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ABOVE LEFT: Polygala praticola, Data Deficient species from Utrecht, KZN.
ABOVE RIGHT: UKZN PMB campus students with lecturer Dr Benny Bytebier, learning to key trees. RIGHT: Agathosma bicornuta from Burntkraal, Eastern Cape.
and conservation authorities to promote the conservation of these sites. Plant specimens collected by volunteers help professional botanists to describe and classify plants. Since the start of the CREW programme in 2003, volunteers have discovered several plant species new to science, as well as many rediscoveries of plants not seen for decades.
The CREW programme is committed to capacity development. We have spent the past two years on developing the skills and expertise of 14 Groen Sebenza pioneers (young individuals funded by the National Jobs Fund
to work in biodiversity conservation) who are based across the country to document plants, animals and certain groups of invertebrates. Three of these Groen Sebenza pioneers are university graduates employed with support from the Botanical Society. There has been considerable investment in their skills on conducting Red Listing and soon we hope to have a new cohort of Red List scientists to help with the very big job of keeping South African plant assessments up to date.
In response to the low numbers
of students interested in threatened plants, the CREW programme initiated projects with tertiary institutions in the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in order to build awareness of threatened plants and the Red List. We conduct
a lecture then take students to a threatened plant population site where data is collected.
The CREW programme is appreciative
of the network of citizen scientists – volunteers who give selflessly of their time and energy to search for and conserve the multitude of threatened plants in
our country. The CREW programme
is dependent on the ongoing support from the Botanical Society of SA in the pursuance of the mandates to monitor, survey and protect threatened plant species in SA. Your support can make a difference and contribute to this special citizens’ science project.
Since the start of the CREW programme in 2003, volunteers have discovered several plant species new to science, as well as many rediscoveries of plants not seen for decades.
Some of our highlights for the 2014 field season include:
• The Limpopo CREW group focused
on areas of high plant endemism in the Sekhukhuneland, Wolkberg, Blouberg and Soutpansberg;
• The Mpumalanga plant specialist group discovered a new species Callilepis normae;
• The CREW Richtersveld expedition yielded new records for 39 species of conservation concern as well as two new plant species;
• The Outramps CREW group discovered four new plant species;
• The Fourcade Botanical Group found two new plant species and rediscovered Felicia westae, last recorded in 1950;
• The CREW Pondoland group discovered two new species belonging to the Apocynaceae family; and
• The Underberg group found 13 rare plant species.
Suvarna Parbhoo is the Manager: Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildplants (CREW) Programme – KwaZulu-Natal node, South African Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). Contact: s.parbhoo@sanbi.org.za
thola: VOLUME 17. 2014/15
Photo credit: Suvarna Parbhoo
Photo credit: Tony Dold