Collecting in Somali country

The heartland of Moringa diversity is in northeast Africa, where the countries of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia meet Locals call the place where the countries meet "border point one" and is shown in photo 1. Somalia is to the right of the dirt road, Kenya to the left, and Ethiopia beyond the Dawa River, which is visible as a green strip in the distance. This area is also part of the heartland of Somali culture. This area has always fascinated me, both for its biology and for its unique culture. I found the local people to be wonderfully hospitable, sometimes almost to excess. Often the first time I came to a village I was invited to feast on goat or camel and drink spiced tea with local authorities (2. in Mandera and 3. in Yabicho). Rural Somalis know the local flora intimately, so discussions with them proved to be invaluable in locating previously undocumented populations of Moringa (photo 4). I also found the reputation for the area being dangerous to be justified in certain regions, particularly on the Kenya-Somalia border, where it was necessary to travel with soldiers (photo 5).

Photo 6 shows me preparing dried, pressed herbarium specimens of Moringa longituba. I had planned my trips to correspond with Moringa fruiting times, since I need seedlings for developmental studies. El Niño conditions disrupted flowering and fruiting, so I often had to resort to digging the very deep tubers (7). To get seeds, I got some colored pencils and made and circulated a flyer offering a reward for seeds sent to my collaborators at the Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) (image 8). Photo 9 shows a view of the headquarters of KEFRI outside of Nairobi, and photo 10 shows KEFRI collaborator Joseph Machua explaining the virtues of Moringa oleifera (sprig in his left hand) to Sahara Mohammed of Mandera, Kenya. If you're curious ( warning: this is gross ), click here to see the disgusting, unidentified lesions I got along the Kenya-Ethiopia border. I got 40 of them over 6 weeks, blood poisoning a couple of times, and lots of fevers. It scared me at first, but I never found out what it was. Any ideas?

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

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