pietermier

Joined: Feb 22, 2018 Last Active: Mar 24, 2024 iNaturalist

I am a amateur botanist born and raised in the Richtersveld. For the past 21 years I have documented the region flora, and been compiling a wild flower conspectus of the region which I am planning to publish as a book in the nearby future.

Since 2013 I have been working for SANParks in the Richtersveld National Park as curator of the park's nursery. I started with a botanical garden in 2013, using plants rescued from the nearby mining areas and in 2018 SANBI came on board, now jointly managing the gardens, which are called the Richtersveld Desert Botanical Gardens. The gardens, are still being developed and we are working towards an official opening of the gardens in August 2022.

Since 2019 I have been actively involved with handling plant material and writing reports for the South African Police, in regards to poached plants.

To date I have collected over 4 000 herbarium specimens in the region, as well compiled a photo herbarium of more than 40 000 photos of plants from the Richtersveld region. My material are compared at Bolus, Compton and Pretoria Herbarium.

Currently I am studying the plant communities of the region, on the high mountains, containing elements of fynbos and renosterveld, also I am doing a revision on the genus Astridia, and jointly describing 26 new species I have discovered the past 8 years, with various specialist at UCT and SANBI.

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