The Clivia Mirabilis is a protected plant in South Africa. A total 518 plants and 29 seeds were recovered during the bust. Photo: X
Police arrested three men believed to be poachers and who were in possession of protected plants worth R3,5m in the Northern Cape.
Nieuwoudtville Police followed up on information received to make the arrests near the Oorlogskloof Nature Reserve, which is celebrated for its arid, wild and beautiful landscape, on Tuesday.
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Police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Sergio Kock said the suspects – aged 23, 41 and 47 – will appear at the Calvinia Magistrate Court soon.
“The Nieuwoudtville SAPS Visible Policing, Nieuwoudtville Detectives and the Oorlogskloof Nature Conservation personnel caught the suspects red-handed with 518 Clivia Mirabilis plants and 29 Clivia Mirabilis seeds with a street value of R3,506,000 in Nieuwoudtville,” he said.
Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Koliswa Otola commended the police, nature reserve and the community for what he called an outstanding success.
She added that “robust community participation in the fight against crime is key and police, together with communities can and will win the fights against criminality.”
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According to PlantZAfrika, the discovery of the Clivia mirabilis in the Nieuwoudtville area was especially unusual as clivias are generally shade-loving and usually occur in summer-rainfall areas. Its nearest relative grows almost 800km away in the Eastern Cape.
Dr John Rourke, head of the Compton Herbarium at the Kirstenbosch Research Centre, described the plant formally in 2002.
“This name, which means ‘astonishing’ or ‘miraculous’, was chosen to reflect our amazement at the apparently endless surprises nature still has in store for us in this part of South Africa,” he said at the time.
The plant has commercial appeal, being popular worldwide but especially in the Far East. PlantZAfrica claims that in the 1980s, these plants could be sold for 300 times the annual earnings of a Chinese university graduate.
Just a two-hour drive from South Africa’s famous Namaqualand, Nieuwoudtville is home to a vast ecosystem of wildflowers and protected plants.
The area is celebrated for its hospitable climate for daisies, Amaryllidaceae, Prosoeca, Brunsvigias (also known locally as Maartblomme) and other brightly-coloured and rare species of flora.
Local tourists often visit when these bloom in spring.
In December, two new species of bushveld arum lilies were discovered in the Sekhukhuneland bushveld by North West University researchers, who discovered and scientifically described new species of this indigenous group of plants that are related to pig lilies.
The discovery of two species is especially remarkable as until last year, only one bushveld arum lily (Stylochaeton natalense) was known in South Africa and the research team has now added Stylochaeton glaucophyllum (blue bushveld arum) and Stylochaeton sekhukhuniense (Sekhukhuneland bushveld arum) to this genus of arum lilies.
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