Roggeveld Plateau
The Bokkeveld Plateau is an area in the Northern Cape. It harbours possibly the highest densities of geophytes (bulbous plants) in the world, and hence is referred to by the locals as The Bulb Capital of the World. These bulbs occur mainly in the mountain renosterveld, to a lesser degree in the succulent karoo vegetation, and least of all in the mountain fynbos. Around the town of Nieuwoudtville heavy grazing in the renosterveld suppresses the growth of perennials leading to spring displays of annuals and bulbs. Most of the rainfall occurs in winter and spring with peak flowering varying considerably from year to year, but typically between August and September. In March the autumn flowering hysteranthus (flowers appear when the leaves are dormant) Amaryllidaceae put on a spectacular display.
Nodes
Gnidia
Bolandia pedunculosa
Untitled
Oxalis palmifrons
Lapeirousia montana
Muraltia horrida
Dorotheanthus booysenii
Daubenya aurea
Babiana virginea
Pages
Taxonomy term
Geissorhiza
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Gk. geisson = title; rhiza = root; alluding to the regular overlapping of the corm tunics in some species.
Gnidia
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Derivation uncertain. Linnaeus only states ‘habitat in Aethiopa’, Africa, where it is widely distributed. Possibly Gnidia was named after a Greek city, Knidos, where a kind of laurel grew, or Cnidus in Caria (modern Turkey) (Hugh Glen). Another possibility is that it could be a Greek word for Daphne or laurel; in Greek mythology, Daphne was a pretty nymph who was turned into a laurel bush (WPU Jackson). It might also have been named after Knossos in Crete (spelled Knidiossos in one version), with the G being substituted for K.
Grielum
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Gk. grelos = old; referring to the hoary leaves (William Henry Harvey, Flora Capensis).
Gymnodiscus
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Gk. gymnos = naked; diskos = disk. The receptacle of the flowerhead is flat, naked (nude); the disk florets functionally male.
Helichrysum
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Gk. (h)elios = sun; chrysos = gold; referring to the bright yellow flowerheads of many of the flowers of species in this genus.
Heliophila
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Gk. (h)elios = sun; philein = to love. The plant likes a sunny position.
Heliophila
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Gk. (h)elios = sun; philein = to love. The plant likes a sunny position.
Hemimeris nana
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From the Latin nana / nanus meaning ‘dwarf’; typically referring to the plants small stature
Hermannia
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For Paul Hermann (1646–1695), German-born Dutch physician and botanist. He graduated in medicine at the universities of Leiden and Padua, became a ship’s medical officer (1672–1677) for the Dutch East India Company and went to Sri Lanka via the Cape, where he made the first known herbarium collection of local plants, now housed in the Sloane Herbarium, British Museum of Natural History and at Oxford. In 1679 he became professor of botany at the University of Leiden and director of the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, Europe’s finest botanical garden. His 1687 publication Horti Academici Lugduno-Batavi Catalogus includes 34 Cape plants, and his proposed Prodomus Plantaerum Africanarum was to contain 791 items, but untimely death intervened.
Hermannia cuneifolia
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From the Latin cuneus = 'wedge' and folius = 'leaf'; referring to the shape of the leaf with a narrow base and wide apex
Roughly scaly, twiggy shrub to 1 m. Leaves cuneate, coarsely toothed above, sometimes appearing fascicled. Flowers on subsecund racemes, yellow often fading reddish. Mainly Aug.--Oct. Clay and granitic slopes, NW, SW, KM, AP, LB, SE (Namaqualand to E Cape and Lesotho).
Hesperantha
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Gk. hesperos = evening; anthos = flower. Many flowers open late in the day, toward evening, Afrikaans aandblom = evening bloom/flower.
Homeria
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Gk. omereo = to meet together; referring to the filaments being united around the style.
Homeria
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. omereo = to meet together; referring to the filaments being united around the style.
Homeria
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. omereo = to meet together; referring to the filaments being united around the style.
Homeria
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. omereo = to meet together; referring to the filaments being united around the style.