Diversity of grasses (Poaceae) in southern Africa, with emphasis on the conservation of pasture genetic resources

Biogeographical patterns of grasses (Poaceae) indigenous to South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini

“…The first one is the Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA), maintained by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and stored in the BRAHMS platform (Le Roux et al 2017) and the second is PHYTOBAS, a National Vegetation Data Archive database containing botanical survey records for the period between 2003 and 2009 and maintained by the SA-NFG. As previously reported (Trytsman et al 2020), the merging of the two datasets for the study area resulted in 1 803 quarter degree grid cell (QDGC) records and 685 species. There were eight grass species listed in Fish et al (2015) that have no occurrence records in any of the two databases, as discussed in Trytsman et al (2020).…”

“…As previously reported (Trytsman et al 2020), the merging of the two datasets for the study area resulted in 1 803 quarter degree grid cell (QDGC) records and 685 species. There were eight grass species listed in Fish et al (2015) that have no occurrence records in any of the two databases, as discussed in Trytsman et al (2020). For the current study, further editing was done on the original dataset described by Trytsman et al (2020).…”

“…There were eight grass species listed in Fish et al (2015) that have no occurrence records in any of the two databases, as discussed in Trytsman et al (2020). For the current study, further editing was done on the original dataset described by Trytsman et al (2020). QDGCs with only one species were removed from the dataset (i.e.…”

“…Dactyloctenium australe, Stenotaphrum secundatum and Sporobolus virginicus, are species noted for their presence in exclusively coastal areas, the former two species mainly in the eastern coastal regions and the latter along most of southern Africa's coastlines (Fish et al 2015). Only 35 grass species in this grasschorion were recorded as being endemic/near-endemic to southern Africa (Fish et al 2015) (Supplementary material 4) with Panicum sancta-luciense exclusively found in the Maputaland Centre (Trytsman et al 2020). Hoveka et al (2020) noted the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany Hotspot, defined by Steenkamp et al (2004), to have a high projected endemic richness and a call is made to correct previously biased sampling in order to capture South Africa's extraordinary diversity.…”

“…The Nama-Karoo Biome is described as mainly a summer rainfall region with a low species richness (Rutherford et al 2006), although in our view species richness and endemism is quite high for this biome. The low occurrence of C 3 grass species in the western compared with the eastern parts of the Savanna Biome (Trytsman et al 2020) could contribute to the inclusion of this western region in the Central Arid Region Grasschorion rather than with the Savanna Biome. The low mean annual rainfall of <400 mm recorded in this grasschorion (Table 5) is reflected in the climatology description as a semi-arid to arid region, with USDA PHZs 8 and 9 (mean annual extreme minimum winter temperature −1 to −12 °C).…”