First record of the North African Launaea arborescens in southern Africa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38201/btha.abc.v53.i1.7Keywords:
Kuiseb Delta, Namib Desert, forestry, exotic plant, invasive alienAbstract
The first record of the non-native, naturalised Launaea arborescens (Batt.) Murb. in the Namib Desert raised questions of its origin and whether or not it could pose a threat to the indigenous vegetation. The North African plant was introduced in a forestry nursery in the Kuiseb Delta and some individuals were also planted outside the nursery in the early 1970s. They have maintained a likely viable population for nearly 50 years, but have so far not been observed elsewhere and thus appear not to be spreading.
Downloads
References
Atlas of Namibia Team, 2022, Atlas of Namibia: its land, water and life. Namibia Nature Foundation, Windhoek.
Auala, H., Cloete, C., Gottlieb, T., Haimbili, E.H., Hembapu, N., Kabajani, M., Ndjamba, J., Shekunyenge, A., Shipani, A. & Shuuya, T., 2014, ‘Alien invasive Prosopis: A curse or blessing?’, Journal of the Namibia Scientific Society 62, 83–128.
Barbour, M.G., Burk, J.H. & Pitts, W.D., 1987, Terrestrial plant ecology. 2nd ed., Benjamin Cummings Publishing Company, Menlo Park.
Boyer, D.C. & Boyer, H.J., 1989, ‘The status of alien invasive plants in the major rivers of the Namib Naukluft Park’, Madoqua 16, 51–58.
Chapin, III F.S., Zavaleta, E.S., Eviner, V.T., Naylor, R.L., Vitousek, P.M., Reynolds, H.L., Hooper, D.U., Lavorel, S., Sala, O.E., Hobbie, S.E., Mack, M.C. & Diaz, S., 2000, ‘Consequences of changing biodiversity’, Nature 405, 234–242.
Cousins, S.R., Witkowski, E.T.F. & Pfab, M.F., 2014, ‘Elucidating patterns in the population size structure and density of Aloe plicatilis, a tree aloe endemic to the Cape fynbos, South Africa’, South African Journal of Botany 90, 20–36.
Davies, T.J., Smith, G.F., Bellstedt, D.U., Boatwright, J.S., Bytebier, B., Cowling, R.M., Forest, F., Harmon, L.J., Muasya, A.M., Schrire, B.D., Steenkamp, Y., Van der Bank, M. & Savolainen, V., 2011, ‘Extinction risk and diversification are linked in a plant biodiversity hotspot’, PLoS Biology 9(5), e1000620, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1000620.
Drew, J. & Kaufman L., 2013, ‘Functional endemism: population connectivity, shifting baselines, and the scale of human experience’, Ecology and Evolution 3, 450–456, https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.446.
Duarte, M.C., Rego, F. & Moreira, I., 2005, ‘Distribution patterns of plant communities on Santiago Island, Cape Verde’, Journal of Vegetation Science 16, 283–292.
Groom, Q., Desmet, P., Reyserhove, L., Adriaens, T., Oldoni, D., Vanderhoeven, S., Baskauf, S.J., Chapman, A., McGeoch, M., Walls, R., Wieczorek, J., Wilson, J.R.U., Zermoglio, P.F.F. & Simpson, A., 2019, ‘Improving Darwin Core for research and management of alien species’, Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 3, e38084, https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.3.38084.
Harper, J.L., 1977, Population biology of plants, Academic Press, New York.
Higgins, S.I., Richardson, D.M., Cowling, R.M. & Trinder-Smith, T.H., 1999, ‘Predicting the landscape-scale distribution of alien plants and their threat to plant diversity’, Conservation Biology 13, 303–313.
Irish, J., 1994, ‘Biomes of Namibia’, Navorsinge van die Nasionale Museum (South Africa) 10, 550–84.
IUCN, 2020, IUCN EICAT Categories and criteria. The environmental impact classification for alien taxa, 1st edn., Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK, 22pp.
Jürgens, N., Oldeland, J., Hachfeld, B., Erb, E. & Schultz, C., 2013, ‘Ecology and spatial patterns of large-scale vegetation units within the central Namib Desert’, Journal of Arid Environments 93, 59–79.
Kilian, N., 1997, ‘Revision of Launaea Cass. (Compositae, Lactuceae, Sonchinae)’, Englera 17, 478 pp.
Kumschick, S., Wilson, J.R.U. & Foxcroft, L.C., 2020, ‘A framework to support alien species regulation: the Risk Analysis for Alien Taxa (RAAT)’, NeoBiota 62, 213–239, https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.62.51031.
Le Roux, P.J., 1974, ‘Establishing vegetation in saline soil to stabilise aeolian sand at Walvis Bay, South West Africa’, Biologia contemporanea I, 25–13.
Mendelsohn, J., Jarvis, A., Roberts, C. & Robertson, T., 2002, Atlas of Namibia, David Philip Publishers, Cape Town.
Pyšek, P., Pergl, J., Essl, J. et al., 2017, ‘Naturalized alien flora of the world: species diversity, taxonomic and phylogenetic patterns, geographic distribution and global hotspots of plant invasion’, Preslia 89, 203–274.
Rutherford, M.C. & Westfall, R.H., 1994, Biomes of southern Africa: an objective categorization, edn. 2, Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa 63.
Zengeya, T.A. & Wilson, J.R. (eds.), 2020, The status of biological invasions and their management in South Africa in 2019, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Kirstenbosch and DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch, http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3947613.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Antje Burke, Coleen Mannheimer
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
