Four threatened lowland habitats from the Cape Floristic Region will soon be showcased at the Stellenbosch University (SU) Botanical Garden. Construction of this new display is currently underway.
The Table Mountain Fund (TMF), which is the main funder of the project, is providing R738 500 towards the completion of the display, according to Carla Wood, the project coordinator at the TMF. The landscaping and construction phase of the project started at the beginning of October, and should be completed by the end of November, said Katy Rennie, a landscape architect intern at the botanical garden, and lead project manager for the display.
The four threatened lowland habitats that will form part of the new display in the Stellenbosch University (SU) Botanical Garden are highly biodiverse, and contain endemic plants that cannot be found elsewhere, according to Katy Rennie, a landscape architect intern at the botanical garden, and lead project manager for the display. “There’s been a lot of research that has shown that biodiversity creates resilience, so the more diversity we have, the more resilient we are to change – as habitats, as species, as communities,” said Rennie, on the value of preserving this biodiversity. PHOTO: Tamsin Metelerkamp
“The majority of the planting [for the display] will be done in the winter growing season next year. And alongside that, we’ll be doing interpretive signage so that we can actually […] explain what people are looking at,” said Rennie.
The TMF is a conservation trust fund that initiates, develops and provides catalytic funding to conservation projects that restore and protect the Cape Floristic Region, said Wood in email correspondence with MatieMedia.
“This project forms part of TMF’s Pride Programme, which is aimed at deepening one’s appreciation for fynbos,” said Wood.
Habitats on display
The lowland habitats that will be on display include Swartland granite renosterveld, alluvium fynbos, Overberg shale renosterveld and Swartland shale renosterveld – all of which are critically endangered, according to Rennie.
“I think the main aim of [the display] is to make people aware of these habitats,” said Rennie. “I think, for me, I would like people to look at these plants and appreciate them, because as soon as you go into these habitats, you find even the boring plants are actually quite beautiful.”
The wild habitats that will be represented in the new threatened lowland habitat display in the Stellenbosch University (SU) Botanical Garden have been fragmented by cultivation and development, and many are now on private land, according to Katy Rennie, a landscape architect intern at the botanical garden, and lead project manager for the display. A key step in preserving those habitats on private land is making the land owners aware of the resource they possess. “It’s evolutionary history that we’re losing. It’s millions of years of change and adaptation that has come to a point, and then it can just get wiped out by one development. It just feels a bit tragic to be losing this…all these unique plants and animals,” said Rennie. PHOTO: Tamsin Metelerkamp
The plants for the display will be “wild collected”, in the form of seeds and cuttings, according to Rennie. One of the Swartland renosterveld beds is going to be used for a “search and rescue” project, whereby plants from an area earmarked for development will be preserved, she added.
“The contribution of botanical gardens to plant species preservation is an important function that is not always obvious to the general public,” said Prof Nox Makunga, an associate professor in the department of botany and zoology at SU, on the value of the display.
Makunga told MatieMedia that the display will show the importance of understanding the drivers of plant extinction associated with threatened lowland habitats, such as urban sprawl and alien plant invasions.
Those working on the new threatened lowland habitat display in the Stellenbosch University (SU) Botanical Garden have been trying to use habitats that are not already protected as a source of plant material for the display, according to Katy Rennie, a landscape architect intern at the botanical garden, and lead project manager for the display. “We’re essentially keeping a back-up of the genetics of the plants in that area, in case it does end up getting ploughed for a wheat field or whatever,” said Rennie. PHOTO: Tamsin Metelerkamp