Pretoria National Herbarium (PRE)
The National Herbarium, Pretoria, was founded in 1903 and has gradually grown into the largest herbarium in Africa. The earlier history of the National Herbarium has recently been well documented by Denise Fourie (1998), an ex-liaison officer of the former Botanical Research Institute. Today, the herbarium houses about 1.2 million plant specimens of which 780,000 are computerised. We primarily focus our collections on southern Africa (South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and Botswana), although we have substantial collections from the rest of Africa and a small collection from other continents. This collection expands daily through collecting efforts of our staff, as well as specimens we receive as gifts, or as part of our exchange program with 72 other herbaria all over the world.
Staff
The National Herbarium has 38 staff members
who each play an integral part in the effective functioning of the team.
The staff can be divided into three groups, each with well-defined roles:
Auxiliary
Services Officers
This group forms the backbone of all activities
in the herbarium. They often function behind the scenes to ensure that activities
run smoothly.They perform a wide variety of tasks:
Kevin Naicker—herbarium administration
Grace Nkoane and Godfrey Lephakapreparation—packaging and stores
Paulus Sebothoma—plant identification co-ordination
Maud Cloete—label typing
Millissa Heymann—loans and exchanges
Cuthbert Makgakga—laboratory assistance
Sam Makgakga, Wilson Kgaditsi and Johannes Phahla—mounting
Alice Masombuka, Sonnyboy Mothogoana, Julie Ready, and Christina Steyn—physical curation
Physical curation has to do with the appearance of the collection: the quality of genus and species folders, cupboard lists, distribution maps, literature, and the “quick guide”
Scientific
Officers
Marie Jordaan, Mactavish Makwarela, Jean Meyer,
Tandiwe Nkonki, Noluthando Netnou, Solomon Nkoana, Lionel Riddles, Shirley
Smithies, and Janine Victor play a very active role in providing a plant
identification service and maintaining a high level of scientific curation
of our collection. Many of these staff members have additional responsibilities,
such as:
J. Meyer—bio-prospecting project
M. Jordaan—trees of southern Africa
S. Nkoana—SABONET
J. Victor—Rutaceae research
Scientists
and their research
Drs John and Heidi Anderson—fossil plants
Jacques van Rooy and Dr Sarie Perold—bryophytes
Dr Hugh Glen—exotic and cultivated plants
René Glen—water plants
Clare Archer—Cyperaceae
Lyn Fish—Poaceae
Priscilla Burgoyne—Mesembryanthemaceae
C. Bredenkamp—Thymeleaceae
Dr Robert Archer—Celastraceae and Euphorbiaceae
Mienkie Welman—Solanaceae and Convolvulaceae
Elizabeth Retief—Boraginaceae
Paul
Herman, M. Welman, E. Retief, and M. Koekemoer—Asteraceae
Although the above-mentioned researchers each have their specialist fields,
they are also responsible for keeping up-to-date with the latest taxonomic
research and maintenance of the Taxon PRECIS database. This database covers
the entire southern African flora and contains information on names, synonyms,
and literature for all taxa.
The National Herbarium recently also became involved in a Millennium Seed Bank project funded by Kew Gardens (England). Erich van Wyk is responsible for collecting seeds of South African plants that will be deposited in the seed bank at Wakehurst Place.
Several other cost centres (departments) are also housed in the same building as the herbarium:
Publications
and Support Services
Administration
Headed by Louisa Liebenberg and supported by
13 staff members, this section is responsible for cleaning, finances, personnel,
postal and telephonic administration, and building maintenance.
Data
Management
This section is headed by Trevor Arnold and
supported by 10 staff members with their main responsibilities being for
PRECIS, computer network support, specimen encoding, and MEDBASE.
Library
The Mary Gunn Library has two staff members:
Estelle Potgieter and Annelise Fourie. It is the largest botanical library
in Africa. Read more.
Publications
and Support Services
Maretha Joubert manages 10 staff members, who
are responsible for technical publications, graphic support, botanical art,
photography, and the bookshop.
Research
Directorate
Prof. Gideon Smith (Director: Research) and
Dr Maureen Wolfson (Deputy Director: Education and Research Support) and
their secretaries are the only members of the NBI (now
SANBI)
directorate
that have their offices in Pretoria. All other members operate from our
Head Office at Kirstenbosch.
Gardens
The building of the National Herbarium is situated
within the Pretoria National Botanical Garden (NBG) where the beautiful
surroundings contribute greatly to the quality of our working environment.
Mr Hans Heilgendorff and 73 other staff members curate the Pretoria NBG.
The Education section, with 4 staff members, operates from offices at the
Pretoria NBG.
We are all proud to be part of a happy family of botanical gardens and research centres distributed throughout the country. The other two research centres are the Natal Herbarium in Durban and Compton Herbarium in Cape Town. The other seven gardens are Lowveld (Mpumalanga), Witwatersrand (Gauteng), Pietermaritzburg (KwaZulu-Natal), Bloemfontein (Free State), Harold Porter, Worcester, and Kirstenbosch (all in the Western Cape).
—by Marinda Koekemoer
SABONET
News 4.1:47
FOURIE,
D. 1998. The history of the Botanical Research Institute 1903–1989 Bothalia
28: 271–297.
