In 1939, South African botanist Glover was appointed Chief Pasture Officer for Somaliland. With encouragement from Abdillah Arr, the chief interpreter for the Department of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, Glover compiled a checklist of Somali plant names alongside their scientific equivalents. This list, drawn from work by him and other colonial officers, was published in 1947.
In 2022, Helen Pickering began updating Glover’s checklist. She incorporated Somali names from the Flora of Somalia (four volumes) and updated the scientific names using Plants of the World Online (as of May 2024). Her updated work, titled Glover – Linking Local and Scientific Knowledge, was published in July 2025.
The publication is divided into two parts:
- English version: Introduction in English, plants sorted by scientific name, and other terms by English.
- Somali version: Introduction in Somali, plants sorted by Somali name, and other terms by Somali.
The Somaliland Biodiversity Foundation is grateful to Helen for allowing free access to her work on our website. To ease downloads, the two parts are offered separately in both A4 and Letter formats. Users can also download individual sections of the dictionary.An interactive online version of the dictionary is also in development.
