This handbook is made up of 57 pages, in both English and French.
 
The ISTA Forest Tree and Shrub Seed Committee's Tree Seed Pathology Working Group's task of identifying seed-borne tree pathogens that could cause serious problems if transported to other geographic areas led to the compilation of the first Checklist in 1985. The need for an update was soon recognized, and this 1990 edition is the result.
 
Literature on the micro-organisms associated with tree seeds is available from various sources which are sometimes inaccessible to researchers. The present revised Checklist follows the pattern of its 1985 predecessor. The information is presented alphabetically according to host (Latin nomenclature), followed by a list of associated micro-organisms with their bibliographic reference(s) and the countries of origin. 339 works are cited; a pathogen index is included.