Control of meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria through a change of management from grazing to mowing at an English floodplain meadow.

Floodplain meadow grassland is a diverse habitat which has become increasingly rare throughout Europe. Meadowsweet Filipendula ulmaria, is a characteristic species of its plant community, however it can become overly dominant in the sward resulting in detrimental effects on the community as a whole. High abundance can reduce both the diversity of the sward, by shading out low growing species, and the quality of the hay crop. An eight-year management trial (2011-2019) was undertaken at Fancott Woods and Meadows SSSI by the BCN Wildlife Trust and the Floodplain Meadows Partnership, to test whether it was possible to reduce the dominance of meadowsweet through an annual hay cut with aftermath grazing instead of grazing management only, across three blocks of experimental treatments. A secondary aim of the trial was to investigate whether a change in management could also increase the plant-species diversity. Three plots were cut in June and then aftermath grazed, compared to three control plots that were only grazed from July onwards. The study found that cover of meadowsweet decreased from 55% to 6% under the annual cut and aftermath grazing treatment compared to a decrease from 58% to 35% in the control (grazed only) areas. This was accompanied by an increase in plant-species diversity in the cut areas compared to control plots. The study concluded that annual cutting can be used to control coarse and dominant meadowsweet effectively, and that cutting followed by aftermath grazing in a floodplain meadow delivers greater botanical diversity compared to grazing alone.

Essential Oils Bearing Plants of Cameroon – An Update

In Cameroon, several plants are used both for their medicinal properties and as food. Many of them contain essential oils as one of their secondary metabolites. Although traditional healers rarely, if ever, use essential oils as the basis for their treatments, it is thought that the latter would be found in their products in view of the preparation processes used. And therefore several activities attributed to their drugs are linked to the presence of essential oils. Many studies have revealed the presence of essential oils in several plants found in Cameroon, and validated their traditional use. The purpose of this study is to identify these plants on the basis of studies carried out in order to make a review which will serve as support for future studies. This work reviewed available and accessible original articles in EBSCO, Ovid MEDLINE®, PubMed®, ScienceDirectTM, Scopus® and Web of ScienceTM databases on Cameroon plants studied for their essential oils. We have identified ninety plants that have been the subject of proven studies and scientific publication. They are mainly distributed in the families of Lamiaceae (14: 16%), Annonaceae (11: 12%), Rutaceae (10: 11%), Asteraceae (10 : 11%) and Myrtaceae (09 : 10%). We believe that an important work remains to be done in the search for new essential oils in Cameroon, because the country is endowed with a very great botanical diversity.

Vegetation survey of the Khomas Hochland in central-western Namibia: syntaxonomical descriptions

Background: The Great Escarpment of southern Africa takes the form of an extended mountainous highland in central-western Namibia, commonly referred to as the ‘Khomas Hochland’. It is regarded as an area of high botanical diversity. Yet only few localised studies on the vegetation composition are available. The Khomas Hochland is formed on the southern part of the Damara Orogen and dominated by metamorphosed sediments. Climatically it forms a transition between the hot desert of the Namib and the slightly cooler hot steppe in the inland.Objectives: To classify and provide syntaxonomical descriptions of the vegetation of the Khomas Hochland.Methods: A dataset comprising 1151 relevés and 914 species was compiled from various surveys, mostly collected under, and to the standards of, the umbrella project ‘Vegetation Survey of Namibia’. For first classifications, the data set was reduced to a synusial set consisting of trees, shrubs, dwarf shrubs and grasses only.Results: The classification resulted in four major landscape units, being the Pre-Namib and Escarpment zone, the Khomas Hochland proper, riverine habitats as well as surrounding lowlands. The classification was further refined using Cocktail procedures to produce 30 associations, one with four sub-associations. These are described in this paper.Conclusion: A classification of synoptic data grouped the associations into five orders and one undefined cluster of associations on specialised desert habitats. Four of these orders correspond to the habitat types identified in the first classification. The fifth order, the Senegalio hereroensis–Tarchonanthoetalia camphorathi, represents high mountains of the central Khomas Hochland, which link biogeographically to the grassland biome in South Africa.

Effect of altitude on Mistletoe’s distribution in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BNIP), Uganda

This study examined mistletoes in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in South Western Uganda. In 6.4 ha, comprising 64 plots, divided between disturbed and less disturbed forests, spanning on an elevation range of 1160 to 2607 m a.s.l. 1,496 mistletoescounts were recorded, comprising of 21 species in seven genera and two families. These were hosted on 542 host trees comprising of 45 species in 18 unique mistletoes –host families. These mistletoes showed a preference for stems growing in open conditions with the mean density of 356 ha-1 versus 129 ha-1 in denser forest. The most abundant mistletoe species were found in the altitudinal range of a1000.5-1500m and 1500.5-2000.5m a.s.l with minimum numbers of counts dominated by Englerina woodfordiodes (with a count of 151 contributing to 23.18 %.) and Phragamenthera usuiensis (with155 counts contributing to f 42.8% of mistletoes in Bwindi forest).Mistletoe abundance differed significantly between altitude ranges (P < 0.001) although it was similar between the forest edge and interior sites (P= 0.565).Nevertheless, six mistletoe species were recorded over one hundred times each and another six species were recorded only once implying that the species list is incomplete. Application of Chao’s estimator indicated that mistletoe species richness is likely to exceed 40 species suggesting that mistletoes represent a significant component of the forest’s botanical diversity.

Vascular Plants of Maryland, USA: A Comprehensive Account of the State's Botanical Diversity

This checklist provides the first complete, vouchered account of Maryland’s vascular flora. In total, we discuss 3,525 taxa and document 2,918 established taxa for the state of Maryland, 71.8% of which are native and 28.2% of which are introduced. Of the native species, 737 (25.3%) are tracked by the <a>Maryland Natural Heritage Program</a> as of conservation concern. We exclude 324 taxa reported from Maryland by previous authors and provide justifications for these exclusions. Knapp, Wesley M., and Robert F. C. Naczi. Vascular Plants of Maryland, USA: A Comprehensive Account of the State’s Botanical Diversity. <i>Smithsonian Contributions to Botany</i>, number 113, viii + 151 pages, 1 figure, 17 May 2021.

Vascular Plants of Maryland, USA: A Comprehensive Account of the State's Botanical Diversity

This checklist provides the first complete, vouchered account of Maryland’s vascular flora. In total, we discuss 3,525 taxa and document 2,918 established taxa for the state of Maryland, 71.8% of which are native and 28.2% of which are introduced. Of the native species, 737 (25.3%) are tracked by the <a>Maryland Natural Heritage Program</a> as of conservation concern. We exclude 324 taxa reported from Maryland by previous authors and provide justifications for these exclusions. Knapp, Wesley M., and Robert F. C. Naczi. Vascular Plants of Maryland, USA: A Comprehensive Account of the State’s Botanical Diversity. <i>Smithsonian Contributions to Botany</i>, number 113, viii + 151 pages, 1 figure, 17 May 2021.

Diversification of Cynoglossinae genera (Cynoglosseae-Boraginaceae) in the western Irano-Turanian bioregion

The Irano-Turanian (I-T) bioregion harbours one of the Old world’s greatest repositories of botanical diversity; however, the diversification patterns and the phenotypic evolution of its flora are sorely understudied. The subtribe Cynoglossinae is characteristic of the western I-T bioregion, species–rich both in the desertic lowlands and the more mesic highlands of the Iranian plateau. About 70 species of Cynoglossinae are present in the Iranian plateau, 47 of which are endemic to the plateau.Herein, nuclear ITS and cpDNA rpl32-trnL and trnH–psbA sequences were used to investigate the molecular phylogeny, historical biogeography and ancestral character states of Cynoglossinae. Molecular dating and ancestral range reconstruction analyses indicated that the subtribe Cynoglossinae has initiated its diversification from the eastern part of the western I-T during the mid-Miocene, concomitantly with the uplift of the Pamir and Hindu Kush mountains. Moreover, from the Pliocene onwards the Afghan-India collision and extensive deformation of the Arabia-Eurasia convergence probably promoted allopatric speciation in Cynoglossinae via mostly vicariance events. Evolution of annuals with small nutlets from perennials with large nutlets was accompanied by mesic to desert habitats shifts. Herein, to explain distribution of Cynoglossinae in the western I-T, the congruence between cladogenetic, geological and palaeoclimatic events was investigated.

Measuring Dietary Botanical Diversity as a Proxy for Phytochemical Exposure

The study of natural plant molecules and their medicinal properties, pharmacognosy, provides a taxonomy for botanical families that represent diverse chemical groupings with potentially distinct functions in relation to human health. Yet, this reservoir of knowledge has not been systematically applied to elucidating the role of patterns of plant food consumption on gut microbial ecology and function. All chemical classes of dietary phytochemicals can affect the composition of the microbes that colonize the gut and their function. In turn, the gut microbiome affects the host via multiple mechanisms including gut barrier function, immune function, satiety and taste regulation and the activity of biological signaling pathways that influence health and disease. Herein, we report the development of a botanical diversity index (BDI) to evaluate plant food consumption as a novel metric for identifying and quantifying phytochemicals to which an individual is exposed. A rationale is advanced for using the BDI to investigate how plant food diversity impacts gut microbial ecology and functionality.