Bergbambos | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Monocots |
Clade: | Commelinids |
Order: | Poales |
Family: | Poaceae |
Subfamily: | Bambusoideae |
Tribe: | Arundinarieae |
Genus: | Bergbambos Stapleton (2013) |
Species: | B. tessellata |
Binomial name | |
Bergbambos tessellata (Nees) Stapleton (2013) | |
Synonyms [2] | |
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Bergbambostessellata is a bamboo native to the south-eastern highlands of South Africa and Lesotho. It is the sole species in the monotypic genus Bergbambos, belonging to the family Poaceae.
Its generic name means "bushy reed", while the specific name means "tiled", an allusion to the rectangular pattern of veins on the leaves. Its common names include mountain bamboo, drakensberg bamboo and bergbamboes and wildebamboes in Afrikaans. [2] [3]
Bergbambos is found at an elevation of 1500-2000 metres in South Africa (in the Cape Provinces, Free State, and KwaZulu-Natal), Lesotho and Swaziland along side mountain side streams. [4] It is found in the Amathole Mountains, [1] the Bamboesberg (for which it is named), [5] and the Drakensberg. [1]
Bergbambos is one of two temperate bamboo species on the African mainland, and the only bamboo native to South Africa and Lesotho. [3]
Specimens of this plant were collected in the 1820s and 1830s by Ecklon in the Winterberg which is an extension of the Amathole range, and by Drège at Katberg near the western end of the Amatola range, Table Mountain in the Queenstown district, the Bamboesberge in the Tarkastad district, the Witteberg above Lady Grey and other high mountainous areas in the Cape Colony, such as the Prentjiesberg north of Ugie. [6] Neither collector found the plant in flower or seed so that its exact taxonomic position remained unclear until the 1900s when it was more fully described in "Flora Capensis". Nees, who first described it from sterile specimens in 1841 in his elaboration of the Gramineae of South Africa, thought it close to Nastus , and named it Nastus tessellata. [7] Robert Harold Compton found it at Bulunga Poort southeast of Manzini and at Tulwane, in Swaziland during his 1955-66 botanical survey of that country. In 1982 Thomas Robert Soderstrom and Roger Pearson Ellis revised its classification and placed it with 5 other species in Thamnocalamus as T. tessellatus. In 2013, it was then transferred into its own genus, Bergbambos. [3]
Bamboos are divided into three categories on the basis of their flowering cycle - annual flowering, irregular flowering and gregarious flowering occurring at long intervals with synchronised flower and seed production. Most bamboos belong to this last category with intermasts ranging from 3 to 120 years. [8] Bergbambos belongs to this third category and flowers at 45 year intervals. Records from KwaZulu-Natal noting flowering in 1908, 1953 and 1998/99. [4]
It is also a host of the IUCN Red List-listed vulnerable butterfly, the bamboo sylph ( Metisella syrinx ). [9]
Often found in association with Leucosidea sericea , this frost-resistant species grows in dense clumps up to 5 metres tall, preferring moist rocky places, and has hollow culms or canes of 2-2.5 cm in diameter. The leaves at the base of branches are reduced to papery sheaths, while other leaves are 4–12 cm long and sharply pointed with spiny margins and a strongly tessellated surface. [10] [11] [12]
It was once regarded as rare and vulnerable, but is now classified as Least Concern. Current populations are threatened by fire and exploitation. [1] [4]
Thamnocalamus is a genus of clumping bamboo in the grass family. These species are found from the Himalayas as well as Madagascar and Southern Africa.
Aristaloe is a genus of evergreen flowering perennial plants in the family Asphodelaceae from Southern Africa. Its sole species is Aristaloe aristata, known as guinea-fowl aloe or lace aloe.
Senecio barbertonicus, the Barberton groundsel or succulent bush senecio, is an evergreen succulent shrub of the family Asteraceae and genus Senecio, native to Southern Africa, named after one of its native localities Barberton and is now also being cultivated elsewhere for its drought resistance, clusters of sweetly scented, golden-yellow, tufted flower heads in winter and attractiveness to butterflies, the painted lady butterfly in particular.
Protea comptonii, also known as saddleback sugarbush, is a smallish tree of the genus Protea in the family Proteaceae. It is found in South Africa and Eswatini.
Callilepis is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It is native to southern Africa.
Fargesia murielae, the umbrella bamboo, is a species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae. It is a large, clump-forming evergreen bamboo, closely resembling Fargesia nitida in the same genus, but with yellow canes.
Eucomis bicolor, the variegated pineapple lily or just pineapple lily, is a bulbous species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, native to Southern Africa. The pale green, purple-margined flowers are arranged in a spike (raceme), topped by a "head" of green leaflike bracts. It is cultivated as an ornamental bulbous plant, although its flowers have an unpleasant smell, attractive to the main pollinators, flies.
Albuca humilis is a bulbous flowering plant, placed in the genus Albuca in the subfamily Scilloideae of the family Asparagaceae. It is native to southern Africa – to South Africa from the Free State to KwaZulu-Natal according to some sources, or to the Drakensberg Mountains of Lesotho according to others.
Tenaxia is a genus of Asian and African plants in the grass family.
Eucomis humilis is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, native to KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. It was first described by Baker in 1895. The greenish to purplish flowers appear in summer and are arranged in a spike (raceme), topped by a "head" of green leaflike bracts. Cultivated as an ornamental plant, it can be grown successfully outside where frosts are not too severe.
Eucomis schijffii is a bulbous species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, native to the Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. It was first described by William Frederick Reyneke in 1976. The reddish purple flowers appear in summer and are arranged in a spike (raceme), topped by a "head" of green leaflike bracts. It is cultivated as an ornamental plant and can be grown successfully outside where frosts are not too severe. The smallest of the species of Eucomis, it is particularly suited to being grown in rock gardens or containers.
Protea dracomontana, the Nyanga protea or the Drakensberg sugarbush, is a flowering plant that belongs within the genus Protea. The plant is found in the Eastern Cape, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal and the escarpment of the Free State, as well as eastern Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe this species is only known from a disjunct subpopulation confined to the summit of Mount Nyangani.
Protea nubigena, commonly known as cloud sugarbush, is a very rare species of a flowering shrub belonging to the Protea genus. It is endemic to KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and is found in the uKhahlamba Basalt Grassland within the Royal Natal National Park, near Mont-Aux-Sources, at an altitude of about 2,250 metres (7,380 ft) in well-drained, humus-rich soil on shaded slopes.
Dianthus basuticus, called the Drakensberg carnation, Lesotho carnation, Lesotho pink, hlokoa‑la‑tsela in the Sesotho language and Lesothose wilde angelier in Afrikaans, is a species of Dianthus native to South Africa and Lesotho.
Delosperma lavisiae is a species of flowering plant in the family Aizoaceae, native to South Africa and Lesotho. It goes by a number of common names relating to its habitat, growing as high as 2,650 m (8,700 ft) up in the Drakensberg mountains; Drakensberg ice plant, Drakensberg vygie, and mountain vygie. A mat‑forming, cold hardy succulent, able to withstand occasional frosts as low as −20 to −15 °C, it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Oldeania is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Poaceae.
Erica caffra is a small tree, sometimes a shrub, that grows in riparian habitats and on forest edges and occurs from the Western Cape to the Drakensberg of KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. The tree's flowers look like bells. The tree's national tree number is 572.
Gerbera ambigua is a species of flowering plant in the section Lasiopus of genus Gerbera belonging to the basal Mutisieae tribe within the large Asteraceae family.
Dianthus mooiensis is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae.
Harpochloa falx, is a species of flowering plant in the family Poaceae, native to South Africa, Lesotho, and Eswatini. Although fire-adapted, in the absence of regular burns it comes to dominate its competitors.