The University of Zambia Herbarium

The University of Zambia Herbarium (UZL) is one of four herbaria in the country and one of two located in Lusaka Province. UZL is a teaching and research herbarium and was founded by the late Prof. Dewan Mohinder Nath Nair in 1967, shortly after the University of Zambia was established. The herbarium was then located in the Department of Botany, which was merged with the Department of Zoology in 1972 to form the Department of Biology. In 1995, this department was renamed the Department of Biological Sciences. The UZL Herbarium initially consisted mainly of specimens collected within a 50-mile (75-km) radius around Lusaka. This initial collection was later boosted by duplicate specimens donated by the Forest Herbarium (NDO), the Mount Makulu Herbarium (MRCS), the Lusaka Natural History Club, and institutions in India and New Zealand.

In 1971, Dr P.S.M. Phiri became the curator of the herbarium, after the sudden death of Professor Nath Nair. Shortly afterwards, in the mid-1970s, the International Red Locust Control Service (IRLCS), whose headquarters were located in Mbala, offered about 10,000 herbarium specimens to the University of Zambia. These were collections made partly by the IRLCS’s resident botanist L.D.E.F. Vesey-Fitzgerald, who collected a large number of specimens with the assistance of Mr Wilfred Siame. In addition to the establishment of a reference herbarium for the IRLCS, Vesey-Fitzgerald also published excellent accounts on the grasslands of central Africa. Another notable contributor to the collections of IRLCS Herbarium was Mary Alice Eleanor Richards, often referred to as Mrs H. Mary Richards, who recorded several new species in Mbala District. The genus Richarsiella (Poaceae) and the species Monopetalanthus richardsiae (Fabaceae) have been named after her in recognition of her extensive plant collections made in this part of central Africa.

The Collections
Today the UZL Herbarium contains about 25,000 specimens of vascular plants and bryophytes. There are also a few specimens of lichens, algae, and fungi, mostly preserved for teaching purposes. However, the lichen and bryophyte collections are currently being boosted by deliberate efforts made by departmental staff—field trips are planned to include collection of these lower cryptogams. A few pickled specimens are available, though unfortunately not very well maintained at the moment. Plans are underway to improve the status of this aspect of the herbarium collection, with emphasis on the preservation of reproductive parts for anatomical and morphological studies in the area of systematics.

UZL is the most active botanical centre in the country and provides identification services to research institutions, as well as local and foreign postgraduate students affiliated to the University of Zambia. The herbarium also provides teaching facilities to undergraduate students and short-term regional workshops in Plant Genetic Resources programmes.

Classification Systems
The families of higher plants in the herbarium are arranged according to a phylogenetic system devised by George Ledyard Stebbins, also employed in Heywood’s Flowering Plants of the World. Pteridophyte families are arranged using R.E. Pichi-Sermolli’s system, whereas the bryophytes are arranged according to A.J.E. Smith’s system, employed in his textbook, The Moss Flora of Britain and Ireland. The genera under Poaceae have been classified using the Clayton–Renvoize numbering system, which places specimens of related genera in close proximity. The genera and species in each of the other angiosperm families are arranged alphabetically.

Important Collections
Important collections at UZL include specimens collected by the following people:

Andrew Angus, a plant pathologist who was based at Mount Makulu Central Research Station.

William L. Astle, a Pasture Research Officer (Mt. Makulu) and later Chief Wildlife Research Officer (Chilanga).

Dennis Basil Fanshawe, Principal Forest Research Officer (Kitwe) who collected woody taxa countrywide.

Raymond M. Lawton, forest ecologist who carried out detailed studies on miombos in Northern Province of Zambia.

B.L.Mitchell, wildlife biologist who collected extensively in the Kafue National Park.

J.M. Mutimushi, a forester who collected plants countrywide.

Dewan M. Nath Nair carried out many collections of specimens in the Lusaka District.

Edward A. Robinson collected specimens of Cyperaceae.

Specialised groups of plants include specimens of orchids by Graham Williamson and pteridophytes by Jan Kornas.

P.S.M. Phiri, who has covered the Luangwa Valley, Muchinga Escarpment, and Nyika Plateau with David Chuba, has made recent additions to the herbarium.

Excellent specimens of pteridophytes have been donated by John Burrows of Buffelskloof Private Nature Reserve in South Africa.

UZL staff members maintain collaborative contacts with National Herbaria of Pretoria (PRE), Zimbabwe (SRGH), Kew (K), and Missouri (MO) to ensure authentic determination of the specimens. Curation of botanical specimens and studies in plant systematics are usually enhanced by availability of taxonomic literature. In this regard, the SABONET Secretariat has on a regular basis provided useful taxonomic literature on southern Africa. The Head of SRGH also recently donated several back issues of Kirkia. Gerald Pope, in his capacity as editor, continues to donate copies of Flora Zambesiaca to the herbarium. The herbarium has also received a donation from Professors Inga and Olov Hedberg of Uppsala University, of some published theses and reprints on plant systematics. However, further appeals are being made to other botanical institutions to extend the donations of more literature on African Botany, and in particular publications on central and southern Africa.

The Botanic Garden
In recent years the SABONET Project has been instrumental in the supply of curatorial materials to the herbarium. Through the auspices of this regional project, programmes are already underway to develop a teaching botanic garden within the university campus, and sited near the main entrance. A number of plants have been collected for planting on the campus grounds. It is envisaged that the majority of plants to be established in this garden, as a form of ex situ conservation, will be drawn from the wild. The focus will be on the cultivation of rare plants and species of ecological, economic, and medicinal value. It is also hoped to cultivate perennial tropical crops to enhance the teaching of economic botany. However, the botanic garden is expected to act as a living collection of plants to exhibit the growth habits that cannot be displayed by specimens mounted on herbarium sheets. It is for this reason that the linking of the herbarium to the botanic garden will improve the taxonomic determination of plants.

Staff and research interests
Dr P.S.M. Phiri—Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences, Herbarium Curator, and SABONET-Zambia National Co-ordinator.
Fabaceae
Poaceae
Pteridophytes
Mosses

Mr D.K. Chuba—Lecturer in the Department of Biological Sciences, Assistant Curator.
Orchids
Bryophytes
Lichens

Ms Florence C. Nyirenda—Herbarium Research Officer (a SABONET-sponsored position). She is being guided to specialise in legume systematics.

Ms Angela Gono Bwalya—Herbarium Research Officer, currently studying for her Master of Science degree in plant systematics at Witwatersrand University under the auspices of SABONET.

Ms Maureen Kalusa—Data Entry Clerk employed under the auspices of SABONET. She is also involved in the general curation of herbarium specimens.

—by David Chuba & Patrick S.M. Phiri

SABONET News 7.2: 136