Assessment Report - Senecio mlilwanensis

	IUCN Species Information Service (SIS) Toolkit
	Assessment Report

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
PLANTAE	TRACHEOPHYTA	MAGNOLIOPSIDA	ASTERALES	ASTERACEAE

Scientific Name:	Senecio mlilwanensis
Species Authority:	Compton
Common Name/s: -
Synonym/s:	-
Taxonomic Notes:	-

Assessment Information
Red List Category & Criteria:	Vulnerable B1ab(iii)+2ab(iii)
Year Assessed:	2023
Assessor/s:	Braun, K.
Reviewer/s:
Contributor/s:
Facilitator/s:
Institutions/s:
Justification: Senecio mlilwanensis has a very restricted distribution, with an estimated extent of occurrence of 206.392 km², and an area of occupancy of 32 km². There are ongoing threats of habitat degradation due to livestock grazing, and of urban development for part of its range. Based on this, it has been assessed as Vulnerable, under Criteria B1 and B2. Date last seen: 2023
History:	-

Geographic Range
Range Description:	This species has been found in about ten localities, in the Eswatini highveld and upper middleveld areas.
Countries:	Native: Eswatini;

Population
Population:	No population surveys have been carried out for this species. In one area where it has been observed, it was recorded to be locally frequent. For the purposes of this assessment, localities from older records have been included on the basis of continued existence of appropriate habitat in these ares.
Population Trend:	Unknown

Habitat and Ecology
Habitat and Ecology:	This species has been found in rocky areas in grassland and savanna, the vegetation types estimated from the localities being KaNgwane Montane Grassland (Gm16), Barberton Montane Grassland (Gm17) and Swaziland Sour Bushveld (SVI14) (Mucina et. al. 2018). The localities falling within the savanna vegetation type are primarily on the edges of this vegetation type, adjacent to the KaNgwane Montane Grassland areas. Within one locality, this plant is found as scattered individual plants, in rocky grassland with occasional trees. The area has been subject to frequent burning, which does not appear to have had any major impact on the sub-population.
List of Habitats:	2 Savanna 2.2 Savanna - Moist 4 Grassland 4.7 Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude

Habitat and Ecology

Habitat and Ecology:

This species has been found in rocky areas in grassland and savanna, the vegetation types estimated from the localities being KaNgwane Montane Grassland (Gm16), Barberton Montane Grassland (Gm17) and Swaziland Sour Bushveld (SVI14) (Mucina et. al. 2018). The localities falling within the savanna vegetation type are primarily on the edges of this vegetation type, adjacent to the KaNgwane Montane Grassland areas.
Within one locality, this plant is found as scattered individual plants, in rocky grassland with occasional trees. The area has been subject to frequent burning, which does not appear to have had any major impact on the sub-population.

List of Habitats:

2 Savanna
2.2 Savanna - Moist
4 Grassland
4.7 Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude

Threats
Major Threat(s):	The distribution of this species includes areas which are currently subject not only to overgrazing but also to spreading urban development.
List of Threats:	1 Residential & commercial development 1.1 Housing & urban areas 2 Agriculture & aquaculture 2.3 Livestock farming & ranching 2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming

Conservation Actions
Conservation Actions:	One locality, where the type specimen was collected is within Mlilwane Game Sanctuary. This area, however, is not managed for plant conservation.
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.

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: