New indigenous miracle plant discovered in Western Cape
The discovery was made by a botanist who happened to be monitoring the area.
South Africa has a plethora of natural beauty to be proud of.
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From our beloved Rooibos and Fynbos to our iconic Table Mountain and national parks, SA has so much to offer regarding nature.
Now, plant enthusiasts and botanists have even more to be excited about!
In fact, this discovery is considered to be somewhat of a "botanical miracle".
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The new species of Moraea (meaning resurrection in ancient Greek) was found after a decades-old pine plantation in Stellenbosch was torn down.
Botanist Dr Brian du Preez is a Smuts Fellowship postdoctoral student at the University of Cape Town (UCT) who stumbled upon this exciting discovery while carefully monitoring the slopes of Botmanskop.
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The new plant, Moraea anastasia, is one of more than 1,200 indigenous Iridaceae (Iris family) species in southern Africa.
Only a handful of these beautiful plants have emerged on Botmaskop on the Helshoogte Pass.
The pines were harvested during the summer of 2024, and so after the clearing I started noting the species emerging in the now cleared area. Earlier, in 2023, I had coincidentally found one plant of the new species on a track where I walk regularly but didn’t think much about it as Iridaceae flowers are often variable in colour and I’d considered it just a colour form of a common species.
Du Preez didn't think much of it; he says they were pretty but just variable in colour.
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Until he bumped into fellow botanical researcher and Iridaceae expert, John Manning, who pointed out to du Preez that this wasn't something that had been seen before.
The discovery of the Moraea anastasia is also one of four new indigenous Iridaceae species, as announced in the latest issue of the South African Journal of Botany.
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They were found by botanists John C. Manning, Nick A. Helme, and N.T. Moolman and are:
- Hesperantha novacampestris (from the Nuweveldberge near Beaufort-West).
- Ixia ebrahimii (from the upper Breede River Valley).
- Moraea goldblattiana (from the southern Knersvlakte between Vanrhynsdorp and Vredendal)
- Moraea anastasia (from Botmaskop, Stellenbosch)
The Moraea anastasia has been "red-listed" meaning it is a critically endangered species, allowing it to be protected by law.
Stellenbosch University Botanical Garden staff have already collected seeds and want to grow some plants off site to help secure its future.
You’d think that very few plants could survive active forestry over decades, what with bulldozers and repeated pine plantings and so on. So just the fact this plant managed has survived is miraculous in itself. We’re going to do our best to protect these plants into the future.
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