From page 44
K The S A National
Biodiversity Institute publishes
a series of books under the
Strelitzia imprint, focusing on
indigenous plants. The latest
in the series is no 36 Identification guide to
southern African grasses, by
L Fish, AC Mashau, MJ
Moeaha and MT Nembuda.
It is important for
smallholders to be able to
manage their pastures, so
most of us need a good guide
at hand in order to identify
what we have in our fields.
This identification guide relies
primarily on the use of keys
and descriptive information to
aid the user in identifying a
grass species. It contains some
of the best information needed to
identify southern
African grasses. Keys
to grass genera and
species are provided,
and in some
instances also keys to
easily confused taxa.
For each species, a
combination of useful
characters is provided, and where
applicable, line
drawings of the
spikelet or parts
thereof accompany
the identification
keys. Species
descriptions and
BOOKSHELF
distribution maps are hugely
important and add to the
identification of grasses.
The book is available from
www.netbooks.co.za/ or
directly from Sanbi at
biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/li
terature/4327-2/strelitzia/.
K Living on the land as
smallholders do, we sometimes have to deal with bites
or stings and there are two
useful books available to
give us first aid advice.
The first was the book
on scorpions reviewed in
the June edition.
The second is First Aid
for Snakebite booklet is
available from the
African Snakebite
Institute and costs R40
including local mail. It is
a comprehensive 24
page booklet that
contains information on
what to do and what not
to do in a snakebite
emergency, the use of
pressure immobilisation,
artificial respiration and
45
www.sasmallholder.co.za
the use of a bag valve mask,
what to do for venom in the
eyes and a flowchart on what
to do when different symptoms are observed after a
snakebite. For more information email
admin@africansnakebiteinstit
ute.com or call 082 494
2039.