Murielle Simo-Droissart- PhD
- University of Yaounde I, Higher Teachers' Training College
Murielle Simo-Droissart
- PhD
- University of Yaounde I, Higher Teachers' Training College
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183
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University of Yaounde I, Higher Teachers' Training College
Publications
Publications (183)
This book summarizes the assessments according to the IUCN Red List categories and criteria for 106 (sub-)endemic species of São Tomé and Príncipe.
Richly illustrated with numerous original graphs and species distribution maps, the book also introduces the ecosystems of São Tomé and Príncipe, the methodologies used, and a section on conservation. T...
Specialised pollination has often been proposed as a major driver of the unrivalled diversification of angiosperms. With its unparalleled variation in flower depth, ranging from spurless to 40 cm spurred flowers pollinated by hawkmoths, angraecoid orchids (Angraecinae) provide unique opportunities to reveal the impact of floral specialisation on di...
Background and aims – For some time now, the forests of the Sanaga basin in Cameroon have been threatened by the construction of numerous hydroelectric dams. In anticipation to this construction work, botanical surveys were carried out, resulting in the discovery of many species new to science. One of these certainly belongs to the genus Talbotiell...
Forest expansion into savanna is a pervasive phenomenon in West and Central Africa, warranting comparative studies under diverse environmental conditions. We collected vegetation data from the woody and grassy components within 73 plots of 0.16 ha distributed along a successional gradient from humid savanna to forest in Central Africa. We associate...
Human activities exert pronounced influence on forest ecosystems, impacting biodiversity and functions across multiple scales. However, the consequences of low-intensity human activities on tropical forest ecosystems are difficult to assess and remain poorly explored. The influence of human activities and other site-specific variables on forest tre...
Human activities exert a pronounced influence on forest ecosystems, impacting both biodiversity and function across multiple scales. Despite this, the consequences of low-intensity human activities on tropical forest ecosystems are difficult to assess and, therefore, remain poorly explored. Here, the influence of human activities and other site-spe...
accurate mapping and monitoring of tropical forests aboveground biomass (aGB) is crucial to design effective carbon emission reduction strategies and improving our understanding of Earth's carbon cycle. However, existing large-scale maps of tropical forest aGB generated through combinations of Earth Observation (EO) and forest inventory data show m...
Microcoelia and the monospecific Taeniorrhiza and Chauliodon are notable among Afrotropical angraecoid orchids for being leafless. However, the affinity among these genera was not addressed in previous molecular phylogenetic studies, thus precluding the understanding of how many times has leaflessness evolved in angraecoids. The discovery of an add...
Background and aims – Specimens of a new tree species in the genus Drypetes (Putranjivaceae) distributed in Cameroon and eastern Nigeria, D. stevartii , were associated with D. verrucosa , another tree species endemic to Gabon, due to its warty fruits and to the overall morphological resemblances of both species.
Material and methods – The present...
A synopsis of Tridactyle Schltr. (Orchidaceae) in São Tomé and Príncipe is presented. We recognize nine species in São Tomé and Príncipe, including four new species. We describe here T. amadorii D’haijère, T. cocophila D’haijère, T. levelevis D’haijère & Stévart, and T. oboensis D’haijère & Stévart. Tridactyle armeniaca (Lindl.) Schltr., recorded b...
In this data paper, we present a specimen-based occurrence dataset compiled in the framework of the Conservation of Endemic Central African Trees (ECAT) project with the aim of producing global conservation assessments for the IUCN Red List. The project targets all tree species endemic or sub-endemic to the Central African region comprising the Dem...
Cyrtorchis, a Tropical African angraecoid orchid genus, is renowned for its showy white stellated long-spurred flowers, which challenge species delimitation and resulting taxonomy. Also, the genus appears sphingophilous, and constitutes a suitable model for studies on reproductive biology of Angraecoids, a first step to their conservation.
This book presents the results of the IUCN Red List evaluation of all 347 tree taxa with a distribution confined to, or almost confined to, Central Africa (Democratic Republic of the Congo – Rwanda – Burundi). As such, it is part of a global endeavour involving over 60 organisations coordinated by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI),...
Background and aims-A recent taxonomic and molecular study of the genus Cyrtorchis revealed three new species. Here, we describe one of these new species, endemic to the Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL), and compare it to its closest relatives. Its conservation status is provided along with detailed information on its ecology and reproductive biology....
Tropical forests store 40-50% of terrestrial vegetation carbon. Spatial variations in aboveground live tree biomass carbon (AGC) stocks remain poorly understood, in particular in tropical montane forests. Because of climatic and soil changes with increasing elevation, AGC stocks are lower in tropical montane compared to lowland forests. Here we ass...
Tropical forests store 40–50 per cent of terrestrial vegetation carbon1. However, spatial variations in aboveground live tree biomass carbon (AGC) stocks remain poorly understood, in particular in tropical montane forests2. Owing to climatic and soil changes with increasing elevation3, AGC stocks are lower in tropical montane forests compared with...
Xylia ghesquierei is endemic to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is known from 18
georeferenced herbarium collections made between 1921 and 1980, representing 13 unique
occurrences and nine subpopulations. Its extent of occurrence (EOO) is estimated to be 60,552 km2
,
which is well above the upper limit of the Vulnerable category under crit...
The genus Cyrtorchis is renowned for its conspicuous white, long‐spurred flowers, but also for its challenging problems of species delimitation due to the great morphological resemblance of their flowers. Based on a preliminary visual inspection of 1752 specimens, 27 morphogroups were defined including 6 unpublished taxa. Then, we used a representa...
Cleistanthus bambidianus is a non timber tree up to 20 m high known from mature forests up to 500 m elevation. The species is endemic to Gabon and known from 12 collections made in the Ogooué Ivindo province (south of Ayem; Forêt des Abeilles; and twice in CFAD Rougier Ivindo) and in the Ogooué-Lolo province (five times NE of Lastourville; at Koula...
Englerodendron triplisomere is a small rainforest tree up to 9 m tall and 7 cm dbh, known from lowland and submontane terra firme forests, and found between 50 and 1,000 m elevation. It is morphologically separated from other Englerodendron spp. by leaves 2-jugate, rarely 1-jugate or unifoliolate, but then 2-jugate leaves also present; sepals with...
The species has been assessed as VU D2 by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in 1998. These assessors only included the type collection known from a forested area around Tchibanga in Gabon, and mentioned that the species may be more widespread given that the country's forests are relatively unexplored. However, they considered that many fores...
Englerodendron hallei is a small tree up to 7 m height, known from mature terra firme forests and riverside forests, between 5 and 500 m elevation. The species is endemic to Gabon and known from 17 herbarium collections and four human observations, that were mainly collected/observed in the Estuaire province (16 collections and the four human obser...
Craibia macrantha is a tree up to 20 m high found in lowland forest, between 350─460 m elevation. The species occurs in Gabon and in the Republic of the Congo. It is known from four collections representing four occurrences, of which three were made in Gabon by Le Testu (7992) in 1930 near the city Koulamoutou, by Breteler (14795) in 1999 east of t...
Angraecoid orchids present a remarkable diversity of chromosome numbers, which makes them a highly suitable system for exploring the impact of karyotypic changes on cladogenesis, diversification and morphological differentiation. We compiled an annotated cytotaxonomic checklist for 126 species of Angraecinae, which was utilised to reconstruct chrom...
Cordia stenoloba is a small tree to 10 m tall, found in dense lowland forest and in undergrowth near a river, around 490 m in elevation. The species is known from six collections made in Cameroon (three in the Centre Region) and Gabon (one in Ogooué-Ivindo and one in Ogooué-Lolo provinces). In Cameroon, the species was collected from Forestry Reser...
The species was assessed as Critically Endangered [CR] under the criterion D by Mackinder et al. (2010), and followed by Onana and Check (2011). The assessment is based on the assumption that only a single tree was seen at each of the known collection localities. Currently, Talbotiella batesii is known from a new occurrence from Gabon. In addition,...
Hunteria macrosiphon is a small tree up to 4 m tall that occurs in mature secondary rainforests, in high forest in the undergrowth, and in moist valley. The species is found between 300 and 790 m elevation. The species is endemic to Central Africa and occurs in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo. It is known from 20 collections in 15 unique occurr...
Baphia cymosa is a shrub or a small tree to 7 m tall, known from wetland and riverside rainforest, between 25 and 50 m elevation. The species is endemic to Gabon and is known from three collections which represent three occurrences. The first specimen was collected in 1986 at Lambaréné in the Moyen-Ogooué, the second in 2004 within the Loango Natio...
Gilbertiodendron imenoense is a tree up to 25 m height and up to 90 cm in diameter that occurs in terra firme rainforests, between 130 and 700 m elevation. The species is endemic to Gabon and known from eight herbarium collections made between 1927 (Le Testu 6417) and 2012 (plot data at Gomé with Boupoya as team leader) from seven localities in Gab...
Bridelia wilksii is a tree to 25 m tall that was found in secondary lowland forests and in streamside forests between 90 and 690 m elevation. The species is endemic to Gabon and known from seven collections representing six occurrences. These collections were made in the provinces of Woleu-Ntem (two collections along the road to Assok c. 1 km from...
Habenaria linguiformis is recorded from Nigeria and Cameroon.
Dinklageella villiersi is endemic to Gabon
Habenaria phylacocheira is endemic to the northern part of Nigeria
Gastrodia africana is endemic to Cameroon.
Bulbophyllum pandanetorum is endemic to the southern part of Gabon
Habenaria phantasma has been recorded from Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo; it has a very disjunct distribution
Polystachya farinosa is endemic to Cameroon.
In an earlier paper published in Orchids in June 2020, we have shown that the major threats to the orchid habitats in Atlantic Central Africa are shifting agriculture, followed
by selective logging and urbanization. Focusing on the methodology we used and explained to assess the risk of extinction of endemic orchids from ACA, we presented habitat t...
The phylogenetic position of Rangaeris (Schltr.) Summerh. has been one of the most problematic issues of angraecoid orchid taxonomy. A recently published phylogenetic tree with nearly comprehensive taxon sampling of African angraecoid orchids suggested that this genus was polyphyletic, as its species appear nested within different subclades of the...
Reducing habitat loss for orchids can be mainly accomplished by (a) the inventory, report and risk of extinction assessment of the most threatened species; (b) the identification of critical habitats and areas that host extraordinarily high diversity and endemicity; and
(c) the simultaneous development of integrated in situ and ex situ conservation...
The World Orchid Congress has published their fascinating book ‘World Orchid Collections’ detailing about fifty of the world’s most diverse orchid collections with a view to assist ex-situ conservation, pollen sharing etc
Initially focused on the orchids of São Tomé, the Tropical Africa and Madagascar orchid shadehouses network currently counts n...
Species in Angraecum sect. Dolabrifolia (Pfitzer 1889: 216) Garay (1973: 499) were assigned to several genera until Garay (1973) finally transferred the type species, A. distichum (Lindley 1836: t. 1781), along with A. podochiloides Schlechter (1906: 162) and A. aporoides Summerhayes (1964: 560) to Angraecum Bory (1804: 359) (see Simo-Droissart et...
BACKGROUND AND AIMS-The rapid expansion of human activities in South Cameroon, particularly mining in mountainous areas, threatens this region's exceptional biodiversity. To comprehend the effects of land-use change on plant diversity and identify conservation priorities, we aim at providing a first comprehensive plant checklist of the Ngovayang Ma...
A recent large phylogenetic tree for the angraecoid orchids has shown that the Afrotropical genus Diaphananthe is polyphyletic with a small group of four species sister to Aerangis and Eurychone. These species have diagnostic morphological features different from any other angraecoids, notably an erose to fringed surface of the stipes and a calceif...
We characterized the flowering patterns of 45 epiphytic orchid species occurring in Cameroonian rainforests to explore the environmental and evolutionary forces driving their phenology. We used a dataset of 3470 flowering events recorded over a period of 11 years in the Yaoundé living collection (82% of the flowering events) and from in situ observ...
Aerangis gracillima is assessed as Least Concern (LC). The extent of occurrence (EOO) of the species is estimated to be 141,346.6 km2, far exceeding the 20,000 km2 upper threshold for Vulnerable status under criterion B1, whereas its area of occupancy (AOO) is estimated to be 68 km2, which falls within the thresholds for Endangered status under cri...
