Post #29 A New Richtersveld Species

In 2023, an unusual observation of a scrambling pelargonium was reported from the coastal Richtersveld, reminiscent of P. tenuicaule. The new find’s general habit and the leaves looked exactly like the well-known and relatively common species, found in southern Namibia and distributed across the Richtersveld mostly in mountainous areas and always growing beneath shrubs, climbing its way towards pollinators.

However, coastal dunes are not the typical habitat for P. tenuicaule, the area receives less rainfall and mostly keeps moist due to the nightly fogs bringing in some life-saving moisture. A closer examination revealed that the plants did not have small tubers characteristic of P. tenuicaule but long succulent rhizomes about 5 mm thick that acted as water storage organs.

Fig. 1: P. sp. nov. in habitat.

 

The other significant character distinguishing the new taxon from P. tenuicaule are the flowers. The petals are not just larger and lacking the blotches on the posterior petals that are so typical of P. tenuicaule, they also have a very different arrangement of the 7 (often only 5) fertile stamens with greenish-white staminodes, which are connate and curved up in the new taxon, as opposed to P. tenuicaule, which has dark red staminodes that spread outwards from the centre of a flower.

Fig. 2: The flowers of P. sp. nov.

 

The new taxon adapts to cultivation easily and flowers freely, although it does not set viable pollen easily. It is currently being observed with a view to produce a scientific publication as soon as possible in order to enable its protection. For this reason, and in an extraordinary move, South African National Parks were keen to quickly announce its discovery (https://www.sanparks.org/news/new-pelargonium-species-discovered-at-richtersveld). Its locality is namely very close to the diamond mining areas and given its rarity in nature it could be lost to development very easily.

Yet again, plant conservation is in a race against time.

NB. Since the article was originally published in the Geraniaceae Group Newsletter, a new observation on iNaturalist became available by Steven Brack nearer to Kleinzee, indicating that the distribution area of this taxon might be restricted to the Rictersveld coastal dunes.

By Matija Strlič, Ljubljana, Slovenia

 

Citation and Copyright

© The Author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

ISSN 2464-014X.

This article was first published in Geraniaceae Group News #179. Cite as: M. Strlič: A New Species from the Coastal Richtersveld, Geraniaceae Group News #179 (2025), pp 30-32.