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Afrikaanse Inligting
A plethora of range extensions in the Klein Swartberg Mountains
A recent Atlas Project Education sally into the Klein Swartberg at Vleiland
in June turned up a number of interesting occurrences.
Protea pruinosa, the Frosted Snowprotea, the most rare of the Snow Proteas, is alive and well to the west of Towerkop. The population that we "discovered" effectively doubles the entire known population number of Pr prui. Jan Vlok estimated the population at less than 1000, although fewer than 500 plants were known in 1991 (See PAN 11:9). While the range extension is approximately only six kilometres, the area between it and the Towerkop population is topographically dramatic with a series of knife-edge ridges and steep cliffs.
The series of ridges to the West of Towerkop also produced three populations of Stalked Louse-Pincushion, Ls secundifolium, previously only recorded twice - both times on south facing slopes of the Klein Swartberg. Our populations were on warm, dry, north-facing slopes just below the ridge. We extended the known range to 15 km west of the existing records at Towerkop.
Marie Vogts' description of Ld eucalyptifolium Gum-leaf Sunshine-conebush as "Except for the Swartberg Ranges" (p. 173) no longer applies. This is thus the first published record of the Gum-leaf Sunshine-conebush from the Swartberg! Not only is it present, but it is widespread at 1200 m throughout the Western Klein Swartberg. The previous nearest record is Touwsberg to the south of the Klein Swartberg in the middle of the Little Karoo.
Paranomus centauroides Ladismith Sceptre and Pa dispersus Long-head Sceptre were also interesting finds. Paranomus dispersus was 500 m too high for it's health and was in fact dead. This one plant, in the middle of a jeep track, can be surmised to have been transported "stork fashion" by a jeep (or truck) * arising from the southern slopes where a previous Atlasser had recorded this species as having a sizeable population on the side of the track.
This shows just how much two people "armed" with sufficient recording equipment and skills can significantly alter the current bounds of botanical awareness.
Chris Berens
* The correct technical term for seed dispersal is "-chory" (as in myrmecochory). Is this thus an example of what Brian Van Wilgen calls "Bakkie-chorrie"?
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