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
Haworthia arachnoidea
Adromischus
Conophytum
Quaqua mammillaris
Eriospermum
Drimia
Eriospermum
Plantago cafra
Sericocoma avolans
Pages
Taxonomy term
Ferraria
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For Giovanni Batista Ferrari (1584–1655), Italian Jesuit, professor of Hebrew and rhetoric at the Jesuit College in Rome, horticultural advisor to the Pope, and author of many illustrated botanical books, including De Florum Cultura in four volumes (1633), a horticultural book emphasising the planning and planting of gardens, and Hesperides sive de Malorum Aureorum cultura (1646), a ‘citrus encyclopedia’. He also wrote a Latin-Syrian dictionary, a series of Orations – treatises on rhetoric, which emphasised good Latin usage, and a book on Sienese saints. He was the first scientist to provide a complete description of the limes, lemons and pomegranates, and their use in preventing scurvy.
Ferraria
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For Giovanni Batista Ferrari (1584–1655), Italian Jesuit, professor of Hebrew and rhetoric at the Jesuit College in Rome, horticultural advisor to the Pope, and author of many illustrated botanical books, including De Florum Cultura in four volumes (1633), a horticultural book emphasising the planning and planting of gardens, and Hesperides sive de Malorum Aureorum cultura (1646), a ‘citrus encyclopedia’. He also wrote a Latin-Syrian dictionary, a series of Orations – treatises on rhetoric, which emphasised good Latin usage, and a book on Sienese saints. He was the first scientist to provide a complete description of the limes, lemons and pomegranates, and their use in preventing scurvy.
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.
Gazania
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
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.
Gazania
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
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.
Gazania
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
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.
Gethyllis
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Possibly Gk. getheo = I rejoice; ullus = diminutive, but most sources say from gethyon = a bulb, onion or species of leek. The bulbs of this genus are somewhat similar to those of the leek.
Gethyllis
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Possibly Gk. getheo = I rejoice; ullus = diminutive, but most sources say from gethyon = a bulb, onion or species of leek. The bulbs of this genus are somewhat similar to those of the leek.
Gethyllis
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Possibly Gk. getheo = I rejoice; ullus = diminutive, but most sources say from gethyon = a bulb, onion or species of leek. The bulbs of this genus are somewhat similar to those of the leek.
Gethyllis
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Possibly Gk. getheo = I rejoice; ullus = diminutive, but most sources say from gethyon = a bulb, onion or species of leek. The bulbs of this genus are somewhat similar to those of the leek.
Gethyllis
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Possibly Gk. getheo = I rejoice; ullus = diminutive, but most sources say from gethyon = a bulb, onion or species of leek. The bulbs of this genus are somewhat similar to those of the leek.
Gladiolus
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La. gladiolus = a small sword; referring to the sword-like shape of the leaves.
Gladiolus watermeyeri
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Possibly named after Egidius Benedictus Watermeyer (1824-1867), a judge and founding member of the Cape Legislative Assembly. A number of pictures of succulents housed at the Bolus Herbarium are are drawn by an E.B. Watermeyer. However these are mainly species described by Louisa Bolus and therefore there may have been a later EB Watermeyer who this name refers to.
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.