Ethiop. J. Biol. Sci. Vol. 13 (Supp.

): 37-45, 2014
© The Biological Society of Ethiopia, 2014 ISSN: 1819-8678

DIVERSITY OF VASCULAR PLANT TAXA OF THE FLORA OF ETHIOPIA AND

ERITREA

Ensermu Kelbessa1,* and Sebsebe Demissew1

ABSTRACT: The Ethiopian Flora Project was started in 1980 with the
objectives of writing up a Flora of Ethiopia within the shortest time possible;
build-up of the National Herbarium and a related library and promoting
scientific activities in taxonomic botany, economic botany, forestry, plant
ecology, plant physiology, etc. The writing up of the Flora of Ethiopia within
the shortest time possible was the cardinal objective of the project. In the
Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea about 6,027 vascular plant species (including
subspecies), with about 10% endemism have been documented in eight
volumes in ten books. In addition to providing the total number of taxa
(species and subspecies) in the Flora area (Ethiopia and Eritrea), information
on how many of these vascular plant taxa are fern-allies (lycopodiophytes),
ferns (pteridophytes), naked-seeded plants (gymnosperms) and flowering
plants (angiosperms), and how many of the taxa in these groups are restricted
in their distribution (endemic) to the Flora area, both Ethiopia and Eritrea,
Ethiopia or Eritrea only. This paper presents a brief account of the diversity
of the vascular plants in the Flora area to highlight the values of the resource
that has been developed during the past 30 years.
INTRODUCTION
The Ethiopian Flora Project was started in April 1980 with the objectives of
writing-up a Flora of Ethiopia within the shortest time possible; building a
National Herbarium and a related library; and promoting scientific activities
in taxonomic botany, economic botany, forestry, plant ecology, plant
physiology, etc.
This paper deals with the accomplishment of the cardinal objective of the
Ethiopian Flora Project – “writing-up a Flora of Ethiopia within the shortest
time possible”. The writing of the Flora focused on the higher plants (the
vascular plants). The publication of the Ethiopian Flora started in 1989 with
the printing of Volume three of the Flora of Ethiopia (including Eritrea)
(Hedberg and Edwards, 1989). With the separation of Eritrea from Ethiopia
in 1991, the work continued as planned, but the publications were made to
reflect the reality and the subsequently published volumes were named as
the “Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea”. It is from the published volumes of the

1
Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, College of Natural Sciences, Addis Ababa
University, P.O. Box 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. E-mails: ensermu.kelbessa@aau.edu.et;
ensermuk2002@yahoo.co.uk & sebsebe.demissew@aau.edu.et; sebseb.demissew@gmail.com, respectively
* Author to whom all correspondence should be addressed
38 Ensermu Kelbessa and Sebsebe Demissew

Flora of Ethiopia (Volume 3), and Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea (Volumes 1,
2 and 4-8) that the data for this paper have been obtained as shown in Table
1 and in Hedberg and Edwards (1989), Edwards et al. (1995), Phillips
(1995), Edwards et al. (1997; 2000), Hedberg et al. (2003), Mesfin Tadesse
(2004), and Hedberg et al. (2006; 2009a; 2009b).
Table 1. Volumes of Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea (FEE) with contents and year of publication.
Volume Content (Families) No. of Genera No. of Species Year of
(including publication
subspecies)
3 Pittosporaceae – Araliaceae 274 1162 1989
7 Poaceae (Gramineae) 156 609 1995
2, Part 2 Canellaceae – Euphorbiaceae 130 724 1995
6 Hydrocharitaceae – Arecaceae 173 793 1997
2, Part 1 Magnoliaceae – Flacourtiaceae + 217 651 2000
Appendix
4, Part 1 Apiaceae – Dipsacaceae 178 413 2003
4, Part 2 Asteraceae (Compositae) 133 472 2004
5 Gentianaceae – Cyclocheilaceae 244 991 2006
1 Lycopodiaceae – Pinaceae + 87 212 2009
Appendix
8 General part and index to Volumes 2009
1-7

The documentation of the vascular plants diversity in the Flora of Ethiopia

and Eritrea provided detailed information on the diversity of vascular plant
groups, families, genera and species (including subspecies) in the Flora area
and endemic taxa of the Flora area, and individual countries (Ethiopia and
Eritrea). It should be noted that subspecies are counted together with a
species if there are two or more than two subspecies within a species in the
Flora area, with one of the subspecies considered equivalent to a species.
Diversity of vascular plant taxa in the Flora area
There are about 243 families of vascular plants in the Flora area, of which
175 are found in both Ethiopia and Eritrea, 63 only in Ethiopia and five only
in Eritrea. Thus, the Ethiopian flora encompasses about 238 vascular plant
families while that of Eritrea has 180 families. The Flora area has about
1,592 genera, of which 842 are found in both countries while 697 and 53
genera are found only in Ethiopia and Eritrea, respectively. Hence, there are
1,539 genera in Ethiopia and 895 in Eritrea. Of the 6,027 species (including
subspecies) found in the Flora area, 1,882 are common to both countries
while 3,875 have been recorded from Ethiopia and 270 from Eritrea only.
Thus, there are 5,757 species (including subspecies) in Ethiopia and about
2,152 species (including subspecies) in Eritrea.
Ethiop. J. Biol. Sci., Vol. 13 (Supp.): 37-45, 2014 39

Diversity of plant groups and families in the Flora area

The eight volumes of the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea produced in ten
books and published between 1989 and 2009 covered four vascular plant
groups in the Flora area, namely lycopodiophytes (fern-allies), pteridophytes
(ferns), gymnosperms and angiosperms (Table 2).
Table 2. Names of vascular plant groups and number of families and categories below family in each
group.
No. Group Name No. of No. of No. of Species (including
Families Genera subspecies)
1 Lycopodiophytes (Fern-allies) 3 5 17
2 Pteridophytes (Ferns) 33 73 177
3 Gymnosperms 5 9 18
4 Angiosperms 202 1,505 5,815
4a Dicotyledons 157 1,176 4,413
4b Monocotyledons 45 329 1,402
Total 243 1,592 6,027

Lycopodiophytes and pteridophytes

The two groups are considered the lower, least specialized, groups of
vascular plants. In the Flora area, these two groups are represented by 36
families (Table 3). Of the 36 families, three (Lycopodiaceae − Isoetaceae)
are considered more closely related and placed in the lycopodiophytes (fern-
allies), which contain five genera and 17 species. The remaining 33 families
(Equisetaceae − Azollaceae) belong to the pteridophytes, which are known
as „true ferns‟ and contain 73 genera and 177 species (including subspecies).
Table 3. List of families with the number of genera and species in the lycopodiophyte and pteridophyte
groups.
No. Name of Family No. of Genera No. of Species (including
subspecies)
1 Lycopodiaceae 3 6
2 Selaginellaceae 1 8
3 Isoetaceae 1 3
4 Equisetaceae 1 1
5 Ophioglossaceae 2 9
6 Marratiaceae 1 1
7 Osmundaceae 1 1
8 Gleicheniaceae 1 1
9 Grammitidaceae 2 2
10 Polypodiaceae 9 10
11 Anemiaceae 1 1
12 Negripteridaceae 1 2
13 Sinopteridaceae 5 17
14 Cryptogrammaceae 1 1
15 Actiniopteridaceae 1 3
40 Ensermu Kelbessa and Sebsebe Demissew

No. Name of Family No. of Genera No. of Species (including

subspecies)
16 Pteridiaceae 1 9
17 Adiantaceae 1 7
18 Hemionitidaceae 2 2
19 Vittariaceae 2 3
20 Parkeriaceae 1 1
21 Marsileaceae 2 8
22 Hymenophyllaceae 4 6
23 Cyatheaceae 1 1
24 Dennstaedtiaceae 1 1
25 Hypolepidaceae 4 5
26 Thelypteridaceae 7 11
27 Aspleniaceae 1 37
28 Woodsiaceae 4 5
29 Dryopteridaceae 5 14
30 Tectariaceae 3 3
31 Lomariopsidaceae 2 6
32 Nephrolepidaceae 1 2
33 Oleandraceae 2 3
34 Davalliaceae 1 1
35 Blechnaceae 1 2
36 Azollaceae 1 1
Total 78 194

Gymnosperms
The gymnosperms, also commonly known as naked-seeded plants, are
composed of five families and nine genera with 18 species (Table 4). Only
three genera (Ephedra, Juniperus and Podocarpus) in three families
(Ephedraceae, Cupressaceae and Podocarpaceae), represented by three and
one species each, respectively, are indigenous to the Flora area. The
remaining three families with six genera and a total of 13 species are
introductions; the most widely planted being Cupressus lusitanica
(Cupressaceae).
Table 4. List of families with the number of genera and species in the gymnosperms.
No. Name of Family No. of Genera No. of Species
1 Ephedraceae 1 3
2 Podocarpaceae 1 1
3 Araucariaceae 1 1
4 Cupressaceae 5 7
5 Pinaceae 1 6
Total Taxa 9 18
Ethiop. J. Biol. Sci., Vol. 13 (Supp.): 37-45, 2014 41

Angiosperms
The angiosperms, which are also widely known as flowering plants, are the
largest group of vascular plants worldwide as well as in the Flora area. They
are represented by 202 families composed of 1,505 genera and 5,815 species
(including subspecies) in the Flora area (Table 2). The two sub-groups of
angiosperms, dicots and monocots, possess 157 and 45 families, 1,176 and
329 genera and 4,413 and 1,402 species (including subspecies),
respectively. The top 25 families and genera include 58.98% of the genera,
70.35% of the species (including subspecies) and 77.90% of the endemic
taxa (Tables 5 and 6).
Endemism in the Flora area
There is no endemic family in the Flora area. However, there are four
genera that are endemic to the Flora area, namely, Chiliocephalum Benth.
(Asteraceae), with two species (C. schimperi Benth. and C. tegetum Mesfin,
both restricted to Ethiopia), Pseudobleparispermum J.-P. Lebrun & Stork
(Asteraceae), a monotypic genus with P. bremeri J.-P. Lebrun & Stork
restricted to Ethiopia, and the monotypic genus Hypagophytum Berger
(Crassulaceae), with H. abyssinicum (A. Rich.) Berger, and Nephrophyllum
A. Rich., with N. abyssinicum Hochst. ex A. Rich. which are endemic to the
Ethiopian Highlands (Ethiopia and Eritrea). Altogether, there are about 647
species (including subspecies), which are endemic to the Flora area. Of
these, 544 taxa are confined to Ethiopia, 14 to Eritrea and 89 taxa are
common to both Ethiopia and Eritrea. In addition, there are over 60 taxa
(species and subspecies) that have been included in the Flora volumes as
undescribed (species/subspecies.), which are confined to the Flora area.
With additional information and publication of the remaining taxa, the
number of endemic taxa is likely to increase.
Nevertheless, as some taxa that have currently been considered restricted to
the Flora area may be discovered in neighboring countries, while other taxa
that are considered to occur in the Flora area and beyond may be found
restricted to the Flora area as endemic taxa, in addition to the taxa
mentioned as spp. in the Flora, the current percentage endemism (about
10%) may not go up or down drastically.
The 647 endemic taxa are distributed in 76 families of pteridophytes and
angiosperms, and the top 25 genera and 25 families with their number of
endemic taxa and percentage endemism are listed in tables 5 and 6. The 25
vascular plant families which account for about 10% of the total number of
42 Ensermu Kelbessa and Sebsebe Demissew

families (243) contain 70.35% of the total number of species (including

subspecies) in the Flora area. As can be seen from the tables,
Asteraceae/Compositae has the largest number and percentage of endemic
taxa, while Cucurbitaceae and Amaranthaceae have the lowest (but
Myrtaceae, with only two indigenous genera and two species, is without any
endemic taxon).
Table 5. Top 25 families of vascular plants of FEE with total number of genera and species (including
subspecies), endemism and author/s.
No. Family Genera Species & Endemic Author/s (Flora
subspecies Taxa Volume)
1 Fabaceae 111 678 71 M. Thulin et al. (3)
2 Poaceae 156 609 39 S. Phillips ( 7)
3 Asteraceae 133 472 103 Mesfin Tadesse (4:2)
4 Euphorbiaceae 34 242 45 M. G. Gilbert (2:2)
5 Cyperaceae 19 231 14 K. A. Lye (6)
6 Acanthaceae 41 215 25 Ensermu Kelbessa (5)
7 Lamiaceae 44 202 28 O. Ryding et al. (5)
8 Orchidaceae 37 167 28 P. Cribb & S. Thomas
(6)
9 Asclepiadaceae 45 165 29 D.J. Goyder et al. (4:1)
10 Malvaceae 17 141 5 K. Vollesen (2:2)
11 Convolvulaceae 21 139 17 Sebsebe Demissew (5)
12 Rubiaceae 55 117 7 Ch. Puff (4:1)
13 Scrophulariaceae 38 116 15 E. Fischer et al. (5)
14 Cucurbitaceae 24 74 1 C. Jeffrey (2:2)
15 Solanaceae 16 71 3 I. Friis & J. Edmonds (5)
16 Capparidaceae 8 68 2 L. Kers (2:1)
17 Myrtaceae 9 68 0 I. Friis (2:2)
18 Boraginaceae 19 66 6 H. Riedl & S. Edwards
(5)
19 Burseraceae 2 62 4 K. Vollesen (3)
20 Brassicaceae 23 62 6 B. Jonsell (2:1)
21 Amaranthaceae 21 59 1 C. Townsend (2:1)
22 Apiaceae 34 59 12 I. Hedberg & O. Hedberg
(4:1)
23 Commelinaceae 9 57 2 Ensermu Kelbessa & R.
B. Faden (6)
24 Caryophyllaceae 22 51 8 M. G. Gilbert (2:1)
25 Aloaceae 1 48 33 Sebsebe Demissew &
M.G. Gilbert (6)
25 Families 939 4,239 504
Percent contribution to FEE 58.98% 70.35% of 77.90%
Ethiop. J. Biol. Sci., Vol. 13 (Supp.): 37-45, 2014 43

Table 6. Top 25 indigenous genera of vascular plants of FEE with total number of species and endemics
(including subspecies) and percent endemism.
No. Name of Genus No. of Species (including No. of Endemic Species % Endemism
subspecies) (including subspecies)
1 Cyperus 121 9 7.44
2 Euphorbia 113 29 25.66
3 Crotalaria 92 14 15.22
4 Indigofera 86 8 9.30
5 Acacia 66 8 12.12
6 Ipomoea 63 4 6.35
7 Commiphora 56 2 3.57
8 Hibiscus 50 2 4.00
9 Aloe 48 33 68.75
10 Vernonia 48 14 29.17
11 Eragrostis 45 3 6.67
12 Habenaria 45 11 24.44
13 Solanum 44 3 6.82
14 Barleria 40 4 10.00
15 Asplenium 37 3 8.11
16 Justicia 37 7 18.92
17 Plectranthus 37 1 2.70
18 Pennisetum 35 7 20.59
19 Trifolium 33 9 27.27
20 Hyparrhenia 32 4 12.50
21 Sporobolus 31 0 00.00
22 Panicum 30 3 10.00
23 Rhynchosia 30 6 20.00
24 Ceropegia 29 10 34.48
25 Pavonia 29 2 6.90
1277 196
Percent of total taxa and 21.19% 30.29%
endemics

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The Ethiopian Flora has been concluded very satisfactorily fulfilling its
objectives, including the documentation of the flora which was the main
objective of the project. The total number of taxa documented in FEE is
about 6,027 with 647 (10.74%) endemism. This was done with global
participation whereby 90 botanists from 17 countries have been involved in
the write-up. In this connection, it is important to note the contribution of
local botanists to the writing up of family accounts for 1,390 (about 23%)
taxa.
While the documentation of the FEE is one of the most important
achievements of the Ethiopian Flora Project, it is believed that the printing
of the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea in Ethiopia is considered the best
decision taken by the proponents of the Flora Project at its early stage which
44 Ensermu Kelbessa and Sebsebe Demissew

made the Flora volumes accessible locally, enhancing wider distribution and
being sold at a reasonable price. Various specialized research and
conservation initiatives have been made possible by the publication of a
complete modern Flora for Ethiopia and Eritrea. The publications of the
Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea locally would also be a good example for other
developing countries that intend to write their Floras in the future. This
would also help build the human and material capacity of the countries
owning the Floras in general and the institutions involved in Flora writing in
particular.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt gratitude to
the following institutions and those individuals, without whose great efforts
the Flora of Ethiopia and Eritrea would not have been produced. These
include the Swedish Agency for Research Cooperation with Developing
Countries (SAREC) (now SIDA/SAREC) for the generous financial
support; the Ethiopian Science and Technology Commission (now the
Ministry of Science and Technology); Addis Ababa University; Faculty of
Science (now College of Natural Sciences); the phased out Department of
Biology (now the Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity
Management); the National Herbarium (ETH); the Department of
Systematic Botany, Uppsala University, Sweden; the Herbarium of the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and British Museum Natural History, UK;
Tropical Herbarium in Florence, Italy; Department of Botany and Botanic
Garden of the University of Vienna, Austria; Botanical Museum and
Botanic Garden of Copenhagen University, Denmark; Paris Natural History
Museum, France; National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Meise, Belgium;
Herbarium Vadense, Wageningen, the Netherlands; Botany Department of
the University of Oslo, Norway; Smithsonian Institution, USA; Professors
Olov Hedberg and Inga Hedberg, Dr. Tewoldeberhan Gebre-Egziabher, Ms.
Sue Edwards, Dr. Mesfin Tadesse, Prof. Ib Friis, Prof. Christian Puff, Mr.
Mike George Gilbert, Dr. Kaj Vollesen, Dr. Sylvia Phillips, Prof. Inger
Nordal, etc.; also many other institutions, scientists and colleagues who
have helped us accomplish the envisaged objectives of FEE. Last but not
least, all academic staff associated with ETH and the technical and support
staff members of ETH.
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1–456.
Ethiop. J. Biol. Sci., Vol. 13 (Supp.): 37-45, 2014 45

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