Drosera regia in South Africa

[kitkor]

Excellent photos, Christian! Thanks for posting these. I've been waiting for your report on D. regia. It's great to see these plants in their natural habitat! They look so different from mine on my windowsill.

I recall that Andreas Fleischmann reported from his trip in 2006 that the higher altitude site no longer has a noticeable population of D. regia due to overgrowth of Restionaceae and that the lower altitude site only had about 50 mature plants. What was your sense of the population's viability?

Cheers!

[w03]

Nice! ;D These look very much different from ones in cultivation... ...in this environment, they almost remind me of succulents.

[Christian]

Hi,

i can only second Andreas comments on that population. We have not counted the plants and have not really been searching through that site (to not destroy it), but there seem to be saddly very few plants left. We have not been at the higher location as this one seems to be extinct and is even yet harder to reach. The way to that population has already been a walk of some hours (through an incredible landscape, but almost no other cps!) one way.

Christian

[jeff]

Bonjour
Can you tell us more about its substrate ?

wet , very wet ?

thanks

jeff

[Christian]

Hi Jeff,

sorry for that rely late reply! The soil was quite wet the day we have been there. There is a constant flow of water from down the mountains. The area was generally quite wet, but not at this place.
regards,
Christian

[Ruben Sequeira]

I love Drosera regia! Thank you very much, to share this pictures with us

Christian can you please, tell me what are the temperatures of day and night, that the Drosera regia had that site, and as was the composition of the substrate?

Thank you for your time and excuse any writing error.

Best Regards

[Apoplast]

Christian, good pictures under tricky conditions. Sorry to add to the interrogation, but you seem to be the person here who know about this species in habitat. I was wondering if you know what, if anything, is being done to conserve this species in habitat? I breaks my heart that one population may already be gone. Any information would be wonderful. Thanks for sharing your knowledge! The less informed and experienced among us appreciate your willingness to share what you can.

[peterhewitt]

I'll put my two cents in. I recently spoke to a representative of the Cape fire management and they are aware of the problems with D. regia in the Bains Kloof Biosphere. The problem is that the last natural fire to burn the area happened fifteen years ago. Land owners in the area obviously discourage fire on their property's and Cape fire can be held responsible for any damage. This makes it difficult to manage burns in sites that need it. The D. regia population desperately needs a burn to lessen the competition on germinating seedlings. This is unlikely to happen though. Cape Nature is aware of the problem but i don't think a solution is readily available.

[Apoplast]

That is a most unfortunate set of circumstances. You'll have to excuse the naive Yank here, but are there no laws that set priorities for rare and threatened species? Surely there must be a legal course of action to allow the government to burn to preserve a rare species. I'm sure the legal and political situation is far more complex than I realize. I guess I am just a conservation idealist. I sort of which I knew South African conservation laws better (or at all). Thanks for the information, as depressing as it may be.

Do you, or anyone know, if there is there a conservation group in ZA to whom support could be sent that might be seeking action? Not that I have a lot of funds but perhaps ICPS could put out the word. Just thoughts.

[ICPS-bob]

As peterhewitt said, the issue is not so much a lack of desire to do the right thing ecologically, but the social and economic risk associated with planned "controlled" burning. There are many fire-dependent ecosystems in the world where fire has become socially unacceptable because of fire-associated risks to adjacent human encroachment. In many areas, periodic uncontrolled wild fire is unavoidable and the result is catastrophic -- whereas frequent planned controlled fires would have kept the fuel buildup low and reduce the chance of a large conflagration. As the ecologic value of periodic fires becomes better recognized, some land managers and politicians are finding ways to safely burn selected areas at selected times. Still, some conclude that the costs and risks are higher than the benefits.

This is a great subject where strategies and successes should be discussed.

[peterhewitt]

Unfortunately as you have stated Bob. The cost-benefit ratio is not stacked in favor of local flora. The government here seems much more concerned with the removal of all and any "Alien" vegetation from conservation sites at this time. Let us hope that they also consider the natural course of ecology in the area, and start managing accordingly.
The main problem remains though. How do you burn these sites whilst guaranteeing fire will not get out of control. If we can answer that question, we will be closer to a solution.

[Apoplast]

Bob & Peter - Thanks for the information. I can certainly understand the concern with exotic flora in the region as well. It just seems the situation with this species has gotten critical. I would be excited to learn more about conservation of CP's in South Africa (or fynbos in general truth be told). However, I realize this is not the thread for those questions.

In fact, Christian, please forgive me if you feel I have hijacked your thread. They are exciting pictures that have stimulated discussion about conservation. And that can't be bad. I will leave my remaining questions for another time on another thread. Thanks again for sharing your photos.

[Sockhom]

Fantastic Plants Christian AND interesting discussion as well!

François.

[Christian]

Hi Apoplast,

no problem at all with hijacking this thread, ended up in an interesting discussion.

For that particular location i doubt, that anyone can do a controlled burning there without being in danger himself. The only way i can think of doing a fire there is by plane, but who can controll this?

In all that discussion you should also have in mind, that South Africa is not really a rich country and that there are other problems to be solved on top of the list. So, i really doubt that anyone there would spend some money to burn an area just because of a freaky plant that grows there.

Christian

[Apoplast]

Christian - Glad there are no hard feelings. As far as conservation goes, I guess I don't think of South Africa as a without resources, but then again I have not been lucky enough to go there myself - yet. I admittedly have a tendency to prioritize conservation above many other things. Thus it is difficult for me to internalize that others do not for a myriad of reasons (many of which I am fortunate enough not to have to understand through personal experience). Thanks again for your report from the field!