Plant life on Kili

[Collin]

I am the head of horticulture/ arboriculture at the University of British Columbia. I have just enjoyed reading the book Explore Mount Kilimanjaro. I am planning to climb Kili next year, and I've been trying to track down information about the plant life on the mountain, without success so far. The book does describe a few of the plants and also mentions that only 55 species are found above 4000 metres. What is the source of this information, and does anybody know any good references that I could follow up?
Thanks
Collin Varner

[RoyHayward]

Hi Collin,

I'm always very inquisitive when I see questions on places I'd like to go to and with a liking for the internet I thought I'd have a play. Just input Kilimanjaro vegetation and had a look. The following web site may be of use to you - especially as there's a comprehensive list of what looks like 'heavy' reference books at the end -- probably light reading for you !!
It's a United Nations Environmental Protection site: www.unep-wcmc.org/sites/wh/kilimanj.html
There are several other web sites identified using the Kilimanjaro Vegetation search -- there's another one on the unep site dealing with endangered forests of which Kilimanjaro is prominent.
Hope it's of use
Roy

[Jacquetta]

That's a great site, Roy, thanks ... do you do web searches for anybody on demand?   Useful service.

Collin, the source of the number cited in my guidebook is John Reader's wonderful large-format hardback book called simply Kilimanjaro (Elm Tree Books, 1982, ISBN 0-241-10683-4).  This is worth tracking down in a used book outlet for its superb photographs and well-written text, but if you want to go straight to Reader's source he is a (Swedish?) botanist called Olov Hedberg who, between 1948 and 1979 published a number of papers in learned journals (Oikos, Biotropica, Nature, Biol J Linn Soc) and who (according to Reader) first listed all 55 species.  If you need more detail, give us a fax number and I'll send you that page from Reader's references.  But I'm off to look at plant life in Nepal for a month now, so maybe you should ask Roy Hayward to track it down on the web for you?

Signing off, but do keep in touch, Jacquetta

[RoyHayward]

Hi Collin,
You'll find John Reader's book at www.allbookstores.com -- just do the search under 'author' and 'john reader' and scroll down the list to 'Kilimanjaro'. Seems to be some available from about $25.00 for a hardback version although they go up to $84. Mind you a library may be your best bet.
Hope that helps.
Roy.