Juniperus Procera Enol (The African Pencil Cedar) In Africa and Arabia I-Taxonomic Affinities and Geographical Distribution

Abstract

Since Gardner's early paper on East African Pencil Cedar in Kenya (Gardner: 1926), there has been no comprehensive account in English of the species, It was one of the trees included in Chalk et al "Some East African Coniferae and Leguminosae", which, however, added little to Gardner's introductory paper and retained several older misconceptions and inaccuracies inherited from earlier sources (Chalk, Burtt Davy and Desch, 1932; Troup, 1922). Of more recent date, Wimbush (1937) discussed natural succession in the pencil cedar forest of Kenya. This was essentially a speculative attempt to define the ecological niche which is occupied by Juniperus procera on the western slopes of the Aberdare range. It did not pretend to be of general application andwas based, perforce, upon a somewhat cursory examination of the area and insufficient data. De Philippis (1940) produced a short monograph, in Italian, which brought together most of the available published facts on the species in Africa. This work still remains the most comprehensive, but is very far from being complete. Furthermore, it is 20 years old and does not incorporate unpublished data accumulated in departmental files prior to 1939, or take cognisance, quite obviously, of much original material which has been collected since that date.