A checklist of plants of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Kenya, 2019

Latest version published by A Rocha Kenya on Feb 15, 2019 A Rocha Kenya

This Checklist represents a total of 512 species of plants recorded in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. The forest is located immediately south of Gede, Kilifi County on the Kenya coast. While recognised as not an exhaustive list of the higher plants, it covers what is believed to be the majority of species present in the forest. The list uses the currently accepted scientific names of species as per Darwin Core Standards, which is a standard template used to publish biodiversity under Global Biodiversity Information Facility database. The list is made up primarily of records obtained during surveys in Arabuko-Sokoke by the lead authors in 1993 while working on a report on Kenya Coastal Forests. Some additional species have been added since then and it is known that there are more that careful observation will reveal. Records of additional species not recorded in this list are welcome. Please submit with details to the corresponding author for inclusion. The list has been digitized by A Rocha Kenya after having been verified by WRQL.

Data Records

The data in this checklist 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 512 records.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Downloads

Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 512 records in Latin (17 KB) - Update frequency: unknown
Metadata as an EML file download in English (21 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (14 KB)

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Luke Q, Kirao L, Jackson C, Ochieng J (2019): A checklist of plants of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Kenya, 2019. v1.0. A Rocha Kenya. Dataset/Checklist. http://ipt.museums.or.ke/ipt/resource?r=asfplants2019&v=1.0

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is A Rocha Kenya. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 8f593ad5-6bb8-48ad-8ad3-d1398318b491.  A Rocha Kenya publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.

Keywords

plants; checklist; Arabuko-Sokoke Forest; coastal forest; Kilifi County; arocha kenya; Inventoryregional

Contacts

Who created the resource:

Quentin Luke
Botanist
East African Herbarium, National Museums of Kenya P.O. Box 45166 00100 Nairobi KE
http://www.museums.or.ke
Lennox Kirao
Research Scientist
A Rocha Kenya P.O. Box 383 80202 Watamu KE
http://www.arocha.or.ke
Colin Jackson
Judith Ochieng
Data Clerk
A Rocha Kenya P.O Box 383 80202 Watamu KE

Who can answer questions about the resource:

Quentin Luke
Botanist
East African Herbarium, National Museums of Kenya P.O. Box 45166 00100 Nairobi KE
http://www.museums.or.ke
Lennox Kirao
Research Scientist
A Rocha Kenya P.O Box 383 80202 Watamu KE
http://www.arocha.or.ke
Colin Jackson
Judith Ochieng
Data Clerk
A Rocha Kenya P.O Box 383 80202 Watamu KE

Who filled in the metadata:

Quentin Luke
Botanist
East African Herbarium, National Museums of Kenya P.O. Box 45166 00100 Nairobi KE
http://www.museums.or.ke
Lennox Kirao
Research Scientist
A Rocha Kenya P.O Box 383 80202 Watamu KE
http://www.arocha.or.ke
Colin Jackson
Judith Ochieng
Data Clerk
A Rocha Kenya P.O Box 383 80202 Watamu KE
http://www.arocha.or.ke

Who else was associated with the resource:

Publisher
Lawrence Monda
Technical Director BHL Africa | Technical Liaison GBIF Kenya | ICT Manager
National Museums of Kenya P.O Box 40658 00100 Nairobi KE
http://www.museums.or.ke

Geographic Coverage

Restricted to plants within the boundaries of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve.Latitude of 3° 20’ S, Longitude 39° 50’ E

Bounding Coordinates South West [-3.507, 39.792], North East [-3.193, 40.004]

Taxonomic Coverage

Checklist of higher plants for Arabuko-Sokoke Forest at a genus, species, sub-species, variety and forma level.

Genus  Cleome sp. L.
Species  Trichostomum brachydontium Bruch
Subspecies  Artabotrys modestus Diels ssp. macranthus Verdc.
Variety  Pellaea involuta (Sw.) Baker var. involuta
Form  Pentas parvifolia Hiern forma parvifolia

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 1939-01-01 / 2001-01-01

Project Data

On the north coast of Kenya lies the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest (ASF) and, once contiguous to ASF, the Gede Ruins National Monument forest. A forest locally, nationally and internationally recognised for its threatened forest landscape and unique biodiversity, ASF is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, considered by Birdlife as the second most important forest for threatened bird species conservation on mainland Africa and listed among the coastal forests of eastern Africa hotspot; because of many globally threatened and endemic species. The combined effect of climate-change and socio-economic change in the region poses a high risk to this forest and its biodiversity. Management of the forest has also to accommodate competing conservation demands. In particular, the elephant population is fenced within the forest to mitigate conflict with surrounding communities but has a direct impact on habitat and biodiversity. But, too little evidence currently exists to quantify biodiversity trends and status. Existing data are scattered and often ‘locked up’ in non-digitised or inaccessible digital form. These data could provide significant insights to inform ASF management decisions for biodiversity conservation and research if they were in an accessible format. BID funds would bring together A Rocha Kenya, the National Museum of Kenya (NMK), Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Animal Demography Unit of University of Cape Town (ADU), and the Arabuko- Sokoke Forest Guides Association (ASFGA) to access, assess, digitize, engage and improve the data for birds, mammals, invertebrates, reptiles and higher plants in order to inform the management of this important, unique and threatened forest ecosystem.

Title Application of biodiversity monitoring data to resolve competing conservation management priorities in an East African forest landscape
Identifier BID-AF2017-0274-NAC
Funding The digitisation of data for publishing to GBIF was funded by the European Union through GBIF: https://bid.gbif.org/en/calls/africa-2017/national-grants/
Study Area Description There is only one significantly sized forest in Kilifi County, Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, which is the largest remaining patch of indigenous coastal forest in East Africa covering approximately 42,000 ha. It is located just south of Malindi at 03° 20’ S, 39° 50’ E bordering the main Kilifi to Malindi road between Tezo and Gede. It predominantly consists of three distinct forest habitat types: Cynometra Forest (c. 23,500 ha) is dominated by Cynometra webberi and Manilkara sulcata; it used also to be dominated by Brachylaena huilliensis but this has been largely selectively removed. Brachystegia Woodland (c. 7,700 ha) is dominated by Brachystegia spiciformis on white sandy soil. Mixed Forest (c.7,000 ha) occurs on the eastern side and has a diverse tree flora including Afzelia quanzensis (formerly dominant), Hymenaea verrucosa, Combretum schumannii and Manilkara sansibarensis and the cycad Encephalartos hildebrandtii. A series of seasonal wetlands run north-south along the length of the forest where the more clay-rich red soils underlie the permeable white sandy soil of the Brachystegia. There are two wet seasons: April-June (long rains) and November-December (short rains). The other months will be usually hot and dry. Annual rainfall ranges from 1,000mm in the east to 600mm in the northwest.

The personnel involved in the project:

Author
Quentin Luke
Metadata Provider
Lennox Kirao
Point Of Contact
Colin Jackson
Processor
Judith Ochieng
Publisher
Lawrence Monda

Sampling Methods

This Checklist contains records of plants found in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. The main core of species recorded are taken from confirmed observations during surveys by WRQL and SAR in 1993 together with reference to museum specimens labelled as having been collected in ‘Arabuko-Sokoke’. Further species have been added by WRQL. The data are aligned according to Darwin core standards before publishing through National Museums of Kenya Integrated Publishing Toolkit.

Study Extent Plant specimens were studied from a wide range of locations across the extent of the whole forest reserve. Georeferencing of early specimens is renowned to be frequently very vague. Some specimens held by the Herbarium of the National Museums of Kenya and labelled as ‘Arabuko-Sokoke Forest’ may therefore actually have been located outside the formal forest reserve boundary. The majority of data were collected in 1990 with some additions made in later years until the present time, 2018.
Quality Control The species were confirmed by WRQL with reference to literature and specimens in the herbarium for the National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi.

Method step description:

  1. Careful searches for different plants were made in all habitat types within the forest boundary. Easily recognised species were noted and specimens taken for later confirmation and preservation in the herbarium of species which were less well-known by the observers. A search was made through the Herbarium of National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, for specimens labelled as having been collected in Arabuko-Sokoke. These were also included in the species list.

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Robertson, S.A., and W.R.Q. Luke, 1993, Kenya Coastal Forests: The Report of the NMK/WWF Coast Forest Survey. National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya
  2. Authors various, 1952-2012, Flora of Tropical East Africa (FTEA). Crown Agents for Overseas Governments and Administration, London; Balkema, Rotterdam; and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
  3. Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques, and South African National Biodiversity Institute, 2012, African Plant Database, Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques, Ville de Geneve. http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/recherche.php.

Additional Metadata

Purpose The checklist is produced to form the basis for research and conservation in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest that makes reference to the higher plants found in the forest. It further provides a basis for discussion and further research into plant species distribution and occurrence in Arabuko-Sokoke.
Alternative Identifiers http://ipt.museums.or.ke/ipt/resource?r=asfplants2019