A Garden Guide to Native Plants of Coastal East Africa

“This book outlines how and what to plant in order to rejuvenate the coastal East African ecosystem through our gardens, schoolyards, roadways, and public places; wherever there is room for a plant, it should be a native species. It will inspire government officials who are often invited to plant trees at ceremonies to plant only native species.”

—Hon. January Makamba, Tanzania Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office for Union Affairs and Environment

“You, lucky you, are holding this very attractive manual of East African botany. That it is attractive may be why you picked it up. But it is also a landmark of useful information for the preservation and restoration of the East Africa coastal ecosystem. It began modestly as a student project to write a brochure and has culminated as a robust reference for students and professionals to use in assessing sustainable horticultural practices along with the coastal ecosystem from Somalia and Kenya, through Tanzania to Mozambique.

The authors have selected some 60 indigenous species from the vast total based on hardiness, the ability to thrive under domestication, and protective value in restoration. Alien plants get a bad name in this endeavour and anyone who has seen the steep ended j-curve of alien population growth can say amen to that. The coastal native flora is of great biological value in itself, worthy of careful study, despite long neglect and careless damage, and this well-illustrated guide can do much to help slow this trend. It is a teacher, a guide and a reference.

For one thing, ‘A Garden Guide to Native Plants of Coastal East Africa’ is in my view suitable as a textbook for high school and university students pursuing a degree in any applied biological course work. If I were to teach in Tanzania, this would be a required reading. Few if any other sources provide a concise guide to the natural history of the coastal ecosystem in clear, friendly terms, and I believe there is no other source of information with this particular orientation toward the protection of it.

Realistically, one should approach the study of this complicated coastal ecosystem only with a wise and patient guide. Well, here you go.

For another, The authors have written what it is likely to be the go-to reference for the East African coastal ecosystem for years into the future, providing continuity in the approach to sustainable restoration.”

—Chris Davidson, PhD, Flora of the World Foundation – Boise, Idaho

About The Authors:
Anne H. Outwater received her doctorate in nursing and a post-graduate certificate in environmental studies from Johns Hopkins University in 2008. In Tanzania, where she has lived for 30 years, she is a faculty member in the Department of Community Health Nursing at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. Her research and community service are demonstrating that violence decreases and health increases when people care for their nearby environment, earning income and ecosystem services from it.

Ilana Locker has had a two-phased professional life. She worked for the Biodiversity Support Program, a consortium program housed within the World Wildlife Fund, for ten years, running a grants program for researchers from low and middle-income countries and managing conservation programs in Latin America. She then became a librarian working in international schools in Venezuela, Tanzania, and Israel. This book, which started as a student project, combines her two professional interests, education and environmental conservation.

Roy E. Gereau is Tanzania Program Director at the Missouri Botanical Garden and has been working in East Africa for 35 years. His activities include discovery and description of new species, training and capacity building of botanists and foresters, and biodiversity inventory of Tanzania’s protected area network. His involvement in this book, stems from the desire to assure the survival of East Africa’s native biodiversity and its environment for the benefit of nature and humankind.