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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

All activities on UFS Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses postponed until Monday 26 October 2015
2015-10-22

All academic and administrative activities on the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses of the University of the Free State (UFS) have been postponed until Monday 26 October 2015.

UFS students joined the national protests against the increases in class and study fees at universities across the country on Tuesday 20 October 2015.

All campuses of the UFS were closed down on Wednesday 21 October 2015 and a court interdict was granted the same day against conduct by anyone who intends to damage the property of the university or who interferes with the rights of others.

Additional security measures have been implemented at all residences on the Bloemfontein Campus today, and no acts of violence or intimidation have been reported in residences. The situation on the Bloemfontein Campus grounds is monitored carefully to ensure calmness.

Messages doing the round on social media today that management agreed to a 0% increase in fees in 2016 are not true. The university management are continuously communicating with the Student Representative Council (SRC), while working incessantly to restore peace and stability on the Bloemfontein Campus.

“Although the university management supports the right of students to protest, it has a responsibility towards the university community to ensure the safety of property and people, as well as the rights of other students who do not feel inclined to participate in this movement. The university management calls on non-protesting students to remain calm and to refrain from getting into any confrontation with protesting students. This is a trying time for universities across the country, and the main concern of the UFS management is to maintain stability on the campuses,” says Prof Nicky Morgan, Acting Rector of the UFS.

 “We are committed to working together as institution in finding viable solutions to the plight of poor students at our university. The university management is also committed to participate in national initiatives to revise the manner in which universities are funded,” says Prof Morgan.

Information about the predicates and upcoming exam will be shared with students on the various communication platforms of the university on Friday 23 October 2015. Students who had to write tests or exams, but could not do so due to the protest action, will not be prejudiced.

 
Released by:
Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Brand Management)
news@ufs.ac.za
+27(0)51 401 3422
+27(0)83 645 2454


Facebook message from UFS SRC (26 October 2015)

UFS welcomes Pres Jacob Zuma’s statement about 0% increase in tuition fees for 2016 (23 October 2015)

UFS postpones examinations to Monday 2 November 2015 (23 October 2015)

Letter to students from Prof Jonathan Jansen about student protest actions at the UFS (22 October 2015)

UFS obtains court interdict against protesting students - classes will resume on 22 October 2015 (21 October 2015)

UFS management closes down all three campuses on 21 October 2015 (20 October 2015)

UFS responds to concerns around high costs of higher education (Letter from Prof Jonathan Jansen -19 October 2015)


 

 

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