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Range Extensions and News Galore

A few keen atlassers are chasing their own special targets and this is turning up very exciting data. Range extensions are now so commonplace, one is uncertain on what is really newsworthy.

So we find that Serruria florida has a remnant population in a pine plantation in Assegaaiboskloof – perhaps these pines should be removed urgently? SAFCOL are removing the pines from one of the key Di buekii populations – great news! And the large form of Leucospermum lineare from near Assegaaiboskloof will also probably have its pines cleared. Nick Helme has picked up a major range extension to Leucadendron brunioides flumenlupinum from between Eendekuil and Porterville. Ivor Jardine reports that Leucospermum rodolentum is everywhere around Kotzesrus (in response to one atlassing query). Protea convexa occurs on the hilLeucospermumsouth of Laingsburg, and at a surprizingly low altitude, filling in parts of the gap between the Elandskloof and Witteberg populations. Astonishingly, in this area Leucadendron osbornei is more common in the river beds than on the hill tops, where it grows with the easternmost Protea laurifolia recorded to date. Ted Oliver found a new population of Leucadendron coriaceum from north-east of Bredasdorp, but did not get to a nearby hill called Suikerkankop - in the middle of nowhere where no respectable protea wouLeucadendron deign to be seen. On that same day our midweek team picked up four male plants 10km further towards Bredasdorp (like Tolken’s Ents, they seem to have lost the females: Can they last till the females find them? Might the females be on other nearby hills? What else might be in them hills?) And Nick Helme discovered two huge populations the next week near Suikerkankop (and the "suikerkan" is Protea neriifolia – way out of its decent range!). David Gwynne-Evans claims to have found (he did not collect a herbarium specimen) Leucadendron diemontianum from Bokberg (between Tafelberg and Gydoberg in the KoueBokkeveld), an area totally out of character with its current known distribution.

Some age-old problems (taxonomically speaking) now have sufficient data to help resolve them. Why does Leucadendron sessile have two separate areas? Actually it does not – its range is more or less continuous extending from the northern populations north of Bainskloof, with populations in the Dutoits and Stettynsberg southwards to the populations in the south (Kogelberg). However, it is cut off primarily by Leucadendron daphnoides in the centre and Leucadendron tinctum in the south. And now that we have enough data another similar pattern may be explained! Why does Protea acuminata have the peculiar gap between its Cederberg and Villiersdorp populations? Firstly, the Villiersdorp population is far bigger than previously recognized – it extends almost to Jonaskop in the Riviersonderend range and crosses the N1 northwards at Dutoitskloof. Perhaps the answer is because Protea nana has displaced it? The fit to this jigsaw is getting better as we receive more data.

There is no sign that these exciting new data are abating. Every gap we get to yields surprises and range extensions. We therefore still need you to go to those underatlassed and unatlassed areas, and even those hills not considered exciting. With three months to go, lets close all the gaps.

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