Contribution á l’étude des lichens du Kivu (Zaire), du Rwanda et du Burundi. VII. Approche écogéographique de la flore et de la végétation lichéniques dans Pest de P Afrique centrale

Abstract

A short historical record of the lichenological exploration of tropical Africa, especially Kivu (Zaire), Rwanda and Burundi is given, including an account of the material collected and of the present state of taxonomic knowledge of the lichens. Several phytogeographical categories can be recognized in this area; they are (some with significant variants): subcosmopolitan, temperate-tropical, pantropical, paleotropical, afro-neotropical, guineo-congolian, sudano-zambezian, zambezian-afrooriental and zambezian, central African lakes endemic, afromontane and afroalpine. The distributional types of the lichens within the studied area are briefly described, as well as their importance in the main vegetation types.