Site history

We expect this will have 3 hugely beneficial effects:

• The site will be continuously updated. Up to now updates have taken place at approximately 2 monthly intervals.
• There will be much faster addition of content. Previously, only Mark was able to do this which resulted in a very large backlog of material.
• The new content will be highlighted so that the site will be worth visiting on a regular basis.

Other technical changes made:

• encoding changed to utf-8;
• review and removal of meta tags;
• PDO used for connection to the database
• upgrade of software version
• old checklist pages (versions 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2) deleted as they are out of date and not consistent with the newer databased versions
• spot characters for cultivated plants now handled separately
• greater use of includes

On March 10th 2002, the first version of this site was uploaded to the web, initially at a free Geocities web page. Since then, what started out as a draft list of Zimbabwean plants has developed into a fully fledged online flora of Zimbabwe (and also of Mozambique)

There has been a lot of change during those 9 years - for example Geocities has gone - and there is more online information about tropical African plants.

Our Zimbabwe project is approaching the halfway mark - in terms of providing species with either an image or a description. This may mean that we have at least a further 9 years to go - and probably more as we have done the easier half of the flora and the rest may take longer.

In order for us to complete the project, we need some kind of sponsorship or funding to enable to us to work full-time on it. Is there anyone out there who can help?

The unusual things about it are firstly the extremely long, up to 10 cm, corolla tube and secondly the almost symmetric corolla lobes.

Both features are well demonstrated in the two photographs. Full details of the species and records may be found on the B. capitata page.

• Every record for which there is a either a UTM grid reference or a latitude/ longitude position can now be plotted individually using Google Maps. See for example the records page of Tribulus terrestris. To view the Google map, click on any individual record in the "No." column on the far left. For example record no. 25312. It may be necessary to scroll down to find the map.
• All the records made on a particular day may be plotted. For example, see the records made at Dulverton Field on 23 October 2009. Try zooming in to see the level of detail.

• corrected an error whereby the file size of the maps produced was exceptionally large (> 300kb);
• added a statement to each image giving the number of QDS displayed and the date on which the map was created.

Similar utilities have been added to each family page and also to each of the cultivated family and genus pages. See, for example, all the images of cultivated Verbenaceae.

• the FZ divisions have been added to the utility which displays all the images for a particular genus. See for example the page showing the living plant images of Capparis. The FZ divisions, NW etc., are in a column with a highlighted background.
• utilities have been written to display all the living plant images for each family. This page shows the living plant images for the Capparaceae. NOTE: this utility is only applied to the smaller families as the download would be too great for the larger families.
• We have a page of insects, mostly butterflies, whose larvae eat Zimbabwean plants. Links have been provided between each plant species and its corresponding insect and vice versa. This has now been extended to allow links between insect species and plant families and genera. For example, the insects that eat the grass family, Poaceae, are listed at the end of the family description. Each item is a link taking you to the particular species.
• Conversely, on each insect species is a list of those families, genera and species which are eaten. See, for example, the butterfly Danaus chrysippus, the African monarch.

Another example, that of a cultivated species this time, is Ageratum houstonianum.

Although the necessary software changes have been made, there is an enormous amount of work to be done in capturing these references.

• a biography and photograph of Darrel Plowes, written by his son Robert Plowes.
• pictures of the Flora of Zimbabwe team at work on the Tuli expedition

• ePIC (Electronic Plant Information Centre)
• Flora Zambesiaca
• Germplasm Resources Information Network
• Kew Herbarium Catalogue
• Kew World Monocotyledon Checklist
• and others ...

The species of the Asclepiadaceae brought up to date from a list kindly supplied by David Goyder of Kew.

The facility to create a checklist for each family has been added to the List of families page. See the column on the right. Clicking on the link produces a list of all the species within a particular family. A further change is that each genus and lower taxon is presented as a link to the main account so that the checklist page is effectively another way of entering the site.

Similarly, a program has been written to create a checklist for each of the cultivated plant families. See the List of cultivated plant families.

Three new utilities written to display the (a) records, (b) collections and (c) images made by a particular person.

For example, take Rawdon Goodier's page. Follow the records, collections or images links in order to see a detailed list in each case.

A new program to list those species with multiple spot-characters has been added.

Previously it had been possible by following each link on the spot-characters page to list those species possessing just one spot-character. Now it is possible to list those species possessing any combination of spot-characters.

It is a further step towards making the identification of plants easier.

At present, the main limitation is that data is not nearly complete enough.

• The utility which produces a list of photographers and the number of images now creates output sorted by the photographer's surname. Re-sorting of the table is still possible by clicking on the column headings.
• On each location page, there is a facility which allows one to extract a list of records for that location. This now displays the family for each species and it is possible to re-sort the records in family order.

A new utility has been created which generates a random species.Each species generated will have some content in the form of at least one image.

Try refreshing the page to see the which new species appear.

A new concept, similar to locations, has been added to the site, namely what I have called outings. [The name was later changed to Expeditions and Projects]. This provides a slot for information about a particular trip or expedition.

We now have 1,537 native and naturalised species plus a further 17 cultivated species and 3 Mozambican specials.

Publication of Rawdon's Chimanimani Journals for the period 1956 - 1959.

Addition of some unusual plants from the Chimanimani Mts, kindly provided by Rawdon Goodier: Calomeria africana, Hibiscus burtt-davyi, Plectranthus chimanimaniensis, Restio quartziticola and Protea enervis.

(Easter) Work on a new section of the site to showcase special plants from Mozambique. Bart is now working in Gorongosa, Mozambique for the Carr Foundation and is photographing and recording some interesting species from that country which do not occur in Zimbabwe.

The first three added are Bombax rhodognaphalon, Harrisonia abyssinica and Millettia mossambicensis.

I should add that we are not considering tackling the whole flora of that country. [Famous last words!]

• Simple details of content added for each family on the list of families page;
• Link added from each cultivated family page to the native/naturalised family page and vice versa; the link is not present if the page would be empty;
• Cultivated plant family and genus pages now display their own images rather than using those from the native/naturalised pages;
• Further work done to prevent cultivated pages being opened by the native page program and vice versa.

Various items were completed today in preparation for a new upload in the next few days:

• A FAQ added to the site;
• Considerable work expanding the 'people' part of the site: a list of people connected with Zimbabwe's flora and further biographical details added for a number of individuals;
• Some progress with Petra's ferns: Blechnaceae added;
• The Anacardiaceae descriptions written by Dr Susan Pell have been added.

Now with 1,477 native and naturalised species plus a further 14 cultivated species.

A busy weekend of work on the site, with new content added, especially in Senecio.

Visit to the Herbarium. A synopsis of all the Senecio species in Zimbabwe was produced.

Visit to the Vumba: 6 Jan: Maonza area and 7 Jan: Cloudlands Forest and Chinziwa mountain. On the grassland slopes of the latter we found Senecio gazensis, new to us.

The utility which extracts the total number of species for which we have an image has been updated to provide more detailed information. The revised version may be found here.

Added the ability to generate a list of records for a specific location from within each location page. See the 'View list of records' link on the Cleveland Dam location page.

Further work mainly on the spot-characters section of the site, especially adding more content. A new program added as a link off the species page to show the spot characters. See this example for Argemone mexicana. In addition, some further new species added.

A day spent working on Google Maps and Phpcoord so that all the records with grid references are now plotted automatically on Google Maps and slightly more detailed information about each record is provided when the marker is clicked.

The References page, which used to contain all the literature referred to in compiling the site and which was a static HTML file, has been replaced by a new dynamically generated file. The individual references are now fully contained within the database.

In addition, the species page has been redesigned as follows:

• A new section of the page has been added just under the row of images, called 'Records and maps'. In one row, there are now all the links either to individual species records, to our own internally created maps and to the Google Maps facility.
• Each one of the items of information in the Species details section, e.g. Synonyms, Common names and Altitude range, are now a link. Clicking on that link opens an explanatory page in a new window, so that information can be obtained and then the new window closed without losing one's place on the species page.
• As an example, see the Brachystegia spiciformis page.

Work begun on incorporating records from the Tree Society mapping project. So far, records added only to Albizia.

In addition, Bart has produced some new base maps (showing altitude, geology and rainfall); these are in colour and are of much better quality than the old maps. These are now live on the site as well.

• 23 September 2006: Ndundu Lodge: trail no. 1;
• 24 September 2006: Forest off the Woodland Road.
• 25 September 2006: Chinyakwaremba; climbed to the summit and descended via the Gwasha.

• 16 September 2006: Borrowdale Common;
• 17 September 2006: Mt Hampden, with the Tree Society.

• 12 August: World's View;
• 13 August: Mt Chinaka area and Fox Rock;
• 14 August: John Galt village, Marowe Falls;
• 15 August: Return to Harare via Diana's Vow and Harleigh Ruins.

Our content has also grown from a partial checklist of Zimbabwean plants to become much more of an online flora, with descriptions, photographs, keys and the ability to generate distribution maps on the fly.

In that time, the team has grown from a single-handed effort to become a joint Hyde-Wursten collaboration.

Progress to date is as follows:

• all 242 families have a description and 59% have a sample image;
• of the 1597 genera, 58% have a description and 41% have a sample image;
• of the 6239 species, 19% have a description and 19% have an image;
• 5285 records have been entered into the database.

Clearly, a lot more needs to be done but it has been an exciting journey and we look forward to future developments.

Earthquake hits Zimbabwe. In the early hours (about 00.20 hrs) of Thursday, 23rd February 2006, we had a small earthquake, the first one I've ever experienced. I was half asleep in bed when it occurred, but it was vigorous enough to wake me up.

The house shook, doors rattled. It sounded as if there were very large rats bounding around in the attic or as if someone was trying violently to break in.

We estimate that it lasted about 30 seconds. No visible damage was done either inside or outside the house.

Zimbabwe is not really an earthquake zone but small tremors do occur from time to time, mainly in the Zambezi Valley and sometimes associated with Lake Kariba; this is the first one I've ever noticed.

A friend in Harare who lives on the 5th floor of a block of flats in the Avenues wrote (at 00.50, not long after the event):

Being on the 5th floor during an earthtremor at 12.22 am just now... was interesting. A hairbrush fell off the back of a chair and there was a minor shower of plaster dust, but no damage.

Kariba still stands according ZESA who I rang...

There was a rumbling like thunder (and the lightning in the North seemed too far away to be heard).

It appears that the quake was centered in southern Mozambique and measured 7.5 on the Richter scale.

• 14 January: Borrowdale Common and Mukuvisi Woodland.
• 15 January: Tree Society outing to Kutsaga.
• 16 January: Greystone Park Nature Reserve; major outflow from dam causing a waterfall in the forest.
• 17 January: Visit to Val D'Or near Arcturus.

Short but intense visit to the Vumba.

• 7 January: Local day in the Vumba, mostly at Seldomseen.
• 8 January: Visit to low altitudes on the road south towards Birchenough Bridge. We revisited the Rimiti West area and then went on to Hot Springs. A very large number of new records added and specimens collected; a very long and most productive day.

• 17 November: Visit to Christon Bank with Meg Coates Palgrave, Werner Fibeck, Alan and Eva Gardiner and Tom Mueller.
• 19 November: Haka Game Park: disappointing; very hot and dry
• 20 November: Visit to a plot on the Gardiner Rd, nr Arcturus. Also very hot and dry.
• 21 November: Return visit to Christon Bank.

• 16 October: Travel from Nyanga to Vumba
• 17 October: Whole day botanising from Cloudlands down the main Vumba rd, eventually reaching Tiger Kloof in Mutare
• 18-19 October: Vumba
• 20 October: Visit to site of former Mountain Lodge Hotel, Vumba to photograph a spectacular flowering tree, Vernicia montana.
• 21 October: Whole day trip (with John Bennett) to Osborne Dam, with a stop at the Odzani River bridge. Very hot and dry generally. Some interesting herbs and flowering trees found.
• 22 October: Walk round Vumba Botanic Garden.

Database version launched.

This is a new version of the site, which uses a database to hold the data about each species. After 3 months of work developing the new version it is at last ready to be released.

The new features of the redesigned site are:

• the separation of the actual content from the page presenting that content, which will make site-wide changes much easier;
• the ability to add new content faster;
• inclusion of new sorts of data: e.g. individual species records and details of people and places.

This is potentially a major change to the content of the site. Although content is still limited at present, this is being added rapidly.

An old alien record rediscovered. I (MAH) was most grateful to receive an email last week from Dr Costas Zachariades of the ARC in South Africa. It appears that Chromolaena odorata, hitherto not known in Zimbabwe, was collected here, near Chinhoyi, in 1967. This is the first and only record of this species in Zimbabwe. The species page gives full details of this interesting record.

• 8 March: Cleveland Dam, below the dam wall
• 10 March: Visit to Haslemere Lane and Cleveland Dam in the woodland part.

• 11 February: Travel to Nyanga; one or two orchid stops on the way
• 12 February: Mt Rukotso, Nyanga
• 13 February: World's View, Nyanga
• 14 February: Travel from Nyanga to Vumba: some stops en route
• 15 February: Castleburn Cliffs, Vumba
• 16 February: Short visit to Bunga Views, Vumba and then return to Harare.

• 29 January: Airedale Rd and general Brondesbury Park area, Nyanga
• 30 January: Mt Rukotso, Nyanga
• 31 January: Essex Rd, Vumba
• 1 February: low altitude trip to Wengezi and the Umvumvumvu River.

For some time, I have been unhappy with the underlying structure of the site.

In the current site, the appearance is controlled by a single CSS file. This nicely separates the appearance from the content and allows site-wide changes to such things as font sizes to be made easily.

The speciesdata part of the site is fundamentally a database application. Ideally the data should be fed into templates so that a site-wide change to the content and the way it is presented can easily be made without the need to change hundreds of individual pages.

However, this is not really true of the present site, although the speciesdata pages are partly created from templates.

Over these six days of leave and public holidays, I have created a database system using PHP and MySQL which hopefully will overcome the problems outlined above.

However, because of the need for further testing and the work involved in adding the data, it will be a little while before the new site appears publicly.

News about the Zimbabwean flora has been scarce lately, but I (MAH) heard a few days ago that the checklist of the Flora of Zimbabwe by Anthony Mapaura and Jonathan Timberlake has recently been published by Sabonet. I haven't yet seen a copy myself, but hope to do so soon. Obviously, this is a very important event in the development of Zimbabwean botany.

We intend to make a detailed comparison between that list and the checklist on this web site in order to resolve any important differences.

Another visit by Bart to Harare and we had a weekend of active photography and plant collecting at Cleveland Dam and Borrowdale Common. This evening, seven new species added to the site:

• Aloe cameronii;
• Androcymbium striatum;
• Cussonia arborea;
• Evolvulus alsinoides;
• Hypericum revolutum;
• Momordica foetida;
• Zantedeschia albomaculata;

Another volume of Flora Zambesiaca, volume 5(3), which covers the last part of the interesting (and often difficult) family, Rubiaceae, has appeared.

This part contains treatments of difficult genera such as Pavetta and no doubt there will be much of interest to absorb and understand.

Taxonomic changes will be taken into account in version 1.2 of the Zimbabwe checklist, which is still in preparation.

About 20 members of the Tree Society gathered on the afternoon of Sunday, February 22nd 2004 to celebrate Bob Drummond's 80th birthday. Tea, cakes and biscuits and wine were served and we sat outside under a shady pergola. To be strictly accurate, Bob's birthday is not actually until 27th February. A short biography of Bob's early years (up to 1955) was read out by Mark Hyde and after that Tom Muller described some incidents from the subsequent years.

1

2

The two pictures show: (1) Bob Drummond (centre) reading from a list of botanists and (2) Bob again with the members in the background.

• a trial key to some of the species incorporating thumbnail images;
• a page of extensive information about Oxalis latifolia, including images.

Further development work - after a long break involved with other things. Changes in progress are as follows:

• Finalisation of format of version 1.0 of the checklist

  Not all the families in 1.0 have a consistent layout; all are to be made consistent. There are no taxonomic changes involved, this purely affects the appearance of the html pages.

  One or two spelling and formatting errors in 1.0 to be corrected.

  There are incorrect references to javascript files which prevent Netscape users seeing anything at all; these need to be corrected.

  Titles on each page to refer to version 1.0.

• Work on version 1.1 of the Zimbabwe checklist

  A number of people have made comments on this list and pointed out corrections and additions.

  A new sequence of release 1.1 files will be created, for each family where changes have been made.

• Addition of further links

After a big effort - all the families have been brought up to version 1.0 and (with a few exceptions) changed to the new-style layout. The checklist (after nearly 1 year!) is now finally at release 1.0. This list will now be frozen and shortly a new series of files will be opened for any changes which come to light.

Some work also done on the spot-characters page. Also some work on the checklist statistics.

• the Pteridophyta nomenclature;
• incorporating elements from the draft Mapaura/Timberlake checklist;
• incorporating comments kindly supplied by Meg Coates-Palgrave on the same draft Mapaura/Timberlake checklist;
• incorporating earlier names from Eyles(1916).

• Amendments to layout of "List A" families to bring the literature references within the tables;
• Correction of various minor errors in families already uploaded;

• Move towards XHTML strict, from transitional;
• further rewriting and additions;