There are 299 mammal species in South Africa, of which two are critically endangered, 11 are endangered, 15 are vulnerable, and 13 are near-threatened. Two of the species listed for South Africa are considered to be extinct.The flora and fauna of South Africa are becoming endangered fast due to different causes such as habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. Following are some of South Africa’s endangered species.
The Bread Palm or Encephalartos Cupidus is a very rare and attractive dwarf cycad with blue green leaves that usually grows to about three feet tall. It may be found in South Africa’s steep slopes, rocky grasslands or in open forests. Its name, Encephalartos Cupidus, means desirable or highly attractive, the name originates from its desirability as a collected plant. The Bread Palm is an endangered species because is was constantly collected and separated from its habitat. Blyde River Nature Reserve keeps the plant safe where it can be monitored and taken care of.
The Disa Physodes Sw. is 250-600 mm tall and has leaves 50-300 mm long and 30-40 mm in diameter. The flower...
specimens with the corresponding scientific description, photographs, specific maps and there are drawings that document the research. This collected images of plants continue the artist’s fascination with documentation, community engagement and art as a way to address larger social issues. This exhibit was interning to me to see all the different plant and to know that plants in the city unknown to most there are often edible, medicinal or even poisonous plants.
Dandelions, known to the botanist as Taraxacum officinale, are classified in the Composite (Compositae) family of flowering plants. The genus name, Taraxacum is derived from the Persian word for "bitter herb," (Myer, 1994). Accompanying the golden ruse of the dandelion are the daisies, aster, sunflowers, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed and many other wildflowers.
one time, they lived all across Africa, but are now extinct in northern and southern
Scientific name -Kingdom-Plantea, Phylum- Tracheophyta, Class- Angiospermae, Order- Asterales, Family- Asteraceca, Genus- Taraxacum, Species- officialeDescription - The Taraxacum officiale is a perennial herb that grows from two to eighteen inches tall they are a stem less plant and all parts of the plant contain a milky juice. The leaves are an olive or a dull yellowish color, and smooth with ridged edges where it got its common name, dandelion from the French words "dent de lion" which means lions tooth. The stalks are simple smooth, brittle and hollow. The flowers are one and a half-inch wide and a golden yellow color. The flower blooms from April to August, from 6am to 8pm. They have taproots that can grow up to three feet long in soft soil. There are about 150 to 200 flowerets that are strap shaped that make up the flower.Habitat - Their habitat is in the Northern Temperate Zones located in Europe and Asia. Then the colonists from Europe brought in to America. The plant usually grows lawns.Life cycle - The life cycle of the dandelion is when the adult is mature enough the flowerets turn into seeds with a fluff on it. This fluff enables the seed to be picked up the wind to carry it away from the parent plant.Importance - The dandelion has many little known uses to people. Like the roots are bitter, but they can be boiled put into salads when they are young, or they can be used as potherbs. The roots can be roasted and used as a substitute for coffee. The milky juice is used in some tonics for disorders in the digestive system and the liver. The flower stalks can be yields some rubber in the form of threads.
The cape sundew is a small-rosette carnivorous plant. It is a free-flowering evergreen, perennial, of differing heights. It forms a scrape that grows up to 1 foot tall and can bear up to 20 flowers. It has short woody rhizomatous stems, which accumulate and retain dead foliage of each previous season. It has many long, deep, and very well-developed roots. Its leaves are bright green and radiate from the stem. The lamina are linear ligulate, with a petiole that is about the same length as the lamina, being ~3 cm long (Brunner, 2012). The leaf apex is truncate to obtuse. The lamina has knob-shaped tentacles on its adaxial side, which are stalked with mucus covered glands covering the leaves surface. The mucus like fluid on the tentacles is an acidic enzyme that assists in the digestion of the plants prey. This species is considered pubescent with many trichomes covering the majority of the plant. The flowers found on the cape sundew are simple, and generally come in colors of red, pink or white with each flower borne on a single stem. Each flower generally has 5 petals that are from 12-14 mm across. Stamen are short with a rhomboid connective, with the locules diverging below. St...
What exactly does the term endangered species denote? There can be numerous definitions that correctly describe the term. It is any plant or animal whose survival is in jeopardy of becoming extinct. Extinction, of course, is when the species no longer exists, and there is no way it can be brought back to this earth. In most cases, the cause of this displeasing calamity is generally human-related.
The African elephant’s range has declined by over 50 percent since 1979 – and their populations are breaking up
Cotton is an annual, biennial or perennial plant, but in cultivation it is generally treated as an annual; herbaceous to short shrub or small tree - two to six feet tall. It consist of a primary axis, erect and branched with a vegetative lower zone having monopodial branches, and a fruiting upper zone with sympodial branches. The leaves of the cotton plant alternate, cordate petiolate, three to nine lobed and palmately veined, with varying size, texture, shape and hairiness. The large, showy, cream yellow, red or purple flowers are extra axillary, terminal, solitary, and borne on sympodial branches. The calyx (= collectively the sepals) consists of a very short cup-shaped structure at the base of the corolla. The five petals of the corolla are either free or slightly united at the base of the convoluted bud (Sundararaj, 1974).
The flowers of this plant are five- petaled which are arranged in a raceme which produces flowered cymose. [10] KIENT (2004)
World Commission on Protected Areas (1995-2006) WCPA West and Central Africa Region Key Issues The World Conservation Union
The dynamic natural environment and abundant wildlife are the most prominent features of the African continent. Due to its wide variety of biomes ranging from tropical forests to arid deserts, Africa consists of bountiful wildlife diversity. However, because of environmentally harmful human interactions, the variety of biomes is shrinking to all-time lows, which causes wildlife to die out. These detrimental human interactions, particularly livestock overgrazing and desertification, occur partly because the native people who depend on the land for daily life do not realize the potential benefits of wildlife and the unsustainability of their current ways. Poaching for horns and other valuable animal parts has also contributed to the decreasing amount of species present in the wild. However, the methods for conserving the wildlife environment differ in how they address the issue of the dwindling wildlife populations. The conventional method of conservation created in the mold of the Convention Relative to the Preservation of Fauna and Flora in their Natural State (also known as the London Convention) involves the complete centralization of wildlife resources to the government. The newer, more effective method called the Sustainable Use Approach makes drastic changes to the London Convention principles by decentralizing ownership of wildlife and allowing small communities and villages to manage it themselves.
Shah, Anup. Loss of Biodiversity and Extinctions. Global Issues, 19 Jan. 2014. Web. 19 May 2014.
are at a very high risk of extinction. There are over 3000 endangered species around the world due to many factors including over-fishing, hunting, destruction of habitat, climate change and a decrease in food supply. As the number of endangered species are increasing quickly it is very important that action is taken to preserve them for a number of reasons. If endangered species are not preserved it could easily lead to the species becoming extinct which could upset the food chain and lead to further extinction of other species. This could have not only negative effects on there predators but would eventually lead to having negative effects on species further up the food chain including the human species. Over the years researches have come to discover and find that all species play an important part in looking after our ecosystem and extinction could cause a big hole in the system.
In the world today, there are about five thousand endangered species. Around one species dies every year. Some animals become endangered because people are killing them for their horns, as in the case of the Black Rhino of Africa. Others become extinct because pesticides are put on the food we eat, causing the animals that eat the insects off the plant to become contaminated, which causes their predators to become contaminated, which often affects the shell of that organism?s egg. Here is a list of the endangered species, 91 endangered birds, 76 endangered mammals, 36 endangered reptiles, 21 endangered amphibians, 115 endangered fish, 70 endangered clams, 35 endangered snails, 44 endangered insects, 12 endangered arachnids, 21 endangered crustaceans, 594 endangered flowering plants.
In our world today we have approximately 26,021 endangered species. Endangered species are organisms that may possible become extinct. The term 'endangered species' refers to all species that fits this description. However some conservation biologists and scientists normally use the term ‘endangered species’ to refer to species that are put on the IUCN(International Union for Conservation of Nature)Red List. Many factors can be looked at when considering the conservation status of a species. Factors such as human threats or environmental threats can cause a species to become endangered.