Fynbos

Coordinates: 34°10′0″S 18°22′30″E / 34.16667°S 18.37500°E / -34.16667; 18.37500
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Mountain fynbos on the Cape Peninsula
A 360 degree photograph of fynbos in the Groot Winterhoek section of the Cape Fold Mountains about 18 months after a fire. New plants can be seen in various stages of growth following the fire. The infertile white soil that fynbos tends to grow in can also be clearly seen.

Fynbos (

Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic.[3] This land continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it.[citation needed
]

Etymology

The word fynbos is often confusingly said to mean "fine bush" in Afrikaans, as bos means "bush". Typical fynbos foliage is ericoid rather than fine. The term, in its pre-Afrikaans, Dutch form, fynbosch, was recorded by Noble as being in casual use in the late 19th century.[4] In the early 20th century, John Bews referred to: "South-Western or Cape Region of Macchia or Fynbosch". He said: "In this well-known region where the rain occurs in winter and the summers are more or less dry, the dominant vegetation is of a sclerophyllous type and there is little or no natural grassland, though there are many kinds of grass..."[5] He also refers to a high degree of endemism in the grasses in that region. Elsewhere he speaks of the term as "...applied by the inhabitants of the Cape to any sort of small woodland growth that does not include timber trees"; in the current vernacular, this still is the effective sense of the word.[1] However, in the technical, ecological sense, the constraints are more demanding. In the latter half of the 20th century, "fynbos" gained currency as the term for the "distinctive vegetation of the southwestern Cape".[1]

Cape Floral Kingdom

The Cape Floral Kingdom (Capensis) is one of only six floristic kingdoms in the world. It is also the smallest and richest per unit of area.
Main article: Cape Floristic Region

Fynbos – which grows in a 100-to-200-km-wide coastal belt stretching from

Cape floral kingdom
, where it accounts for half of the surface area and 80% of the plant species. The fynbos in the western regions is richer and more varied than in the eastern regions of South Africa.

Of the world's six

Table Mountain in Cape Town
supports 2,200 species, more than the entire United Kingdom. Thus, although the fynbos covers only 6% of the area of southern Africa, it has half the species on the subcontinent – and in fact has almost one in five of all African plant species so far described.

Five main river systems traverse the Cape floral kingdom: the

Little Karoo basin and the South Coast Forelands; and the Baviaanskloof and Gamtoos Rivers
to the east.

Flora

Peninsula Shale Fynbos flora on Devils Peak, Cape Town
Gladiolus alatus flowers in Cape fynbos

The most conspicuous components of the flora are evergreen sclerophyllous plants, many with ericoid leaves and gracile habit, as opposed to timber forest. Several plant families are conspicuous in fynbos; the Proteaceae are prominent, with genera such as Protea, Leucospermum (the "pincushions"), and Leucadendron (the silver tree and "cone bushes"). Proteas are represented by many species and are prominent in the landscape, generally with large striking flowers, many of which are pollinated by birds, and others by small mammals. Most of these do not have anything like ericoid leaves, and nor do most Rhamnaceae, Fabaceae, or Geraniaceae. Fynbos Ericaceae include more species of Erica than all other regions combined. They are popularly called heaths and are generally smaller plants bearing many small, tubular or globular flowers and ericoid leaves. Restionaceae also occur in greater variety in fynbos than anywhere else; their species are superficially grass-like. Many of them grow in wet areas such as seasonal marshes and spongy basins in the sources of mountain streams, but others grow in decidedly arid conditions.

Depending on the locality and the aspects under discussion, several other families have equal claim to being characteristic, including Asteraceae, Rutaceae, and Iridaceae.[1] More than 1400 bulb species occur among the fynbos, of which 96 are Gladiolus and 54 Lachenalia. Areas that are dominated by "renosterbos", Elytropappus rhinocerotis, (Asteraceae) are known as Renosterveld (Afrikaans for "rhinoceros field").[1]

Vegetation types

See also: List of vegetation types of South Africa

Fynbos vegetation types, code FF:[7]

Fauna

The fynbos is home to many unique and endemic animals, with seven species of endemic bird and an unknown number of endemic reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods. The seven avian endemics include the Cape rockjumper, Cape sugarbird, Victorin's warbler, Orange-breasted sunbird, Protea canary, Cape siskin, and Fynbos buttonquail.

Ecoregions

The fynbos area has been divided into two very similar ecoregions: the lowland fynbos (below 300 m above sea level) on the sandy soil of the west coast, and the montane fynbos of the Cape Fold Belt.

Lowland fynbos, in this case Hangklip Sand Fynbos on the Cape Peninsula
Montane fynbos, in this case Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos on the Cape Peninsula
Renosterveld, in this case Swartland Shale Renosterveld

The Lowland Fynbos and Renosterveld experiences regular winter rainfall, especially to the west of

Tsitsikamma to Gqeberha
.

The flora of the lowlands contains a high number of endemic species, and tends to favour larger plants than those growing on the hillier areas. They include the larger Restionaceae such as species of

Rhus and other Anacardiaceae on the coastal sands; the classic fynbos of the sandplains of the West Coast Forelands, and the Agulhas Plain; the grassy fynbos of the hillier and wetter areas of the South and South-Eastern Coast Forelands; areas where fynbos and renosterveld are mixed; coastal renosterveld on the West and South Coast Forelands; and the inland renosterveld of the drier inland Little Karoo and Warm Bokkeveld.[8]

The area is also home to a large number of endemic creatures that have adapted to life in this area, such as the

Hyperolius horstockii
).

The Montane Fynbos and Renosterveld is the area above 300 m (980 ft), a total of 45,000 km2 (17,000 sq mi) of the Cape Fold Mountains. The same level of floral variety, including all three characteristic fynbos families, is found there, but ericas predominate. Because the higher and wetter areas are more protected and contain important water sources, the original flora is more intact than in the lowlands; but agriculture and global warming are still threats. The region includes the mountains in the west from the

Laingsburg to Willowmore, and the inselberg
hills within the Little Karoo. About half of these areas are originally fynbos, and about half are renosterveld.

Many different microclimates occur, so the flora changes from west to east, and also varies with altitude up the hillsides away from the coast and according to compass direction. Lower elevations are covered with protea fynbos, with ericas taking over further up. Plant species include pincushions (

Oreotragus oreotragus). The extinct blue antelope and quagga
were also fynbos natives.

Economic uses

honeybush (Cyclopia intermedia) are of economic importance, grown and harvested in large quantities in the Cederberg
area, and providing important exports. Restios continue to be used for thatching, as they have for hundreds or even thousands of years. Proteas and other floral species are grown in many areas and their flowers harvested for export.

In many areas with Mediterranean climates, fynbos species have become popular garden plants, in particular aloes and geraniums, and in cooler regions are used as window plants.

A very large number of fynbos plant species are used in traditional medicine, and while only a tiny proportion have as yet been subjected to formal testing, many have already been identified as having medicinal properties.[9][10][11]

Threats and conservation

The regrowth of fynbos species, from around the trunk of a fallen invasive pine tree. Cape Town.

The fynbos is the region of South Africa most affected by

sand dunes.[14] In 1997 it was estimated that invasion caused the fynbos region to decline in value by US$750 million per year.[12]

The Working for Water (WfW) program was started in 1995 by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to control these invasive species which were shown to sequester 9.95% of usable surface water runoff.[12][14] Since then, over 100,000 hectares of land have been cleared of invasive species while providing jobs to around 20,000 people per year, most of which are women and unskilled workers.[13] Systematic monitoring of WfW's progress is lacking but there is anecdotal evidence that endemic silver peas have returned to Table Mountain after being thought extinct.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 9781770072657
    .
  2. ^ "Lowland fynbos and renosterveld". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund. Retrieved 26 January 2010.
  3. ^ a b "Fynbos, South Africa". panda.org. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  4. ^ Noble, John (1875). Descriptive handbook of the Cape Colony: its condition and resources. Juta – via Internet Archive.
  5. ^ Bews, John William (1918). The grasses and grasslands of South Africa. Pietermaritzburg, P. David & Sons, Ltd., Printers – via Internet Archive.
  6. S2CID 19960784
    .
  7. ^ Mucina, L.; Rutherford, M.C.; Powrie, L.W. (eds.). "The Vegetation Map of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland" (Version 2012. ed.).
  8. ^ "Lowland fynbos and renosterveld". Terrestrial Ecoregions. World Wildlife Fund.
  9. ^ "Working with fynbos – Fynbos Hub". fynboshub.co.za. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  10. ^ "Pig's ears and buchu brandy: medicinal plants of the fynbos – Table Mountain Aerial Cableway – Official Website". tablemountain.net. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  11. ^ "Commercialization of South African Indigenous Crops: Aspects of Research and Cultivation of Products". purdue.edu. Retrieved 15 January 2017.
  12. ^ a b c d "STATUS OF INVASIVE TREE SPECIES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA". Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  13. ^ a b "Working for Water Programme". Department of Environmental Affairs. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
  14. ^
    ISBN 978-0-226-03601-4
    .

External links

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