National
Plant Expedition in Lesotho
The main objective of the SABONET-Lesotho expedition was to capture all flowering plants per season in order to equip the herbaria with quality specimens and photos for plant identification guides.
Among the equipment that was used when collecting herbarium specimens, cameras were essential to interpret features of the plants and characteristics of the localities. Some under-collected places in four ecological zones—Lowlands, Foothills, Mountains, and the Senqu Valley of Lesotho—were covered.
However,
the Mohale Rescue Mission collection record that covers 75% of the specimens
recently collected is not included here. During these expeditions, live
plants that were collected were planted in the Roma and Katse Botanical
Gardens, and the specimens were shared equally by the three herbaria of
Lesotho. An interesting thing about these expeditions is that we managed
to make collections the whole year round and some species that had not previously
been recorded from Lesotho were discovered, such as Calamagrostis epigeios
var. capensis and Stapelia leendertziae.
Thaba
Putsoa
Thaba Putsoa (Blue Mountain) is in the Maseru
District along the mountain road to Mohale Dam. It is about 40 km from Roma
and its altitude ranges from 2,500 m to 2,902 m. Thaba Putsoa is climatically
one of the coolest places in Lesotho. In summer, water oozes from the wetlands
and seepage areas down towards the streams until it gets to Makhaleng and
Jorodane rivers. The predominant vegetation in Thaba Putsoa is grass and
mixed shrubs in the sheltered valleys. Among the plants that beautify the
entire area in summer are species of Kniphofia, Sutherlandia,
Dierama, Pentaschistis setifolia, and Merxmuellera
macowanii.
Some of the plant species that were collected from Thaba Putsoa include Sutherlandia montana, Ruschia sp., Muraltia flanaganii, Erica algida, Merxmuellera macowanii, and Valeriana capensis.
Qiloane
Falls
Qiloane Falls is also found in the Maseru District
near Machache Mountain and Molimo Nthuse Pass (which means “God help me”).
Qiloane offers wonderful scenery for tourists because of the beautiful waterfall
and mysterious little hills that are symbolized by the Basotho national
hat. The vegetation type of Qiloane is thickets of trees, such as Leucosidea,
Rhamnus, Diospyros, Myrsine, and Rhus.
Some of the plant species we collected include Kniphofia northiae, Xerophyta viscosa, Alepidea amatymbica, Galtonia regalis, Ranunuculus baurii, and Watsonia densiflora.
Guthria capense, known from only one locality in Sehlabathebe National Park, was found in a big colony on the southfacing slopes, and another three localities were mapped out during monitoring transects in Mohale catchments near Ha Mahana village and above Leropong in the Jorodane Valley.
Semonkong
Semonkong is in the Maluti Mountains at the
end of the Thaba Putsoa Range. Maletsuinyane/Le Bihan Falls is one of the
biggest waterfalls in southern Africa and attracts tourists from all over
the world. The altitude of Semonkong ranges from 2,000 m to 2,955 m above
sea level. Water flows from the mountains and hills that surround Semonkong
town down to Maletsuinyane River. Kniphofia caulescens is very showy
along the streams, on seepage areas, mountain slopes, and on the wetlands
in summer. The predominant vegetation type of Semonkong is a variety of
grass species with Erica species in the mountains. Semonkong Gorge
has a mixed shrub vegetation type, including Rhus sp., Diospyros
sp., Rhamnus prinoides, Myrsine africana, and Atemisia
afra.
We collected the following species here: Disa fragrans, Hyobanche sanguinea, Helichrysum album, Helichrysum retortoides, Corycium nigrescens, and Harveya pulchra.
Mokema
Mokema is located in the lowlands, about 10
km from Roma in the Maseru District. Cropland and residential sites occupy
most of this area. The lithology of the entire area is sandstone with the
exception of two basaltic dykes that cut across cropland area in different
directions.
Mokema
was identified as an under-collected area and we focused our collecting
here. Very interesting species were found; some of them had not even been
recorded in Lesotho, for example Gnidia woodii.
Some of the other species collected include Anacampseros subnuda, Brunsvigia grandiflora, Chironia palustris, Erica cerinthoides, and Ophioglossum sp.
Ha-Ntsi
Some of the more interesting plant species that
were collected in the Ha-Nitsi area include Cephalaria zeyheriana,
Erosema saligna, Halleria lucida, Haemanthus humilis,
Pentanisia prunelloides, and Tritonia fineata.
—by Khotso Kobisi
SABONET News 7.3: 249
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