Laboratory of Plant Systematics and Biodiversity
Conservatory & Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva

Advisor of the project: Fred Stauffer (CJBG) fred.stauffer@ville-ge.ch ; 022-418.51.78
Duration: 2 years, starting as soon as possible (ideally spring 2022)

This master project aims to undertake modern botanical and ethnobotanical surveys in the West African country of Senegal. The project relies on fieldwork and ethnobotanical surveys in the semidry and moderately hilly lowlands of the Bedik region, in the south-East of the country and next to the Niokolo-Koba National Park.

The approach includes the inventory of all native and introduced plants associated to traditional uses, and the taxonomic identification, and documentation of common names and uses of all food plants present in the area. Working methodologies also include the collection of herbarium samples that will be stored in the herbarium of the Faculty of Science at the University Anta-Diop (Dakar, Senegal), with duplicates deposited in the Herbarium of Geneva. Further structural and taxonomic analyses will be undertaken in the MorphoLab of the Conservatory and Botanical Garden of Geneva in order to characterize the different varieties of millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br., Poaceae), a central food source for local inhabitants.

This project is framed in a larger initiative including an international team of archeologists, zoologists and botanists, and therefore benefiting of interdisciplinary expertise. Funding for field work and presentation of conferences in international congresses is guaranteed by the project.