The botany of the Cunene-Zambezi Expedition with notes on Hugo Baum (1867-1950) A record and discussion of the Cunene-Zambezi Expedition that took place in Angola lI'om 1899 to 1900 is providcd. Although the main aim of the expedition was to evaluate the economic potential of southern Angola, it also resulted in sig- nificant botanical collections made by Hugo BaUin (1867-1950), many of which serve as holotypes of names of plants from the region, and beyond. The itinerary is supplemented by a map illustrating the route followed by the expedition, and locality names are clarified and updated. A full list of the type specimens of flowering plants is provided, with their nomenclature updated and an indication of where known duplicates are housed. the Cuando River in March 1900. After turning around, the expedition finally arrived back at Moyamedes on 26 June Abstract. .. 185 1900, more than 10 months later. Introduction 185 Material and methods. .. 187 The expedition resulted in over I 000 plant collec- Historical overview and itinerary of the expedi- tions, many of which are types. In Warburg (1903), 281 tion 187 taxa of flowering plants new to science are described List of Baum type collections given in Warburg based on these collections, with 310 numbers referred to (1903) . .. 191 as types. To these must be added an unknown number Acknowledgements. .. 201 of taxa that were published later. In the Aluka database References. .. 201 of types of African plant names (Aluka 2008, accessed Index to plant names. .. 203 in January 2008), there are I 209 images of specimens Index of Baum collection numbers cited and taxon collected by Baum. This figure includes duplicates of the under which they are cited in this paper. .. 206 same collection number. In fact, the Baum collections Appendix 1 . .. 208 provided a series of duplicates distributed among Euro- pean herbaria. This is fortunate because the holotypes of the taxa published in Warburg (1903) were deposited in the Herbarium of Berlin (B) and many of these speci- mens were destroyed in a fire during the Second World The collector Hugo Ballin (1867-1950) participated War. For that reason the Aluka database presently hosts in the Cunene-Zambezi Expedition, which took place in only 48 images of Baum specimens from B. Duplicates Angola from 1899 to 1900, led by the Dutchman, Pieter have been recorded in various herbaria, namely B, BM, van der Kellen. In addition to botanical and zoological BR, cor, E, G, K, M, NY, P, S, Wand Z (Holmgren, et collections, ethnological observations were also recorded. 01. 1990), which include several herbaria that were not All of these were described in German by Warburg (1903) listed as depositories of Baum collections in Lanjouw in the now very rare book Kunene-Sarnbesi Expedition. & Stafleu (1954). However, for some taxa, the holotype H. Bourn, which can only be found in highly specialized destroyed at B was apparently unique. libraries or in the collections ofrare book antiquarians. The book includes a folded map (Figure I) that illustrates the In terms of type material the Baum collection IS one course of the expedition, which left Moyamedes (Namibe) of the most important among those that originated in on 11 August 1899 in an easterly direction, through the Angola, and is only surpassed by those of F. Welwitsch actual provinces of Cunene and Cuando-Cubango, reaching and 1. Gossweiler. In addition to their type status, they provide information on type locality. This is very impor- tant in the case ofrare plants, particularly those that were * H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt Herbarium, Department of Botany, University collected only once. Information on the exact collecting of Pretoria, 0002 Pretoria. [email protected]. ** Departamento de Botanica, Universidade de Coimhra, 3001-455 localities helps researchers find rare plants in the field, Coimbra, Portugal. [email protected]. which in turn facilitates the eventual proposal of specific *** Centro de Estudos Africanos (CEA)/ISCTE, Lisbon, Portugal. conservation measures. In the case of the Baum collec- mai [email protected]. tion, pinpointing the collecting localities is often difficult • Biosystematics and Biodiversity Collections, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X I0 I, 000 I Pretoria / Acocks Chair, for several reasons: I, localities recorded on the labels H.G.W.J. Schweickerdt Herbarium, Department of Botany, University are often not consistent with dupl icates of the same col- of Pretoria, 0002 Pretoria. [email protected] . lection, or localities given in the book; 2, the changes of •• Department of Botany, M RC 166, National Museum of Natural His- geographical place names that took place in Angola over tory, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, Washington DC 20013- 7012, USA. [email protected]. the last century; and 3, the original spelling of the locali- + Corresponding author. Email address:[email protected]. ties that does not match the more recent spelling used in MS. received: 2009-01-19. maps and gazetteers. C U 'a n h a. \ n 0 n a ------ - L -~-- I ------r~- \ D E ',,D T S c H i \ 16 " -------iiiiii ++__ + Greeze der Concession det Comp&Il:0ie de Moss.m9d~ . W og der ExpeditioDswagen . ......._.__ Fussmarsch des Personals der Expedition. Siidgrenze der WurzeLkautschukptla.nzen. Sumpflge Flussniederungen. Wassorpfannen. R.1\.. Bach. --_ .. - lIaramba·Periodische Wa.sserliufe. I FIGURE l.--original map of expe- 2':-J 1 dition itinerary divided into ·h,.;~~ii:'::;! ,~~,-l S :.~~:e'" ~ &tn ~ ',' ii:.,cbilri'O-: three sections (Warburg 1903). E' ----------------- ~__ _____.J w ~ To facilitate the work of taxonomists and systema- tion. Furthermore, they often do not match exactly the tists studying the flora of southern Africa, the Baum col- localities given in the book. As a compromise the collect- lections and expedition itinerary were analysed. In the ing localities given in Warburg (1903) are used. present work we include an historical overview of the expedition and an analysis of the flowering plant type The types are listed in alphabetical order by family, material cited in the book (Warburg 1903). Based on the genus and species, in their currently accepted taxonomy original map, a new map has been produced, which is (Figueiredo & Smith 2008). An index to all the scien- complemented by a list of old locality names, as cited tific names as well as a sequential index of type numbers in Warburg (1903), and the corresponding current names referring to their name in this list, is also presented. and, whenever possible, geographical co-ordinates. A list of several geographical names, cited in Warburg (1903) as collecting localities, as well as those shown on the map, was compiled. The location of the names was determined using maps and gazetteers. An annotated The information on type collections was obtained copy of the Warburg (1903) map, produced at LISe, was from several sources. Initially, the information on types examined. A new map (Figure 2) showing the itinerary cited in Warburg (1903) was databased, using Figueiredo and updated locality names was produced based on the & Smith (2008) to update the nomenclature. The loca- information compiled. tion of duplicates was determined mostly using internet resources. In this regard, the Aluka database (www.aluka. org) was particularly useful. Several herbaria online, such HISTORICAL OVERVIEW AND ITINERARY OF THE as K (www.kew.org/herbcat), B (www.bgbm.org) and Z EXPEDITION (http://www.zuerich-herbarien.unizh.ch/) also provided much information. Duplicates cited in the literature but Hugo Baum was born on 17 January 1867 in Forst not seen (either in herbaria or as images) were included Niederlehmsitz, the son of a railwayman. He was raised in the database. Information from eOI was obtained from in Guben on the river Neisse (then in Brandenburg, Ger- a card catalogue. The existence of B types was verified many; now Polish and called Gubin) in a forested area using the resources mentioned above and a list of fami- where he developed an interest in plants and insects. lies including extant collections at B (Hiepko 1987). It After concluding his school education in Guben, he was noted that the localities recorded on the labels are started his professional training as a gardener in Nettkow often not consistent with duplicates of the same collec- (Silesia; then German now Polish) and later attended a FIGURE 2.-Actual map of expedition itinerary showing route taken by ox-wagons (continuous line), routes travelled on foot (dotted lines), and dates when some localities were reached (in italics for journey out, underlined for return journey). two-year study course in pomology in Proskau (Silesia). toms. The leader of the expedition was the Dutchman, Following his compulsory military service in Magde- Pieter van der Kellen, who was the representative of the burg, he worked for ten years at the old Botanical Gar- Compagnie de Moc;amedes in Ediva. den in Berlin. In 1899, thanks to his extensive botanical knowledge, he was invited to participate in the Cunene- On II August 1899, the expedition left Moc;amedes Zambezi Expedition. After his return from Angola, in (presently Namibe) with three ox-wagons for the rivers 1901, Baum was employed as master gardener by the Kunene, Kubango, Kuito, up to the Cuando, and on 26 Botanical Garden of the University of Rostock. In the June 1900 it returned to the place from which it departed same year he married Auguste Tank. For the following (Figures I, 2; refer to Appendix I for actual name and few years Baum busied himself evaluating the Cunene- co-ordinates of localities, which are mentioned in this Zambezi Expedition and in 1903 the expedition report text with the original spelling). At the time Moc;amedes was published. Baum undertook another botanical expe- was a town of 1 500 inhabitants with a local economy dition to Mexico, from January to May 1925.