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Scientific Name | Lotononis bachmanniana Dummer |
Higher Classification | Dicotyledons |
Family | FABACEAE |
National Status |
Status and Criteria | Near Threatened A4c; B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii) |
Assessment Date | 2008/06/25 |
Assessor(s) | L. von Staden |
Justification | This range-restricted, but locally common species (EOO 900 km²) appears to persist in spite of heavy grazing over most of its range, and more than 10 locations remain. More than 20% of its habitat has however been irreversibly transformed, mainly for cultivation and forestry plantations, in the past 100 years, which is less than three generations for this long-lived, suffrutescent grassland forb (generation length at least 50 years). Ongoing habitat loss to coastal development, especially in the northern parts of the range, may bring the total population reduction to 30% within the next 50 years. |
Distribution |
Endemism | South African endemic |
Provincial distribution | Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal |
Range | Umtamvuna to Ntsubane. |
Habitat and Ecology |
Major system | Terrestrial |
Major habitats | Pondoland-Ugu Sandstone Coastal Sourveld |
Description | Damp sites in Pondoland coastal grassland. |
Threats |
| Lotononis bachmanniana has already lost a significant part of its habitat to cultivation of sugarcane, tea, bananas and macadamia nuts around Port Edward, and further south along the Pondoland coast habitat loss to shifting subsistence agriculture continues. Overgrazing is causing severe degradation and loss of species diversity in grasslands across most of the Pondoland region, but this species may be resilient to grazing. Coastal development is likely to be causing ongoing habitat loss within the northern parts of this species' range. |
Population |
About 21% of the grasslands within the known range of this species have been irreversibly modified. The extent of habitat loss is estimated from landcover data, which underestimates grassland degradation as a result of overgrazing and too frequent fire. Notes on specimens (Ngwenya 359, NH) indicate that this species persists in grazed lands. It is also a habitat specialist localized to small, isolated areas of suitable habitat, and therefore population reduction is difficult to infer from habitat loss. Overall this species is not suspected to have declined by more than 30% within three generations. Recent observations of remaining subpopulations indicate that they are mostly under no immediate threat, and therefore unlikely to be declining, but habitat loss continues in the northern parts of its range.
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Population trend | Decreasing |
Assessment History |
Taxon assessed |
Status and Criteria |
Citation/Red List version | | Lotononis bachmanniana Dummer | NT A4c; B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii) | Raimondo et al. (2009) | | Lotononis bachmanniana Dummer | Lower Risk - Least Concern | Scott-Shaw (1999) | |
Bibliography |
Abbott, A., Van Wyk, A.E., Johnson, D.N. and Scott-Shaw, C.R. 2000. Checklist of the macrofungi, lichens, bryophytes and vascular plants of the Umtamvuna Nature Reserve, South Africa. Lammergeyer 46:1-69.
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.
Van Wyk, B.E. 1991. A synopsis of the genus Lotononis (Fabaceae: Crotalarieae). Contributions from the Bolus Herbarium 14:1-292.
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Citation |
| von Staden, L. 2008. Lotononis bachmanniana Dummer. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version . Accessed on 2025/04/19 |
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