Assessment Report - Orthosiphon vernalis

	IUCN Species Information Service (SIS) Toolkit
	Assessment Report

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
PLANTAE	TRACHEOPHYTA	MAGNOLIOPSIDA	LAMIALES	LAMIACEAE

Scientific Name:	Orthosiphon vernalis
Species Authority:	Codd
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: Orthosiphon vernalis has a very restricted distribution, with an estimated extent of occurrence of 68.454 km² and an area of occupancy of 16 km². Threats to the population include possible habitat loss where it occurs within the forestry plantation area, habitat loss due to expansion of agriculture and habitat degradation due to livestock grazing. Based on this, it has been assessed as Endangered, under Criteria B1 and B2.Date last seen: 2013
History:	-

Geographic Range
Range Description:	This species has a very restricted distribution, it has been found in the Eswatini middleveld, from the Malkerns area to Bhunya. Locality information from older herbarium specimens does not include precise coordinates, so the extent of occurrence is a rough estimate.
Countries:	Native: Eswatini;

Population
Population:	No population surveys have been conducted for this species. The locality information for the early specimens is very approximate. For the purposes of this assessment, because of this uncertainty, it has been assumed that this species could still occur in those localities, in spite of extensive habitat transformation in the area. Old herbarium specimen label information indicates that this species was abundant at that locality.
Population Trend:	Unknown

Population

Population:

No population surveys have been conducted for this species. The locality information for the early specimens is very approximate. For the purposes of this assessment, because of this uncertainty, it has been assumed that this species could still occur in those localities, in spite of extensive habitat transformation in the area. Old herbarium specimen label information indicates that this species was abundant at that locality.

Population Trend:

Unknown

Habitat and Ecology
Habitat and Ecology:	This species has been recorded from the Eswatini middleveld, in vegetation type Swaziland Sour Bushveld (SVI14) (Mucina et. al. 2018). The old herbarium specimen label information has the habitat for this species as tall farm veld, deep red clay loam soil.
List of Habitats:	2 Savanna 2.2 Savanna - Moist

Threats
Major Threat(s):	The distribution of this species falls within forestry plantation, intensive agriculture and rangeland areas. Within the forestry plantation, there is a risk of firebreaks being planted up. In the Malkerns area, the continued expansion of agriculture and urban development could threaten the habitat for this species. Heavy grazing might have had an impact on the habitat in the southern part of the distribution of this species.
List of Threats:	2 Agriculture & aquaculture 2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops 2.1.3 Agro-industry farming 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

Threats

Major Threat(s):

The distribution of this species falls within forestry plantation, intensive agriculture and rangeland areas. Within the forestry plantation, there is a risk of firebreaks being planted up. In the Malkerns area, the continued expansion of agriculture and urban development could threaten the habitat for this species. Heavy grazing might have had an impact on the habitat in the southern part of the distribution of this species.

List of Threats:

2 Agriculture & aquaculture
2.1 Annual & perennial non-timber crops
2.1.3 Agro-industry farming
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:	This plant has not been found within any conservation areas.
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 4 Education & awareness 4.3 Awareness & communications

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: