Page 29 - Landscape SA 97

ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURE

he new Struik Nature field guide
describes management techniques
Twith biodiversity conservation
objectives in mind. Lowland Renosterveld
has relatively fertile clay-based soils.
The Overberg and Swartland (on the
West Coast) Renosterveld are the most
transformed and vulnerable to future
extinction of natural species. Farmers
have been cooperating and are setting
aside areas not suitable for crops,
in conjunction with Cape Nature’s
Biodiversity Stewardship Programme and
other conservation efforts.

Renosterveld, named after the Black
Rhino that wandered this veld type
before the arrival of Europeans, is known
as “the richest bulb habitat on Earth”.
Nieuwoudtville, a small town in the West
Coast Renosterveld, is known as ‘the
bulb capital of the world’ and is visited
by a multiplicity of international tourists.
Many of the most popular, commercially
grown bulbs in horticulture, worldwide,
stem from Renosterveld habitats: Freesias,
Sparaxis, Gladiolus and Lachenalias.
Geophytes regenerate after fire and there
is a considerably higher percentage of
flowering bulbs on burnt sites, as opposed
to unburnt. These mostly burst into flower Babiana ambigua. Commonly called Bobbejaantjies, as baboons relish the corms in
in spring for two or three months; while the natural habitat. Stemless plant with scented flowers from July to September, blue to
some other bulbous species flower in mauve in colour with white to pale yellow markings. Narrow, pleated leaves (specifically
autumn. LSA
in the Overberg) longer than the flowers.

Lachenalia mutabilis. Commonly called the Bontviooltjie. The
long flower spike of this species produces flowers in spring in a Moraea papilionacea. Species name meaning butterfly-like.
series of different colours... small urn-shaped flowers pollinated The flowers vary from salmon to pale yellow with dark yellow,
by honeybees. Many of this genus are commercially available brown-fringed nectar guides. Flowering from August to October
as pot plants for weeks on end but single flowers wither after a day.

Landscape SA • Issue 97 2020 27