The South African National Botanical Institute (SANBI) has named a new plant species in honour of South Africa hosting the Soccer World Cup.
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A new species of iris from near Worcester is to be named Moraea vuvuzela by SANBI botanist Dr John Manning and his colleague Dr Peter Goldblatt of Missouri Botanical Garden to commemorate South Africa’s hosting of the first Soccer World Cup on the African continent.
This pretty little bulb is currently known from just two localities between Rawsonville and Villiersdorp in the heart of the Cape Floral Region. Both known populations are threatened by agriculture and development, and the species has probably already disappeared from parts of its range through the flooding of the Theewaterskloof Dam.
The species was brought to the attention of Dr John Manning, Specialist Scientist at the South African Biodiversity Institute, by Rawsonville resident and conservationist Anso le Roux, who encountered scattered flowering plants of an unknown Moraea in unburned veld near Rawsonville in August 2006 during her research with the University of South Africa (UNISA). However, it was only after a controlled burn in February 2009 that the species appeared in flower in large numbers.
In July of that year she found hundreds of plants in flower and botanists were able to gather material for description and illustration. A week later, conservationist Rupert Koopman, and members of the Custodians of Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW), located a second flowering population of the species near Villiersdorp.
Dr Manning has since linked the species with at least two earlier, unnamed collections from Franschoek Forest Reserve gathered in 1937 and 1940. The Theewaterskloof Dam has inundated extensive, potentially suitable renosterveld habitat in which the species might have occurred.
The epithet vuvuzela derives from the raucous air horn, approximately 1m in length that is commonly blown by fans at soccer matches in South Africa, and commemorates the country’s hosting of the first Soccer World Cup on the African continent in June 2010. The colourful, flared flowers and their massed, synchronous appearance are appropriate associations with the name.
Moraea vuvuzela is severely threatened by agriculture, and this dedication is linked to a conservation programme initiated by the non-profit association Patrons for Biodiversity (BIOPAT) (www.biopat.de), and sponsored by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarnbeit (GTZ), the German Technical Development Cooperation Agency, which supported the South African Government in the preparations of the FIFA World Cup 2010 on behalf of the German Government.
As part of the conservation initiative, BIOPAT will support the establishment of a branch of CREW in the Worcester area, which is home to several very rare species of plants, many of them threatened by increasing urbanisation and agriculture in the valley.
