The XX International Botanical Congress (IBC) took place in Madrid, Spain, from July 21st to 27th, 2024. During this congress, over 2900 botanists registered and participated in a total of 267 symposia, four of which focused on wood anatomy. These included the “IAWA Symposium - The Contribution of Wood in Forest: From Wood Dynamics to Trait Diversity and Carbon Gains” proposed by Yafang Yin, Veronica De Micco, and Pieter Baas; “Morphological, Anatomical, and Evolutionary Basis of Habit Transitions in Plants” by Marcelo Pace, Joyce Onyenedum, and Veronica Angyalossy; “Xylem Anatomy as a Central Hub Linking Fluid Transport Processes from the Individual Plant Level to Ecosystems” by Frederic Lens; and “Bark Structure: Evolutionary, Functional, and Ecological Implications” by Aleksei Oskolski, Alan Crivellaro, and Ekaterina Kotina.

These wood symposiums presented the most recent advances in methods and applications for understanding xylem development and structure in trees, aiming to improve research capacity and international cooperation among the wood community, forestry, and botany societies, thereby promoting effective conservation and sustainable utilization of forestry resources.


As a long-term tradition, IAWA social hour with an official ceremony was organized by Frederic Lens, Cees Lut, and Yafang Yin, during the congress.



Detailed information is available by clicking https://ibcmadrid2024.com/. The next 21st IBC will be held in Cape Town, South Africa in July, 2029.