MOST gardeners find cycads fascinating plants –and I came across an interesting article about them in a recent edition of ‘Veld and Flora’, the Journal of the Botanical Society of South Africa.
The article, from the African Centre for DNA Barcoding, University of Johannesburg, is about a project that will use DNA bar-codes to track cycads. According to the authors, while cycad fossil records date back to at least 280-million or even 320-million years, these ancient beauties are now classed as the world’s most threatened plant group.
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The authors compare the devastating loss of cycads as similar to the rhino poaching crisis. They point out that South African legislation protecting cycads includes some of the world’s strictest laws. However, conservation officials trying to monitor illegal trafficking are often left helpless for a number of reasons.
Traders often deliberately misidentify threatened cycads as more common species. Identification is often difficult when plants are stripped of their leaves. It is usually impossible to identify species from fragments on sale at traditional muthi markets.
As accurate identification is essential to enforce the highest penalties for illegal trafficking, DNA bar-coding is now being put to use as a valuable tool to tackle this challenge.
In South Africa all cycads are specially protected and there are international control regarding trading in these species.
In her ‘Trees of Natal., Zululand and Transkei’, South Coast author and botanist Elsa Pooley lists no less than ten species, belonging to the Encephalartos or cycad family that are indigenous to the area covered by her field guide.
“It will be a sad day when cycads are can only be seen in gardens and no longer as a magnificent and inspiring feature of our landscape,” she said.
If you would like to see a display of many of our cycads, visit the cycad garden at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife’s Skyline Arboretum and Nature Reserve, inland from Uvongo.
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