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Peninsula Granite Fynbos
Peninsula Granite Fynbos is an endangered Fynbos vegetation type which is endemic to the city of Cape Town and occurs nowhere else. It is a unique type of tall, dense and diverse scrubland, scattered with trees. It can be found all along the belt of granite that encircles Table Mountain. Natural Distribution This unique vegetation type occurs only within the city of Cape Town, particularly in a band that encircles the Table Mountain range – following the stratum of the Cape Granite Suite. It occurs from Lion's Head in the north, to Hout Bay and Muizenberg in the south. There is also an isolated patch near Simonstown, further to the south. It grows on the gentler, lower slopes of Table Mountain, over rolling hills and valleys - in rich, deep soils formed from eroded granite. Because of the rich soils and gentle terrain, most of this ecosystem has been destroyed to make way for vineyards, wealthy suburbs and commercial pine plantations. In fact, the largest patches of exposed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leucospermum Conocarpodendron - Table Mountain 5
''Leucospermum'' is a genus of evergreen upright, sometimes creeping shrubs that is assigned to the Proteaceae, with currently forty-eight known species. Almost all species are easily recognised as ''Leucospermum'' because of the long protruding styles with a thickened pollen-presenter, which jointly give the flower head the appearance of a pincushion, its common name. Pincushions can be found in South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The shrubs mostly have a single stem at their base, but some species sprout from an underground rootstock, from which the plant can regrow after fire has killed the above ground biomass. In a larger group of species, specimens are killed by fire, and their survival depends on the seeds. In all species, seeds are collected by ants, which take them to their underground nests to feed on their elaiosome, ant breads, a seed dispersal strategy known as myrmecochory. This ensures that the seeds do not burn, so new plants can grow from them. ''Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asteraceae
The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae were first described in the year 1740. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger family is unclear as the quantity of extant species in each family is unknown. Most species of Asteraceae are annual, biennial, or perennial herbaceous plants, but there are also shrubs, vines, and trees. The family has a widespread distribution, from subpolar to tropical regions in a wide variety of habitats. Most occur in hot desert and cold or hot semi-desert climates, and they are found on every continent but Antarctica. The primary common characteristic is the existence of sometimes hundreds of tiny individual florets which are held together by protective involucres in flower heads, or more technicall ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acacia Mearnsii
''Acacia mearnsii'', commonly known as black wattle, late black wattle or green wattle, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is usually an erect tree with smooth bark, bipinnate leaves and spherical heads of fragrant pale yellow or cream-coloured flowers followed by black to reddish brown pods. In some other parts of the world, it is regarded as an invasive species. Description ''Acacis mearnsii'' is a spreading shrub or erect tree that typically grows to a height of and has smooth bark, sometimes corrugated at the base of old specimens. The leaves are bipinnate with 7 to 31 pairs of pinnae, each with 25 to 78 pairs of pinnules. There is a spherical gland up to below the lowest pair of pinnae. The scented flowers are arranged in spherical heads of twenty to forty and are pale yellow or cream-coloured, the heads on hairy peduncles long. Flowering mainly occurs from October to December and black to reddish-brown ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acacia
''Acacia'', commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa and Australasia. The genus name is New Latin, borrowed from the Greek (), a term used by Dioscorides for a preparation extracted from the leaves and fruit pods of ''Vachellia nilotica'', the original type of the genus. In his ''Pinax'' (1623), Gaspard Bauhin mentioned the Greek from Dioscorides as the origin of the Latin name. In the early 2000s it had become evident that the genus as it stood was not monophyletic and that several divergent lineages needed to be placed in separate genera. It turned out that one lineage comprising over 900 species mainly native to Australia, New Guinea, and Indonesia was not closely related to the much smaller group of African lineage that contained ''A. nilotica''—the type species. This meant that the Australasian lineage (by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leucadendron Argenteum Young Silvertree - Newlands Forest Fynbos CapeTown 2
''Leucadendron'' is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, endemic to South Africa, where they are a prominent part of the fynbos ecoregion and vegetation type. Description Species in the genus ''Leucadendron'' are small trees or shrubs that are erect or creeping. Most species are shrubs that grow up to 1 m tall, some to 2 or 3 m. A few grow into moderate-sized trees up to 16 m tall. All are evergreen. The leaves are largely elliptical, sometimes needle-like, spirally arranged, simple, entire, and usually green, often covered with a waxy bloom, and in the case of the Silvertree, with a distinct silvery tone produced by dense, straight, silky hairs. This inspired the generic name ''Leucadendron'', which literally means "white tree". The flowers are produced in dense inflorescences at the branch tips; plants are dioecious, with separate male and female plants. The seed heads, or infructescences, of ''Leucadendron'' are woody cone-like structure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Afrotemperate Forest
Southern Afrotemperate Forest (the Southern Cape Forests) is a kind of tall, shady, multilayered indigenous South African forest. This is the main forest-type in the south-western part of South Africa, naturally extending from the Cape Peninsula in the west, as far as Port Elizabeth in the east. In this range (apart from the massive Knysna-Tsitsikamma forest complex), it usually occurs in small forest pockets, surrounded by fynbos vegetation. Ecology This forest ecosystem is a subtype of the general Afromontane forest, which can be found across Africa as far north as Ethiopia. However, it is distinguished from other types of forests in Southern Africa by its relatively distinct range of species and its being confined to the far south-western tip of Africa – separated from the other forested areas to the east and north. Southern Afrotemperate Forest tends to grow on soils derived from sandstone and granite which are the dominant rock formations in the south-western Cape. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leucospermum Conocarpodendron
''Leucospermum conocarpodendron'' is the largest species of the genus Leucospermum, reaching almost tree-like proportions of high with a firm trunk that is covered in a thick layer of cork that protects it from most fires. It has greyish or green narrow or broad inverted egg-shaped leaves with three to ten teeth near the tip and large yellow flowerheads, with firm, bent, yellow styles that stick far beyond the rest of the flower and give the impression of a pincushion. It is commonly known as the tree pincushion in English or goudsboom in Afrikaans. They naturally occur near Cape Town, South Africa. Two subspecies are distinguished. ''L. conocarpodendron'' subsp. ''conocarpodendron'', that has greyish leaves because they have a covering of felty hairs. ''L. conocarpodendron'' subsp. ''viridum'', has green leaves that lack felty hairs. Flowers can be found between August and December. Description ''L. conocarpodendron'' is an evergreen large shrub of high and in diameter with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leucadendron Argenteum
''Leucadendron argenteum'' (silver tree, silver leaf tree, af, Witteboom, or af, Silwerboom) is an endangered plant species in the family Proteaceae, which is endemic to a small area of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. Most grow in and around the city of Cape Town, but outlying (perhaps introduced) populations exist near Somerset West ( Silwerboomkloof), Paarl and Stellenbosch. It is a protected tree in South Africa. Appearance The silvertree is a striking evergreen tree, growing 5–7 m tall (sometimes up to 16 m). It is erect and well-proportioned with a thick, straight trunk and grey bark. The soft, silky leaves are shiny silver, lanceolate, 8–15 cm long and 2 cm broad, with their distinct silvery sheen produced by dense velvety hairs. The wind-pollinated flowers are produced in dense globose inflorescences 4–5 cm diameter, and give off a pleasant scent. Like all Leucadendrons, this tree is dioecious, with separate male and female plants. The fruit is a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protea Nitida
''Protea nitida'', commonly called wagon tree, ''waboom'' or ''blousuikerbos'', is a large, slow-growing ''Protea'' endemism, endemic to South Africa. It is one of the few ''Protea'' species that grows into trees, and the only one that has usable timber. Appearance ''Protea nitida'' is a slow-growing tree, with very thick white-grey bark, that varies considerably in height. It is normally about 5 meters tall, but in good conditions it may reach a height of up to 10 meters, with a trunk diameter of 1 meter. The young leaves are crimson, but they become a bluish, sea-green colour in later life. These leaves are described as "oblong to elliptic", "hairless" and "leathery". Large, bisexual flower heads appear all through the year, especially in winter, and bear sweet nectar. Small nuts are released about a year after flowering. Throughout their distribution, a dwarf, multi-stemmed form with narrow green leaves also occurs—at one point regarded as a distinct species, ''Protea reticu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protea
''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). Etymology The genus ''Protea'' was named in 1735 by Carl Linnaeus, possibly after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his form at will, possibly because they have such a wide variety of forms. Linnaeus's genus was formed by merging a number of genera previously published by Herman Boerhaave, although precisely which of Boerhaave's genera were included in Linnaeus's ''Protea'' varied with each of Linnaeus's publications. Taxonomy The family Proteaceae to which ''Protea'' species belong is an ancient one among angiosperms. Evidence from pollen fossils suggests Proteaceae ancestors grew in Gondwana, in the Upper Cretaceous, 75–80 million years ago. The Proteaceae are divided into two subfamilies: the Proteoideae, best represented in southern Africa, and the Grevilleoideae, concentrated in Australia and South America and the other smaller segments of Gondwana that ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Restionaceae
The Restionaceae, also called restiads and restios, are a family (biology), family of flowering plants native to the Southern Hemisphere; they vary from a few centimeters to 3 meters in height. Following the APG IV system, APG IV (2016): the family now includes the former families Anarthriaceae, Centrolepidaceae and Lyginiaceae, and as such includes 51 genera with 572 known species. Based on evidence from fossil pollens, the Restionaceae likely originated more than 65 million years ago during the Cretaceous, Late Cretaceous period, when the southern continents were still part of Gondwana.Bremer, K. (2002). "Gondwanan Evolution of the Grass Alliance of Families (Poales)." ''Evolution'', 56(7): 1374-1387 Description The family consists of tufted or rhizomatous, herbaceous plants belonging to a group of monocotyledons that includes several similar families, such as the Cyperaceae, sedges, Juncaceae, rushes, and Poaceae, grasses. They have green, photosynthetic stems and leaves that h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ericaceae
The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c.4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it the 14th most species-rich family of flowering plants. The many well known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron (including azaleas), and various common heaths and heathers (''Erica'', ''Cassiope'', ''Daboecia'', and ''Calluna'' for example). Description The Ericaceae contain a morphologically diverse range of taxa, including herbs, dwarf shrubs, shrubs, and trees. Their leaves are usually evergreen, alternate or whorled, simple and without stipules. Their flowers are hermaphrodite and show considerable variability. The petals are often fused (sympetalous) with shapes ranging from narrowly tubular to funnelform or widely urn-shaped. The corollas are usually ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
