Meet the trees of Namibia -How to find information about trees

•Luise HoffmannLAST week, I listed a number of useful tree books and promised to give some information on how best to use them because it is not always easy to find your way from the tree in the bush to the book in your hand.

Depending on where you live and where you can go to, there are several approaches. You could visit the National Botanic Garden, 8 Orban Street, Windhoek, for one of the guided tours presented by the Botanical Society of Namibia from 08h00 – 10h00 on the second Saturday of each month [except January] or visit the garden on your own during office hours on all work days.

The woody species in the garden are identified by nameplates. If you go there on your own, take along your tree book and use the index at the back of the book to find the botanical name given on the plate.

You will find photos of leaves, flowers and fruit and particulars about distribution, flowering times and uses. In this way, you will get familiar with the layout of the book and with the botanical names, which are all but indispensible, if you are serious about getting to know plants.

If you live near Swakopmund, Damaraland or the Waterberg you could follow the routes along which the plants are illustrated and described in Marais and Craven’s book for those areas.

For the region north-eastwards of Okahandja-Kalkfeld you could use the simple key provided on pages 12 and 13 and consult the glossary on pages 10 and 11 for any words that you might not know.

However, there will be quite a number of Namibian species not mentioned in this otherwise very entertaining and instructive book.

To use a botanical key, it is important to take a very close look at the tree or shrub and make notes on colour and texture of the bark on the stem, on older branches and on young branches, the shape, colour and scent of leaves and of any flowers and fruit. It sounds quite tedious but often a botanical key asks for what you may regard as a minor feature such as the underside of the leaf or the nature of young twigs, which you may have overlooked.

Then cut a branch of about 25 – 30 cm (unless you are in a nature reserve) and retire to a shady spot to work out the identity of your tree in comfort. Often the key will lead you to a group of trees.

Then you need to look them up and decide which one you have found. After some practice with the easy key in the above book, take on the more complex key in “Trees and Shrubs of Namibia”.

Bookmark the glossary for easy reference. Do not be discouraged if at first you are not successful. Once you have mastered the key you will be able to identify almost any woody species in Namibia.

Searching the internet is another option and botanical names are most useful for doing so. Searching by common names is of course also possible, but be aware that different species may be known by the same common name in different parts of the country.

Since botanical names seem to be quite a hurdle for many people, more about them next week.

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