1.
Erica
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Erica is a genus of roughly 860 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. The English common names heath and heather are shared by closely related genera of similar appearance. The genus Calluna was formerly included in Erica – it differs in having even smaller scale-leaves, Erica is sometimes referred to as winter heather to distinguish it from Calluna summer heather. The Latin word erica means heath or broom and it is believed that Pliny adapted erica from Ancient Greek ἐρείκη. The expected Anglo-Latin pronunciation, /ᵻˈraɪkə/, may be given in dictionaries, but /ˈɛrᵻkə/ is more commonly heard. Most of the species of Erica are small shrubs from 20–150 cm high, though some are taller, all are evergreen, with minute, needle-like leaves 2–15 mm long. Flowers are sometimes axillary, and sometimes borne in umbels or spikes. The seeds are small, and in some species may survive in the soil for decades. Dulfer published the last revision of the genus Erica, treating 605 species, many new species have subsequently been described and a further 83 have been included in Erica from former “minor genera”, such as Phillipia Klotzsch and Blaeria L. A more recent overview of Erica species is provided in an identification aid. A number of increasingly detailed phylogenetic hypotheses for Erica have been published based on nuclear ribosomal, the closest relatives of Erica are Daboecia and Calluna, representing the oldest surviving lineages of a, by inference, ancestrally Palearctic tribe Ericeae. The small number of European Erica species represent the oldest lineages of the genus, within which a single, order-of-magnitude more species rich, within the African clade, Cape and Madagascan/Mascarene species respectively represent monophyletic groups. Around 690 of the species are endemic to South Africa, the remaining species are native to other parts of Africa, Madagascar, the Mediterranean, and Europe. Like most Ericaceae, Erica species are mainly calcifuges, being limited to acidic or very acidic soils, in fact, the term ericaceous is frequently applied to all calcifuges, and to the compost used in their cultivation. Soils range from dry, sandy soils to extremely wet ones such as bog and they often dominate dwarf-shrub habitats, or the ground vegetation of open acidic woodland. Erica species are grown as landscape or garden plants for their floral effect and they associate well with conifers and are frequently seen in planting schemes as massed groundcover beneath varieties of dwarf conifers. They are capable of producing flower colour throughout the year and they can also be grown in tubs or window boxes to provide interest through autumn and into winter. Some species of sunbirds are known to visit and pollinate Erica, two such species are the southern double-collared sunbird and the orange-breasted sunbird
2.
Fynbos
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Fynbos is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located on the Western Cape of South Africa. This area is predominantly winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate, the fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. This land has faced threats and still does, but due to the many economic uses conservation efforts are being made to help restore it. The word fynbos is often said to mean fine bush in Afrikaans. Typical fynbos foliage is ericoid rather than fine, the term, in its pre-Afrikaans, Dutch form, fynbosch, was recorded by Noble as being in casual use in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century, John Bews referred to, South-Western or Cape Region of Macchia or Fynbosch and he also refers to a high degree of endemism in the grasses in that region. However, in the technical, ecological sense, the constraints are more demanding, in the latter half of the 20th century, fynbos gained currency as the term for the distinctive vegetation of the southwestern Cape. The fynbos in the regions is richer and more varied than in the eastern regions of South Africa. Of the worlds six floral kingdoms, this is the smallest and richest per unit of area, the Holarctic kingdom, in contrast, incorporates the whole of the Northern Hemisphere north of the tropics. The diversity of plants is extremely high, with over 9000 species of plants occurring in the area, around 6200 of which are endemic. South Africas Western Cape has a level of diversity that exceeds that of the richest tropical rainforest in South America. Of the Ericas, over 600 occur in the fynbos kingdom and this is in an area of 46,000 km2 – by comparison, the Netherlands, with an area of 33,000 km2, has 1400 species, none of them endemic. Table Mountain in Cape Town supports 2200 species, more than the entire United Kingdom. Thus, although the covers only 6% of the area of southern Africa, it has half the species on the subcontinent –. The most conspicuous components of the flora are evergreen plants, many with ericoid leaves and gracile habit. Several plant families are conspicuous in fynbos, the Proteaceae are prominent, with such as Protea, Leucospermum. Proteas are represented by species and are prominent in the landscape, generally with large striking flowers, many of which are pollinated by birds. Most of these do not have anything like ericoid leaves, and nor do most Rhamnaceae, Fabaceae, Fynbos Ericaceae include more species of Erica than all other regions combined
3.
Proteaceae
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The Proteaceae /ˌproʊtiˈeɪsiː/ are a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species, together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Proteales. Well-known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea, Hakea, Dryandra, Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentrations of diversity. This is an image, seeing as the family is known for its astonishing variety and diversity of flowers. The genera of Proteaceae are highly varied, with Banksia in particular providing an example of adaptive radiation in plants. This variability makes it impossible to provide a simple, diagnostic identification key for the family, Proteaceae are generally trees, rarely of more than 40 m in height, and are usually of medium height or low or perennial shrubs, except for some Stirlingia species that are herbs. They are facultatively deciduous, rarely acaulescent, the portion of the collar is often thickened. Indumentum of three-celled hairs, sometimes glandular, rarely absent, the cell is usually elongated, acute. Roots lateral and short, often grouped in bundles with very dense root hairs, Plants usually hermaphroditic, more rarely monoecious, dioecious or andromonoecious. Flowers are usually perfect, actinomorphic, or zygomorphic, hypogynous, frequently large, flat or oblique, sometimes forming a gynophore. Hypogynous disk present and extrastaminal or absent, hypogynous glands 1-4, squamiform or elongated, fleshy, free or fused forming a lunate or annular nectary over the receptacle. Chromosomal number, n =5,7, 10-14,26,28, sizes range from small to very big according to species. Generally speaking, the feature of Proteaceae is the compound flower head or, more accurately. In many genera, the most obvious feature is the large and often very showy inflorescences, even this character, however, does not occur in all Proteaceae, Adenanthos species, for example, have solitary flowers. In most Proteaceae species, the mechanism is highly specialised. It usually involves the use of a pollen-presenter, an area on the style-end that presents the pollen to the pollinator, the pistil initially passes along the inside of the perianth tube, so the stigma, too, is enclosed within the cup. As the flower develops, the pistil grows rapidly, since the stigma is trapped, the style must bend to elongate, and eventually it bends so far, it splits the perianth along one seam. The style continues to grow until anthesis, when the begin to produce nectar
4.
Asteraceae
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Asteraceae or Compositae is a very large and widespread family of flowering plants. The family currently has 32,913 accepted species names, in 1,911 genera and 13 subfamilies, in terms of numbers of species, the Asteraceae are rivaled only by the Orchidaceae. Many members have composite flowers in the form of flower heads surrounded by involucral bracts, when viewed from a distance, each capitulum may have the appearance of being a single flower. The name Asteraceae comes from the type genus Aster, from the Greek ἀστήρ, meaning star, Compositae is an older but still valid name which refers to the fact that the family is one of the few angiosperm ones to have composite flowers. Most members of Asteraceae are herbaceous, but a significant number are also shrubs, vines, the family has a worldwide distribution, from the polar regions to the tropics, colonizing a wide variety of habitats. It is most common in the arid and semiarid regions of subtropical, the Asteraceae may represent as much as 10% of autochthonous flora in many regions of the world. Asteraceae is an important family, providing products such as cooking oils, lettuce, sunflower seeds, artichokes, sweetening agents, coffee substitutes. Several genera are of importance, including pot marigold, Calendula officinalis, Echinacea, various daisies, fleabane, chrysanthemums, dahlias, zinnias. Asteraceae are important in medicine, including Grindelia, yarrow. A number of species are considered invasive, including, most notably in North America, dandelion, the name Asteraceae comes to international scientific vocabulary from New Latin, from Aster, the type genus, + -aceae, a standardized suffix for plant family names in modern taxonomy. The genus name comes from the Classical Latin word aster, star, Compositae, an older but still valid name, means composite and refers to the characteristic inflorescence, a special type of pseudanthium found in only a few other angiosperm families. The study of family is known as synantherology. The vernacular name daisy, widely applied to members of family, is derived from its Old English name, dægesege, from dæges eage. This is because the open at dawn and close at dusk. Composite flowers have a distribution, and are found everywhere except Antarctica. They are especially numerous in tropical and subtropical regions, Compositae were first described in 1792 by the German botanist Paul Dietrich Giseke. Traditionally, two subfamilies were recognised, Asteroideae and Cichorioideae, the latter has been shown to be extensively paraphyletic, and has now been divided into 12 subfamilies, but the former still stands. The phylogenetic tree presented below is based on Panero & Funk updated in 2014, the diamond denotes a very poorly supported node, the dot a poorly supported node
5.
Cape Lowland Freshwater Wetland
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Cape Lowland Freshwater Wetland is a critically endangered vegetation type of the Western Cape, South Africa. The terrain is flat and the soil is rich and silty. It is restricted to a winter rainfall area and this used to be one of the major ecosystems on the Cape Flats of Cape Town. The Cape Flats used to have a great many wetlands, rivers and seasonal vleis, a few remain at places such as Rondevlei. The flora consists of a range of species of reed, Restios, sedges, grasses, floating aquatics. Some of the most noticeable and dominant species are Senecio halimnifolius, Paspalum vaginatum, Pennisetum macrourum, Triglochin bulbosa, plant species which are endemic to this vegetation type include, Passerina paludosa, Aponogeton angustifolius, Aponogeton distachyos, and Cotula myriophylloides. This ecosystem is not particularly rich in endemics but is a rich and important habitat for the Waterbirds. It is also the ground of the endangered Western Leopard Toad. A significant proportion of these wetlands have now been transformed and lost, all remaining wetlands are protected by national legislation. Biodiversity of Cape Town Cape Floristic Region Cape Flats Sand Fynbos Fynbos
6.
Urban sprawl
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In addition to describing a particular form of urbanization, the term also relates to the social and environmental consequences associated with this development. In Continental Europe the term peri-urbanisation is often used to denote similar dynamics and phenomena, There is widespread disagreement about what constitutes sprawl and how to quantify it. For example, some commentators measure sprawl only with the number of residential units per acre in a given area. But others associate it with decentralization, discontinuity, segregation of uses, the term urban sprawl is highly politicized, and almost always has negative connotations. It is criticized for causing environmental degradation, and intensifying segregation and undermining the vitality of existing urban areas, due to the pejorative meaning of the term, few openly support urban sprawl as such. The term has become a cry for managing urban growth. Definitions of sprawl vary, researchers in the field acknowledge that the term lacks precision and he argued that a better way to identify sprawl was to use indicators rather than characteristics because this was a more flexible and less arbitrary method. He proposed using accessibility and functional space as indicators. Ewings approach has been criticized for assuming that sprawl is defined by negative characteristics, what constitutes sprawl may be considered a matter of degree and will always be somewhat subjective under many definitions of the term. The following characteristics are associated with sprawl, This refers to a situation where commercial, residential, institutional and industrial areas are separated from one another. Consequently, large tracts of land are devoted to a use and are segregated from one another by open space, infrastructure. The degree to which different land uses are mixed together is used as an indicator of sprawl in studies of the subject. Job sprawl is another land use symptom of urban sprawl and car-dependent communities, spatial mismatch is related to job sprawl and economic environmental justice. Job sprawl has been documented and measured in various ways and it has been shown to be a growing trend in Americas metropolitan areas. The Brookings Institution has published articles on the topic. In 2005, author Michael Stoll defined job sprawl simply as jobs located more than 5-mile radius from the CBD, and measured the concept based on year 2000 U. S. Census data. These two authors used three geographic rings limited to a 35-mile radius around the CBD,3 miles or less,3 to 10 miles and this compares to the year 1998 -23. 3%,34. 2%, and 42. 5% in those respective rings. The study shows CBD employment share shrinking, and job growth focused in the suburban and exurban outer metropolitan rings, Sprawl is often characterized as consisting of low-density development
7.
Pine
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A pine is any conifer in the genus Pinus, /ˈpiːnuːs/, of the family Pinaceae. Pinus is the genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The Plant List compiled by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accepts 126 species names of pines as current, together with 35 unresolved species, the modern English name pine derives from Latin pinus, which some have traced to the Indo-European base *pīt- ‘resin’. Before the 19th century, pines were often referred to as firs, the genus is divided into three subgenera, which can be distinguished by cone, seed, and leaf characters, Pinus subg. Pinus, the yellow, or hard pine group, generally harder wood. Ducampopinus, the foxtail or pinyon group Pinus subg, strobus, the white, or soft pine group, generally with softer wood and five needles per fascicle Most regions of the Northern Hemisphere host some native species of pines. One species crosses the equator in Sumatra to 2°S, in North America, various species occur in regions at latitudes from as far north as 66°N to as far south as 12°N. Various species have been introduced to temperate and subtropical regions of both hemispheres, where they are grown as timber or cultivated as ornamental plants in parks, a number of such introduced species have become invasive and threaten native ecosystems. Pine trees are evergreen, coniferous trees growing 3–80 m tall. The smallest are Siberian dwarf pine and Potosi pinyon, and the tallest is a 81.79 m tall ponderosa pine located in southern Oregons Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, the bark of most pines is thick and scaly, but some species have thin, flaky bark. The branches are produced in regular pseudo whorls, actually a very tight spiral, the spiral growth of branches, needles, and cone scales are arranged in Fibonacci number ratios. The new spring shoots are sometimes called candles, they are covered in brown or whitish bud scales and point upward at first, then turn green. These candles offer foresters a means to evaluate fertility of the soil, pines are long-lived, and typically reach ages of 100–1,000 years, some even more. The longest-lived is the Great Basin bristlecone pine, Pinus longaeva, one individual of this species, dubbed Methuselah, is one of the worlds oldest living organisms at around 4,600 years old. This tree can be found in the White Mountains of California, an older tree, now cut down, was dated at 4,900 years old. It was discovered in a grove beneath Wheeler Peak and it is now known as Prometheus after the Greek immortal, pines have four types of leaf, Seed leaves on seedlings, born in a whorl of 4–24. Juvenile leaves, which follow immediately on seedlings and young plants, 2–6 cm long, single, green or often blue-green and these are produced for six months to five years, rarely longer. Scale leaves, similar to bud scales, small, brown and non-photosynthetic, needles, the adult leaves, are green and bundled in clusters called fascicles
8.
Eucalyptus
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Eucalyptus /ˌjuːkəˈlɪptəs/ LHeritier 1789 is a diverse genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the flora of Australia. There are more than 700 species of eucalyptus and most are native to Australia, one species, Eucalyptus deglupta, ranges as far north as the Philippines. Of the 15 species found outside Australia, just nine are exclusively non-Australian, species of eucalyptus are cultivated widely in the tropical and temperate world, including the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East, China, and the Indian subcontinent. However, the range over which many eucalypts can be planted in the zone is constrained by their limited cold tolerance. Australia is covered by 92,000,000 hectares of eucalypt forest, Eucalyptus is one of three similar genera that are commonly referred to as eucalypts, the others being Corymbia and Angophora. Many species, though by no means all, are known as gum trees because they exude copious kino from any break in the bark. The generic name is derived from the Greek words ευ well and καλύπτω to cover, Eucalyptus oil finds many uses like in aromatherapy, as a cure for joint pains. Eucalyptus trees show allelopathic effects, they release compounds which inhibit other plant species from growing nearby, on warm days, eucalyptus forests are sometimes shrouded in a smog-like mist of vaporised volatile organic compounds, the Australian Blue Mountains take their name from the haze. A mature eucalyptus may take the form of a low shrub or a large tree. The species can be divided into three main habits and four size categories, as a generalisation forest trees are single-stemmed and have a crown forming a minor proportion of the whole tree height. Woodland trees are single-stemmed, although they may branch at a distance above ground level. Many mallee trees may be so low-growing as to be considered a shrub, two other tree forms are notable in Western Australia and described using the native names mallet and marlock. The mallet is a small to medium-sized tree that does not produce lignotubers and has a long trunk. This is the habit of mature healthy specimens of Eucalyptus occidentalis, E. astringens, E. spathulata, E. gardneri, E. dielsii, E. forrestiana, E. salubris, E. clivicola. The smooth bark of mallets often has a satiny sheen and may be white, cream, grey, green, or copper. The term marlock has been used, in Forest Trees of Australia, it is defined as a small tree without lignotubers. They usually grow in more or less pure stands, clearly recognisable examples are stands of E. platypus, E. vesiculosa, and the unrelated E. stoatei
9.
Erica verticillata
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Erica verticillata is a species of Erica that was naturally restricted to the city of Cape Town but is now classified as Extinct in the Wild. It formerly grew only in areas of the Cape Flats on the Cape Peninsula of South Africa. It grew in Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, a type that is threatened by urban sprawl. It preferred damp sandy soils such as those that were found around Wynberg, Kenilworth. 1984 saw the introduction of cuttings from two specimen, one in Protea Park, Pretoria and another in Kew, the former were collected by Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden scholar David von Well after he recognized the plant from herbarium sheets photocopied by Kirstenbosch horticulturist Deon Kotze. The third infusion came from a plant found by Kirstenbosch foreman Adonis Adonis in a clearing and this species was introduced back into the wild at Rondevlei, a bird sanctuary and nature reserve in Cape Town. Various pollinators such as bees and birds such as southern double-collared sunbirds have been observed feeding on the pink flowers on E. verticillata. E. verticillata comes in three forms, the Kirstenbosch form, the Pretoria form and the Kew form and it prefers seasonally moist sandy soils, but will grow well in average garden conditions provided the soils are acidic. The best time to plant is in autumn or during the winter although they may be planted at other times of the year if regularly watered and it is important to never disturb its roots when weeding. Plants should be well watered after planting and then two to three days unless good rainfalls occur
10.
Serruria aemula
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Serruria aemula is a critically endangered species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae, endemic to South Africa. It is known by the name of strawberry spiderhead. This plant used to occur in numbers on the Cape Flats of Cape Town. Unfortunately its natural habitat now lies under urban sprawl so only a few plants survive on patches of road-side, several of its subspecies are now in fact extinct in the wild, surviving only in botanical gardens
11.
Cape Flats Dune Strandveld
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Cape Flats Dune Strandveld is an endangered vegetation type. This is a type of Cape Strandveld that is endemic to the coastal areas around Cape Town. Strandveld means “beach scrub” in the Afrikaans language and it covers and stabilises sand dunes on the beaches around Cape Town, and is incredibly colourful in spring when it bursts into flower. It supports a high biomass of browsing animals, and in the past it was grazed by large herds. The strongly alkaline, calcareous dune sand of the coast lies over a base of older limestone, in some places, this limestone juts out of the dune sand, and forms impressive beach cliffs. Succulents form a proportion of Strandveld plants, consequently, fires are much less common in Strandveld than in the neighbouring Fynbos vegetation. Cape Flats Dune Strandveld is endangered, more than half of the Cape’s Strandveld has been lost to urbanisation and the building of beach resorts, and only 14 percent of this unique vegetation type is actually conserved. Historically, dense forests of large Milkwood trees used to exist at Noordhoek, Olifantsbos, Macassar, the most similar vegetation types to CFDS are Langebaan Dune Strandveld and Overberg Dune Strandveld. Biodiversity of Cape Town Cape Flats Sand Fynbos Cape Lowland Freshwater Wetland Cape Floristic Region Index, Fynbos - habitats, list of nature reserves in Cape Town
