Due to your expertise in this subject, I would like to have your expert critique for a botany/horticultural project we are developing for the Botany world. Would love to get your, and ANYONE’s feedback at http://www.i-bo-planet.com

Steve

Please could you notify your website readers about this new book, on Limestone Fynbos, published by the Duiwenshok Conservancy. (We’re a not profit organisation!)

Limestone Fynbos is an intriguing flora that occurs on our southern coast of South Africa, wherever there are limestone hills or cliffs. Most of the plants occur in a broad sweep from Gansbaai to the Gouritz River, including pockets at Cape Point and Macassar. This flora can be divided into three natural units, Agulhas Limestone, De Hope Limestone and Canca Limestone. In December 2007 the SA Publication, Veld and Flora, published an article on the Agulhas Limestone. The Duiwenhoks Conservancy has added a new aspect to the literature available on this rather unknown flora by publishing a book that describes the Limestone Fynbos of the Vermaaklikheid area, near Heildelberg, which falls in the Canca Limestone unit.

Limestone Fynbos is floristically very different from other vegetation. The reason for this is that these plants thrive on a soil type that would be toxic to most fynbos plants, which are normally found on acidic or neutral soils. They grow on limestone soils, which are so alkaline that if you squeeze lemon juice on them they will fizz. It is this alkalinity in the soil that is toxic to most fynbos plants. In a remarkable adaptation to a hostile soil environment, Limestone Fynbos has evolved as a unique flora that shares only a few species in common with sandstone fynbos and sand fynbos. As one would expect from a flora that is confined to such specific soils, many plants are endemic, meaning that they grow only on such soils or even at only one locality.

At first glance, this little-known flora appears as dry woody scrub. On closer inspection a fascinating array of intriguing and sometimes tiny flowers emerge. Over the past ten years, the author Louisa Oberholzer began collecting, describing and photographing the plants in the Vermaaklikheid area of the Western Cape . The Duiwenhoks Conservancy provided financial support for the identification of the species and finally for the publication of the book, Limestone Fynbos of the Vermaaklikheid Area. It presents a photographic record and description of 124 species. Of particular interest are the intriguing Fabaceae, or pea-like flowers and the pungent buchus, which belong to the Rutacea or citrus family.

The aim of the publication is to inform the public and particularly landowners about the value of Limestone Fynbos and the importance controlling alien vegetation, which is a major threat to all the fynbos plant communities.

The book is priced at R130.00 available from the Duiwenhoks Conservancy, info@duiwenhoksconservancy.co.za and also from the author, louisa.stanford@gmail.com

Kind regards

Rob Hill
Treasurer
Duiwenhoks Conservancy

The single book I believe you will find most useful is Zuchowski’s A Guide to Tropical Plants of Costa Rica. For nearly every plant she describes she has at least a paragraph devoted to uses by local people, whether indigenous or not. She also has several sections devoted to different ways plants are used.

If you want a rigorous ecological background, I’d suggest

Janzen, D.H. 1975. Ecology of Plants in the Tropics (Studies in Biology). United Kingdom, no. 58. 66 pp, 4 plates.

There’s a good book on the Trees and Shrubs of Panama that you would have to buy at the Smithsonian Institute for Tropical Research after you get here, and it’s pricy, but here it is:

Carrasquilla R., Luis G. 2005. Trees and Shrubs of Panama [Árboles y Arbustos de Panamá]. University of Panama/National Environmental Authority [Universidad de Panamá/Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente]. 479 pp.

Finally, you might browse through the references on my blog page:

A Neotropical Savanna: References.

Good luck, and enjoy your trip!

I am coming to Panama for a couple of weeks next month. I study and teach about plants and wondered if you had a few books you recommend to really get to know the plant species there and how they have been (and are) being used by indigenous people.

Thank you.

Frank