During a botanical expedition to the northern section of the Skeleton Coast National Park, Namibia, in May 2019, Wessel Swanepoel encountered an unfamiliar succulent shrublet on the summit of the Agaatberg Mountain, approximately 8 km east of Cape Fria. The plants were in flower, enabling material to be collected and the plants to be identified as an undescribed species of Crassothonna.

The Crassothonna genus is endemic to the flora of the southern Africa region with previously thirteen described species of which six species occur in Namibia. The newly described C. agaatbergensis is only known from the northern part of the Skeleton Coast and endemic to the Kaokoveld Centre of Endemism, a region rich in range-restricted species that is straddling northwestern Namibia and southwestern Angola. C. agaatbergensis forms perennial shrublets on basalt under harsh desert conditions. Based on IUCN Red List categories and criteria, the conservation status for the new species is recommended as Endangered.

The article can be cited as:

Swanepoel, W. and De Cauwer, V., 2019. Crassothonna agaatbergensis (Asteraceae), a new species from the Skeleton Coast, Namibia. Phytotaxa 427(3), 209-215.

Author(s): A. Nott