Kirstenbosch – The most beautiful garden in Africa.

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botanic garden, botanical garden, Cape Floristic Region, Capetown, environment, Flowers, garden, Gardens, Kirstenbosch, Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, protea, South African endemic plant, Table Mountain, world heritage site

Kirstenbosch

Water Blommetjies

 

Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden is acclaimed as one of the great botanic gardens of the world. Few gardens can match the sheer grandeur of the setting of Kirstenbosch, against the eastern slopes of Cape Town’s Table Mountain.

The 36 hectare garden is part of a 528 hectare estate that contains protected mountainside supporting natural forest and fynbos along with a variety of animals and birds.

Kirstenbosch lies in the heart of the Cape Floristic Region, also known as the Cape Floral Kingdom. In 2004 the Cape Floristic Region, including Kirstenbosch, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site – another first for Kirstenbosch, it is the first botanic garden in the world to be included within a natural World Heritage Site.

Related articles

• My visit at Kirstenbosch (millicent1026.wordpress.com)
• Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden (21andfulloffun.wordpress.com)

It has begun

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biodiversity, bitterbossie, Chirona, environment, Erica, floral, floral kingdoms, fynbos, fynbos biome, garden, Helichrysum, Metalasia, nature, organic, plants, protea, secret season, South African endemic plant, Table Mountain, vascular plant species, Western Cape, wild flowers, world heritage site

After the good rains we have had this past week, the Table mountain has started to come alive. This time of the year is always known as “The Secret Season” here in the Western Cape floral kingdom.

The Cape Floristic Region, the smallest of the six recognised floral kingdoms of the world, is an area of extraordinarily high diversity and endemism, and is home to more than 9 000 vascular plant species, of which 69 percent are endemic. Much of this diversity is associated with the fynbos biome, a Mediterranean-type, fire-prone shrubland. The economical worth of fynbos biodiversity, based on harvests of fynbos products (e.g.wildflowers) and eco-tourism, is estimated to be in the region of R77 million a year. Thus, it is clear that the Cape Floristic Region has both economic and intrinsic biological value as a biodiversity hotspot.

Table Mountain National Park is a World Heritage site since 2004.

A short stroll up the mountain confirmed that the “Secret Season” has begun.

Chirona baccifera or “Bitterbossie” (Afrikaans) full of medicinal berries.

Erica abietina starting to flower

 

Erica plukentii is a favourite with the Sunbirds

 

The Metalsia muricata full of  honey smelling white flowers, making the mountain Silver in the late afternoon light.

The Tortoise Berry or Nylandtia Spinosa  giving a beautiful purple guile to its thorns

The Black Bearded Sugar bush Protea (Protea lepiocarpodendron), so soft and velvety.

The oleander leaf protea (Protea neriifolia) often known as  baardsuikerbos presumably because it looks as if it has a beard.