Groot Karoo (Great Karoo)
Karoo is a Khoisan word that means 'dry, hard, thirst land'. This semi-desert interior region is a unique arid zone, considered a wonder of the scientific world. It boasts the richest diversity of succulents (over 9,000 species) and greatest variety of land tortoises on the planet, as well as the Western Cape's largest collection of San (Bushman) rock art and the country's first Braille fossil trail which boasts a record number of mammal-like reptiles dating as far back as 250 million years. Although the Groot Karoo initially appears to have been unscarred by time, those who dig deeper will find that it has a fascinating historical and cultural heritage.
At the 19th century, Imperial British forces moved across its vast plains to engage the Boers in the Anglo-Boer War, leaving a trail of British graves to mark their northward path. In the past century it made medical history, being the birthplace of both Dr Christiaan Barnard (heart-transplant pioneer) and Dr Emil Hoffa (founder of the modern science of orthopedics). A tourist route through Kwa-Mandlenkosi Township in Beaufort West continues on to Nelspoort (where the largest collection of San rock art is found) and the quiet town of Murraysburg.
South of Beaufort West along the N1 are the small settlements of Leeu Gamka and Merweville and the picturesque and historic town of Prince Albert, with its thriving dried fruit industry. Laingsburg, further south on the N1, is the most geologically interesting area of the Groot Karoo. Traces of the devastating flood of 1981 can still be seen on some of the buildings. Still further south is Matjiesfontein, a small fragment of Queen Victoria's Empire.
Excerpt from: http://www.southafrica.com/western-cape/groot-karoo/
Nodes
Blepharis mitrata
Juncus punctorius
Pentzia sphaerocephala
Euphorbia
Aloiampelos striatula
Harveya purpurea
Delosperma
Felicia fascicularis
Salsola smithii
Pages
Taxonomy term
Helichrysum zeyheri
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Named in honour of the renowned plant collector Carl (Karl) Ludwig Philipp Zeyher (1799-1858). One of South Africa's foremost botanical collectors who is synonymous with his collecting partner Ecklon. He began collecting in the Cape in 1822, undertook a major expedition to Kaffraria (the Eastern Cape) 1831-1832 and to the Transvaal from 1840-1842.
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 desertorum
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From the Latin desertorum meaning 'growing in deserts'
Hermannia hirsuta
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From the Latin hirsutus = ‘hairy’
Hibiscus atromarginatus
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From the Latin ‘marginatus’ / ‘marginatus’ meaning ‘with a defined edge’
Ledebouria
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After Carl Friedrich van Ledebour (1785-1851), German professor of botany at Dorpat, worked in several European countries, wrote Flora Rossica.
Lessertia inflata
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From the Latin inflata meaning ‘inflated’, typically referring to the flower
Lycium
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Gk. lykion = name of a thorny bush/tree from Lycia in Asia Minor (Turkey) (Lycien, near Xanthos, ancient Anatolia), where the plant grows.