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Traditional medical practice in Africa | 93

Region/state No. of species Area (km^2 ) Species/areaa Endemic species
(% of total)

Australia 25 000 7 710 000 3.2 –

USA 20 000 9 360 000 2.1 –

Europe 14 000 5 680 000 2.5 –

Tropical Africa 30 000 20 000 000 1.5 –

West Tropical Africa 7 300 4 500 000 1.6 –

Southern Africab 23 200 2 570 000 9.03 –

Benin 200 112 622 1.78 5

Burundi 2 500 27 834 89.8 –

Cameroon 8 000 475 500 16.8 2

CFRc 8 590 90 000 95.4 68

DRCd 11 000 2 345 410 4.69 29

Gabon 8 000 267 667 29.85 22

Ghana 3 600 238 305 15.1 1.2

Ivory Coast 4 700 322 463 14.57 1.3

Kenya 6 000 582 644 10.3 5

Malawi 3 600 94 081 38.26 2

Mozambique 5 500 784 754 7.0 4

Namibia 3 159 824 293 3.83 –

Nigeria 4 614 923 850 4.99 4.3

South Africa 23 000 1 184 827 19.41 –

Tanzania 10 000 939 762 10.6 11

Uganda 5 000 236 578 21.13 0.6

Zambia 4 600 752 617 6.1 4.8

Zimbabwe 5 420 390 310 13.9 2.3

Table 5.2Numbers of plant species

Blanks in the far right-hand column of the table indicate that no data were available for endemic species
in the country/region concerned.

aSpecies/area ratios expressed as 10 (^3) plant species per 10 (^6) km (^2).
bSouth Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana.
cCape Floristic Region.
dThe Democratic Republic of The Congo.
Data from Plants in danger-what do we know?Davis SD et al. International Union of the Conservation of
Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Gland, Switzerland. 1986.