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Fauna Of South Africa
The fauna of South Africa is diverse and largely typical of the ecosystems in Africa. South Africa is ranked sixth out of the world's 17 megadiverse countries. Many endemic species are unique to South Africa. The country is among the world leaders in conservation, but at the time wildlife is threatened by poaching and canned hunting. Habitats The topography and geology of South Africa is extremely varied, resulting in a wide variety of habitats. Due to this, South Africa enjoys high biodiversity, and is ranked sixth out of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries. In the extreme northwest of the country is true desert, which is the southernmost end of the Namib desert, a desert that is at least 55 million years old, making it the oldest desert in the world. This arid corner intergrades into the extensive semi-arid Karoo found across much of South Africa, covering the Northern Cape and into parts of the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and the Free State. This biome used to be extens ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Composite Satellite Image Of South Africa ,Eswatini And Lesotho
Composite or compositing may refer to: Materials * Composite material, a material that is made from several different substances ** Metal matrix composite, composed of metal and other parts ** Cermet, a composite of ceramic and metallic materials ** Dental composite, a substance used to fill cavities in teeth ** Composite armor, a type of tank armor * Alloy, a mixture of a metal and another element * Mixture, the combination of several different substances without chemical reaction Mathematics * Composite number, a positive integer that has at least one factor other than one or itself Science * Composite particle, a particle which is made up of smaller particles * ''Compositae'' or "composite family" of flowering plants * Composite volcano, a layered conical volcano * Compositing, another name for superposed epoch analysis, a statistical method used to analyze time series involving multiple events Technology * Compositing, combining of visual elements from separate sources i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kalahari
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal desert, whose name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". Etymology ''Kalahari'' is derived from the Tswana word ''Kgala'', meaning "the great thirst", or ''Kgalagadi'', meaning "a waterless place"; the Kalahari has vast areas covered by red sand without any permanent surface water. History The Kalahari Desert was not always a dry desert. The fossil flora and fauna from Gcwihaba Cave in Botswana indicates that the region was much wetter and cooler at least from 30 to 11 thousand BP (before present) especially after 17,500 BP. Geography Drainage of the desert is by dry black valleys, seasonally inundated pans and the large salt pans of the Makgadikgadi Pan in Botswana and Etosha Pan in Namibia. The only permanent river, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plumbago Auriculata
''Plumbago auriculata'', the cape leadwort, blue plumbago or Cape plumbago, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to South Africa."Botanica. The Illustrated AZ of over 10000 garden plants and how to cultivate them", p 691. Könemann, 2004. Nico Vermeulen:"The Complete Encyclopedia of Container Plants", p. 216. Rebo International, Netherlands, 1998. The specific epithet ''auriculata'' means "with ears", referring to the shape of the leaves. Description ''Plumbago auriculata'' is an evergreen shrub, often grown as a climber, ascending rapidly to tall by wide in nature, though much smaller when cultivated as a houseplant. The leaves are a glossy green and grow to long. The stems are long, thin, and climbing. The leaves alternate and are 2–5 cm. The five petals are about 2 cm wide and can be pale blue, blue or violet in color. There also variations with white (''P. auriculata'' var. ''alba'') or deep blue (''P. auriculata'' 'Royal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tecoma Capensis
''Tecoma capensis'', the Cape honeysuckle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Bignoniaceae, native to southern Africa. Despite its common name, it is not closely related to the true honeysuckle. Description An erect, scrambling shrub, it grows to in height and a similar width. Normally evergreen, it may lose its leaves in colder climates. In certain habitats it may scramble, meaning that it shoots out long growth tips which lean on the stems and branches of other plants, as well as boulders, trellises, fences and walls; this can lead to the plant appearing untidy. The leaves are up to long. They are opposite, slightly serrated, green to dark-green, and pinnate with 5 to 9 oblong leaflets. The flowers are tubular, narrow, about long, and are produced at different times throughout the year. They are grouped in long terminal clusters. The flower colour ranges from orange to orange-red to apricot. Distribution The species occurs naturally in South Africa, Eswatini an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portulacaria Afra
''Portulacaria afra'' (known as elephant bush, porkbush, purslane tree and ' in Afrikaans) is a small-leaved succulent plant found in South Africa. These succulents commonly have a reddish stem and leaves that are green, but also a variegated cultivar is often seen in cultivation. They are simple to care for and make easy houseplants for a sunny location. In frost-free regions they may be used in outdoor landscaping. Description It is a soft-wooded, semi-evergreen upright shrub or small tree, usually tall. It is sometimes confused with ''Crassula ovata'' (Jade plant), which it is not closely related to. ''P. afra'' has smaller and rounder pads and more compact growth (shorter internodal spaces, down to ). It is much hardier, faster growing, more loosely branched, and has more limber tapering branches than ''Crassula'' once established. The genus ''Portulacaria'' has been shown to be an outlier, relatively unrelated to the other genera in the family, which are all restricte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aloe
''Aloe'' (; also written ''Aloë'') is a genus containing over 650 species of flowering succulent plants.WFO (2022): Aloe L. Published on the Internet;http://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-4000001341. Accessed on: 06 Nov 2022 The most widely known species is '' Aloe vera'', or "true aloe". It is called this because it is cultivated as the standard source for assorted pharmaceutical purposes. Other species, such as ''Aloe ferox'', are also cultivated or harvested from the wild for similar applications. The APG IV system (2016) places the genus in the family Asphodelaceae, subfamily Asphodeloideae. Within the subfamily it may be placed in the tribe Aloeae.Stevens, P.F. (2001 onwards).Asphodelaceae. ''Angiosperm Phylogeny Website''. Retrieved 2016-06-09. In the past, it has been assigned to the family Aloaceae (now included in the Asphodeloidae) or to a broadly circumscribed family Liliaceae (the lily family). The plant ''Agave americana'', which is sometimes called "Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euphorbia
''Euphorbia'' is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to the type genus), not just to members of the genus. Euphorbias range from tiny annual plants to large and long-lived trees. The genus has roughly 2,000 members, making it one of the largest genera of flowering plants. It also has one of the largest ranges of chromosome counts, along with ''Rumex'' and ''Senecio''. ''Euphorbia antiquorum'' is the type species for the genus ''Euphorbia''. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in ''Species Plantarum''. Some euphorbias are widely available commercially, such as poinsettias at Christmas. Some are commonly cultivated as ornamentals, or collected and highly valued for the aesthetic appearance of their unique floral structures, such as the crown of thorns plant (''Euphorbia milii''). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thicket
A thicket is a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often dominated by only one or a few species, to the exclusion of all others. They may be formed by species that shed large numbers of highly viable seeds that are able to germinate in the shelter of the maternal plants. Thicket is used for tobacco pipes as it doesn't catch fire when burning tobacco. In some conditions, the formation or spread of thickets may be assisted by human disturbance of an area. Where a thicket is formed of briar (also spelled brier), which is a common name for any of a number of unrelated thorny plants, it may be called a briar patch. Plants termed briar include species in the genera ''Rosa'' (Rose), ''Rubus'', and ''Smilax ''Smilax'' is a genus of about 300–350 species, found in the tropics and subtropics worldwide. In China for example about 80 are found (39 of which are endemic), while there are 20 in North America north of Mexico. They are climbing flowering ...''. References H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Highveld
The Highveld (Afrikaans: ''Hoëveld'', where ''veld'' means "field") is the portion of the South African inland plateau which has an altitude above roughly 1500 m, but below 2100 m, thus excluding the Lesotho mountain regions to the south-east of the Highveld. It is home to some of the country's most important commercial farming areas, as well as its largest concentration of metropolitan centres, especially the Gauteng conurbation, which accommodates one-third of South Africa's population. Location and description The Highveld constitutes almost the whole of the Free State, and Gauteng Provinces, and portions of the surrounding areas: the western rim of Lesotho, and portions of the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, North West, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga Provinces of South Africa. The highest part of the Highveld, around 2100 m, is its northeastern well-defined boundary, where the plateau escarpment (the Mpumalanga Drakensberg) separates it from the Mpumalanga Lowveld, (containing, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savanna
A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer consisting primarily of grasses. According to '' Britannica'', there exists four savanna forms; ''savanna woodland'' where trees and shrubs form a light canopy, ''tree savanna'' with scattered trees and shrubs, ''shrub savanna'' with distributed shrubs, and ''grass savanna'' where trees and shrubs are mostly nonexistent.Smith, Jeremy M.B.. "savanna". Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Sep. 2016, https://www.britannica.com/science/savanna/Environment. Accessed 17 September 2022. Savannas maintain an open canopy despite a high tree density. It is often believed that savannas feature widely spaced, scattered trees. However, in many savannas, tree densities are higher and trees are more regularly spaced than in for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kwa-Zulu Natal
KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is located in the southeast of the country, with a long shoreline on the Indian Ocean and sharing borders with three other provinces and the countries of Mozambique, Eswatini and Lesotho. Its capital is Pietermaritzburg, and its largest city is Durban. It is the second-most populous province in South Africa, with slightly fewer residents than Gauteng. Two areas in KwaZulu-Natal have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the iSimangaliso Wetland Park and the uKhahlamba Drakensberg Park. These areas are extremely scenic as well as important to the surrounding ecosystems. During the 1830s and early 1840s, the northern part of what is now KwaZulu-Natal was established as the Zulu Kingdom while the southern part was, briefly, the Boer Natalia Repu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
