Q: Roridula range and conservation status
R. gorgonias
R. gorgonias
R. dentata
A: Both R. dentata and R. gorgonias
occur only in the Cape Province, in the Republic of South Africa. It lives in a kind of vegetation community referred
to as fynbos, a scrubby zone that inhabits poor soils and is maintained by periodic fires with a frequency of
4-60 years.
These plants are not listed on the South African Red Data List of 1966, so you may think they are not threatened.
However, many sites that once maintained Roridula dentata no longer
support the plants. Something has displaced them, and it is believed that the cause is a changed
fire regime. While Roridula are adapted to some fire, the wildfire frequency has increased and
the fires are being set during the wrong season.
A really cool specimen of amber was found that seems to have some Roridulaleaves in it; bizarrely this amber came
from the Baltic region (Russia), suggesting a much wider range for the plant 35-47 million years ago. I don't know, this sounds crazy...
Page citations: Carlquist, S. 1976; Cowell, C. undated;
Hilton-Taylor, C. 1966; Opel, M. 2005; Sadowski, E-M. et al. 2014.
