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Why Kirstenbosch Garden And Cape Floral Kingdom Are SA’s No. 3 Tourist Attraction

Why Kirstenbosch Garden And Cape Floral Kingdom Are SA’s No. 3 Tourist Attraction

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South Africa’s Cape Floral Kingdom is one of the richest in the world for plant biodiversity. If you’re visiting Cape Town and pressed for time, one of the best ways to see a whole bunch of the kingdom is a trip to the stunning Kirstenbosch Garden.

The world’s has six designated floral kingdoms. The Cape’s is the only one to fall within the borders of a single country. It occupies 0.04 percent of the Earth’s surface but has 3 percent of its species — and nearly 20 percent of Africa’s flora.

All this translates to money. The Cape’s spectacular flora attracts tourists, and tourism revenue drives the South African economy. South Africa also does a healthy trade in fresh flower exports. It’s the only floral kingdom that’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.That’s also worth money to  South Africa.

Two out of three species in the Cape Floral Kingdom are endemic, occurring nowhere else on Earth, and some of them are disappearing in the wild as human development impacts their habitat.

The world’s five other floral kingdoms cover huge areas such as all of Australia and most of the northern hemisphere. The Cape Floral Kingdom is both the richest and smallest, with the highest known concentration of plant species: 1,300 per 10,000 square kilometers. By comparison, the South American rain forest has 400 species per 10,000 square kilometers.

Conservation of the Cape Floral Kingdom is a national priority for South Africa. Here are a few reasons why Tripadvisor rated Kirstenbosch and the Cape Floral Kingdom the No. 3 tourist attraction in South Africa.

Sources: Kirstenbosch Garden, Plantzafrica.com, WorldWildlifeFund, ekapa.ioisa.org.za, UWC, UNESCO.

This article originally appeared Feb.11, 2015.

http://www.sanbi.org/image/serruria-aemula-var-congesta
http://www.sanbi.org/image/serruria-aemula-var-congesta

Strawberry spiderhead

A member of the protea family, this form of the strawberry spiderhead is now extinct in the wild. It once grew in Faure, a hamlet 16 kilometers southwest of Stellenbosch, according to Kirstenbosch Gardens. Farming and urban sprawl are responsible for its extinction in the wild. Its Latin name is serruria aemula var. congesta. The plant is also known as sandplain fynbos.

 

Kirstenbosch 2
Bud at Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens, Cape Town Photo: Dana Sanchez

 

 Kirstenbosch

Located at the foot of Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is one of the great gardens of the world, and indigenous plants are grown there. Here you’ll get to see most of the Cape’s fynbos all in one place.

From the gardens, several trails lead up the mountain slopes and these are used and loved by hikers and joggers. The Skeleton Gorge trail is one of the easier and more popular routes to the summit of Table Mountain.

Sections of a wild almond hedge planted in 1660 are still visible at Kirstenbosch, grown by the first settler, Jan van Riebeek, to mark the perimeter of the Dutch colony. The gardens’ famed Camphor Avenue was planted in 1898.

Now occupying 36 hectares (89 acres), Kirstenbosch is ranked No. 3 of Cape Town attractions by TripAdvisor. Set aside a day to visit, go on a guided walking or motorized tour, have tea in the Kirstenbosch tea room or dine in the famous Moya restaurant, and commune with the resident guinea fowl. If you’re lucky, you may get to see newly hatched chicks.

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Rooistompie Photo: Dana sanchez

 Rooistompie

Among the easiest members of the protea family to grow, the mimetes cucullatus is colorful all year round, and it has lots of names including common pagoda, red mimetes, red pagoda ( English ) and rooistompie (“red stump” in Afrikaans) or just plain stompie. The word stompie often refers to the discarded, burning end of a cigarette in South Africa.

Sour Fig Photo: Dana Sanchez
Sour Fig
Photo: Dana Sanchez

Sour Fig

Khoisan women traditionally ate sour figs during pregnancy, believing it would help make for easy birth and healthy babies. Carpobrotus deliciosus is commonly known as suurvy, sweet Hottentots fig, perdevy, ghaukum or ghounavy. It’s an omnipresent native of the Eastern and Western Cape coast, extending into KwaZulu-Natal. Chewing the leaves of carpobrotus edulis gives instant relief from the pain of oral thrush or candida, and is considered effective treatment, according to Kirstenbosch Garden.

Humans, tortoises and other Southern African animals eat sour fig fruit, and it’s made locally into traditional jams, preserves and dried fruit.

southernafricanplants.net
southernafricanplants.net

 

Bottle Heath

Bottle heath or erica retorta earned its name from the shape of its flowers. There’s a lively online discussion at ISpotNature.org between plant enthusiasts living in the Hermanus/Onrus area about spotting bottle heath growing in the wild — if you consider a golf course “the wild.”

Sources: Kirstenbosch Gardens, ISpotNature

http://www.ispotnature.org/species-dictionaries/sanbi/Erica%20massonii%20var.%20massonii
http://www.ispotnature.org/species-dictionaries/sanbi/Erica%20massonii%20var.%20massonii

Houwhoek Heath

Erica massonii or Houwhoek heath or sticky heath or firewheel heath is pollinated by sunbirds, and one of the amazing things about it is how little information is available online. It has showy, sticky red flowers with green tips, according to Kirstenbosch.

Sources: Kirstenbosch, ISpotNature.

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At Kirstenbosch Gardens Photo: Dana Sanchez

 

What is fynbos?

Fynbos is a type of vegetation that covers about 6.7 percent of South Africa in the Cape Floral Kingdom — one of the richest areas in the world for plant biodiversity. Of the 9,000 plant species found here, a majority are native fynbos vegetation.

When you first look across an expanse of fynbos, you may not be impressed by what looks like scrub and bushes. Look a bit closer and you’ll see a diversity of species found nowhere else in the wild on Earth

South Africa’s national flower, the king protea, is the most famous species of fynbos, along with heathers and ericas.

Sources: WorldWildlifeFund, ekapa.ioisa.org.za, UWC

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantefg/ericahalicacaba.htm
http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantefg/ericahalicacaba.htm

 Bladder heath

The bladder heath or erica halicacaba is a rare species that grows wild only in the mountains of the Southern Cape Peninsula. It’s also known as the gooseberry heath for its gooseberry-shaped flowers. It’s considered rare due to its limited habitat — rocky ledges at mid-to-high altitudes from Table Mountain to Paulsberg in the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Many plants grow in inaccessible places such as steep south-facing cliffs near Cape Point, or west-facing cliffs at Noordhoek and above Hout Bay. The plants are in areas not generally affected by fires, according to PlantzAfrica.com.

Sources: Kirstenbosch, PlantzAfrica

 

Adderley Street Flower Market Photo: Dana Sanchez
Adderley Street Flower Market
Photo: Dana Sanchez

 

Adderley Street Flower Market

The Adderley Street Flower Market is a Cape Town institution — it has been around for more than 100 years. Sellers at this market, typically of Malay origin, belt out encouragement to passers-by way of sales pitches. The trademark wit of this boisterous bunch is best appreciated if you understand Afrikaans, but there is always a wink and hug on offer for the perplexed, according to CapeTownTravel. The Adderley Street market offers not only great variety, but great value. I bought a huge bunch of commercial-grade proteas and fynbos for 100 rand ($8.43 USD). Located between Strand and Darling streets, the market is walking distance to Greenmarket Square and other attractions.

Source: CapeTown.Travel.

 

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Adderley Street Flower Market, Cape Town Photo: Dana sanchez

 

Adderley Street Flower Market, Cape Town

Kirstenbosch Gardens Photo: Dana Sanchez
Kirstenbosch Gardens
Photo: Dana Sanchez

What’s the big deal with world heritage anyway?

World heritage is the designation for places on Earth that are of outstanding universal value to humanity and that should be protected for future generations. UNESCO, or the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, is the body that designates world heritage sites.

Examples of world heritage sites include the pyramids of Egypt, the Grand Canyon in the U.S., the Taj Mahal in India, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Galápagos Islands in Ecuador, There are 1007 natural and cultural places on the World Heritage List in 161 countries.

A country may get financial support from the World Heritage Committee to support activities for the preservation of its sites, and that means tourists.

The convention to protect world cultural and natural heritage was adopted by UNESCO in 1972. Countries that ratify the convention recognize that the protection of world heritage is the duty of the international community as a whole.

Source: WorldHeritage, UNESCO