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Fynbos and the Cape Floral Kingdom

Introduction

Fynbos, literally meaning 'fine bush', is the natural vegetation of a relatively narrow strip along the South Western Cape coastal area, which stretches from the Cederberg in the Western Cape through to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.

This small region - only 90,000 km² in total - is one of the world's 6 floral kingdoms, which range from tropical rain forests to tundra. Just to put it into context, the largest floral kingdom, the Boreal, covers 42% of the world's surface across the Northern Hemisphere. The Cape Floral Kingdom covers a mere 0.04%.

This unique area is home to over a staggering 8,500 different fynbos varieties, of which more than 6,000 are found nowhere else in the world. Again, for comparison, the entire British Isles has only 1,440 different plant species.

Flowering Fynbos When you first look across an expanse of fynbos, you may think that it is all very similar and a bit uninspiring - low scrubby plants and a few bushes.

But it is only when you look closely at this heathland vegetation that you begin to appreciate the sheer diversity of the different species.

These 8,500 species make up over 40% of the total plants found in the entire of Southern Africa.

Fynbos have the ability to thrive in poor, sandy soils, and their ideal conditions are hot dry summers coupled with cold wet winters. The best time to view fynbos is from autumn to spring, when most species flower.

Plant Families

The word fynbos comes from the Dutch for fine-leaved plants, and the 3 main plant families are:

Proteas, the national flower of South Africa, and the most striking of the fynbos species. The King Protea can grow up to 2m high, and the flower head up to 30cm across.

Ericas, which are related to the European heathers.

Reeds - the most common as they are wind pollinated and replace grass as ground cover throughout the area. Hardy and unpleasant tasting, they are not favoured by grazing animals, but are harvested and used for thatching.

A large number of the fynbos species are very rare and in danger of becoming extinct, and this is why botanical gardens such as Kirstenbosch are so valuable in the preservation of this unique flora.

Fynbos and Wildlife

Although fynbos cannot support herds of large mammals (the nutrient poor soils that it favours do not provide sufficient nitrogen in the plants for the animal's dietary protein needs), it can sustain smaller mammals such as chacma baboons, rock dassies, mongoose, klipspringers, and grysbok.

Fynbos also does not support high numbers of birds (due to the lack of tall trees), but there are some bird species endemic to the south-west Cape - for example, the Cape sugarbird and the orange-breasted sunbird - who are only found amongst fynbos.

Fynbos does support large numbers of butterfly species.