Assessment Report - Drimiopsis pusilla

	IUCN Species Information Service (SIS) Toolkit
	Assessment Report

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
PLANTAE	TRACHEOPHYTA	LILIOPSIDA	ASPARAGALES	ASPARAGACEAE

Scientific Name:	Drimiopsis pusilla
Species Authority:	U.Müll.-Doblies & D.Müll.-Doblies
Common Name/s: -
Synonym/s:	Ledebouria pusilla (U.Müll.-Doblies & D.Müll.-Doblies) J.C.Manning & Goldblatt
Taxonomic Notes:	-

Assessment Information
Red List Category & Criteria:	Vulnerable D1+2
Year Assessed:	2023
Assessor/s:	Braun, K. & Loffler, L.
Reviewer/s:	Raimondo, D.
Contributor/s:
Facilitator/s:
Institutions/s:
Justification: This Eswatini endemic species is known from only one small area. Although the location is within a forestry plantation, it does not face any severe current threats, however it occurs alongside a public road and future upgrading could lead to the rapid loss of this only known population. With between 500 and 1000 mature individuals known it currently qualifies for assessing as Vulnerable under Criterion D1+2.
History:	-

Geographic Range
Range Description:	This species is known from a small area within the Eswatini highveld, within a forestry plantation.
Countries:	Native: Eswatini;

Population
Population:	This species was recorded from one location in 1982, and again in 2000, but no details of population size were recorded. It was found again in 2022 and 2023. Most recently, the plants were found in small clusters spread out over an area of about 100 m by 20 m. There are between 500 and 1000 mature individuals within the only known population. The population trend is stable.
Population Trend:	Stable

Habitat and Ecology
Habitat and Ecology:	This species was found in rocky grassland, vegetation type KaNgwane Montane Grassland (Gm16), in the grassland biome (Mucina et. al. 2018).
List of Habitats:	4 Grassland 4.7 Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude

Threats
Major Threat(s):	The location where this plant was found falls within a forestry plantation, but on an unplanted area, maintained as a firebreak. Provided that this area is not planted up, the current land use provides some measure of protection. There is livestock grazing in the area, but as the plants grow amongst rocks, this would protect them from grazing to some degree. There is also a future potential threat from the development of road infrastructure since the site occurs adjacent to a public road that leads to a border post and therefore it could be upgraded.
List of Threats:	2 Agriculture & aquaculture 2.3 Livestock farming & ranching 2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming 4 Transportation & service corridors 4.1 Roads & railroads

Threats

Major Threat(s):

The location where this plant was found falls within a forestry plantation, but on an unplanted area, maintained as a firebreak. Provided that this area is not planted up, the current land use provides some measure of protection. There is livestock grazing in the area, but as the plants grow amongst rocks, this would protect them from grazing to some degree. There is also a future potential threat from the development of road infrastructure since the site occurs adjacent to a public road that leads to a border post and therefore it could be upgraded.

List of Threats:

2 Agriculture & aquaculture
2.3 Livestock farming & ranching
2.3.2 Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming
4 Transportation & service corridors
4.1 Roads & railroads

Conservation Actions
Conservation Actions:	Raising awareness with the plantation management of the presence of this species and the management actions to maintain it would assist with its conservation. Ex-situ conservation of this species is a high priority due to it being only known from one location. This would require maintenance of live plants, as it is believed to be recalcitrant and therefore not suited to storage of seed.
List of Conservation Actions:	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, A.W., 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, A.W., 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: