Mycology in Africa
Z_Myc
From 03/2025 to 12/2025Principal Investigator: Gerhard Rambold, Tonjock Rosemary Kinge
The African continent is home to a remarkable diversity of organisms and cultural traditions, many of which remain underrepresented in scientific research. Our workgroup contributes to bridging this gap by documenting traditional knowledge and analyzing ecological interactions across trophic levels. In one of our recent initiatives, we addressed the urgent need to preserve indigenous mycological and lichenological knowledge. By developing EthnoMycAfrica, a freely accessible database with over 1,350 records, we support the documentation and dissemination of African traditional uses of fungi and lichens — spanning food, medicine, rituals, and ecology. This digital resource promotes the visibility of local knowledge systems and fosters collaboration among scientists, educators, and communities. Complementing this, a second study examined the biotic interactions of African mistletoes, parasitic plants that play vital ecological roles in savanna and forest ecosystems. Our analysis highlights mistletoes as ecological keystones — organisms that are both consumers (as hemiparasites) and resources (providing nectar, fruits, and habitat to pollinators, herbivores, and microbial symbionts). Understanding these multilayered interactions sheds light on ecosystem dynamics and conservation priorities. Together, these projects underscore our commitment to integrative biodiversity research in Africa — combining ethnobiology, taxonomy, and ecology to support knowledge preservation and sustainable resource use.
List of publications of this Project
| Kinge, TR; Jefwa, JM; Houdanon, RD; Milenge, HK; Abdel-Azeem, AM; Gryzenhout, M; Triebel, D; Weibulat, T; Rambold, G: Management and publication of scientific data on traditional mycological and lichenological knowledge in Africa, Lichenologist, 55(5), 169-179 (2023), doi:10.1017/S0024282923000294 |
| Krasylenko, Y; Kinge, TR; Sosnovsky, Y; Atamas, N; Tofel, KH; Horielov, O; Rambold, G: Consuming and consumed: Biotic interactions of African mistletoes across different trophic levels, Biotropica, 54(4), 1103–1119 (2022), doi:10.1111/btp.13130 PDF -- Details |