Education: fynbos
About 1 700 species of these fascinating Cape plants are on the brink of extinction. Let’s learn about this kind of vegetation
SOUTH Africa is home to the Cape Floral Region, one of the world’s richest areas in terms of botanical diversity. In this small area there’s a larger variety of plants than in the Amazon rainforest! Most of the 9 000 plant species found here are fynbos. Let’s find out more.
WHAT IS FYNBOS?
The Cape vegetation known as fynbos can be described as hardy plants with evergreen leaves. These shrub-like plants grow in winter rainfall areas in sandy, nutrient-poor soil.
Fynbos (Afrikaans for “fine bush”) occurs in an area that stretches in a wide arc from the Bokkeveld Plateau near Vanrhynsdorp on the West Coast to Grahamstown and Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape, and includes the Cape Peninsula and Boland areas of the Western Cape. But the fynbos found in the western part of this area has far greater variety and density than in the east.
Fynbos includes four plant types: S shrubs with large leaves (proteoid) S bulbs (geophytes) S heather-like shrubs (ericoid) S reed-like plants (restoid)
The variety of fynbos species is what makes this area so special. Table Mountain alone has more plant species than the whole of the British Isles! Two-thirds of fynbos species are endemic, which means they’re found nowhere else on the planet.
USES
The beauty of fynbos flowers makes them highly sought-after. Many popular garden plants, such as geraniums and freesias, originate from fynbos, while proteas are popular worldwide. Tons of these and other wildflowers from the Western Cape are exported every year, especially to Europe and Asia where they’re used in flower arrangements and bouquets. SA’s wildflowers sustain an industry that provides jobs to thousands of people.
As the rooibos plant is a type of fynbos, the Cape Floral Region has also given rise to the rooibos industry. In SA about 8 000 tons of rooibos are used to make tea or other products each year, and about 6 000 tons are exported to more than 30 countries worldwide.
Rooibos has many health benefits as it’s caffeine-free, contains antioxidants and cancer-fighting elements, has low tannin levels and has no negative side-effects. This type of fynbos is used not only as tea but in beauty products and food items.
Fynbos rushes (reeds) are used for thatched roof houses. For thousands of years the Khoikhoi used it to weave thatch huts that were waterproof in the Cape’s wet winters and comfortably cool in summer.
ENDANGERED SPECIES
About 1 700 fynbos species are on the brink of extinction. This is mostly because of urban development – the expansion of neighbourhoods and roads around cities and towns is destroying the natural environment. Agriculture and forestry are also destroying large areas of fynbos. And with development has come a range of alien plants, such as wattle and acacia from Australia, which pose a great threat to local plant life.
Luckily there are people hard at work in the field of fynbos conservation, such as the programme Cape Action for People and the Environment (CAPE). There are also several nature reserves that conserve unique fynbos and endemic fauna (animals).
Animals that call the fynbos habitat home include baboons, jackals and antelope such as the bontebok (Damaliscus pygargus), Cape grysbok (Raphicerus melanotis) and the common duiker (Cephalophinae). The Cape sugarbird (Promerops cafer) can often be seen hovering in fields looking for the nectar of protea flowers.
Another animal with a specific fynbos habitat is the critically endangered geometric tortoise (Psammobates geometricus). This small creature was actually thought to be extinct by 1960 before a few specimens were discovered in 1972.
Another critically endangered fynbos animal is Rose’s ghost frog (Heleophryne rosei). This frog is so rare it’s found only on the southern and eastern slopes of Table Mountain and nowhere else in the world. Its habitat is also under threat.