Gensyn med - etiopisk feltarbejde efter 30 års venten.

Friis, Ib; Weber, Odile

Published in: Naturhistorier

Publication date: 2014

Document version Tidlig version også kaldet pre-print

Citation for published version (APA): Friis, I., & Weber, O. (2014). Gensyn med Ginir - etiopisk feltarbejde efter 30 års venten. Naturhistorier, 2014(1), 13-17.

Download date: 27. Sep. 2021 Revisiting Ginir ‐ Ethiopian fieldwork resumed after 30 years exclusion with short and unstable rainy seasons Botanists sent home by the authorities and long dry seasons. The area is also in the 1980s

the border between the highland Several groups of botanists from the By Ib Friis and Odile Weber populations with a history closely Ethiopian Flora Project arrived at Ginir related to the old Christian state of during the years 1983‐84. The botanists , and the western part of the carried documents issued by authorities th th In the late 19 and early 20 century, of the flora‐writing. In 1974, a Marxist‐ Somali‐speaking population of the in to confirm the legitimate there were many studies of plant from Leninist military government replaced lowlands, which has peripheral objectives of the visits, but in Ginir local the tropical countries colonized by the more than one thousand years old connection to the population of the civilians and military authorities were European states. These studies resulted rule by a feudal emperor, to be replaced highlands. Moreover, the area often worried about unrest in the lowlands, in flora‐handbooks, meant to provide in turn in 1991 by the present suffered from ethnic conflicts. and sent the botanists back to safer identification of the useful, or government. The central Ethiopian Among the few expeditions, which parts of Ethiopia. In the years after 1984, sometimes harmful plants of the highlands were well explored before the had visited the area around Ginir before the relations between the Ethiopian and colonies. However, two important start of the Ethiopian flora‐project, but us was an expedition in 1900‐1901 with the Somali governments deteriorated, tropical countries avoided colonization: this was not the case with many parts of the German zoologists and botanists which resulted in more and more Thailand in Asia and Ethiopia in Africa. the country, particularly the parts near Carlo von Erlanger, Hans Ellenbeck and guerrilla attacks. By 1987, the two For both countries the efforts to write a the borders towards Sudan and Kenya, Oscar Neumann.1 The majority of the countries fought a regular war. Work on flora started only late in the 20th century. and not the drought‐prone, Somali‐ material from this expedition went to the Ethiopian Flora had to be carried out The work came about at the initiative of speaking parts in the east. Berlin, where it was lost during the without botanical studies at Ginir. botanists from the two countries, in The species‐rich, but inaccessible Second World War. The early publication cooperation with researchers from For some time after the latest Somali‐speaking parts of Ethiopia of Erlanger, Ellenbeck and Neumann’s Europe. In both cases, the Royal Botanic Ethiopian revolution in 1991 the material suggested that the area Gardens, Kew, and the Natural History Despite climatic instability and frequent situation did not significantly improve, contained a considerable number of Museum of Denmark supported the droughts, the Somali‐speaking lowlands particularly because internal conflicts in species not found anywhere else. New research behind these flora‐handbooks. in Ethiopia contain a rich and distinctive spilled into Ethiopia. The last flora, but still relatively little is known collections from the area were therefore volume of the Flora of Ethiopia and The Thai and Ethiopian flora projects about it. In 1983 Ib Friis and others important for the flora work, but difficult Eritrea was published before botanists to obtain because of the unstable In the case of Thailand, the publication participating in the Ethiopian flora could again visit Ginir and its security situation. of the modern multi‐volume flora‐ project tried to study the area around surroundings. Ginir. This is part of the boundary zone handbook started in 1970, and it is not New collections and results obtained in yet completed. In the case of Ethiopia, between the Ethiopian highlands, with 2013 work began in 1980, and the published stable rainy seasons and mixed and 1 After this article went to press in Naturhistorier, we often lush forest and agricultural land, discovered that among our collections is a rare species of Since then, there have been more flora‐handbook in nine volumes was Crotalaria, C. trifoliolata Baker, originally discovered by finished in 2009. Ethiopia suffered and the Somali lowland with deciduous an expedition undertaken by the American big game conflicts between Ethiopia and Somalia. bushland and dry shrub‐ or grass‐steppe hunter A. Donaldson Smith a few years before the However, in November 2013 Ib Friis serious political unrest during the period Erlanger expedition. No other botanist has seen this plant in the field since 1894. 1 2 from the Natural History Museum of In the southern direction from Ginir On the way from the highlands one seen in Commiphora myrrha, Limonium Denmark, Odile Weber from the Royal we crossed over the more that 4,000 passes areas with unusual types of rocks, distichum and Suaeda monoica (photos Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, and Ermias meters high Bale Massif, with mossy some rich in lime, gypsum and other on p. 14 and 15). Getachew and Wege Abebe from the cloud‐forests and dry and cool minerals. Also on these rocks we found In this vegetation, there are stemless Ethiopian National Herbarium, headed Afroalpine vegetation, before coming very unfamiliar species and plant rosette plants with succulent leaves. The for Ginir. We were encouraged by again to the dry and hot Acacia‐ communities. genus Aloe provides a number of information about a newly built dirt road Commiphora vegetation in the lowlands. Notable adaptations examples of this adaptation, but we between Ginir and Imi, and by assurance In this direction, we also found a found fewer Aloe species in the area from Ethiopian colleagues that one could transition zone between the evergreen The plants with the most remarkable around Ginir than expected, only six Aloe travel along this road without problems. forest in the highlands and the dry adaptations to the climate between species out of the more than 40 species Indeed, we did not encounter problems Acacia‐Commiphora dominated, Ginir and Imi are the tuber‐bearing known from the whole of Ethiopia. We in 2013, and more than 300 collections deciduous vegetation. lianas, climbing with woody stems, but looked in vain for a small number of of plants were gathered. A set of these storing water and nutrients in large Between Ginir and Imi additional species known to exist in the collections have been handed over to tubers, which are half below, half above area, but are very rare. We did not see the Ethiopian National Herbarium in In the extensive areas of lowland the surface of the soil. Species belonging many bulbous plants, which are more Addis Ababa, and the remaining sets are between Ginir and Imi we found the to several plant families show this common in areas with slightly less dry now shared between the Royal Botanic largest number of rare species, many adaptation. The most common and climate. Gardens, Kew, and the Natural History which we could only recognise to family prominent example is Pyrenacantha Museum in Copenhagen. in the field. Some, we have already malvifolia (lcacinaceae), seen in the Another important adaptation to the noted, may be new to science. The photo on p. 16, but similar tubers and long, dry season is the annual life‐form, In the area between Ginir and Sheik eastern escarpment of the Ethiopian perennial, woody stems exist in, for which we saw particularly frequently in Hussein we worked especially in dry highlands is steep near Ginir, the example, a rare species of the low‐lying and dry area along the Juniperus forest and in the transition to transition zone between highland and Cucurbitaceae, Momordica sessilifolia Webe Shebele River near Imi. The the lowland vegetation. The zone is rich lowland is therefore narrow, and we (photo on p. 15). annual plants germinate and bloom in rare species of woody plants, came quickly down to the Acacia‐ quickly when the rains come, and seed including two species of dragon trees The leafless shrubs or trees of the Commiphora vegetation, which gradually when it ceases, surviving the dry season (Dracaena ellenbeckiana and Dracaena genus Euphorbia (Euphorbiaceae), which becomes drier and drier towards the as seeds. Many annual grasses use this ombet). It was one of the purposes of store water and nutrients in trunks and east. The landscape slopes gently to the strategy. The annuals are often only 10‐ the trip to study the transition between branches, are also examples of extreme Webe Shebele River, which, near Imi, 15 cm tall and wither quickly and totally the dry evergreen forest in the highlands adaptation to dry climate. Other woody runs in a flat, sandy valley at an altitude after seeding. Aizoon canariense, an and the deciduous vegetation plants with similar adaptations are small of only 350 m above sea level. Here annual dicotyledonous species of the dominated by the genera Acacia trees with thick branches, in which the evaporation is so great that salt family Aizoaceae, uses the same (Leguminosae subfam. Mimosoideae) water is stored under an insulating bark. sometimes deposits in the soil, and we strategy; the fine, yellow carpet covering and Commiphora (Burseraceae) in the Often these trees also shed their leaves saw peculiar plants with adaptations to the ground in the central photo on p. 14 lowland. in the dry season, or, more rarely, the an environment with a long drought. consists entirely of this species. leaves are succulent and persisting, as

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What are our key findings? Ib Friis is curator of vascular plants at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. We had only identified the material from Legends to map and illustrations Odile Weber was, at the time of the field our fieldwork to family or genus when trip to Ginir, scientific assistant at the Map on p. 13: The area around Ginir with indication of the sites investigated in the Danish version of this paper went to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2013. The English names for the vegetation types are as in the "Atlas of the Potential press. Therefore, it was too early to say Vegetation of Ethiopia" (2010). much about our key findings. However, ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ apart from the general ecological • “Landsby / by”: Village or town observations mentioned above, two • “Lokalitet”: Location features clearly stand out. One being “Busksteppet / Halvørken”: shrub‐steppe, semi‐Desert that to the north, east and south of Ginir “Acacia‐Commiphora krat”: Acacia‐Commiphora bushland one encounters a transition zone “Rift Valley vegetation”: Rift Valley vegetation between the highlands and lowlands “Tør Afromontan skov”: Dry Afromontane forest with rare evergreen species. A group of “Fugtig Afromontan skov”: Moist Afromontane forest botanists now analyse this transition “Tågeskov”: Ericaceous belt zone for a scientific publication.2 The “Afroalpin zone”: Afro‐Alpine zone second feature is that, along the Webe “Flod, sumpe”: River, swamps Shebele River, there is an environment “Saltsumpe”: Salt marshes with ecological conditions similar to the Illustrations on p. 14: Three types of vegetation between Ginir and Imi. Left Acacia‐ dry, sandy parts of southern Somalia. Commiphora bushland with Commiphora myrrah (Burseraceae) in the foreground. It Along the Webe Shebele near Imi we has slightly succulent leaves, which can resist drought. In the middle semi‐desert found species otherwise only known and shrub steppe, where the ground between the bushes are covered by annual from Somalia. grasses and herbs, especially Aizoon canariense (Aizoaceae). To the right: a low, Among our other new observations open vegetation of salt tolerant shrubs, especially Suaeda monoica are the strange hanging branches in (Chenopodiaceae), which is common along the Webe Shebele River near Imi. flowering individuals of Euphorbia Illustrations on p. 15: Three rare plants, all adapted to the dry and sunny climate robecchii (see the photo on p. 17). There between Gin and Imi. Left: Momordica sessilifolia (Cucurbitaceae), which stores is possibly also a new genus and several water and nutrients in large tubers half buried in the ground. In the middle: new species in the material. Perhaps Limonium distichum (Plumbaginaceae), a small subshrub with cylindrical, succulent there are more surprising results, once leaves. To the right: Reseda oligomeroides (Resedaceae), which has extremely we get the identifications finalised! narrow and slender leaves. These three species, and a range of others from the same area, have their main distribution in Somalia.

2 The transition zone partly overlaps with the lower part Illustration on p. 16: Odile Weber collecting flowering specimens of Pyrenacantha of the Juniperus forest, approximately where we found the rare species of Crotalaria mentioned in the previous malvifolia (Icacinaceae). Note the large tubers sitting half buried in the ground and note. 5 6 the liana‐like branches, which flower during the dry season, when the plants are leafless.

Illustration on p. 17: A tree‐spurge, Euphorbia robecchii (Euphorbiaceae), with woody, candelabra‐shaped growth‐form and hanging slender branches with flowering shoots. This peculiar growth form during flowering has not previously been described.

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