Fynbos
Fynbos (/ˈfeɪnbɒs/; Afrikaans pronunciation: [ˈfɛinbos] lit. 'fine plants') is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate and rainy winters. The fynbos ecoregion is within the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome. In fields related to biogeography, fynbos is known for its exceptional degree of biodiversity[1] and endemism,[2] consisting of about 80% (8,500 fynbos) species of the Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic.[3] This land continues to face severe human-caused threats, but due to the many economic uses of the fynbos, conservation efforts are being made to help restore it.
Etymology[edit]
The word fynbos is often confusingly said to mean "fine bush" in Afrikaans, as bos means "bush". 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.[4] In the early 20th century, John Bews referred to: "South-Western or Cape Region of Macchia or Fynbosch". He said: "In this well-known region where the rain occurs in winter and the summers are more or less dry, the dominant vegetation is of a sclerophyllous type and there is little or no natural grassland, though there are many kinds of grass..."[5] He also refers to a high degree of endemism in the grasses in that region. Elsewhere he speaks of the term as "...applied by the inhabitants of the Cape to any sort of small woodland growth that does not include timber trees"; in the current vernacular, this still is the effective sense of the word.[1] 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".[1]
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$_$_$DEEZ_NUTS#0__call_to_action.textDEEZ_NUTS$_$_$Fauna[edit]
The fynbos is home to many unique and endemic animals, with seven species of endemic bird and an unknown number of endemic reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods. The seven avian endemics include the Cape rockjumper, Cape sugarbird, Victorin's warbler, Orange-breasted sunbird, Protea canary, Cape siskin, and Fynbos buttonquail.
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Economic uses[edit]
Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) and honeybush (Cyclopia intermedia) are of economic importance, grown and harvested in large quantities in the Cederberg area, and providing important exports. Restios continue to be used for thatching, as they have for hundreds or even thousands of years. Proteas and other floral species are grown in many areas and their flowers harvested for export.
In many areas with Mediterranean climates, fynbos species have become popular garden plants, in particular aloes and geraniums, and in cooler regions are used as window plants.
A very large number of fynbos plant species are used in traditional medicine, and while only a tiny proportion have as yet been subjected to formal testing, many have already been identified as having medicinal properties.[9][10][11]
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The fynbos is the region of South Africa most affected by invasive alien species which collectively cover around 10% of the entire country.[12][13] The most common invasive plants are wattles and hakeas, native to Australia, and pines native to Europe and the Californian coast of the United States.[12][14] Pines had been introduced to South Africa by the 19th century and the wattles were imported into the mid-1870s to stabilize sand dunes.[14] In 1997 it was estimated that invasion caused the fynbos region to decline in value by US$750 million per year.[12]
The Working for Water (WfW) program was started in 1995 by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to control these invasive species which were shown to sequester 9.95% of usable surface water runoff.[12][14] Since then, over 100,000 hectares of land have been cleared of invasive species while providing jobs to around 20,000 people per year, most of which are women and unskilled workers.[13] Systematic monitoring of WfW's progress is lacking but there is anecdotal evidence that endemic silver peas have returned to Table Mountain after being thought extinct.[14]
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Community conservation group for the critically endangered remnant of Lourensford Alluvium Fynbos at Harmony Flats, Cape Town
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