Bad at Goodbyes

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Eswatini Poker.

Species Information 02:05

The Eswatini poker is a critically endangered flowering plant native to southeastern Africa, to the country of Eswatini and near its western border with the country of South Africa. Its scientific name is Kniphofia umbrina and it was first described in 1966.

Description

The Eswatini Poker is a perennial flower, it has a lifecycle with periods of growth, reproduction and dormancy that persists over multiple years. They can reach heights of 3-5 ft, with a thick elongated central stem, with roughly 8 long narrow V shaped leaves that can grow to 2 ft in length, but are only 1 inch wide. The leaves are green, have a smooth margin, the margin is the edge of the leaf, so it has smooth edges and the leaves have a relatively blunt end.

Atop the thick central stem grows an uncanny, large and lovely inflorescence. An inflorescence is a cluster of flowers. In the case of the Eswatini Poker, the inflorescence is roughly a foot tall and 2 inches in diameter with hundreds of small, inch long dusty pink tube-like cylindrical flowers; flowers that fade to a rich deep purplish brown with age. They grow in a raceme structure meaning that the flowers develop atop the stem, with the oldest flowers at the base of the cluster and the youngest at the top. The stem continues to grow and produce new flower buds at the tip while the older flowers at the base mature and age. This results in a kind spear shaped inflorescence with a striking gradient coloring of bright pink on top, darkening downward as the older flowers are pollinated and begin seed growth, or go unpollinated and the blooms wilt.

Reproduction

Each tiny flower has 3-6 exserted stamen. Stamen are the pollen producing male reproductive organ, broadly consisting of two main parts, the filament, which is a slender stalk, tipped by the anther, a generally small oblong structure that produces and stores pollen. Exserted stamen then means that the stamens protrude, extend beyond the flower’s petals. In the case of the Eswatini Poker, the filament are yellow-green and the anther are brown-ish, adding additional coloring and a stringy texture to the remarkable inflorescence.

Though I could not find direct observation in my research, the Eswatini Poker is most likely pollinated by birds. Their flowers evidence features seemingly adapted for bird pollination: nectar-rich, bright colors, and the downward-facing tubular shape of the flower provides long billed birds, like sunbirds easier access to the nectar.

The plant blooms January to March, and after successful pollination, the flowers develop into small, dry fruit capsules containing numerous tiny seeds. Small and lightweight, it is most likely that these seeds are dispersed by the wind.

They are long-lived, and slow growing, taking as many as 8 years to reach reproductive maturity and first flowering.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

To be sipped from, to be thirsted for, to sing of my sweetness in purple and pink, in the dream to bend downward in offering, to give nourishment. Ours is a world of great generosity, a tangle of needs and hospitalities, of sacrifice and sustenance. And in the dream, for a moment, to be present to those relations, to be of it, in the grand mutualism, the unbounded touching of life to life, to simply be sipped from and savored.

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Eswatini Poker is native to southeastern Africa to the nation of Eswatini, a small landlocked country, bordered on three sides by South Africa and then Mozambique to the north. Roughly 7000 sq miles in land area, it is slightly smaller than the US state of New Jersey.

The Eswatini Poker’s native habitat is in the northwest of the country, roughly 10 miles north of Mbabane, Eswatini’s second-largest city, near the Mbuluzi River, and the Hawane Nature Reserve. The reserve was originally established in 1978 with the specific intent of conserving the Eswatini Poker and most of the remaining population of the flower is found within the reserve’s roughly 1 sq mile.

This is a high altitude marshy grassland, nearly a mile above sea level, with soft rolling hills, and warm wet summers and cold dry winters. Summer high temperatures average in the upper 70s°F, in winter temps average in the 40s°F. The region receives roughly 50 inches of annual precipitation but it is highly seasonal. The swamp is inundated in the wet summer months, but will often dry out towards the end of winter before the rains begin again. The soil is generally acidic and trees are scarce; there is little concentration of dense foliage.

The Eswatini Poker shares its habitat with 

Lanner Falcon, Pied Kingfisher, Malachite Sunbird, Forest Canary, Buff-streaked Chat, Grass Owl, Cape Baboon, Common Purple-glossed Snake, Ground Woodpecker, Bald Ibis, African Marsh Harrier, Mountain Reedbuck, Striped Flufftail, Swee Waxbill, Black Tilapia, White-faced Whistling Duck, Chorister Robin, Egyptian Goose and many, many more.

Threats

Historically the Eswatini Poker population was significantly reduced by direct human activity, including habitat transformation for agriculture, growing maize, and infrastructure development, road and dam construction, in the 1970s.

Today human-induced habitat loss continues to threaten the species through continued clearing for agriculture and now housing developments. And in areas not cleared remaining native plant life is overgrazed by human introduced domesticated livestock.

Additionally the broad ecosystem and the Eswatini Poker itself are threatened by the spread of invasive plant species, in particular Black Wattle, a species that can consume four times the amount of water of native species and whose seeds remain viable over multiple seasons, so it both takes vital resources from and reproductively outcompetes native plant life.

Human induced climate change is a longterm threat. Changing weather patterns resulting in wetter wet seasons and drier dry seasons, affect the balance of the poker habitat

Conservation

Fortunately the Eswatini Poker has seen decades of conservation attention and is legally protected both nationally and internationally.

But historically, botanists have struggled with offsite cultivation. In the late 1970s, nearly two thousand individuals were relocated from Hawane to a nearby national park, none survived. In the late 1980s focused attempts by national and international Botanic Gardens resulted in the some initially successful cultivation, but by 2024, only two small offsite collections remain.

In its native habitat most of the remaining population of Eswatini Poker are found on the Hawane Reserve but that land is not actively protected from livestock grazing. So that threat persists. Some subpopulations on privately owned land are being protected by landowners, one subpopulation is fenced in against potential grazers.

In 2023 three individuals cultivated off site were replanted in the species’ native habitat, though their longterm success is yet unclear.

The Eswatini Poker has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2024 and their population is currently in decline.

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 21 Eswatini Poker remain in the wild.

Citations 19:22

Information for today’s show about the Eswatini Poker was compiled from:

Eswatini Biodiversity – http://eswatinibiodiversity.com/biodiversity/endemics2.asp 

Braun, K. & Loffler, L. 2024. Kniphofia umbrina. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2024: e.T221350018A221361752. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2024-1.RLTS.T221350018A221361752.en

“The IUCN plant red data book : comprising Red data sheets on 250 selected plants threatened on a world scale.” Synge, Hugh. Switzerland: IUCN, 1978. – https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/5780 

JSTOR Global Plants Database – https://plants.jstor.org/compilation/Kniphofia.umbrina 

Loffler, L. 2021. PlantLife SouthAfrica Volume 51.7, July 2021. Eight new plant locality records for Eswatini from Malolotja Nature Reserve. – 

https://plantlifesouthafrica.blogspot.com/2021/07/plantlife-volume-517-july-2021-eight.html

Ramsar Sites of Wetlands of International Importance – https://rsis.ramsar.org/ris/2121?language=en 

South African Journal of Science. v.97. no. 11-12 609-616. “Conservation biology of Kniphofia umbrina, a critically endangered Swaziland serpentine endemic.” Witkowski, E. & Dahlmann, L.A. & Boycott, R.C. (2001). – https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC97233 

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kniphofia_umbrina 

Music 20:37

Pledge 26:12

I honor the lifeforce of the Eswatini Poker. I will commit its name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

And so, in the name of the Eswatini Poker I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.