• National statistics
• Provincial statistics
• Biome statistics

National statistics

Nearly a quarter of the South African flora is considered either threatened with extinction or of conservation concern.

The total number of plant taxa listed nationally in each Red List category.

Major threats to the South African flora are identified in terms of the number of plant taxa Red-Listed as threatened with extinction as a result of each threat. Habitat loss, which includes the irreversible conversion of natural vegetation for infrastructure development, urban expansion, crop cultivation, timber plantations and mines is by far the most severe threat to South African plants, affecting more than 1600 taxa. Invasive alien plant species outcompeting indigenous plant species is another severe threat. Habitat degradation includes threats such as overgrazing, inappropriate fire management (which may be either too frequent, too infrequent or out of season fires) and clearing of woody shrubs and trees from forests and savannas. These threats may appear to leave natural vegetation intact, but causes a disturbance and breakdown of essential ecosystem processes, resulting in the loss of sensitive species. Harvesting is the unsustainable, destructive removal of plants and plant material such as tree bark for local and international trade (medicinal as well as ornamental) as well as for materials for construction and crafts. Demographic factors include species that are threatened as a result of high risk population dynamics such as small population size, poor breeding success, and skewed male-female ratios. Pollution indicates species that are threatened by water, land or air pollution, typically species affected by harmful industrial and agricultural chemicals such as fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides. Changes in species dynamics indicate species that are threatened as a result of disturbances of the natural interactions of native species such as the loss of pollinators or dispersers. Often severe habitat disturbance may give a few native species a competitive advantage, and they then act in the same way as alien invasive plants, outcompeting and replacing other sensitive native species. Climate change has been identified as a threat to only a small number of plants, particularly because the potential impact of climate change on different species is not well understood and not easy to predict. Natural disasters include threats such as droughts and floods.

Where do most species of conservation concern occur?

A map of South Africa, showing areas of high concentrations of taxa of conservation concern.

Provincial statistics

Province	Size (km2)	% Transformed	Total number of taxa	Endemic taxa	% of SA flora occurring in province	Threatened taxa	Endemic threatened taxa	% of national threatened flora	Taxa of conservation concern	Endemic taxa of conservation concern
Eastern Cape	170056	17	6167	1042	29.9	291	168	9.7	620	356
Free State	130838	37	2393	23	11.6	7	2	0.2	35	6
Gauteng	16748	56	2149	23	10.4	24	7	0.8	51	9
KwaZulu-Natal	96452	39	5261	422	25.5	252	130	8.1	484	216
Limpopo	127947	21	3982	199	19.3	103	57	3.3	211	107
Mpumalanga	78115	40	4256	187	20.7	139	73	4.6	254	104
North West	107018	31	2066	14	10	20	7	0.7	40	8
Northern Cape	372950	5	4931	1212	23.9	439	309	13.9	879	591
Western Cape	129441	22	10778	6581	52.3	1939	1814	63.8	3405	3103

Number of taxa listed per Red List category for each province

Province	EX	EW	RE	CR PE	CR	EN	VU	NT	Critically Rare	Rare	DDD	DDT
Eastern Cape	4	0	0	12	26	79	174	82	17	146	84	162
Free State	0	0	0	0	1	2	4	11	1	9	7	24
Gauteng	1	0	0	3	3	3	15	21	0	3	3	22
KwaZulu-Natal	3	1	0	7	21	76	148	68	9	118	36	58
Limpopo	0	2	0	2	18	26	57	34	8	43	21	35
Mpumalanga	1	0	0	1	11	34	93	42	2	46	25	50
North West	0	0	0	3	2	4	11	14	1	3	2	12
Northern Cape	0	1	0	6	43	91	299	96	22	244	76	156
Western Cape	20	3	0	42	292	648	957	349	106	789	219	582

Biome statistics

Biome	Size (km2)	% Protected	% Transformed	Total number of taxa	Endemic taxa	Threatened taxa	Endemic threatened taxa	Taxa of conservation concern	Endemic taxa of conservation concern
Albany Thicket	35250	11.9	9	Data not yet available	Data not yet available	103	42	184	74
Desert	6260	30.3	1	Data not yet available	Data not yet available	73	9	121	16
Forest	4815	40.8	18	Data not yet available	Data not yet available	109	32	196	71
Fynbos	81445	22.7	31	Data not yet available	Data not yet available	1947	1774	3427	3143
Grassland	365629	4.5	39	Data not yet available	Data not yet available	275	150	559	314
IOCB	1530	7.1	64	Data not yet available	Data not yet available	96	31	147	48
Nama Karoo	249354	1.6	2	Data not yet available	Data not yet available	34	16	99	54
Savanna	407072	13.4	19	Data not yet available	Data not yet available	253	103	431	183
Succulent Karoo	78203	7.8	5	Data not yet available	Data not yet available	489	287	859	538

Citation

SANBI. 2020. Statistics: Red List of South African Plants version 2020.1. Downloaded from Redlist.sanbi.org on 2023/12/01.