The smallest kingdom which overshadows all others

in #flora8 years ago

Capensis also known as Fynbos is little compare against other floral kingdoms, but incredibly diverse.

So what is Fynbos? The easiest way to explain it to go to your nearest health shop (in South Africa, any shop) and ask for Rooibos (red bush) tea. Rooibos is properly the best know fynbos worldwide and can only be cultivated on the West coast of South Africa in the Clanwilliam area.

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The Cape Floral Kingdom (Capensis) also know as the Fynbos biome is one of six floristic kingdoms in the world. The others are Holarktis (nearly the whole Northern Hemisphere), Neotropis (Central and South America), Paleotropis (nearly the entire Africa), Australis (Australia and surrounding island) and Antrakis (South point of South America and New Zealand).

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Where all the other floral kingdom nearly covers continents, Capensis only covers a small stretch on the Africa south point. It grows in a 100-to-200-km-wide coastal belt stretching from Clanwilliam (Western Cape) on the West coast to Port Elizabeth (Eastern Cape) on the Southeast coast.

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In comparison to all the other floral kingdoms, Capensis is the most diverse floral kingdom of all. The diversity is extremely high. It contains out of more than 9000 species of plants and about 6200 endemic which means they grow nowhere else in the world. Table Mountain in Cape Town a loan supports about 2200 species which is more than the entire United Kingdom.
Roughly an area vegetation can be classified as fynbos when contains Proteas, Ericas and Restios

Protea
Proteas are known for the large reddish flowers. It is unique in the sense that bushfire is essential for reproduction and regeneration.

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Ericas
Of the Ericas, over 600 occur in the fynbos kingdom, while only two or three dozen have been described in the rest of the world.

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Restios
It is one of the major fynbos groups, and the dekriet variation got a practical use to thatch houses.

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As research continues, they discover more and more health benefits of the fynbos to humans. Rooibos is only the start of this. Another fynbos which is already cultivated for its health benefits is Boegoe.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fynbos​

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I had no idea that little area was so biodiverse. Interesting! Your article would have been improved by a definition of floral kingdoms (and closer proofreading), but I liked it. I knew about rooibos tea, but I didn't know it had such a limited growing area.

Thanks for your suggestions how to improve.

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