
Central Karoo of the Groot Karoo (W. Cape)
At the north-eastern extent of the Western Cape of South Africa, and in the south-eastern corner of the arid Groot Karoo, lies the Central Karoo. Centred around Beaufort West, known as the "Jewel of the Groot Karoo". This has a patchy rainfall that is primarily summer-rainfall. It frequently undergoes long periods of drought. It is primarily used as grazing land for cattle, sheep, ostriches and sometimes goats.
Nodes


Duvalia caespitosa

Albuca virens

Boerhavia

Hermannia grandiflora

Euphorbia stellispina

Ornithogalum

Kohautia

Indigofera

Aizoon
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Taxonomy term
Aizoon
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Gk. aei = ever, always; zoos, zoon = alive, a living thing; alluding to the ability of the plant to live under difficult circumstances.
Albuca
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La. albus = white or albicans = becoming white; referring to the colouring of some Albuca flowers.
Albuca virens
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Present active participle of the Latin vireō (“I am green”).
Boerhavia
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For Herman Boerhaave (1668–1739), Dutch anatomical physician, botanist and chemist, who held three professorships at the University of Leiden, that of professor of botany and medicine (1709), of practical medicine (1714, a year in which he also became rector), and of chemistry (1718). His reputation was such that he tutored Peter the Great in maritime affairs and knew Linnaeus and Voltaire well. During his career he introduced the modern system of clinical instruction, described ‘Boerhaave’s syndrome’, a condition involving a torn oesophagus, described plant species, and published numerous works in medicine and chemistry. In 1728 he was elected to the French Academy of Sciences.
Dipcadi viride
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From the Latin 'viridus' meaning green, refers to the flower colours
Duvalia
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For Henri Auguste Duval (1774–1814), French physician and botanist. He studied medicine at the University of Paris, was famous for his catalogue Plantae succulenta in horto Alenconio (1809) and was the author of Enumeratio plantarum succulentum in horto Alenconio. He was the first person to describe the plant genera Gasteria, Haworthia and Ligulari, and authored a book on all the species found naturally in the environs of Paris (1813).
Duvalia caespitosa
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From the Latin caespitis = 'grassy' or 'mound'; i.e. forming a low rounded mound
Euphorbia
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Gk. eu- = well; phorbe = pasture or fodder; probably after Euphorbus, Greek physician to Juba II, King of Mauretania. Juba was educated in Rome and married the daughter of Antony and Cleopatra. He was apparently interested in botany and had written about an African cactus-like plant from the slopes of Mount Atlas, which he had found or knew about, which was used as a powerful laxative. That plant may have been Euphorbia resinifera, and like all Euphorbias had a latexy exudate (milky emulsion from certain plants). Euphorbus had a brother named Antonius Musa who was the physician to Augustus Caesar in Rome. When Juba heard that Caesar had honoured his physician with a statue, he decided to honour his own physician by naming the plant he had written about after him.
Euphorbia stellispina
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From the Latin 'stella' meaning star and 'spina' meaing spines.
Gazania
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Gk. gaze, gaza = riches, royal treasure; chloe = grass; or possibly after Theodorus Gaza (many spellings of this name) (1398–1478), a Greek scholar who moved to Italy in 1430. He became professor in Greek at the University of Ferrara (1447) and a Greek-Latin translator for Pope Nicholas V (1450–1455). He worked for King Alfonso V of Aragon (Alphonso the Magnanimous) (1456–1458) and subsequently for Cardinal Bessarion. He translated many works including Aristotle’s Problemata, De Partibus Animalium, and De Generatione Animalium and Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum, works by noted Greek authors, and a Greek grammar (four books). He is regarded as one of the greatest classical scholars and humanists of the Renaissance.
Hermannia erodioides
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Resembling the genus Erodium known as the storksbill. Closely related to Geranium, it differs from it in having only five fertile stamens, and the tails of the carpels bearded upon the inside.
Hermannia grandiflora
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From Latin grandis = 'large' and flora = 'flower', referring to having large flowers.
Indigofera
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Indigo is derived from the La. indicus, Gk. indikos, referring to India; La. ferax = bearing. Indigo is blue dye (cf I. tinctoria).
Kohautia
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For Francisci (Franz) Kohaut (?–1822), Czech plant collector and gardener from Neuhaus, Bohemia, who accompanied Franz Wilhelm Sieber, a Czech naturalist and explorer, to Crete, Egypt and Palestine (1816–1818) and afterward was also contracted to collect specimens in Martinique (1819–1821). Kohaut died in Senegal in 1822, while on an expedition.
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