Dr Nicola Bergh (left) and Zaynab Shaik (right) Buffelskloof has a new species of Seriphium (‘Slangbos’), described by MSc student Zaynab Shaik from the University of Cape Town. She and her supervisor, Dr Nicola Bergh, visited Buffelskloof in July 2017 as part of her country-wide fieldwork towards her study of the genus Serphium (Asteraceae). In…
Category: Research science
A and B – Asparagus and Berkheya
Prof. Eileen Campbell from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, arrived at Buffelskloof at the beginning of July with a suitcase full of Asparagus specimens from the University Herbarium (PEU) and spent a few days tapping the vast knowledge and understanding of the genus that Sandie and John have accumulated over the years. John and Sandie were able…
2019 Publications update
Publications featuring Buffelskloof or BNRH Boon, R.C. & van Wyk, A.E. ‘Reinstatement of Dovyalis revoluta (Flacourtieae, Salicaceae), with an updated key to the species of Dovyalis in southern Africa’ in Phytotaxa 409 (2): 053– 065 (2019); https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.409.2.1 N.B. Sandie contributed the botanical illustrations to this article. Crouch, N.R., Martínez-Azorin, M., Burrows, J.E., Lötter, M.C. and…
Liking Lichens & Finding Fungi
We were privileged to have a large group (11 people) of scientists from the USA for 2 nights, carrying out a worldwide survey of algae, lichens and fungi. Entitled GoLife Project: Filling the largest void of the fungal genealogy of life (the Pezizomycotina) and integrating symbiotic, environmental and physiological data layers, it was led by…
Herpetologists and Archaeologists
Adriaan Jordaan (post MSc student from University of the Free State in Bloemfontein) was joined by herpetologists Dr Bryan Maritz & Robin Maritz from the University of the Western Cape, Professor Chris Parkinson and Erich Hofmann, a PhD student, both from Clemson University, South Carolina, USA to extract venom from some of Buffelskloof’s snakes for…
More than just a Grassland Survey
Dr Caroline Lehmann, from the University of Edinburgh, UK came with her field assistant, Johannesburg-based visual artist Hannelie Coetzee to sample some of the grasslands here. Caroline had just arrived in South Africa from Madagascar, where she had been carrying out surveys of grass species in areas where the genus Loudetia is prevalent and wished…
Development of drought resistant crops
Jill Farrant winner of the L’Oreal-Unesco prize for women in science has been developing drought resistant crops using plant material some of which supplied by the Buffelskloof Research and Edication facility.
Visiting MSc students
Dr. Anthony Magee (Compton Herbarium, Kirstenbosch) and Dr. Stephen Boatwright (University of the Western Cape), with 3 MSc students, from left: Liada Musandiwa is studying Chamaecrista; Jabulile Malindi is researching the genus Alepidea; and Refilwe Kolokoto is carrying out a taxonomic revision of the genus Gnidia.