Herb. Univ. Kahirensis (University of Cairo Herbarium) 18 July 2016
This herbarium was established by a Swedish botanist, Vivi Täckholm, who worked extensively in Egypt and with Mohammed Drar produced an early Flora of Egypt. Reminders of the esteem given to her enormous contribution to Egyptian botany are everywhere.
Cairo University Herbarium, reminders of Vivi Täckholm's legacy. Dr. Sami Rabei on the left with the Author.
Today Dr. A.A. Hosni curates the extensive library and collections. What a challenging time it is for the herbarium. Workmen are busy refurbishing the building fixtures. So there are dust, builders materials and piles of destitute furniture and equipment everywhere. As if that were not enough, new cupboards to house the collections are being installed. Not currently a suitable place to work.
Cairo University Herbarium, refurbishment.
Nevertheless, Dr. Hosni knew exactly which heap of "displaced goods" hid the cabinets of Cyperaceae, and exactly which cabinet held the Papyrus. Everything labelled, ready, possibly, for my visit.
Since the rehousing of the collection started, access to the specimens has been unattainable. An array of new keys and a suitably muscular assistant not withstanding, the cupboards so far have resisted every effort to lay bare the treasures within. However, the issue was soon diagnosed, builders had painted the new metal cupboard doors including the contact point of the overlapping flap between the centrally closing doors, very successfully sealing them! Some Ancient Egyptian tombs have been found with lesser defences.
Sealed cupboard, the opening painted over ... meat and drink to a trusty Swiss Army Knife
Fortunately I was able to demonstrate to the Herbarium staff and assembled Academics the legendary virtues of a Swiss Army knife, without which no-one, surely, would wish to travel - what else does one use on those impromptu picnics with cucumber to peel and wine to be opened? - and very soon showed how to slit the offending paint.
Abracadabra the cupboard was opened, and the treasures laid bare ...
THE folder of Cyperus papyrus, Cairo University Herbarium
And what treasures! With my equally excited, enthusiastic and inexhaustibly helpful collaborators, Dr. Reda Rizk (Cairo Agricultural Research Station) and Dr. Sami Rabei (Damietta University) we were able in minutes to put paid to the oft published and oft cited (done it myself) claim that papyrus became extinct in Egypt in the 1890's. (Tackholm & Drar, 1950, Parkinson & Quirke, 1995, Serag, 2003 etc). There are specimens from the '1950s and '60s from at least three Egyptian localities and from another location in Wadi Natroun.
This comes as no surprise to me. Having seen acres of suitable habitat at lake Hammra, and considering that Lake Manzala, where Baroness von Minutoly last recorded it in 1894 is reduced but flourishing, and given the unexplained but not seemingly rare recurrences on the Damietta branch of the Nile, the evidence has been growing for considering the reports of its demise to be greatly exaggerated (to paraphrase and misquote Mark Twain simultaneously). If only for more time to work these new localities and see if they might have held on to their precious occupants, and thereby prove Papyrus still grows here, or at worst confirm that it's extinction was a much more recent event.
Another crown jewel found in the Herbarium's collections is the Type specimen of C. papyrus ssp. hadidii! A specimen Dr. Hosni was sure they didn't have. A note from the Dr. I. El-Habashy cites the Czech botanists who described this subspecies, and firther, says that they removed a duplicate for their own institutional collection – revealing the existence of an isotype. Furthermore, more jewels were there, namely two further isotypes - duplicates of the annotated specimen - collected the same day at the same Umm Risha lake by Prof. El-Hadidii. This is a fantastic discovery. So there is enough material from which to collect samples and compare them for genetic diversity. How sad will it be if we wring out their genes and it turns out this is indeed a unique taxon? See my earlier post for a description of the type location as it is now.
Label on an isotype of C. papyrus ssp. hadidii Chrtek and Slavikova in Cairo University Herbarium. Note thatt El-Habashy nominated this secimen an isotype, nearly twenty years after it waas collected and a long time after the name was published. There are two other equally suitable sheets.
It was exciting to see that the type specimens of ssp. hadidii and others from the same lake-side location do look morphologically distinct. For one thing they are delicate, not an adjective I've often used to describe this species. Clearly smaller than the brutish plants of sub-Saharan extraction, with consistently small bracts and very small spikelets: is this an ecological variant? Are the salt pans nutritionally challenging so far as Papyrus is concerned? Is it a relic of ancient selection by the Ancient Egyptians? - a cultivar- Prof. El-Hadidii's theory, told to me by Dr. Rizk is that Wadi Natroun was once an important area for Papyrus cultivation by his ancestors, therefore hadidii might be a relic of their work and a vital link between the ancient Papyrus in Cairo Museum, and the modern day ....
Clearly more research is needed, and maybe the Sphinx has the reputation, but this plant holds some real riddles.
Just one of the many Treasures of Egypt ... which come in all shapes and sizes to suit all tastes.
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