Reflections

Today I am finishing off my two-month stint at Kew Herbarium, where I databased herbarium specimens of African acacias. This will form part of a project modelling the distribution of the group across the entire continent. I have been lucky enough to have received data from several other sources, which will allow me to conduct a thorough assessmnet of this widespread group across the entire continent. All in all it has been a productive time, which involved me going through virtually all of the herbarium's collections for Acacia (and some of those of the Natural History Museum). On Sunday I fly on to Portugal to supplement my data with material from Coimbra and Lisbon herbaria to fill some of the geographical gaps in the existing material I have. And then, in the not too distant future, I hope that the data will be in a workable format so that I can start running some meaningful analyses.

Acacias of Zimbabwe

I have been making increasing use of the book Field Guide to the Acacias of Zimbabwe (cbc Publishing, 1999) by Jonathan Timberlake, Christopher Fagg and Richard Barnes. In my (admittedly somewhat limited) experience of field guides, this book stands out for its excellent writing, inclusion of extra bits of information relating to the ecology and uses of acacias in Zimbabwe, good locality maps and clear drawings. Although the geographic focus of the book is mainly Zimbabwe, the authors have brought some of their wider knowledge of African acacias into the text, making the book a valuable reference work. Unfortunately, it appears to be out of print. (I was fortunate to obtain a copy from one of the authors - there may be more in circulation.)