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ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURE

Pauridia (Spiloxene) capensis. The Peacock Flower blooming en masse after a fire on a mountainside in
early spring. Monkey Beetles serve as the most common pollinators attracted by the glittering turquoise
centre of the flower, emphasised by the velvety black markings.

PROLIFIC FLOWERING BULBS IN

CAPE FLORISTIC REGION

RENOSTERVELD’S EXTRAORDINARY BULB DIVERSITY

Text and photographs by Carol Knoll

Recently, Struik Nature published the ‘Field Guide to RENOSTERVELD of the Overberg’. It is a
vegetation complex which is part of the Fynbos biome but only remnants of Renosterveld remain
because of over-utilisation by man. The lead author Dr Odette Curtis-Scott started the Overberg
Renosterveld Conservation Trust in 2012. Since 2007, she has been exploring the remnants of
Renosterveld, and with five other Renosterveld enthusiasts, has written, photographed and
compiled the book illustrating the flora and fauna of this particular area’s rich veld types.

In its distribution throughout the Cape Floristic Region (CFR), 23 different Renosterveld
vegetation types have been recognised... in the West, South-West, South, North and East of the
CFR. Fragmented pieces in the Overberg (‘Over the Mountain’: Sir Lowry’s Pass) are in urgent
need of conservation, as the area is widely known for its fruit orchards, crops and pastures which
have left behind only remnants of one of the richest ecosystems globally, with its extraordinary
biodiversity of geophytes (bulbs, corms, rootstocks, rhizomes). All four Renosterveld types in the
Overberg are Critically Endangered.

26 Landscape SA • Issue 97 2020