Recovering Plant Data for Guinea-Bissau: Implications for Biodiversity Knowledge of West Africa
The rich plant diversity that characterizes the West African Region and the inherent knowledge of their flora and vegetation has been the backbone of scientific explorations during the past centuries. The evolution of botanical knowledge on Guinea-Bissau, throughout the 16th and 20th centuries is re...
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MDPI AG
2018-10-01
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| Series: | Diversity |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/10/4/109 |
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| author | Maria M. Romeiras Maria Cristina Duarte Javier Francisco-Ortega Luís Catarino Philip Havik |
| author_facet | Maria M. Romeiras Maria Cristina Duarte Javier Francisco-Ortega Luís Catarino Philip Havik |
| author_sort | Maria M. Romeiras |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The rich plant diversity that characterizes the West African Region and the inherent knowledge of their flora and vegetation has been the backbone of scientific explorations during the past centuries. The evolution of botanical knowledge on Guinea-Bissau, throughout the 16th and 20th centuries is reviewed. We present and discuss floristic data collected by scientific expeditions between the mid-1700s to 1974, when the Portuguese colonial period ended. Expeditions undertaken by French naturalists provided some of the earliest plant collections. A list of herbarium specimens collected by the French naturalist Jardin, in the Bijagós Islands in ca. 1847–1858 is presented here for the first time, while in the late 1800s some Portuguese naturalists also explored Guinea-Bissau. During the colonial period (1915–1974), Gomes e Sousa published the first comprehensive study of the territory’s flora while Espírito Santo assembled the largest plant collection. Our review applies a multi-disciplinary perspective to fill important lacuna regarding biodiversity knowledge of this under-researched West African country. It constitutes the first study tracing the long term evolution of knowledge on Guinea Bissau's plant diversity, which provides the basis for understanding trends and research priorities, in particular in conservation and botanical fields. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T06:17:57Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-3ebf4367479d4b89a40b9fea1a02f441 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-2818 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T06:17:57Z |
| publishDate | 2018-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Diversity |
| spelling | doaj.art-3ebf4367479d4b89a40b9fea1a02f4412022-12-22T02:58:45ZengMDPI AGDiversity1424-28182018-10-0110410910.3390/d10040109d10040109Recovering Plant Data for Guinea-Bissau: Implications for Biodiversity Knowledge of West AfricaMaria M. Romeiras0Maria Cristina Duarte1Javier Francisco-Ortega2Luís Catarino3Philip Havik4Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, 1349-017 Lisbon, PortugalCentre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisbon, PortugalInternational Center for Tropical Botany, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USACentre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, 1749-016 Lisbon, PortugalCentre for Global Health and Tropical Medicine, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 1349-006 Lisbon, PortugalThe rich plant diversity that characterizes the West African Region and the inherent knowledge of their flora and vegetation has been the backbone of scientific explorations during the past centuries. The evolution of botanical knowledge on Guinea-Bissau, throughout the 16th and 20th centuries is reviewed. We present and discuss floristic data collected by scientific expeditions between the mid-1700s to 1974, when the Portuguese colonial period ended. Expeditions undertaken by French naturalists provided some of the earliest plant collections. A list of herbarium specimens collected by the French naturalist Jardin, in the Bijagós Islands in ca. 1847–1858 is presented here for the first time, while in the late 1800s some Portuguese naturalists also explored Guinea-Bissau. During the colonial period (1915–1974), Gomes e Sousa published the first comprehensive study of the territory’s flora while Espírito Santo assembled the largest plant collection. Our review applies a multi-disciplinary perspective to fill important lacuna regarding biodiversity knowledge of this under-researched West African country. It constitutes the first study tracing the long term evolution of knowledge on Guinea Bissau's plant diversity, which provides the basis for understanding trends and research priorities, in particular in conservation and botanical fields.http://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/10/4/109plant diversitybotanical historyWest Africascientific collectionsnaturalistsAfrican Flora |
| spellingShingle | Maria M. Romeiras Maria Cristina Duarte Javier Francisco-Ortega Luís Catarino Philip Havik Recovering Plant Data for Guinea-Bissau: Implications for Biodiversity Knowledge of West Africa Diversity plant diversity botanical history West Africa scientific collections naturalists African Flora |
| title | Recovering Plant Data for Guinea-Bissau: Implications for Biodiversity Knowledge of West Africa |
| title_full | Recovering Plant Data for Guinea-Bissau: Implications for Biodiversity Knowledge of West Africa |
| title_fullStr | Recovering Plant Data for Guinea-Bissau: Implications for Biodiversity Knowledge of West Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Recovering Plant Data for Guinea-Bissau: Implications for Biodiversity Knowledge of West Africa |
| title_short | Recovering Plant Data for Guinea-Bissau: Implications for Biodiversity Knowledge of West Africa |
| title_sort | recovering plant data for guinea bissau implications for biodiversity knowledge of west africa |
| topic | plant diversity botanical history West Africa scientific collections naturalists African Flora |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/1424-2818/10/4/109 |
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