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When the colonial settlers first arrived in the Cape, they were met with dramatic and stunningly beautiful landscapes, the width and breadth of which they could scarcely communicate in letters to their loved ones back home. Yet, for all its beauty and fecundity – its abundant wildlife, teeming oceans, and mineral-rich soils – the one natural resource the colonists needed the most to build their early settlements was nowhere to be found.
Hardwood.
What they discovered upon dropping anchor along the Cape’s naturally scalloped peninsula were great carpets of a fine-leafed, kaleidoscopically coloured flora teeming with bejewelled sunbirds. This unique floral kingdom has since become known as fynbos (“fine bush” in Afrikaans), because of its slim build and fine leaves. In other words: no good for building homes and ships!
Outside of Hout Bay’s great forests of yellowwood trees, the colonists were forced to import their own hardwoods from Europe and further afield, like Australia. Today, the only forests that flourish in the Cape are imports, some of which, not too long ago, became a major threat to our very own and very special biome: the Cape Floral Kingdom.
Our Kingdom: the most unique of them all
Covering about 90,000 km2, the Cape Floral Kingdom is the smallest of the six plant kingdoms on planet Earth (which include the Antarctic, Australasian, Boreal, Neotropic, and Palaeotropic kingdoms). And yet, it is the most rare and diverse, with more than 7,000 different species of plants, a staggering 75% of which are endemic to the region, meaning that they are found only here and nowhere else in the world.
At first glance, fynbos might not appear to be all that beautiful: indeed, landscapes carpeted in this low-lying, scrubby indigenous vegetation can appear quite drab and a mix of olive greens and greys in colour. But if you look a little closer, particularly during flowering season, you will find a canvas painted every colour of the rainbow, from brilliant pink proteas and bright orange pincushions to delicate blue ericas and yellow watsonias.
Their shapes, if at all possible, are even more beguiling and otherworldly, as you can see in the image of the orange pincushion proteas above.
Recognising the different types of Fynbos
Due to the variation of landscapes found throughout the southwestern Cape, fynbos has been broadly divided into two archetypes:
• Lowland fynbos: occurs in a narrow coastal belt of up to 300 meters above sea level, particularly in the sandy soils of the West Coast.
• Montane fynbos: found at higher elevations, carpeting the majestic flanks and crowns of the Cape fold mountains and peninsula.
The Western Cape experiences cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers, which is described as a Mediterranean climate (although no fynbos actually grows in the Mediterranean). Fynbos tends to thrive on poor soil not high in nutrients, which likely explains its small stature and fine leaves: it just doesn’t have the energy to expend on developing large leaves and rotund boles.
What makes Fynbos so incredibly unique?
As we’ve already mentioned, the Cape Floral Kingdom boasts more than 7,000 species of plants, of which 75% are totally unique to the Cape. Put another way, we are home to a staggering 3% of the world’s plant species, and 20% of the African continent’s. This makes the Western Cape more botanically diverse than the richest, most prolific and lush tropical rainforests in South America, including the Amazon!
Because fynbos is endemic to the Cape, it also supports a number of endemic bird species, such as the Cape sugarbird, orange-breasted sunbird, and protea seedeater. And it’s for these rarities and once-in-a-lifetime sightings that birdwatchers travel to South Africa from all over the world.
Another unique feature of fynbos is that is literally depends on periodic fires for survival, which is just as well because every few years, devastating wildfires break out along the peninsula mountains. Rather than being destroyed by these fires, the heat triggers the release of the plants’ hard, woody seedpods. Once the fire has abated, these seeds take root in soil that has been made fertile by ash. And like a literal Phoenix rising from the ashes, the fynbos is reborn.
An uncertain, yet celebrated future
As with so much of the Cape’s indigenous life, fynbos faces multiple threats, with 1,700 species on the brink of extinction. Invasive vegetation, particularly alien imports from Australia (e.g. black wattle), agriculture, urbanization, habitat loss, and even global climate change are all taking an immense toll on fynbos and the meagre acreage it has left to grow on.
The wonderful news is the Capetonians understand the importance of our unique Cape Floral Kingdom and are doing whatever they can to preserve it in all its authentic glory. Many wine estates and farms around the Cape dedicate percentages of their land to this indigenous vegetation, while Cape Nature and San Parks protect what pockets of fynbos remain in and around the Western Cape.
So, the next time you find yourself walking through the fynbos, take a look deep into the bush and marvel at how lucky the Cape is to have such a rich and unique natural heritage.
