Assessment Report - Aeschynomene stipitata

	IUCN Species Information Service (SIS) Toolkit
	Assessment Report

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
PLANTAE	TRACHEOPHYTA	MAGNOLIOPSIDA	FABALES	FABACEAE

Scientific Name:	Aeschynomene stipitata
Species Authority:	Burtt Davy
Common Name/s: -
Synonym/s:	-
Taxonomic Notes:	-

Assessment Information
Red List Category & Criteria:	Vulnerable D2
Year Assessed:	-
Assessor/s:	Braun, K.
Reviewer/s:
Contributor/s:
Facilitator/s:
Institutions/s:
Justification: Aeschynomene stipitata has been found in one locality in recent years, the original collection of this species dates back to 1914, with the locality uncertain. With only one confirmed record of this species, it is not possible to determine population trends, but as occurs in an area where there is a threat from both overgrazing and alien invasive plants. More fieldwork might find this species in additional localities. Its extremely limited distribution qualifies this species for a Vulnerable listing. Date last seen: 2017
History:	-

Geographic Range
Range Description:	This species was described from a specimen collected by F A Rogers in 1914, with the locality being Mbabane, Swaziland, the type being held by Kew. Material from this same collection is in the Meise Botanic Garden herbarium, but this one has Transvaal as the locality. This species was found in Eswatini in the Shewula area in the Lubombos in 2017. It is likely that the locality information for the type specimen may be incorrect, so for assessment purposes, only the more recent locality information was considered.
Countries:	Native: Eswatini;

Geographic Range

Range Description:

This species was described from a specimen collected by F A Rogers in 1914, with the locality being Mbabane, Swaziland, the type being held by Kew. Material from this same collection is in the Meise Botanic Garden herbarium, but this one has Transvaal as the locality. This species was found in Eswatini in the Shewula area in the Lubombos in 2017. It is likely that the locality information for the type specimen may be incorrect, so for assessment purposes, only the more recent locality information was considered.

Countries:

Native:
Eswatini;

Population
Population:	No population surveys have been carried out for this species. The 2017 observation indicated that this species was rare within the area surveyed.
Population Trend:	Unknown

Habitat and Ecology
Habitat and Ecology:	The observation of this species in 2017 recorded this species in an alluvial floodplain area, the vegetation community being Phoenix reclinata - Vitex harveyana - Phyllanthus reticulatus, forming riparian scrub-thicket. The vegetation type as per the Southern African vegetation map is Southern Lebombo Bushveld (SVI16) (Mucina et. al. 2018).
List of Habitats:	2 Savanna 2.2 Savanna - Moist

Threats
Major Threat(s):	This species was observed within the Shewula community conservation area, which is subject to high levels of grazing by cattle, and there is also a threat from alien invasive plants.
List of Threats:	2 Agriculture & aquaculture 2.3 Livestock farming & ranching 2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming 8 Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases 8.1 Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases 8.1.1 Unspecified species

Conservation Actions
Conservation Actions:	The locality where this species was observed in 2017 falls with in the Shewula community conservation area, although this only provides limited protection for the species.
List of Conservation Actions:	2 Land/water management 2.1 Site/area management 3 Species management 3.4 Ex-situ conservation 3.4.2 Genome resource bank

Bibliography
	Bachman S, Moat J, Hill AW, de la Torre J, Scott B. 2011. Supporting Red List threat assessments with GeoCAT geospatial conservation tool. In: Smith V, Penev L (Eds) e-Infrastructure for data publishing in biodiversity science. . ZooKeys 150: 117-126. Mucina, L., Rutherford, M.C. and Powrie, L.W. (Editors). 2018. The Vegetation Map of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. South African National Biodiversity Institute. Available at: http://bgis.sanbi.org/Projects/Detail/186.

Bibliography

Bachman S, Moat J, Hill AW, de la Torre J, Scott B. 2011. Supporting Red List threat assessments with GeoCAT geospatial conservation tool. In: Smith V, Penev L (Eds) e-Infrastructure for data publishing in biodiversity science. . ZooKeys 150: 117-126.
Mucina, L., Rutherford, M.C. and Powrie, L.W. (Editors). 2018. The Vegetation Map of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. South African National Biodiversity Institute. Available at: http://bgis.sanbi.org/Projects/Detail/186.

Citation: