Phytogeography and Vegetation Ecology of Cuba, by A. Borhidi. [Review]

Phytogeography and Vegetation Ecology of Cuba represents the culmination of more than 20 years of work on the vegetation and flora of Cuba by Attila Borhidi and his colleagues, particularly the Cuban botanists Julian Acuna Gale and O. Muniz.Although there are many such detailed studies of temperate vegetation, this is one of a few major works of its kind on tropical plants.This book presents a classic descriptive plant ecology of Cuba based on years of field work.Those seeking more modem comparative analyses of plant communities will be dis¬ appointed.However, Borhidi's book lays an impressive groundwork for future studies in the American tropics.Cuba is the largest Caribbean island with a total area, including offshore islands and reefs, of 110,922 km 2 .Cuba also has the most diverse flora in the Caribbean with 6500 species of vascular plants and the highest percentage of endemic taxa (72 endemic genera and approximately 3200 endemic species) of any Caribbean island.Unlike studies of the vegetation ecology of temperate regions with wellknown floras, a necessary component of this work was a taxonomic inventory along with extensive field surveys.In the course of this research, 20,000 plant specimens were collected, including five new genera and more than 350 new species and infraspecific taxa.Cuba is also one of the most disturbed islands in the Caribbean.Borhidi states that more than 75 percent of the island is presently covered by secondary growth, agricultural fields, and other man-disturbed vegetation formations.As one of Borhidi's objectives was a modem reconstruction of the potential natural vege¬ tation, the gathering and analysis of data on climate, soil, and other factors in¬ fluencing vegetation formations were essential adjuncts to field surveys.The result of this multi-faceted approach is a major compendium on the plants of Cuba, which includes data both on vegetation ecology and the underlying abiotic factors affecting plant growth.This book has brought together in one volume many of Borhidi's previous publications and expanded upon them.In addition to introductory chapters on objectives and the methods used, the book is divided into five parts.Part I covers the "bioclimatological fundamentals" including the physical geography of Cuba, data on temperature and rainfall pat¬ terns, and a discussion of the relationships between climate and vegetation pat¬ terns.Part II treats the more important aspects of the effects of soil on vegetation and contains a brief survey of Cuban soils.Distinctive soil types are discussed in separate chapters.Of particular interest are the large serpentine areas in Cuba, which cover only seven percent of the island, but which contain over 30 percent of the endemic taxa.The chapter in this section on the nature and origin of Cuban savannas clearly illustrates the author's focus on determining the potential natural vegetation rather than simply mapping the present Cuban vegetation.Many pre¬ vious workers did not distinguish natural savannas from secondary savannas, and