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J.R.I. Wood. 1997. A Handbook of the Yemen Flora. With color illustrations by Hugo Haig-Thomas. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. UK. ISBN 1 900347 31 8. Price: £85, 434 pages with 40 color plates.
When I started working on the vegetation ofYemen in 1987, this book was already announced as being in press. We had been using Wood's excellent identification keys on woodyplants of the Haraz region and his vegetation descriptions of theTihama and Yemen in general. A key problem at the time was that noexhaustive check-list covered the Yemen flora, obliging botanists torely on works of NE Africa, Egypt and Iraq. At various timespublishers announced Wood's handbook, but all my subsequent orderswere cancelled. Until last year when Kew Botanic Gardens finallypublished what is the definitively guide to flora of (former North)Yemen.
The taxonomic part of Wood's text in morethan 350 pages covers each of the 1750 fern and flowering plantspecies in the former North Yemen (unfortunately not including theformer South Yemen!). Identification keys, mainly based on vegetativecharacteristics, enable everbody with some basic botanical knowledgeto identify the species based on the chosen genus. Keys to thegenera are often given as well. For a few genera, useful linedrawings are given of leaves or fruits. The role of the 40 colourplates at the end of the book, other than esthetical, escapes me.Even the author does not refer to them in his descriptions! Tofacilitate identification I would recommend using Colonette's Flowersof Saudi-Arabia with 1700 beautiful and detailed illustrations,alongside Wood's Flora.
Arabic names are given when there was firmevidence of their name. I wonder why they were transliterated,complicating their use for everyone with a basic knowledge of Arabic.Wood is right in emphasizing the geographical usage of local names,within Yemen as well as amongst other Arab countries. The flora partcloses with a useful index of genera as well as of Arabic names. Ihave not been able to test the keys as yet, but have little doubtabout their utility. The species descriptions also give many detailson distribution in the country, altitude range and abundance. Suchdetail idemonstrates Wood's intimate field knowledge of the Yemenflora.
These details invite everyone to critically compare one's own observations, for which the author has to bepraised. Unfortunately the area encompassing former South Yemen isnot included, making the title of the book, published eight yearsafter the unification, rather misleading. We will have to wait forthe Flora of Arabia, of which the first volume has just beenpublished but will take years to be completed, to cover this part aswell. Further taxonomic clarification will then certainly follow ongenera with large numbers of undescribed species (Caralluma, Grewia,Maerua), as Wood has already indicated.
The 50 introduction pages are the weakestpart of the book. The first chapter on "The discovery of the YemenFlora" does not refer to Hepper's lengthy account on Forsskal,published by Kew Gardens as well! The chapter of "Factorsinfluencing the distribution of plants in Yemen" does not take intoaccount the results of various plant ecological studies carried outat the Agricultural Research and Extension Authority in the late1980s. The chapter on "The Vegetation of Yemenî resembles oneof Wood's earlier publications which was highly interesting, but bynow outdated. It would have been far easier and more comprehensive to have used as a base the 1:500.000 vegetation map which wepublished in 1991. The concluding introductory chapter on "Thecomposition of the Yemen flora"is greatly outdated. The publicationof White and Leonard summarized the latest conclusions on thissubject. These drawbacks are without doubt due to the fifteen (!)years in delay of publication. Wood based his work on his stay inYemen from 1974-1981 and finalized the manuscript in 1982, with someof the references working up to 1987. He writes: "Every effort hasbeen made to keep this book up to date, since it was completed in1982 despite unforeseen delays in publication". This is somewhat anunderstatement. The editor could have written an explanation of thechanged situation, or even better an appendix with at least a reviewof recent studies. Amongst others this would have included a seriesof publications from the University of Sanaa (Faculty of Science,Dept. of Biology), the University of Aden (College of Education,Dept. of Biology) and at the Agricultural Research and ExtensionAuthority (Dhamar and Taiz). This would have stimulated these Yemenischolars to continue in what eventually may be the production of acompendium on the flora of the eastern part of (united) Yemen.
Unfortunately the price of this book isexorbitant, a somewhat simpler production such as normally practisedat Kew Gardens (e.g. Friis' Forests and Forest Trees of NE TropicalAfrica) and leaving the color plates out could have brought thiswork to the (financial) attention of Yemeni botanists as well.Despite these shortcomings, no doubt exists on the gap filled withthis long awaited Flora, facilitating all future ecological studiesin Yemen.
References
Collenette, S. 1985. An Illustrated Guideto the Flowers of Saudi-Arabia. Scorpion Publishing LTd, London.(copies are difficult to obtain, one can try NHBS, in UK)
Scholte, P.T. , A.A. Khuleidi and J.J.Kessler. 1991. The Vegetation of the Yemen Republic (WesternPart). AREA Dhamar/EPC Sanaa (see also book review in YemenUpdate). There is both an Arabic and English version. Copies arestill available in Yemen at headquarters of AREA (Dhamar) and EPC(Sanaa) . If difficult one can try via A.A. Khuleidi, P.O. Box 5788Taiz, Yemen
White, F. and Leonard, J. 1991.Phytogeographical links between Africa and Southwest Asia. Floraet Vegetatio Mundi 9: 229-246.