Colette Ntépé-Nyamè: pioneer of modern tropical African Araceae taxonomy

Adansonia (3) 48 (7): 43-53, DOI: 10.5252/adansonia2026v48a7 ABSTRACT Colette Ntépé-Nyamè (flor. 1970-1988) was the first African botanist to specialize in the systematics of the Araceae, beginning with her doctoral studies at the Université Louis Pasteur at Strasbourg and culminating in the family account for the Flore du Cameroun.

She was the first woman and the first African botanist to contribute a volume to this major Flora series. Her treatment, though published almost 40 years ago, remains foundational for aroid taxonomic studies in tropical Africa, being the most extensive and detailed so far published for any country and covering the region where aroids are most diverse; through her own collections she made the largest contribution of herbarium specimens of any field collector to this treatment.