field work in Taiwan he built-up a private herbarium with now more than 5,000 specimen sheets, and an image database of exceeding 200,000.