Thuma Forest reserve plant checklist
Citation
Mwafongo E (2022). Thuma Forest reserve plant checklist. Version 1.3. National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/rn3w3v accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-12-13.Description
Thuma Forest Reserve was gazetted in 1926 and covers an area of roughly 19700 ha (197 km2) in the Great Rift Valley Escarpment near Lake Malawi, approximately 80 km from Malawi's capital Lilongwe. It is banked by the Lilongwe and Lithunda rivers and lies 80km outside of Salima district and connects to Dedza Forest Reserve. It was gazetted because of the governments special interest to elephant populations Its altitude varies from 575 to 1564 meters above sea level. The topography is rugged. The upper levels are covered in Brachystegia woodland (miombo) whilst the lower levels are characterized by mixed low altitude woodland with patches of bamboo. Thuma Forest Reserve lies 80km outside of Salima at an altitude of 1 500 meters and connects to Dedza Forest Reserve. The collection trip was organised from 4-6th June 2019 to collect Herbarium specimens from the reserve for scientific purposes. This was the first comprehensive fieldwork organised by National Herbarium to Thuma and the purpose was to go during the dry season and the rainy season to cover both herbaceous and higher plants.Purpose
National Herbarium Records showed that Thuma Forest Reserve was undercollected in the past decades and the present fieldtrip was carried out to document the flora of the reserve. Since this was done in the dry season, there is a plan to carry out another collection trip during the rainy season to capture herbaceous plants.
Sampling Description
Study Extent
The checklist was compiled from a 5 day general plant collecting trip to Thuma Forest Reserve, Salima, MalawiSampling
The objective of this trip was to collect voucher specimens to be deposited at National Herbarium in Zomba. 4 samples of each specimen were collected and duplicated are housed at National Herbarium in Zomba.Quality Control
Checklist names were validated using web-based programmesMethod steps
- The checklist is a product of general plant collection trip to Thuma Forest Reserve which was aimed at collecting voucher specimens for the National herbarium.
Additional info
This checklist was compiled in conjunction with Donald Mpalika & Pakinsons Nansongole funded by National Herbarium funding provided for by the government of Malawi.Taxonomic Coverages
The dataset contains members of the kingdom Plantae collected from Thuma Forest Reserve
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Plantaerank: kingdom
Geographic Coverages
Thuma Forest Reserve is situated approximately 80km east of Lilongwe and covers an area of roughly 197 sq km in the Great Rift Valley Escarpment
Bibliographic Citations
Contacts
Elizabeth Mwafongooriginator
position: Senior Scientific Officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
email: emwafongo@yahoo.com
Elizabeth Mwafongo
metadata author
position: Senior Scientific Officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
email: emwafongo@yahoo.com
Elizabeth Mwafongo
publisher
position: Senior Scientific Officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
Telephone: +265999746432
email: emwafongo@yahoo.com
Elizabeth Mwafongo
administrative point of contact
position: Senior Scientific Officer
National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi
P.O. Box 528
Zomba
MW
email: emwafongo@yahoo.com