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Leucospermum Wittebergense
''Leucospermum wittebergense'' is an evergreen, upright to more or less spreading shrub of ½–1½ m (1⅔–5 ft) high and wide from the family Proteaceae. It has globe-shaped flower heads of about 2 cm (0.8 in) in diameter with initially whitish, later pinkish flowers. It has crowded, overlapping, inverted lance-shaped leaves, set at an upward angle and covered in short, dense grey-silvery shaggy hairs. From the center of the perianth emerge almost straight styles that jointly give the impression of a pincushion. It is called Swartberg pincushion in English. The species naturally occurs in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It can be found flowering between August and January. Description ''Leucospermum wittebergense'' is an upright, richly branching shrub of ½–1½ m (1⅔–5 ft) high. The flowering branches are upright, round in cross section, about 3 mm (0.12 in) in diameter, and mostly covered with scars left by fallen leaves. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Harold Compton
Robert Harold Compton (6 August 1886 in Tewkesbury – 11 July 1979 in Cape Town) was a South African botanist. The Compton Herbarium at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, which he founded in Cape Town in 1939, was named in his honour. Career He attended Cambridge University from 1905 to 1909, attaining a double first class and distinction and later an M.A. He stayed on at Cambridge from 1911-13 as a Demonstrator in Botany, and joined a field expedition to New Caledonia in 1914, collecting extensively and discovering some new genera and species. While at Cambridge, his main publications were in the area of anatomy and morphology of Gymnosperms, Pteridophytes and Angiosperm seedlings. He enlisted for war service from 1915–18 and arrived in South Africa in March 1919 to become Director of thNational Botanic Gardensat Kirstenbosch. At the same time he took up the chair of Harold Pearson Professor of Botany at the University of Cape Town - Harold Pearson was the first D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Section (botany)
In botany, a section ( la, sectio) is a taxonomic rank below the genus, but above the species. The subgenus, if present, is higher than the section, and the rank of series, if present, is below the section. Sections may in turn be divided into subsections.Article 4 in Sections are typically used to help organise very large genera, which may have hundreds of species. A botanist wanting to distinguish groups of species may prefer to create a taxon at the rank of section or series to avoid making new combinations, i.e. many new binomial names for the species involved. Examples: * ''Lilium'' sectio ''Martagon'' Rchb. are the Turks' cap lilies * ''Plagiochila aerea'' Taylor is the type species of ''Plagiochila'' sect. ''Bursatae'' See also * Section (biology) References Section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endemic Flora Of The Cape Provinces
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] |
Elaiosome
Elaiosomes ( grc, ἔλαιον ''élaion'' "oil" + ''sóma'' "body") are fleshy structures that are attached to the seeds of many plant species. The elaiosome is rich in lipids and proteins, and may be variously shaped. Many plants have elaiosomes that attract ants, which take the seed to their nest and feed the elaiosome to their larvae. After the larvae have consumed the elaiosome, the ants take the seed to their waste disposal area, which is rich in nutrients from the ant frass and dead bodies, where the seeds germinate. This type of seed dispersal is termed myrmecochory from the Greek "ant" (myrmex) and "circular dance" (khoreíā). This type of symbiotic relationship appears to be mutualistic, more specifically dispersive mutualism according to Ricklefs, R.E. (2001), as the plant benefits because its seeds are dispersed to favorable germination sites, and also because it is planted (carried underground) by the ants. Elaiosomes develop in various ways either from seed ti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fynbos
Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate and rainy winters. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeography, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity and endemism, consisting of about 80% (8,500 fynbos) species of the Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. 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. Overview and history 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 Nob ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wildfire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire(bushfires in Australia, in Australia), desert fire, grass fire, hill fire, peat fire, prairie fire, vegetation fire, or veld fire. Fire ecology, Some natural forest ecosystems depend on wildfire. Wildfires are distinct from beneficial human usage of wildland fire, called controlled burn, controlled burning, although controlled burns can turn into wildfires. Fossil charcoal indicates that wildfires began soon after the appearance of terrestrial plants approximately 419 million years ago during the Silurian period. Earth's carbon-rich vegetation, seasonally dry climates, atmospheric oxygen, and widespread lightning and volcanic ignitions create favorable conditions for fires. The occurre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Table Mountain Sandstone
The Table Mountain Sandstone (TMS) is a group of rock formations within the Cape Supergroup sequence of rocks. Although the term "Table Mountain Sandstone" is still widely used in common parlance, the term TMS is no longer formally recognized; the correct name is the " Peninsula Formation Sandstone", which is part of the Table Mountain Group. The designation "Table Mountain Sandstone" will, however, in deference to the title, continue to be used in the rest of this article. The name is derived from the famous landmark in Cape Town, Table Mountain. Table Mountain Sandstone is made up predominantly of quartzitic sandstone laid down between 510 (Cambrian Period) and 400 (Silurian Period) million years ago. It is the hardest, and most erosion resistant layer of the Cape Supergroup. It therefore forms most of the highest and most conspicuous peaks in the Western Cape, as well as the steepest cliffs of the Cape Fold Mountains, despite being the oldest, and, therefore, low ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witteberg Quartzite
The Witteberg or Witteberge is a South African mountain range just off the south-west corner of Lesotho. The range, which rises to 2408 metres, stretches for about 60 km from Lundin's Neck in the east to Lady Grey in the west. The range lends its name to the Witteberg Series, the uppermost fossiliferous sequence of the Cape System of sedimentary rocks in South Africa. The Witteberg Series (340-375 Ma) consists of clastic, shoreline deposits of shales, sandstones, and quartzites, and lies below the plant-bearing and glacial beds of the Lower Karoo System. The Witteberg Series has yielded fossil fragments of '' Lepidodendron''-like plants and large numbers of the ichnogenus known as ''Spirophyton''. The upper part of the series is also rich in palaeoniscoid fauna. In 1969, Brian G. Gardiner FLS, Professor of Palaeontology at King's College, described 7 new genera and species from here – ''Australichthys longidorsalis'', ''Aestuarichthys fulcratus'', ''Willomorichthys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Outeniqua Mountains
The Outeniqua Mountains, named after the Outeniqua Khoikhoi who lived there, is a mountain range that runs a parallel to the southern coast of South Africa, and forms a continuous range with the Langeberg to the west and the Tsitsikamma Mountains to the east. It was known as ''Serra de Estrella'' (Mountain of the Star) to the Portuguese. The mountains are part of the Garden Route of South Africa. Nomenclature "Outeniqua" is said to be derived from a Khoikhoi tribe that once lived in the mountains, and means "they who bear honey". Indigenous rock paintings can still be found in the area. History The region was first explored by white settlers in 1668 and in 1782, French explorer and ornithologist François Levaillant explored the area and discovered farmers had settled at foot of the mountain range. Historic incidents On 1 June 2002, former South Africa cricket captain Hansie Cronje's scheduled flight home from Johannesburg to George, Western Cape was grounded so he hitched a ride ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oudtshoorn
Oudtshoorn (, ), the "ostrich capital of the world", is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa, located between the Swartberg mountains to the north and the Outeniqua Mountains to the south. Two ostrich-feather booms, during 1865–1870 and 1900–1914, truly established the settlement. With approximately 60,000 inhabitants, it is the largest town in the Little Karoo region. The town's economy is primarily reliant on the ostrich farming and tourism industries. Oudtshoorn is home to the world's largest ostrich population, with a number of specialised ostrich breeding farms, such as the Safari Show Farm and the Highgate Ostrich Show Farm , as told by Mnr. Pierre D. Toit. Bhongolethu is a township east of Oudtshoorn. Derived from Xhosa, its name means "our pride". History Settlement The pioneer farmers in the area that would be known as Oudtshoorn arrived in the 1750s, and became well-established in the area by the end of the 18th century. In addition to rearing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karoo
The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its extent is also not precisely defined. The Karoo is partly defined by its topography, geology and climate, and above all, its low rainfall, arid air, cloudless skies, and extremes of heat and cold.Potgieter, D.J. & du Plessis, T.C. (1972) ''Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa''. Vol. 6. pp. 306–307. Nasou, Cape Town.''Reader’s Digest Illustrated Guide to Southern Africa''. (5th Ed. 1993). pp. 78–89. Reader’s Digest Association of South Africa Pty. Ltd., Cape Town. The Karoo also hosted a well-preserved ecosystem hundreds of million years ago which is now represented by many fossils. The ǃ’Aukarob formed an almost impenetrable barrier to the interior from Cape Town, and the early adventurers, explorers, hunters, and travelers o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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