| IUCN Species Information Service (SIS) Toolkit |
| Assessment Report | |
| Taxonomy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kingdom | Phylum | Class | Order | Family |
| PLANTAE | TRACHEOPHYTA | MAGNOLIOPSIDA | FABALES | FABACEAE |
| Scientific Name: | Eriosema rufescens |
| Species Authority: | Schinz |
| Common Name/s: - | |
| Synonym/s: | - |
| Taxonomic Notes: | - |
| Assessment Information | |
|---|---|
| Red List Category & Criteria: | Endangered B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii) |
| Year Assessed: | 2023 |
| Assessor/s: | Braun, K. |
| Reviewer/s: | |
| Contributor/s: | |
| Facilitator/s: | |
| Institutions/s: | |
| Justification: Eriosema rufescens has a very limited distribution and very few known localities, with an estimated extent of occurrence of 3,462.102 km2 and area of occupancy of 12 km2. Fieldwork carried out in 2022 failed to locate this species, but this does not confirm its absence, and for the purposes of this assessment, the localities from older records have been included. The threats to this species include ongoing overgrazing by livestock, as well as potential expansion of forestry plantations. Based on this, it has been assessed as Endangered, under Critera B1 and B2. Date last seen: 1975 | |
| History: | - |
| Geographic Range | |
|---|---|
| Range Description: | This species is known from two localities within Eswatini in the north west of the country, and one locality in Giant's Castle in South Africa. There is an additional record from Eswatini but without locality information, so this has been excluded from this assessment. |
| Countries: | Native: Eswatini; KwaZulu-Natal; |
| Population | |
|---|---|
| Population: | This species is currently known from two localities in Eswatini and one in Giant's Castle in South Africa. Fieldwork carried out in 2022 in Eswatini in the two recorded localities for this species failed to locate this plant, but this does not yet confirm its absence, so for the purposes of this assessment, it has been assumed that it still occurs in the localities noted on older records. |
| Population Trend: | Unknown |
| Habitat and Ecology | |
|---|---|
| Habitat and Ecology: | This species is known from highveld grassland areas, vegetation types KaNgwane Montane Grassland (Gm16), Barberton Montane Grassland (Gm17) and Northern KwaZulu-Natal Moist Grassland (Gs4) (Mucina et. al. 2018). |
| List of Habitats: | 4 Grassland 4.7 Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude |
| Threats | |
|---|---|
| Major Threat(s): | There is ongoing pressure on most of the highveld grassland areas by grazing. The locality for two of the records is in an area where there has been extensive mining activity as well as establishment of forestry plantations in the past. There is also the threat of habitat loss due to expansion of the forestry plantations or other forms of agriculture. |
| List of Threats: | 2 Agriculture & aquaculture 2.2 Wood & pulp plantations 2.2.2 Agro-industry plantations 2.3 Livestock farming & ranching 2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming |
| Conservation Actions | |
|---|---|
| Conservation Actions: | The localities for this species in Eswatini do not fall within any formal protected area. The one record from South Africa is from within Giant's Castle National Park. |
| List of Conservation Actions: | 1 Land/water protection 1.2 Resource & habitat protection 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 and 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: | - |