Our trip to Mt Mulanje was the fortunate convergence of our desire to instigate a tropical collecting trip, and the need which Shaun Russell has described - to fill in the missing piece of the bryological jigsaw of the Afromontane mountain range.

In fact I think the suggestion of Mulanje came from David Long, who had been there, and thought in addition to the lack of botanical knowledge of the area, it was in any case an ideal place to collect - Malawi is a stable country, people speak English as one of the national languages, the mountain is easy to get to, is not dangerous, and his preliminary collections suggested that it would be a very rich place to collect.

The suggestion of a tropical trip came from a series of meetings of what became the BBS Tropical Bryology Group - the TBG. We met for the first time in 1988, and spent a year or so trying to establish the best way in which we could contribute to the cause of tropical bryology. We came up with a number of possibilities, one of which was to arrange a collecting trip to the tropics. At the time this was seen as one of the less likely options, and we spent our time on such things as producing a collecting guide, and trying to list tropical bryophyte collections in Britain. It eventually rose up the list, and when the suggestion was made in the Bulletin, enough interest was shown to make it worthwhile organising the trip, which was from 12th June to 3rd July.

The members of the expedition in the end consisted of 3 academics, 2 herbarium staff, 3 conservationists, and 1 rank amateur -myself.

Back row: Martin Wigginton, Nick Hodgetts, Zach Magombo, Shaun Russell, Royce Longton, Brian O'Shea, Edwin Kathumba
Front row: Master Singama, Liz Kungu, Ron Porley

Visiting Malawi was the first visit to tropical Africa for most of the UK contingent (and indeed for Royce it was his 7th and last continent), so it's difficult to say whether the country was fascinating just for this reason, or whether it had a special character of its own. It is a very stable country (despite bordering Mozambique) [at the time suffering civil war] about the size of Britain, but with a population approaching 10 million - together with a million refugees from over the Mozambiquan border.  The population is poor, but nowhere did we see the poverty familiar from television newsreels. The population looked very healthy, well fed and happy, although there was begging in the towns. The country is largely agricultural, but a lot of it particularly in the south is used for tea, coffee and tobacco plantations. Malawi is just over 500 miles north to south, and from 50 to 70 miles wide, and is about a quarter covered by water - mainly Lake Malawi. Mulanje is at the southern end of Malawi (marked 'Sapitwa' on the map), and is about a thousand miles from the nearest mountain of any size - Mount Kenya to the north and the Drakensbergs to the south. Malawi covers part of the southern end of the rift valley, and the mountains rise sheer out of the plateau. The climate is hot and wet from November to April, cool and dry from May to August and hot and dry from September to November. The bryophytes of Malawi have not previously been listed, but as part of the preparation for the expedition I had been putting such a list together. For the mosses the basic list was fairly straightforward, since Gabriella Kis from Hungary published a list of the mosses of south east tropical Africa in 1986. Later additions were then made from the literature, and from lists from Eustace Jones, Alan Crundwell and David Long, and latterly from collections at this years AETFAT conference - notably from Tamás Pócs. The liverwort list had to be compiled from the literature, and this exercise is not yet completed, although all the aforementioned collectors also added significantly to the list. As a result, we had a list of 205 mosses and 97 hepatics before we left, and a further 3 mosses and 12 hepatics were added in a letter from Tamás Pócs on the day before we left. This list proved very useful both in suggesting possible identifications for the material we collected, and also to be able to tell when we collected things we knew were new to Malawi.

We spent the time visiting the herbarium and botanic garden, and getting out first taste of an African market. We then travelled on to Blantyre and neighbouring Limbe.

.... where Shaun perfected the art of barter, and equipped us with the first of our supplies.

We found the fresh fruit and vegetables to be incredibly cheap -massive avocados the size of rugby balls for a few pence, and baskets full of oranges for a pound, but the processed food was very expensive - a bar of chocolate would be several pounds. The average wage in Malawi is about 40p per day. I have to mention here the contribution of Cathy and Stephen Temple of the Tea Research Foundation. We had to be resupplied twice while we were up the mountain, which involved the Temples buying us extra food, arranging for porters to carry it up, spending the day coming with the porters, and then going back down again with the porters carrying specimens, taking these back to the TRF and then drying them for us in their ovens. An outstandingly generous contribution from people who were almost total strangers. The markets were good for local food because most of the agriculture is subsistence farming. Provisioned, we headed for Mulanje.

Nephrolepis as a weed in a Cassava field

Mulanje Mountain - sketch map

(The hatched areas were those specifically targeted for collecting)   

There is a road round the base of the mountain, although it is not metalled for a lot of the way. The base of Mulanje is at about 800 m, whilst the main plateau is about 1800-2100m, and the highest peak, Sapitwa, is at 3002 m - on the map it says 2998 m, so we stood on the trig point to make sure we got over the 3000 m mark. Zomba Mt. is almost 900 m lower (2133 m).

At the 800 m mark, the area of the massif is 246 sq miles (643 sq km), 16x13 miles (26x22km). The plateau area is at about 1800-2100m - rolling grassy uplands, intersected by deep forested ravines and gullies.  Above the plateau rise deeply fissured boulder-strewn rock slabs and walls, and there are 20 peaks that exceed 2500 m.

Mt. Mulanje is a biotically isolated island in the Afro-montane archipelago that stretches from Ethiopia to the Cape.

The mountain is a popular area for walking, particularly with South African tourists - Malawi has traditionally been the only black African country that welcomed South Africans, but also now with Europeans, Americans and Australasians. The plateau of the mountain is crossed by a number of paths, and there are six huts owned by the Forestry Department, which we stayed in - the Malawi Mountain Club allowed us access to their beds and cooking gear which is kept in these huts.

The mountain is largely igneous, made of granite and syenite (granite without the quartz), but we did find quite a bit of sandstone which added variety to the bryophytes. Large areas are overlaid with bauxite (e.g. Lichenya plateau), which give smooth grassy slopes.

There are a number of endemic animals and plants, including the Mulanje cedar, Widdringtonia cupressoides (W. whytei). This is the national tree of Malawi. Individual trees can reach 40m height.

Widdringtonia stand	Widdringtonia, Nandalanda in background.	Chambe forest (Pinus patula)	Invading Pinus patula below Namasile.

There are firebreaks to allow the management of controlled burning. This one also forms the Minunu Path in the Ruo valley.	A burnt hillside.	Helichrysum	Lobelia

	Logging on Zomba Mt.	Cedar shingles (2p each - only obtainable from naturally fallen trees)
	Drying sedges to make brushes	Erosion on  a Mulanje path; there is very heavy seasonal rainfall

Sub-montane woodland (with epiphytes particularly common, especially epiphylls):

Cyathea forest	Mossy forest with Hymenophyllum

On the lower slopes there is mainly evergreen forest, including such trees as Newtonia buchanii, Podocarpus, Khaya - and Brachystegia species on the drier northern slopes:

The forest vegetation has been severely diminished as a result of forestry, but also because of the expanding human population, which is encroaching steadily into mid-altitude forests. This has also had a significant effect on the water supplies to agriculture in the lowlands, and has contributed to the catastrophic landslides of earlier this year. There is a move to designate the area as a IUCN Biosphere Reserve. There have been bryophytes collected on several trips to the mountain in the past, but most of these were collected in passing by expeditions looking for animals or other plants. We were probably the first bryologists to collect in the forests to the south of the mountain, and over much of the east of the mountain. Most of the major collections have been written up by Tamás Pócs and his

colleagues in the series 'East African Bryophytes', but there have been some recent collections, and many of the commoner collections were not included, and a number of older collections were identified subsequent to the publication of the papers. In particular, Eustace Jones' collections should be mentioned, and Alan Crundwell's collections in the Zomba, Blantyre and Mulanje areas, and latterly David Long's collections in the same areas. Tamás Pócs, Zach Magombo and Shaun Russell also collected earlier this year at the AETFAT conference, and we await with interest to see what was found.

We circled the mountain warily for a couple of days, with preliminary sorties into the rainforest at the south and south east of the mountain. (Being in the southern hemisphere, the wet bits are to the south, not the north. We also found the night sky rather disturbing, with the plough being upside down and the north star below the horizon. However, the night sky was so beautiful and clear that those of us who are city dwellers had forgotten what a clear sky looks like, so we were not too disorientated.) We were based at the Mulanje golf club which despite having brown greens must have been the most beautifully sited golf course in the continent, with a backdrop of the mountain. View of The Crater from Mulanje club

One party spent 2 nights camping in the Chisongoli forest on the SE corner, whilst the other went into the forests on the southern fringe (Madzeka and Lujeri). We had plenty of information about what the mountain was like for walking, and the going was fairly easy on the paths, but we were unprepared for the difficulties of travel away from the tracks. The party that went to Chisongoli found the going particularly difficult and only covered a small amount of the ground they intended.

After these two days acclimatising we climbed the l000 m to the top, via the Big Ruo valley. You may have heard of Laurens Van Der Post's book, Venture to the Interior, which has some particularly vivid passages about Mulanje, including the death of one of his companions, who was washed away crossing a stream. We crossed the same spot, fortunately not in the wet season, but lived to tell the tale.

Ruo waterfall There is a dramatic change as you leave the shaded tracks of tropical forest and go over the crest onto the open, sunny plateau, where it reminds you remarkably of Scotland, and is covered by flowers - particularly Helichrysums, as well as ericaceous shrubs, Protea, Hypericums and many others. The only large animals on the mountain are a small antelope (the klipspringer) and the leopard, but there are also monkeys, small cats such as civet and genet, and porcupines. There are other smaller animals such as the rock hyrax which was frequent on the higher mountains, and we also saw a grass snake, a variety of frogs, the most enormous tadpoles (about 3 inches long), a lot of butterflies, and an excellent selection of birds - most of which we didn't recognise.

Chameleon mlanjesis White necked raven Lizard and moss bags

Click here to see a map showing our path across the mountain.

Minunu Hut from the north	Upper Ruo valley, looking north	Looking easterly on the Chinzama path (Heteromorpha in foreground)

We collected into brown paper bags, which we then dropped into large plastic bags. (We brought these from England because of the very high price of paper products in Malawi.) Each bag was numbered on the outside, and with a tear-off slip on the inside. The latter came from the collecting book - we had these specially prepared, with a page per specimen for locality, habitat etc. details, and 4 tear off slips per page (to allow up to the 4 extra packets for each collection.) Some of us completed these books in the field, but some (like myself) preferred to write on the packet in the field and complete the formalities of the collecting book later.

There was very little chance of doing any identification in the evening: sometimes we only had candles.

From Minunu, our party went north then east, carrying our packs with supplies for two days. We went past Chinzama hut and then on to Sombani, where we collected for most of a day in the north part of the Malosa forest before returning to Chinzama to meet up with the rest of the party. We then moved on to Thuchila hut.     Minunu hut by firelight

 

View towards Thuchila	Thuchila Hut
Chambe at sunset	Dedza at sunset

 

From Thuchila we went west to Chambe..... .....and then south again to Lichenya, the last of our stops. This was known previously to be one of the richest areas of the plateau - there are damp mossy ravines, as well as wet forest over the rim to the south. From Lichenya we climbed Sapitwa the highest mountain, although some of the party had already climbed the mountain a couple of days before and found both Andreaea and a typical mixed hepatic mat near the summit. We climbed from about 1800 m to almost 3000 m in four and a half hours carrying 12 kg packs, which we thought was no mean feat. We left our packs at West Peak before heading for Sapitwa summit.

Chambe Basin

 

Sapitwa from West Peak                                Edwin & Master ascending    Sapitwa summit: Edwin, Brian, Shaun, Master     We camped just below the summit of West Peak, and from there Shaun walked through to South Peak, an area never before visited by bryologists. The other three of us limped home the easy way.

Campsite below West Peak   Dawn from West Peak   From Lichenya we left the mountain (after 12 nights), and descended to Likhubula. This is a well collected area, being the main path up to the plateau. The descent through the vegetation here is quite striking, although it doesn't have the wet forest of the south east. The Widdringtonia gives way to Brachystegia, and then Ficus in the lowlands. From Likhubula, one party spent their time in the valley (but missed the endemic cycad, apparently quite frequent), whilst the others went into the Crater area. This was the first time we saw Octoblepharum in any quantity - the famous missionary moss - this being the first time we had spent any time at sufficiently low altitudes - it didn't seem to grow above 1000 m.

Then it was back to Zomba    Specimens packed ready to go       but some of us did think we needed to do what everyone else does when they come to Africa, and see some wildlife.  Here we are hard at it.

Hippo watching	Hippos	Fish eagle	Acacia
Impala lily   And that was it! We can now take our specimens and start the identification process.	Solanum	Euphorbia tree	Baobab

Hypopterygium	Lunularia	Calyptrochaete	Rhacocarpus
Trachypodopsis	Herbertus	Macromitrium	Dicranoloma
Hedwigidium	Aongstroemia	Sphagnum + Rhacocarpus	Octoblepharum

That's the end, but I'd particularly like to thank Shaun Russell for his leadership, and all the rest of the team who made such a fascinating and enjoyable trip.