Medicinal, Poisonous, and Edible Plants in Namibia

This type of book, an illustrated flora, is an example of the core collection of worldwide floras the Botany and Horticulture Library has in its 100,000 plus volume collection. Floras are limited-print scientific texts used by botanists throughout the world for plant identification and to answer botanical nomenclature questions. This book describes 600 plants, their characteristics, and medicinal effects. Additionally, it shows 117 plants with black and white illustrations. The author is a scientist and as well as a botanical artist.

There are approximately 4,000 seed plants are indigenous to Namibia and almost 15% are considered only found in Namibia. Namibia is known for the unusual plant called Welwitschia, a living fossil, which is only found in Namibia and Angola and has survived for the last 140 millions. It is gymnosperm, related to pines and other plants that produce cones.

Author Dr. Eberhard von Koenen (1915-2012) was born in South West Africa (now Namibia) on March 6, 1915. Although he returned to Germany many times, in 1963, he came back to Namibia and founded the Gobabeb Desert Research Station. He studied homeopathy in South Africa and lived on a farm called “Farm Krumboek” until his death in 2012. This book, originally published in German in 1996, was translated to English by Axel von Blottnitz, Regine Matern, Dr. Otto Leistner and Otto A. Schmidt.