Given the bulk of data currently on hand, a review of this topic is clearly overdue. Several major goals influenced the preparation of this review.

This lends high credit to our predecessors who laid the foundations for the taxonomic system of the Compositae. These chloroplast DNA studies have already been published and are not included here (JANSEN & PALMER 1987, 1988).

Papers from thesystematics session of the1994 internationalconference 'Compositae:Systematics, Biology,Utilization', devoted tothe classification,relationships andevolution of the majorgroups of this family.

The flora is prepared at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in close collaboration with East African Herbarium and in liaison with the University of Dar es Salaam, the University of Nairobi and the Makerere University.

This text summarizes the results of studies on the pollination ecology of the unique family Compositae (Asteraceae).