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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
The rich plant diversity that characterizes the West African Region and the inherent
knowledge of their flora and vegetation has been the backbone of scientific explorations during the
past centuries. The evolution of botanical knowledge on Guinea-Bissau, throughout the 16th and
20th centuries is reviewed. We present and discuss floristic data collected by scientific expeditions
between the mid-1700s to 1974, when the Portuguese colonial period ended. Expeditions undertaken
by French naturalists provided some of the earliest plant collections. A list of herbarium specimens
collected by the French naturalist Jardin, in the Bijagós Islands in ca. 1847–1858 is presented here
for the first time, while in the late 1800s some Portuguese naturalists also explored Guinea-Bissau.
During the colonial period (1915–1974), Gomes e Sousa published the first comprehensive study of
the territory’s flora while Espírito Santo assembled the largest plant collection. Our review applies
a multi-disciplinary perspective to fill important lacuna regarding biodiversity knowledge of this
under-researchedWest African country. It constitutes the first study tracing the long term evolution
of knowledge on Guinea Bissau's plant diversity, which provides the basis for understanding trends
and research priorities, in particular in conservation and botanical fields
Description
Review
Keywords
plant diversity botanical history West Africa scientific collections naturalists African flora
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Diversity 2018, 10, 109
Publisher
MDPI