Fynbos
Soil in the Fynbos is particularly nutrient poor. All indigenous vegetation types that occur here have evolved to grow in this nutrient poor soil. The web of organisms that rely on the vegetation are therfore also adapted to an environment shaped by low nutrient soils. It is part of the Cape Floral Region and famous for levels of endemism unmatched in any other floral kingdom. The fynbos biome is in a Mediterranean climate system with a winter rainfall season. Diversity is all around, one just has to look closer.
Mammals:
Aardwolf (Proteles cristatus): it has the same build as that of a hyena, except for the presence of a thick dorsal mane and bushy tale. It also has miniscule facial muscles compared to the hyena due to its main prey being termites (common prey; will eat any insects) and its dentition fit this purpose (small, sharp teeth spaced wide apart). It may grow to an average shoulder height of 50cm and a weight of 9kg. Its body colour is mainly sandy, yellow-brown with four to eight dark vertical stripes on its sides. It has a black tail tip and feet. It is shy and solitary and may remain undetected in an area for a long time. It has sharp hearing and a keen nose for tracking termites. It uses the incisor teeth in its lower jaw for excavation and collects the termites with its tongue, covered in sticky saliva. A provoked Aardwolf will let out a remarkably loud roar and raise its mane. It is territorial and marks its territory with a sweet scent produced by glands just above the anus.
Cape Clawless Otter (Aonyx capensis): although fond of water, it spends a great deal of time moving between water bodies in search of food. It is a skilled swimmer with a taste for crabs and frogs but will catch fish, insects and birds and is therefore a generalist. It can grow to a maximum length of 1,6m (from tail tip to nose) and a maximum weight of 18kg. Its coat is light- to dark brown with a silvery sheen and a cream underside. Their feet are only marginally webbed, a characteristic verifying their generalist lifestyle. They are playful and very social animals. A. capenis’ den is known as a holt and can be a reed bed or hole in the ground near a water body. A clutch of 2-3 young are born in the holt and are taught by their parents to swim and hunt.
Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis): grows up to a maximum length of 1m and weight of 14 kg. Though small, the Honey badger is a compact powerhouse and will not back off from a fight even when provoked by individuals such as buffalo. Their coat colouring (white back; black legs, stomach, throat and face) serves as a warning to others not to provoke it. Armed with a stocky muscular body, long (up to 3,5cm) sharp claws, sharp teeth and a tough loose skin covered by its course coat, it is able to pursue a wide variety of prey. It invades beehives with ease and takes its timein collecting the honey. It is often assisted in finding beehives by a small chattering bird known as the honeyguide. The honeyguide gains safe access to grubs and wax when the badger breaks open the nest, and is so benefitted. Furthermore the honey badger will feed on scorpions, spiders, insects, lizards, frogs and any snake (even the most poisonous).
Birds:
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus): a mostly silent and seldom seen aerial predator that feeds on fish in inland-lakes and coastal estuaries. If the opportunity arrives it will catch fish in the sea. In flight (and viewed from below) it has the silhouette of a seagull. Its key diagnostic character is the black mask beneath its white crown. It is mostly brown with white legs, chest and neck. Its underparts are white with black, speckled lines.
Orange Breasted Sunbird (Anthobaphes violacea): this species is unique to the Cape Floral Kingdom. There are great differences in the appearances of the male and female sunbird. The male grows to a length of 17cm and a weight of 11g. Its feathering is bright metallic green on its head and upper back (the rest of the back is coloured olive); its breast is a metallic purple; its belly is bright orange and its tail is black with long central feathers. The female grows to a length of 13cm and a weight of 9,7g. She is dull in appearance with greenish grey feathers above and yellow feathers below. Her wings and tail are dusky. The male and female often move as a pair on their foraging trips. They feed on nectar bearing plants such as proteas and ericas and will catch insects in flight on its trips between plants. The female builds a nest of twigs and grass that is purse shaped, held together with spider webs and tucked into a shrub not more than a metre above ground. The inside is lined with soft down from proteas on which two blotched eggs are layed. The eggs are incubated for a fortnight before the chicks hatch. The chicks take 20 days to reach flying age and the family stays together for another two weeks after the chicks are capable of flying.
Blue Crane (Anthropoides paradisea): renowned for its beauty and elegance, this bird may occur in flocks of up to 400 individuals. It is gifted with outstanding powers of flight and can reach heights where it cannot be seen with the naked eye. It grows up to a height of 1,05m and a weight of 3,6kg and 5,6kg, for females and males respectively. It has a plain blue-grey feathering on most of the body with darker wings and the head a pale white. The long drooping feathers are its innermost wing feathers that stream out behind it in flight. It feeds primarily on bulbs, roots, shoots and seeds but also on insects and small vertebrates. Its well camouflaged eggs are laid on the bare ground. Two months of incubation, by both parents, produce two grey chicks with ginger heads. The chicks do not fly until 12 weeks of age and are fed by the mother for the first six weeks of their lives before picking up their own food.
Reptiles / Amphibians:
Cape Dwarf Chameleon (Bradypodion pumilum): its body is leaf green, usually with an orange-red stripe on its side. The inside of its mouth is bright orange and displayed when threatened. On top of the head it has a small, scaly helm and a short comb on the back and throat. Like all chameleons it is a sluggish mover and relies on its sticky, extending tongue to catch its prey (usually small grasshoppers) from the branches. Its tail (used to grab on to branches) is much longer than the body. Can produce four clutches per year, from summer to autumn, and the female gives birth to live young.
Spotted Sand Lizard (Pedioplanis lineoocellata): a handsome lizard with rough skin (made up of minute scales). The head is covered in large and smooth scales. It has scaly eyelids and a long tail. It has an interesting body pattern of stripes and spots varying in colour between cream, red, brown and black. It is not a burrowing lizard and is absent in regions with deep sand. It hunts through ambushing passing prey: sprinting from its shelter and grabbing the prey. It lays 4-8 eggs in early summer that hatch after three months. These lizards may live for up to five years.
Invertebrates:
Pale Spreadwing (Lestes pallidus): a damselfly that varies greatly in colour, but with the most remarkable specimens being light blue. It reaches a length of 5,8cm, its abdomen 3,2cm in length and very slender. Both males and females look similar. It preys on minute flying insects and can mostly be found in open grassland near a waterbody.
Net-Casting Spider (Menneus camelus): this slender, brown arachnid blends in perfectly on reeds, trees and grasses. It is rather small with a body length of 1,2-3cm. Its front pair of legs are approximately five times the length of its body and are usually stretch out parallel with the surface it is sitting on. It uses these extremely long legs to cast a silken net (which it produces itself) on unsuspecting prey. It is nocturnal and usually preys on moths and other spiders.
Toad Grasshopper (Batrachotetrix stolli): a medium-sized, stout grasshopper that has completely lost its wings through evolution. It has a flat, broad pronotum and broad hindlegs. Its colour and texture matches the flintstone substrate of the environment. When approached it folds its antennae flat against its head and remains immobile, relying on camouflage to avoid any danger. The males are smaller than females.
Herbs:
Red Disa (Disa uniflora): the showy flower, in shades of red, is the emblem for the Western Cape. It is an evergreen perennial found along streambanks, waterfalls and wet cliffs and prefers partial shade. It has only one known pollinator: Meneris tulbaghia (also known as the Table Mountain Beauty). It is able to reproduce vegetatively through stolons, producing separate plants through the division of the stolon. Also reproduces sexually through seeds.
Belladonna Lily (Amaryllis belladonna): its inflorescence, with clusters of up to 12 trumpet shaped flowers, typically faces in the direction where it is exposed to the most sun. The inflorescence grows on a purplish-red and green stalk up to 50cm above ground. The scented flowers are large (10 cm in length, 8cm across the mouth) with protruding style and anthers. Its strap like leaves are produced after flowering (in winter). The leaves produce a starch, stored in the bulb and used as food in the flowering period.
Wonder-Flower (Ornithogalum thyrsoides): a perennial, 20-50cm tall, with 5-7 fleshy, lance-shaped leaves (15-30cm in length) that die back after flowering. The bowl-shaped, creamy white flowers are produced either in a raceme or corymb on a leafless stalk. The fruits that form are spindle-shaped, thin wall capsules that split open to expose the black seeds. Bulbs are dormant through the dry summer and their flowering is stimulated by fires.
Trees / Shrubs:
King Ptotea (Protea cynaroides): our national flower. It has thick stems and large, dark-green glossy leaves. Reaches a height of 1m at maturity, but may reach 2m depending on external factors (i.e. nutrition, fire, etc.). The inflorescence consists of numerous flowers at its centre surrounded by thick, leathery and colourful bracts. The largest inflorescence / flowerhead may be 30cm in diameter. 6-10 flowerheads are produced during one season.
Clanwilliam Ceder (Widdringtonia cedarbergensis): the tree species from which the Cederberg derived its name and now a critically endangered species. Grow on rocky outcrops at altitudes of up to 1980m. Grows to a height of 5-7m but very large specimens may reach a height of 20m. Adult trees have gnarled trunks with reddish grey bark and spreading crowns. The adult leaves are small (0,4cm long), paired and lie flat along the branches. Male and female cones are borne on the same plant. The cones vary greatly in size: the male cone is only 0,2cm long and the female cones are 2,5cm and made up of four, warty scales. The ovoid seeds are black-brown with a narrow wing. The tree is very slow growing and is easily damaged by low intensity fires. The seeds are however prone to germinate after fires.
Pincushion Tree (Leucospermum conocarpodendron): the largest of the Proteaceae growing up to 5m tall and 6m across. Having only one main stem it is considered a tree. The stem is covered in corky bark (up to 5cm thick) and can grow to a diameter of 40cm. The smooth green leaves are stalkless and closely packed against the branches. The leaf tips display 3-10 reddish glandular teeth. The leaves are mostly hairless, but if present only occur on the edge of the leaf. The flowerheads are borne in groups. Each globose flowerhead containing numerous flowers, closely packed together to form the pincushion. The perianth is coloured yellow. The style ends in a pollen presenter (from where the pollen is released onto bird pollinators). Its seed is a hard ovoid nuts covered with a nutritious attachment (elaiosome) that attracts ants for dispersal purposes. Its main pollinator is the Cape Sugarbird which feeds on the nectar. The nectar also attracts insects, serving as an extra meal for the sugarbirds.