Tanqua Karoo
Semi-arid and arid desert east of the Cedarberg Mountains. It is famous not only for its highly endemic flora but also is the locality of the outrageously outlandish Afrika Burn festival that takes place at Tankwa Town every May. The flowering period is typically brief and is often early relative to the rest of the Western Cape, typically peaking in August. In summer it is blisteringly hot with dust-devils raking the molten metamorphic rock covering portions of the Tanqua basin. Much of the Tanqua is used for grazing though there are increasing numbers of reserves including the Tanqua Karoo National Park that provide some measure of protection. The border between the Northern and Western Cape cuts through the Tanqua Karoo. Perhaps the best known of the plants is the Hoodia (Ngaap) that occurs naturally in the area and has been exploited as an appetite suppressant. Sceletium is a plant imbibed or sniffed for its energising and euphoric properties. Some creatures unique to the Tanqua include the terrifying Stofadil that terrorizes tourists to the area and has a particular prediliction for car tyres.
Nodes
Grielum humifusum
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Pelargonium carnosum
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Hermannia trifurca
Drimia
Cyanella
Didymaotus lapidiformis
Oxalis
Pages
Taxonomy term
Diascia
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Gk. di- = two; askion = wineskin, bladder, belly; referring to the two lateral corolla pouches.
Diascia
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Gk. di- = two; askion = wineskin, bladder, belly; referring to the two lateral corolla pouches.
Diascia macrophylla
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From the Latin makros = "large" and phyllon = "leaf". The leaves are large.
Dimorphotheca
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Gk. di- = two; morphe = form; theke =a fruit (a case or container); referring to the two different forms of cypselae (fruit) produced by the ray and disk flowers: those of the ray flowers wingless, three-cornered; those of the disk flattened and two-winged.
Erica coccinea
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From the Latin coccineus = ‘scarlet’
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
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
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
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
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.
FABACEAE
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Faba, Latin, a bean.
Felicia
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Origin uncertain. La. felix = happy, cheerful, though in the neuter plural form felicia = happy things; possibly a reference to the bright flowers. Other sources vaguely refer to a mysterious German official in Regensburg called Felix who died in 1846 but speculatively and more probably for the Italian Fortunato Bartolomeo de Felice (1723–1789), an Italian scholar established in Yverdon who led the European team that wrote the Yverdon Encyclopedia, published between 1770 and 1780 in 58 quarto volumes. This superseded the Parisian Encyclopedie of Diderot and d’Alembert published between 1751 and 1772.
Felicia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Origin uncertain. La. felix = happy, cheerful, though in the neuter plural form felicia = happy things; possibly a reference to the bright flowers. Other sources vaguely refer to a mysterious German official in Regensburg called Felix who died in 1846 but speculatively and more probably for the Italian Fortunato Bartolomeo de Felice (1723–1789), an Italian scholar established in Yverdon who led the European team that wrote the Yverdon Encyclopedia, published between 1770 and 1780 in 58 quarto volumes. This superseded the Parisian Encyclopedie of Diderot and d’Alembert published between 1751 and 1772.
Felicia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Origin uncertain. La. felix = happy, cheerful, though in the neuter plural form felicia = happy things; possibly a reference to the bright flowers. Other sources vaguely refer to a mysterious German official in Regensburg called Felix who died in 1846 but speculatively and more probably for the Italian Fortunato Bartolomeo de Felice (1723–1789), an Italian scholar established in Yverdon who led the European team that wrote the Yverdon Encyclopedia, published between 1770 and 1780 in 58 quarto volumes. This superseded the Parisian Encyclopedie of Diderot and d’Alembert published between 1751 and 1772.
Felicia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Origin uncertain. La. felix = happy, cheerful, though in the neuter plural form felicia = happy things; possibly a reference to the bright flowers. Other sources vaguely refer to a mysterious German official in Regensburg called Felix who died in 1846 but speculatively and more probably for the Italian Fortunato Bartolomeo de Felice (1723–1789), an Italian scholar established in Yverdon who led the European team that wrote the Yverdon Encyclopedia, published between 1770 and 1780 in 58 quarto volumes. This superseded the Parisian Encyclopedie of Diderot and d’Alembert published between 1751 and 1772.
Felicia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Origin uncertain. La. felix = happy, cheerful, though in the neuter plural form felicia = happy things; possibly a reference to the bright flowers. Other sources vaguely refer to a mysterious German official in Regensburg called Felix who died in 1846 but speculatively and more probably for the Italian Fortunato Bartolomeo de Felice (1723–1789), an Italian scholar established in Yverdon who led the European team that wrote the Yverdon Encyclopedia, published between 1770 and 1780 in 58 quarto volumes. This superseded the Parisian Encyclopedie of Diderot and d’Alembert published between 1751 and 1772.