The Flora of Chad: a checklist and brief analysis

A checklist of the flora of Chad has been compiled by the authors, based on literature, on-line data-bases, herbarium collections and land surveys (1998-2011). It counts 2,460 records, i.e. 2,288 species (including 128 autonyms), 83 subspecies, 81 varieties, 8 forms, while all the previous available information reported 1,600 species. They belong to 151 Families, with 48.7% of the taxa belonging to the 6 largest families, i.e. Poaceae (14.6%), Fabaceae (13.6%), Cyperaceae (7.0%), Asteraceae (6.2 %), Malvaceae (3.9%) and Rubiaceae (3.4%). A total number or 2,173 species (88.3%) are native to Chad, including 55 (2.2%) endemic species, while 274 (11.0%) are alien to Chad, and 13 (0.5%) are considered cryptogenic, i.e. of uncertain status. It represents a considerable update on previous knowledge on the alien flora of Chad that counted for 131 taxa (5.3%). There are 657 therophytes (26.7%), 546 phanerophytes (22.2%), 378 hemicryptophytes (15.4%), 256 chamaephytes (10.4%), 160 geophytes (6.5%), 107 helophytes (4.3%), 104 hydrophytes (4.2%). A total of 252 taxa (10.2) may have different life forms (e.g. terophytes or chamaephytes).