Orchids of Central Africa - Team, support and african collaboration

Research team and scientific supports

This website results from a collaborative work that was carried out in Central Africa and in Belgium these last 15 years. Main contributors are pictured and presented below, but several other people help us to collect, cultivate, identify orchids. They must be acknowledged here.

Collaboration between Université Libre de Bruxelles Missouri Botanical Garden, Université de Yaoundé I et L'Institut de recherche pour le développement: Réginald Dessi, Vincent Droissart, Tariq Stévart, Murielle Simo, Bonaventure Sonké et Daniel Geerinc

Team members

This online database was initiated by Dr Vincent Droissart (Belgian), a tropical botanist specialized in the taxonomy, phytogeography and conservation of African Orchidaceae. He received his Ph.D. at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) in 2009 and now works as Researcher at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD, France).

Vincent Droissart ULB IRD Orchidaceae Africa afrique central

Réginald Dessi (Belgian) is a graduate in Computer Sciences. He constructed the database and the website in collaboration with Dr Droissart. In 2008, he created UmanIT, a company that aims to promote Biodiversity conservation and the use of green energy.

Réginald Dessi UmanIT

Dr Tariq Stévart (Belgian) is Assistant Curator at the Africa and Madagascar Department of the Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG, USA). He is the initiator of the scientific project devoted to study the Orchidaceae of Central Africa. Dr Stévart has collaborated to the web site by confirming identifications of plant specimens collected as part of this study. He has also provided photos of many rarely seen species from Central Africa, especially from Rio Muni (Equatorial Guinea), Gabon, Cameroon and the Islands of São Tomé & Príncipe.

Tariq Stévart ULB MBG NBGB

Prof. Dr. Bonaventure Sonké (Cameroonian) is a faculty member of the Department of Biology and the Higher Teacher’s Training College of the University of Yaoundé I (Cameroon), and is an international specialist of Rubiaceae (the coffee family). He has collaborated on this project by supervising fieldwork, the living collection in Cameroon and photographing some orchids in Cameroon.

Bonaventure Sonké UY1 ULB

Murielle Simo (Cameroonian) is Ph.D. Student registered at the University of Yaounde I (Cameroon). She is managing the shade house in Cameroon and has assisted in developing the web site by collecting and photographing plants in Cameroon. She is carrying out research on the taxonomy and biogeography of two Sections of the genus Angraecum in tropical Africa.

Murielle Simo UY1 ULB

Daniel Geerinck (Belgian) is a scientific collaborator at the National Botanic Garden of Belgium and at the Brussels Herbarium. He is the author of the two Orchid volumes of the authoritative Flore d’Afrique centrale. He is the one who introduced T. Stévart and V. Droissart to the taxonomy of African Orchidaceae, and he has also contributed to de web site by confirming the identification of Orchids from Central Africa.

Daniel Geerinck NBGB ULB

Scientific partners & financial support

Without the help of many financial and institutional supporters it would not have been possible to compile and present the images and data’s made available on this website. We take this opportunity to thank them for their commitment to the project and for supporting us throughout its development. The main participating institutions are indicated by their logos, on which you may click to visit their homepages and to find out more about them.

Collaborative Institutions

National Botanic Garden of Belgium - Meise

Financial supports