Erica verticillata

Scientific name: Erica verticillata

Author: Berg.

Common name: none recorded

Family: Ericaceae

Location

African Woodland to the centre right of the Rock Garden. This area is easily located by following the road from the restaurant end of the Visitors Centre around until you meet the first road on the left. The area between the first and second road on your left is the African Woodland. You should immediately see the pink flowers of Erica verticillata throughout this area.

We are very lucky to have Erica verticillata growing here at Mount Tomah Botanic Garden as this Erica is regarded as extinct in the wild. It was endemic to the Cape Peninsula in South Africa, especially the damp sandy flats around Wynberg, Kenilworth and Zeekoeivlei which are now parts of the urban sprawl of Cape Town and smallholding agriculture. Erica verticillata apparently covered large areas of the Cape Flats until about 1980 when urban development had finally taken over its natural habitat.

Luckily there were a few cultivated plants in some botanic gardens in Europe and one bush was found by horticulturist David von Wel growing in Protea Park, Pretoria. Staff at Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden in Cape Town were alerted to the existence of this species who then commenced a program for the reintroduction of this species to the Cape Peninsula within Kirstenbosch Botanic Garden. Generally luck alone is not enough. In most instances to rediscover a species requires a directed and often lengthy search that is based on past records of previous locations.

Erica verticillata is one of 657 species in the genus Erica that in itself is grouped into 41 sections. Each section is distinct, for example Erica verticillata is in the section Evanthe, which is from the Greek ‘euanthos’ meaning very handsome flower. The flowers of the species in this section are borne on the ends of the lateral branches and are invariably very showy.

The plants of Erica verticillata have been cultivated at Mount Tomah Botanic Garden since 1988 from plant material received from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. The importance of plant collections within botanic gardens is very well illustrated by this particular reintroduction of an extinct plant species.