This volume contains a complete systematic treatment of the flowering plant order Asterales. This comprises 12 families with approx. 1,720 genera and about 26,300 species. Identification keys are provided for all genera, and likely phylogenetic relationships are discussed extensively. The wealth of information contained in this volume makes it an indispensable source for all working in the fields of pure and applied plant sciences.

"This spectacular book does full justice to the Compositae (Asteraceae), the largest and most successful flowering plant family with some 1700 genera and 24,000 species. It is an indispensable reference, providing the most up-to-date hypotheses of phylogenetic relationships in the family based on molecular and morphological characters, along with the corresponding subfamilial and tribal classification. The 2009 work not only integrates the extensive molecular phylogenetic analyses conducted in the last 25 years, but also uses these to produce a metatree for about 900 taxa of Compositae. The book contains 44 chapters, contributed by 80 authors, covering the history, economic importance, character variation, and systematic and phylogenetic diversity of the family. The emphasis of this work is phylogenetic; its chapters provide a detailed, current, and thoroughly documented presentation of the major (and not so major) clades in the family, citing some 2632 references. Like the Compositae, the book is massive, diverse, and fascinating. It is beautifully illustrated, with 170 figures, and an additional 108 cladograms (all consistently color-coded, based on the geographic range of the included taxa); within these figures are displayed 443 color photographs, clearly demonstrating the amazing array of floral and vegetative form expressed by members of the clade." --NHBS Environment Bookstore.

T. J. MABRY and G. W AGENITZ The half-day symposium on "Multidisciplinary approaches to the systematics of Compositae", held as part of the XIV International Botanical Congress in Berlin, on July 26, 1987, was designed to complement the University of Reading Compositae Conference (1975). The latter had yielded two impressive and thorough volumes on "The biology and chemistry of the Compositae", which were edited by HEYWOOD, HARBORNE & TURNER (1977). The 1987 Berlin Symposium did not attempt to update the information from the earlier conference but instead focussed on selected new methods for investigating the systematics of the family as well as a few examples of new systematic approaches with classical methods. From mapping chloroplast DNA restriction sites JANSEN, PALMER, and MI CHAELS reported the astonishing fact that, with the exception of one group (the subtribe Barnadesiinae of the tribe Mutisieae), all investigated other members of Compositae exhibit a characteristic inversion in their chloroplast DNA, suggesting that the inversion occurred early in the evolution of the family and that at least its major part is monophyletic. Within those groups with the inverted segment, chloroplast DNA also suggests that most of the conventionally recognized tribes are also monophyletic. This lends high credit to our predecessors who laid the foundations for the taxonomic system of the Compositae. These chloroplast DNA studies have already been published and are not included here (JANSEN & PALMER 1987, 1988).