Photo Guide to Plants of Southern Africa

African plants have developed an overwhelming diversity of forms, functions, habitats and geographical distribution. Therefore, and due to the limited number of publications, the identification of correct species names in many taxonomic groups is still a problem.

This guide supports rapid identification of the plant species by presenting photographs of them in a phylogenetic order. A number of tools allow users to scan taxonomic groups, like genera and families. Soon, the website will also allow users to identify unknown species by entering their characters like flower colour, etc.

This regional guide is based on databases and includes a good representation of all known species of the southern African region. At present, Namibia and the western parts of South Africa are best represented, while a growing number of photos from Angola, Botswana are also included.

We would be most grateful if more botanically skilled people and institutions would contribute their photographs in order to attain a full regional plant photo catalogue.

We acknowledge the West African Photo Guide, published in 2008 by the colleagues of BIOTA West Africa, as being a model for this presented website (see: www.westafricanplants.senckenberg.de). Simultaneously, we now also launch the Photo Guide to Plants of Southern Morocco (see: http://plantsofsouthernmorocco.biota-africa.net)

Together, the three websites give access to a large number of African plant species.

Please note!
After completion of the project in 2020, this website will no longer be updated. The listed contacts may no longer be up-to-date. Login and registration is no longer possible. Links to other websites may no longer be active.

If you have any questions, please contact  contact@biota-africa.org