As European colonization extended across the globe, into the continents of the New World, Africa and Australia, so too the numbers of collections of plants expanded worldwide, even in inconspicuous groups such as the genus Fossombronia. Due to its close proximity to Europe, the continent of Africa was one of the earliest regions to yield new species within this genus. To date 37 species have been reported from the continent and surrounding islands only seven of which are cosmopolitan species common to Europe. Certainly the majority of species have been described from South Africa which exhibits a temperate to arid environment. Whether the remaining 30 taxa are truly endemic is problematic, however, since a comprehensive study of the genus in Africa has never been undertaken. In this revision, a combination of morphometric, molecular and traditional morphological methods have been used to evaluate the systematic status of all previously named species. Evaluation of the taxa described up until the early 1950's, has reduced the taxa recognized as good species to 10, many species having been moved to the genus Austrofossombronia. The remaining fourteen new species named by Perold from 1997-1999 are still under evaluation.

Key words: Africa, Fossombronia, Fossombroniineae, South Africa