Protea Acaulos
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''Protea acaulos'', also known as the common ground sugarbush, is a
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...
found in the southwestern
Cape Region The Cape Floral Region is a floristic region located near the southern tip of South Africa. It is the only floristic region of the Cape Floristic Kingdom, and includes only one floristic province, known as the Cape Floristic Province. The Cap ...
,
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
. It is also simply known as ground protea; in the
Afrikaans language Afrikaans is a West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento that speaks the Patagonian dialect. It evolved from the Dutc ...
it is known as an ''aardroos''.


Taxonomy

This species was first described as ''Leucadendron acaulon'' by
Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...
in the ''
Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genus, genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial nomenclature ...
'' of 1753. Johann Jacob Reichard moved it to the
genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
''
Protea ''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). It is the type genus of the Proteaceae family. About 92% of the species occur only in the Cape Floristic Region, a narrow belt of mo ...
'' in the 1879 part of the book ''Systema Plantarum'', misspelling the
specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...
as "''acaulis''"; this spelling was used up until 1912 and the name thus attributed to
Carl Peter Thunberg Carl Peter Thunberg, also known as Karl Peter von Thunberg, Carl Pehr Thunberg, or Carl Per Thunberg (11 November 1743 – 8 August 1828), was a Sweden, Swedish Natural history, naturalist and an Apostles of Linnaeus, "apostle" of Carl Linnaeus ...
, but the spelling has subsequently been moved to "''acaulos''", the
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
feminine. The spelling "''acaule''" has also been used. ''Protea glaucophylla'' was described by
Richard Anthony Salisbury Richard Anthony Salisbury (born Richard Anthony Markham; 2 May 1761 – 23 March 1829) was a British botanist. While he carried out valuable work in horticultural and botanical sciences, several bitter disputes caused him to be ostracised by hi ...
in ''
The Paradisus Londinensis ''The Paradisus Londonensis'' (full title ''The Paradisus Londonensis : or Coloured Figures of Plants Cultivated in the Vicinity of the Metropolis'') is a book dated 1805–1808, printed by D.N. Shury, and published by William Hooker.. It consis ...
'' in 1805. Although he soon, in 1809, moved it to ''Erodendrum glaucophyllum'' in a work published under the authorship of the gardener Joseph Knight titled ''
On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae "On the cultivation of the plants belonging to the natural order of Proteeae" is an 1809 paper on the family Proteaceae of flowering plants. Although nominally written by Joseph Knight (gardener), Joseph Knight as a paper on cultivation techniques ...
'', this was generally ignored, and up until at least 1912 it was thought that ''Protea glaucophylla'' and ''P. acaulis'' were two similar, but separate, species, with ''P. glaucophylla'' having a more limited distribution around
Tulbagh Tulbagh (), previously named Roodezand, then Land van Waveren later in 1804 named after Cape of Good Hope Governor Ryk Tulbagh, is a town located in the "Land van Waveren" mountain basin (also known as the Tulbagh basin), in the Cape Winelands ...
and Riversdale.


Description

It grows as a dwarf or creeping shrub with a maximum height of around 30 cm, although it may also only grow to 7 cm tall, and 1 m across. The branches are underground, and the plant grows as densely packed tufts of leaves poking out of the ground. It has a thick rootstock, and will re-sprout from this or other underground parts after the above-ground parts of the plant are destroyed in
wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a ...
s. It is a very long-lived species, three generations of plants are thought to last from 150 to 300 years. The plant is
monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contras ...
with both sexes in each flower. The plant blooms in Spring, from June to November.


Distribution

''Protea acaulos'' is an
endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...
species of the
Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...
province of South Africa, but it is nonetheless widespread in this province. It is found on the
Cape Peninsula The Cape Peninsula () of South Africa is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good ...
in the southwest, and furthermore grows on the flats north to the
Cederberg The Cederberg mountains are located near Clanwilliam, Western Cape, Clanwilliam, approximately 300 km north of Cape Town, South Africa at about . The mountain range is named after the endangered Clanwilliam cedar (''Widdringtonia cedarbe ...
in the northwest, to the Elim Flats in the Agulhas Plain, the Caledon
Swartberg The Swartberg mountains (''black mountain'' in English language, English) are a mountain range in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is composed of two main mountain chains running roughly east–west along the northern edge of the sem ...
, and the
Riviersonderend Mountains The Riviersonderend Mountains are a mountain range in the Cape Fold Belt of the Western Cape province of South Africa. They run east to west from Riviersonderend to Villiersdorp, separating the Breede River Valley from the Overberg region. Th ...
, eastwards to
Bredasdorp Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about south-east of Cape Town and north of Cape Agu ...
. There is a small, isolated,
disjunct population In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...
on the Langeberg Mountains near
Barrydale Barrydale is a village on the border of the Overberg and Klein Karoo regions of the Western Cape Province in South Africa. It was named after Joseph Barry, a merchant of the 19th century. It is situated at the northern end of the Tradouws Pass wh ...
. It occurs in low densities and solitary plants are often encountered.


Ecology

It is a member of the "acid sand
fynbos Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...
complex" of plants, adapted to the regular occurrence of fires. It grows from
sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...
to altitudes of 1,500, or 1,800 metres. Although it prefers sandy and
alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...
soils on flats or on the lower slopes of lowland or mountain fynbos, it may also be encountered in
shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of Clay mineral, clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g., Kaolinite, kaolin, aluminium, Al2Silicon, Si2Oxygen, O5(hydroxide, OH)4) and tiny f ...
and
granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...
fynbos. The flowers are pollinated by rats, mice and birds. The seeds are stored in the dried, fire-resistant
inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...
(seedheads) which remains attached to the plant, and are only released after fires 1 to 2 years after flowering, with dispersal taking place through action of the wind.


Conservation

The species was not thought to be threatened in 1998, and it was assessed as '
least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...
' by the
South African National Biodiversity Institute The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) is an organisation tasked with research and dissemination of information on biodiversity, and legally mandated to contribute to the management of the country's biodiversity resources. ...
(SANBI) in 2009, but it was reassessed as '
near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...
' by SANBI as of 2019. It is a widespread species, but the total population is thought to have been significantly reduced across the Cape Lowlands, this being due to ongoing
habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...
and degradation, so much so, that the assessors assert that the species may soon cross the threshold for being accepted as ' vulnerable', based on projected population reduction over the past three generations of the shrub. About 26% of this species'
habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
is irreversibly modified, and habitat loss continues. Most of this loss is due to
urban expansion Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...
and agricultural development. Much of its habitat has also been destroyed on the lower slopes of mountains to plant forests for use as timber. The population is thus thought to be decreasing as of 2019. SANBI infers a population reduction of 23-28% based on the projected habitat loss over the past three generations. Nonetheless, most of its remaining habitat is in mountainous areas where the land is being developed at a significantly lower rate than in the lowlands, thus it is considered very difficult to give an estimation of how fast the population may reduce in the future. In the fragmented areas in the lowlands where it does occur, its population is mostly being reduced due to
wildfire suppression Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts depend on many factors such as the available fuel, the local atmospheric conditions, the features of the terrain, and the size of the wildfir ...
, which hampers its system of reproduction and thus the recruitment of young new plants. In these lowland areas it furthermore faces threats from
overgrazing Overgrazing occurs when plants are exposed to intensive grazing for extended periods of time, or without sufficient recovery periods. It can be caused by either livestock in poorly managed agricultural applications, game reserves, or nature ...
and invasive grasses. Areas in which it is being outcompeted by dense infestations of invasive plants are on the southern slopes of the Riviersonderend Mountains, the Agulhas Plain, the Swartberg near the town of Caledon, and in the sand fynbos between
Malmesbury Malmesbury () is a town and civil parish in north Wiltshire, England, which lies approximately west of Swindon, northeast of Bristol, and north of Chippenham. The older part of the town is on a hilltop which is almost surrounded by the upp ...
and
Mamre Mamre (; ), full name "Oaks of Mamre", refers to an ancient religious site originally focused on a single holy tree growing "since time immemorial" at Hebron in Canaan.Niesiolowski-Spano (2016). At its first location, Khirbet Nimra, a pagan tre ...
. A population is protected within the Grootbos Nature Reserve, Western Cape.


References


External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15587320 acaulos Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus