Paleobotany has enormously expanded the documentation of fossil plant groups, floras and vegetation types, supporting its conclusions by technically much improved analyses of microfossils (pollen) and anatomical details. An increasing quantity and quality of all these informations from the geosciences is available when we follow the history of the biosphere up to the present. Simultaneously, research from the biosciences on the morphology, ecology, distribution, systematics and evolution of extant vascular plants, and on the ecogeographical differentiation of the vegetation cover of our planet, has made enormous progress. Thus, a synthetic geo- and bioscientific approach becomes more and more feasible and urgent for further advances in the many problems of common concern. A symposium organized by the 'Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher LEOPOLDINA', attractive to paleo - and neobotanists, stimulated the discussion between specialists of the two disciplines.
The main results of the symposium are now presented in this volume: sixteen international contributions outline the current knowledge about the historical differentiation and evolution of woody plant groups and forests, covering the whole biosphere. This survey, from the beginning of the Tertiary up to the present, is a first synthesis of relevant data from the geo- and biosciences.