Fabaceae of Southern Africa's Journal

The latest issue has just been published

How to subscribe:
A few of the earlier copies until 2018 are available at :
https://www.kew.org/science/our-science/publications-and-reports/publications/the-bean-bag and for earlier copies via the Biodiversity Heritage Library https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/search?stype=F&searchTerm=the+bean+bag#/titles

The Bean Bag started in 1974 on the initiative of Charles (Bob) Gunn and Richard Cowan and the first printed issue was distributed over 40 years ago in May 1975. Editors: Colin Hughes (University of Zurich, Switzerland) and Warren Cardinal-McTeague (Agriculture and Agri-Food, Canada).

The aim of the annual newsletter has been to keep legume researchers informed and updated about new publications, events, and projects on the family Leguminosae.

The first global list of all legume species can be accessed via the Legume Data Portal https://www.legumedata.org/

This is an update to the 17th of September 2022 totals of the number of observations, uploaded species recorded, number of identifiers and observers from the region. The totals are an increase from 2022.

181601 OBSERVATIONS
1841 SPECIES
2227 IDENTIFIERS
8104 OBSERVERS

The number of observations has increased by 71,788. However, only 165 additional species have been added. This reflects less active or fewer observers in the northern parts of the regions, especially Mocambique, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. There has been increased recording in Botswana. Overall, the number of identifiers has pleasantly increased by 682. The significant increase in the number observers uploading legume pictures is an additional 2894. The various bioblitz campaigns have certainly increased the totals.

Naming is directly correlated to the availability of suitable monographs and keys and only a few legume taxonomists are doing most of the name checking in their specialist interest groups. The production of new handbooks and field guides as the following have certainly encouraged users to photograph legumes:

Field Guide to Renosterveld of the Overberg (Struik Nature)
Plants of the Baviaanskloof (Struik Nature)
and useful masters and PhD theses becoming available from universities, e.g. for the endemic flora of the Soutpansberg
http://www.soutpansberg.com/endemic_flora/pdf/endemic_flora_soutpansberg.pdf

Seehttps://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fabaceae-of-southern-africa for Fabaceae

109,813 OBSERVATIONS
1,676 SPECIES
1,545 IDENTIFIERS
5,210 OBSERVERS

Join the Great Southern Bioblitz 2022 southern Africa umbrella project and post all your legume observations. 12 cities, 14 regions, 1 province and 9 countries (5 as countries) in southern and central Africa are all taking part in the Great Southern Bioblitz 2022. For details to join this project see https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2022-southern-africa-umbrella?tab=about

Support CREW (see details in post above) and join the Botanical Society of South Africa to support plant conservation in southern Africa (See https://botanicalsociety.org.za/) for information about branch outings and events and meet like-minded people. passionate about plants,

Recently a paper was published sinking Elephantorrhiza into Entada. See Re-circumscription of the mimosoid genus Entada including new combinations for all species of the phylogenetically nested Elephantorrhiza (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae, mimosoid clade) by Shawn A. O’Donnell et al. in PhytoKeys 205: 99–145 (2022).

The new combinations have been made.9 species occur in our region.

Entada is found at https://www.inaturalist.org/search?q=entada and Elephantorrhiza at https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?taxon_id=139193

The legume Data Portal is a website dedicated to helping people interested in Legumes to learn and discover data about the biology, diversity, and evolution of this fascinating family of flowering plants. You can access it at https://www.legumedata.org/

Did you know that there are 442 genera of legumes representing some 22360 species? Read more about this amazing plant family at https://www.legumedata.org/about/

The part that will be of greatest interest to inaturalists interested in legumes in Southern Africa will be the annual issues of The Bean Bag. Not only does it list the literature on legumes published each year it also has fascinating stories of new discoveries and new advances.

You can access the Bean Bag at https://www.legumedata.org/beanbag/issues/ If you check Issues no

You can access the latest news in the legume world at https://www.legumedata.org/news/

Try the Data portal link https://www.legumedata.org/data/?view=MAP to map any species you think you might have.

Enjoy this great resource.

Charlie Stirton

The Great Southern Hemisphere Bioblitz 2021 had a big impact with more observations of legumes, identifiers and observers but no increase in the number of species found,

Number of observations: 88118, up by 4283 observations since the last posting
Number of species: 1593 No increase in the number of species
Number of observers: 3792, an increase of 195 new observers
Number of identifiers: 1193, an increase of 442 new identifiers
Most observations: @tonyrebelo (remains the same)
Most species observed: @mr_fab (remains the same)
Most observed species: Vachellia karoo 3592 observations, a big inincrease

Number of observations: 76825
Number of species: 1593
Number of observers: 3607
Numner of identifiers: 1151
Most observations: @tonyrebelo
Most species observed: @mr_fab
Most observed species: Vachelloa karoo 3552

Have you registered for Great Southern Bioblitz 2021 yet? Just days to go. It covers 6 cities, 8 regions, 1 province and 2 countries in southern Africa and 3 in central Africa. Depending in which area you live you have a choice of which city or region to join. If you join the overview project https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/great-southern-bioblitz-2021-southern-africa-umbrella you can see all the participating cities and regions. Choose whichever one is appropriate for you.

I will be trying to name as many legumes as possible, primarily as I am in the UK at present because of COVID. If naming is your thing and you cannot get out that would be a great asset.

Please join in the fun!
@charles_stirton

Registration link to register for the Zoom talk "May the Peas be with you"

https://bit.ly/3o3ICLu