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The First Overseas BBS Taxonomic Workshop: National University of Lesotho (NUL), Roma, Lesotho, April 1997Matcham, H.W. & Duckett, J.G. 1996. The First Overseas BBS Taxonomic Workshop: National University of Lesotho (NUL), Roma, Lesotho, April 1997. Bulletin BBS 70: 30-31.
Southern Africa has experienced one of the wettest summers in living memory, which has resulted in an unprecedented explosion of ephemeral mosses and liverworts. Previously rarely recorded mosses such as Ephemerum capense, Acaulon recurvatum and Cladophascum gymnomitrioides were found to be abundant. Our collections also include at least two Ephemerum species previously unknown in southern Africa (Magill, 1987). Fields of maize and Sorghum contained extensive colonies of Riccia crystallina, R. cavernosa, terrestrial R. stricta and the exceedingly rare R. cupulifera. By coincidence, the South African hepaticologist Mrs Sarie Perold, accompanied by Miss Miranda Koekemoer, curator of the herbarium at PRE were visiting NUL at the same time as us and kindly agreed to accompany us on a morning's field excursion collecting thalloid liverworts, followed by an afternoon in the laboratory. During the morning's fieldwork session we were ably supported by Mrs A. Moteetee, head of the Biology Department at NUL and Mr T. Mafa, who is engaged on a four-year contract in the herbarium at NUL working on the South African Biodiversity Network (SABNET). The idea to hold a taxonomic workshop had been given added impetus with the realization by Sarie that an Asterella species collected in the Natal/Drakensberg and whose identity had puzzled us was, in fact A. abyssinica not previously recorded south of Zimbabwe (Wigginton & Grolle, 1996). After negotiating a tricky river crossing, the field session was held in the Koro Koro valley some 10 km south of NUL. Bryophyte species were collected from sandstone outcrops, thin soil covering sandstone and from fields of maize and Sorghum. As the subsequent laboratory session progressed it became increasingly evident that many rare species had been gathered. Seven Riccia species were new to Lesotho, these including the very rare R. simii and R. cupulifera. In addition to instructing us on the differences between the various Riccias Sarie checked all our earlier collections of marchantialean liverworts and was able to confirm the first records for Lesotho of Exormotheca holstii, Mannia capensis, Oxymitra cristata and Plagiochasma eximium. In return we were able to show Sarie Ephemerum capense and Stephaniella paraphyllina in the field for the first time. We believe that this is the first taxonomic workshop of the BBS held outside the UK. We would both like to thank Sarie for her time and efforts on our behalf. H.W.M. and J.G.D. would like to acknowledge the generous financial support afforded to them by the British Council under a 5-year academic link between the Biology departments at QMW and NUL on this and on previous occasions. The wide-ranging taxonomic and ecological studies carried out on the bryophytes of Lesotho under this link will be the subject of several papers, the first of which is nearing completion. References Magill RE. 1987.Bryophyta. Part
1. Mosses, Fasc 2 Leistner OA, ed, Flora of Southern Africa.
Republic of South Africa: Botanical Research Institute. Howard W. Matcham & Jeffrey G. Duckett |