A happy family of Pincushion Proteas at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens.
Besides being one of the most beautiful gardens in the world, Kirstenbosch is fascinating because of the richness of the Cape floral kingdom. Our planet is divided into six floral kingdoms (who knew?), of which this little tiny area of Southern Africa is one. (Most of the northern hemisphere is another.) The diversity of plant species here is greater than in a tropical rainforest. Table Mountain alone supports over 2200 plant species, more than the entire UK.
I’ve been boiling and sipping its close cousin, Rooibos, quite a bit since we arrived. But other relatives haven’t been so fortunate. Over 1,000 species of fynbos plants are threatened with extinction. One threatened species, Erica margaritacea, only grows in the middle of Kenilworth Race Course.
