Luanda Herbarium

The first herbarium created in Angola was LUA, in Huambo Province, in 1941. It was moved to Luanda in 1995, because of worsening conditions and a lack of security. LUBA in Lubango, created in 1958, also later moved to Luanda, and is now known as Luanda Herbarium (LUAI).

Many naturalists took part in botanic missions in Angola. Among them was Mr. Mason who organised the first collecting expedition in 1969 in which 36 samples from Luanda District and Congo were collected. John Kirkwood organised a second collection in Cabinda. John Gossweiler made important collections in every district during the 50 years of his life and created the first phytogeographic map of Angola.

Friedrich Welwitsch explored the littoral zone of Ambriz, Luanda, Cuanza-Norte, the littoral zone of Benguala, Namibe, and Chela Escarpment. He gathered numerous samples with detailed phenologic, edaphic, ecological, and ethnobotanical data.

The engineer Oscar Azancot de Menezes who worked in the Scientific Institute of Scientific Research since 1959 was also an important collector. Many of his specimens can be found in herbaria of Europe and Africa.

Duplicates of almost every specimen collected during colonial times were sent to herbaria, such as Centro de Botanica of IICT of Lisboa, Faculty of Science of Lisbon, and the Universities of Coimbra and Porto.

Plant Collection
Currently, Angolan herbaria contain about 125,000 specimens, of which Luanda Herbarium houses over 38,000 plant specimens. The specimens are arranged in alphabetical order according to Dalla Torre. The Poaceae and Fabaceae are the best represented families.

Activities
The Luanda Herbarium has the following core activities:

Field work activities to increase collections
Encoding specimens using the PRECIS Database
Publishing research papers, Floras and monographs
Elaborating checklists
Surveys of threatened plants
Surveys of economic plants (medicinal, crafts, edible, timber, aromatic and wood fuel)
Taxonomic studies on species deposited at the Gene Bank Centre

Funding
SABONET Project (1996–2003): Most activities at Luanda Herbarium take place because of SABONET funds. It includes sponsorship of training courses in Herbarium Management, Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), Systematics, Threatened Plants, Computer Management (PRECIS database, Red Data List), and plant identification. The herbarium is concentrating on threatened plants and held a first workshop on Red Data List plants on 28 and 29 May 2002.

SECOSUD Project (1999–2001): The project was developed in cooperation with Italy and Malawi, focusing on Useful Plants. They helped us to acquire equipment and sponsored us on a Database training course in Pretoria. BCLME (Large Marine Biodiversity Programme): The herbarium is now part of the BCLME Programme, which includes Angola, Namibia, and South Africa. The herbarium will assist with mangrove ecosystems studies. The programme has not yet begun.

Staff and Research Interests
General Manager and SABONET Coordinator:
Prof. Esperança Costa
Pollen morphology in Genisteae (Argyrolobium and Adenocarpus) from Angola and Mozambique
Many articles about Mangrove Vegetation
More than 10 specific articles about taxonomy in Leguminosae
Working on checklist of Angolan Poaceae

Herbarium Curator:
Ms Teresa Martins
Systematics of vascular plants
Poaceae diversity and taxonomy

Research Officers:
Ms Georgina Neto
Fabaceae systematics
MSc in Portugal (on study leave)

Ms Ana Teresa Silva
Useful Plants

Data Entry Clerks:
Mr André Dombo
Mr Cidálio Marcos

Technical Assistant:
Mr Afonso Calonga

—by Teresa Gonçalves Martins

SABONET News 8.1: 32