Plant Collectors in Angola: Botany, Exploration, and History in South-Tropical Africa

An authoritative treatise on the history of botanical studies and exploration in Angola.

For any region, cataloging, interpreting, and understanding the history of botanical exploration and plant collecting, and the preserved specimens that were amassed as a result, are critically important for research and conservation. In this book, published in cooperation with the International Association for Plant Taxonomy, Estrela Figueiredo and Gideon F. Smith, both botanists with expertise in the taxonomy of African plants, provide the first comprehensive, contextualized account of plant collecting in Angola, a large country in south-tropical Africa. An essential book for anyone concerned with the biodiversity and history of Africa, this authoritative work offers insights into the lives, times, and endeavors of 358 collectors. In addition, the authors present analyses of the records that accompanied the collectors’ preserved specimens. Illustrated in color throughout, the book fills a large gap in the current knowledge of the botanical and exploration history of Africa.

Estrela Figueiredo was a tenured scientist at the Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical, Lisboa, Portugal until 2007, after which she assumed associate positions at the South African National Biodiversity Institute and the University of Pretoria. She is currently attached to Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha. As a plant systematist, she has focused virtually her entire career on the flora of Africa, including that of Angola. Gideon F. Smith has held several senior management positions at the South African National Biodiversity Institute, as well as the John Acocks Chair in Botany at the University of Pretoria. He is at present attached to the Nelson Mandela University in Gqeberha and is South Africa’s most prolific author on Old and New World succulents. Among their many books, Figueiredo and Smith are coauthors of Plants of Angola / Plantas de Angola and Common Names of Angolan Plants.