Wolseley Commonage
A lowland remant on the urban fringe comprising important fynbos and renosterveld vegetation. It is situated to the NE of the town of Wolseley in the Tulbagh Valley between Tulbagh to the North and Ceres to the SE.
Nodes
Babiana
Untitled
Lobostemon
Oxalis
Indigofera
Cotula
Oxalis
Cyphia
Cleretum
Pages
Taxonomy term
Echium plantagineum
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Resembling the genus Plantago, the plantain or fleawort
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.
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 This superseded the Parisian Encyclopedie of Diderot and d’Alembert published between 1751 and 1772.
Galaxia
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La. galaxia, galaxias = the milky way; Gk. Gala = milky or galactos = milky fluid; referring to the white or creamy flowers that some species in Galaxia have.
Geissorhiza
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Gk. geisson = title; rhiza = root; alluding to the regular overlapping of the corm tunics in some species.
Gladiolus
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La. gladiolus = a small sword; referring to the sword-like shape of the leaves.
Gorteria personata
(Klitskriud){"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
From the Latin ‘personata’ / ‘personata’ meaning ‘the plant called burdock’
Haemanthus
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Gk. haima = blood; anthos = flower. The colour of the (flower) perianth is red in many species.
Heliophila
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Gk. (h)elios = sun; philein = to love. The plant likes a sunny position.
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).
Iridaceae
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Iris = rainbow in Latin and Greek; Iris was also the Greek goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods.
Lachenalia
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For Werner de Lachenal (1736–1800), Swiss professor of botany and anatomy at the University of Basel from 1776, eminent for his knowledge of European plants. He obtained his PhD in 1763. He was a pupil of Haller, who was one of his main correspondents, providing him with details of flora and their location around Basel, the Jura mountains, Alsat and Bruntrutain. He was a friend of Linnaeus. He authored several monographs in Acta Helvetica. While at the university he substantially improved its botanical garden, the oldest in Switzerland, that had fallen into disrepair. He continually strived to obtain funds to reconstruct and develop the garden and to pay for its gardener. He opened the garden to the public to cover expenditures.
Lachnaea
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Gk. lachne = woolly hair; alluding to the downy calyx.
Lebeckia
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Named by Thunberg after an obscure botanist of whom we can find no trace.
Leucadendron
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Gk. leukos = white; dendron = tree; referring to commonly called ‘witteboom’ or ‘silver tree’.