The Peter Smith Herbarium
The University of Botswana’s main herbarium is based in its Department of Biology in Gaborone. A new herbarium has been established at the University’s Okavango Research Centre (ORC) in Maun. It consists of a specialised collection concentrating on the vegetation of the Okavango delta and northern Botswana.
The basis of the herbarium is formed by a private donation of over 5,000 specimens, comprising approximately 1,200 species collected in the Okavango delta for over thirty years by botanist Peter A. Smith. He donated his lifetime’s work to the University of Botswana to make the collection available to the scientific community and to house it in Maun permanently. The main purpose of the collection is to support botanical research in the biodiversity and ecology of this unique southern African wetland habitat, which currently comes under increased pressure from proposed water extractions in the Okavango River Basin. The main function of the collection in the Peter Smith Herbarium will be to serve as a reference collection for visiting scientists. It will be supervised and maintained by ORC staff. Although the herbarium is not yet in operation, the mounting of specimens and the completion of an inventory are near at hand. It is hoped that the information will be computerised and be included in the PRECIS database. This means that the herbarium will be functional by June 1997. The Herbarium is supported through the University of Botswana, a GEF grant and through SABONET.
—by Dr Elmar Veenendaal
