Taxonomic and Phytogeograpical Databases in Systematics of the Flowering Plant Family Umbelliferae/Apiaceae

Abstract

Since the 1980s several databases have been compiled in the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University in collaboration with the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics and the Computer Centre of the same university. These databases deal with various aspects of the systematics and geography of Umbelliferae, one of the largest and most complicated angiosperm plant families. The main goal is to incorporate, store, and retrieve large amounts of information related to genera and species, including scientific names, authors, synonyms, typification, characters, chromosome numbers, distribution, and references to classical and modern publications; and to help prepare monographs, revisions, and articles on various aspects of the family systematics. Placement of most databases on the Internet was beyond the scope of our work, due to limited possibilities. The following databases have been developed–GNOM (Generic NOMenclator: on nomenclature, synonymy, and distribution of world Umbelliferae genera), CARUM (CARyologia UMbelliferarum: on chromosome numbers and karyotypes of world Umbelliferae species), and ASIUM (ASIatic UMbelliferae: on the systematics and geography of the Umbelliferae genera and species of Asia. The monographs The Genera of the Umbelliferae. A Nomenclator (based on GNOM; Pimenov & Leonov; Kew, 1993) and “The Karyotaxonomic Analysis on the Umbelliferae” (based on CARUM; Pimenov, Vasil’eva, Leonov & Daushkevich; Enfield, NH, 2002) were published. All three databases are widely used in current work with the prospect of electronic publications. For the monograph The Umbelliferae of Russia (Pimenov & Ostroumova; Moscow, 2012) a computer key based on diagnostic character database was compiled.