Guide to bryophytes of sub-Saharan Africa (GBA)

General introduction

Objectives

The two main objectives of the project are:

• to provide an illustrated guide to the families and genera of bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, and to distribute this widely in the study area;
• to provide a starting point and framework for a future full bryophyte flora of the area.

Background

The lack of taxonomic literature, or the difficulty of obtaining it, faces those wishing to study bryophytes in tropical Africa. Whilst this is, of course, a rather common experience in the tropics, the difficulties are perhaps more acute in Africa, since there are no modern bryophyte floras for any tropical African country, and the only one in the whole continent is Bob Magill's flora of the mosses of southern Africa, which is still to be completed. Much of the taxonomic literature is scattered and, for some groups, old and of limited value for identifying specimens. Identification of tropical African bryophytes can therefore be difficult enough even where there are good libraries and herbaria, as we have been painfully aware while working through collections made on our British Bryological Society (BBS) expeditions to Malawi and Uganda. But for those working in tropical Africa without the benefit of such facilities, the difficulties of studying bryophytes can be insuperable. It is against this background that we determined to find some way of bridging the gap.

In fact, the urgent need for a bryophyte flora covering the whole of sub-Saharan Africa has long been recognised, and in 1984 the late Prof. P.W. Richards proposed that a Bryologia Africana be produced - a full bryophyte flora of sub-Saharan Africa. Though good progress has been made in some parts of the world on similarly comprehensive floras, large-scale floras have often taken decades to produce. Bryologia Africana has never got beyond producing a guide for contributors, partly because bryology in Africa is in a worse state than anywhere else in the tropics. Though a full bryophyte flora is clearly needed, in the present state of African bryophyte taxonomy, a flora to genus level is the only realistic short term alternative.

Similarly the bryophyte volumes of Flora Neotropica have been extremely slow in arriving, and as an independent initiative, Rob Gradstein and Steve Churchill (Gradstein et al. 2001) have produced an illustrated 'Guide to bryophytes of tropical America' - a description of all the families and genera in the area, with some indication of species and distribution,  published by New York Botanical Garden. Each genus occupies just less than a page, including the illustration.

The aim of our project is to produce a similar generic flora for Africa, with each family and genus described and illustrated, and covering all of sub-Saharan Africa, including Madagascar and nearby Indian Ocean islands (but excluding islands to the south of the mainland). As there are 120 families and 497 genera in sub-Saharan Africa, and a quarter of these do not occur in the neotropics, this is quite a considerable task, as often even genera and families common to the two areas are not represented by the same species, and so most of the illustrations also don't apply. Nevertheless, we are starting from a document that has already been validated, albeit for a different continent. The two authors of the neotropical volume will be included as authors of the African version, and Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) would like to publish it.

We would have liked to field-test the flora in selected locations in Africa as part of an 'introduction to bryophytes' workshop, in the anticipation that this would provide an essential stimulus to bryological study in Africa. Unfortunately funding was not available for this.

The project will be in two main stages.

Stage 1: producing the first draft text and illustrations for the guide. Having started in April 1999, we had hoped to conclude this stage during 2004, but only 60% had been completed by this date, and this is now open-ended, with GBAonline as a web-based replacement showing the current progress. Over 20 authors are involved.

Stage 2: publication and distribution of the book. We are hoping MBG will be able to publish it, when all contributions are finally complete. Subject to funding, we hope to distribute copies free of charge to identified locations in Africa (e.g. universities, botanical gardens, conservation organisations).

The book will be edited by Brian O'Shea (mosses) and Martin Wigginton (hepatics).