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85SABONET News Vol. 7 No. 2 September 2002

Newsletter of the Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Volume 7 No. 2 ISSN 1027-4286 September 2002

Computerisation of Southern African Herbaria

Living Collections: Karoo Desert NBG andMunda Wanga

Herbaria: Swaziland and Zambia

Threatened Plants Programmes

Invasive Aliens: Myrtaceae

Publishing Your Work

Brachystegia

Computerisation of Southern African Herbaria

Living Collections: Karoo Desert NBG andMunda Wanga

Herbaria: Swaziland and Zambia

Threatened Plants Programmes

Invasive Aliens: Myrtaceae

Publishing Your Work

Brachystegia

86 SABONET News Vol. 7 No. 2 September 2002

c o n t e n t s

ON OUR COVER: Quiver

Trees Aloe dichotoma in

the Richtersveld area.

(Photo: National

Botanical Institute)

Cover Stories92 Computerisation of Southern

African Herbaria

120 Living Collections: KarooDesert NBG

124 Living Collections: MundaWanga

134 Southern African Herbaria:Swaziland

136 Southern African Herbaria:Zambia

131 Threatened PlantsProgrammes

106 Invasive Alien Plants inSouthern Africa Part 4:Myrtaceae

103 Publishing for YoungBotanists

110 A Second Species ofBrachystegia for SouthAfrica

Computerisation97 Introducing the Southern

African Plant Red Data ListsDatabase

102 SABONET AdvancedDatabase and NetworkingCourse

SABONETExpedition 2001112 SABONET Goes Frogging in

Mozambique

114 Medicinal Plants ofMaputaland

116 Field Drying Methods

Features90 Profile: David Chuba

91 Profile: Moretloa Polaki

105 Farewell Carina…

111 12th SABONET SteeringCommittee Meeting

117 SABONET HorticulturalCourse

118 SABONET’s Students 2002

119 Thanks for Your Hard Work,Nikaya!

127 Workshop on PlantsThreatened with Extinction

127 Propagation Techniques forSouthern Africa’s ThreatenedPlants

Book Reviews145 Structure and Condition of

Zambezi Valley Dry Forestsand Thickets

146 Living on the land: Changein forest cover in north-central Namibia 1943–1996

ForumBotanicum157 From The President’s Desk

Highest NRF Accolade forSAAB Stalwart

157 Richard Pienaar: A Botanistof Note

158 Haarlem Honeybush SweetSmell Of Success

160 SAAB Conference Proceed-ings to Appear in SouthAfrican Journal of Botany

Regulars87 Editorial

88 Letters to the Editors

138 The Paper Chase

147 Regional News Update

150 E-mail Addresses

112 SABONET goes Frogging

120 Karoo

124 Munda Wanga131 Threathened Plants 97 RDL Database


Computerisation of southern Africa herbaria has been a core activity withinthe SABONET Project since 1997 and we have published regular up-dates on the progress of this important output. Maps showing the geo-graphical distribution of specimens computerised by several southern Africaherbaria were included in both the August 1998 and December 1999 editions,and bar graphs were included in the August 1998, December 1999, and Decem-ber 2000 editions of SABONET News. In this issue, we evaluate the current sta-tus of data capturing in the participating herbaria of southern Africa and inves-tigate some of the problems that can occur.

We are very happy to announce the publication of the SABONET Southern Afri-can Plant Red Data Lists book, the first such list for the southern African region.The book represents several years of hard work from many contributors, bothwithin and outside the SABONET Project. If you haven’t ordered your copy ofthis milestone publication yet, see the order details on page 100. You can alsolearn more about the companion database—available on CD—on page 100.

Another interesting article in this issue addresses some of the issues that post-graduate students may find confusing or problematic when it comes to publish-ing their research work in scientific journals, based on a recent discussion heldby postgraduate students and academics at the University of Cape Town (page103). Speaking of publishing, we have received another three articles based ondata collected during the SABONET Southern Mozambique Expedition.

In addition, this issue includes all our regular items—Profile, Living Collections,Southern African Herbaria, The Paper Chase, and Regional News. LesleyHenderson has written another instalment in our series on invasive alien plants,this time dealing with the Myrtaceae (page 106). We have two book reviews inthis issue, starting on page 145. The Forum botanicum supplement is filled withinteresting articles on current developments in South African botany.

Finally, some news from the Regional Office: Lorna Davis has joined theSABONET Regional Office as Financial Officer, replacing Carina Haasbroek, whohas moved to KwaZulu-Natal.

—Stefan Siebert & Marthina Mössmer

Newsletter of the Southern African Botanical Diversity Network

EditorsStefan Siebert

Marthina Mössmer

Design and LayoutAntoinette BurkhardtVanilla Design Studio

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Submission of ManuscriptsMarthina Mössmer

[email protected] Instructions to Authors on page 89.

SABONET News is the official newsletterof the Southern African Botanical

Diversity Network (SABONET).

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SABONET News is published in March,July and November and is distributed freeof charge.Current number of subscribers: 2 228, in79 countries

Printed on recycled paper.

This newsletter was made possible throughsupport provided by the GEF/UNDP (SABONETis a GEF Project implemented by the UNDP)and the Regional Centre for Southern Africa,Gaborone, Botswana, US Agency for Interna-tional Development (Plot no. 14818 LebatlaneRoad, Gaborone West, Extension 6 Gaborone),under the terms of the Grant No. 690-0283-A-00-5950. The opinions expressed in thenewsletter are those of the authors and do notnecessarily reflect the views of the US Agencyfor International Development, the GEF/UNDP,the SABONET Steering Committee or theNational Working Groups.

l e t t er f rom th e ed i t or s

EDITORS: STEFAN SIEBERT & MARTHINA MÖSSMER


l e t t er s to t h e ed i tor s [email protected]

LETTER FROM SEYCHELLES

T hanks for the last issues ofSABONET News: although Ihave not been writing much, I havebeen a keen reader of the newslet-ter and I am very happy to haveseen it grow from strength tostrength. Congratulations!

I received a shock when I readabout Paseka’s sudden death. I methim at the first SABONET Her-barium Technique Course in 1996and over the five weeks that wespent together, we became friends.I have always looked forward tomeeting him again, but it seemsthat it was not meant to be. Likemany others who have come toknow him, I will miss him.

—Didier [email protected]

BOTANICAL ART COURSE

It was great to participate in theBotanical Art Course held atVelcich House in the Pretoria Na-tional Botanical Garden, South Af-rica, in April 2001. Botanical art isthe process of illustrating plants toclarify concepts and provide visualorientation, and it forms an essen-tial part of scientific publications.Botanical illustrations can illustratemore than one diagnostic charac-ter and also clarify the descriptivephrases of keys. Botanical art in-volves a lot of creativity, and as aresult, artists discover differentmethods to suit the plant that theyare going to draw.

The aims of the course were to passon information acceptable in bo-

tanical art used in publications, andto promote and build botanical artexpertise in the southern Africanregion. After attending the course,I embarked on a project to illustratesome of the trees in the BotanicalGardens in Zomba in order to prac-tice my painting methods. See thesample of Bauhinia petersiana,which I have already started work-ing on. These botanical drawingswill act as a reference to the QuickField Guide of Zomba BotanicalGarden that is used by visitors. Iwill strive to achieve something im-mediately recognisable to specieslevel and that links with botanicaldescriptions of characters.

Although I am an amateur in thisfield, I strongly believe that I amgoing to be useful to both my insti-

FAREWELL!

It is with regret and sadness thatI have to say farewell to theSABONET family after being partof the project for nearly five years.I would like to take this opportunityto thank the SABONET Secre-tariat—Stefan, Nyasha, and Janice(although she is no longer part ofthe team)—for their support andkindness. It was great being part ofsuch a dynamic team. I also wish toextend my appreciation and grati-tude to the SABONET SteeringCommittee chairman, Prof. BrianHuntley, all the National Coordina-tors in the ten countries and allother co-workers in the financialfield. I could not have done my jobwithout your contributions andsupport. I also wish to extend aword of thanks to the UNDP officein Pretoria for their active role inmaking my life a lot easier.

My motto is that life is a journey andnot a destination. I am thereforelooking forward to my journeythrough the green fields ofKwaZulu-Natal.

For the SABONET team, keep upthe team spirit and the good work!

—Carina Haasbroek

Bauhinia petersiana. (Drawing by Edwin Kathumba.)


MOZAMBIQUE AND TASMANIA

M any, many thanks for ourlatest copy of SABONETNews. It is always exciting to findthe newsletter in the mail.

We are very exited about theforthcoming “Conservation Check-list of the Plants of the Nyika”. TheNyika Expedition was definitely aworthwhile exercise. We were alsopleased to hear that a regionalcollecting trip was undertaken tothe coastal areas of southernMozambique. During our years inMalawi it was never feasible to gothere. Those mountains Namuli(Serra do Guru) and Chiperone,which were so tantalising near,remained incognita for us. I don’tthink the forest flora on either ofthese mountains is more thansuperficially known whereas thebird fauna, of Mt. Namuli at least,is now known reasonably well. Mt.Namuli, particularly, has scope forexploration. We know that Faurea

racemosa occurs both there and onMt. Mulanje. But what of , forexample, Rawsonia burtt-davyiand Canthium chapmanii, up to nowknown only from the MulanjeMassif? And who knows what othertree species still await discovery onMt. Namuli? I do so much hope thatfuture SABONET Collect ingExpeditions will include these twomountains of southern Mozambi-que.

One of the many highlights of a re-cent trip to Tasmania (fascinatingvegetation, quite different fromNew Zealand, although so near)was a visit to the Tasmanian Her-barium at the University of Tasma-nia in Hobart. Here we werewarmly welcomed by the Curatorof Phanerogamic Botany, DrAndrew Rozefelds (Tasmanian Her-barium, University of Tasmania, POBox 252-04, Hobart, Tasmania 7001).They are very short on southern (letalone tropical) African material.However, we did see a De Wintercollection, a Zizyphus speciesAndrew would welcome duplicatesof, particularly, southern AfricanErica-ceae; also, I think Cunoniacapensis, this family being espe-cially interesting to him. He wouldbe pleased to send youEpacridaceae and indeed anythingin which you might have a specialinterest.

—Jim & Betty ChapmanII Koromiko Crescent

R.D.I. LytteltonNew Zealand

1) Manuscripts should preferably be inEnglish.

2) If possible, text should be sent in electronicformat via e-mail or on a stiffy disk andshould be in Microsoft Word, WordPerfect,or Rich Text Format. Otherwise, hard copycan be sent or faxed to the SABONEThead office.

3) Tables and charts should be in one of thefollowing formats: Microsoft Excel, QuattroPro, Lotus 1-2-3, or Harvard Graphics.Data must be supplied with charts.

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8) SABONET News holds the right to edit anyreceived copy.

9) Manuscripts should be sent to MarthinaMössmer. Via e-mail: [email protected] copy: SABONET, National BotanicalInstitute, Private Bag X101, Pretoria 0001,SOUTH AFRICA. Fax: (27) 12 804-5979/3211.

10) Submissions for the next issue shouldreach the editors before 31 October2002. Late submissions will not beincluded.

instructions to authors

tution and other stakeholders afterhaving attended this course. I willtry my best to utilise the knowledgeimparted, especially of paintingtechniques, since it was my first at-tempt to deal with colour painting.I shall invest in my new skills andwill be actively involved in the Bo-tanical Arts Expertise Network inthe region. I believe I could make ameaningful contribution.

Thanks to Gillian Condy, especiallyfor her patience, as I was rather ig-norant during colour paint ingpracticals. Thanks also to StefanSiebert at the SABONET RegionalOffice for affording me this oppor-tunity to learn more.

Remember, when you teach younggenerations you reap a thousandharvests. LONG LIVE SABONET!

—Edwin KathumbaChief Technical Assistant

National HerbariumMalawi

Collecting at the beach at Ponta Milibangalala. (Photo: Stefan Siebert)


Profile

DavidKanangaChuba

David Chuba was born in 1969 inthe Kasama District of the North-ern Province of Zambia. He started hisprimary schooling in Lusaka at BurmaRoad Primary School, where he didGrades 1 and 2. His family then movedto Kasama, where he completedGrades 3 and 4 at Kasama PrimarySchool. Again the family moved, toKitwe, where he completed Grades 5to 7 at Kitwe Primary School. Davidthen went to Kitwe Boys SecondarySchool, obtaining a G.C.E. ‘O’ levelcertificate in 1987. He was then admit-ted to the University of Zambia inLusaka and completed his BSc degree(Biology major) in 1994. His high aca-demic performance earned him an ap-pointment as a Staff Development Fel-low at the University of Zambia.

Upon being appointed as a Staff De-velopment Fellow, David made up hismind to take up further studies inBotany. As a Staff Development Fellow,he assisted in the demonstration oflaboratory practicals, as well as tutor-ing the undergraduate students. It wasnot easy to secure sponsorship for MScdegree studies, as the University ofZambia had suspended the provisionof funding for postgraduate studiesand depended on external funding tosupport its Staff Development Fellows.In 1996, however, David was awardeda DANIDA scholarship to study for aPostgraduate Diploma in ResearchMethodology at the Dansk BilharzioseLaboratorium in Denmark. This coursestrengthened his research proposal

and execution skills, which were use-ful during his subsequent BSc Hon-ours and MSc degree studies at UCT.In Denmark David also attended hisfirst lessons in computer software,such as Windows 95, DOS computing,Microsoft Excel, Pegusus Mail,Microsoft Word, Reference Manager,and Win SPIRS.

Early in 1997, David was incorporatedinto the SABONET project to replaceMs Tasila Banda (now Sakala), who hadtaken up a Fulbright Masters scholar-ship in the USA. Later in the year, heattended two SABONET courses thatwere run concurrently—the DatabaseManagers course and the ThreatenedSpecies (Red data List) course.

In 1999, David was offered aSABONET scholarship to study forboth a BSc Honours and an MSc de-gree at the University of Cape Town inSouth Africa. He obtained the BScHonours in Botany (first class) in 1999and his MSc in Systematics andBiodiversity Science (cum laude) in2001. His postgraduate performancehas since added pride to theSABONET steering committee (asprincipal sponsors), University of Zam-bia management, and his own coun-try.

His two BSc Honours degree projectswere entitled “The Phylogeny ofBrachycorythis Lindl. and NeobolusiaSchltr.” and “The comparative distri-bution of C3 and C4 species ofCyperaceae in relation to climatic fac-tors and phylogeny”. His Masters the-sis was entitled “Phylogenetic relation-ships of the genus Andreaea Hedw.(Andreaeaceae) as inferred from rps4and trnL-F sequences and morphol-ogy”.

After his return from his BSc Honoursand Masters studies, David attended anumber of short courses, including theTropical Bryology and Lichenologycourse in Kenya and the SABONETHerbarium Managers’ Course. Allthese courses have contributed furtherto equipping him for the present andfuture responsibilities and challengeswithin his institution, the country, aswell as the southern African region.

David has recently done work for theSPGRC on fruit and nut trees of thesouthern African countries. He hasalso, with Mount Makuru ResearchStation staff, carried out a survey ofedible orchids of the Central andNorthern Provinces of Zambia; hehopes to extend the survey to theLuapula Province. In addition, Davidwas part of the SABONET-Zambiateam that visited Livingstone’s Gorges,Victoria Falls, Songwe Gorges, andKazungula area to search forSelaginella imbricata and to collectseedlings of indigenous plants for thedevelopment of a Teaching BotanicGarden at the University of Zambia.

David collects Zambian bryophyteswhenever he has an opportunity. So farhe has a few collections from the east-ern part of Lusaka Province near theChinyunyu area, Livingstone, andSerenje, around the Kabumba area,overlooking the Luangua Valley.Bryophyte surveys were pioneered byhis senior academic colleague DrP.S.M. Phiri in the early 1980s.

David has now been officially ap-pointed as lecturer and is currentlyworking in the Department of Biologi-cal Sciences at the University of Zam-bia. Regarding botanical collections,taxonomy, and systematics, he feelsthat whatever information is availableon the current status of such fields inZambia is not yet easily accessible toZambians. He is therefore currentlythinking of working on a guide to bo-tanical literature on Zambia’s botani-cal diversity, which can be made avail-able to all relevant institutions ofhigher learning such as universities,forestry and agricultural colleges, andalso to other interested individuals.

In 1997, David married his beautifulwife, Ruth Precious Phiri, and God hasalready blessed them with two won-derful children, Yuri (3 years) andDebra (3 months). His hobbies includeplaying the music keyboard, jogging,and learning anything he can aboutauto-mechanics. David is a devoutChristian.


Moretloa Polaki was born on 9June 1966 in Mokema, Lesotho.He is the last-born of a family of eightchildren. Moretloa grew up inMokema and attended Mokema Pri-mary School and thereafter moved toSt Joseph’s Primary School (Koro-Koro). He completed his secondaryeducation at ‘Mabathoana High Schoolin 1984. Thereafter he worked as aWork Study Observer at Libanon GoldMines in South Africa. He was admit-ted to the National University ofLesotho (NUL) in 1986. He enrolled fora BSc Degree in Biology (Botany Op-tion) and Physical Geography. It is herethat his keen interest in plants devel-oped, largely sparked by the dedica-tion and enthusiasm shown by hisbotany lecturer, Dr Bruce Har-greaves—“parasitologist-turned-bota-nist”. Moretloa completed his degreein 1990. His final-year dissertation wason “Distribution of bryophytes andpteridophytes at Roma Valley ”.

After completing his degree, Moretloaworked as a District Land Use Plannerin the Ministry of Agriculture. In 1991he was appointed Teaching Assistantin the Biology Department at NUL,where under the Staff DevelopmentProgramme, the only option available

Profile

MoretloaPolaki

to him then was to pursue plant physi-ology. Although Moretloa’s original in-terest was plant taxonomy, he had totake physiology because of a shortageof staff in that field. In September 1991,Moretloa undertook a Masters Degreein Plant Physiology at the Universityof Reading, United Kingdom, which hereceived in 1992. His thesis was enti-tled “Changes in proline levels in maizevarieties under cool night tempera-tures,” under the supervison of Prof.Philip John. His post-graduate studiescovered some aspects of AgriculturalBotany, Plant Biochemistry, AppliedEnvironmental Science, Fresh WaterStudies, as well as Biological DiversityConservation and Utilization Studies.He took additional courses in ResearchMethodology and Experimental Tech-niques in Plant Sciences. In 1993,Moretloa was promoted to the positionof Lecturer at NUL, teaching PlantPhysiology, Plant Anatomy, and Bio-chemistry.

During 1995, Moretloa was attached tothe School of Biological Sciences atQueen Mary & Westfield College(QMWC), University of London, underthe QMWC–NUL link. Here he ac-quainted himself with techniques infreshwater biology, specifically aquaticweed infestations and their impact onstanding water bodies.

Moretloa has been fully engaged inteaching and research since his returnfrom the United Kingdom. His re-search interests cover general plantphysiology with emphasis on meta-bolic stress physiology in crop plants.He supervises final-year undergradu-ate projects, particularly those in Ap-plied Environmental Sciences.

Although trained as a plant physiolo-gist, he is now a “physiologist-turned-systematist,” the legacy of his under-graduate lecturer. He has participatedin several plant rescue missions andtheir documentation around the

Lesotho Highlands Water Project(LHWP) area before inundation. Hewas also involved in the BiologicalResource Monitoring in the same area,in order to assess the subsequent in-undation impact on the vegetation. Heis currently working on a researchproject on conservation and mappingof Thamnocalamus tessalatus (BergBamboo) in Lesotho.

Moretloa has participated actively inpromoting the necessity of indigenousknowledge systems in Lesotho. He hasalso been involved in setting up thenational and international strategies toimplement the Convention on Biologi-cal Diversity. He is involved in the es-tablishment and upgrading of the Bo-tanical Sanctuaries in the country,namely, Katse Afro-Alpine BotanicalGarden, Lesotho National BotanicalGarden, and the NUL Botanical Gar-den. Moretloa has been involved in theoverall coordination, and physical andscientific curation of herbarium activi-ties in Lesotho’s three herbaria—ROML (National University of LesothoHerbarium), MASE (Agricultural Re-search Herbarium), and SNPH(Sehlabathebe National Park Her-barium).

Moretloa has also been involved in theimplementation of the SABONETProject policies and facilitating itssmooth running in the country. Sincethe inception of the Project, Moretloahas contributed to the tremendousgrowth of the herbarium collection byparticipating in several plant collectiontrips. Moretloa and his team of devotedcolleagues and SABONET staff intendto make a mammoth contribution tothe understanding of the local flora andcultivate botanical interest in theBasotho nation at large.

Apart from his consistent interest ingeneral botanical issues, Moretloa en-joys the outdoor scenic beauty of andbotanising in the “Kingdom in the Sky”.


Computerisation of southern Africaherbaria has been a core activitywithin the SABONET Project since1997 and we have published regularupdates on the progress of this impor-tant output. Maps showing the geo-graphical distribution of specimenscomputerised by several southern Af-rica herbaria were included in both theAugust 1998 and December 1999 edi-tions, and bar graphs were includedin the August 1998, December 1999,and December 2000 editions ofSABONET News (Arnold & Willis 1998,Willis & Arnold 1999, Siebert & Willis2000).

The importance of computerisationwas emphasised during the Project’sMidterm Review in 2001 (Timberlake& Paton 2001). The herbarium speci-mens computerised by the participat-

Regional UpdateComputerisation of Southern African Herbaria:

Did you know ……that currently the annual computerisation rate in the 16participating herbaria stands at 150 000 per annum, whichmeans an average of 600 specimens are computerised perworking day with SABONET funding. Every participating herbariumcomputerises approximately 38 specimens per day.

ing herbaria of the region are of greatimportance to southern Africa, as thisis the first attempt ever to compile acomprehensive, organised database ofall known plant taxa housed withinselected herbaria of the sub-continent.As the SABONET Project is coming toa close, we will have to look at improv-ing our computerisation rate duringthe final months. Indeed, Decision 2 ofthe Tripartite Review Recommenda-tions of August 2000 and Recommen-dation G of the Midterm Review ofFebruary 2001, requested that IT issuesbe given priority and speeded up andthat the level of training be addressedwhere possible. This activity has be-come a major priority for the 2001–2002period.

We define computerisation of a south-ern African herbarium as the process

whereby the information on the datalabels of herbarium specimens is en-tered into the PRECIS Specimen Da-tabase. A Data Entry Clerk is respon-sible for removing specimens from theherbarium cabinets and typing the rel-evant information on the specimen la-bel into the database. The encoded in-formation is then stored and managedin computer databases throughout theregion. However, the computerisationprocess to capture, encode, or digitiseherbarium specimen information isobviously prone to problems as a con-sequence of human error.

The purpose of this article is to evalu-ate the current status of data captur-ing in the participating herbaria ofsouthern Africa and to investigatesome of the problems that can occur,and that negatively affect the quality

Hard at work—Zoleka Dimon assistingMhlengi Shangasi with the PRECISspecimen database. (Photo: NBI)

Databasing herbarium information. (Photo: NBI)


of the data or hamper the computeri-sation process.

Computerisation Report

Considerable progress has been madewith the total number of specimenscomputerised since the start of theProject. To date, the participating her-baria have computerised a total of375 000 specimens as part ofSABONET. Up to May 2002, the bestprogress was made by SRGH (Na-tional Herbarium of Zimbabwe)— theyhad computerised 104 000 specimens.WIND (National Herbarium of Na-mibia) have finished computerising alltheir specimens, approximately 75 000.NBG (Compton Herbarium, South Af-rica), MAL (National Herbarium ofMalawi), and NH (Natal Herbarium,South Africa) have also made excellentprogress and have computerised55 000, 28 000, and 27 000 respectively.The National Herbarium of South Af-rica (PRE ) started computerising theirspecimens long before SABONET wasinitiated and currently has the largestdatabase of computerised specimens.They have computerised 65% of a to-tal of ca 1 200 000 specimens. The Na-tional Herbarium of Swaziland willprobably become the second her-barium to complete the computerisa-tion of their collections, as they havealready entered the information of ap-proximately 6 800 of a total of 7 400specimens. We believe that these sta-tistics show that the computerisationinitiative is successfully developinginto a major taxonomical capacity-building programme.

Poaceae Databases

A regional decision was taken at theFourth SABONET Steering Commit-tee meeting held during September1997 in Zomba, Malawi, to focus ini-tially on computerising the grass speci-mens (Poaceae) in the participatingsouthern African herbaria. Althoughmany problems are hampering thecomputerisation process, approxi-mately 160 000 grass specimens (94%of the total number) housed at partici-pating SABONET herbaria, have so farbeen encoded. Of the 16 participatingherbaria, 11 have already computer-ised all the grass specimens of collec-tions made in their own countries;three have computerised more than90%. The remaining two herbaria havecomputerised 25% and 35%, respec-tively—the reasons for the low per-centage of computerised Poaceaespecimens by these two herbaria is

that LUAI (Angola) prioritised anothergroup for computerisation and PSUB(Botswana) did not regard computeri-sation as a priority.

As the computerisation of the Poaceaeis a policy decision and of regional in-terest as self-acquired knowledge, thefollowing proposal was made by theMidterm Review and endorsed by theSABONET Steering Committee at the10th meeting in Windhoek, Namibia(February 2001): countries should alsoproduce Poaceae checklists for theircountries before the end of the Project.As a result, three National PoaceaeChecklists are being developed and pub-lished by Lesotho (Mr Khotso Kobisi),Namibia (Ms Esmerialda Klaassen), andZimbabwe (Mr Christopher Chapano).

Computerisation Problems

Data quality is of the utmost impor-tance to deliver high-quality outputs atthe end of the project, and even be-yond. However, from time to time er-rors occur in the database, and theseneed to be cleaned up before anyproject can make use of the availabledata. Many of the errors that occur area result of human error and could havebeen fixed immediately if quality con-trol procedures had been implementedsince the start of the computerisationphase.

Although there are many kinds of er-rors in the database, experience tellsus that there are two major problemsthat occur during the computerisation

Figure 1. Number and percentage of herbarium specimens computerised by eachof the participating southern African herbaria using the PRECIS SpecimenDatabase (May 2002).


process:• Duplication of plant names• Extension of data dictionaries

Duplication of plant names happenswhen Data Entry Clerks enter a spe-cies name into the database twice, re-sulting in the use of two differentgenspec codes (a genspec code is aserial comprising of two sets of num-bers, one for the genus and one for thespecies). When information concern-ing a species is called up, say Acaciakarroo, only the specimens encodedunder one genspec are accessed andthe specimens of the same species, butunder the additional genspec, are notpicked up. This problem is createdwhen clerks do not double-check theirwork.

The second, but not less frequentlyoccurring error, is the extension of datadictionaries (a data dictionary is a listof variables of a specific database fieldsuch as habitat, growth form, or flowercolour). Adding variables to the fieldsresults in them being mixed up; forexample, an additional 60 variableshave been added to the habitat field ofthe database. Of the 60 additions, only1% are true habitat types. This prob-lem is a result of incorrect interpreta-tion of specimen label information,

because Data Entry Clerks usuallydon’t have a strong botanical back-ground.

These problems were addressed atdatabase courses for beginners, wherebotanical concepts and interpretationwere taught to the Data Entry Clerksfrom the participating herbaria ofsouthern Africa. To appreciate thequality of the information contained inthe database, they were taught to ex-tract and present information withMicrosoft Access queries and report-ing facilities. Queries and reportsforced them to go into the database,which enabled them to determine theextent of the errors. It was hoped thatsuch training exercises would lessenthe problems and hone the clerks toenter accurate data. Clerks were alsoencouraged to get approval from sci-entific personnel before any changesor additions were made to the data-base.

Quality control, when exercised by theData Entry Clerk, slows the rate ofcomputerisation. Yet, despite thislarger workload being placed on someof the clerks in the region, the compu-terisation process has increased tre-mendously during the past four yearsowing to the increased productivity of

the participating herbaria. Currently,the annual computerisation rate standsat 150 000 specimens per annum (ver-sus 34 000 in 1998), which means 600specimens are computerised perworking day in the southern Africanherbaria. This means that, on average,every participating herbarium compu-terises some 38 specimens per day.

However, although we have reachedthe highest computerisation rate sincethe start of the project, certain prob-lems have negatively influenced therate of the process:• In many instances, Data Entry

Clerks do not understand the ter-minology under the fields in thedatabase and subsequently wastetime contemplating and addingnew variables. As discussed earlier,this leads to extension of data dic-tionaries with invalid fields.

• Data Entry Clerk positions have ahigh turnover and new clerks areusually appointed long before thenext database training course (ap-proximately one course every 10months). In addition, knowledgetransfer is inadequate in some of theparticipating institutions. Clerkstherefore remain unproductive un-til they have attended a course.

• Project management did not placeenough emphasis on the impor-tance of captured specimen data forboth the institution and the region.Participating institutions, owing tolack of commitment, did not see thisactivity as a primary objective andresources were concentrated else-where. In addition, participatingherbaria did not understand themagnitude of the task of computer-ising thousands of specimens.

• No quality control process was putin place and it was wrongly as-sumed that the way data was en-tered was correct. Untrained DataEntry Clerks were responsible formany wrongly encoded entries,which will have to be corrected laterand subsequently waste a lot oftime.

• Certain countries in the region usedifferent georeferencing systemsand these need to be translatedwhile the herbarium specimen la-bels are encoded. Lack of re-sources in participating herbariaforces Data Entry Clerks to con-duct this activity themselves andthis slows down the computerisa-tion process considerably.

• Misspelt information is sometimesentered and needs to be correctedat a later stage, which stretches the

Geographical coverage of specimens in the PRECIS Specimen Database. Light greyrepresents 1–20 specimens, dark grey represents 21–100 specimens, and blackrepresents more than 101 specimens. (Map prepared by Hannelie Snyman, NBI,Pretoria)


existing resources and slows downthe encoding activities.

• Many participating institutions donot adequately make use of localcomputer service providers to re-pair the systems when the comput-ers break down. Countries have onmany occasions waited weeks forSABONET IT to fix their “faulty”database, when in fact the problemwas of a technical nature and couldhave been fixed within a day by aservice provider.

• Networking problems have createdmajor breakdowns during the cur-rent phase of the project. Simpleactions, such as improper logon,disrupt the networking systems andworkstations become unable to cap-ture data onto the server.

• Service providers in the participat-ing countries often do not load thecorrect software, which creates

clashes and deficient hardware.This usually goes undetected byparticipating institutions, resulting inconfusion and unproductive periods.

• SABONET database courses havealways stressed the importance ofbacking up data on a daily basis.Despite the warnings and remind-ers, many countries still fail to doso and up to a month’s captureddata have been lost on many occa-sions when hard disks crashed.

• The involvement of SABONET inthe SECOSUD project created a lotof confusion about responsibilitiesand, as a result, in certain institu-tions much time was spent on ac-tivities not related to SABONET.

Computer Systems

All the SABONET herbaria, except thePeter Smith Herbarium (PSUB), have

now had their programmes updatedwith the latest versions of the PRECISSpecimen Database. Five years ago thePRECIS database was run on Access2, followed by an upgrade to Access97 with a Delphi front-end (BDE-link).The database has recently been up-graded to an ADO-link between theDelphi front-end and both Access 97and 2000.

SABONET IT has visited all the partici-pating countries in the region at leasttwice and has upgraded the data cap-turing computers at the participatingherbaria. Once all the countries haveeach received one more new compu-ter and the latest office software as partof the Project’s Exit Strategy, we hopethat the computerisation rate will in-crease even further.

The Way Forward

Once we are set for the Exit Strategywith all the latest software and hard-ware in place, we can adhere to Deci-sion 7 of the Tripartite Review Recom-mendations of April 1999, and becomemore pro-active in biodiversity issues(Minutes of the Ninth SABONET Steer-ing Committee meeting). As SABO-NET countries we should find ways touse our newly acquired knowledge toaddress issues surrounding plant di-versity, such as manipulation of ourdatabases for conservation actions,compilation of Red Lists, regional plan-ning, research proposals, and net-working. The development of futurein-country projects can be based on acountry’s computerised herbaria. Rel-evant comparative statistical data setswill assist us to determine key plantgroups that need to be computerisedto ensure that outputs match the re-quirements of the stakeholders in theregion.

Computerised information will, how-ever, only have relevance in future fordata manipulation techniques if seri-ous thought is given to georeferencing.At the moment, attention is focused onattaching quarter-degree grid squarereferences to specimens that havenone. This task is the responsibility ofindividual SABONET herbaria, wheretime and money are spent on devel-oping capable staff to complete thework. The Poaceae is the first groupprioritised in this regard. The mainidea is to link the distribution data ofthis family with the MAPPIT pro-gramme, or a GIS system, in order torun specific queries that will be of useto end-users in the region (Fish & Steyn

Figure 2. Number and percentage of grass specimens computerised by each of theparticipating southern African herbaria using the PRECIS Specimen Database (May2002).


2001). These value-added products willbe one of the foremost future projectsto flow from the computerisation proc-ess. The captured locality data can thenbe used to plot the distribution of spe-cific taxa (see Henderson (2002) for anexample of a direct implementation ofthis tool). A database on a compact diskwith all the electronic distribution dataof a specific plant group in southernAfrica can also be produced. A secondstep would be to link these plant dis-tribution databases to habitat informa-tion, plant uses, flowering times, andso on.

Conclusion

SABONET is striving to enhance theoutputs of the computerisation proc-ess and to illustrate the relevance of theencoding process through quality pub-lications and databases. Improved col-laboration and partnerships in the re-gion are needed to implement thewidespread application of the her-barium specimen databases among allstakeholders, such as research institu-tions, universities, the private sector,governments, and networks. We hopethat the SABONET computerisationeffort has contributed considerablytowards the task to inventory our re-gion’s plant diversity and to preparesouthern Africa for even more ambi-tious botanical endeavours in the fu-ture.

To conclude—and to emphasise itsimportance—the following points ofthe Chairman’s Text for Negotiation ofthe Commission on Sustainable Devel-opment Acting as the PreparatoryCommittee for the World Summit forSustainable Development (Fourth Ses-sion) are directly met by the SABONETcomputerisation process:• Provides affordable local access to

botanical information to improveand strengthen monitoring andearly warning related todesertification and alien plant inva-sions.

• Improves the use of science andtechnology for environmentalmonitoring, assessment models,accurate database and integratedinformation systems.

• Incorporates and mainstreams theobjectives of the CBD into regionaland national sectoral and cross-sectoral programmes, in particularthat of the donor funding agencies.

• Supports international, regional, andnational actions to implement pro-grams to address and invest in appliedresearch and capacity building.

Figure 3. A comparison of total number of plant specimens computerised byparticipating southern African herbaria during each of the past four years of theProject (1998-2001).

1998199920002001

• Assists southern African countriesin building capacity to access moreequitable multilateral and global re-search and development pro-grammes.

• Promotes knowledge transfer toAfrica as part of the New Partner-ship for Africa’s Development(NEPAD) and further developsknowledge available in African cen-tres of excellence.

• Promotes and supports initiatives ofstakeholders for the conservation ofhotspot areas and promote the de-velopment of national and regionalnetworks.

• Urges countries to become partiesof biodiversity related internationalagreements to encourage the ex-change of data.

• Enhances environmental responsi-bility and accountability, includingworkplace-based partnerships, andtraining programmes.

ARNOLD, T. & WILLIS, C.K. 1998.Computerisation of southern Africanherbaria. SABONET News 3(2): 82-85.

FISH, L. & STEYN, H. 2001. Benefits of datacapturing in herbaria. SABONET News6(1): 19-21.

HENDERSON, L. 2002. Invasive alien plantsin southern Africa. Part 3: The Daisies(Asteraceae). SABONET News 7(1): 32-35.

SIEBERT, S.J. & WILLIS, C.K. 2000.Computerisation of southern Africanherbaria: A regional update. SABONETNews 5(3): 182-184.

TIMBERLAKE, J. & PATON, A. 2001.SABONET Midterm Review. SABONETNews 6(1): 5-13.

WILLIS, C.K. & ARNOLD, T. 1999.Computerisation of southern Africanherbaria. SABONET News 4(3): 207-211.

—Trevor Arnold & Stefan SiebertNational Botanical Institute

Private Bag X101, Pretoria [email protected]

[email protected]


SABONET’s long-awaited SouthernAfrican Plant Red Data Lists bookwas published during August 2002, tocoincide with the World Summit heldin South Africa. A CD version of thedatabase on which the book is basedwill be released simultaneously as theSouthern African Plant Red Data ListsDatabase.

The Southern African Plant Red DataLists database contains information on4 100 taxa, and not only provides allthe information contained in theSouthern African Plant Red Data Listsbook, but also lists additional data,such as extent of occurrence, popula-tion size, past decline, and future de-cline. A user-friendly interface makesit easy to search the database for rel-evant taxa. After performing a search,you can view and print your searchresults, or export results to MicrosoftExcel or Microsoft Word.

Botanists who have already tested thedatabase were very impressed withhow easy to use the database was com-pared to others, and how quickly theycould find the information they werelooking for.

Marthina Mössmer and JaniceGolding designed the SABONET PlantRed Data Lists Database, based on datacollected by all the participants in theSABONET Southern African Plant RedData List Programme. The databaseruns in Microsoft Access 2000 andMicrosoft Office xp. However, usersdon’t need to have Microsoft Accessinstalled on their computers to use thedatabase—the CD includes freeMicrosoft Access Runtime software,which is installed automatically withthe database.

Southern African Plant Red Data Lists Database

Introducing theSouthern African Plant Red Data Lists Database

Searching the Database

The database offers you four differentsearch options to help you track downspecific taxa:• General search using a keyword

you type in• Search within a single country• Search more than one country at

the same time• Advanced search using any combi-

nation of fields

General Search

The general search finds records con-taining a keyword you type in. Thissearch is useful if you want to find, forexample, all taxa that are listed asgrassland species in the notes. In thiscase, you would type in grassland .

Single Country Search

The single country search makes iteasy for you to find records within aspecific country. Once you have se-lected a country from the list, the pro-gram automatically lists only the fami-lies that occur in the chosen country.After you select a family, the programdisplays a list of Red List assessmentsfor plants within the family you chose.This makes it easier for you to searchwithout getting empty search resultsall the time. In addition to Red List sta-tus, you can also search for a specifictaxon and/or endemicity within a spe-cific family in your chosen country.

“All search optionswere very useful!”

The General Search tab allows you tofind all records that contain a keywordyou type.

The Single Country Search tab makes iteasy to find records within a singlecountry.

The Multiple Country Search tab enablesyou to find taxa in any number ofcountries. You can also specify a family,Red List status, and taxon name to searchfor within the countries you have chosen.


This option works well if you want tofind, for example, all vulnerableFabaceae taxa in Zambia; in this caseyou would choose Zambia , Faba-ceae , and Vulnerable as search terms.You could narrow down this search toa specific genus by typing, for exam-ple, Crotalaria , under Taxon Name.Alternatively, you could view all vul-nerable Fabaceae taxa in Zambia thatare also endemic by choosing En-demic from the Endemicity list.

Multiple Country Search

If you want to find records for a spe-cific category or family in two or morecountries, you should use the multiplecountry search option, which enablesyou to choose any number of countriesfrom a list. You can also specify a fam-ily, Red List status, and/or taxon nameto search for within the countries youhave chosen.

For example, if you want to produce alist of all Red-listed endemic taxa in theFSA region, you would choose Bot-swana , Lesotho , Namibia , SouthAfrica , and Swaziland in the coun-try list and Endemic from the Ende-micity list.

Advanced Search

The advanced search option enablesyou to choose any combination offields in which to search. This optionis useful if you want to search the en-tire region, and also if you want tosearch for a broad assessment cat-egory (Threatened, Lower Risk or DataDeficient) or a full Red List assessment.

For example, if you want to find allsouthern African taxa that have aVUD2 assessment, you would leave thecountry field blank and type VUD2under Full Assessment.

Viewing Search Results

After performing a search, the data-base displays a dialog box that tells youhow many records matching your cri-teria were found.

The Advanced Search tab allows you tochoose any combination of fields foryour search, and also enables you tosearch for a broad assessment category(Threatened, Lower Risk or Data Defi-cient) or a full Red List assessment.

The Results dialog box displays thenumber of records found in your searchand enables you to view, print, or exportthe results.

Results displayed in a detailed report.

Results displayed as a species list.

A spreadsheet view of the search results.

“The search facilityis far better than I’ve

ever used—IUCNand WCMC canlearn from this.”

“The different viewsof results were all

useful and they willsuit a wide range ofend-users who wishto use these outputs

for differentpurposes.”

“The printed searchresults look great!”


You can view the results of your searchin any of the following ways:• Display the search results in

spreadsheet form• Display a list of the species found

by your search• Display all the data for the species

found in your search

You can sort search results accordingto any column in the spreadsheet. Youcan also print or export your searchresults.

Printing Results

You can print the results of a databasesearch as an attractively formatteddouble-column species list or in a de-tailed report format that includes all theinformation the database contains forthe taxa in your search. The detailedreport includes much additional infor-mation not found in the Southern Afri-can Plant Red Data Lists book.

The species list printout, showing a full page and aclose-up of a single country.

A detailed report printout, showing the first pageand a close-up of one taxon.

Exporting Results

Instead of printing directly from thedatabase, you can export the results ofyour search to Microsoft Word orMicrosoft Excel. These options allowyou to further refine or expand the in-formation gathered from the database.

When you export to Microsoft Word,the database automatically creates aRich Text File (.rtf), which you can in-clude in a Microsoft Word document,


To order either the Southern African Plant Red Data Lists book or theSouthern African Plant Red Data Lists Database on CD—or both—doone of the following:

• Send an email message to [email protected], including thephrase “Red Data List Order” in the subject line, and your name andmailing address in the body of the message. Remember to specifywhether you want the book or the CD, or both.

• Send a fax with the same information to (27) 12 804-5979.• Write to Red Data List Orders, SABONET, National Botanical

Institute, Private Bag X101, Pretoria 0001, South Africa, includingthe same information.

Order your FREE copy now!

for example, to create a checklist for aspecific area. You can then edit the in-formation to include the data you want,or change the formatting as you like.

When you export to Microsoft Excel,the database creates a spreadsheet file(.xls), with the data sorted into rowsand columns. This format allows youto do additional sorting on the taxa inways not available in the database,where you can sort on only one fieldat a time. Microsoft Excel enables youto sort on multiple fields; for example,you can sort according to country, thenfamily, and then category. As theMicrosoft Excel file contains all thedata available in the database for yoursearch results, you can delete columnsor move them around to tailor the datato your needs.

Exporting data also makes it possibleto create compound results from twoor more searches, for example, whenyou would like to combine results forboth endemic and near-endemic taxa,or present the results for a few specificfamilies.

Help File

To make using the database easier, theprogram includes a detailed Help file,as well as pop-up screen tips that aredisplayed when you hold your mousecursor over any item in a dialog boxfor a second or two.

Pop-up screen tips give shortdescriptions of items in a dialog box.

The Help file contains detailed instructions on usingthe database.

“I liked the onlinehelp and the

electronic versionof the book.”

“The mouse tipsthat appear when

you hold yourcursor over an itemon the screen are

very helpful.”

The Help file includes a comprehen-sive Troubleshooting section, whichanswers common queries and prob-lems. Through the Help file, users canalso view an online version of theSouthern African Plant Red Data Listsbook in PDF format.

Data

As mentioned elsewhere, thedatabase contains much moreinformation than the printed book;the following information fields areincluded:AOOBroad IUCN CategoryCommon NameConservation StatusCountryCurrent DeclineDistributionEndemismEOOFamilyFragmentedFull IUCN StatusFuture DeclineHabitatNotesNumber of IndividualsNumber of Populations

Number of SitesPast DeclineTaxon NameThreatsNumber of records

—Marthina MössmerSABONET Consultant


Announcing the new Built-in Or-derly Organised Knowledge de-vice (BOOK).

The BOOK is a revolutionary break-through in technology—no wires, noelectrical circuits, no batteries, andnothing to be connected or switchedon. It’s so easy to use even a child canoperate it. Compact and portable, it canbe used anywhere—even sitting in anarmchair by the fire—yet it is power-ful enough to hold as much informa-tion as a CD-ROM disk. Here’s how itworks…

Each BOOK is constructed ofsequentially numbered sheets of paper(recyclable), each capable of holdingthousands of bits of information. Thesepages are locked together with a cus-tom-fit device called a binder, whichkeeps the sheets in their correct se-quence. Opaque Paper Technology(OPT) allows manufacturers to useboth sides of the sheet, doubling theinformation density and cutting costsin half. While experts are divided onthe prospects of further increases ininformation density, at the momentBOOKs with more information simplyuse more pages. This makes themthicker and harder to carry, and hasdrawn some criticism from the mobilecomputing crowd.

Each sheet is scanned optically. A flickof the finger takes you to the next sheet.The BOOK may be taken up at any timeand used by merely opening it. The

Major TechnologicalBreakthrough!

BOOK never crashes and never needsrebooting, though like other displaydevices it can become unusable ifdropped overboard. The browse fea-ture allows you to move instantly toany sheet, and to move forward orbackward as you wish. Many comewith an index feature, which pinpointsthe exact location of any selected in-formation for instant retrieval.

An optional BOOKmark accessory al-lows you to open the BOOK at the ex-act place you left it in a previous ses-sion—even if the BOOK has beenclosed. BOOKmarks fit universal de-sign standards; so various manufactur-ers can use a single BOOKmark inBOOKs. Conversely, numerousBOOKmarks can be used in a singleBOOK if the user wants to store nu-merous views at once. Only thenumber of pages in the BOOK limitsthe number of BOOKmarks.

You can also make personal notes nextto BOOK entries with an optional pro-gramming tool, the Portable ErasableNib Cryptic Intercommunication Lan-guage Stylus (Pencils).

Portable, durable, and affordable, theBOOK is being hailed as the entertain-ment wave of the future. The BOOK’sappeal seems assured and thousandsof content creators have committed tothe platform. Look for a flood of newtitles soon.

—Source Unknown

ErratumIn the article “Drift Seeds of theMaputaland Coast” in SABONET News7(1), pages 20 and 21, we placed the cap-tion under the wrong drawing and itshould be as follows:

Field drawing of Scaevola plumieri(Goodeniaceae) by Sandie Burrows.Drawn at Milibangalala, MaputoElephant Reserve, Mozambique.

Royal Botanic Gardens

Kew recently donated a

consignment of approxi-

mately 15 sets of the

Flora zambesiaca to SA-

BONET. On behalf of the

SABONET Steering Com-

mittee and the participat-

ing herbaria, the Re-

gional Office sincerely

thanks Kew, and espe-

cially Dr Gerald Pope, for

this generous donation

and for Kew’s continuous

support in the documen-

tation of the Flora zam-

besiaca region’s flora.

SABONET will ensure

that each of the partici-

pating SABONET her-

baria receives a complete

set.

Thank‘Kew’


The Advanced Database and Net-working Course, the last officialcourse of the SABONET Project, washeld in Pretoria, South Africa, from 13to 22 May 2002. Trevor Arnold (NBIData Section) and Franco Alberts(SABONET) developed this coursespecifically to link into the Exit Strat-egy of the Project, namely to providecountries with the necessary tools tobecome self-sufficient in their manage-ment of the PRECIS Specimen Data-base. Fourteen Database Managersfrom all ten countries were trained tomanage and set up networks, as wellas to run queries and manage the da-tabase. The course applied the finish-ing touches to five years of trainingduring which Trevor Arnold preparedand presented eight tailor-madecourses to suit the requirements ofSABONET. The first course was pre-sented in March 1997 and since thenexactly 100 participants from the tenSABONET countries attended thesecourses.

Advanced Database and Networking CourseSABONET

The 2002 course included the follow-ing modules:• Computer network set-up and con-

figuration• General network management• Installing zip-drives and printer

drivers• Troubleshooting and using the Help

function• Running queries• Building reports• Managing the PRECIS database.

The course also included a day trip tothe annual Gauteng Computer Fare atGallagher Estates to provide thecourse participants with the opportu-nity to interact with service providerson hardware and software issues.

Once again the feedback from the par-ticipants was most favourable and theystressed how important this coursewas to ensure sustainability in thefunctioning of the databases at theirinstitutions. We thank the staff of the

SABONET Database Course participants. (Photo: Hans Heilgendorff)

BACK: Dr Stefan Siebert (SABONET), Ms Ludo Matenge (Botswana), Mr Bongani Dlamini (Swaziland), Mr Khotso Kobisi(Lesotho), Mr Shaibu Kananji (Malawi)

MIDDLE: Ms Nyasha Rukazhanga-Noko (SABONET), Mr Donald Mpalika (Malawi), Ms Silke Bartsch (Namibia), Ms Iva Vaz(Mozambique), Mr Andre Dombo (Angola)

FRONT: Ms Monicah Kabelo (Botswana), Ms Florence Nyirenda (Zambia), Ms Fatima Parker (South Africa), Mr AnthonyMapaura (Zimbabwe), Mr Christopher Chapano (Zimbawe), Ms Meeta Nathoo (South Africa)

Trevor Arnold explaining something tothe participants during one of thepractical sessions. (Photo: HansHeilgendorff)

IT Section of South Africa’s NationalBotanical Institute for sparing time intheir busy schedules to prepare coursematerial and present numerouscourses over the years. Their dedica-tion, enthusiasm and patience aregreatly appreciated by all!

—Stefan Siebert &Nyasha Rukazhanga-Noko


In all the botanical institutions ofsouthern Africa, botanists are insome way or another expected to pub-lish the results of the research they areconducting. Why should we publish?For one thing, it is our responsibilityto society—someone out there is pay-ing for our research! As scientists, ouraim is to increase knowledge and toinfluence policy and management;therefore, we need to put scientificfindings out for discussion, to chal-lenge old or current views, and to in-form others (even if this means report-ing negative results). Botanists alsopublish for professional gain, whetherin academia or other professions. Fi-nally, the personal satisfaction of see-ing one’s work published, especiallywhen it stimulates further research, isa motivation to publish.

However, many students avoid pub-lishing in scientific journals, becauseof the effort and difficulties attached,or simply owing to a lack of awarenessof the need to publish. Many prefer topublish in popular literature, whichprovides exposure and recognition forwork done; authors are often also paidfor their articles. It seems to be com-mon for students to focus on complet-ing their thesis and think about pub-lishing afterwards—but sometimes thework is never published at all once thethesis is completed. This is in contrastwith universities in Europe and theUSA, where students are expected topublish their results during their de-gree work. PhDs are increasingly be-ing published in the form of a series ofpapers, published in international sci-entific journals. The situation in south-ern Africa differs between universities,but generally the more traditional ap-proach to writing a thesis prevails.

Notwithstanding which model a uni-versity follows, there is in most casesroom for improvement in the publish-ing culture among students, and aneed for structures to encourage this.The aim of this column is to address afew of the issues that postgraduate stu-dents may find confusing or problem-atic when it comes to publishing theirresearch work in scientific journals,

based on a recent discussion held bypostgraduate students and academicsat the University of Cape Town. I hopetheir views on these issues will encour-age other young botanists to see pub-lishing for what it is, a set of unwrittenrules which were put in place to cre-ate a dynamic scientific environmentof a high standard.

Getting Started: ChoosingYour Journal

Many students tend to publish in localjournals, often because they are unsureof whether their research is of suffi-cient calibre to make it into the inter-national literature. However, whenchoosing a journal in which to publish,it is important to consider how big areadership it reaches and where yourpaper is most likely to get cited byother researchers. This information isreflected in a journal’s impact factor—the higher the impact factor, the morefrequently the papers in it are cited.ISI—the company that publishes theScience Citation Index, Current Con-tents, and the Web of Science—alsocompiles information on impact fac-tors. Their website (www.isinet.com)contains information about their prod-ucts, but users need to subscribe to andpay for their services. The libraries atmajor research institutions shouldhave access to the Web of Science, andstudents should familiarise themselveswith what is available at their institu-tion.

The ISI Web of Science (now underWeb of Knowledge) is the most com-monly used electronic database forfinding references and citations, andit is therefore desirable to publish in ajournal that is included in the ISI data-base so that your paper can be foundin literature searches. The Departmentof Education subsidises universities onthe basis of the number of papers pub-lished in accredited journals, and theselection of these is strongly based onISI ratings. Some South African jour-nals, including the South African Jour-nal of Botany and the South AfricanJournal of Science, are already includedin the database. More southern Afri-

can journals are being reviewed andone hopes more will be included on thedatabase in the near future. Encourag-ingly, the number of South Africanpapers in the internationally accreditedliterature has increased dramatically inthe last few years.

Being familiar with the literature andjournals in your field will give you afeel for the kind of article the differentjournals tend to publish, and where agood place for your own researchwould be. Many researchers aim topublish in the journals that they them-selves read most often, and where thedebates around their research intereststake place. Sometimes, when a pieceof research is particularly applicable ina local context, a local or regional jour-nal may turn out to be a better andmore influential vehicle for the paper.

Some journals charge the author a cer-tain fee per page for publishing a pa-per. These page charges vary greatlyand can be substantial, and are there-fore something to consider when se-lecting journals for publication. Localjournals are more likely to have pagecharges (which creates another incen-tive to publish internationally!), owingto their more limited distribution and,hence, income. Lately there has beenan increase in electronic access to jour-nals. This will reduce publishers’ prof-its, and page charges may well in-crease as a result. Researchers willneed to build this increase into theirresearch funding proposals. However,some funding agencies specificallystate that their funding does not coverpage charges. When a student pub-lishes, the supervisor generally coversthe page charges from research funds,but this should be clarified before apaper is submitted.

Co-authorship

It is accepted that the person who doesthe most work, and in particular thewriting-up of the manuscript for sub-mission, receives first authorship. Buthow do you determine co-authorship?There is no set “rule” regarding theinclusion or exclusion of co-authors,

Young BotanistsPublishing for


and the order in which they are listed.In general, anyone who has contrib-uted to the science has a right to beincluded, in the order of the magnitudeof their contribution. The approachadopted may depend on the institu-tion; for example, some institutionsinsist on the head of the laboratory ordepartment concerned to be includedas last author. On occasion a footnotecan be used to denote that all authorscontributed equally.

Publications are critical to academics,playing a role in their rating, salary, andopportunities for promotion. An im-portant source of publications for aca-demics is their graduate students, andstudents are usually expected to in-clude their supervisors as co-authorson publications arising from their the-sis work. The situation may becomemore complicated where part of a stu-dent’s work has been done independ-ently of the supervisor, or in collabo-ration with other colleagues. Howthese scenarios are resolved dependson the individuals and institutions in-volved.

In the same vein, there is also somedebate over whether people who havesecured the funding—often the super-visor in the case of student research—should automatically be included asco-authors. It is argued thatfundraisers do so on the basis of theirscientific status, which is enhancedthrough publication. In order to con-tinue successfully raising funds, theyneed to publish. Also, they invariablyhad some input into the project pro-posal that was put together to obtainthe funds in the first place. Studentsmay underestimate the effort and in-put required to obtain the researchfunding that eventually supports theirprojects.

The question of authorship is espe-cially important, because the institu-tions listed receive funding from theDepartment of Education for publica-tions in accredited journals. Some uni-versities use this funding as an incen-tive to encourage their staff to publish,though in most cases the money is notdistributed directly back to the authors,but to their faculty or department. Ifauthors from more than one institutionco-author a paper, the money is splitbetween their institutions.

Co-authorship can become a conten-tious issue. As there are no hard andfast rules, there needs to be good com-munication between the different par-

ties involved in the planning, funding,and execution of the research, ideallyat the outset of a project. Should aproblem arise regarding co-author-ship, an academic not involved in thesituation should be able to offer advice.Experience tells that working in largeinternationally-funded groups cangreatly complicate the issue of co-au-thorship. If in doubt, one should err onthe generous side in considering co-authors for inclusion.

Writing, Submitting andReviewing an Article

When preparing your manuscript, en-sure that you have a good start by care-fully following instructions to authors;failure to do so will not endear you tothe editor. Consult a style manual! TheCBE style manual (see references) isvery useful, and should be available inyour library. It covers the whole writ-ing and publishing process and con-tains information on writing conven-tions, abbreviations, and so on. In ad-dition, pass your paper around amongcolleagues prior to submission to helpwith writing style. Remember to writea covering letter, and depending on thejournal, you might have to motivatewhy they should consider your paper.Generally it is best to keep it simple.

Expect rejection! Or ready yourself tomake lots of changes. If your manu-script is rejected, carefully read thecomments before submitting the pa-per to another journal or attemptingto resubmit it to the same journal.When you have been advised to makechanges, make sure the covering let-ter accompanying the revised manu-script addresses each comment andwhether a change has been made andif not, why not. Be prepared to enterinto dialogue with editors. If you feelstrongly, push your view, particularlyif you feel that a reviewer has failed tounderstand your research owing to alack of understanding of a local sys-tem. Note that it is acceptable to askeditors to exclude or include specificreviewers if you have a good reason.If a reviewer has not signed their com-ments then it is assumed they wish toremain anonymous, which they areentitled to.

Students are cautioned in signing overcopyright of papers. Be aware ofwhether this includes the rights to anyphotos, of which you may wish to re-tain ownership. Also, if you are think-ing of publishing your thesis as a book,you should determine who retains

copyright when you publish in a jour-nal and how this affects your chancesof including the work in a book.

Students should attend and presentposters and talks at as many meetingsand conferences as possible. This willhelp them to gain confidence in theirwork, get feedback on their research,meet other people in their field, andfind out what other research is cur-rently happening. Unfortunately, notall students are lucky enough to bewith supervisors who have access tolarge research budgets. These studentsshould keep their eyes open for spon-sorship offered to students at confer-ences. When you are planning to sub-mit work for presentation at a confer-ence, and for inclusion in conferenceproceedings, take advice on how thiswill impact the future publication po-tential of your work.

Conclusion

A lot of very good scientific work isbeing published in popular literature,because students do not have the nec-essary support to go the extra step! Weneed to support our young generationof botanists and to encourage them topublish. We live in a botanist’s para-dise in southern Africa; it is time to in-form the scientific community of theunique issues, fascinating systems, andinteresting plants of this species-richsubcontinent.

—Ms Susanne VetterBotany Department

University of Cape TownPrivate Bag

Rondebosch 7700South Africa

Tel.: 27 21 650 [email protected]

This article was prepared from the proceed-ings of a postgraduate meeting on publishingheld at the University of Cape Town. MsSusanne Vetter and Dr Clare van der Willigenorganised and ran the workshop and MsPippin Anderson prepared the notes.

CBE STYLE MANUAL COMMITTEE. 1983.CBE Style Manual: a guide for authors,editors, and publishers in the biologicalsciences, 5th ed. Council of BiologyEditors, Bethesda, MD.

STYLE MANUAL COMMITTEE OF THECOUNCIL OF BIOLOGY EDITORS.1994. Scientific style and format: the CBEManual for authors, editors, andpublishers, 6th ed. Cambridge UniversityPress, New York.


Carina Haasbroek has been thelongest-serving member of theSABONET Regional Office staff andthe notice of her resignation was ablow for us. The rest of the Secretariatbeing administrators and botanists,we were terrified at the thought thatwe might have to run the project’sexpenditure and budget for a coupleof months. Carina, together with GortHughes, NBI’s Director of Finance,had developed a unique system toserve the specific needs of theSABONET Project. The system linksinto the NBI budget in such a waythat we are part of the NBI, but alsoindependent. This system, when con-sidering financial bookkeeping, im-plies that SABONET does not exist!If you understand this philosophy,you are welcome to apply for the job!

Carina started as the SABONET Fi-nancial Officer at the National Her-barium, Pretoria, on 1 August 1997.Carina was committed to SABO-NET’s objectives, and very enthusi-astic about her work. Over the pastfive years she impressed with herparticularly effective working capac-ity, and her ability to manage thebookkeeping and financial manage-ment of a ten-country, USD 4.7m(R40m), donor-funded project. Notonly has the SABONET Project rec-ognised the quality of her work andmanagement, but the external audi-tors of the project, KPMG, have neverwritten an unfavourable report on thework she has done.

As Financial Officer, Carina attendedvarious SABONET Steering Commit-tee meetings where she presentedthe financial reports of the project ina format even botanists could under-stand! She was also part of threeLogframe Meetings with UNDP,where she played an active role in therevision of the Project logframe andthe allocation of the budget. In addi-tion, Carina also managed the fundsof SABONET’s Plant Red Data Listproject and attended financial man-agement courses of the NETCAB

Further reading

LEISTNER, O. 1997. How to write arti-cles for publication. SABONET News2: 85–86.

LEISTNER, O. 1998. How to write arti-cles for publication (2). SABONETNews 3: 5–7.





LEISTNER, O. 2002. How to review ascientific manuscript. SABONET News7: 36–39.

A full set of copies of these articles, includingthis one, can be ordered from the SABONETRegional Office at no cost. Contact NyashaRukazhanga-Noko at [email protected] send a request to SABONET, NationalBotanical Institute, Private Bag X101, Pretoria0001, South Africa.—Eds

Programme in Harare, Zimbabwe.Her experience with finances alsoenabled her to present a module onCosting and Budgeting duringSABONET Management Courses.

As a person, Carina is always friendlyand willing to assist with any prob-lems. She contributed substantially tothe team spirit of the Secretariat andwill leave her mark on the project.Thanks for your enthusiasm and hardwork, Carina!

Carina will be moving with her hus-band to Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, at the end of June 2002, wherehe will advance his career in engi-neering. We are sure that she willrise to this new challenge with all theinspiration and commitment she hasshown as a member of SABONET.

We wish her the best of luck with herfuture career and will surely miss hera lot!

—Stefan Siebert &Nyasha Rukazhanga-Noko

Farewell Carina…


Sixteen of the 198 species (8%) listedas declared plants in South Africabelong to the Myrtaceae. This groupof plants is unusual in that almost halfof the listed species are regarded asboth a threat to the natural resourcesand as valuable commercial and util-ity trees. Legislation concerning theircontrol, cultivation, and trade are con-tained in the Conservation of Agricul-tural Resources Act (CARA), Act 43 of1983, and amended in 2001

The Myrtaceae is predominantly awoody family of the subtropics andtropics, particularly Asia, America, and

Australia. Leaves are usually opposite,simple, and glandular-dotted. The Eu-calyptus species, however, are unusualin having adult leaves that are appar-ently alternate. Flowers have manyshowy stamens and the ovary is usu-ally inferior. The fruit is usually a berryor capsule and is tipped with the re-mains of the calyx.

Eucalyptus

The genus Eucalyptus has the highestnumber of invasive species in the myr-tle family in South Africa. The euca-lypts are best known for their commer-cial use as timber trees and wind-breaks. They are also cultivated for or-nament, shade, firewood, and honeyproduction. The South African publicis often surprised to hear that somespecies are invasive and a threat to thenatural resources of the country. Thelisted species are• Eucalyptus camaldulensis (Red River

Gum)• E. cladocalyx (Sugar Gum)• E. diversicolor (Karri)• E. grandis (Saligna Gum)• E. lehmannii (Spider Gum)• E. paniculata (Grey Ironbark)• E. sideroxylon (Black Ironbark)

They originate from Australia and areinvading watercourses, forest mar-gins, forest gaps, and fynbos. With theexception of Spider Gum, all are rec-ognised as being valuable commercialor utility trees and may be cultivatedin demarcated areas under controlledconditions. They are prohibited out-side demarcated areas. Spider Gumhas been listed as a Category 1 Plant(prohibited) in the Western Cape, as itis a serious threat to coastal fynbos andits use as a sand-binder and windbreakcould be performed by other, non-in-vasive species. The common name

probably alludes to the spider-like in-florescence with its strange elongated,curved bud caps covering the stamens.

Eucalypts are well known for their abil-ity to use large volumes of water, whichincreases with growing availability ofwater, for example, along water-courses. All the declared eucalypts in-vade watercourses and according toCARA, they should be removed fromthese habitats. Red River Gum, in par-ticular, can form extensive standsalong watercourses and is one of theprimary target species for removal bythe Working for Water programme,South Africa’s largest and most costlyalien plant control programme. RedRiver Gum is the most widespreadeucalypt in Australia, growing alongand near watercourses, and potentiallyhas a very wide distribution in SouthAfrica. Sugar Gum and Karri havebeen cultivated mainly in the WesternCape and it is here that they are inva-sive. Saligna Gum is better suited tothe more tropical regions of KwaZulu-Natal and the northern provinces andis invasive in these regions. GreyIronbark is suited to the warm andhumid summer rainfall zone but littledata is available of its naturalised dis-tribution. Black Ironbark is adapted tothe dry and cold interior; its natural-ised distribution is also likely to bewider than shown on the map.

Myrtle

Leptospermum laevigatum (AustralianMyrtle) has a similar distribution toSpider Gum, invading sandy coastalareas of the Western and Eastern Cape.It is a large, densely branching shrubor small tree up to 8 m high, and is usedas a windbreak and hedge. It is an ag-gressive invader forming dense standsthat exclude indigenous fynbos and

invasive alien plants in Part 4: Myrtaceae

Eucalypts and Myrtles

The distribution of declared myrtaceousspecies in South Africa. Bold dots indicatewhere they are abundant, forming stands.

Eucalyptus lehmannii (Spider Gum), showingspider-like inflorescence.


forest species. In places this invader isreplacing another invasive species,Acacia saligna (Port Jackson), whichhas been brought under bio control bya gall-forming rust fungus (Gordon1999). Fortunately a bio control pro-gramme against Australian Myrtle isprogressing well and should help tocurb its further spread.

Metrosideros

Metrosideros excelsa (New ZealandBottlebrush or Christmas Tree) is apopular ornamental tree and hedgeplant in coastal areas of the WesternCape. In its native New Zealand, it isknown as “Pohutukawa” meaning“spray-sprinkled”, as it rarely grows farfrom the sea or an inland lake. It is sowell adapted to sea conditions thatoysters may even be found onbranches that dip into the sea (Laing& Blackwell 1907)! In South Africa thisspecies is invading hygrophilousfynbos (fynbos on moist peaty soils) atBetty’s Bay and Kleinmond. Similarhabitat types are threatened betweenHermanus and Gordon’s Bay, and onthe Cape Peninsula. Large plants aredifficult to eradicate because they cop-pice when cut and the wood is verytough; roots can penetrate rocky crev-ices and cracks. It produces largequantities of fine, wind-blown seed.Moist conditions are necessary forseed germination and establishment.

Guavas

Psidium guajava (Guava) is a shrub orsmall tree of tropical American origin.It is grown commercially in the warm,frost-free parts of South Africa for itsedible fruit. It is also one of the mostaggressive invasive species in theseregions, rivalling even Lantana camarain the coastal belt of KwaZulu-Nataland the lowveld of Mpumalanga. Itsfruit is eaten by birds and mammals,which spread the seed far and wide. P.guineense (Brazilian Guava) is an or-namental species whose fruits are bit-ter and resinous but still attractive tobirds and other animals, who help to

disperse its seed. Psidium Xdurbanensis is a hybrid between P.guajava and P. guineense and is foundaround Durban and on the southernKwaZulu-Natal coast. It is apparentlysterile and spreads by suckering. P.cattleianum (= P. littorale var. longipes;Strawberry or Cherry Guava), nativeto Brazil, is grown for both ornamentand its edible fruit. This species is in-vasive on the KwaZulu-Natal coast andprobably also in the lowveld ofMpumalanga.

Eugenia

Eugenia uniflora (Pitanga or SurinamCherry) is another Brazilian tree thathas been cultivated for ornament,hedging, and its edible fruit. It is anaggressive invader of riverbanks,coastal bush, forest edges, and forestunderstories in KwaZulu-Natal. It islikely to invade similar habitats inMpumalanga and Limpopo Province.It has been declared a Category 1 Plant(prohibited) in all these regions.Pitanga can be easily distinguishedfrom other Eugenia and Syzygium spe-cies by its very distinctive eight-ribbedfruits, which are yellow turning deepcrimson when ripe.

Syzygium

Syzygium cumini (Jambolan) and S.jambos (Rose Apple) are evergreentrees of Asian origin that have beencultivated as ornamentals and for theiredible fruit. They invade coastal bushand savanna in frost-free areas.Jambolan can easily be confused withthe indigenous S. guineense (WaterPear); however, Jambolan can be dis-tinguished by its longer leaves (up to150 mm) with many closely spaced lat-eral veins, abruptly tapering leaf apex,oval to pear-shaped fruits, and much-branched sub-terminal inflorescence,usually arising from old leaf scars.Jambolan fruits are purplish-blackwhen ripe; those of Rose Apple arecreamy yellow tinged with pink.

southern africa

Eucalyptus diversicolor, showing 1) stem withleaves, flowers, and buds and 2) capsules

Eucalyptus camaldulensis

Eucalyptus grardis

Eucalyptus paniculata

Eucalyptus sideroxylon

Eucalyptus cladocalyx

Eucalyptus diversicolor


Unlisted Species

Three additional myrta-ceous species have beenproposed as declaredplants, but more informa-tion is required before theycan be listed. They areCallistemon rigidus (Stiff-leaved Bottlebrush), a popu-lar ornamental shrub,which has been seen to in-vade fynbos and forestedges, Leptospermum sco-parium (Manuka Myrtle orNew Zealand Tea Tree),and Syzygium paniculatum(=Eugenia myrtifolia; Aus-tralian Brush-cherry). Aus-tralian Brush-cherry is apopular ornamental treeand hedge plant with ediblefruits. Birds in many partsof the country favour it;judging by the prolific seed-ling establishment in urbangardens, it is likely to be-come invasive beyond theurban environment.

Other myrtaceous speciesthat have been recorded asnaturalised in the WesternCape, but have not yet beenproposed as declaredplants, are Melaleuca hy-pericifolia (Red-floweringTea Tree), M. wilsonii (Violetor Wilson’s Honeymyrtle),

Syzygium cumini

Syzygium jambos

Metrosideros excelsa

Psidium x durbanensis

Psidium guajava

Eugenia unifloraPsidium guineense

Psidium cattleianum

Eucalyptus lehmannii

Leptospermum laevigatum

and Callistemon citrinus (LemonBottlebrush).

Next Instalment

The next article in this series deals withthe Solanaceae (potato family), a fam-ily well known for its many edible spe-cies which are important crop plants.However, all 12 declared species, be-longing to the genera of Cestrum,Datura, Nicotiana, and Solanum inSouth Africa, are poisonous to humansand other mammals. They are also im-portant invaders of indigenous inlandand coastal forests, forestry planta-tions, watercourses, and agriculturalcrop lands.

GORDON, A.J. 1999. Biological control ofAustralian myrtle, Leptospermumlaevigatum (J. Gaertn.) F. Muell. AfricanEntomology Memoir 1: 139–143.

HENDERSON, L. 2001. Alien weeds andinvasive plants. Plant ProtectionResearch Institute Handbook No. 12.Agricultural Research Council, Pretoria.

LAING, R.M. & BLACKWELL, E.W. 1907.Plants of New Zealand, 2nd edition.Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd, Wellington.

—Lesley HendersonARC—Plant Protection Research

InstituteStationed at National Botanical

Institute, [email protected]

Myrtaceae:Eucalypts and Myrtles


Declared Plants Belonging to theMyrtaceae in South Africa

N.B. The regulations concerning categories 1, 2 and 3 are briefly summarised here. To avoid any misunderstandingthe reader should consult the full regulations given in the Government Gazette, Vol 429, No. 22166 of 30 March2001 or Henderson (2001).

Category 1: Prohibited; must be controlled, or eradicated where possible.

Eucalyptus lehmannii (only in Western Cape)

Eugenia uniflora (only in Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga, and KwaZulu-Natal)

Leptospermum laevigatum

Category 2: Allowed only in demarcated areas under controlled conditions; prohibited within 30 m of the 1:50-year flood line of watercourses or wetlands.

Eucalyptus camaldulensis

Eucalyptus cladocalyx

Eucalyptus diversicolor

Eucalyptus grandis

Eucalyptus lehmannii (excluding Western Cape)

Eucalyptus paniculata

Eucalyptus sideroxylon

Psidium guajava

Category 3 : No further planting or trade of propagative material allowed; existing plants may remain but mustbe prevented from spreading; prohibited within 30 m of the 1:50-year floodline of watercourses or wetlands.

Eugenia uniflora (excluding Limpopo Province, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal)

Metrosideros excelsa

Psidium cattleianum

Psidium X durbanensis

Psidium guineense

Syzygium cumini

Syzygium jambos

Proposed category 3 plants: More information is required before they can be listed.

Callistemon rigidus

Leptospermum scoparium

Syzygium paniculatum (= Eugenia myrtifolia)


In November 2000, Troos van deMerwe and I travelled to the newlydiscovered Brachystegia woodland inthe Soutpansberg. During this firstvisit I became aware of some interest-ing leaf variation within the lowerwestern section of the Brachystegiawoodland. On closer investigation, itbecame apparent that the Brachystegiaspiciformis leaf form is dominant andthe B. utillis/torrei leaf form is rare. Inaddition various intermediate formswere also observed suggesting that B.utillis/torrei is being assimilated intothe dominant B. spiciformis genome.

Unfortunately, we have so far beenunable to obtain flowering material ofthe typical B. utillis/torrei leaf form,notwithstanding various additionalexpeditions by Troos van de Merweand myself.

In addition, the following species areassociated with a tropical floristic ele-ment, which reaches its southern dis-tribution within the Soutpansberg:Brackenridgea zanguebarica, Millettiastuhlmannii,

computerisation of southern african herbaria living collections: … · 2018. 4. 5. · herbaria...

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