Miriam Repplinger
It is a great pleasure to introduce this volume of the "Families and Genera of Vascular Plants", containing the treatments of Compositae and all other families of the Asterales. In these treatments, the immense amount of evidence recently accrued has been taken into account to present an up-to-date picture of the systematics of these groups. This fully meets the aim of this series to distil and organise knowledge.
Compositae have always been in the focus of plant systematists, and here more than elsewhere it is obvious how much we owe to our predecessors, of which Cassini and Bentham may be singled out. Note, for instance, that as early as 1816 Calyceraceae and Campanulaceae were suggested to be the closest relatives of Compositae, a concept very similar to our present understanding. Although most of what is known about interrelationships among organisms is based on comparative morphology, we have also learned that morphology alone is unable to resolve all problems in systematics; for example, the placement of Roussea or the recognition of the sister-group relationship between Barnadesioideae and the other Compositae would never have been possible without molecular data.
I am highly indebted to the editors of this volume, Joachim W. Kadereit and Charles Jeffrey, for their Herculean effort in bringing the book to a successful end, and this despite several obstacles. Moreover, deep appreciation is due to those who have provided the scholarly and meticulous treatments assembled in this volume. Kare Bremer is acknowledged for invaluable advice on the selection of potential authors given during early stages of this work. We are grateful to Linda Klockner for the editing of the figures, and to Sabine von Mering, Miriam Repplinger and Christian Uhink for their assistance in the assembly of the final manuscript of Compositae. Our thanks also go to Monique Delafontaine who so ably copy-edited the book. Special thanks are due to the copyright holders of published illustrations who so generously permitted the inclusion of their valuable material in the present volume.
Finally, it is a pleasure to acknowledge the agreeable collaboration with the staff of Springer-Verlag who so willingly responded to all requests raised in connection with planning and production.
Hamburg, August 2006
K. KUBITZKI
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