The Botswana National Herbarium
The Botswana National Herbarium (GAB) was established in 1975 as a Division of the National Museum and Art Gallery. The major role players during its formative stages were Mr A. Campbell, the then Director of the National Museum, and Mr P.A. Smith, who was for a long time with the Department of Water Affairs. The initial collection of the National Herbarium comprised 3,000 plant specimens obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, which included those of O.B. Miller and L. Hansen.
During this time, owing to a lack of trained personnel within the National Museum, volunteers, such as Mrs Janet Barnes, Dr L.M. Turton, (then a chemistry lecturer at the University of Botswana) and Mrs Edna M. Norman, a retired high school botany teacher, undertook curation of these specimens. Dr Wayne Handlos, a botanist employed in the Biology Department of the University of Botswana, provided professional assistance relating to plant identification, nomenclature, and mounting, particularly of the earlier collections transferred to the National Herbarium from the Ministry of Agriculture. Over the next few years, large numbers of plant specimens were received notably from Mr P.A. Smith, Mrs A. Kreulen (herself a professional botanist), and Sr K. Camerik.
In 1975, Mrs Ellen Kalake was appointed as an assistant at the National Herbarium and learned the basics of botany, plant-identification, and specimen mounting from Mrs Barnes and Dr Turton. She was later sent to the Herbarium at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew in London, where she gained hands-on experience of herbarium management.
In 1978, the National Museum was granted a plot of land and the remains of a late 19th-century building situated in the Gaborone Village, a suburb of the capital city. The main building was renovated and turned into an Archaeology Centre and the lesser building was extended and used to house the herbarium collections. The National Museum applied for an extension to the original award and was granted extra land, eventually amounting to some four hectares. This additional land was to be used as a botanical garden. In 1988, a professional botanist, Dr B.J. Hargreaves, was appointed as Senior Curator of Natural History, took overall charge of the National Herbarium, and began to establish the botanical garden.
Functions
From its inception, the National Herbarium was
conceived as a unit with a clearly defined purpose, comprising the following
functions:
Providing
an identification service by matching unidentified plants with named specimens
held in the collection. The Forensic Science Laboratory, University of Botswana
research students and lecturers, the Ministry of Agriculture's range ecology
department, plant protection division, non-governmental organisations, such
as veld product research, private individuals, and others use this service.
Serving
as a reference collection for plant taxonomy and other botany courses.
Collecting
information on local names and uses of plants.
Caring
for, and maintaining the national collection for posterity.
Undertaking
taxonomic research.
Collecting
material from the field and distributing duplicates.
Giving
a general idea of the distribution of plants in Botswana.
The National Herbarium has always lacked the capacity to execute all of these listed services and this was mainly due to lack of trained personnel. As mentioned, it was not until 1988 that a professional was appointed to head the National Herbarium. Even then, most of his activities were restricted to routine administrative duties whilst, whenever possible, adding to the collection.
The
Herbarium today
There are about 15,000 processed plant specimens
compared with the original 3,000 that initiated the National Herbarium—an
annual increase of about 520 specimens over the past 23 years. In addition,
a substantial amount of unprocessed material waits to be mounted, labelled,
documented, computerised, and filed. The process of plant identification
is a continuous one, as it depends on a continual provision of plant specimens.
The National Herbarium is able to undertake the following:
Identifying
specimens for the public
Curating
the collection
Collecting
material from the field
Collecting
information on local names and uses of plants
The staff at the National Herbarium consists of one trained person (Queen Turner) whose energy and time is expended on routine managerial duties, the identification of plant specimens, and the computerisation of the collection. Whilst the present personnel situation is understandable, an increase in the number of trained personnel would go a long way to bringing the National Herbarium on par with other herbaria in the region and even internationally. An improvement in the quality and number of personnel is likely to lead to quality research and production of information. This will allow the National Herbarium to play its role within society in a number of ways, increasing public awareness of the importance of a herbarium by conducting research on plant species and their medicinal and economic uses. This should improve perceptions and clear away misconceptions about the herbarium and its relevance within society.
The
Future
At present, various departments administer legislation
measures that are intended to protect plants. We do not have a single and
well-thought out law intended to protect plants in general. Enforcement
of legislation would become easier if it were administered by the herbarium,
for the herbarium.
We need a herbarium policy that will set out the division’s mission statement and the route through which set goals are to be achieved. Perhaps this lack is merely the result of the absence of an overall National Museum, Monuments and Art Gallery policy statement. The lack of a herbarium policy leads to a problem in assessing productivity and continuity in the work of the National Herbarium. With a herbarium policy, we can look forward to a gradual improvement. Meanwhile, we shall continue to do our best to welcome visiting researchers to use our facilities and will greatly appreciate constructive criticism of our efforts.
—by Queen Turner
SABONET
News 3.3: 160
