about the biome: south africa

© Dawit Zeleke / TNC

Geography and topography

The mediterranean portion of South Africa covers 96,000 square kilometers and is home to 4.8 million people – 51 per square kilometer (TNC Analysis, In Prep).This crescent-shaped strip of land along the southwestern tip of the continent, called the Western Cape Province, is where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet near the Cape of Good Hope (Dallman, 1998). Cape Town is the largest city in the region, with a population of 2 million. Tableland (high plateau), plains and lower mountains form the terrain.

Vegetation and plant life

Of the world’s six floral kingdoms, South Africa’s Cape Floral Province (CFP) is the smallest (Dallman 1998). Yet South Africa is renowned for its plant diversity, with an estimated 8,600 plant species, 70% of which are unique to the area (Richardson et al. 1998). This extraordinary proportion of endemic species is a product of the region’s varied topography, which encourages plant specialization. Other ecological processes, such as fire regimes, have contributed to the development of range-restricted species as well (Richardson et al. 1998).

Fynbos, or fine bush, is the most extensive and richest form of vegetation in CFP. It forms evergreen shrublands of varying height that are well adapted to nutrient-poor soil and fire. Fire is very common in fynbos stands, which rarely survive more than 20 years before fire reoccurs. Fynbos plants grow to maturity quickly, allowing them to produce a large reservoir of seeds. Large areas of fynbos are dominated by the unique and often spectacular Proteas, the official floral symbol of South Africa.

Strandvelt, a mosaic of fynbos and thicket, occurs on sandy soils along the Atlantic Coast north of Cape Town. Low shrubs, succulents, bulb annuals, and reed-like restios dominate this habitat. Other vegetation types include subtropical thicket, afromontane forest, and renosterveld, or rhinoceros field, named after black rhinos that used to live here. Because it thrives in fertile soil, renosterveld has suffered disproportionately from conversion to agriculture (Cowling 1990, Low and Robelo, 1996).

Fast Facts

• South Africa is by far the smallest of the mediterranean regions, representing 3% of the total area (Dallman, 1998).
• It has the highest concentration of plant species of any mediterranean region (Dallman, 1998).
• The Cape region supports 8,550 plants species, 68% of which are found nowhere else in the world (Cowling et. al., 1996).
• 25% of the region has been converted from natural vegetation and wildlife habitat to other uses (TNC Analysis, In Prep).
• This region has the second-highest growth in population density (17%) from 1990 to 2000, with a 7.3% increase in urban area (TNC Analysis, In Prep).

• Check out our message board