This volume contains selected papers presented at the First Balkan Botanical Congress. The articles refer to all groups of plants and to all scientific disciplines in plant sciences and cover several major themes of current interest to botanists:

• taxonomy, geobotany and evolution: flora, vegetation, geographical distribution, pollen morphology and deposition, biodiversity, conservation, phytosociology
• biochemistry, metabolism and bioenergetics: secondary metabolites, enzymes, membrane transport, virus infection
• ecology and ecophysiology: metal accumulation and tolerance, toxicity and pollution, bio-monitoring systems, dynamics of vegetation communities, leaf structure and ecological types, UV-B and ozone radiation, pesticides and herbicides, ecological evaluation, management and protection of ecosystems, adaptation, photosynthesis
• structure and its dynamics: organization and molecular characterization of biomembranes and different cell structures and organelles, ultrastructure, anatomy, biosynthesis and localization of different cell compounds
• genetics, plant breeding and biotechnology: gene transfer, genetic engineering, genetic sterility and diversity, biodiversity and conservation, in vitro regeneration, micropropagation, genotype-environment interaction
• growth, development and differentiation: differentiation of cell structures, reproductive biology, photoreceptors, crop simulation model, regulators and plant morphogenesis, plant growth patterns, somatic-embryogenesis and organogenesis.