In Sokobanja (Yugoslavia), the 6^th Symposium on Flora of Southeast Serbia and Neighbourhood Regions was held since July 5-7, 2000. Symposium was held in hotel Sunce, where the accommodation for majority of participants was provided. During the fourth of July, an exhibition of medicinal plants was established, while arrival of the first groups of participants was recorded during the evening hours. Next day, on 5^th of July, in 10 a.m. opening ceremony was held. Symposium opened by dean of Faculty of Technology, Prof. Vlada Veljković, started with plenary session, where the introductory lecture given by Prof. Spas Sotirov, dealing with previous five symposia, was firstly presented. In continuation, lectures given by Vladimir Ranđelović MSc (about "Red Book of Serbian Flora") and Vojislav Mišić PhD (about relic vegetation of Moravica .come) were presented. In the afternoon, the second plenary session was held, while next day activities continued through the work of sections. Since, in meantime, number of Symposium participants increased, program continued through the work three sections. The first of them covered contributions from sections "Forestry, dendrology and landscape architecture" and "Agronomy". The second one was combined from sections "Plant ecology" and "Environment protection", while the third one was "Phytolinguistic". In the afternoon (17 p.m.) participants visited .come of Moravica river and ancient Sokograd. After that short professional excursion, presentation of new books was held. Two new books of authors from the Institute for Biology (Novi Sad) were presented. Evening hours were reserved for presentation of Bulgarian national parks "Pirin" and "Central Balkan". These presentations were guided by Chavdar Gussev and Dmitar Uzunov from Institute of Botany, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS). On the 7^th of July (8 a.m.) participants started for one- day professional excursion to the spring of river Moravica. Upon return, majority of participant left the meeting.

During the Symposium, presence of about 80 authors and co-authors of submitted contributions, as well as additional 50 professionals and guests, was recorded. Among them, 11 from abroad (6 from Bulgaria, 2 from FYR Macedonia, 2 from Bosnia and Herzegovina and 1 from Jordan) were registered. Total of 99 presentations (64 oral and 35 posters), meaning 70% of submitted contributions was held. Nevertheless rather large number of submitted papers was not presented, it could be concluded that this Symposium was very successful.

It was concluded to.comanise the next symposium, the 7^th Symposium on Flora of Southeast Serbia and Neighbourhood Regions, at the beginning of June 2002, in Dimitrovgrad (eastern Serbia). Organisers will be Biological Society Dr. Sava Petrović, Faculty of Natural Sciences (Nish), Faculty of Technology (Leskovac) and probably, Institute of Botany – BAS (Sofia) and Bulgarian Botanical Society, to whom the.comanisation of Symposium was offered too. Organisers are expecting large number of contributions and participants from Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Taking into consideration botanical diversity of surrounding mountains, Organisers are planing one of professional excursion to be conducted in Bulgaria. Scientific topics which will be in the focus of the upcoming meeting are: taxonomy and systematic (1), phytogeography, floristic and phytoecology (2), phytochemistry and phytotherapy (3), genetics, breeding and biotechnology (4), agronomy, forestry and landscape architecture (5), nature and environment protection (6) and zoology (7) as guest section.

For further information contact: Vladimir Ranđelović MSc, e-mail: biosp@eunet.yu.