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28 November 2019 | Story Leonie Bolleurs
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Dr Sandy-Lynn Steenhuisen and Ruth Cozien at a spot high up in the Maloti-Drakensberg World Heritage Site, close to Sentinel Peak, photographing a Drakensberg crag lizard underneath the leaves of the ‘Hidden Flower’.
Flowers high up in the Maloti-Drakensberg World Heritage Site made world news when it was discovered that the Drakensberg Crag Lizard is their sole pollinator. 

This first for continental Africa – a plant being pollinated by a lizard – is a discovery by a research group including Dr Sandy-Lynn Steenhuisen, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences and affiliate of the Afromontane Research Unit (ARU) at the Qwaqwa Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), in collaboration with Dr Timo van der Niet, Prof Steven Johnson, and project leader Ruth Cozien, all from the Pollination Ecology Research Laboratory and Centre for Functional Biodiversity at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Besides their work being published in popular news here in South Africa (including an isiZulu article), it has also received coverage in, among others, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States of America. 

Is it a bee, a bird, perhaps a mouse?

‘Hidden Flower’, true to its name, is a plant species with flowers hidden at ground level, underneath the leaves of the plant. Like the leaves, the flowers are also green. With the flowers filled with nectar (up to 1 ml per plant) and strongly scented, one concludes that, just as with other flowers, these flowers must be visited by a pollinator. Is it a bee, is it a bird, perhaps a mouse/non-flying mammal?

According to Dr Steenhuisen, who was brought into the project because of her experience with rodents pollinating proteas, many plants are adapted to attract and be pollinated by a specific animal. They attract their pollinators using particular scents and colours and reward them for their service with, for example, nectar, oil, fragrance, and sometimes even shelter. 

The ‘Hidden Flower’ initially had the group of researchers thinking that it was being pollinated by a non-flying mammal. “Everything about the plant made it look like it should be mammal-pollinated,” Dr Steenhuisen said. 

They investigated all options, using several techniques to assess the contribution of different possible animals to set seed. To further assist them in their quest to find the true pollinator, the team put up motion cameras that recorded activity in the area of the ‘Hidden Flower’. 

Great was their surprise when studying the video material after a week of fieldwork in the mountains, finding shy lizards dipping their snouts in the ‘Hidden Flower’ and lapping up the nectar.

Dr Steenhuisen described this discovery as completely bizarre, exciting, and fascinating. 

To make 100% sure that lizards are pollinating the ‘Hidden Flower’, these animals were excluded from the plants. Results published in a paper in Ecology showed that when the lizards were experimentally excluded from the plants, the number of seeds produced dropped dramatically by almost 95%. This finding helped to further prove their discovery. 

Strong scent and bright orange colour attract

The team researched the new phenomenon and found that although flower visitation by lizards is not unknown, it occurs almost exclusively on oceanic islands. Cozien says one should keep in mind that mountains are like sky islands and might therefore have similarities with oceanic islands in terms of their ecology.

The strong scent and the touch of orange at the base of the inside of the flowers is believed to play an important role in attracting lizards. The little lizard may recognise the spots of orange inside the flowers which resemble the orange colour of a male lizard in mating season, attracting females. Lured by the strong scent and the orange spots, the reptiles stick their snouts into the flower in search of nectar, pollinating the ‘Hidden Flower’; thus, making sure that this flower will continue to grow on the slopes of Sentinel Peak in the Maloti Drakensberg range. 

This research finding on lizard pollination, which reads almost like a fairy tale with its islands, hidden flowers, nectar from the gods, and little dragons, shows that there are still many unknown and surprising interactions that need to be discovered and conserved to ensure a healthy ecological system. 

The research findings of this study were published in April 2019. 

News Archive

Statement on protest at the UFS
2005-03-04

Following a protest by student and non-student organisations today, the management of the University of the Free State (UFS) would like to place the following facts on record:

1. There is a well-documented process underway to further transform the UFS. At the official opening of the UFS on 4 February 2005 , the Rector and Vice-chancellor, Prof Frederick Fourie, announced that the UFS would draft a comprehensive Transformation Plan to guide the next phase of transformation at the institution.

The UFS appeals to student formations, staff associations, trade unions and other role-players to make a constructive input into this Transformation Plan.

The UFS management has been - and always will be - willing to engage with role-players and is prepared to do so even after today’s protest.

2. There is thus no regulation or policy prescription which separates students in hostels according to race.

The reality is that students exercise their freedom of choice as to which hostel they wish to be placed in. This was agreed upon by black and white students in 1997/8.

However, the unintended consequence and practice of this hostel placement policy has been that students themselves have tended to choose to stay in hostels which have over time become black hostels and white hostels.

This is a matter of concern for the management of the UFS as such a situation does not promote interaction across language, cultural and socio-economic groupings of students.

This matter is receiving attention and an intensive consultative process, which will include students, will be launched to review this policy.

The management is convinced that such interaction will enhance the learning experience of all students and sensitise them to the reality of a multicultural South Africa and a multicultural world.

3. No student organisation has been banned from operating at any of the three campuses of the UFS.

In the past few weeks, SASCO, the Young Communist League and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) have held meetings on all three campuses, namely the Qwaqwa campus, the Vista campus and the main campus.

There are also regular interactions between top management and the leadership of SASCO and the ANCYL on campus.

In fact, the UFS upholds the right of students and staff to associate freely and to organise themselves as they see fit.

The UFS also upholds the rights of staff and students to engage in legal and peaceful protests.

The management however remains committed to discussing issues that affect staff and students in a constructive manner and appeals to student organisations in this case to engage with management.

4. The issues of registration, fees, debt and financial aid are continually monitored, and interventions to assist students are made regularly. To assist as far as possible those academically deserving students who face financial difficulties, the UFS management has put in place a structure called the Monitoring committee that includes management and student representatives.

The purpose of the Monitoring Committee is to review the cases of individual students to determine how best they can be assisted.

This applies to the Qwaqwa campus, the Vista campus and the main campus.

It is generally the case that students who perform academically will not have any difficulty in obtaining financial assistance. However, according to the requirements of National Student Financial Scheme, students who perform poorly will have difficulty in obtaining such assistance.

5. With regard to student governance, the process to institute an inclusive Central Student Representative Council (SRC), on which all three campuses will be equitably represented, was launched in July 2004, and a preliminary constitution has just been drafted. At the same time an inclusive process to review certain elements of the constitution of the main campus SRC was initiated at the end of 2004. This process, which includes all relevant student organisations and structures, is planned to produce an outcome within the next couple of months.

6. There is no policy at the UFS that is based on racism or that discriminates on the basis of the race of students and staff.

As part of the building of a new institutional culture within the broader transformation process, the UFS management is determined to eradicate all elements of racism that may occur on its campuses, and has already instituted inclusive forums on campus to discuss the issue of values and principles for a non-racial university.

Issued by: Mr Anton Fisher
Director: Strategic Communication
Cell: 072 207 8334
Tel: (051) 401-2749
4 March 2005

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