Les Plantes Vasculaires Atlantiques, les Pyrénéo-Cantabriques et les Éléments Floristiques Voisins dans la Péninsule Ibérique et en France [Vascular Atlantic and Pyrenean-Cantabrian Plants, and the Neighbouring Floristic Elements in the Iberian Peninsula and France]

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Language: French with trilingual summary in English, French, and Spanish

To start with, Les Plantes Vasculaires Atlantiques, les Pyrénéo-Cantabriques et les Éléments Floristiques Voisins dans la Péninsule Ibérique et en France was to be the mere updating of the 1962 work on the European Atlantic flora. Yet, in the course of being edited, it was considerably extended to all the floristic elements of the neighbouring areas, particularly to the Pyrenean-Cantabrian endemic plants.

After a brief history of the Atlantic phytogeographic element and the examination of the principles for defining the scope of the floristic elements, eight categories of strictly Atlantic species are surveyed to begin with, the geographic distribution of each of the taxa being specified. Next, it is the same with seven categories of subatlantic plants and the neighbouring elements: mid-European Atlantic, Mediterranean Atlantic, Atlantic with affinities, pseudo-Atlantic, and then with various categories whose distribution is close to the Atlantic domain. Among the latter, all the subalpine and alpine Pyrenean-Cantabrian species are taken into account, as well as the Pyrenean-Cantabrian of the southern slopes and the eastern Pyrenees. A long chapter is devoted to the distribution of Atlantic plants in different parts of the lberian Peninsula and France, split up into 24 regions numbered from A to X. The boundaries and divisions of the European Atlantic domain in the lberian Peninsula and in France are then discussed and specified, from the south to the north of the domain, which makes it possible to give its chief divisions as a conclusion. This is followed by a discussion about the transition area between the Atlantic domain and the Mediterranean region. In the last chapter, most of the plants studied up to then are reaxamined, but not any more in relation to the Pyrenean-Cantabrian range.

This leads to consider the strictly Pyrenean-Cantabrian plants, among which about ten categories are recognized, the Subpyrenean-Cantabrian, the Pyrenean-Cantabrian with affinities, and various other taxa to be found in these mountains or nearby. Numerous colour photographs and distribution maps illustrate the text. In the conclusion, the problem of the future of the Atlantic and Pyrenean-Cantabrian flora is put in the perspective of the present global warming.

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