Image of

CONSERVATION authorities are hoping that sharp-eyed members of the public might be able to help with a weekend incident in which seven rare, protected cycads were seized from the Van Stadens Wildflower Reserve.

Reserve manager Wesley Berrington said yesterday that he was off the reserve on Sunday and returned to find the seven blue cycads (Encephalartos horridus), which are endemic to the Uitenhage area, gone.

“They were growing in our work area around our store rooms. They were just dug up. One was left behind, which seems to indicate that the thieves were disturbed.”

E horridus are so named because they are particularly prickly cycads. The thieves would almost certainly have hacked off the leaves so that they could be carried. The leaves grow again, so this does not harm their sale value.

The culprits obviously parked their vehicle outside the reserve gates and then either climbed over them or somehow got a key for the pedestrian gate, he said. “The thieves are more than likely from the SA nursery trade or unscrupulous guys, usually from Gauteng, with private gardens that they want to stock with cycads. Or else they‘re from the international black market.”

The last possibility seems likely as there have been several incidents lately around PE where rare plants have been seized by black marketeers. In the latest incident two months ago, a Pachypodium, a protected succulent shrub, was poached at Coega.

It has been a torrid life for the stolen E horridus, which were taken in by the reserve some years ago after being seized from poachers.

Several of them were 50 years old or more, Berrington said.

E horribilus prefers dry, rocky terrain and is one of six cycads endemic to the Eastern Cape.

The cycad family occurs only in Southern Africa. Their heartland is here in South Africa, where 18 species occur.

Berrington said he had reported the incident at the Kabega Park police station and was hoping for good results.