Fynbos 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 and endemism, consisting of about 80% species of the Cape floral kingdom, where nearly 6,000 of them are endemic. 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.
A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms. Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom.
Geraniaceae is a family of flowering plants placed in the order Geraniales. The family name is derived from the genus Geranium. The family includes both the genus Geranium and the garden plants called geraniums, which modern botany classifies as genus Pelargonium, along with other related genera.
The Thymelaeaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants composed of 50 genera and 898 species. It was established in 1789 by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu. The Thymelaeaceae are mostly trees and shrubs, with a few vines and herbaceous plants.
Gnidia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Thymelaeaceae. It is distributed in tropical and southern Africa and Madagascar; more than half of all the species are endemic to South Africa. Gnidia was named for Knidos, an Ancient Greek city located in modern-day Turkey.
Passerina ericoides, the Christmas berry, is a threatened species of plant in the family Thymelaeaceae, genus Passerina. It is indigenous to the coastal fynbos areas in and around the city of Cape Town, South Africa.
Microloma is a small genus of Ceropegia-like twiners and twiggy bushes occurring in mainly arid or fynbos regions in South Africa. They are generally nondescript when not in bloom, but the flowers of most species are incongruously decorative.
The plant genus Stilbe was described in 1767, originally as being in the Verbenaceae, but the genus now is placed in the family Stilbaceae. The entire genus is endemic to the Cape Province region of South Africa.
Struthiola is a genus of plants in the family Thymelaeaceae. In habit they are ericoid shrubs or shrublets. The genus includes 31 species native to Africa, which range from Ethiopia to South Africa.
Stellera is a genus of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae, with a single species Stellera chamaejasme found in mountainous regions of Central Asia, China, Siberia and South Asia. S. chamaejasme is a herbaceous perennial plant with heads of white, pink or yellow flowers, grown as an ornamental plant in rock gardens and alpine houses, but considered a weed playing a rôle in the desertification of grasslands in parts of its native range. Like many others of its family, it is a poisonous plant with medicinal and other useful properties.
Diarthron is a genus of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae. The precise limits of the genus are uncertain. When broadly circumscribed to include Dendrostellera and Stelleropsis, it consists of annual and perennial herbaceous plants and small shrubs, with reddish, white or green flowers lacking petals. It includes 16 species which range from southern European Russia and the Caucasus through Western and Central Asia through China and Mongolia to Korea and the Russian Far East.
Cliffortia, or Caperose is a genus of plants that has been assigned to the rose family, with currently 132 known species. Its species can be found in southern Africa, particularly in the Cape Floristic Region where 124 of the species can be found, 109 of which are endemic to the CFR. Most species are ericoid shrubs, some small trees up to 5 m high, others more or less herbaceous groundcover. All are wind pollinated and have separate male and female flowers in the axils of the leaves, mostly individually, sometimes grouped, which may be on the same plant or on separate plants.
Struthiola striata is a rounded, heather-like shrub of up to 1.5 m (4.9 ft) high that is assigned to the Thymelaeaceae family. It has small assending leaves on long straight branches, with cream, soft yellow or pinkish flowers in spikes, each of which consist of a tube of about 1 cm (0.39 in) long with 4 oval sepal lobes and 4 yellow alternating petal-like scales. It is sometimes called ribbed capespray or featherhead in English and roemenaggie, katstertjie or veërtjie in Afrikaans. It grows on coastal flats and foothills in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Struthiola tetralepis is a willowy shrublet of up to 30 cm (0.98 ft) high that is assigned to the family Thymelaeaceae. It has long straight branches that are initially hairy and are covered in leaves pressed against them. These leaves are small, overlapping, lance-shaped, sharply pointed, have a regular row of hairs along the margins, and 3-5 veins are visible on the outward facing surface. It has initially greenish yellow, later reddish brown flowers, each of which consists of a tube of about 1 cm (0.39 in) long with 4 lance-shaped, pointed sepal lobes and 4 yellow alternating petal-like scales. It flowers between October and February. It can be found in the southwest of the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is sometimes called cross capespray in English.
Lachnaea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Thymelaeaceae, found in the Cape Floristic Region of southern South Africa. They tend to be small ericoid shrubs.
Dais is a genus of flowering plants in the family Thymelaeaceae. It is also part of the Gnidia subfamily, along with Gnidia, Drapetes, Kelleria, Pimelea, Struthiola, Lachnaea and Passerina, other genera of species). It is distributed between Tanzania to S. Africa, Madagascar. It is native to the countries of Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and it is also found within several Provinces of South Africa, such as Cape Provinces, Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Provinces.
