Ceropegia elegantior

Taxonomy
Scientific Name
Ceropegia elegantior Bruyns
Higher Classification
Dicotyledons
Family
APOCYNACEAE
Synonyms
Orbea elegans Plowes
National Status
Status and Criteria
Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct)
Assessment Date
2022/11/20
Assessor(s)
L. von Staden & P.J.D. Winter
Justification
Described in 2004 from a single plant at a site that has subsequently been destroyed by livestock overgrazing and erosion. Searches in the area have not yet relocated any other surviving individuals. The site of another unconfirmed record seen in the 1960s was destroyed by dam construction. This species is therefore listed as Critically Endangered Possibly Extinct.
Distribution
Endemism
South African endemic
Provincial distribution
Limpopo
Range
Blouberg mountains, in Limpopo Province South Africa.
Habitat and Ecology
Major system
Terrestrial
Major habitats
Soutpansberg Mountain Bushveld
Description
It grows on dry rocky woodland slopes dominated by Pseudolachnostylis maprouneifolia, 1150 m.
Threats
The combination of severe overgrazing and heavy rains have led to the soils at the type locality being completely washed away. The habitat has been destroyed completely and no further plants have been found at or near this site. Another site where this species possibly may have occurred in the past (the record is unconfirmed) has been destroyed in the construction of a dam.
Population
Population trend
Unknown
Assessment History
Taxon assessed
Status and Criteria
Citation/Red List version
Orbea elegans PlowesCritically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) Raimondo et al. (2009)
Orbea elegans PlowesInsufficiently Known Hilton-Taylor (1996)
Bibliography

Bruyns, P.V. 2002. Monograph of Orbea and Ballyanthus (Apocynaceae-Asclepiadoideae-Ceropegieae). Systematic Botany Monographs 63:1-196.


Bruyns, P.V. 2005. Stapeliads of southern Africa and Madagascar. (Vol. 1, pp. 1-330). Umdaus Press, Pretoria.


Bruyns, P.V., Klak, C. and Hanacek, P. 2017. A revised, phylogenetically-based concept of Ceropegia (Apocynaceae). South African Journal of Botany 112:399-436.


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


Leach, L.C. 1978. A contribution towards a new classification of Stapelieae (Asclepiadaceae) with a preliminary review of Orbea Haw., and descriptions of three new genera. In: Excelsa Taxonomic Series 1, The Aloe, Cactus and Succulent Society, Rhodesia.


Plowes, D.C.H. 2004. Orbea elegans Plowes sp. nov. Asklepios 90:14-17.


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.


Citation
von Staden, L. & Winter, P.J.D. 2022. Ceropegia elegantior Bruyns. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version . Accessed on 2025/04/14

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Distribution map


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