The plants were found in critically endangered Peninsula Granite Fynbos vegetation during fieldwork for the Friends of Tokai Park’s (FOTP), International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Save our Species (SOS) project in partnership with SANParks, Table Mountain National Park. The FOTP is a WESSA-affiliated friends group run by a small committee of volunteers and has about 300 members. Their main focus is restoration of Tokai Park through volunteer alien tree hacking events, but they also raise funds for restoration work, and lead many educational walks including their popular night and spring walks. 

The Large-stipule Fountainbush (Psoralea fascicularis) was spotted by FynbosLIFE restoration horticulturalist James Deacon in a wetland seep on the upper slopes of the park following alien vegetation clearance. 

“Sometimes I have a gut feeling about a plant, and I just happened to be looking out for it. We now know that Psoralea fascicularis grows further up the slope than we previously thought. It is not only restricted to the lowlands, which expands the scope for areas where it could be restored,” he says. 

Psoralea fascularis is a member of the Fabaceae or pea family and is listed as endangered on the Red List of South African Plants. “It is a weird Psoralea, that is always very lax and dainty and almost grass-like. It is one of my favourites,” comments Dr Caitlin von Witt, founding director of FynbosLIFE. 

“Psoralea fascicularis was first formally described and published by Swiss botanist Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1825. It was recorded on Orange Kloof Farm around Hout Bay in 1897 and then again in Hout Bay in 1936. The species was recorded by Dr William Frederick Purcell on Bergvliet Farm in 1915 very near Lower Tokai Park,” says Jeremy Gilmore, the youth representative of the Friends of Tokai Park who has a special passion for this species. 

There are sadly many threats facing this beautiful and cryptic plant. “The main threat it faces is habitat loss because it occurs mostly in the lowlands along streams and in damp areas and those are the first areas to go for crop expansion and transformation from alien plant invasion,” Deacon explains. 

But there is hope for Psoralea fascicularis at Tokai Park, thanks to the IUCN SOS project, through science-based ecological restoration of its habitat. The FOTP IUCN SOS project aims to improve habitat conditions for the endangered Western leopard toad while building capacity in South Africa’s biodiversity sector. The greatest issue has been the invasion of alien trees in the park. 

“The expansion of alien vegetation needs to be strongly curtailed and not just for the sake of the critically endangered vegetation, which is vitally important, but also because it poses a risk to people and property. Alien invasives tend to encourage fires in terms of intensity and frequency, which means that you get hotter fires more often,” says Leila Mitrani, coordinator of the FOTP IUCN SOS Project. 

The active restoration component of the project involves planting threatened fynbos species in areas where the alien vegetation has been cleared too late for the original fynbos plants at the site to naturally regrow. 

More than 30 species of locally indigenous plants threatened with extinction have been grown, including the Trident Spiderhead (Serruria trilopha), the Kenilworth Heath (Erica turgida) and the Whorled Heath (Erica verticillata). Growing the endangered Psoralea fascicularis for restoration for the first time was spearheaded by Gilmore as part of his Grade 12 project at Constantia Waldorf School in Cape Town. “I had originally grown close to the species by seeing it so often when passing through the Soetvlei Greenbelt and witnessing its near local extinction several times. This shows how easy it is to lose something as big as an entire species forever. When we realise this, we can begin to realise the innate value of our local flora and strive to save it from ourselves,” Gilmore says. 

So, what does the future look like for Psoralea fascicularis and Tokai’s critically endangered Peninsula Granite Fynbos? What is the legacy of the project? 

“You can never underestimate the power of one person. For me, the IUCN SOS project was about exposing young people who graduated at the top of their fields to Tokai and its importance and hoping to see a ripple effect from that. I believe in the importance of investing in people,” says Dr Alanna Rebelo of the Agricultural Research Council, who is the project lead. 

This exciting discovery of a new Fountainbush (Psoralea fascicularis) population at Tokai Park, Table Mountain National Park, highlights the importance of the work done by these small community groups, like the Friends of Tokai Park. 

It also demonstrates the conservation value of Tokai Park and the critical importance of conserving the last remnants of the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos and Peninsula Granite Fynbos in the Cape. DM/ML

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