Succulent smuggling: why are South Africa’s rare desert plants vanishing? Nick Dall In May 2020, 10mm of rain fell at Sendelingsdrif Rest Camp in South Africa’s most north-westerly corner. It may not have been good news for visitors to the Richtersveld’s national park, which straddles the border with Namibia, but the rain, including 200mm on the nearby mountains, was a welcome respite for the world heritage site’s flora and fauna. After nine years of almost no rain, Pieter van Wyk, a 32-year-old self-taught botanist and head of the |Ai-|Ais/Richtersveld transfrontier park’s nursery, was elated to see several plant species flower for the first time in almost a decade.