Kaapsehoop Cycad

Available data suggest that there are fewer than 50 plants remaining in the wild and possibly even less than that. The population originally consisted of a relatively large subpopulation in the Kaapsehoop area (early estimates of 1,700 plants) with smaller subpopulations occurring at Mariepskop (75 stems counted in 1970), Eswatini (25 plants) and KwaZulu Natal. Population surveys in 1990 (K. Zunckel MSc) counted 578 plants at Kaapsehoop, 182 on nearby farms and only 55 stems at Mariepskop. Zunckel (1990) estimated that poaching was resulting in the loss of one plant a month at the more accessible sites. By 2016, it was estimated that the population had declined by 97% due to poaching to supply the horticultural trade and private collections (Scientific Authority 2016). The subpopulations in KwaZulu Natal, Eswatini and Mariepskop had by then all been extirpated. Surveys underway in 2020-2021 detected only a single plant in the Kaapsehoop area (W. van Staden pers. comm.) and there is one other known site with 5-10 mature plants. Given the extremely low numbers and wide separation of the surviving plants, it should be regarded as functionally extinct in the Wild.