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Peninsula Shale Renosterveld
Peninsula Shale Renosterveld (PSR) is a unique vegetation type that is found only on the slopes of Signal Hill and Devil's Peak in Cape Town, South Africa. It is critically endangered and exists nowhere else. Habitat This unique type of Renosterveld is indigenous and endemic to the Cape Town City Bowl but, due to the growth of this city, it now survives only on the slopes of Signal Hill and Devil's Peak. It is subject to very frequent fires, and is therefore dominated by a wide variety of grass and bulb species. There are a large variety of tall shrubs such as the Wax Karee, but the Renosterbos bush (the signature plant of Renosterveld) is relatively less common. At its southern boundary, this vegetation type gradually merges into Fynbos. The critically endangered blue-eyed uintjie ('' Moraea aristata'') flower is totally endemic to this vegetation type and occurs nowhere else. Soils and climate The soils in this area are composed predominantly of hard, fertile clay tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euphorbia Caputmedusae Table Mountain 4
''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] |
Ecosystems Of The Western Cape
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the system through photosynthesis and is incorporated into plant tissue. By feeding on plants and on one another, animals play an important role in the movement of matter and energy through the system. They also influence the quantity of plant and microbial biomass present. By breaking down dead organic matter, decomposers release carbon back to the atmosphere and facilitate nutrient cycling by converting nutrients stored in dead biomass back to a form that can be readily used by plants and microbes. Ecosystems are controlled by external and internal factors. External factors such as climate, parent material which forms the soil and topography, control the overall structure of an ecosystem but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem. Inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Table Mountain
Table Mountain ( naq, Huriǂoaxa, lit= sea-emerging; af, Tafelberg) is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top. Table Mountain National Park is the most visited national park in South Africa, attracting 4.2 million people every year for various activities. The mountain has 8,200 plant species, of which around 80% are fynbos, meaning fine bush. It forms part of the Table Mountain National Park, and part of the lands formerly ranged by Khoe-speaking clans, such as the (the "High Clan"). It is home to a large array of mostly endemic fauna and flora. Features The main feature of Table Mountain is the level plateau approximately from side to side, edged by steep cliffs. The plateau, flanked by Devil's Peak to the east and by Lion's Head to the west, forms a dramatic backdrop to Cape Town. This broad sweep of mounta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Swartland Shale Renosterveld
Swartland Shale Renosterveld (West Coast Renosterveld) is a critically endangered vegetation type of the Western Cape, South Africa. Distribution This unique type of Renosterveld vegetation occurs over the Swartland and Boland areas, on the West Coast lowlands to the north of Cape Town. It extends from north of Piketberg, southwards as far as Somerset West. Around 10 percent of this area lies within the Cape Town metropol (where historically it was the most widespread form of Renosterveld, especially concentrated on the Tygerberg Hills in the northern suburbs) and, overall, over 90 percent of this vegetation has been destroyed for farming and other development. The remaining patches are threatened by invasive alien plants and further development, making this vegetation type critically endangered. Description Undisturbed, it forms tall, open shrubland over undulating valleys and plains. It usually grows in clay soils that are derived from the Malmesbury Group Shales. Termite m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biodiversity Of Cape Town
The Biodiversity of Cape Town is the variety and variability of life within the geographical extent of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality, excluding the Prince Edward Islands. The terrestrial vegetation is particularly diverse and much of it is endemic to the city and its vicinity. Terrestrial and freshwater animal life is heavily impacted by urban development and habitat degradation. Marine life of the waters immediately adjacent to the city along the Cape Peninsula and in False Bay is also diverse, and while also impacted by human activity, the habitats are relatively intact. Floristic region (phytochorion) The City of Cape Town lies within the Cape Floristic Kingdom, by far the smallest and most diverse of the earth's six floristic kingdoms, an area of extraordinarily high diversity and endemism, and home to over 9,000 vascular plant species, of which 69 percent are endemic. Much of this diversity is associated with the fynbos biome, a Mediterranean-type, fir ... [...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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taurotragus
''Taurotragus'' is a genus of large antelopes of the African savanna, commonly known as elands. It contains two species: the common eland ''T. oryx'' and the giant eland ''T. derbianus''. Taxonomy ''Taurotragus'' is a genus of large African antelopes, placed under the subfamily Bovinae and family Bovidae. The genus authority is the German zoologist Johann Andreas Wagner, who first mentioned it in the journal ''Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur, mit Beschreibungen'' in 1855. The name is composed of two Greek words: ταῦρος (''taûros''), meaning a "bull" or "bullock", and τράγος (''trágos''), meaning a "male goat"—in reference to the tuft of hair that grows in the eland's ear which resembles a goat's beard. The genus consists of two species: ''Taurotragus'' is sometimes considered part of the genus ''Tragelaphus'' on the basis of molecular phylogenetics. Together with the bongo, giant eland and common eland are the only antelopes in the tribe '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhinoceros
A rhinoceros (; ; ), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species of the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea.) Two of the extant species are native to Africa, and three to South and Southeast Asia. Rhinoceroses are some of the largest remaining megafauna: all weigh at least one tonne in adulthood. They have a herbivorous diet, small brains (400–600 g) for mammals of their size, one or two horns, and a thick (1.5–5 cm), protective skin formed from layers of collagen positioned in a lattice structure. They generally eat leafy material, although their ability to ferment food in their hindgut allows them to subsist on more fibrous plant matter when necessary. Unlike other perissodactyls, the two African species of rhinoceros lack teeth at the front of their mouths; they rely instead on their lips t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Euphorbia Caputmedusae Table Mountain 3
''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] |
