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Kamiesberge00
The Kamiesberg or Kamiesberge (Khoikhoi ''"Th'amies"'' = ''"jumble"''), is a mountain range of jumbled granite inselbergs or bornhardts dotted over sandy plains and centered on Kamieskroon in Namaqualand in South Africa. This range is very like the Matopos of Zimbabwe in appearance. It stretches for about 140 km (60 mi) from Garies in the south to Springbok in the north and forms a plateau between the Sandveld of the Cape West Coast and Bushmanland in the east, with the Hardveld of the mountainous central Kamiesberg escarpment in the midst. History The region was formerly occupied by Khoikhoi who were nomadic pastoralists. The buildings of Kamieskroon were moved from a previous location known as Bowesdorp, named after the village doctor. Steep granite hills and a shortage of water hindered development, so that it was relocated. The foundations of the original village may still be seen in a rocky ravine some 8 km north of Kamieskroon. The Leliefontein mission st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kamiesberge00
The Kamiesberg or Kamiesberge (Khoikhoi ''"Th'amies"'' = ''"jumble"''), is a mountain range of jumbled granite inselbergs or bornhardts dotted over sandy plains and centered on Kamieskroon in Namaqualand in South Africa. This range is very like the Matopos of Zimbabwe in appearance. It stretches for about 140 km (60 mi) from Garies in the south to Springbok in the north and forms a plateau between the Sandveld of the Cape West Coast and Bushmanland in the east, with the Hardveld of the mountainous central Kamiesberg escarpment in the midst. History The region was formerly occupied by Khoikhoi who were nomadic pastoralists. The buildings of Kamieskroon were moved from a previous location known as Bowesdorp, named after the village doctor. Steep granite hills and a shortage of water hindered development, so that it was relocated. The foundations of the original village may still be seen in a rocky ravine some 8 km north of Kamieskroon. The Leliefontein mission st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goegap Nature Reserve
The Goegap Nature Reserve is a semi-desert nature reserve in Northern Cape, South Africa and lies around east of Springbok. The area was once used to graze livestock and was proclaimed in 1966 as a reserve then fenced in 1969 and wildlife introduced shortly afterward. It was originally known as the Hester Malan Nature Reserve. After several extensions, the park currently covers an area of . The name ''Goegap'' comes from the Khoekhoe word for "watering hole." Geography Goegap is part of the Succulent Karoo transitioning into the Namaqualand Broken Veld, with an average rainfall of per annum. The temperatures are extreme, including frost in the winter and temperatures over in the summer. The area includes wide, sandy plains and mountains, the highest is Carolusberg at . There are roads for normal cars and tracks for 4x4 in the reserve. Looping trails ranging in length from 2 to 17 km start from the succulent garden. Biodiversity The main attraction is the desert bloom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Coast, Western Cape
The West Coast is a region of the Western Cape province in South Africa and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean on the west and the Swartland region on the east. The region stretches for over 400 km from north to south and is well known for its scenic beauty and fertile fishing grounds. The main towns in this region are Saldanha, Paternoster, Vredenburg, Velddrif, St. Helena Bay, Langebaan, Hopefield, Darling and Yzerfontein. The region's main nature reserve is the West Coast National Park The West Coast National Park lies north of Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The park is found inside of the Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve, part of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme. It is bordered by the At .... {{Western Cape Province Landforms of the Western Cape Coasts of South Africa ... [...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] |
Acacia Erioloba
''Vachellia erioloba'', the camel thorn, giraffe thorn, or Kameeldoring in Afrikaans, still more commonly known as ''Acacia erioloba'', is a tree of southern Africa in the family Fabaceae. Its preferred habitat is the deep dry sandy soils in parts of South Africa, Botswana, the western areas of Zimbabwe and Namibia. It is also native to Angola, south-west Mozambique, Zambia and Eswatini. The tree was first described by Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer and Johann Franz Drège in 1836. The camel thorn is a protected tree in South Africa. The tree can grow up to 20 metres high. It is slow-growing, very hardy to drought and fairly frost-resistant. The light-grey colored thorns reflect sunlight, and the bipinnate leaves close when it is hot. The wood is dark reddish-brown in colour and extremely dense and strong. It is good for fires, which leads to widespread clearing of dead trees and the felling of healthy trees. It produces ear-shaped pods, favoured by many herbivores including c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aloidendron Dichotomum
''Aloidendron dichotomum'', formerly ''Aloe dichotoma'', the quiver tree or kokerboom, is a tall, branching species of succulent plant, indigenous to Southern Africa, specifically in the Northern Cape province of South Africa, and parts of Southern Namibia. Naming Known as ''choje'' to the indigenous San people, the quiver tree gets its English common name from the San people practice of hollowing out the tubular branches of ''Aloidendron dichotomum'' to form quivers for their arrows. The specific epithet ''"dichotomum"'' refers to how the stems repeatedly branch into two ("dichotomous" branching) as the plant grows. This species was moved to the genus '' Aloidendron'' as ''Aloidendron dichotomum'' in 2013. Related species Three separate species, ''A. dichotomum'', '' A. pillansii'' and '' A. ramosissimum'' inhabit the same arid areas of the Richtersveld and the Namib Desert around the South African-Namibian border. The three have been given different ratings on the IUCN R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Species
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, the Cape sugarbird is found exclusively in southwestern South Africa and is therefore said to be ''endemic'' to that particular part of the world. An endemic species can be also be referred to as an ''endemism'' or in scientific literature as an ''endemite''. For example '' Cytisus aeolicus'' is an endemite of the Italian flora. '' Adzharia renschi'' was once believed to be an endemite of the Caucasus, but it was later discovered to be a non-indigenous species from South America belonging to a different genus. The extreme opposite of an endemic species is one with a cosmopolitan distribution, having a global or widespread range. A rare alternative term for a species that is endemic is "precinctive", which applies to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Succulent Karoo
The Succulent Karoo is a ecoregion defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature to include regions of desert in South Africa and Namibia, and a biodiversity hotspot. The geographic area chosen by the WWF for what they call 'Succulent Karoo' does not correspond to the actual Karoo. Geography The Succulent Karoo stretches along the coastal strip of southwestern Namibia and South Africa's Northern Cape Province, where the cold Benguela Current offshore creates frequent fogs. The ecoregion extends inland into the uplands of South Africa's Western Cape Province. It is bounded on the south by the Mediterranean climate fynbos, on the east by the Nama Karoo, which has more extreme temperatures and variable rainfall, and on the north by the Namib Desert. Flora The Succulent Karoo is notable for the world's richest flora of succulent plants, and harbours about one-third of the world’s approximately 10,000 succulent species. 40% of its succulent plants are endemic. The region is extraordin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leliefontein Massacre
The Leliefontein massacre occurred on 31 January 1902 during the South African War at the Leliefontein Methodist mission station in the Northern Cape, South Africa. Leliefontein Leliefontein is a small community in the Kamiesberg range of Namaqualand, near Garies in the Northern Cape. It is probably named after the many white lilies found in the area. Leliefontein was originally the kraal of a Nama chief named ''Wildschut'' by the colonialists. By October 1771, the land had been granted to Hermanus Engelbrecht, a white colonial farmer, but Governor Joachim van Plettenberg ordered Engelbrecht to vacate the land in 1772 after he was informed that the Nama Khoi already occupied the land. Missionary work began under the London Missionary Society in 1809, but an attack by competing settlers caused the station to be abandoned in 1811. In 1816, Chief Wildschut asked for another station to be established. This request was fulfilled by the Wesleyan Methodist Reverend Barnabas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pastoralists
Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The animal species involved include cattle, camels, goats, yaks, llamas, reindeer, horses and sheep. Pastoralism occurs in many variations throughout the world, generally where environmental characteristics such as aridity, poor soils, cold or hot temperatures, and lack of water make crop-growing difficult or impossible. Operating in more extreme environments with more marginal lands means that pastoral communities are very vulnerable to the effects of global warming. Pastoralism remains a way of life in many geographic areas, including Africa, the Tibetan plateau, the Eurasian steppes, the Andes, Patagonia, the Pampas, Australia and many other places. , between 200 million and 500 million people globally practised pastoralism, and 75% of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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