Tropical East Africa's epic flora survey completed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19586735


A 'whistling thorn' species of Acacia, the inflated ‘galls’ are inhabited by ants that defend the plant against browsing animals


The complete flora of tropical East Africa has been recorded by scientists, 60 years after the project first began.

When researchers started the task in 1948 they thought it would only take 15 years to finish.

But it took 135 botanists from 21 countries six decades to catalogue all the 12,104 wild plant species of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania.