Great Botanical Biodiversity At Kumbira Forest In Angola Discovered

A new botanical survey revealed that the understudied Kumbira Forest in Angola has a great botanical diversity. These include numbers of vascular plants and potentially new species.

The results of the survey were printed in the journal Phytokeys. It was conducted by Dr. David Goyder from Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Dr. Francisco M.P. Goncalves from Herbarium of Lubango, according to Science Daily.

Dr. Francisco M.P. Goncalves explained that to fill in the knowledge gap and call attention to the importance of Kumbira forest not only as a zoological but also a botanical hotspot, they undertook a botanical survey into Kumbira forest.

The researchers were able to collect more than 100 botanical specimens in flower or fruit during their survey on June 10 to June 18, 2014. The three species they collected represent news records for Angola and Guineo-Congolian biome. One of them is a potentially new species.

Previously understudied #Kumbira forest in #Angola reveals its #botanical #diversity https://t.co/OnYkmHCVg8 #botany pic.twitter.com/TuVKCVeUtx

— PhytoKeys (@PhytoKeys) June 20, 2016

Dr. Goncalves said that more work is planned in the future with the vision to contribute to the creation of a Gabela Natural Reserve, which Kumbira is a part of. He further said that although the plans for the conservation are already proposed they are not yet implemented and they hope more knowledge of the organism richness of the region will contribute to its realization.

#Angola Field Group's next field trip is June 29-31: Visit the Kumbira Forest Project https://t.co/dBJCmQSQXx pic.twitter.com/IlIkdkRdJJ — Tweet Angola (@TweetAngola) June 24, 2013

Kumbira Forest is a great place for exploring. It is also known for bird watching. The forest is located about 10 km south of the town Conda. The key birds at Kumbira are Pulitzer's Longbill, Monteiro's Bush-shrike, Gabela Bush-shrike and Gabela Akalat. The birds that you can see at Kumbira includes Yellow-throated Nicator, Red-crested Turaco, Gabon Coucal, Angola Batis, Gorgeous Bush-shrike, Pale-olive Greenbul, Hartert's Camaroptera, Southern Hyliota, Yellow-bellied Wattle-eye, Dusky tit, Forest Scrub Robin and Petit's Cuckooshrike. A forest conservation project is implemented at Kumbira nowadays.