Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden has installed a garden alarm system to stop flower thieves raiding the world-famous site on the slopes of Table Mountain.
Earlier this year, 13 cycads were stolen from the garden - a crime that took garden authorities by surprise because it targeted a valuable cycad species first brought to Kirstenbosch more than 100 years ago from the Eastern Cape.
The Albany cycad is a critically endangered plant that has to be "hand-pollinated" because there are less than 100 specimens left growing in the wild. It is much prized by plant collectors worldwide. The value of the stolen plants was estimated at around R200000.
Some cycad owners go so far as to have microchips embedded in their plants so they can be identified.
Cycads are botanical relics that can be hundreds if not thousands of years old. The missing Kirstenbosch plants were relative youngsters at between 11 and 23 years.
Kirstenbosch curator Philip le Roux this week confirmed the alarm system and said the recent theft was being investigated by the Hawks.
"We've put in a whole series of motion detector sensors specifically surrounding the very valuable species," Le Roux said.
"The system is linked to armed response and to our security, which will act as a deterrent because anybody coming to dig out these plants would need to be there for quite a time. You can't just do a smash and grab."
Le Roux said the cycads would also be treated with a "microchip spray" to allow specific plants to be identified if required.
The Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden in Roodepoort and the Lowveld National Botanical Garden in Nelspruit have also experienced thefts.
Le Roux said the Kirstenbosch cycad thieves "knew exactly the right species and they took the right gender as well".
A reward of R10000 has been offered for information leading to the arrest of the culprits.
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