Useful books for identifying flowering plants in Namibia

BY WRITING about trees and other plants in Namibia I aim to make the lay person aware of our wonderfully varied plant life.

Therefore I start off with books that I, as a lay person, over the years have found most useful in finding out the names and other details about plants.

Botanical names of course are indispensable for correct identification of plants and for finding out more about them in books and on the internet, but the lay person usually feels much more comfortable with common names, which often indicate some important identifying features and which mostly are much easier to remember.

For the beginner, therefore, I would suggest ‘Wild Flowers of the Southern Namib’/’ ‘Pflanzenführer für die Südliche Namib’, 2003, ‘Wild Flowers of the Central Namib’/’Pflanzenführer für die Zentrale Namib’, 2003, ‘Wild Flowers of the Northern Namib’/’ Pflanzenführer für die Nördliche Namib’, 2005, ‘Wild Flowers of the Centra lHighlands’, 2007 [Eng only], and ‘111 Roadside plants: a tribute to Namibia’s fascinating plant life’, 2012 [Eng only], all by Antje Burke, and published by the Namibia Scientific Society.

The main problem for the lay person usually is to find the way from the plant to the picture and text in the book. As these books are relatively inexpensive and describe only the most common plants of a certain region one can search them by looking at the colour photos.

Once you have established the botanical name, albeit only of the plant family, you can continue searching other books or the internet for more detail.

For the northern half of Namibia it is well worth while to get ‘Common Wild Flowers of the Okavango Delta’ by Veronica Roodt, ISBN 99912 0 242 0, published by Shell Oil Botswana, beautifully illustrated and providing a great deal of fascinating detail about uses and beliefs.

Many of the plants discussed also occur in Namibia and the book is thin enough to page through and look for the picture of the flower you wish to identify.

Alison and Roger Heath: ‘Field Guide to the Plants of Northern Botswana’, ISBN 978 1 84246 183 9, Royal Botanical Gardens Kew, 2010, is much thicker and more expensive, but again contains many plants also found in Namibia.

It has the great advantage of being organised according to the colour of the flowers – a wonderful help for the lay person. Even if you only find a flower fairly similar to your specimen, you can then continue searching the internet or other books according to the plant family name.

‘Wildflowers of the Southern Namib’ by Coleen Mannheimer, Gillian Maggs Kölling, Herta Kolberg, Silke Rügheimer, ISBN 978-99916-0-878-5, Macmillan Namibia, 2008, and ‘Wildflowers of the Central Highlands of Namibia’ by Coleen Mannheimer, ISBN 978-99916-2-558-4, Macmillan Namibia 2012, also devoted to certain regions, contain descriptions and beautiful colour photographs of a far greater number of plants than those by Antje Burke.

Arranged according to plant families, they are accessible via the index by their common names in English, Afrikaans, German, and some of the indigenous languages and, of course, their botanical names.

Noel van Rooyen: ‘Flowering Plants of the Kalahari Dunes’, ISBN –3 620 27376 3, 2001, is very useful for the area and many plants also occur widespread elsewhere.

English and even more Afrikaans common names can be found in the index and the book is organised according to growth form: trees, shrubs, dwarf shrubs, grasses, blubs, creepers, herbs, and succulents, also making it fairly easy to find your way around.

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