Previous front page stories

September 2011: Flora of Zimbabwe^{*Site now continuously updated}

Welcome to the September 2011 update of the Flora of Zimbabwe website!

This update introduces a major change to the way the site works. Mark has written new software which enables the principal authors to add information directly to the site online.

We expect this will have 3 hugely beneficial effects:

The site will be continuously updated. Up to now updates have taken place at approximately 2 monthly intervals.
There will be much faster addition of content. Previously, only Mark was able to add content and this resulted in a very large backlog of material.
The new content will be highlighted so that the site will be worth visiting on a regular basis.

March 2011: Nine years old

On March 10th 2002, the first version of this site was uploaded to the web, initially at a free Geocities web page. Since then, what started out as a draft list of Zimbabwean plants has developed into a fully fledged online flora of Zimbabwe (and also of Mozambique)

There has been a lot of change during those 9 years - for example Geocities has gone - and there is more online information about tropical African plants.

Our Zimbabwe project is approaching the halfway mark - in terms of providing species with either an image or a description. This may mean that we have at least a further 9 years to go - and probably more as we have done the easier half of the flora and the rest may take longer.

In order for us to complete the project, we need some kind of sponsorship or funding to enable to us to work full-time on it.

Is there anyone out there who can help?

Mark Hyde

March 2011: See our home page in Belorussian!

Thanks to Martha Ruszkowski for this translation of our home page into Belorussian.

February 2011: African Plants Database

The African Plants Database (APD) is based at the Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques in Geneva, Switzerland. It has a comprehensive database on African plants covering North Africa, tropical and southern Africa and Madagascar.

Following an exchange of species reference numbers with the APD we now have links from each of our species pages to the relevant APD species page and to our species pages from the APD.

For example, this is the APD page for Cordia africana; the two links to our Zimbabwe and Mozambique pages respectively may be found under the 'More info on' subheading. Conversely, each of our pages links back to the APD.

We are very pleased with this development which we hope will benefit both websites.

December 2010: New logos on the front page

Regular readers of this site may notice the appearance of 4 new logos on the right hand side of this home page.

These represent our links to organisations (the National Herbarium of the Netherlands, NCB Naturalis, Jstor and Kew) who have assisted our project or with whom we have a working relationship.

Currently, further projects are in the pipeline and we hope to be able to announce new areas of collaboration in the near future.

October 2010: Flora of Zimbabwe Project gets free access to JSTOR®

We are pleased to announce that, since June 2010, the Flora of Zimbabwe project has had free access to JSTOR through the African Access Initiative for not-for-profit organisations based in Africa.

JSTOR (short for Journal Storage) is a web-based online system for archiving academic journals, founded in 1995... Read more

August 2010: Khami Ruins - a new location added

Bart has added a new location page for Khami Ruins near Bulawayo, which we visited on the way back from Hwange National Park on 13 January 2010. In many ways, the ruins are like a mini-Matobo with many trees characteristic of that national park. Two images follow below.

June 2010: Over 7000 images on the Zimbabwe flora site

Another landmark has been passed with the number of images on the site having just exceeded 7000.

For those who wish to see who has contributed the most images, click on this page.

March 2010: Another old but new species for the Zimbabwe Checklist (Thunbergia schimbensis)

Not so long ago, when we searched SRGH for a species we had found in Mozambique, we discovered that this plant also had been recorded from Zimbabwe, although it had not been included in any checklist (see note 9).

History, as it often does, now seems to repeat itself.

With the gratefully acknowledged help of KEW experts Iain Darbyshire and Kaj Vollesen, ... (continue reading)

February 2010: Barleria capitata

On our visit to Hwange National Park in January, the Zimbabwe Flora team (Bart, Petra and Mark) came across this extraordinary plant from the genus Barleria.

The unusual things about it are firstly the extremely long, up to 10 cm, corolla tube and secondly the almost symmetric corolla lobes.

Both features are well demonstrated in the two photographs. Full details of the species and records may be found on the B. capitata page.

February 2010: Zimbabwe flora Facebook group

The Zimbabwe flora group on Facebook has now been in existence for one and a half months and already we have 120 members; thanks largely to Mark Brightman. Discussions have tended to be intermittent, but there has been a good supply of images to identify in the last few days. If you would like to sign up, click on the blue Facebook logo.

December 2009: Wild Flowers of the Victoria Falls Area

A new book, Wild Flowers of the Victoria Falls Area by Helen Pickering and Evelyn Roe, has been published.

The book provides coloured photographs of 220 species of the more common herbaceous plants and small shrubs found in the Victoria Falls area. Continue reading ...

December 2009: Zimbabwe flora is now on Facebook

Zimbabwe flora now has a group on Facebook. Click on the image below to go to the group. We intend to use the group as a discussion forum on the Zimbabwe flora in general and the website in particular.

Archives