[Science News] – Strengthening African e-Floras: A new partnership between Meise Botanic Garden and the African e-Flora team

Late August, Meise Botanic Garden (MeiseBG) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the African e-Flora team to establish a joint partnership for the management of a series of web-based e-flora platforms. This collaboration secures the long-term maintenance and future development of e-floras covering multiple countries in Central Africa and the Zambesiaca region, which together represent one of the most significant digital resources on African plant diversity.

Meise Botanic Garden brings more than a century of expertise in tropical African botany, with a leadership of the Flore d’Afrique centrale (FAC). The FAC is currently available in static formats such as hard copy and PDF, but MeiseBG aims to ensure its continuity through a dynamic digital platform. In addition, MeiseBG’s taxonomic and biodiversity-informatics experience provides a strong institutional foundation for sustaining and enriching digital flora platforms. 

The African e-Flora team, composed of the members Mark Hyde, Bart Würsten and Petra Ballings, have privately set up and maintained e-Flora portals for a fair number of southern African countries (Botswana, Caprivi strip, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe), which has reached millions of on-line visitors. Through recent collaboration, new e-flora portals, such as those for DRCongo, Rwanda and Burundi, have been added and will be developed for professionals, researchers, students and other stakeholders. The collaboration has now been formalized and strengthened, which will also directly support the MeiseBG’s strategic objective of making reliable plant information openly accessible.

A joint Steering Committee will be composed of members from both partners. It will oversee coordination, data and image delivery, maintenance and future development. It will also ensure scientific coherence, technical stability and alignment with international standards such as the International Plant Names Index (IPNI) and World Flora Online (WFO).

Looking ahead, the partners will strengthen interoperability and explore new tools to enhance accessibility. Smart links to information on other platforms and future developments such as multi-entry or AI identification tools will be considered. Through these e-Flora portals, the partners reaffirm their commitment to documenting and disseminating African plant diversity information with dynamic and reliable digital resources, to support research, conservation and sustainable usage of this unique resource.