| Scientific Name | Boophone disticha (L.f.) Herb. | Higher Classification | Monocotyledons | Family | AMARYLLIDACEAE | Synonyms | Boophone longepedicellata Pax | Common Names | Boesmangifbol (a), Bushman Poison Bulb (e), Candelabra Flower (e), Cape Poison Bulb (e), Century Plant (e), Gifbol (a), Gifui (a), Incotho (z), Incoto (nd), Incwadi (x), Kaffir Onion (e), Khutsane Ea Na Ha (ss), Kopseerblom (a), Kxutsana-ya-naha (ss), Leshoma (ss), Lesoma (ss), Malgif (a), Malkopgif (a), Motlatsisa (ss), Perdespook (a), Poison Bulb (e), Red Posy (e), Seeroogblom (a), Sore-eye Flower (e), Tumblehead (e), Veld Fan (e), Wind Ball (e) |
National Status | Status and Criteria | Least Concern | Assessment Date | 2016/06/28 | Assessor(s) | V.L. Williams, D. Raimondo, V.J. Brueton, N.R. Crouch, A.B. Cunningham, C.R. Scott-Shaw, M. Lötter & A.M. Ngwenya | Justification | Species assessed as Declining in South Africa due to habitat loss in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces and because trade volumes suggest unsustainable harvesting, especially because large, reproductive individuals are being removed. The species is, however, long-lived, widely distributed and can recolonize new sites due to its tumbleweed-like inflorescence. |
Distribution | Endemism | Not endemic to South Africa | Provincial distribution | Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape | Range | Throughout South Africa and up to Uganda. |
Habitat and Ecology | Major system | Terrestrial | Major habitats | Albany Thicket, Fynbos, Grassland, Indian Ocean Coastal Belt, Nama Karoo, Savanna, Succulent Karoo | Description | Dry grassland and rocky areas. |
Threats | | The extremely toxic bulb is used extensively throughout Africa for traditional medicine, and its medicinal uses have been extensively documented. It is very popular in the muthi markets and amongst urban and rural healers.
The bulbs are usually very large and always present in the muthi markets. Cunningham (1988) recorded it in the KwaZulu-Natal muthi markets and classed its vulnerability to over-exploitation as 'indeterminate' - i.e. a species whose status is uncertain, but which appears to be heavily exploited and for which more data are required. Dold & Cocks (2002) list it as the 23rd most frequently traded species in the Eastern Cape markets with an more than 1.6 tonnes estimated to be sold annually. Williams (2007) recorded it in 56% of the Witwatersrand muthi shops in 1994, and sold by 11% of the traders in the Faraday market in Johannesburg in 2001.
Preliminary research has shown that it is a popular species with approximately 60% of traders stocking a quantity equivalent to least three medium-sized shopping bags per trader (V. Brueton, pers. comm., 2008). Large bulbs are traded, and the average bulb size is 9.3 ± 2.6cm diameter. The bulbs are consistently traded throughout the year; flowering bulbs are not seen in the market, but some bulbs flower under greenhouse conditions.
At the Medicinal Plant Red List Workshop (14-15/01/2008, SANBI, Durban), the following points were discussed by participants: a) the species is harvested throughout its range; b) smaller bulbs are becoming increasingly more prevalent in the Johannesburg and Durban muthi markets - presumably since larger individuals have mostly been harvested from localities known to gatherers; c) it is not certain if the bulbs can replace themselves quickly since the seeds are recalcitrant and need to germinate straight away at the beginning of the rainy season in a favourable spot. Furthermore, the plant takes more than 10 years to get to a flowering stage and they don't flower every year. The plants are also very long-lived, but it appears that most of the reproductive bulbs are being harvested; d) there are very large pressures on the Gauteng subpopulations due to habitat transformation and muthi harvesting. Local extirpations of subpopulations due to harvesting have been recorded in Klipriviersberg and Modderfontein nature reserves. Land has also been transformed due to urbanisation (L. Mills); e) reports have been received of areas near Walkerville (south of Johannesburg), where extensive fields of flowering Boophone could be observed many years ago on private and protected land, but many of these subpopulations no longer exist (V. Williams); f) in KwaZulu-Natal, plantation forestry and sugar cane has taken over the habitat and a substantial proportion has probably been lost; g) the grassland habitats have been the most transformed, but it is still visible on rocky hillsides that are not useful for agriculture and housing; h) it appears that there are still too many subpopulations for it to classified as threatened or NT, but the South African population is experiencing a decline. It has a wide distribution range that buffers it from over-exploitation.
The workshop participants concluded that Boophone disticha should be assessed as Declining due its loss of habitat in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng and because the volumes traded in the market imply that harvesting is having an impact on the population. The species is, however, long lived and widely distributed. |
Population | Population trend | Decreasing |
Assessment History |
Taxon assessed |
Status and Criteria |
Citation/Red List version | | Boophone disticha (L.f.) Herb. | Declining | Raimondo et al. (2009) | |
Bibliography | Cunningham, A.B. 1988. An investigation of the herbal medicine trade in Natal/KwaZulu. Investigational Report No. 29. Institute of Natural Resources, Pietermaritzburg.
Dold, A.P. and Cocks, M.L. 2002. The trade in medicinal plants in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 98:589-597.
Goldblatt, P. and Manning, J.C. 2000. Cape Plants: A conspectus of the Cape Flora of South Africa. Strelitzia 9. National Botanical Institute, Cape Town.
Raimondo, D., von Staden, L., Foden, W., Victor, J.E., Helme, N.A., Turner, R.C., Kamundi, D.A. and Manyama, P.A. 2009. Red List of South African Plants. Strelitzia 25. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria.
Vlok, J. and Schutte-Vlok, A.L. 2010. Plants of the Klein Karoo. Umdaus Press, Hatfield.
Von Ahlefeldt, D., Crouch, N.R., Nichols, G., Symmonds, R., McKean, S., Sibiya, H. and Cele, M.P. 2003. Medicinal plants traded on South Africa's eastern seabord. Porcupine Press, Durban.
Williams, V.L. 2007. The design of a risk assessment model to determine the impact of the herbal medicine trade on the Witwatersrand on resources of indigenous plant species. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
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Citation | | Williams, V.L., Raimondo, D., Brueton, V.J., Crouch, N.R., Cunningham, A.B., Scott-Shaw, C.R., Lötter, M. & Ngwenya, A.M. 2016. Boophone disticha (L.f.) Herb. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version . Accessed on 2025/05/13 |
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 © D. Turner  © D. Turner  © C. Paterson-Jones  © J.H. Vlok/A.L. Schutte-Vlok  © D.R. McKenzie  © Outramps  © Outramps
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