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Restore Nature, Issue #23 April 20, 2025 |
HelloRESTORE NATURE NEWSLETTERApril 2025CAPE FLATS SAND FYNBOS
Hello all native plant enthusiasts In this newsletter I zoom in on the pursuit of locality appropriate biodiversity by researching the potential natural vegetation of my street and suburb. Why pursue this course ? The last time I showed you the work I've been doing on butterfly larval food in our city. However, I did not know which plants were appropriate for my precise location, so I looked at some vegetation maps of the vegetation that once existed here, and found out that my garden lies in what once used to be Cape Flats Sand Fynbos. To my consternation I found out that it is the most endangered vegetation type in the city. The threats to the Cape Flats Sand Fynbos (CFSF) are many. I explore this deeper in the accompanying article. I found some plant lists and have included those and their sources. click url below for article on Cape Flats Sand FynbosFinally I visited an area where CFSF grows in order to see what plants dominate. After researching access to a number of the reserves covered in the article I settled on the Tokai arboretum. It is such an interesting project, and it was easy to find and get into the reserve and observe many interesting things, such as the fire management.
There is so little CFSF left that straightup conservation of existing areas will not suffice. The total area which remains is not large enough and restoration has become a necessity. In addition it is all compromised and not prisitine, so that we have to work with what we have. This constitutes such a change of priorities from decades back when areas covered with aliens were easily rubberstamped for urban development.
Having seen what is growing there, I have a few ideas of where to start directing my garden back towards the type of vegetation that once was there. Some people call this reintegration, as it misses the possibilitiy of proper restoration, rehabilitation or rewilding but is an attempt to follow, in small part, or to tend in that direction. Rewilding the plants in my garden is very difficult. I'm going to have to think long and hard. I think to get enough sun I'd have to cut down all the fully grown trees and knock down all the tall boundary walls and the house, though I do have one small patch of sun in the driveway, and then I'd regularly have to set fire to everything ! Only a nice hot fire would do apparently. A couple of houses have burned in our neighbourhood in the past and it supplied entertainment for the throngs of folk watching, so I'd be doing my community a service. Jokes aside, perhaps I'd better focus on building some CFSF in a local park, like the activists on the Tygerberg with Renosterveld. 
What I can do is plant some of the more shade loving things, but there are not many, as tall trees casting shade were only found on the river banks and around seasonal wetlands. I could redesign the pond system to encorporate a wetland area and plant some of the wetland plants, or plant some of those small trees and tall shrubs like the sugarbush and fountain bushes in the sunniest patches.
Thinking about all this, I feel as if I've made many mistakes overplanting my garden to be so lush and tall. It feels limited now. Suggestions for getting round my 'problem' would be so welcome. Well friends, until next month, when we shall meet again, God willing. I hope to pursue this theme of insect habitat in the fynbos. Don't forget to take a look at the article on Cape Flats Sand Fynbos I wrote to accompany this newsletter. Its a lot more serious. click url below for more resources on CSFSTopic suggestions welcomeYou may write to me anytime at the website greenidiom by filling out a comment. You can also use my webmail (website mail) address greenidi@greenidiom.com. Have you missed anything ?Please go to back issues right below if you want to catch up with what I've sent thus far as preamble for the course, as well as previous newsletters. |
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