Exploring the Pearls of Paarl

Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve Explori ng the pearls of Paarl The diversity and potential of Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve by Sue Milton, Conservation Ecology, University of Stellenbosch, Richard Dean, FitzPatrick Institute, University of Cape Town and Myke Scott, freelance plant collector 'Peerleberg' (Pearl Mountain) was the name given to the grazing and for watering their livestock. In 1838 the land was spectacular granite mountain in 1657 by Dutch settler granted to the magistrate's office as a commonage for inhab Abraham Grabbema who was sent to find what resources the itants of Paarl and the military base of Agter Paar!' The Cape interior had to offer to Van Riebeeck's newly estab mountain was included in the Municipal boundaries of Paarl lished supply station near Cape Town. The mountain has in 1840 and dams and roads were built between 1881 and been known by this name ever since. Thirty years later, in 1914. During this period the Perolds and other families 1687, a settlement was founded at the foot of the mountain camped on the mountain during their Christmas holidays. by Simon van der Stel who allocated farms to Free Burghers Their signatures are engraved in the rocks at Krismas Kamp, and in the following year to French Huguenots. Van der Stel an attractive grove of wild olives on the plateau with a mag named the area Drakenstein - not as we had long believed for nificent view over Bretagne Rock. the spectacular boulders (dragon stones) but after Hendrik Nature reserve status for the mountain was proposed in Adriaan van Rheede tot Drakenstein, Commissioner of the the 1950s but was opposed by farmers and others who made Dutch East India Company. The commissioner stayed in use of the mountain for camping, grazing and collection of Cape Town in 1685 and made notes on ostrich, lion and wild firewood, wildflowers, honeybush tea, thatching reeds and dogs that he saw there, but never visited Paarl Mountain. other natural resources. In 1963 Paarl Mountain was Had he done so he would doubtless have been fascinated, declared a National Monument, but it was not until 1970 because he was a botanist and co-author of Hartus that the whole mountain commonage (2900 hal was granted Malabaricus (the garden of Malabar) that describes all the to the Paarl Municipality by an act of Parliament for use as a therapeutic properties of the plants of Malabar. While in nature reserve. Of this area, 890 ha were leased to neigh Cape Town he inspired Van der Stel and others to study the bouring farm owners for flfty years (1970-2020) and 100 ha Cape plants. were transferred to the State for the Afrikaans Language Little is known of Khoikhoen use of the Paarl area, but they Monument. The remaining 1910 ha form the present Paarl had doubtless visited the mountain over tens of thousands of Mountain Nature Reserve. The first management plan for the years to graze their animals. The Seventeenth Century reserve was drawn up by Brian van Wilgen in 1974 when he French Huguenot and Dutch farmers used the mountain for was a student at the University of Stellenbosch. ABOVE LEFT: Looking across the plateau of Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve. Photo: Sue Milton. RIGHT: The expolorer William Burchell visited Paarl in 1811 and, while walking to the foot of the mountain behind Paarl village, he noted the rooiels trees Cunonia capensis growing along the river. Photo: Myke Scott. 22 March 2005 Veld&Flora ABOVE LEFT: Grassy patches support a rich diversity of plants. RIGHT: Who planted the silver tree woodland on the southern slopes of Paarl mountain? We would love to hear from any reader who has information on the history and origins of this woodland. Photos: Sue Milton. Explorers and collectors buchus are the earliest herbarium Paarl Mountain has long attracted records from Paarl Mountain. T.R. Sim the attentions of natural historians, yet and S. Garside made a large collection there are few published studies of its of mosses and liverworts between 1917 vegetation and fauna. We know from and 1919. Since then, knowledge of the travel accounts by Van der Stel in 1685 Paarl Mountain flora has grown slowly that there were black rhinoceros, ele with the help of at least 110 people, phant, lion and eland in the area in including such well-known botanists 1685. A century later when Thunberg, as Rudolf Marloth, General Jannie Sparrmann, Masson and Gordon were Smuts, Pole-Evans, Harry Bolus, exploring and collecting from 1770 to R.H.Compton, Elsie Esterhuisen, John 1785, there were still zebra, antelope Hutchinson, John Acocks and Chris and lion, but elephant and hippo had Burgers, who deposited Paarl been virtually shot out. On 24 January Mountain specimens in the national 1874, the English bird taxonomist herbaria. Our plant checklist for Paarl Captain G.E. Shelley, collected a vari Mountain Nature Reserve (710 species) ety of birds during a hot walk up the is based on 1657 records. mountain. His bag included Cape and The 1960s saw the start of a field scrub robins, boubou shrike, Cape herbarium in Paarl Mountain Nature canary and stone chat. On top of the Reserve. Major additions to the herbar plateau in fynbos he collected grass ium were made by volunteer Joan birds and a white necked raven that Isham between 1990 and 1998, by had come to examine his specimens. Barrie Low in 1999 and by our team in On his way down the mountain, he 2002. The herbarium, which is cooled off in a stream pool in the com arranged in systematic order, now con FROM TOP: The deep granite soils support dense, pany of pied kingfishers. tains 554 mounted plant specimens of tall and Impenetrable protea fynbos, strongly dom The vegetation of the Paarl area is 394 species. The collection is far from inated by a White-flowered form of the sugarbush Protea repens. Photo: Myke Scott. described in only the vaguest terms in complete as it represents only 55% of A FOREST patch in the shade of the mighty gran the eighteenth century as shrubby and the plant species known to occur in ite boulders. Photo: Sue Milton. grassy, but in 1801 John Barrow Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve! And THE LOWER slopes, where soils are clayey and climbed the mountain and commented there are undoubtedly many more conditions drier, support renosterveld shrubland, on the huge wild olives, the elegant plant species on the mountain for very rich in grasses. It is on these lower slopes that the botanical pearls of Paarl are found, heaths (ericas), and the abundance of which no record yet exists. because the lower slopes of most hillsides in the sugarbush Protea repens. In his own western Cape have been converted into vineyards words 'The mountain of Paarl furnishes Four biomes in one at the expense of the rich flora. Photo: Sue Milton. a fine field for the botanist. The plants Paarl Mountain Nature Reserve has BELOW: Tolbos Leucadendron rubrum also grows are varied and wonderfully luxuriant'. something for everyone. Apart from the on the deep granite soils. Photo: Sue Milton. William Burchell visited Paarl in 1811 botanical garden, picnic sites, walks, en route from Tulbagh to Stellenbosch. fishing, bird watching, rock-climbs and While walking to the foot of the moun spectacular views of the Western Cape tain behind Paarl village he noted in all directions, you can see four of the rooiels Cunonia capensis along the region's biomes, Karoo, Fynbos, Forest river, Erica pubescens, Cassine capen and Renosterveld Biomes, within a sis and the parasitic stokkiestee, kilometre of one another. Viscum capense, agurkie Cucumis Each of these major vegetation types prophetarum, bloublomsalie Salvia can be further divided into sub-types, africana and bokbietou Diosma capita depending on soil depth, moisture, tao Drege's 1830 collections oflegumes, slope and aspect. daisies, pelargoniums, grasses and The thin soils over granite boulders One may well ask why the various species flower at different times of the year, and perhaps it is because they need to please particular pollinators, or to have seeds available at the time of the year when seed dispersal will be most effective. ABOVE LEFT: The rare fireworks pincush ion Leucospermum grandiflorum can be seen in flower from August to October. RIGHT: The fluffy white seeds of kapok bos Eriocephalus and the shiny red flow ers of Erica can be seen together in September. Both are used by sunbirds the kapok for lining nests and Erica flow ers as a nectar source. Photos Sue Milton. have a vegetation similar to that of the there would have been marshes on the the botanical pearls of Paarl are found, Succulent Karoo. The succulents that mountain plateau. Remnants of these because the lower slopes of most hill flourish in boulder cracks and on shal can still be seen just above the dams, sides in the western Cape have been low soils at the edges of the great gran where dense stands of golden-leaved converted into vineyards at the expense ite domes and boulders that emerge sonskynbos Leucadendron salignum of the rich flora. from the mountain plateau include and white-flowered koffiebos Brunia The lower slopes of Table Mountain, aloes, crassulas, euphorbias, many and Berzelia and tall bracken thrive in Tygerberg Hills and Paarl Mountain are vygies and succulent species of daisies the boggy soil. unfortunately also recipients of inva and pelargoniums. Various types of forests and wood sive alien plants from gardens and The deep granite soils of the flat lands grow in the shade of mighty boul farms. Recently the Drakenstein plateau support remarkably dense, tall ders and follow the courses of streams Municipality embarked on a major and impenetrable protea fynbos, coming off the mountain.

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