Cape Town - A team of young nature conservationists, City officials and nature reserve staff got their green fingers dirty yesterday by planting hundreds of threatened plant species, mostly proteas, at the Rondevlei Nature Reserve.
The rehabilitation planting was done in the botanically rich, but sensitive “Erica Field” of the nature reserve, where an ecological burn was conducted in early autumn last year.
The burn rejuvenated the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos vegetation and created a suitable habitat for planting the endangered species ahead of the rain expected later this week.
Yesterday, May 22, was International Biological Diversity Day. This year’s theme was: From Agreement to Action: Build Back Biodiversity.
A City official at the planting said several suburbs on the Cape Flats were named after plant types that once occurred in the area.
Lotus River was named after the African water lilly, which was discovered there, but is now extinct. Grassy Park was named after two Restio species: Elegia nuda and Elegia tectorum. Heathfield was named after the Cape heaths, the Erica species.
The reintroduction of these endangered species on Monday was an attempt to try to retain and restore some of the unique natural biodiversity of the Cape Flats.
Rondevlei Nature Reserve staff were joined by members of The Friends of Zeekoevlei and Rondevlei (FOZR) and a team from Nature Connect, a local non-profit organisation that supports the preservation of South Africa’s unique and diverse natural heritage.
FOZR vice-chairperson Tom Schwerdtfeger said: “There are more endangered plants on this field than there are in the whole of Botswana, which is absolutely phenomenal. This is something we really need to look after and I take my hat off to the False Bay Nature Reserve for doing the job they do in maintaining the biodiversity of this area.”
Alex Lansdowne, deputy chair of the mayoral advisory committee on water quality in wetlands and waterways, said: “One of the key species we’re working with today is the Rondevlei spiderhead protea (Serruria foeniculacea), which is endemic to Grassy Park and can only be found here and at Princess Vlei.”
Lansdowne said this species was once thought to be extinct, but in 1988 the manager of Rondevlei found two adult plants, which were then translocated into the reserve.
There is now a population of 300 to 500 Rondevlei spiderheads at Rondevlei that have come back from those original two plants.
“Today, we are doing rehabilitation planting of 100 Rondevlei spiderheads, which have been grown by the City’s restoration facility nursery,” he said.
The Cape Flats has among the highest concentration of endangered plants in the world. Rehabilitation and replanting projects are important for the retention and restoration of the area’s natural heritage and biodiversity, which is unique to Cape Town and cannot be replicated anywhere else.
kristin.engel@inl.co.za