Background on the Richtersveld Desert Botanical Garden

About Pieter Van Wyk

This talk was generously sponsored by Sponsored by San Francisco Succulent and Cactus Society, Sunset Succulent Society, Mid Iowa Cactus & Succulent Society, and River City Cactus & Succulent Society. Employed full-time by South African National Parks, Pieter Van Wyk is the curator and founder of the Richtersveld Desert Botanical Garden—the newest botanical garden in South Africa and the only one located within the desert biome and a national park. His work has led to the discovery of several new species in the Richtersveld, which he is in the process of describing. Additionally, he is conducting a taxonomic revision of the genus Astridia, studying the plant community structures of the Gariep high mountains, and performing fine-scale mapping of quartz field plant communities throughout the Richtersveld.

Pieter is currently working on an extensive book detailing the region’s flora, covering 1,700 species, alongside publishing numerous taxonomic and ecological scientific papers. Since 2014, he has been involved with the South African National Biodiversity Institute’s Red List program and the IUCN Red List, revising all endemic and near-endemic species of the Gariep Centre of Endemism.