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Ethnobotany of Mountain Regions: Africa

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Ethnobotany of the Mountain Regions of Africa

Part of the book series: Ethnobotany of Mountain Regions ((ETMORE))

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Abstract

Africa is an old continent. Nowhere else is so much of the surface covered by basement rocks, and the larger part of the geology of Africa is indeed the geology of pre-cambrian material (Petters 1991). Large areas, so-called cratons, have remained essentially unchanged since the early Proterozoic (~2000 MYA). The mobile belts, i.e., the huge basins and swells between these cratons, are composed of equally old rocks, but have been subject to deformation and partly to metamorphoses, mainly in the Pan-African orogenesis (700–500 MYA). Today, relief differences are relatively small in these areas, so the continent can be described as a large, uneven plateau, which is tilted to the northwest. Extensive erosion surfaces covered by ancient, heavily leached soils are more widespread in Africa than on any other continent, and the huge relatively flat Savannahs are well known. Inselbergs are very characteristic remnants of the older surfaces in these plains, but far too low to merit treatment here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ethnobotany, Institute of Botany and Bakuriani Alpine Botanical Garden, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Rainer W. Bussmann & Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana

  2. Saving Knowledge, La Paz, Bolivia

    Rainer W. Bussmann

  3. Herbario Nacionál de Bolivia, Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia

    Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana

  4. Department of Botany, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agricultura and Technology, Nairobi, Kenya

    Grace N. Njoroge

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  1. Rainer W. Bussmann
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  2. Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana
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  3. Grace N. Njoroge
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Correspondence to Rainer W. Bussmann .

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  1. Institute of Botany, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia

    Rainer W. Bussmann

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Bussmann, R.W., Paniagua-Zambrana, N.Y., Njoroge, G.N. (2020). Ethnobotany of Mountain Regions: Africa. In: Bussmann, R.W. (eds) Ethnobotany of the Mountain Regions of Africa. Ethnobotany of Mountain Regions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77086-4_1-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77086-4_1-1

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