Format: ORAL

Maria S. Vorontsova1

1 Accelerated Taxonomy, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AE, UK

Twenty million years before human arrival on Madagascar, the ancient ancestors of Fatakamanga or the Blue Bamboo, also known as Lecomtella madagascariensis, made their journey to the island. The only remaining population of this isolated lineage is restricted to the mountains of the Andringitra National Park. The list of Andringitra micro-endemics whose presence justifies protected area funding also includes the worlds only grass that imitates Erica shrubs: Panicum cupressifolium. But savannas at lower elevations are not included in biodiversity protection campaigns and not believed to be worthy of protection. Landscape genomics of Loudetia simplex which dominates vast expanses of savanna are helping us reconstruct ecosystem history to help plan conservation. Traditional Malagasy livelihoods are based around herds of zebu dependent on the guilds of forage grasses forming grazing lawn assemblages, including the recently revised endemics Panicum luridum (Panicum sensu stricto), and Panicum umbellatum with Brachiaria subrostrata (which need to be given new generic names within the Melinidinae in the Panicoideae). Agriculture professionals are unaware of native forages and we are working to promote their use. The most beautiful baskets are woven in the Fandriana region from harsh bunchgrasses called Haravola and Haravola namboa, which are threatened by expanding rice cultivation. One is a sorghum relative Lasiorhachis viguieri, and the other is a mystery likely affiliated with the South African Phacelurus franksiae. None of these natural history facts were known or connected to national policy before the start of the Madagascar grass project in 2011. Placing grasses at the centre, we are working to piece together useful stories combining herbarium taxonomy, ethnobotany, phylogenetics, and functional ecology interfacing with social science and biome modelling, livestock development, and conservation. This talk will present an overview of how Madagascars grasses are being braided together to support the countrys future.