Endangered habitats of Cape floral kingdom

The Cape floristic region, of which fynbos forms the dominant part, covers about 90,000 km² (about the size of Portugal, or the state of Maine in the USA) and is home to more than 8500 species of higher plants and about 75 species of ferns and other non-flowering plants. The flora of this region is richer than that of any other area of equivalent size in the world. Almost three-quarters of the plant species in this region occur nowhere else on Earth. It is also a major repository for entire plant groups: for example it contains 526 of the world's 760 species of the family Ericacaea and 96 of 160 known species of the genus [Gladiolus].

The name fynbos, which literally means 'fine bush', was coined by Dutch settlers, with reference to the dominance of fine-leaved shrubs in the vegetation, or specifically to its poor potential (being fine - 'fijn' in Dutch; 'fyn' in Afrikaans) as a forestry or fine wood resource.

Fynbos is best defined in terms of its unique mixture of three main plant types. Most conspicuous are the broad-and leathery-leaved shrubs of the Proteaceae family, many of them with the showy flowers for which the region is renowned. Heath-like shrubs, typically belonging to the Ericaceae family, with small leaves typically form the lower shrub layer. Thirdly, the single feature that most clearly distinguishes fynbos from other types of vegetation in southern Africa is the presence of Cape reeds: stout grass-like plants of the family Restionaceae. Besides the leucadendrons and proteas, ericas and Cape reeds, there are also many herbs with underground storage organs, such as bulbs, rhizomes and tubers, and annual plants such as daisies. Trees are usually confined to stream banks or sheltered ravines.

Fynbos ecology is distinguished by a mediterranean type climate, with cool wet winters and hot dry summers. The summer droughts, together with the extremely poor soils that occur in most areas, and the intense fires that occur at intervals of between four and twenty years, have been the major driving forces in the evolution of the extraordinary assemblage of plants that comprise fynbos communities. Fire is a natural part of fynbos. It creates space and increases the availability of nutrients, light and water that otherwise limit regeneration in mature fynbos. The seeds of many fynbos species are stimulated to germinate by the chemical substances found in smoke or leached from healed or charred wood.

Fynbos is one of the world's richest repositories of biological diversity. It is not only the diversity of plants in the whole region that is special, but also the way that this floral richness is distributed within the region. The 60 square kilometres of Table Mountain alone supports 1,470 species.