taxonID	type	description	language	source
60512B0EFFAFFFB2FFB1FA92FA388BA1.taxon	description	Kees Berg’s long relationship with The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) began in 1977 when he participated in one of the two parallel expeditions that inaugurated Projeto Flora Amazônica (PFA), part of Brazil’s ambitious plan to document its vast plant diversity. Over more than ten years, most of the financial support for PFA came from the U. S. National Science Foundation, and the non-Brazilian participation was coordinated by Ghillean Prance, curator and later Vice President for Botanical Science at NYBG. Kees’ expedition included Prance, Antônio Sérgio da Silva (Brazilian counterpart), Michael Balick (then a graduate student and now director of the Institute of Economic Botany at NYBG), Bruce W. Nelson (now an ecologist at INPA in Manaus), and two tree-climbing mateiros or woodsmen, Mario R. dos Santos and Raimundo P. Bahia (well-known as ‘ Doca’). During October – December 1977, the expedition collected plants in the Serra dos Carajás, along the Transamazon Highway, around Tucuruí, in the Serra do Cachimbo, and along the Santarém-Cuiabá Highway. The expedition produced 1921 numbers, including 100 collections of palms. For more than 40 years, Kees was appreciated by his colleagues at NYBG for sharing his rich knowledge of botany by identifying specimens, training students, publishing monographs, and contributing treatments of his plant families to many floristic projects. Probably his most important contribution to NYBG and to the botanical community overall were his treatments in his groups of expertise for these monographic and floristic projects, among others: Flora Neotropica: Monographs for the Organization for Flora Neotropica, based at NYBG: Olmedieae and Brosimeae (Moraceae) in 1972; Coussapoa and Pourouma (Cecropiaceae) in 1990; Moreae, Artocarpeae and Dorstenia (Moraceae) in 2001; and Cecropia (Cecropiaceae) in 2005; he submitted his treatment of Ficus to Flora Neotropica just before his death. The Moraceae, Cecropiaceae, and Urticaceae for the Guide to the Vascular Plants of Central French Guiana. Those families plus the Ulmaceae for the First Catalogue of the Flora of Acre, Brazil. Another service that Kees provided to NYBG botanists was the identification of nearly all of our collections of Moraceae (including Cecropiaceae), Urticaceae and Ulmaceae, which has greatly increased the scientific value of our collections. NYBGs institutional database has over 3200 identifications made by Kees over the years, but unquestionably the NY herbarium contains many more, because not all of its specimens are yet databased. Curators at NYBG are grateful for the nearly 40 years of collaboration with Cornelis Berg, not only for the improvements he made to our collections and the intellectual contributions he made to our publication program, but also because of the close friendships that he maintained with many of our staff. He will be sorely missed, but he will continue to inspire everyone here who had the privilege of knowing him. DOUGLAS DALY and SCOTT MORI	en	Obermüller, F. A., Kjellberg, F., RØnsted, N., Chantarasuwan, B., Lut, C. W. J. (2013): In memoriam Cees Berg (2 July 1934 - 31 August 2012). Blumea 57 (3): 199-206, DOI: 10.3767/000651913X662362, URL: https://doi.org/10.3767/000651913x662362
60512B0EFFACFFB0FD7BFB22FA388DF9.taxon	description	There was quite a bit of frustration in the relationship between fig biologists and the taxonomists during the last two decades of the 20 th century. The biologists generally worked very locally and they could see very clear differences among entities that Kees did not recognize in his floristic treatments. The biologist presented his points and Kees put up a broad smile and, apparently, did not change his perspective. The disconnection was partly due to the slow pace of global taxonomic revision. It was also due to the difference between a local perspective and a range-wide perspective. But these were not the only reasons. Kees had decided that he would only recognize species that he could distinguish based on sterile material in herbarium collections. And that is a hard challenge, especially in section Malvanthera. Therefore, for scientists working on New Guinea, his revision of section Malvanthera was a nightmare. The species group of Ficus americana provides a more interesting case: “ The fact that “ guianensis ” (highly variable), “ greifiana ”, and “ subapiculata ” co-occur suggests that they are species rather than subspecies. I have not been able to find vegeta- tive characters to distinguish them from each other and from material outside the Amazon basin. ” Indeed, in the herbarium in Cayenne, most of the samples are relatively easy to assign to species (if they bear figs), but without figs it becomes really complex, even out in the forest. Further samples from some places look atypical. In fact, we are within a species complex that probably presents quite a bit of geographic differentiation in forms. Calling this a species complex is probably the appropriate taxonomic treatment, pending population genetics studies. Nevertheless, for the field biologist, the lack of clear names for what looked like highly distinct forms in coastal French Guiana was frustrating. In addition, you often needed a trained eye to detect Kees’ doubts in his taxonomic revisions. And they were many and most of them were legitimate. About the Ficus pertusa complex he wrote me “ these species complexes have been a headache ”. And more generally about Brazil “ by the way, did you ever receive my headache publication Ilicifolia 5, in which there is a survey of the extra-Amazonian Ficus species? ”. The paths of taxonomists and biologists began to converge seriously with the start of the 21 st century. Biologists travelled more, saw more variation, began to do some population genetics and hence began to understand better the taxonomy and taxonomic problems. Reciprocally, the biologists provided information that helped the taxonomist to advance. A good photograph of fresh material shortened the discussion. In his later years, after having clarified his global vision of figs, Kees began to enter more in detail into species groups, and when possible added some observations made in the field. “ The auriculata-oligodon-hainanensis assemblage is not easy to disentangle – see my paper in Thai Forest Bulletin 35 (2007). During my recent visit to Thailand I started to change my opinion, but do not know how to tackle the problem. It is not only a matter of inadequate herbarium material. Also in the field the situations are complex. ” Indeed, population genetic studies of this species group show that it is a complex with variation, hybrids, and introgression, but also clearly defined entities that coexist locally. For that species group Kees had reached the bottom of the question and understood where population genetic studies should take over. Another important development was the advances in fig wasp collecting and knowledge of their taxonomy. Berg and Wiebes published a remarkable volume in 1992, African fig trees and fig wasps. It covered all African fig species and quite a number of their pollinating wasps. It raised hopes within the fig biologist community that figs and fig wasps from other parts of the world would soon be properly described and properly arranged into well-organized taxonomic groups. This has yet to happen. Wiebes finalized his taxonomic treatment of The Indo-Australian Agaoninae (pollinators of figs) in 1994, and the one on The New World Agaoninae (pollinators of figs) in 1995. Kees took much more time. He published his treatment for Flora Malesiana in 2005. His treatment of the flora of the Americas was not yet published by the time of his death. However, Kees’ treatments were much more thorough and as objective as possible. He did not take hints from the classification of associated pollinating wasps and from molecular results. In an interesting twist, Kees classified F. menabeensis (and F. humbertii) from Madagascar as belonging to section Conosycea, suggesting an Asian origin, while Wiebes thought the pollinator belonged to genus Platyscapa, which could have come from Africa as was the case for all other figs and fig wasps from Madagascar. I have always assumed that Wiebes named the species Platyscapa bergi as an inside joke, convinced that history would prove Kees to be wrong. Current developments suggest Kees was right and Wiebes wrong. In another interesting twist, Kees never believed the molecular results that have pervaded fig literature since 1996; these separated section Pharmacosycea and its pollinators from section Oreosycea and its pollinators. The results were simply not acceptable to him, and he just put up a large smile, as usual. Recent results suggest he may have been right. Highly intensive collection of fig wasps only began recently. Someone like Astrid Cruaud saw more Ficus species in the field in her three years of PhD than Corner ever saw in his life and Jean-Yves Rasplus, one of the two current fig wasp taxonomists with Simon van Noort, has seen huge numbers of fig species, especially during the last 10 years. China has woken up, especially in Yunnan, a region that could be the cradle of Ficus diversification. This means that it has been only recently that fig wasp taxonomy has made new advances, with many more years to go before a global revision is done, and it is only recently that fig scientists have really looked at fig variation among islands, countries or continents. Someone told me a few years ago that you can only tell a good taxonomist at the end of his life. Kees was a good taxonomist. Quite a number of times he defended positions that seemed backward but turned out to be true. The last few years, a few other fig taxonomists have seen enough fig species in the field from all over the world to help Kees finalize his taxonomic perceptions. These years were few, but Kees enjoyed them, because he was no longer the only field botanist who understood figs based on field work. FINN KJELLBERG	en	Obermüller, F. A., Kjellberg, F., RØnsted, N., Chantarasuwan, B., Lut, C. W. J. (2013): In memoriam Cees Berg (2 July 1934 - 31 August 2012). Blumea 57 (3): 199-206, DOI: 10.3767/000651913X662362, URL: https://doi.org/10.3767/000651913x662362
