A Once-Extinct Flower is Now Thriving in a National Park in South Africa
A hotspot for biodiversity worldwide, Table Mountain National Park stretches southward along a peninsula from Table Mountain. There are 2,785 plant species in this about 250 square kilometer area, according to a recently revised checklist that was released in 2025.
That is more species than can be found in all of several European nations. However, 261 endangered species are also highlighted on the checklist. The new checklist was created by citizen scientist Jean Stephenson. Stephenson works as a volunteer for the Custodians of Endangered and Rare Wildflowers.
She searches the field for endangered plants and posts photos to the iNaturalist portal so that specialists can identify them. In actuality, it is restricted to a few square kilometers worldwide. We are quite fortunate to have it nearby,” she adds.
The checklist was updated for the first time since 1950 thanks to the efforts of Stephenson and other volunteers utilizing the iNaturalist website. Among the scientists who put together the updated list is Dr. Nicola van Wilgen-Bredenkamp.Van Wilgen-Bredenkamp says, “We live in this incredibly diverse place, so it’s been a very exciting process.”The diversity of both plants and invertebrates is astounding. In order to prioritize species for management action, we also sought to create a new checklist.
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