African Wildlife & Environment Issue 79

GARDENING FOR BIODIVERSITY

Halleria lucida is a host plant for the Wahlberg’s Emperor. This photo is of the caterpillar and the adult moth is in the next photo.

both these species are restricted to small areas in theWestern Cape. Although H. lucida is readily available from indigenous plant nurseries, it can also easily be cultivated from cuttings or from the small seeds embedded in the jelly-like flesh of the fruit. In fact, it was one of the first of our indigenous trees to have been cultivated and was recorded as growing in the Government’s Gardens in Cape Town as early as 1811. At the time of the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, a specimen was already cherished in a greenhouse in England, but many South African gardeners have, even today, yet to discover this marvelous plant! While

overseas commercial growers are exploiting a lucrative market cultivating and selling our natural treasures, local gardeners have generally opted for imported plants. Many of these foreign species have now become invasive alien plants. So unfortunately, there is always the chance that the pretty exotic flower in your garden is tomorrow’s environmental nightmare! For example, who would have thought, in the days when the attractive Lantana Lantana camara was a prime garden subject, that it would become rated as one of the ten worst weeds in the entire world? As early as 1650, L. camara plants were being sent from tropical America to European

39 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 79 (2021)