Fiona Macleod Southern Africa’s most newly endangered species on the verge of extinction is the winter impala lily, a plant used by traditional healers to treat stomach ailments. Conservationists warn that agriculture and development have virtually wiped out the plant in the wild and unless drastic steps are taken it will soon be extinct.
Mpumalanga Parks Board conservationist Gerhard Strydom raised the alarm this week after a four-month survey of the Onderberg region in eastern Mpumalanga produced fewer than a dozen of the plants. “About 80% of the lily’s habitat has already been wiped out by development, and the remaining 20% is being ploughed up for sugar cane and cassava,” he says.
Southern Africa has the third-highest number of endangered plant species in the world, after the United States and Australia. At least 53 plants are known to have become extinct in the region over the past century. The winter impala lily is one of the 2 215 Southern African plants listed as threatened in the Red Data list, the global record of rare and endangered species managed by the IUCN-World Conservation Union. Strydom’s research shows the future survival of the winter impala lily, which is found in eastern Mpumalanga and parts of northern Swaziland and southern Mozambique only, is more tenuous than previously assumed. He is planning a comprehensive survey of all the plant species in the area with the National Botanical Institute. Winter impala lilies have pale mauve flowers and large underground tubers. They like heat and clay soil – prime growing conditions for sugar cane and cassava. Known also as the Swazi lily and nunankulu, the winter impala lily is popular among traditional healers. The tubers are poisonous, so the section between the roots and stem only is used. Protected areas may be the lily’s salvation, but even that is not guaranteed. Only about a dozen of the plants have been found in the southern part of the Kruger National Park, and the nearby Mawewe community reserve.