A couple of papers just out look at the use of plants as medicines, for both humans and livestock, in Africa. Mongabay reports on a study documenting how sacredness of trees and forests, protection of plants at burial sites, selective harvesting, secrecy and other beliefs and practices contribute to the protection of medicinal plants in Tanzania. Meanwhile, researchers at Kansas State University have put together a bibliographic database of plants used to treat complaints of livestock and pets in southern Africa: 506 herbal remedies are being used in 18 study areas against 81 symptoms. Amazingly, these data come from only 21 papers. A wide-open field, that of ethnoveterinary botany, clearly.