Plant Information System: News

PHOTOS OF NEAR-ENDEMIC PLANTS NEEDED

23 October 2024

The Near-Endemic Plants Project is still looking for photos of species on this list for which we have none at all.

For those of you interested in submitting photos to the Indigenous Plant Atlas on the EIS for the Near-Endemic Plants Project competition, you will earn extra points for photos of the above species. But photos of any species are still welcome, although only near-endemic species are counted for the competition.

If anybody wants to make available their photos of near-endemic (all, not just those on the list), endemic or any other plants for adding to the Plant Information System on the EIS but does not want to go via the Indigenous Plant Atlas – you are welcome to contact us at [email protected]

You will, however, not be considered for the competition.

NEAR-ENDEMIC PLANTS PROJECT PHOTO COMPETITION WINNERS

16 October 2024

We are happy to announce that the winners for the competition were determined as follows:

1st prize – Jessica Steyn

2nd prize – Michelle Rodgers

3rd prize – Matthew Walters

Consolation prizes – Jessica Kemper, Madelene Mostert and Manda Steynberg (on behalf of the Botanical Society).

CONGRATULATIONS !!

Despite the drought and some issues with uploading records and/or photos onto the EIS Indigenous Plant Atlas we received more records than anticipated from a few dedicated atlasers. Two consolations prizes could not be awarded as there were no further persons qualifying for these.

We hope that the new season brings good rains and more atlasers joining in the fun and the new competition (see announcement below).

Ferraria schaeferi by Jessica Kemper Euphorbia namibensis by Jessica Sack (Steyn)


REMINDER

10 July 2024

The Near-endemic Plants Project’s photo competition for the first year is nearing its DEADLINE  -  31 AUGUST 2024. If you still have photos you want to submit, please do this through the Indigenous Plant Atlas on the EIS (http://the-eis.com/atlas/?q=atlas-of-indigenous-plants).

The past season’s drought seems to have put a damper on what was available to photograph. From 1 September 2023 to 30 June 2024, only 261 indigenous plant records were submitted of which 86 had attached photos; 45 of the records were for Namibian near-endemic species, 27 with photos. So, the competition is not fierce and you stand a good chance to win if you submit records with photos.

Although we will count any records with useable photos for the purposes of this competition, we are particularly interested in getting records and photos of the species for which we have no photos yet. See the list of these 244 species. We know it is difficult to identify these plants in the field – therefore just take photos and submit ANY plant records to the Indigenous Plant Atlas. We will try to identify them and sort out which are near-endemic. The other records will not go to waste – they will increase our knowledge of Namibian plants.

 

FIRST RESULTS ONLINE

12 March 2024

Namibian Near-Endemic Plants Project - First Species Information Online
Information for the first 137 near-endemic plant species has been uploaded onto the Environmental Information Service website. These are the species from Acacia montis-usti to Commiphora anacardiifolia if you filter on near-endemic species and sort by species on the Plant Information System (http://www.the-eis.com/atlas/?q=plant-information-system).
It has been a steep learning curve for us all to get to this point. The procedures we used to gather information, analyse and database it, had to be adjusted time and again. The patience and never wavering enthusiasm of Sofia Amakali in re-doing, updating and changing things in the data gathering process, must be acknowledged here. The biggest challenge was getting the database to spit out the information in the desired format. Here we are particularly grateful for the assistance from Denis Filer, one of the developers of the BRAHMS database at Oxford University. Now that we have streamlined our workflow, we plan to add about 70 more species information sheets every three months to the website. Everything is not perfect yet and we hope for feedback from users to further improve our outputs.

TAKING PHOTOS OF PLANTS

21 December 2023

Identifying plants can be challenging and even more so from photos. For many grasses and sedges identification from photos is impossible because microscopic features often determine the difference between species. For most plants a single photo is usually not enough for positive identification. Take a look at this document for tips about taking photos.
 

NEAR-ENDEMIC PLANTS PROJECT COMPETITION

11 October 2023

WE NEED YOUR HELP
The NCE’s Near-Endemic Plants Project is preparing information sheets about Namibia’s near-endemic plants.   
These sheets will be available online through the Namibian Environmental Information Service - EIS. 
We need your help in getting photos of near-endemic plants – a list of which you can find on the EIS’s Plant
Information System by filtering for “near-endemic”. The JRS Biodiversity Foundation has made available prize money
for the persons that submit the most records and photos of near-endemic plants to the EIS’s Indigenous Plant Atlas.
 

    1st prize = N$3000     2nd prize = N$2000     3rd prize = N$1000

5 consolation prizes of N$425 each

 

Rules:
Competition closes on 31 August 2024
Records and photos must be submitted to the Indigenous Plant Atlas on the EIS
Only records of near-endemic species will be counted
A species will be counted only once per quarter-degree square per atlaser
At least 50% of near-endemic plant records submitted, must have a useable photo attached
The atlaser must agree to the photo being used on the information sheet that will be put online (with due acknowledgement)
 
For any queries, please contact the project at [email protected]
 
 

PROJECT ANNOUNCEMENT

13 July 2023

                                                                                       
The NCE is pleased to announce that it was successful in obtaining funding from the JRS Biodiversity Foundation (https://jrsbiodiversity.org/) for a project “Better information for better conservation, restoration and sustainable use - focusing on Namibian near-endemic plants”. The aims are to bring together all existing data from a variety of sources throughout the world, analyse and summarise these for placement on the Plant Information System website of the Environmental Information Service (EIS).      
 
This information will be freely accessible and will be useful for many practical applications, like environmental impact assessments, conservation and restoration actions or sustainable use of plant resources. Namibian botanist, Herta Kolberg, will be leading this project and in the process transfer much of her accumulated experience and knowledge to the younger generation of plant scientists. To accomplish this huge task we decided to start with the near-endemic plants, of which the larger part of their distribution range lies within Namibia with a smaller portion in Angola or South Africa. The project started in mid-May 2023 and will run for 30 months. 
Watch this space for further developments!!