The genesis of IOPB: A personal memoir

An account is given of the circumstances that led to the decision to create the International Organization of Plant Biosystematics. The pioneer work of biologists on both sides of the Atlantic in biosystematics and experimental taxonomy is outlined, especially that of the San Francisco Bay group in the U.S.A. and that of J.S.L. Gilmour, G. Turesson, and J.W. Gregor on genecology and the deme terminology in Europe. The continuing need for a biosystematics perspective in our understanding of taxonomy at the species level and below is stressed.