Selling arum lilies without a permit still banned due to red data list protection status

CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit speaks to Gianpaolo Gilardi, horticulturist with the South African Botanical Society at Kirstenbosch.

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Arum lilies, a wildflower considered endangered on the red data list, are in plentiful bloom in some parts of the Cape.

The red data list is the world's leading indicator of the health of global biodiversity, a comprehensive system for assessing the extinction risk of species and informing conservation.

Despite their full bloom in the Cape, these flowers remain illegal to sell for conservation purposes, according to local by-laws.

However, arum lilies are being sold at specific intersections along the R304 to Stellenbosch.

Gilardi explains that you might see people pick and sell these lilies at several intersections because these species are of "least concern on the red data list."

"If they were critically endangered or considered extinct in the wild then I think there would be more of an outcry."

- Gianpaolo Gilardi, Horticulturist - South African Botanical Society at Kirstenbosch

Gilardi adds that the City of Cape Town is meant to give hawkers selling these flowers a permit to do so.

According to regulatory body, the Western Cape Nature Conservation Act, the ban on selling arum lilies at intersections is because vendors need to prove that they have permission from a private or public landowner that you have permission to harvest arum lilies and any type of flower from that land space, Kiewit notes.

"People are not supposed to collect wildflowers alongside the road, even if they seem to be in abundance."

- Gianpaolo Gilardi, Horticulturist - South African Botanical Society at Kirstenbosch

While some people believe the arum lily is protected because of the arum lily frog, the two species have a similar habitat, but are not dependent on each other to survive. 

"They live in a similar habitat, in seasonal wetlands and near rivers, so the frog gets a nice sheltered environment within the flower when it rains... so they might not be specifically reliant on that species for their survival, but they take advantage of the situation... so maybe a little more opportunistic – but if the flowers are not there, they'll look for the next form of accommodation."

- Gianpaolo Gilardi, Horticulturist - South African Botanical Society at Kirstenbosch

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