Muraltia orbicularis | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Rosids |
Order: | Fabales |
Family: | Polygalaceae |
Genus: | Muraltia |
Species: | M. orbicularis |
Binomial name | |
Muraltia orbicularis Hutch. | |
Muraltia orbicularis is a species of flowering plant from the genus Muraltia . [1] The species is endemic to Cape Peninsula in South Africa. [2]
Table Mountain is a flat-topped mountain forming a prominent landmark overlooking the city of Cape Town in South Africa. It is a significant tourist attraction, with many visitors using the cableway or hiking to the top. Table Mountain National Park is the most visited national park in South Africa, attracting 4.2 million people every year for various activities. The mountain has 8,200 plant species, of which around 80% are fynbos, meaning fine bush. It forms part of the Table Mountain National Park, and part of the lands formerly ranged by Khoe-speaking clans, such as the !Uriǁʼaes. It is home to a large array of mostly endemic fauna and flora.
The Cape Peninsula is a generally mountainous peninsula that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. On the northern end is Table Mountain, overlooking Table Bay and the City Bowl of Cape Town, South Africa. The peninsula is 52 km long from Mouille point in the north to Cape Point in the south. The Peninsula has been an island on and off for the past 5 million years, as sea levels fell and rose with the ice age and interglacial global warming cycles of, particularly, the Pleistocene. The last time that the Peninsula was an island was about 1.5 million years ago. Soon afterwards it was joined to the mainland by the emergence from the sea of the sandy area now known as the Cape Flats. The towns and villages of the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats, and the undeveloped land of the rest of the peninsula now form part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The Cape Peninsula is bounded to the north by Table Bay, to the west by the open Atlantic Ocean, and to the east by False Bay in the south and the Cape Flats in the north.
Table Mountain National Park, previously known as the Cape Peninsula National Park, is a national park in Cape Town, South Africa, proclaimed on 29 May 1998, for the purpose of protecting the natural environment of the Table Mountain Chain, and in particular the rare fynbos vegetation. The park is managed by South African National Parks. The property is included as part of the UNESCO Cape Floral Region World Heritage Site.
The Cape Floral Region is a floristic region located near the southern tip of South Africa. It is the only floristic region of the Cape Floristic Kingdom, and includes only one floristic province, known as the Cape Floristic Province.
Margaret Rutherford Bryan Levyns was an eminent South African phytogeographer, botanist and taxonomist.
Disa uniflora, the red disa or pride of Table Mountain, is a South African species of orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It is the type species of the genus Disa, and one of its best-known members. It is occasionally referred to by its old name Disa grandiflora.
The smoothskin scorpionfish is a species of ray-finned fish, a waspfish belonging to the subfamily Tetraroginae of the family Scorpaenidae, the scorpionfishes and their relatives. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Coccotropsis. This species is endemic to the seas off South Africa.
Lidbeckia is a genus of South African flowering plants in the chamomile tribe within the daisy family. It includes three species endemic to the Cape Provinces of South Africa.
Moraea collina is a species of the genus Moraea, in the family Iridaceae. It was formerly known as Homeria collina.
Aloiampelos commixta is a flowering plant in the Asphodelaceae family. It is commonly called Table Mountain aloe, and is a rare succulent plant that is endemic to the Cape Peninsula, South Africa. It naturally occurs only on the Table Mountain range, within the city of Cape Town.
The Biodiversity of Cape Town is the variety and variability of life within the geographical extent of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality, excluding the Prince Edward Islands. The terrestrial vegetation is particularly diverse and much of it is endemic to the city and its vicinity. Terrestrial and freshwater animal life is heavily impacted by urban development and habitat degradation. Marine life of the waters immediately adjacent to the city along the Cape Peninsula and in False Bay is also diverse, and while also impacted by human activity, the habitats are relatively intact.
Cape Winelands Shale Fynbos is a vegetation type that naturally occurs in the Cape Winelands of the Western Cape, South Africa.
Southern Afrotemperate Forest is a kind of tall, shady, multilayered indigenous South African forest. This is the main forest-type in the south-western part of South Africa, naturally extending from the Cape Peninsula in the west, as far as Port Elizabeth in the east. In this range, it usually occurs in small forest pockets, surrounded by fynbos vegetation.
Bulbine bruynsii is a species of plant in the genus Bulbine. It is endemic to South Africa.
Muraltia is a genus of plants in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae) which is native to Southern and Eastern Africa. Most of the species are endemic to South Africa, and one species is naturalized in Australia. It is named after Johannes von Muralt, a Swiss botanist and surgeon.
The Marine biodiversity of South Africa is the variety of living organisms that live in the seas off the coast of South Africa. It includes genetic, species and ecosystems biodiversity in a range of habitats spread over a range of ecologically varied regions, influenced by the geomorphology of the seabed and circulation of major and local water masses, which distribute both living organisms and nutrients in complex and time-variable patterns.
Muraltia bolusii is a plant species in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae). It is endemic to sandy coastal flatland with altitudes below 500 metres (1,600 ft) in Western Cape, South Africa. It was first described in 1954 by Margaret Levyns in the Journal of South African Botany. The Red List of South African Plants has listed it as endangered since 2007 due to habitat loss caused by nearby urban expansion, crop cultivation, and sand mining, as well as invasive species. Its population is decreasing.
Muraltia heisteria is a shrub in the milkwort family (Polygalaceae) which is native to South Africa and is an emerging invasive species in South Australia. It was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus.
Senecio verbascifolius, the mullein ragwort, is a species of plant from South Africa.