Existing ethnobotanical information for southern Africa is scattered through anthropological, medical, botanical and other books and journals, making the task of getting at the information fairly difficult. The object of this paper is to provide a unified bibliography on the subject and to review the state of knowledge of ethnobotany in southern Africa as reflected in publications, unpublished manuscripts and museum and herbarium holdings. Those aspects of ethnobotany most needing attention are identified. The information is reviewed on a subject basis.