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1.0 Some background to the information and data presented in Part II of the report

Location:

Locations given are generally the town, city or district in which the botanic garden is situated. For reasons of clarity and to help locate institutions more easily, botanic gardens in Canada, Mexico and the United States botanic gardens are listed under the State in which they occur.

Garden Name:

The botanic garden names are given either in English or the local language, depending on what name is most commonly used amongst the international botanic garden community.

No. of taxa:

Figures given are those that have been made available or published by the botanic gardens themselves. In some cases where a recent catalogue is available, the number may represent a count of the number of taxa listed. Most of totals presented relate to data sourced by BGCI during the last few years, but some may date back to the early 1990s, or even earlier. For that reason the data should be used cautiously to indicate ball-park sizes of collections rather than precise figures.

Status:

The following categories are the most commonly used in the report to describe the status of each institution.

• State (national, regional or local government (or government-supported) institutions.
• University
• Municipal (botanic gardens owned and managed by local town administrations or city authorities).
• Educational establishments (colleges and other educational bodies and institutions that are not universities)
• Trust administered (include foundations, independent societies, non-profit bodies)
• Private (generally botanic gardens owned by an individual or a commercial body/corporation.

It should be noted that some institutions may be classified under several different headings (e.g. a trust administered, state supported, university botanic garden) and so it is not possible to give precise numbers of botanic gardens under each category.

Ex situ collections:

A general overview of the ex situ collections is given where possible. The aim is to provide an impression of the scope, diversity and specialisations of each botanic garden, rather than to provide a detailed analysis of their collections. In some cases the major families and genera represented in the collections are given, where such information has been available, to provide users of the report with a broad impression of their collections.

The nomenclature of botanical names given has not been standardised and is generally that provided by the individual botanic gardens themselves or as given in source materials used by BGCI for the compilation of the report. Nevertheless BGCI accepts full responsibility for any errors that may have been included in the text and will endeavour to correct such mistakes in any future versions and updates of this report.

Abbreviations used:

Taxon (taxa) = unspecified taxonomic rank, ie. species, subspecies, variety, form, hybrid or cultivated variety. Sp. = one indeterminate species. Spp. = more than one species. Subsp. = subspecies. Var. = variety (can be either a naturally occurring variety or a cultivated variety). Cvs = cultivars (cultivated varieties).