The National Herbarium of Namibia (WIND)
History
Tuesday 28 April 1953 was the day that saw Namibia
move from botanical outer darkness to the enlightenment that (as we all
know) only a National Herbarium can bring. It was on that red-letter day
that discussions between Prof. Dr H. Walter of the Hohenheim University,
Germany, and Dr J.S. Watt, director of Agriculture of South West Africa,
resulted in the establishment of what was to become WIND, the National Herbarium
of Namibia.
A donation of over 1,000 sheets from Prof. Dr Walter provided an embryonic
collection, which the late Willi Giess worked on once a week, travelling
to Windhoek from his farm 50 km away. His pioneering work made an enormous
contribution to Namibian botany; his benevolent spirit still pervades WIND
as we work with his immaculate specimens, labels and notes.
In 1957 Giess was permanently employed as the curator of the herbarium, until he retired in 1975 and Mike Müller became the new curator. At this time WIND occupied the meanest of its many past premises: the “camel stables”—a lowly locality close to where our new building now stands. It was during this time that Prodromus einer Flora von Südwestafrika, our bible and shelter in the taxonomic storm, was published.
The period from 1985 to 1987 were unsettled ones for WIND. Mike Müller spent 1985 and 1986 at Stellenbosch University, working on his Ph.D. In addition to bringing back his doctorate to WIND, he also brought Gillian Maggs, who succeeded him as curator. WIND was closed from 1986 to 1988 and the staff was spread far and wide in temporary premises in Windhoek. The entire collection was packed up and sent to the hell of the old State Hospital cellars, where over-zealous watering of the nearby ever-to-be-cursed lawns caused seepage through the walls, damaging part of the collection, including almost all the Zygophyllaceae.
1989 saw the staff and the collection settled into somewhat rough-and-ready prefab buildings sited where the National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI) is situated now. This was a vast improvement, but it did not last long. In 1993 the staff was scattered again and the collection packed up once more, this time to make way for the construction activities that gave us the NBRI as it is today. For those of us who have only worked in the wonderful new building, the whole history of the herbarium seems like one’s worst nightmares come true. The fact that most of the collection survived is a tribute to the dedication and persistence of both the professional and the technical staff involved.
WIND
Today
Today WIND houses over 73,000 sheets. The present
collection consists largely of Namibian material. Space constraints and
the fact that large tracts of Namibia are very undercollected, restrict
us to the flora of Namibia and just beyond our borders. Collectors, such
as Giess, Volk, Bleissner, De Winter, and Müller are all well represented.
What we perhaps lack is a greater representation of the older historic Namibian
material collected by the likes of Dinter, Range, Story, Fleck, Rautanen,
and Schinz. Any donations/exchanges would be gratefully received.
At
present, the WIND staff consists of three researchers, two technicians,
and two technical assistants. As WIND is the only functional herbarium in
the country, fieldwork and the demand for plant identifications keeps us
pretty busy, with precious little time left for research. Curation of the
collection takes up a large proportion of staff time as well. Nevertheless,
we feel that we have made excellent progress since we moved into the new
building in May 1996. SABONET has played an important role, assisting us
with training and equipment, and we would certainly not be where we are
today without the help of this programme.
Staff
Members
Patricia Craven—Senior Researcher
Plant
inventory of Namibia
Namibian phytogeography
Petalidium
Coleen
Mannheimer—Curator
Mesembryanthemaceae
Silke
Bartsch—Researcher
Crassulaceae
Malvaceae
Esmerialda
Klaassen—Senior Technician
Database Manager
Asteraceae
Aquatic plants
Marianne
Uiras—Technician
Fabaceae
Belinda Polster—Senior Technical Assistant
Helvi Haufiku—Technical Assistant
—by Coleen Mannheimer
SABONET News 6.1: 42
