Chlorophytum mamillatum

The species is known from nine collecting localities which are considered to correspond to five to six locations. The five collecting localities at the southern edge of the Harenna Forest, on the periphery of the Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP), are considered to correspond to two locations, both in Delo Menna woreda of Bale Zone: a cluster of four collecting sites on the lower slopes of the Harenna Forest are considered to correspond to one location, while a single collecting site on the fringe of the forest and close to the Welmel River and the settlement of Shawe is considered to be a separate location. At its southern edge, the Harenna Forest blends into a mosaic of open woodland and rapidly expanding agricultural land; the woodland areas are used for dry season grazing, with nearly 60% of native resident households living in Delo Mena along the forest edge involved in transhumant pastoralism. The woodland is also used for forest beekeeping, subsistence wood extraction and forest coffee production (Wakjira et al. 2013, 2015). The main threats to the natural habitat at the altitude where the species has been recorded are therefore overgrazing by unsupervised livestock and wood harvesting. Satellite imagery reveals the proximity of extensive small-scale agriculture to the location closer to Shawe. A further threat here is also that of expanding settlements, and this also poses a threat to the four collecting localities in the forest area itself as these are situated along a road through the forest and therefore accessible to human encroachment. In addition to these threats, the Bale Mountains National Park Management Plan also identifies fire as a high-level threat in the Harenna Forest (Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority 2023); with climate change, and the projected increase in periods of drought, this threat can be expected to increase.

The four collecting localities to the south of Harar are considered to correspond to three to four locations. Two collecting localities to the southeast of Harar, which can be considered as one or two locations, are within the Babile Elephant Sanctuary. A major threat affecting the habitat of the Sanctuary is 'habitat contraction’ due to settlement, agricultural expansion and overgrazing, and other unsustainable practices such as charcoal production, with the increasing demand for charcoal destroying the woodland habitats in all the valleys (EWCA and WSD 2010, Mengistu Wale et al. 2017). All these threats can be assumed to be impacting the habitat of the species at the location to the southwest of Harar. Satellite imagery reveals that the location less than 10 km from the city of Harar is also threatened by significant habitat conversion to small-scale agriculture.