Ongoye find attracts botany experts’ attention

EZEMVELO KZN Wildlife and uThungulu district ecologist Sharon Louw was conducting field work at Ongoye Forest Reserve in mid-December when she came across a tiny Brachystelma plant in fruit.

The species has been identified as Brachystelma dyeri K Balkwill & M Balkwill.

‘The fruits are relatively large in comparison with the plant and are bright red, so although randomly distributed among rocky outcrops, fruiting plants were easier to locate,’ said Louw.

‘After much searching, I found a single plant in flower, and having monitored the distribution of Brachystelma modestum at Nkandla Forest Reserve and the surrounding amaChubeni Traditional Council area, I knew for certain that the plant I found at Ongoye was a Brachystelma – and something different as the flowers were unique.’

What she had found was the first known record of Brachystelma in Ongoye.

As the plants are relatively small and insignificant, when not in flower or fruit, they are easily overlooked.

Louw said she has spent many hours working in the same rocky grasslands conducting various monitoring programmes over the years at Ongoye, and it just so happened that she was once again in the right spot at the right time.

Continuous monitoring

Follow-up monitoring was conducted in late December in the hope of finding additional plants, many of which were coming to the end of their fruiting stage.

Many more plants were found with young developing buds.

As more plants were located, so a better understanding of the habitat requirements was made.

Although confined to rocky outcrops, it seems east- and west-facing slopes are preferred.

Plants with the greatest vigour favoured areas where moisture could be retained by the moss-like mat-forming Selginella dregei fern.

In January the site was visited by Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, Manager: Custodians of Rare & Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) programme for summer rainfall regions of the SA National Botanical Institute (SANBI).

Further plant details were documented and voucher specimens for herbarium records were collected.

Initial findings indicate that the Ongoye Forest Reserve has a healthy population of B. deyri.

‘It is fantastic to still be able to make such discoveries and, more importantly, to safeguard critical habitats from transformation,’ Louw said.

According to Pieter Bester, an Asclepiad expert with SANBI, the species is currently endemic to Mpumalanga and is listed as ‘vulnerable’ on the SANBI Plant Red Listing.

It was previously only found at one location above Barberton on a site which is potentially threatened by afforestation and mining.

Worldwide there are about 2 000 species of Asclepiadaceae split into some 300 genera of whic, about half are succulent.

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