Bracken Nature Reserve is a piece of protected land in

Brackenfell Brackenfell is a town in the Western Cape province of South Africa at the gateway to the Cape Winelands. Organisationally and administratively it is included in the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality as a Northern Suburb and is about ...

in the Western Cape,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. This park preserves badly threatened

Cape Flats Sand Fynbos Cape Flats Sand Fynbos (CFSF), previously known as Sand Plain Fynbos, is a critically endangered vegetation type that occurs only within the city of Cape Town. Less than 1% of this unique lowland fynbos vegetation is conserved. Description This ...

and Swartland Granite Renosterveld vegetation. A diverse array of orchids, succulents and flowering bulbs are among the over 160 plant species that occur here. Of these, ten occur only within the

City of Cape Town The City of Cape Town ( af, Stad Kaapstad; xh, IsiXeko saseKapa) is the metropolitan municipality which governs the city of Cape Town, South Africa and its suburbs and exurbs. As of the 2011 census, it had a population of 3,740,026. The remo ...

and are in serious danger of

extinction Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

, including ''Antimima aristulata'', cowslip (''Lachenalia aloides''), canary yellow vygie (''Lampranthus glaucus'') and carrion flower (''Orbea variegate''). The park is also home to a variety of small mammals, reptiles and amphibians, as well as range of bird species. There is an indigenous garden at the entrance, and footpaths that take visitors past birdlife and views of the surrounding countryside. The reserve is situated on top of an old

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envi ...

and

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the waste ...

site so gas extraction pipes have had to be installed, to let the excess gases from the decomposing waste escape.

References

{{Cape Town, natural Nature reserves in Cape Town Protected areas of the Western Cape Fynbos

See also

References