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Scientific Name | Aspalathus retroflexa L. subsp. bicolor (Eckl. & Zeyh.) R.Dahlgren |
Higher Classification | Dicotyledons |
Family | FABACEAE |
Synonyms | Aspalathus bicolor Eckl. & Zeyh., Aspalathus retroflexa L. b. bicolor (Eckl. & Zeyh.) Harv. |
National Status |
Status and Criteria | Critically Endangered B1ab(iii) |
Assessment Date | 2011/06/13 |
Assessor(s) | N.A. Helme, D. Raimondo & H. Stummer |
Justification | Listed as Possibly Extinct in the 2009 Red List of South African Plants (Raimondo et al. 2009), this taxon has been rediscovered by volunteers from the Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) Programme on two small fragments, one in Atlantis and the second on Kenilworth Race Course on the Cape Flats. It has lost the majority of its habitat and recorded subpopulations to urban development, crop cultivation and severe infestations of invasive alien plants over the past 100 years. Decline due to alien plant infestations is ongoing. |
Distribution |
Endemism | South African endemic |
Provincial distribution | Western Cape |
Range | Cape Flats to Mamre. |
Habitat and Ecology |
Major system | Terrestrial |
Major habitats | Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, Atlantis Sand Fynbos |
Description | Lowland fynbos on sandy flats, 100-300 m. |
Threats |
| This species is restricted mainly to the Cape Flats, ranging from the sandy plains on the Muizenberg-Steenberg plateau through to the sandy plains of the Cape Flats to the sandy lowlands south of Mamre. It grows in marine rather than mountainous sands in coastal fynbos. The genuine forms on the Cape Flats are seriously threatened by building and cultivation as well as by exotic wattle species (Dahlgren 1988).
Urban expansion was a severe past threat, most of the localities where this plant was found in the 1950s and 1960s have been lost to urban expansion, e.g. around Atlantis, Durbanville and Kraaifontein. Agricultural expansion was a severe past and remains a moderate ongoing threat around Mamre and Atlantis. Competition from unmanaged invasive alien plants is a severe ongoing threat from Blouberg to Mamre. In addition, habitat loss to sand mining is a threat throughout the remaining extant range of this taxon. |
Population |
Population trend | Decreasing |
Assessment History |
Taxon assessed |
Status and Criteria |
Citation/Red List version | | Aspalathus retroflexa L. subsp. bicolor (Eckl. & Zeyh.) R.Dahlgren | Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) | Raimondo et al. (2009) | |
Bibliography |
Dahlgren, R. 1988. Crotalarieae (Aspalathus). In: O.A. Leistner (ed). Flora of southern Africa 16 Fabaceae, Part 3 Papilionoideae, Fascicle 6:1-430. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.
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.
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Citation |
| Helme, N.A., Raimondo, D. & Stummer, H. 2011. Aspalathus retroflexa L. subsp. bicolor (Eckl. & Zeyh.) R.Dahlgren. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version . Accessed on 2024/09/08 |
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