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Erica Verticillata, from Extinction to Restoration

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Erica Verticillata, from Extinction to Restoration Erica verticillata, from extinction to restoration Anthony Hitchcock[*] Forerunner The Kirstenbosch conservation programme in the 1970s and 1980s was pioneered by Curator John Winter and focussed on establishing collections of threatened species in pots in the Kirstenbosch Collections Nursery. Each collection was established and cared for by horticulturists dedicated to specific target families such as Proteaceae and Ericaceae. While this initiative is to be commended it was severely limited due to space and inability to preserve enough gene pool in pot collections. In most cases, threatened species collections were soon reduced to single clones through attrition with little conservation value and in all too frequent instances lost altogether. In 2002, the author was appointed to the position of Nursery and Living Collections Manager which included responsibility for threatened species. The limitations of conservation pot collections and the need to revise the conservation programme were identified. To this purpose, a new conservation strategy was developed for Kirstenbosch. This comprised an integrated approach to include ex situ and in situ conservation activities. The focus was placed on sound genetic-based ex situ conservation collections and, where possible, in situ restoration at secure and ecologically sustainable natural area reserves. Fortuitously, the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) signed an agreement with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 2000 to become a partner and contributor to the Millennium Seed Bank Project. From this time, the primary ex situ collections were housed in seed banks and these were augmented by collections in dedicated threatened species stock beds and pots. The latter were used as source material for restoration projects mainly on Cape Flats Sand Fynbos (CFSF) where a critical need was identified to conserve the vegetation type and the ecosystem therein. Thereafter, the conservation strategy led by Kirstenbosch evolved beyond simple species conservation to include sustainable habitat and ecosystem conservation and management. Naturally, this required partnerships with other conservation organizations, primarily the Environmental Resource Management Department (ERMD) for the City of Cape Town and the South African National Parks. Some years later, SANBI was tasked to develop South Africa’s response to the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. Numerous researchers were included from within SANBI and other academic and conservation organizations to develop South Africa’s Strategy for Plant Conservation (SASPC). This was completed and endorsed by the Minister of Environmental Affairs in 2015. The relevant South African target pertinent to this paper is based on the GSPC with amendments decided upon at the workshops. GSPC: Target 8: At least 75 per cent of threatened plant species in ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin, and at least 20 per cent available for recovery and restoration programmes SASPC: Target 8: At least 60% of threatened plants in ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin, and available for recovery (restoration) programmes, with 1% in active reintroduction programme. The South African Strategy amended the global targets to what was decided to be manageable in South Africa bearing in mind the large numbers of threatened species and capacity available. The target of 20% available for recovery and restoration programmes was deemed too ambitious in the South African context and possibly meaningless since plants ‘available for restoration’ is not equal to them being in active restoration. One percent was decided upon based on the number of species already in in-situ conservation and the considerable resources and expertise required to manage this. Additionally, Kirstenbosch was also the only Botanical Garden in SANBI doing in situ conservation. The following case study examines the integrated approach to conserving Erica verticillata (whorl heath), and documents ex situ conservation at Kirstenbosch and in situ conservation at three areas on the Cape Flats. Introduction Erica verticillata is a #agship for threatened species at Kirstenbosch and in SANBI and is unique in the annals of plant conservation in South Africa (Hitchcock, 2003). Its recovery and restoration is an interesting case study and may provide useful lessons in plant conservation. It is a beautiful, sturdy species growing to between 1.5-2 m in height, but old specimens have been recorded to be up to 3 m tall. It produces beautiful maroon or light pink, tubular flowers arranged in neat whorls organized in distinct groups up the principal stems and near the - 1 - tips of sturdy branches. Peak flowering is from January to March, but plants produce some flowers intermittently throughout the year. The flowers attract sunbirds, bumblebees, hawk moths, bees, and beetles that come to sip the nectar the flowers provide as reward to pollinators. The specific epithet, from the word ‘verticillatus’, is descriptive of the whorled (verticillate) arrangement of the flowers. It used to grow in Cape Flats Sand Fynbos (CFSF) on the lowlands of the Cape Peninsula from the Black River to Zeekoeivlei (Oliver & Oliver, 2000). Herbarium records indicate that it grew in a narrow, 3 km-wide corridor between the main road and the M5 freeway from the Black River cottages near Mowbray in the north, at Rondebosch, Newlands, Claremont and Kenilworth as far as Wynberg (Figure 14.1). A single, isolated record from Kalk Bay (Thompson, 170 in PRE) might be suspect. The written record suggests that it may have occurred as far south as Zeekoeivlei (Adamson & Salter, 1950). The rather super#cial information on herbarium sheets and in the literature suggests that this species preferred seasonally damp, acid, sandy soils near rivers and wetlands. Agricultural and urban development that occurred as Cape Town expanded resulted in the destruction of its natural habitat. It is an attractive plant with long flowering stems and was regularly sold as a cut #ower, being one of the few plant species to #ower in profusion during the mid-summer (January-March) months (Gibbs, 2014). The last herbarium specimen collected from the wild dates to 1908 and was collected by Dümmer (Dümmer, 210 in NBG). More recent herbarium records in South Africa are specimens of plants growing at Kirstenbosch in 1943 (Henderson, 1669 in NBG) and from a cultivated plant growing in the Pretoria district (Repton, 5698 in PRE). The whorl heath also appears on the Bergvliet Primary School badge (Hilton-Taylor, 1996b). After the Second World War, an entirely new suburb of Cape Town was established to provide accommodation for ex-servicemen. The Bergvliet Housing Scheme attracted many young families and soon a modern primary school was built in 1949 ready for the #rst term of 1950 (Bergvliet Primary School, 2013). The school chose the whorl heath as the focal point of its badge because it was a very popular plant common in the Bergvliet area until about 1948. It was regarded as possibly extinct in the wild by 1950 (Adamson & Salter, 1950) and was listed extinct in 1996 (Hilton Taylor, 1996a). Hilton Taylor classified a species to be extinct if it was not found in its natural habitat after repeated searches. This category was also used for a taxon that no longer occurs in the wild but survives in at least one form in cultivation or in a seed bank. Contemporary classifications record it as extinct in the wild (Raimondo et al., 2009). The recovery of Erica verticillata During the early 1980s, the Kirstenbosch Erica horticulturist, Deon Kotze, was actively searching for and establishing pot collections of threatened ericas (Hitchcock, 2003). His attempts to find remnant populations of Erica verticillata in the few remaining Cape flats habitats in the southern suburbs of Cape Town were unsuccessful. Fortunately, the 1984 Kirstenbosch Scholar, Dawid von Well, recognized the species from herbarium specimens and brought back #owering samples and cutting material from Erica plants growing at Jan Cilliers Park, also known as Protea Park, in Groenkloof, Pretoria. Collections of fynbos were established in Protea Park during the 1960s by Curator J.E. Repton (Grobler, 2013). This was most probably the same as the specimen lodged in the herbarium by Repton in 1961 (Repton 5698 in PRE). It was confirmed as Erica verticillata by Dr. E.G.H. Oliver and propagated for the collection. A few years later, a mature stand of this species was discovered by the Kirstenbosch Head Foreman, Adonis Adonis, growing in a derelict bed behind the Braille Trail. It is assumed that the specimen growing at Kirstenbosch and lodged in the herbarium by Henderson (Henderson 1669 in NBG) originates from the Louisa Bolus collection made in 1917 because it is the only record of this species being collected from habitat in the Kirstenbosch Garden plant records. Furthermore, there is a 1920 record of planting ericas that like wet habitats in the Harry Bolus Orchid Garden to provide some shade protection to the ground orchids. The Bolus Orchid Garden was situated where the Braille Trail exists today and where the old Erica verticillata plants were found (Figure 14.2). In addition to accession numbers, registered cultivar names were given by the British Heather Society to each collection to distinguish them from one another (see Appendix). There are subtle differences between each cultivar such as flower colour, corolla tube length and density of flower arrangement, size of plant, and density of foliage. These differences are also evident on the herbarium collections. The Pretoria collection was named ‘African Phoenix’ and the Kirstenbosch collection was given two cultivar names to distinguish the dark pink form, ‘Adonis’, from the light pink form ‘Louisa Bolus’. The latter cultivar honours Louisa Bolus, the #rst Curator of the Bolus Herbarium, who made the #rst and only wild collection of the whorl heath for Kirstenbosch. She is recorded to have collected seed from the Wynberg Flats on 1 May 1917 (Hitchcock, pers. obs.). - 2 - The search for lost collections of the whorl heath was continued by the author in 2000 and was an exercise in detective work.
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