The World Wide Fund’s Table Mountain Fund, aimed at conserving the Cape floral kingdom’s unique biodiversity, is more than R 1/2 million richer after a Camps Bay couple, Rose and Mike Hainebach, bid for the naming rights of a newly discovered Iris, reports New Age.
The iris was discovered at Jacobsbaai on the Cape West Coast by local farmer Koos Claassens. It is currently being documented by taxonomist John Manning of the South African National Biodiversity Institute at Kirstenbosch. If approved, its botanical name will become Moreae Hainebachium. The discovery has attracted media interest in the United Kingdom, a country in which Iris bulbs are especially popular amongst the royal family. 
The Hainebach’s bid, at an auction held at the Mount Nelson Hotel, and against worldwide bids, far exceeded the other bids received. The couple justified their extravagance in that it was a good way to make a donation to the Table Mountain Fund, and the work that it does, and it has the ‘additional benefit of the naming rights for our family legacy’.
Western Cape Minister of Tourism Alan Winde said he was delighted about the discovery of the Iris, and its media coverage, because it is good for ‘ building the brand of the Western Cape’, and it focuses on Table Mountain and the region. The Chairman of the World Wide Fund for Nature in South Africa, Morné du Plessis, said there could be more rare Iris discoveries, reflecting the “absolute treasure chest of biodiversity in the Western Cape”. The auction had been a ‘marvellous opportunity for us to create a little bit of hype around the wonders of the fynbos, the fact that new species are being discovered’.
Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage
Despite good publicity for the WWF-SASSI classification of seafood available in restaurants, and for sale in supermarkets on MasterChef (Seasons 1 and 3), and on ‘Hayden Quinn: South Africa‘, a study has found that many consumers do not question the sustainability of the fish they buy!