A substantial number of South African geophytes endemic to the Cape Province are at risk of extinction and conservation measures are being implemented to save these endangered species. As a concerned visitor to the Cape Province I have witnessed some of these efforts which I can enthusiastically applaud but there are others about which I have mixed feelings and decided reservations.
It often seems difficult for a single individual to alone accomplish any significant conservation of an endangered species but I did find one exceptional man who is doing wonders. He is Neil MacGregor of the tiny community of Nieuwoudtville in arid Namaqualand. Neil has a farm, Glen Lyon, on which he profitably raises very fine Merino sheep. This would seem incompatible with wild flower conservation, for sheep and goats can decimate the original vegetation of any area. Neil thought there was a better way to farm which he calls "Nature's Way". He imagined what the vegetation was once like when the roaming herds of antelope-type animals grazed the area before the arrival of Europeans. He envisioned the animals doing selective feeding on the vegetation and then moving on. His sheep are aliens to the South African landscape but Neil believed that by selective grazing, good range management, and timing the sheep's pasturage to coincide with the dormant season of wild flowers he could both raise sheep and conserve wild flowers. He decided to let the flowers grow in the spring, produce seed and store food in the bulbs.
Then he would let his sheep graze the area. With this procedure the seeds are saved, the hooves help to plant them, the droppings fertilize the area, and the bulbs, being underground, are not affected.
It took about 10 years to achieve what Neil now has at Glen Lyon. In the spring his land is ablaze with color and full of really rare bulbous plants. His farm is the type locality for scores of species that were first found there and described by the country's professional botanists for whom he is a generous host. He assists them in every way, even providing lodging in his guest cottage. He also welcomes lay visitors who ride in his farm truck while he gives than a tour of his wildflower preserve and explains the ecological miracle of rare bulbs on a working sheep farm. He lets people roam at will through the flowers, for Neil doesn't believe in what he terms "don't boards" - signs that would confine the people to paths or restrict their enjoyment of the flowers. His dedication to preserve one of the most beautiful concentrations of wild flowers in the world is unsurpassed and he has created a truly national treasure for South Africa. A partial list of bulb genera being conserved at Glen Lyon include Brunsvigia, Bulbinella, Gladiolus, Sparaxis, Hesperantha, Romulea, Lachenalia, Lapeirousia, and many more.
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| Figure1. Neil MaGregor, quintessential conservationist & sheep farmer, Nieuwoudtville, Cape Province, South Africa |
Among the delightful events of the spring season in the Cape are the wild flower shows which are annually held in several rural farming communities. The shows last three days and in a typical year they begin in the town of Vredendal about August 20, and are then successively scheduled over weekends at Picketberg, Clanwilliam, Riversdale, Caledon, Darling, Kirstenbosch, Hermanus, Tulbagh, Worcester, Villiersdorp, and Porterville to finally terminate at Ceres about October 10. Each is a community effort with eager volunteers and each has its own special charm and selection of wild flowers. The species composition varies tremendously from town to town thus reflecting the astonishing diversity and richness of the Cape flora.
All of the shows I have seen feature mass displays of wild flowers and some have a selection of carefully identified specimens. Some people believe that mass displays may seriously deplete the wild populations which need protection. Doreen Court, an authority on succulents, has forcefully expressed this view. She does not believe that the flower pickers know what is endangered or rare, or which bulbs are delicate and set back, even destroyed, by having the whole flowering stem removed. She writes, "We pot, bag and cut our treasures, many of which are swept out with the dust after the public have gone home." She concludes "we should think again, and, wherever possible, leave the plants where they belong. To my way of thinking this would be true conservation."
To investigate this controversy I picked a representative example of wild flower show where they kindly permitted me to observe their show preparation, accompany the pickers in the veldt, and attend the opening to view the public's reaction. This was the annual show at Caledon, a small wheat and barley farming community about an hour's drive cast of Cape Town. This show has a respectable reputation for it began in 1892.
I asked the Secretary of the Caledon Horticultural and Wildflower Society to respond to the negative view of these shows. She said the shows create a special awareness of these precious flowers. Farmers take pride in having rarities on their land and are fiercely protective of their habitat. She added that the Caledon Wildflower Society which sponsors the show must first get permits from the Cape Province officials and then must obtain the landowner's permission and a license to transport the flowers to the show. The Province's regulations require the name of the farmer-landowner, the names of the flower pickers, and the names of the drivers transporting the flowers. Also the rules require that no more than one third of the flowers be picked from a bush, and that a third of the stem be left on such things as bulbs. Furthermore, the flower stems are to be cut with scissors to prevent the bulb from being inadvertently plucked from the ground.
I accompanied the pickers to a mountain farm set aside by a local florist solely for the natural production of wild flowers. They were after the famous Caledon Bluebell, Gladiolus bullatus, which occurs as scattered single plants. I winced at the size of the picked bunch of lovely blue flowers which I thought was unnecessarily excessive and I was reassured that the plants would rejuvenate. The required scissors were not used and I saw at least one plant with its corm uprooted. Such mistakes are made, but my impression of the Caledon citizens is that they are serious conservationists for they have a special reserve set aside to protect the rare and striking Moraea insolens as well as a large community Caledon wildflower preserve.
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| Figure 2. Mass display of wildflowers, 70th annual wildflower show, Darling, Cape Province. |
The community wild flower shows sometimes make unexpected contributions to the knowledge of the Cape flora with the discovery of new species. Such is the story of Moraea atropunctata. It was brought to the Caledon show in 1978 and 1979 where it was recognized as new. Ion Williams, a botanist from Hermanus, preserved the specimens and established that the flowers came from the farm "Vleitjies" on the slopes of the Eseljacht Mountains. There it was later recollected and described by Peter Goldblatt in 1982. From seeds made available from the National Botanic Garden at Kirstenbosch, South Africa, I have been growing it in my garden since 1987.
By making seeds available to gardeners, the National Botanic Garden promotes conservation through cultivation. Gardeners can play an important role in the conservation of species that are at risk in their natural habitat. In my garden, for example, there are probably more plants of Moraea loubseri than exist in nature. So conservation has many faces ranging from individuals to institutions. All gardeners can participate in conservation through cultivation, and by their efforts they may save choice bulbs that otherwise might be lost forever.
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