ABC Useful Plants of Malawi: Economical & Commercial

Elizabeth Mwafongo1, Elizabeth Mwafongo2, Eliza Mwafongo3

1 National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi, P.O. Box 528, Zomba; 2 National Herbarium & Botanic Gardens of Malawi, P.O. Box 528, Zomba, Malawi; 3 

Corresponding author(s): Elizabeth Mwafongo (emwafongo@yahoo.com), Elizabeth Mwafongo (emwafongo@yahoo.com)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Abstract

The dataset contains indigenous plants that are used commercially in Malawi and have commercial values. The economic importance of these species have been documented in several published and unpublished papers in Malawi. Although these species are not documented in the Malawian Red Data List, their wide use in the commercial companies in Malawi warrant their evaluation. The current list consists of only 4 species among many which require to be evaluated as they may be under great threat.
These specimens were collected by different botanists throughout the country on general collection trips and deposited at the National Herbarium and Botanical Gardens of Malawi. Please note that the present dataset does not represent the entire geographical range of the species because some have no coordinates. In recent years, NHBG has done more taxon sampling but these haven’t been digitized fully as the digitization process only began in 2017. The number of collections can be estimated at above 3000.

Keywords: Occurrence, economical, Malawi

General description

Purpose: The dataset ids part of the African Biodiversity Challenge project whose aim is to mobise data for scientific work. Furthermore, the dataset will help with evaluation of these species using IUCN red list categories in Malawi which is currently an ongoing process.

Project details

Project title: Enhancing accessibility of biodiversity data in Malawi
Personnel: Elizabeth Mwafongo, Donald Mpalika
Funding: JRS Biodiversity Foundation
Study area descriptions/descriptor: This dataset covers Malawi only

Data published through GBIF: http://196.32.215.240:8081/ipt/resource?r=abc_usefulplantsofmalawi_economical

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The present list consists of plants which are used widely used commercially in Malawi and the species are; Adamsonia digitata, Kigelia africana,
Strophantus kombe and Tamarindus indica.
Taxonomic ranks
Species: Adansonia digitata, Kigelia africana, Strophanthus kombe, Tamarindus indica
Common names: Malambe, Bwemba

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Samples are from Malawi
Coordinates: 17°8'27.6''S and 9°24'21.6''S Latitude; 32°44'20.4''E and 35°54'10.8''E Longitude 

Living time period: 1930-2001

Methods

Method step description: This data can be retrieved from the BRAHMS database at MAL when needed.
Study extent description: This work will only publish data from Malawi
Sampling description: The datasets are being mobilised and entered in BRAHMS database and extracted from there for publishing. Most data on occurence and checklists are in mobilized from Library archives and are entered into DwC templates and published thereafter.
Quality control description: Quality control is done using web based programs eg OpenRefine

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive ABC Useful Plants of Malawi: Economical & Commercial
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://196.32.215.240:8081/ipt/archive.do?r=abc_usefulplantsofmalawi_economical
Publication date of data: 2022-05-31
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2018-09-04
Hierarchy level: Dataset