Rondevlei Manager
Dalton Gibbs with the Erica Verticcalata
In a remarkable story of restoration in one of the world’s most diverse floral kingdoms, a plant is making a comeback from extinction, despite being removed from its natural habitat for two centuries.
The plant endemic to the southern edges of the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos in Cape Town, Erica verticillata, was declared extinct in1950 — until five plants were discovered in cultivation in the 1980s and 1990s in different parts of the world.
After some diplomatic drama, an official ceremony in the late 1990s saw Austria hand over its collection to South African authorities to reintroduce the extinct species into its natural habitat.
The cuttings from the five collections were reintroduced to Rondevlei Nature Reserve in 1997, producing three generations of seeds which shifted its status to critically endangered, but not extinct.
Erica Verticcalata
In March 2013, the plant survived an ecological burn. In the genus Erica, there are about 840 recognised species in the family Ericaceae, which needs fire to reproduce. During the last burn, officials at the City of Cape Town’s biodiversity management branch noticed that the Erica was not fully burning, but instead damping the fire.
The city said although this behaviour was not anticipated, “it is possible that the plant had evolved to dampen fires in order to protect its ripe seed capsules, thereby optimising post-fire seed dispersal. This plant is revealed as a master of its fire-prone landscape where it has managed to live in the midst of highly combustible neighbours who like their fires hot and furious, while taming these same flames to provide a cool fire environment for its fine seeds.”
Deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment, Eddie Andrews, said he was fascinated by the story of Erica verticillata.
“There is no better designer than nature and this plant is an inspiration. Though removed from its natural habitat for two centuries, the plant is making a remarkable comeback from extinction. Twenty-one seedlings, the first generation of Cape Flats Erica, are set in the wild. I will, with the help of the officials, watch with admiration the progress of this wonderful plant,” he said.
Nature restoration is among the most significant ways to build resilience to climate change, which is threatening the future of ecosystems needed for planetary survival.
Rondevlei Nature Reserve
In light of climate change increasing the frequency of wildfires because of prolonged dry periods and heat wave intensity, the Erica has shown anecdotal signs of resilience to these risks, much like the spekboom (Portulacaria afra) from the thicket biome along the east of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape.
The spekboom, known for its resilience to drought, remains under threat from the effects of climate change. This is true for the entire fynbos region, which is one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. Fynbos is one of six of the world’s floral kingdoms.
Despite much of the fynbos’s resilience to extreme weather, scientists have found that the randomness and frequency of wildfires are killing off new plants in the winter seasons when they start to grow.
One study did not rule out extinction as a result of the effects of climate change on the biome.
“It is highly likely that the rate of climate change will exceed the potential of populations to track climate change by migrating,” according to the study in the Global Ecology & Biogeography journal.
“This is not only because of dispersal limitations, but more especially because regeneration opportunities are limited to periods immediately postfire. These opportunities are therefore limited by fire interval, which is in the order of 12–25 years in fynbos.”
Tunicia Phillips is a climate and economic justice reporting fellow, funded by the Open Society Foundation for South Africa.
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