National Geographic Society support for a project titled,"Botanical Inventory of Unexplored Areas in Viet Nam: The North".

With a focus on areas where no information on botanical diversity is presently available, the Missouri Botanical Garden and collaborators from Viet Nam will inventory the botanical richness from within sites in the northern provinces of Ha Giang, Lai Chau, and Son La. The forests in these areas exist only as vulnerable fragments and no collections have ever been gathered. These explorations will collect herbarium specimens and floristic data supporting detailed descriptions of the flora and vegetation. Duplicates of the collections and associated data will be distributed to investigators worldwide. Research work is scheduled to begin in the Fall of 2000.