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Most Sight Record Sheets (SRS)

The most important measure of effort and success is the number of locality records or Sight Record Sheets (SRS). These are effectively points on a map. We obtained 58 811 SRS, so AGR sent in 21% and WIJ 7% of all data received. The top 10 atlassers sent in 52% of our data.

12 187 AGR Atlas Grassroots Research 4 200 WIJ Ivor Jardine, Rondebosch 2 819 DOA David Osborne, Still Bay 2 300 NGF Nigel Forshaw, Oakridge 1 840 LYM Lyn McCallum, Bergvliet 1 732 OUT Outramps, Hoekwil 1 398 PVR Peter and Virginia Ross, Newlands 1 293 TLE Tom Lloyd-Evans, Dorset 1 173 SMR Ruth Smart, Wynberg 1 042 APE Atlas Project Education

Most Species Records (Locality Records)

A secondary measure of effort and success is the number of records of species that atlassers have sent in. This is influenced by the richness of areas visited, so is not a fair measure of atlasser effort. But it is the most important measure of success in terms of the Protea Atlas Project. We obtained almost a quarter of a million records of species. A magnificent achievement!

46 281 AGR Atlas Grassroots Research 18 245 WIJ Ivor Jardine, Rondebosch 11 341 NGF Nigel Forshaw, Oakridge 11 228 DOA David Osborne, Still Bay 10 108 LYM Lyn McCallum, Bergvliet 8 044 OUT Outramps, Hoekwil 6 033 TLE Tom Lloyd-Evans, Dorset 5 809 PVR Peter and Virginia Ross, Newlands 5 440 APE Atlas Project Education 5 395 AWA Kitty & Austen Williams, George

Most Species

There are 400 protea taxa - or species and subspecies - in southern Africa, including those discovered by atlassers and still awaiting description. A few additional species have escaped, bring the total to 412. Only two atlassers atlassed all of South Africa’s extant protea species, but NGF lucked out when AGR discovered a new species during the last two weeks of the project.

400 AGR Atlas Grassroots Research 392 NGF Nigel Forshaw, Oakridge 352 WIJ Ivor Jardine, Rondebosch 334 NAH Nick Helme, Scarborough 323 LYM Lyn McCallum, Bergvliet 321 SHR Stephen Richardson, Tamboerskloof 247 APE Atlas Project Education 233 SMR Ruth Smart, Wynberg 217 DOA David Osborne, Still Bay 216 DJL David Louw, Newlands

Highest ratio of species to SRS

These are the "species collectors", going for most species with minimum effort. It includes people sending in primarily "special data" – rare species and unusual occurrences - while busy with other tasks.
(Listing limited to atlassers with more than 50 SRS)

1.11 GRV Gail Reeves, Kirstenbosch
1.07 KEH Kathy Hitchings, Pinelands
1.04 EGH Ted Oliver, Kirstenbosch
1.03 MHG Moiragh Girdwood, Newlands
0.99 FWV Fritz Volk, Greyton
0.97 VDW Riaan van der Walt, Porterville
0.87 WMS Martin Scott, Oudtshoorn
0.86 CSS Craig Stobie, Observatory
0.80 EAH Ernst Hartwig, Bloubergstrand
0.76 CRS Craig Spencer, Kleinmond

Lowest ratio of species to SRS

These are the diehards! This is a measure of "staying power" – how prepared were atlassers to continue atlassing, despite a lack of exciting new species?
However, it makes most sense for those poor highveld atlassers like the Kroons and De Villiers who sent in over 50 SRS for just two or three species!
AGR is a "cheat" because of all his "Null SRS."

0.031 NDK Noelline & Doug Kroon, Sasolburg
0.032 JCV Johan & Christine De Villiers, Igogo
0.033 AGR Atlas Grassroots Research
0.046 MAK Dumisani Makhunga, Cascades
0.060 RHE Reuben Heydenrych, Pretoria
0.071 DDS Dawid De Swart, Bloemfontein
0.071 PSV Piet and Sonja Viljoen, Igogo
0.077 SRI Sue Rivett, Kokstad
0.077 DOA David Osborne, Still Bay
0.084 WIJ Ivor Jardine, Rondebosch

Species per Site Record Sheet

The average number of species per SRS is widely acclaimed as a measure of "quality data." In truth, this is not so. These are the mercenaries who picked at the ‘eyes’ of the most exciting sites and areas (but often remote and hard work) and left all the "boring" 1- and 2-species plots and species-poor areas to lesser mortals!
The average number of species per SRS was 4.15
(Listing limited to atlassers with more than 50 SRS).

7.75 PAP Penny Palmer, Kleinmond 7.04 STU Michael Stroud, Bredasdorp 6.62 CJL Corey van der Laan, Somerset West 6.24 FWV Fritz Volk, Greyton 6.08 JAF James Jafta, Oudtshoorn 5.77 SHR Stephen Richardson, Tamboerskloof 5.73 ESA Booi Esau, Oudtshoorn 5.49 LYM Lyn McCallum, Bergvliet 5.32 GEH Gerard Hansford, Tulbagh 5.22 APE Atlas Project Education

Although we have on average 4.15 species per SRS, this is very misleading. The above histogram shows how many SRS we have with different numbers of species. Note that more SRS with only a single species (9943) were sent in than any other number of species. "Null SRS" (1700) had no proteas. More details of these statistics follow:

Two and three page Sight Record Sheets

There were 9 lines for species on each Sight Record Sheet. Plots with more than 9 species required two pages and those with more than 18 species required three pages. No valid plots had more than 27 naturally-occurring species (or three pages). Data violating the constraints of homogeneity of habitat have not been accepted.

2862 two-page SRS were submitted.
33 three-page SRS were submitted.
1700 null page SRS were submitted. (i.e. No species)

Most species per SRS

The richest plots are listed below. These exclude planted species and "invalid plots" (see below).
Record Localities violating the principle of homogenous landscapes were excluded from the database.

22 HCE 960522 04 "Josephskraal –Babylonst"
21 NGF 980531 03 "Houwhoek Mt - Mt Lebanon" (incl. 1 hybrid)
21 MAJ 991113 01 "Dassenberg Lebanon SF"
20 SMR 980128 06 "Rietvlakte Houhoek Pass"
20 PVR 931002 02 "Poespas Mt Lebanon"
20 PAP 980119 04 "Heuningklip Kleinmond"
20 NGF 960706 04 "Shaws Mtn"
20 AGR Y10222 10 "Waboomsberg 4X4 Ceres" (incl. 2 hybrid taxa)
20 AGR 960401 06 "Shaws Mtn"

(There were 12 SRS with 19 species.)

The following include planted specimens (p) and escapes (e). These are plots that include protea orchards, but are otherwise natural and contain some naturally-occurring proteas. Gardens and unnatural areas are excluded.

36 AGR (30 p/e) Salmonsdam NR entrance
34 APE (32 p/e) Durbanville Nat Garden
27 ASP (21 p/e) Jutland Farm Ariskraal
26 LYM (18 p) Elandskloof Louwshoek
24 LYM (19 p) Durbanville Nat Garden
23 AGR (10 p/e) Villiersdorp Bot Garden
23 AGR (18 p) Durbanville Nat Garden
23 AGR (11 p) Salmonsdam NR
21 AGR (9 p) Depoortvandutoitskloof

The number of SRS sent in grouped according to the number of species on the Sight Record Sheet. Note the large number of SRS with only a few species, and the long tail of a few SRS having more than 10 species. The median is 1, the mean is 4.15 spp/SRS.

Most hybrids

One of the Protea Atlas Project’s major contributions was to document the diversity and abundance of natural hybrids between protea species. We found 250 different crosses amounting to 810 records of hybrids.

103 AGR Atlas Grassroots Research
42 NGF Nigel Forshaw, Oakridge
41 WIJ Ivor Jardine, Rondebosch
35 LYM Lyn McCallum, Bergvliet
32 SMR Ruth Smart, Wynberg
24 ASP Atlas Special Projects
22 APE Atlas Project Education
22 AMM Adrian Mohl, Bern
20 GED David Gwynne-Evans, Claremont
17 DOA David Osborne, Still Bay
17 AJT Andrew and Eve Tiltman, Pinelands

The richest grid squares

The richest site (or Sight Record Sheet) had 22 species and was atlassed at Josephskraal in the foothills just west of the Babylonstoring Mountains.

Data are still being processed so we do not have data at many other scales.

At the 12km X 12 km grid scale the richest site is 3319 CDC Villiersdorp with 75 species. The second richest site is 3419 ACA Kleinmond with 70 species. The richest site known when the Protea Atlas Project began in 1991 was 3419 AAD Houwhoek, which currently has 68 species, tying for third place with 3418 BDB Hangklip.

First and last species in data base

The first processed species – and hence the top record in our Protea Atlas Data Base is Protea nitida, atlassed in by Richard Cowling in December 1991 at Coutjieskraal in the Baviaanskloof.

The last legitimate record received was of Se adscendens atlassed by Molly Wilson in November 1995 at Onrust.

The first date for which we have data is 24 August 1991, when Atlas Project Education did its first training course. Some 8 atlassers collected data on the last legitimate day of 31 March 2001. They were (in order of data received): Ivor (WIJ), Tony (AGR), Nigel (NGF), Tom (TLE), Simon (SGA), Pindar (PIN), Outramps (OUT), Johan & Christine (JCV).

Top 50 species by Number of Record Localities

Number of record localities listed. Some way points for reference: 38% of the 58 811 Record Localities contain Ld salignum, 15% have Pr nitida, 9% have Ha sericea, 4% have Pr caffra, and 2% have Pr glabra.

Top 20 most-atlassed species by number of atlassers who have recorded species

Numbers of atlassers listed. Some way points for reference: We have 478 atlassers, so 60% of them atlassed Ld salignum, 30% Ha sericea, and 25% Pr caffra.

Top 20 hybrids

Numbers of record localities listed. X signifies "cross" or hybrid. We recorded some 251 different crosses or hybrids.

Numbers of record localities listed. Records for So palustris may be incorrectly identified So clavigerus.

All four of the above unatlassed species are presumed extinct.

Histogram of the number of species that have been atlassed in various classes.

Three species were atlassed more than 10 000 times. The large number of species atlassed only once (131) or 2-4 times (89) are largely hybrids – see the "Tail-enders" above. Only a handful of protea species have more than 100 herbarium specimens worldwide!

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