Assessment Report - Melanospermum swazicum

	IUCN Species Information Service (SIS) Toolkit
	Assessment Report

Taxonomy
Kingdom	Phylum	Class	Order	Family
PLANTAE	TRACHEOPHYTA	MAGNOLIOPSIDA	LAMIALES	SCROPHULARIACEAE

Scientific Name:	Melanospermum swazicum
Species Authority:	Hilliard
Common Name/s: -
Synonym/s:	-
Taxonomic Notes:	-

Assessment Information
Red List Category & Criteria:	Vulnerable B1ab(ii,iii)+2ab(ii,iii)
Year Assessed:	2023
Assessor/s:	Braun, K. & Loffler, L.
Reviewer/s:	Raimondo, D.
Contributor/s:
Facilitator/s:
Institutions/s:
Justification: This species has a restricted distribution, with eight locations, limited to a small area within Eswatini apart from one record from South Africa. The extent of occurrence (EOO) is 2,108 km² and area of occupancy (AOO) is 32 km². There are ongoing threats of habitat degradation due to overgrazing by livestock and burning, and the possibility of urban development affecting part of its range. Based on this, it has been assessed as Vulnerable, under Criterion B.
History:	-

Geographic Range
Range Description:	This species is known primarily from the Eswatini highveld near Mbabane. There is one additional record from KwaZulu Natal, South Africa from the Ngome area.
Countries:	Native: Eswatini; KwaZulu-Natal;

Population
Population:	No detailed population surveys have been carried out for this species. For the purposes of this assessment, it has been assumed that it still exists in locations from older records, as the habitat is still present in many of these areas. It is inferred that the population is declining due to ongoing habitat degradation from livestock grazing and burning.
Population Trend:	Decreasing

Habitat and Ecology
Habitat and Ecology:	It grows on hilltops in grassland areas, in moist shaded peaty soil in the shelter of granite rocks. The vegetation type for the Eswatini locations being KaNgwane Montane Grassland (Gm16), and Northern Zululand Mistbelt Grassland for the KwaZulu Natal location (Mucina et. al. 2018).
List of Habitats:	4 Grassland 4.7 Grassland - Subtropical/Tropical High Altitude

Threats
Major Threat(s):	As this species is found on hilltops, its habitat has been only marginally affected by urban development. Its grassland habitat is being degraded by livestock grazing and burning. The rocky nature of its habitat may provide it with some protection from these pressures.
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:	This species has been recorded from within Malolotja Nature Reserve. The remainder of the known locations are not in protected areas, very little of the granite hilltop areas in the Eswatini highveld have any conservation measures in place. No material has yet been collected for ex-situ conservation. The records are all from a number of years ago, so there is a need for fieldwork to determine the continued existence of this species in the historically collected localities, and whether it also occurs in areas with similar habitat, beyond its currently known range.
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

Conservation Actions

Conservation Actions:

This species has been recorded from within Malolotja Nature Reserve. The remainder of the known locations are not in protected areas, very little of the granite hilltop areas in the Eswatini highveld have any conservation measures in place. No material has yet been collected for ex-situ conservation. The records are all from a number of years ago, so there is a need for fieldwork to determine the continued existence of this species in the historically collected localities, and whether it also occurs in areas with similar habitat, beyond its currently known range.

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, 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: