The characters and associated notes used in this database correspond, with some modifications made necessary by the DELTA format requirements, to the ‘IAWA List of Microscopic Features for Hardwood Identification’ (IAWA Bulletin n.s. 10(3): 219-332, 1989). Some characters not referred to in the IAWA list have been added primarily for complementary information regarding the respective taxa.
Part of the microscopic illustrations accompanying the character list and coded wood descriptions have been created with the help of Olympus Europe headquarters, Hamburg, Germany, others by courtesy of the Mineralogical and Petrographical Institute, University of Hamburg. The company’s and institute’s continuous support is gratefully acknowledged. Illustrations scanned directly from printed sources are marked accordingly.
All coded wood descriptions in the database have been elaborated on the basis of the wood and slide collection (RBHw) of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products, Hamburg, Germany. Major additional literature sources consulted are given in the references.
Thanks are due to all those who have contributed to making the coded taxon descriptions, e.g., Edda John, Michael Trockenbrodt, Claudia Muche, Annelies de Groote, ?? Lybeer, Lidia Pérez de Molas, Antonio Silva Guzmán; to those who have cooperated with elaborating, or have provided, illustrations for the database, e.g., Christina Waitkus, Veronica Angyolossy Afonso; and to those who have lent their computing expertise to the successful development of the database, e.g. Toni Paine, Eric Zurcher.
We gratefully acknowledge the permission by the International Association of Wood Anatomists (IAWA) to incorporate the character comments and the respective references (see under IAWA References) elaborated by a special committee and published in the above cited paper.