NEW DISCOVERIES
A New Fynbos Lily Discovered on The Agulhas Plain
The discovery of a new Fynbos Lily is a great story which highlights how special the Overberg is in terms of plant diversity .
Brent Lindeque
Current Address : Good Things Guy Reprinted from : https :// bit . ly / 3b3VBe3
A
beautiful plant species discovered in a conservation area on the Agulhas Plain – that had the botanical experts bemused – has been confirmed to be a new fynbos species . And it has now been named too : It ’ s a Cyrtanthus Novus-Annus ( Latin for Nuwejaars ).
The pretty pink and white-flowered plants have only been found in two locations – both on the Nuwejaars Wetlands Special Management Area ( NWS- MA ) in the Overberg , close to the most southerly tip of Africa . With fewer than 250 plants in total , covering an area of less than 5 km ², it ’ s likely that the new
Cyrtanthus will be classified as Endangered by the South African National Biodiversity Institute ( SANBI ) Red List once assessed .
According to Cyrtanthus expert Dr Dee Snijman , who described the new species , “ The species epithet honours the recent restoration of biodiversity in the Nuwejaars Wetlands area .” This conservation area covers 47,000 hectares and includes Critically Endangered fynbos and irreplaceable wetlands and rivers crisscrossing the landscape . The farmers who are members of the NWSMA have appointed a team of conservationists to help restore and manage these land- and waterscapes .
A new sister for the Bredasdorp Lily
In a botanical twist , the Cyrtanthus Novus-Annus is seen as a sister species to the Critically Endangered Cyrtanthus guthrieae ( the Bredasdorp Lily ), given their resemblance and their reasonably close proximity to each other . The Bredasdorp Lily only occurs in the mountains above the Overberg town . There ’ s only one other example of a sister pair in the Amaryllidaceae family in the Western Cape , near Wellington .
Figure 1 . Cyrtanthus Novus-Annus Photo : Dr Dee Snijman
49 Grassroots Vol 22 No 2 July 2022