Iter Ibericum A.D. Mim [contents, introduction and amims, itinerary, syntaxonomic scheme, glossary of geobotanical Spanish terms, aknowledgementes, bibliography]Excursus geobotanicus per Hispaniam et Lusitaniam, ante XLII Symposium Societatis Internationalis Scientiae Vegetationis Bilbao mense Iulio celebrandum dicti Anni.)

Laburpena

The idea of organising an excursion of the IAVS through Peninsular Spain and Portugal was developed in the middle of the nineties and, after obtaining the support of the Spanish and Portuguese associations of phytosociology (AEFA -Asociación Española de Fitosociología- and ALFA -Associação Lusitana de Fitossociologia-), finally was proposed at the meeting of Ceske Budejovice in 1997. This is the third time an international excursion takes place in the Iberian Peninsula. The first was in 1935 through Catalonia and was led by Josias Braun-Blanquet and organised by P. Font Quer. The conflicts of the following years hindered the progression of our science in Spain but an important seed had been planted. The second occasion was the 10th International Phytogeographical Excursion (IPE) in 1953, organised by Prof. Salvador Rivas Goday, in which many relevant phytosociologists took part: R. Tüxen, E. Oberdorfer, H. Walter, H. Gams, H. Gaussen, R. Nordhagen, W. Lüdi, J. Jalas, A. R. Pinto da Silva, etc.; that event was decisive for the development of the phytosociology in Spain in the following decades. On the present occasion we shall try to continue the splendid tradition of the IAVS's excursions as many of them have been important events in the world of vegetation science offering privileged opportunities to many colleagues to visit and know vegetation types of a considerable number of countries all over the world accompanied and guided by skilled local colleagues. This guide tries to provide the participants with a sufficient amount of information about the plant communities found during the trip and the stops, as well as other information about the environmental conditions of the country. Certainly, the purpose of writing such a book for a 16 days excursion seems to be exaggerated but we consider that it will also be helpful to other colleagues who wish to visit the same places and follow the same route by their own means in the future. The itinerary has been selected in order to visit in a fortnight, the most relevant and genuine vegetation types of the Iberian Peninsula. Due to the size of the country and to the shortage of time, we had to exclude the Pyrenees (special excursion has been organised to visit them) and the eastern quadrant of the Peninsula. Thus, the trip follows a clockwise itinerary crossing the eastern, southern, western and northwestern areas of the Peninsula, providing the opportunity to visit the most genuine Levantine, Baetic, Iberoatlantic and Cantabrian landscapes and to study their plant communities. The choice of the stops has been restrictive and only the best localities are going to be visited, special attention has been paid to the quality and state of conservation of the vegetation types occuring there, as well as their representativeness and diversity. For each stop a drawing or scheme is presented, drawn by Prof. Manuel Costa or by Prof. Tomás E. Díaz, outlining the plant communities to be seen. We have tried to establish a few good stops for each day, where we can stay longer and study and reflect on the vegetation. Every day we will have the help of one or several colleagues who will act as regional guides and who are also the authors of the corresponding chapter (or part of the chapter) in the guide. They will accompany us in their corresponding stretch. We have tried to follow a similar pattern when describing the vegetation in all the chapters concerning the days of the excursion. The sigmatist (Braun-Blanquet) typology is followed for the plant communities in all cases. If information sources allow it, some relevés or synthetic tables from the literature are included for the plant communities to be seen in order to avoid plant lists. In the landscape descriptions, together with information about the geology or geography of the territory, the concept of Vegetation Series or Sigmetum and Geosigmetum are extensively used, with other related concepts such as Potential Natural Vegetation, seral stages, etc. (Alcaraz 1996, Rivas-Martínez 1987, 1994). Comments about bioclimate and biogeography are always refered to in the corresponding chapters. Like the other issues of Itinera Geobotanica, this volume tries to be a useful tool for the vegatationists who visit the area wishing to have an accurate and specialized guide book, and a step in the advance of vegetation science as it represents a summarization of a considerable amount of disperse information.