PLANT SYSTEMATICS
[National Herbarium] [Natal
Herbarium] [Compton Herbarium]
Scientific staff of the NBI were involved in a number of taxonomic,
molecular, biogeographical and floristic studies over the past year.
At all three NBI herbaria, a representative cross-section of vascular
plant families was under investigation, with NBI systematists producing
over 100 scientific papers during this period.
Over 11 500 plant identifications were undertaken by the various
herbaria over the year, and thousands of enquiries about plant-related
issues from both the scientific community and members of the general
public were responded to.
NATIONAL HERBARIUM
The National Herbarium's services were much in demand during the
year, with 7 400 plant identifications undertaken and more than
3 300 telephonic and written enquiries fielded.
Research activities on 18 projects currently under way at the National
Herbarium produced 61 publications, one M.Sc. and one Ph.D. A project
proposal, enveloping several research projects, entitled Conserving
the biodiversity of flagship plant groups of southern Africa - a
programmatic approach to taxonomic capacity building was submitted
and endorsed by the DEA&T and also submitted to the Global Taxonomy
Initiative.
After the publication of Seed plants of southern Africa: families
and genera, herbarium resources were focused on an updated and expanded
version of Plants of southern Africa: names and distribution. Species
names were updated and additional information on plant height, habit,
flowering time and distribution were added for each species. Distribution
maps for all species were plotted from the database and incorporated
into the main collection.
Fossil research received much attention during the year, with work
on the next volume of the Molteno Flora progressing well. The Gondwana
Alive Society was founded to promote fossil research and several
presentations were made to audiences ranging from members of MENSA
to the SASOL Scifest held in Grahamstown. The Gondwana Alive project
also published one volume Towards Gondwana alive: promoting biodiversity
and stemming the Sixth Extinction.
Activities around the SABONET project again featured strongly at
the National Herbarium, with data encoders for the project adding
a further 14 200 entries to the PRECIS database. A Herbarium Managers
Course was presented in Pretoria to participants from various SABONET
countries and staff also visited Zimbabwe and Swaziland as part
of SABONET capacity building and outreach. The National Herbarium
was furthermore able to appoint additional staff and purchase herbarium
equipment with Plant collecting for the Bioprospecting and Anti-malaria
Projects was boosted with the appointment of an assistant to the
project and bulk samples of 620 plants, mostly medicinal plants,
were collected. Seed collecting for the Kew Millennium Seed Bank
project also made good progress, with a total of 255 collections
and a higher proportion of targeted and new taxa collected than
previous years.
Data management staff visited seven of the participating SABONET
countries to set up computer networks, install software and provide
training. Data and research management staff also met with representatives
from the Geneva Herbarium, Switzerland, to explore a joint project
to produce a checklist of African plants.
An increase of 14.6% in the number of enquiries processed by the
PRECIS information service was recorded this year, with a significant
increase in the number of requests received from non-NBI users.
(PRECIS, the major database on southern African plant species and
distribution records is based at the National Herbarium and managed
by the Data Management section.) The Dendrological Society's database
was marginally extended with the addition of a further 3 451 tree
site records.
The Technical Publications Division, based at the National Herbarium,
produced two issues of Volume 31 of Bothalia, house journal
of the NBI, Volume 57 of Flowering Plants of Africa, Volume
33,4,1 of Flora of southern Africa and three issues of Strelitzia.
Strelitzia 11 is entitled The Cape genus Lachnaea (Thymelaeaceae):
a monograph, written by J.B.P. Beyers. Strelitzia 12, The Global
Taxonomy Initiative: documenting the biodiversity of Africa,
carries the English and French versions of the proceedings of a
workshop held at Kirstenbosch early in 2001. Strelitzia 13, Medicinal
and magical plants of southern Africa: an annotated checklist
by T.H. Arnold et al., provides information on plants used in traditional
medicine in the region.
The Graphics Division, also based at the National Herbarium, designed
a number of posters for staff to display at various national and
international conferences and events. The Tree-of-the-Year poster
designed by the Graphics Division attracted much attention, with
requests for copies also received from outside the NBI.
NATAL HERBARIUM
The plant information and identification services provided by the
Natal Herbarium were used extensively during the year, with over
1 300 plants identified and much information provided telephonically
or via e-mail. The addition of a new parking area for 10 vehicles
has been of great benefit to users of the Herbarium.
Due to a concerted effort by staff working over weekends and by
the herbarium volunteers, for the first time in many years there
was no backlog in unmounted herbarium specimens. This is of great
importance to users of the Herbarium, as unmounted specimens do
not form part of the accessible herbarium collection.
Through the SABONET internship programme, three plant specialists
visited the Natal Herbarium to curate key plant families. A herbarium
staff member also went on two SABONET internships to the National
Herbarium of Botswana and the University of Botswana Herbarium,
where she gave training in encoding and geo-referencing.
Student training and capacity building remained a priority, with
the annual two-week student training programme run in December.
Several presentations and one-day courses were given to tertiary
institutions in the region. Three students did their experiential
training at Natal Herbarium - two students from Mangosuthu Technikon
and one from the University of Natal, Durban.
The Zulu Botanical Knowledge Project led by the Natal Herbarium
took off during the year with funding by WWF-SA and the National
Research Foundation (NRF). This one-year pilot project will focus
on three areas in KwaZulu-Natal of botanical and linguistic richness
and will lay the basis for a major project covering the entire province.
Good progress has been made, with five field trips undertaken to
two of the three pilot areas, training given to seven university
students in interviewing and plant collecting techniques and about
400 specimens encoded to date.
Funding was also secured from the NRF for international collaboration
on the Hypoxis project. The collaboration included exchange
visits for researchers from the Natal Herbarium and the Adam Mickiewicz
University in Poznan, Poland, which provided opportunity for much
field work in South Africa and for discussion on variation within
Hypoxis in Africa. Another systematics project currently
under way at the Herbarium, a taxonomic revision of the genus
Chironia (Gentianaceae) in southern Africa, is nearing completion.
Herbarium staff have been actively involved with the Durban and
Coastal Branches of the Botanical Society, as well as with organizations
such as the Wildlife and Environment Society, Biowatch and the Durban
Botanic Gardens Education Committee. One member of staff served
on the secretariat of the African Renais-Science Conference, which
was based at the Natal Herbarium.
The annual Herbarium Open Day, supported by the Botanical Society,
was held in July and was attended by the Provincial Minister of
Agriculture and Environment, Mr Narend Singh. This annual event
is an opportunity for members of the public to find out about the
NBI in Durban, see displays, attend talks on indigenous plants and
explore the National Monument buildings.
COMPTON HERBARIUM
The Compton Herbarium, housed in the Kirstenbosch Research Centre,
made its facilities available to numerous visitors from overseas
and local universities, botanical gardens and institutions during
the year.
The Leslie Hill Molecular Systematics Laboratory, which opened
in December 2000, is now equipped - a fully functional DNA sequencing
facility. The primary aim of the laboratory is to investigate the
phylogenies of southern African plant groups.
This world-class facility has attracted a number of both international
and local researchers as well as students from local universities
for specialist training. Two postgraduate students from the Universities
of Cape Town and the Western Cape received three months of training
in DNA sequencing so that these procedures could be applied to their
research for higher degrees. Following the completion of their respective
projects, both students have subsequently received M.Sc. studentships
from the NBI to continue their training in molecular systematics.
Their M.Sc. research projects will investigate the molecular systematics
of the genus Serruria (Proteaceae) and the application of a genetic
fingerprinting technique to the mesemb genus Carpobrotus respectively.
Laboratory staff also presented a training course in techniques
of DNA extraction to a group of students from the Rand Afrikaans
University and the University of the Western Cape.
Herbarium staff are making extensive use of this facility to conduct
a number of research projects into the molecular systematics of
the Amaryllidaceae tribe Haemantheae, the
Hyacinthaceae and Proteaceae. Another research project furthered
during the year investigated the ecological factors that have played
a role in the diversification of Protea.
The discovery of a new
species of Clivia in the Northern Cape generated much
excitement, as the discovery of a new species in this commercially
important genus is expected to attract considerable horticultural
interest. Collecting trips to the eastern Little Karoo mountains
and the southern coastal regions were also undertaken to collect
type material for three new species of Erica.
During the year, 42 scientific and popular publications were produced
by Herbarium staff, including major works such as Conspectus of
southern African pteridophyta, The Cape genus Lachnaea (Thymelaeaceae);
the Eastern Cape South African Wild Flower Guide and contributions
to the book South African botanical art, peeling back the petals.
Herbarium staff gave various lectures to the Institute of Landscape
Architects, the Clivia Club, staff of the Windhoek Herbarium, the
Cape Orchid Society, and the Indigenous Bulb Society. They also
assisted the organizers of the Caledon Wildflower Show with naming
of plants and helped to organize the Cape Biotech 2001 Conference
to overview the academic and industrial biotechnology activities
taking place in the Western Cape.
The plant identification service provided by the Compton Herbarium
was well used, with over 3 500 plant identifications undertaken
over this period. Data encoding under the SABONET programme continued
to make good progress and thus far just over 11% of the Herbarium's
holdings of 500 000 specimens have been encoded.
The Compton Herbarium holds a unique collection of 19th century
botanical art and a part-time curator was contracted to see to the
preservation of this collection and to arrange an exhibition of
artwork from the Herbarium's archives. The exhibition, titled Three
Victorian Lady Flower Painters in South Africa circa 1880-1900,
was exhibited at Kirstenbosch for six months.
ETHNOBOTANY
The NBI's Ethnobotany Unit, based in Durban, was very active during
the year, with 17 scientific and popular articles published in local
and international journals. One of the most important publications
was an annotated checklist of the ethnomedicinal flora of southern
Africa, published as Volume 13 in the Strelitzia series. This book
represents a major outcome of the MEDBASE project and was generated
in close collaboration with the Data Section at the National Herbarium
in Pretoria. It is expected that Strelitzia 13 will form an important
reference for workers in fields as diverse as traditional medicine
research and natural resource management.
Participation in the Third International Congress of Ethnobotany
in Naples, Italy, took the form of a paper on ethnobotanical and
phytochemical investigations of southern African Amaryllidaceae.
The conference was also attended by a close collaborator of the
Unit, Traditional Dr Elliot Ndlovu, with funding from the National
Research Foundation. This presentation detailed ongoing investigations
into the chemistry of the Amaryllidaceae conducted in collaboration
with the Natural Products Research Group at the University of Natal
in Durban. Research on this family and another ethnomedicinally
important one, the Hyacinthaceae, remains coupled to the training
of postgraduate students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds.
Other training provided included a one-day course on ethnobotany
for guides on the Conservation Corporation Professional Guides course.
Collaboration with the Durban Corporation was extended to the Durban
Botanic Gardens with whom the NBI has set up an ex situ genebanking
project, to promote the conservation of the heavily utilized cycad
Stangeria eriopus.
The Ethnobotany Unit also provided input to NBI projects as diverse
as medicinal plant displays in the Gardens and bioprospecting. On
the bioprospecting front, the Department of Arts, Culture, Science
& Technology has awarded a grant to a South African consortium,
which includes the NBI, to develop anti-malarial drugs from the
medicinal plants of the country. Besides the NBI, the CSIR, MRC,
and Universities of Cape Town and Pretoria are all actively engaged
in this ambitious but promising project.
The Southern African Botanical Diversity Network (SABONET) is an
international GEF/UNDP-funded project implemented by the NBI and
is aimed at upgrading facilities and strengthening the level of
botanical expertise throughout the subcontinent. The participating
countries are Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia,
South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
SABONET was one of only 14 projects highlighted in the second overall
Performance Study of the GEF's programme of over 1 000 projects
in 160 countries, with a total allocation of $4.2 billion during
its first decade of operation
During the past year numerous training courses were presented under
the auspices of SABONET. A Herbarium Managers Course, the first
course for senior management presented by SABONET, was held at the
National Herbarium and was attended by 14 herbarium curators and
senior management from all ten participating SABONET countries.
The first Botanical Gardens Management Course presented by SABONET,
a two-week course aimed at botanical garden managers wanting to
develop their managerial skills further, was attended by 24 people
from 10 African countries.
Other training courses held during the year included an Environmental
Impact Assessment Course for botanists held at the Pretoria NBG,
and a plant identification course held in Maputo, Mozambique, as
part of SABONET's Southern Mozambique Regional Expedition. Three
individuals were funded by SABONET to attend a botanical art drawing
course held at the National Herbarium in Pretoria.
SABONET furthermore hosted a national workshop for end-users of
taxonomic information at the National Herbarium in Pretoria which
was attended by 34 participants such as representatives of agricultural
institutions, botanical societies, conservation agencies and universities,
by environmental consultants, ethnobotanists and traditional healers,
amongst others.
Computerization of southern Africa herbaria is a core activity
within the SABONET project. All the data-capturing computers were
upgraded at the participating herbaria and subsequently the computerization
rate increased substantially. Currently it stands at 155 000 specimens
per annum (70 000 more than in the year 2000), which means that
on average 596 specimens are computerized in the participating southern
African herbaria per working day. Approximately 40% of the region's
herbarium specimens have been computerized through the SABONET project
to date.
In November 2001 the second SABONET Regional Expedition took place
in southern Mozambique. The exhibition was attended by 35 participants
from all 10 participating SABONET countries and approximately 1
500 specimens were collected.
The Southern African Plant Red Data List Project reached its conclusion
on 31 December 2001 and the first-ever Plant Red Data List for the
region was prepared and will be published in 2002.
Eleven SABONET-sponsored students doing Masters and Honours degrees
in plant systematics completed their postgraduate studies during
2001. Eight full-time postgraduate students and two part-time students
are being sponsored by SABONET to pursue their Masters degrees during
2002.
Two new titles in the SABONET Report Series, Action Plan for southern
African botanical gardens and Conspectus of southern African pteridophyta,
as well as a number of editions of SABONET News were published during
the year.
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