Occurrence data set for wild food plant species in Zimbabwe's biodiversity hotspots

The data in this resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 1712 occurrence records. The occurrence of wild food plants is published through the BID cloud account on behalf of the national node of GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility) in Zimbabwe- Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE), Department of Natural Resources. The national Herbarium and Botanic garden and the Natural History Museums of Zimbabwe are in charge of the maintenance and the updating biodiversity related information and data together with BUSE. National biodiversity information is accessed through the node, including the background of participating GBIF, related documents, name list of Zimbabwean biodiversity information users, and biodiversity related organizations, research projects, local biological databases and information from scientific publications. We hope to include expand from biodiversity hotspots to plants in other areas. The data documented in this resource are wild plants that are important for provision of food to rural communities in and around five biodiversity hotspot areas of Zimbabwe. The five hotspot areas were Chimanimani, Chipinge and Nyanga in Eastern Highlands, Mutorashanga in Great Dyke and Hwange in dry savanna. Data collected from community meetings were used as a basis for checklist data for herbarium specimen collected at the National herbarium and Botanic Garden. The verified checklist was then used to develop an occurrence data set from plant specimens found in The National Herbarium and Botanic Garden. The first phase of data includes food and medicinal plants in biodiversity hotspots and will expand to include other forms of biodiversity, such as animals (including insects), birds and fungi. To access the information, keywords and hyperlinks can be used to search for particular species. Hyperlinks can access information from other global databases or networks. Species checklist of the food and medicinal plants is currently available and will be updated when necessary. We hope to continue the project by updating and collecting more specimen and/or photos (rare, threatened and endangered species), funds permitting. This node is a centre for the sharing and sharing of biodiversity data facilitating research, education and conservation of biodiversity.

The project is located in five biodiversity hotspots of Zimbabwe; Nyanga, Chimanimani, Chipinge, Mutorashanga and Hwange. Nyanga, Chipinge and Chimanimani are in the eastern highlands of Zimbabwe and are part of the Afro-montane region. The vegetation of this region is typically sub-montane with interspersed grasslands with a complex mosaic of vegetation types including forests, woodlands, and grasslands. The region falls in agro-ecological regions I and II with annual rainfall ranging 1741 to 2997 mm and temperatures ranging from ------- to --------C. Deeply cut valleys characterise the drainage pattern. The geology is mainly the precambrian umkondo system, which consists of flat-lying shales, quartzites and intrusive dolerites where the soils are highly leached paraferallitics (Jimu and Ngoroyemoto, 2011). Chipinge has an intact forest, the Chirinda Forest with unique trees such as Chrysophyllum gorungosanum, Ficus chirindensis, Khaya anthotheca, Argomuellera macrophylla, Celtis mildbraedii, Strychnos ellodora and Strychnos mitis. These trees are either only found in Chirinda Forest or are very rare in other parts of the country. The Nyanga site has communities in and around Nyanga National Park that has some of the most important species such Prunus africana. The Chimanimani area is one of the important biodiversity conservation areas in Zimbabwe.
The Great Dyke of Zimbabwe presents a geological phenomenon, holding various high value metallurgical ores that include Chrome, Platinum and Nickel (Wild, 1965). Serpentine soils are well known to have an abnormally high exchangeable magnesium to exchangeable calcium ratio (Anderson and Talbot, 1965). The Great Dyke is dominated by the miombo vegetation mostly composed of Julbernardia globiflora, Brachystegia spiciformis, Brachystegia boehmii and Brachystegia allenii. The Hwange biodiversity hotspot is in dry savanna section of the country. Communities at this site are located adjacent to Hwange National Park, which is the largest conservation area in Zimbabwe. The area is typical dystrophic savanna with nutrient poor soils comprising of sandier soils that are well drained and of variable depth but often shallow, medium grained sands or loamy sands over strong brown gravelly loamy sands or sandy loams. The common tree species in the area include Senegalia and Vachellia sp, Sclerocarya birrea, Lonchocarpus bussei, Vangueria infausta, Ziziphus mucronata, Combretum imberbe, C. apiculatum, Dichrostachys cinerea and Colophospermum mopane.

The goal of this project was to collect data on wild plant species that provide food to rural communities in and surrounding biodiversity hotspots of Zimbabwe. Forest ecosystems in Zimbabwe include afromontane, savannah and wooded grasslands. Among these are nationally and internationally recognised biodiversity hotspots containing endemic, rare, threatened and endangered plant species. To achieve the goal of this project, five of these biodiversity hotspots were purposively selected to cover the major vegetation types in the country. These areas were Chimanimani, Chipinge and Nyanga in the afromontane/ miombo vegetation zone, Mutorashanga in the miombo zone and Hwange in the dry savannah.

European Union through GBIF (Main Funder), Bindura University of Science Education, National Herbarium and Botanic Garden and Forestry Commission