South Africa

:This article is about the country called South Africa. For the region, see southern Africa.

Flora and fauna

South Africa has more than 20,000 different plants, or about 10 percent of all the known species of plants on earth, making it particularly verdant. The Fynbos Biome, one of the six floral kingdoms, is located in a small region of the Western Cape and contains more than 9,000 of those species, making it among the most green places on earth. The majority of the plants are evergreen hard-leaf plants with fine, needle-like leaves, such as the sclerophyllous. Another particularly South African plant is the protea, which is a genus of blooming plants. There are 130 different species recorded in South Africa.

Related Topics:
Plant - Species - Fynbos - Biome - Floral kingdom - Western Cape - Evergreen - Leaves - Sclerophyllous - Protea

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While South Africa has a really great wealth of flowering plants, it has a dearth of forest resources. Only 1 percent of South Africa is forest, almost exclusively in the humid coastal plain along the Indian Ocean in KwaZulu-Natal. There are even smaller reserves of forests that are out of the reach of fire, known as montane forests. Plantations of imported tree species are predominant, particularly the non-native eucalyptus and pine. The original temperate forest that met the first European settlers to South Africa was extinguished ruthlessly until only small patches remained. Currently, South African hardwood trees like Real Yellowwood (Podocarpus latifolius), stinkwood (Ocotea bullata), and South African Black Ironwood (Olea laurifolia) are under constant supervision and protection by governmental environmental agencies.

Related Topics:
Forest - Humid - Coastal plain - Indian Ocean - KwaZulu-Natal - Fire - Plantation - Eucalyptus - Pine - Temperate forest - Hardwood - Real Yellowwood - Stinkwood - Black Ironwood

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South Africa's most prevalent biome is grassland, which is particularly present on the Highveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs, and acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and whitethorn. Vegetation becomes even more sparse towards the northwest due to low precipitation. There are several species of water-storing succulents like aloes and euphorbias in the very hot and dry Namaqualand area. The grass and thorn savannah turns slowly into a bush savannah towards the northeast of the country, with more dense growth. There are significant numbers of baobab trees in this area, near the northern end of Kruger National Park. http://www.southafrica-travel.net/pages/e_plants.htm

Related Topics:
Grassland - Highveld - Grass - Shrub - Acacia tree - Vegetation - Precipitation - Succulent - Aloe - Namaqualand - Savannah - Baobab - Kruger National Park

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