Sehlabathebe Waterlily

Taxonomy
Scientific Name
Aponogeton ranunculiflorus Jacot Guill. & Marais
Higher Classification
Monocotyledons
Family
APONOGETONACEAE
Common Names
Sehlabathebe Waterlily (e)
National Status
Status and Criteria
Vulnerable D2
Assessment Date
2009/08/13
Assessor(s)
C.R. Scott-Shaw, L. von Staden & J.E. Victor
Justification
Potentially threatened by climate change and habitat degradation at one location in South Africa.
Distribution
Endemism
Not endemic to South Africa
Provincial distribution
KwaZulu-Natal
Range
Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa and Lesotho mainly from Sehlabathebe National Park and surrounds.
Habitat and Ecology
Major system
Freshwater
Major habitats
Lesotho Highland Basalt Grassland
Description
Rock pools, permanently wet tarns and high altitude mires up to 7 m deep, basalt and sandstone, 2 400-3 300 m.
Threats
Lesotho mires are very fragile ecosystems and extremely sensitive to grazing and trampling, as well as burning (Mucina and Rutherford 2006). Across Lesotho, communally owned land is severely degraded due to overgrazing, trampling, overburning, erosion and subsistence farming, even in quite remote places such as the headwaters of the Bokong River in the Maluti Mountains, where direct impacts of mire degradation on subpopulations of this species have been observed (Meakins and Duckett 1993). However, the situation is quite dramatically different within the Sehlabathebe Nature Reserve, the type locality of this species, where the vegetation was observed to be in good condition (Zonneveld 1998) and where there are no serious threats at present (C.R. Scott-Shaw pers. comm.). The only known South African locality is also well protected within the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park, and there are no known serious threats to this site.
Population

This species occurs in two adjoining nature reserves, where it is only potentially threatened. However, these reserves are likely to have different management practises as one is in South Africa and the other in Lesotho, and therefore, they should be considered separate locations. This species is known from at least one locality in Lesotho outside of protected areas, but there may possibly be others as well. These should all be considered one location as all land in Lesotho outside of protected areas are severely impacted by overgrazing, trampling, overburning and subsistence farming.


Population trend
Stable
Conservation
Sehlabathebe National Park in Lesotho and uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park.
Assessment History
Taxon assessed
Status and Criteria
Citation/Red List version
Aponogeton ranunculiflorus Jacot Guill. & MaraisVU D2Raimondo et al. (2009)
Aponogeton ranunculiflorus Jacot Guill. & MaraisVU A1c,B1B2abc,D2Scott-Shaw (1999)
Aponogeton ranunculiflorus Jacot Guill. & MaraisRare Hilton-Taylor (1996)
Aponogeton ranunculiflorus Jacot Guill. & MaraisVulnerable Hall et al. (1980)
Bibliography

Carbutt, C. and Edwards, T.J. 2006. The endemic and near-endemic angiosperms of the Drakensberg Alpine Centre. South African Journal of Botany 72:105-132.


Cook, C.D.K. 2004. Aquatic and wetland plants of southern Africa. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, The Netherlands.


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.


Guillarmod, A.J. 1978. Notes on distribution and biology of Aponogeton ranunculiflorus. Kew Bulletin 32(4):781-783.


Guillarmod, A.J. and Marais, W. 1972. A new species of Aponogeton (Aponogetonaceae). Kew Bulletin 27(3):563-565.


Hall, A.V., De Winter, M., De Winter, B. and Van Oosterhout, S.A.M. 1980. Threatened plants of southern Africa. South African National Scienctific Programmes Report 45. CSIR, Pretoria.


Hilton-Taylor, C. 1996. Red data list of southern African plants. Strelitzia 4. South African National Botanical Institute, Pretoria.


Meakins, R.H. and Duckett, J.D. 1993. Vanishing bogs of the mountain kingdom. Veld & Flora 79:49-51.


Mucina, L. and Rutherford, M.C. (eds). 2006. The vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Strelitzia 19. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria.


Pooley, E. 2003. Mountain flowers: a field guide to the flora of the Drakensberg and Lesotho. Natal Flora Publications Trust, Durban.


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.


Scott-Shaw, C.R. 1999. Rare and threatened plants of KwaZulu-Natal and neighbouring regions. KwaZulu-Natal Nature Conservation Service, Pietermaritzburg.


Sieben, E.J.J. 2009. The status and distribution of vascular plants (Magnoliophyta, Lycophyta, Pteridophyta). In: W.R.T. Darwall, K.G. Smith, D. Tweddle and P. Skelton (eds.), The status and distribution of freshwater biodiversity in southern Africa (pp. 83-98), IUCN and SAIAB, Gland, Switzerland and Grahamstown, South Africa.


Zonneveld, M. 1998. Aponogeton ranunculiflorus: odyssey to the top of the Lesotho mountains. PlantLife 18:17-18.


Citation
Scott-Shaw, C.R., von Staden, L. & Victor, J.E. 2009. Aponogeton ranunculiflorus Jacot Guill. & Marais. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version . Accessed on 2025/05/15

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