﻿New species of Asclepias (Apocynaceae), Baphia (Leguminosae), Cochlospermum (Bixaceae) and Endostemon (Lamiaceae) from the Kalahari sands of Angola and NW Zambia, with one new combination in Vangueria (Rubiaceae)

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Abstract

Four new species are described from central and eastern Angola and adjacent NW Zambia. All occur in Kalahari sand savannas rich in endemic and more widely distributed geoxylic suffrutices. Despite being known from very few collections, the conservation status of one of these new species is assessed as Least Concern, as these grasslands are nutrient-poor, are in remote sparsely populated areas, and are not threatened with conversion to agriculture. The remaining three are treated as Data Deficient. In addition, one new combination is provided for Ancylanthos rubiginosus Desf. under Vangueria as V. rubiginosa (Desf.) Lantz is an illegitimate later homonym. We also make orthographic corrections to specific epithets commemorating Ilse von Nolde, a collector who made important collections from Quela in Malange in the 1930s.

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Most cited references 59

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International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants

Nicholas Turland, John H. Wiersema, Fred R. Barrie … (2018)

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Savanna fire and the origins of the 'underground forests' of Africa.

T. Davies, Kowiyou Yessoufou, Patrick H Daru … (2014)

The origin of fire-adapted lineages is a long-standing question in ecology. Although phylogeny can provide a significant contribution to the ongoing debate, its use has been precluded by the lack of comprehensive DNA data. Here, we focus on the 'underground trees' (=geoxyles) of southern Africa, one of the most distinctive growth forms characteristic of fire-prone savannas. We placed geoxyles within the most comprehensive dated phylogeny for the regional flora comprising over 1400 woody species. Using this phylogeny, we tested whether African geoxyles evolved concomitantly with those of the South American cerrado and used their phylogenetic position to date the appearance of humid savannas. We found multiple independent origins of the geoxyle life-form mostly from the Pliocene, a period consistent with the origin of cerrado, with the majority of divergences occurring within the last 2 million yr. When contrasted with their tree relatives, geoxyles occur in regions characterized by higher rainfall and greater fire frequency. Our results indicate that the geoxylic growth form may have evolved in response to the interactive effects of frequent fires and high precipitation. As such, geoxyles may be regarded as markers of fire-maintained savannas occurring in climates suitable for forests. © 2014 The Authors New Phytologist © 2014 New Phytologist Trust.

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Exploring the floristic diversity of tropical Africa

Marc S. M. Sosef, Gilles Dauby, Anne Blach-Overgaard … (2017)

Background Understanding the patterns of biodiversity distribution and what influences them is a fundamental pre-requisite for effective conservation and sustainable utilisation of biodiversity. Such knowledge is increasingly urgent as biodiversity responds to the ongoing effects of global climate change. Nowhere is this more acute than in species-rich tropical Africa, where so little is known about plant diversity and its distribution. In this paper, we use RAINBIO – one of the largest mega-databases of tropical African vascular plant species distributions ever compiled – to address questions about plant and growth form diversity across tropical Africa. Results The filtered RAINBIO dataset contains 609,776 georeferenced records representing 22,577 species. Growth form data are recorded for 97% of all species. Records are well distributed, but heterogeneous across the continent. Overall, tropical Africa remains poorly sampled. When using sampling units (SU) of 0.5°, just 21 reach appropriate collection density and sampling completeness, and the average number of records per species per SU is only 1.84. Species richness (observed and estimated) and endemism figures per country are provided. Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Ivory Coast and Liberia appear as the botanically best-explored countries, but none are optimally explored. Forests in the region contain 15,387 vascular plant species, of which 3013 are trees, representing 5–7% of the estimated world’s tropical tree flora. The central African forests have the highest endemism rate across Africa, with approximately 30% of species being endemic. Conclusions The botanical exploration of tropical Africa is far from complete, underlining the need for intensified inventories and digitization. We propose priority target areas for future sampling efforts, mainly focused on Tanzania, Atlantic Central Africa and West Africa. The observed number of tree species for African forests is smaller than those estimated from global tree data, suggesting that a significant number of species are yet to be discovered. Our data provide a solid basis for a more sustainable management and improved conservation of tropical Africa’s unique flora, and is important for achieving Objective 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation 2011–2020. In turn, RAINBIO provides a solid basis for a more sustainable management and improved conservation of tropical Africa’s unique flora. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12915-017-0356-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Author and article information

Contributors

David J. Goyder:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3449-7313

Role: ConceptualizationRole: Writing - original draftRole: Investigation

Nina Davies: Role: Writing - review and editing

Amândio Gomes:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7812-5490

Role: Writing - review and editing

Francisco Maiato P. Gonçalves:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8859-7491

Role: Writing - review and editing

Paulina Meller:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6711-4385

Role: Writing - review and editing

Alan J. Paton:

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6052-6675

Role: Writing - review and editing

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PhytoKeys

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PhytoKeys

Journal ID (publisher-id): 3

Journal ID (index): urn:lsid:arphahub.com:pub:F7FCE910-8E78-573F-9C77-7788555F8AAD

Journal ID (aggregator): urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:66878968-5FA3-48E4-A0CA-743FBBB0315D

Title: PhytoKeys

Publisher: Pensoft Publishers

ISSN (Print): 1314-2011

ISSN (Electronic): 1314-2003

Publication date Collection: 2023

Publication date (Electronic): 20 September 2023

Volume: 232

Pages: 145-166

Affiliations

[1 ] Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, TW9 3AE, London, UK National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, Wild Bird Trust Hogsback South Africa

[2 ] National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, Wild Bird Trust, Hogsback, South Africa Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew London United Kingdom

[3 ] Institute for Plant Science and Microbiology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany University of Hamburg Hamburg Germany

[4 ] Natural Science Faculty of Agostinho Neto University, Luanda, Angola Natural Science Faculty of Agostinho Neto University Luanda Angola

[5 ] Herbarium of Lubango, ISCED-Huíla, Lubango, Angola Herbarium of Lubango, ISCED-Huíla Lubango Angola

Author notes

Corresponding author: David J. Goyder ( d.goyder@ 123456kew.org)

Academic editor: Peter Bruyns

Author information

David J. Goyder https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3449-7313

Manfred Finckh https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2186-0854

Amândio Gomes https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7812-5490

Francisco Maiato P. Gonçalves https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8859-7491

Paulina Meller https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6711-4385

Alan J. Paton https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6052-6675

Article

Publisher ID: 110110

DOI: 10.3897/phytokeys.232.110110

PMC ID: 10534249

PubMed ID: 37780180

SO-VID: 18b2216a-c46e-4417-b75a-687325e6accf

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

History

Date received : 26 July 2023

Date accepted : 09 September 2023

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