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Lizard pollinates plant; research finding a first for continental Africa

28 November 2019 | Story Leonie Bolleurs

Read more new — 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

Researchers international leaders in satellite tracking in the wildlife environment

2015-05-29

Ground-breaking research has attracted international media attention to Francois Deacon, lecturer and researcher in the Department Animal, Wildlife and Grassland Sciences at the UFS, and Prof Nico Smit, from the same department. They are the first researchers in the world to equip giraffes with GPS collars, and to conduct research on this initiative. Recently, they have been joined by Hennie Butler from the Department of Zoology as well as Free State Nature Conservation to further this research.

“Satellite tracking is proving to be extremely valuable in the wildlife environment. The unit is based on a mobile global two-way communication platform, utilising two-way data satellite communication, complete with GPS systems.

“It allows us to track animals day and night, while we monitor their movements remotely from the computer. These systems make possible the efficient control and monitoring of wildlife in all weather conditions and in near-to-real time. We can even communicate with the animals, calling up their positions or changing the tracking schedules.

“The satellite collar allows us to use the extremely accurate data to conduct research with the best technology available. The volume of data received allows us to publish the data in scientific journals and research-related articles.

“Scientific institutions and the public sector have both shown great interest in satellite tracking, which opens up new ground for scientific research for this university. Data management can be done, using Africa Wildlife Tracking (AWT) equipment where we can access our data personally, store it, and make visual presentations. The AWT system and software architecture provide the researcher with asset tracking, GPS location reports, geo-fencing, highly-detailed custom mapping, history reports and playback, polling on demand, history plotting on maps, and a range of reporting types and functions,” Francois said.

Data can be analysed to determine home range, dispersal, or habitat preference for any specific species.

Francois has been involved in multiple research projects over the last 12 years on wildlife species and domesticated animals, including the collaring of species such as Black-backed Jackal, Caracal, African Wild Dog, Hyena, Lion, Cheetah, Cattle, Kudu, Giraffe, and Black Rhino: “Giraffe definitely being the most challenging of all,” he said.

In 2010, he started working on his PhD, entitled The spatial ecology, habitat preferences and diet selection of giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa) in the Kalahari region of South Africa.

Since then, his work has resulted not only in more research work (supervising four Masters students) but also in a number of national and international projects. These include work in the:

Kalahari region (e.g. Khamab Nature Reserve and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park)
Kuruman region (Collared 18 cattle to identify spatial patterns in relation to the qualities of vegetation and soil-types available. This project took place in collaboration with Born University in Germany)
Woodland Hills Wildlife Estate and Kolomella Iron Ore – ecological monitoring
A number of Free State nature reserves (e.g. Distribution of herbivores (kudu and giraffe) and predators (camera traps)

Francois is also involved with species breeding programmes and management (giraffe, buffalo, sable, roan, and rhino) in Korrannaberg, Rustenburg, Hertzogville, Douglas, and Bethlehem as well as animal and ecological monitoring in Kolomella and Beesthoek iron ore.

Besides the collaring of giraffes, Francois and his colleagues are involved in national projects, where they collect milk from lactating giraffes and DNA material, blood samples, and ecto/endo parasites from giraffes in Southern Africa.

With international projects, Francois is working to collect DNA material for the classification of the nine sub-species of giraffe in Africa. He is also involved in projects focusing on the spatial ecology and adaptation of giraffe in Uganda (Murchison Falls), and to save the last 30 giraffe in the DRC- Garamba National Park.

This project has attracted a good deal of international interest. In June 2014, a US film crew (freelancing for Discovery Channel) filmed a documentary on Francois’ research (trailer of documentary). Early in 2015, a second crew, filming for National Geographic, also visited Francois to document his work.

More information about Francois’ work is available at the GCF website.

Read Francois Deacon's PhD abstract

Direct enquiries to news@ufs.ac.za.

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