African Wildlife & Environment Issue 81

GARDENING FOR BIODIVERSITY

T he most frequently seen variety of Cotyledon orbiculata. (Photograph C Dalzell.)

PIG'S EARS – a no-nonsense plant

South Africa boasts the richest concentration of succulents in the world and one of the very first of these to be recorded was Pig’s Ears Cotyledon orbiculata . In 1624 the boat on which Dr Justus Heurnius was traveling, between Holland and Indonesia, stopped over in Table Bay. Heurnius, a missionary and medical practitioner, was the first European to record South African plants and his drawing of C. orbiculata was published in Amsterdam during 1644.

Charles and Julia Botha

Of the eleven South African species in the genus Cotyledon , C. orbiculata is the most widespread. Divided into five natural varieties, and several more created cultivars and hybrids, C. orbiculata is found in every province of the country as well as in Namibia and Angola. Only in parts of the Mpumalanga and Limpopo lowveld is it replaced by the similar looking

This was several years before Van Riebeeck arrived at the Cape but, even today, C. orbiculata is still found growing wild on the lower slopes of Table Mountain. It is not known who actually introduced C. orbiculata plants into Europe but they have flourished there, in cultivation, for several hundred years.

39 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 81 (2022)