Fabulous Fynbos , jewels of the Cape Floral Kingdom
The Cape Flora Kingdom of fynbos is the tiniest, yet richest floral kingdom in the world. It holds numerous species of protea, which has captivated botanist and nature lovers since the 17th century.
- Agapanthus makes a decent fire-break
- Buchu is great for hangovers
- Sour figs can be eaten raw
- April Fool was the first flower ever collected from Table Mountain
- You can roast the seeds of pincushions to eat
South African fynbos largely makes up the tiniest floral kingdom in the world, growing in a 100-200km-wide coastal belt stretching from the West Coast to the south-east coast and never more than 200km from the sea. It comprises 80% of the Cape floral region, a unique world of finely branched plants exquisitely adapted to flourish in poor soils and widely varying rainfall.
With Nieuwoudville as its far north-western limit, the fynbos biome broadens as it curves south in the region of Cape Town, then narrows eastwards, tailing off near Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape.
Even thou the area is small, about the equivalent to the size of Portugal, there are more than 9 000 plant species of which 70% are endemic. A full 3% of all the world’s plants grow here, on less than 0.05% of the earth’s land surface. Fynbos, then, is richly detailed and delicately concentrated.
Fynbos is a Dutch word for fine-leaved plants (even though most fynbos are ironically not fine but ericoid). It is a totally unique kind of vegetation that makes up 80% of the Cape Floral Kingdom, of which two-thirds are found only in the Cape and nowhere else on earth.
To put in perspective: The Cape Peninsula alone has 2 285 species in an area a third the size of Greater London. Table Mountain, with 1500 species, alone hosts as many plants as the entire United Kingdom, making Western Cape in South Africa more botanically diverse than the richest tropical rainforest in South America. In fact, there are three times more plant species per square kilometre than rainforests the likes of the Amazon.
The extreme rarity of fynbos and the extinction threat of 1700 species prompted UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 to declare fynbos and nature reserves where it is protected as the 34th biodiversity hotspot.
Conservation
South Africa’s conservation of fynbos is critical to the survival of this botanical treasure, some of which only occur on a few hectares and nowhere else. Encouragingly, 20% of this floral kingdom is officially conserved but the sheer diversity means that much still remains unprotected.
Fire is essential for fynbos and many species’ pro-creation is linked to fierce veld fires. Even the ash nurtures the soil with essential minerals.
Fynbos is not all about plants. It is also an essential habitat for several tortoises, amphibian and reptile species as well as birds, like the beautiful sugarbird which is a fynbos endemic bird. Some animals like the grysbok- a small antelope- also depend solely on fynbos as its only habitat.
Fynbos species
Fynbos includes proteas, ericas, restios, daisies, legumes and vygies. The most popular fynbos includes proteas, ericas, restios as well as geophytess, daisies, legumes and vygies. The most popular fynbos includes buchu and rooibos ( used as a tea) and restios ( used for thatch). And, of course, those beloved geraniums and pelargoniums.
Protea is both the botanical name and the English common name of a genus of South African flowering plants, sometimes also called sugarbush (Afrikaans- suikerbos). The King Protea is originally from the Cape Town area, is the national flower of South Africa. The protea flower in local tradition represents change and hope.
