Africa
A great deal has been achieved in recent years towards impro ving our knowledge of the plants and fungi of Africa and Madagascar. This information is an essential contribution towards the sensible conservation and sustainable use of these precious natural resources.
AETFAT '97 - Association pour L'Etude Taxonomique de la Flore d'Afrique Tropicale
(Association for the Taxonomic Study of the Tropical African Flora)
A contingent of Kew botanists joined over 130 other delegates at the 15th Congress of AETFAT (University of Zimbabwe, Harare, 3 - 7 February 1997). AETFAT's main aim is to provide a forum for current taxonomic work on tropical African plants as well as a chance to meet and share ideas with colleagues from Africa and elsewhere. However, its scope has expanded over the years to include subtropical Africa, together with related disciplines such as ethnobotany, phytogeography and phytosociology.
Sixteen members of the Kew team gave presentations at the congress sessions, which ranged from ' Conservation and biodiversity of the African flora' to 'Recent advances in generic and specific concepts'. Kew also made significant contributions to the workshops, one of which ('The development of African herbaria") proposed the development of a new tropical African initiative for taxonomy in which Kew will play a lead role.
The congress proceedings are expected to be published in the next two years and the next congress will be in Belgium in 2000.
Dr Dave Simpson (0181-332 5260)
Mount Cameroon Project
In February John Lonsdale and Steve Ruddy visited the Mount Cameroon Project (MCP) and Limbe Botanic Garden. John attended the 5th MCP Steering Meeting and met project staff as part of Kew's support for Limbe Botanic Garden. The new Gardens Technical Cooporation Officer, Mr Paul Blackmore (Kew Diploma Student, 1986-9), has taken over from Terry Sunderland and is progressing garden developments.
MCP is a collaborative project, the major partners being the Government of Cameroon, ODA and GTZ, the German equivalent of ODA. The ODA component is reaching the end of the current phase of funding. Completion was to be June 1997 but an extension to February 1998 was announced at the Steering Meeting. It is hoped that a new phase will begin after that date.
Steve undertook further mapping of the garden and delivered a Telepad Field Information System. MCP staff are using the unit and 80% of the collections have now been mapped. Steve also helped with a review of the databasing needs for the collections leading to the development of a database specifically tailored to Limbe's requirements and which will incorporate links to mapping activities.
The garden and collections are now well established and are providing a valuable resource to Cameroon and the region. A new Visitor and Education Centre has just been opened which will greatly assist MCP in fulfilling its educational role. An important pr ogramme of Conservation by Cultivation has been established in the botanic garden. Plants of economic importance threatened by unsustainable harvesting are being researched and protocols are being developed for their production by local farmers, or as larger scale commercial crops. Prunus africana, the bark of which is harvested to produce an anti-cancer drug, is one of the first subjects for the programme. Several thousand seedlings have already been distributed
Left: Recently mapped tree
collection, Limbe Botanic Garden.
Contact: John Lonsdale (0181-332 5543)
Update on Floras
Madagascar Tree Flora
The Madagascar Tree Flora project, started in November 1996, is a collaborative venture between Missouri Botanical Garden and Kew, funded by the Zimmermann Foundation in memory of Liliane Zimmermann. It aims to update Capuron's unpublished (but widely used) Essai d'introduction a l'etude de la flore forestiere de Madagascar, which for 40 years has provided the only overview of Madagascar forest trees. Project executant is Dr George Schatz from Missouri, who has a great deal of field experience in Madagascar. The initial version of the updated Flora will be in French, but with a parallel English translation to prepare for a second edition and possib le CD-ROM version; Robert-Carl Zimmermann (head of the Foundation) has already translated Capuron's original. A preliminary count of tree species lists some 550 genera, with Rubiaceae, Leguminosae and Euphorbiaceae having most representatives.
Left: Dr George Schatz.
Contact: Dr Henk Beentje (0181-332 5210)
Flora of Tropical East Africa
Nine fascicles of FTEA were published last year, written both by authors at Kew and elsewhere. They included families of both horticultural (Hyacinthaceae, Iridaceae) and economic (Ebenaceae, L auraceae, Piperaceae) importance. Roughly 67% of the flora has now been published. Anthericaceae, Eriocaulaceae, Myristicaceae and Sapindaceae will be published in 1997 and work continues on Gamopetalae, Malvales, Liliales and Cyperaceae.
Contact: Chris Whitehouse (0181-332 5234)
Flora Zambesiaca
Of the c.9,860 species of flowering plants and ferns native and naturalized in the FZ area, 4,946 have been published and over one third of the unpublished species have been written up. Recent publications in clude vol. 11(1), 358 spp. (comprising most of the FZ terrestrial orchids), and vol. 9(4), 293 spp. (FZ Euphorbiaceae, excluding Euphorbieae). Parts to be published by 1998 include 9(2) Podostemaceae - Hernandiaceae, 10(2) the grass tribes Arundineae, Cynodonteae and Eragrostideae, and 11(2) comprising the FZ epiphytic orchids and the large terrestrial genus Eulophia.
Contact: Gerald Pope (0181-332 5246)
Flora of Ethiopia
Fieldwork in the western woodlands of Ethiopia, undertaken by Fantahun Semon, Lemessa Keneei (National Herbarium, Addis Ababa), Prof. Ib Friis (Copenhagen Univ.) and Sally Bidgood (Kew) from 10 October to 14 November 1996, is expected to add more previously unrecorded species for the Ethiopian Flora Project. Over 400 collections were made, replicated among the three institutions, and these are currently being identified. A visit to the same vegetation type in 1995 yielded 25 additions to the Flora. The expedition was mostly sponsored by the Carlsberg Foundation.
Contact: Sally Bidgood (0181-332 5433)
SEPASAL
The Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) is entering an exciting phase. Steve Davis presented the SEPASAL database at the International Congress of Ethnobiology in Nairobi, Kenya. Afterwards, he and Dr Hew Prendergast had discussions with the National Museums of Kenya, and other organizations, on the use of SEPASAL software for recording information on plant uses in the region. Similar discussions were held recently at the National Herbarium in Zimbabwe, following the AETFAT Congress. Links are also developing with MEDUSA, a newly established network of 12 countries (including North African ones), which will document the uses of Mediterranean plants and promote their conservation. SEPASAL is supported by the Clothworkers' Foundation.
Left:
Local botanists recording plant uses in Kenya.
Contact: Steve Davis (0181-332 5772)
Conservation Training in East Africa
The Darwin Initiative, with supporting funding from the British Council and ODA, is funding a three-year joint venture between Kew and the Eas t African Herbarium (National Museums of Kenya) to undertake training in plant conservation techniques in East Africa. The project secretariat is based within the East African Herbarium and is managed by Stella Simiyu and Perpetua Ipulet. The first of thr ee courses was held in Nairobi in November 1996, with a field trip to the coastal forests south of Mombasa. It was attended by 14 plant conservation professionals from Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and focused on regional priorities for plant conservation, s uc h as community participation, medicinal plants, protected area planning and species recovery planning. A key component of the course was a Conservation Assessment and Management Plan training workshop led by Mike Maunder. This enabled Categories of Threat to be assigned to 14 threatened species of the Kenyan coastal forests and will be submitted to the IUCN.
Contacts: Perpetua Ipulet (Fax 00 254 2 741424) and Mike Maunder (0181-332 5584)
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