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Iconum Plantarum Formosanarum (by Bunzo Hayata)

Tags: flora of Taiwan | plant

Bunzo Hayata visited Taiwan more than a dozen times to investigate the local flora between 1905 and 1924. During the ten-year period of 1911-1921, he published ten volumes of Iconum Plantarum Formosanarum, which amazed the western world. This masterpiece documented the thousands of plant species collected by European explorers from 1854 to 1895 and species collected by Japanese scholars after 1895. Total plants in records include 170 families, 1,197 genera, 3,568 species and 79 varieties, of which 1,200 species were newly discovered in Taiwan. The documentations of these plant species are with highly referential values including detailed descriptions in Latin, bibliography, habitats and illustrations. In Taiwan, the copies of Iconum Plantarum Formosanarum are found only three sets and all in poor shape. It damages every time when readers turn the pages. The early completion of the digitization will be necessary.


National Taiwan University Herbarium Digital Archives Project
National Taiwan University