Port St Johns: a little heaven on earth!
Text by Pamela Sgatya
Images by Sibahle Gumede and Vathiswa Zikishe
Port St Johns or
PSJ as it is affectionately known by many, is a small village located on
the Wild Coast. This beautiful village got its name when sailors mistakenly
identified the Mzimvubu River mouth as where the Portuguese ship Sao Joao “St
John” was wrecked in 1552. It was a port until sediments made the river mouth
shallow.
The beautiful
landscape, the humidity, and friendly environment welcome you as you enter the
town. These all give refreshing vibes.
A field trip to
PSJ was the best way to begin my year. With the Eastern Cape Custodians of
Rare and Endangered Wildflowers (CREW) node recently founded, this means a lot
of regions in the province are still under-sampled, the former Transkei being
an example, hence the trip to PSJ. It is well known that our plant diversity
is constantly threatened by overharvesting, habitat loss,
frequent fires and climate change amongst many other factors. The trip was
therefore aimed at surveying and monitoring plants of conservation concern in this
region of the former Transkei. During the trip I assisted in creating ID
sheets, searching for the targeted species, filling in data sheets and
collecting some plant specimens.
During the
creation of the ID sheets, location data for the target species was obtained
from labels on specimens at the Selmar Schonland Herbarium at Rhodes University
and from SANBI’s
BRAHMS online database. Since we had Thutani Mpunga
as a guide on this trip, he also helped in identifying the locations of target species
as he was familiar with many of them. The data filled in during the field work
for each species is later fed onto the CREW database, where even the species
that were not found are recorded as null records to show that the team did look for the species. The species are then targeted for the next field
season and more research will be done. This will include research on the
flowering times that may be different from the ones we previously obtained, which
could explain why we did not find the
plant because the flowering times were incorrect.
On arriving at PSJ and seeing the beautiful transition from the previous town, one can ask are these areas neighbors? I remember driving
through PSJ and being impressed by the
diverse environment, ranging from a beautiful landscape covered in green and
lush vegetation to the beautiful scenery of the mountain surrounding the
village. While gazing at this, you instantly feel the PSJ’s humid air reviving
your body and soul, taking away the exhaustion of traveling the long-distance! The beautiful
green-bluish water from the Mzimvubu River says ‘you just cannot take your
eyes off me’. Mind you, this was only the day of arrival, fieldwork starts the
following day and the curiosity of what more beautiful things you’ll be seeing
kicks in.
Arriving at our
accommodation at Silaka, we found some more breathtaking views and vegetation. No
wonder they decided to declare this place a nature reserve! Protection from
threats for this beauty is needed. One major threat the area faces is that of
alien invasive plants. As they always do, they find residence along the river
banks and wherever they can thrive. Although there is still some natural vegetation, proper management for these aliens needs to be
implemented immediately. Let us hope the new project by Department of Environmental
Affairs (DEA) will fight this battle.
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| Silaka Nature Reserve |
Anyway, from a
nature conservator’s point of view, that’s the only depressing part I can report.
Our journey to nearby localities such as Magwa Falls, Fraser Falls and Goss
Point lifted the energy levels and I
observed the role nature plays in the
livelihoods of the local people and how this contributes to their positive
interactions with their environment. Skillfully built Xhosa huts on the steep
slopes, some facing the waterfall and gorges, young girls and women gathering
firewood, and boys swimming in the river -- these affirm that we indeed have good stories to tell about
our country!
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| Magwa Falls |
The beauty of this place was evident even before my team and I started looking down and
searching for our special plants. Successfully locating these plants always
gets me excited so you can imagine how I was like a kid in a candy store when
we spotted our first special!
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| Map showing places visited for fieldwork |
As mentioned
earlier, CREW work entails monitoring species of conservation concern in
their natural habitat. This field trip was conducted to search for
six specials: Podranea ricasoliana (Vulnerable-VU), Leucadendron spissifolium subsp. natalense (Near threatened-NT),
Colubrina nicholsonii (Vulnerable-VU),
Cyathocoma bachmannii (Vulnerable-VU),
Eugenia verdoorniae (Near threatened-NT), and Eriosema latifolium (Vulnerable-VU) for monitoring purposes. The Vulnerable (VU) and Near threatened (NT)
categories indicate conservation status that reflects the risk of extinction of
plant species according to the national Red List of South African plants. Therefore when a plant
has VU status, it means that the species is facing a high risk of extinction due
to environmental factors and further loss to the natural habitats should be prevented. And when it is Near threatened it means there are still some subpopulations of the plant in the wild but there is a need to minimize
loss of habitat as the plant nearly meets the criteria for the threatened category (VU).
Day 1: Magwa
estate and Ntambalala forest field trips.
 |
| Some of the team members in the field |
It was a fruitful trip as we managed to find two of the targeted plants. At the Magwa estate, we
located Leucadendron spissifolium subsp. natalense (NT) - a fast growing multi-branched bushy shrub. The male and female plants are separate. The plant occurs in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces and it
is a South African endemic. Taking specimens
of the plant was a challenge as some individuals grew at the edge of a cliff. Sensibly,
I planned to collect specimens from plants that were on flat land but one on the cliff had beautiful fruits so I needed to take a specimen from that plant. Our
guide saw that I was struggling and came to my rescue. As we continued walking
through the field we saw the likes of the Large-flowered Sebaea Exochaenium grande, an abundance of Apocynaceae species, one of which was Pachycarpus asperifolius, some beautiful orchids
along the stream and a special, Stangeria eriopus (VU). S. eriopus
is distributed from the Bathurst district in the Eastern Cape to the south of
Mozambique. This plant is often mistaken as being a fern due to its fern-like
appearance and the leaves are folded in fronds (as in ferns) before they open.
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| Leucadendron spissifolium susbsp. natalensis |
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| Pachycarpus asperifolius |
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| Exochaenium grande |
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| Stangeria eriopus |
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| Lunch by the waterfall |
After lunch near
the waterfall, we headed off to Ntambalala Forest where we successfully located
P. ricasoliana (Port St. John’s creeper). Because it
was easy to find the creeper along the stream and forest margins it makes one
wonder if it is not easy for harvesters to also locate and collect it? The
creeper is an evergreen climber without tendrils
and it belongs to the family Bignoniaceae. The species only grows at Port St John’s and according to the Red List, it is a South African endemic. However, according to Malan
and Notten (2002), many South African botanists suspect the plant is not
indigenous to South Africa and think it might have come with outsiders during
the slave traders’ period.
While at the site
I saw an Eriosema. I got excited that
it might be the one we were looking for, the vulnerable Eriosema latifolium, a herbaceous plant with a distribution from the
north-eastern part of the Eastern Cape to southern KZN. Sadly it was not - it
was E. preptum. En route to look
for C. nicholsonii we saw a beautiful
plant with butterfly-like fruits: Acridocarpus
natalitius. As we entered the forest searching for the vulnerable C. nicholsonii (a lax tree, endemic to South Africa with a KZN and Eastern Cape
distribution and known from three isolated populations in Pondoland) we struggled
to walk because it was slippery and muddy. Halfway in our hard walk, I remembered that I
had forgotten the GPS in the car but decided I would use my phone’s GPS should
I need to take points and as expected there was no network. There was, however,
no need for the GPS as unfortunately we did not locate the targeted plant.
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| Podranaea ricasoliana leaves |
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| Podranaea ricasoliana flowers |
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| Acridocarpus natalitius flowers |
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| Acridocarpus natalitius fruits |
Day 2: Mbotyi and
Port Grosvenor, Goss Point field trips
Having a view of
waterfalls on both days was breathtaking. At Mbotyi doing more searching, we
found more populations of the near-threatened Leucadendron spissifolium subsp. natalense. The area was damp and it was home to different species
of orchids such as Satyrium sphaerocarpum
and Satyrium trinerve.
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| Satyrium trinerve |
 |
| Satyrium sphaerocarpum |
Grassland is a biome to explore, with a wide range of plants to look at in such a diverse ecosystem! With my limited skills of plant identification, I can recall, how amazed I was to see Helichrysum appendiculatum, such a stunning plant!
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| Helichrysum appendiculatum |
Our next destination was Goss Point at Port Governor and we drove for long hours on a dirt road to look for Eugenia verdoorniae (NT). On top of the current status this plant has, I think it should also be rare as it was hard to find and even after locating it we saw only one plant. This shrub is found in Pondoland scarp forest margins and on riverbanks. As scarce as this plant is, it is threatened by frequent and intense grassland fires that disturb the forest margins, hence it is Near Threatened as its habitat is being destroyed.
We were tired but
still keen to locate the plant and we searched near the stream banks until we found
an individual plant. We all stopped being tired and rejoiced, eyes even opened and
we saw a beautiful pool and just had to drink the water. Walking back to the
car we saw more plants and even specials such as Stangeria eriopus (VU) and Euphorbia
flanaganii (VU), a dwarf succulent with snake-like branches that grow flat
on the ground. This plant occurs in the coastal regions of the Eastern Cape and
south coast of KwaZulu-Natal. We were no longer dragging our feet by now as we had
our extra rewards.
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| Eugenia verdoorniae |
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| Euphorbia flanaganii |
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| Team rejoicing after finding the Eugenia verdoorniae |
During the days we
spent in this beautiful place the weather was on our side, bright and
sunny-with some fresh breeze. However, we experienced some rain as we drove
off the Near Threatened E. verdoorniae location. I guess this was a way of proving that our two day trip in the area was a
success as we managed to locate half of the species we targeted plus extras.
Our trip to this
beautiful place then ended the next Monday as we drove out and made sure that
we bought the delicious PSJ mangoes!
Reference:
Malan, C., and Notten, A. 2002. Podranea
ricasoliana. PlantZAfrica. Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden. http://pza.sanbi.org/podranea-
About
the author
Pamela
was born and grew up in Johannesburg and stayed there until she matriculated
in 2012. She moved to the Eastern Cape to further her studies at the University
of Fort Hare, where she did a BSc (Botany and GIS) and BSc. Hons (Botany). Her
interest in plants started with her growing up with her grandmother who loved
plants and worked at a plant nursery. She used to enjoy nurturing plants in their
garden and trips to nature reserves (Magaliesburg) made her even more
interested in plants and their growth patterns, leading to her
taking plant ecology as one of her majors during her honors studies. She is aware
of the threats plants face and wants to assist in measures taken to protect them.
She is currently an intern at CREW, helping with monitoring plants of
conservation concern.
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