An experimental study on the flow of non-Newtonian fluids around a cylinder was undertaken to identify and delimit the various shedding flow regimes as a function of adequate non-dimensional numbers. The measurements of vortex shedding frequency and formation length (l(f)) were carried out by laser-Doppler anemometry in Newtonian fluids and in aqueous polymer solutions of CMC and tylose. These were shear thinning and elastic at weight concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 0.6%. The 10 and 20 mm diameter cylinders (D) used in the experiments had aspect ratios of 12 and 6 and blockage ratios of 5 and 10%, respectively. The Reynolds number (Re*) was based on a characteristic shear rate of U-infinity/(2D) and ranged from 50 to 9 x 10(3) thus encompassing the laminar shedding, the transition and shear-layer transition regimes. Increasing fluid elasticity reduced the various critical Reynolds numbers (Re* Re* Re*) and narrowed the extent of the transition regime. For the 0.6% tylose solution the etr, Re*(lf), Re*(bbp) transition regime was even suppressed. On the other end, pseudoplasticity was found to be indirectly responsible for the observed reduction in Reo*(otr): it increases the Strouhal number which in turn increases the vortex filaments, precursors of the transition regime. Elasticity was better quantified by the elasticity number Re'/We than by the Weissenberg number. This elasticity number involves the calculation of the viscosity at a high characteristic shear rate, typical of the boundary layer, rather than at the average value (U-infinity/(2D)) used for the Reynolds number, Re*. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.