Welcome to SANBI’s Interactive Flora site

 

Here you will find three datasets:

· Interactive Flora of Southern & Southern Tropical Africa

· Trees of Southern Africa

· Interactive Mesembs

 

These sites are run using the Internet Taxonomic System software for Classification and Identification of taxa developed by VeloX in collaboration with SANBI.

These sites are currently under development but are sufficiently populated for interim use.

Please contact us if you require any further information

FLORA

The Interactive Flora of Southern and Southern Tropical Africa covers the southern African subcontinent including Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique.

Through an on-line catalogue of names in an hierarchical Internet classification system with identification keys, the project aims to provide the taxonomic core for southern Africa’s flora.

The project aims to provide an interactive identification system for the seed plants of southern Africa at several levels of the taxonomic hierarchy thereby facilitating naming of plants in the region.

The floras of the southern Africa and southern tropical Africa are documented in two comprehensive treatments of families and genera by Dr Otto Leistner (2000, 2005). The flora of the southern African countries, Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland and Lesotho has 227 families, 2 180 genera, 22 000 species. The southern tropical African countries that comprise Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique include 228 families, 2 032 genera, 11 637 species, with overlaps between the two regions for a number of taxa, higher taxa in particular.

TREES

This site was developed by Marie Jordaan, Pascale Chesselet and Reuben Roberts of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (Pretoria and Cape Town) in collaboration with Prof. Braam van Wyk (University of Pretoria) and Meg Coates Palgrave (Zimbabwe). We express our sincere appreciation to Prof. Gideon Smith and Dr Maureen M. Wolfson for their leadership, Alicia Krige and Retief Grobler (University of Pretoria) for their hard work on the distribution maps and all the photographers who donated their images.

This database includes any tree, erect shrub, scrambling shrub or woody climber with a woody main stem reaching a height up to 2 m and higher. It covers the entire spectrum of tree forms, including gymnosperms such as the yellowwoods, rare cycads, tree ferns, succulent trees, such as baobabs, tree-like monocots such as certain strelitzias, as well as the rare indigenous palms, estuarine mangrove species, spiny trees and many others. They are represented in 105 plant families, 438 genera, 1 537 species, (subspecies and varieties included) and 672 synonyms.

This product supports a comprehensive core data set enriched with images and maps as well as an easy on-line key to tree genera.

CORE DATABASE

Names:

• Current scientific name; linked synonyms; literature references for names and synonyms; type data including protologue, type locality, herbarium where type is kept; common names (English and Afrikaans); family name; common name of family to which the species belongs.
• Tree number: the Dendrological Society of South Africa has assigned numbers to all tree species. In the National Parks and other conservation areas, like the Kruger National Park for example, some trees are marked with the assigned number.
• Geographic data: country (South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia and extensions into other African countries, Indian and Pacific Ocean Islands, India and Australia); province within South Africa.
• Ecological data: habitat (e.g. Forest, Savanna, Fynbos, Grassland, Kalahari sand, forest margins, riverine etc.); altitude (low, medium, high).
• Conservation information: protected status within South Africa (based on national legislation).

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

• Distribution maps have been refined from data extracted from SANBI’s database PRECIS, and have to be converted into a suitable format for the Internet.
• Botanical paintings from original drawings published in the Flowering Plants of Africa series have been scanned and converted to a suitable format for the Internet.
• Photographers are credited individually.

Tree books that have been extensively consulted are:

COATES PALGRAVE, M. 2000. Keith Coates Palgrave’s Trees of southern Africa. 3rd edition. Struik Publishers, Cape Town.

POOLEY, E. 1993. The complete field guide to trees of Natal, Zululand and Transkei. Natal Flora Publications Trust, Durban.

REBELO, T. 1996. Field guide to the Proteas of southern Africa. Fernwood press, Cape Town.

SMIT, N. 1999. Guide to the Acacias of South Africa. Briza Publications, Pretoria.

VAN WYK, B. & VAN WYK, P. 1997. Field guide to trees of southern Africa. Struik Publishers, Cape Town.

VENTER, F. & VENTER, J. 1996. Making the most of indigenous trees. Briza Publications, Pretoria

VON BREITENBACH, J., DE WINTER, B., POYNTON, R., VAN DEN BERG, E., Van WYK, B. & VAN WYK, E. 2001. Pocket list of southern African indigenous trees. 4th edition. Briza Publications & Dendrological Foundation, Pretoria.

Interactive Mesembs is a comprehensive illustrated nomenclatural database with added biogeographic information for the succulent plant family Mesembryanthemaceae (Aizoaceae: Mesembryanthemoideae & Ruschioideae)

• Is a database of all mesemb names, both current names and synonyms

• Is a source of information on the extremely diverse southern African succulent plant family Mesembryanthemaceae
• Interactive Mesembs is a product of the Plant Systematics program of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), by Pascale Chesselet
• Formed part of a PhD supervised by Professors Braam van Wyk and Gideon Smith, Department of Botany, University of Pretoria (UP)

This site is the first Internet product of the Systematics Programme of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). A generous grant from the French Embassy in South Africa has enabled its construction. The data provided here have been compiled over a number of years by Pascale Chesselet, previously at SANBI. Collaborators include Prof. Gideon Smith (SANBI), Dr Maureen Wolfson (SANBI) and Prof A.E. van Wyk, University of Pretoria. The initial work of Dr Hugh Glen is gratefully acknowledged, as are contributions by Neil Griffin. Priscilla Burgoyne (PRE) is gratefully acknowledged for the use of her photographs of mesemb fruit. Terry Trinder-Smith of the Bolus Herbarium, University of Cape Town is acknowledged for his co-operation in allowing the photography of the collection of paintings of type material of mesembs, as is Neville Eden for his technical assistance. A grant from Prof. Norbert Juergens, University of Hamburg enabled digitization of images (Project SFB 389 and GTZ counterpart funds). All paintings presented on the Interactive Mesembs site are copyright Bolus Herbarium, University of Cape Town.

A major and unique component of southern Africa’s arid land flora belongs to the succulent plant family Mesembryanthemaceae, or succulent members of Aizoaceae, commonly known as vygies, ice plants, mesembs, or “ficoïdes crystallines” to the French.

This group of succulent plants has diversified explosively, particularly so in the Succulent Karoo Region of southern Africa. Mesembs are well represented in the Cape Floral Region where fynbos dominates, as well as in the in summer-rainfall areas of southern Africa. The family is almost entirely endemic, or restricted in its distribution, to southern Africa with only about 20 species occurring naturally elsewhere. Mesembs cover 63% of southern Africa’s succulent flora, and 10% of South Africa’s Flora. The mesembs family is comparable in size to the Cactus family (Cactaceae), also an arid area specialist group.

The exceptional diversification and speciation of the mesembs is reflected in a taxonomy that recognizes about 1700 species grouped into 127 genera. About 6000 species names are available for mesembs but many of these are synonyms, or older names, that are no longer in current use. The mesembs comprise two subfamilies: the Mesembryanthemoideae (about 100 species) that are often weedy and widespread, and the Ruschioideae (about 1600 species) comprising the bulk of the mesembs and ranging from minute stone plants to tree-like shrubs.

The uniqueness and success of the group is attributable to combinations of specialized features that enable survival in arid and in semi-arid conditions. The mostly hygrochastic fruit capsules, that open when wet, with rain-dispersed seed are diverse in form and serve taxonomically in the distinction between genera. Succulence and innovative water storage and saving mechanisms contribute to their resilience to drought. In contrast to their close relatives in Aizoaceae, mesemb flowers are characterized by whorls of bright-coloured petals and flowers are mostly adapted to insect pollinators.

Mesembs show a wide array of succulent adaptations to enable survival through seasonal droughts. In succulent plants, water relations are optimised and prioritised against other factors such as carbon gain. Many utilize CAM photosynthesis, or are able to switch to CAM. Besides low and sporadic rainfall, other ecologically important factors in the life of a mesemb include high irradiation, high temperatures, sandblasting and soil salinity. Low temperatures are thought to be a limiting factor in the distribution of most mesembs in the colder interior of southern Africa.

Their economic importance includes traditional uses in soap making, preserves, poultices and preparations with psychoactive medicinal properties. Mesembs are the subjects of a huge trade in curiosity plants among succulent collectors. They display features not seen elsewhere in the plant kingdom. The combination of minutism, mimicry and extreme succulence accounts for much of the variation in form and bizarre shapes that add to their appeal.

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