Abstract
Central Africa was one of the first regions in the tropics, if not the first, for which a checklist of mosses was compiled. In 1940, Demaret published the “Prodrome des Bryophytes du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi”, followed by a supplement in 1946. In the 50 years since that time, numerous new contributions to the bryophyte flora of Central Africa have been made. Demaret added seven more publications on Zaire (formerly Belgian Congo). Potier de la Varde studied the bryophyte collections made during the surveys of the flora of the Central African volcanoes by Hedberg. De Sloover published a series of 14 papers dealing with his collections in Rwanda, Burundi and Zaire, combined with revisionary work. Finally, numerous nomenclatural changes, revisions and monographs have been made during the past 20 years. Therefore an update of Demaret’s checklist seemed desirable. For that reason a new list has been compiled, based on the data of Demaret (1940, 1946), with all available additions. This includes publications as well as herbarium specimens distributed by J.L. De Sloover (marked with the herbarium abbreviation NAM) and the collections made during the Bryotrop expedition to Rwanda and Zaire in 1991 (see special contributions in this volume).