The plants are arranged alphabetically by botanic name. They are also arranged according to family in the List of Families and Species which is based on the "Check List of Namibian Plant Species" of the National Botanical Research Institute from July 1997. The plants have been identified either by Dr. MAN Mueller, Directorate of Forestry or - after his tragic death by car accident in April 1997 - by the National Herbarium, namely Renate Kubirske and Coleen Mannheimer. The specimens are stored at the National Herbarium.

For every plant there is a brief botanical description and a description of its use for food, water supply, medicinal purposes, traditional rituals, cosmetic purposes, crafts and also domestic purposes. The botanical descriptions are not planned to be sufficient for an identification of the plants. As I am not a botanist and there are much better books available that help to identify plants, available sources for identification or more information are noted at the end of each species description under "Other sources". In cases where an other source could not be found, I have tried to describe the plant as best as possible. A few plants could not be identified. Most were described or shown to me so late in 1997, that I was not able to gather leaves, flowers or fruits for identification, but for some the specimen just could not be identified. In the latter case that is mentioned in the botanical name including the abbreviation 'cf.' (e.g. Commiphora cf. angolensis).