New tree discoveries from the Guinea Highlands
Three new threatened tree species discovered during fieldwork for the Tropical Important Plant Areas project
Map of Guinea (2021) by Jenny WilliamsRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Republic of Guinea
This map shows the mountainous areas of the country.
The Kounounkan Massif
A little to the south, but still connected to the Guinea Highlands, lies the Kounounakan massif. It has the largest remaining intact forest of the coastal Guinea region.
Kounounkan Forest on Mt Benna slopes (2017-04) by Xander van der BurgtRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew
The Guinea Highlands
120 million years ago the Guinea Highlands were linked with the Venezuelan Tepuis. These large sandstone table mountains with sheer cliffs, isolated cloud forest and grasslands appear to perch in the sky. No wonder the Kounounkan massif has amazing species!
Tree 1: A species linking two continents
Ternstroemia is a plant group more common in South America than West Africa. Ternstroemia guineensis identified in 2019, is more likely related to a species 2400 km to the west in South America than to its nearest African relative.
Further studies are needed to find out what this species' ancestors are and if it has any special medicinal properties, like some of its South American Ternstroemia relatives.
Calophyllum africanum in fruit (2020) by Xander van der BurgtRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Tree 2: More relatives across the pond
Calophyllum africanum likely also has its closest relatives across the Atlantic Ocean. The only other species in Africa is the sea-distributed indo-pacific Calophyllum inophyllum on the east coast.
A tree with beautiful leaves named
Calophyllum means beautiful leaves in Greek, so named because of the tightly packed veins visible on the underside of the leaf, when damaged or cut they ooze a yellow juice. Calophyllum africanum is valued locally for its timber and the bark is used medicinally.
Further surveys in Guinea revealed that this species occurs in riverine forests of the Guinea Highlands. This species is critically endangered due to the threats it faces from mining and from slash and burn agriculture which often invades bands of forest along rivers where this species grows.
Talbotiella cheekii (2017-04-07) by Xander van der BurgtRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Tree 3: A beautiful tree seen from a car
Talbotiella cheekii or Linsonyi in Susu, is a 20m tree first new to science in 2018. It was seen by the road 6 km from the town of Coyah, in full flower and botanist Xander van der Burgt couldn't believe no one had spotted it before as it’s so obvious.
Forests under threat
This tree has been assessed as globally Endangered and is only known from Guinea in a few forest patches on the slopes of the Coyah Hills near Kounounkan. These forest patches are under threat from slash and burn agriculture.
Conserving for the future
Talbotiella cheekii, named for the first collector, is a tree in the bean family with large seeds which cannot be seed banked. Small plants are being grown from seed in local community nurseries as part of a project to increase numbers and conserve forests for future generations.
It’s exciting that searching these remote highlands with our Guinean partners over the past three years has produced unpredictable new scientific discoveries like these. All are on the edge of extinction and we are now working to protect them for posterity in our tropical important plant areas programme.
Interested in Natural history?
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