Flora and Fynbos

Fynbos is endemic to the Western Cape and exists nowhere else in the world. On Gondwana Game Reserve it is the ground under every drive and walk.

Fynbos is not one bush or one protea. It is a collection of plants dominated by shrubs from Southern Africa’s southwestern and southern coasts. Three shrubland types sit in this region. True fynbos, renosterveld and strandveld.

Fynbos grows on sandy, infertile soils that do not suit crops. Restios, ericas, proteas and bulbs lead the mix.

Renosterveld grows on richer soils. Much of it on the coastal forelands was ploughed for wheat and pasture, so only small fragments remain and the type is critically endangered.

Strandveld grows in alkaline sands along the dry coasts. Shrubs, small trees and succulents dominate. Because of that succulent nature this shrubland rarely burns.

Many threatened plants of South Africa live in the fynbos biome. Some species occur in only one place, such as a single peak, valley or wetland. Habitat loss has been the largest cause of loss in fynbos and renosterveld.

Cape sugarbirds are among the most important bird pollinators of fynbos proteas. Three specialist nectar birds live here. The orange breasted sunbird, the malachite sunbird and the lesser double collared sunbird.

Without fire there would be no fynbos. Fynbos and renosterveld meet fire in three main ways. Some plants resprout after fire. Some protect their seed from fire. Some evade fire by growing in rocky places.

Seed is safest underground. Fleshy attachments on certain seeds draw ants to carry them into nests below the surface.

Fynbos soils are infertile because the rocks they come from hold few nutrients. Quartzite and sandstone lead. Most fynbos soils are whitish, acidic sands that are shallow and rocky.