Fynbos
What a beautiful name, the Cape of Good Hope Located at the southern tip
of the African continent and the place where, in the age of geographical discovery,
a great number of ships passed heading to unknown Asian countries.
I would like to go to the Cape of Good Hope,
and look at the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic.
I have longed to visit South Africa since my University days.
However, South Africa on the other side of the earth is very far away.
Instead I think of South Africa on encountering South African plants in Japan.
The republic of South Africa holds a surprisingly high plant diversity which has fascinated botanists from all over the world and of all ages.
It was 1488, the beginning of the age of geographical discovery, when the first European arrived Cape of
Good Hope and since then a number of European plant hunters have explored this land with great enthusiasm, trying to discover the plants of beauty.
South Africa is 4 times as large as Japan and within South Africa is Cape Floral Kingdom, which is the smallest of six plant kingdoms on
the earth yet has plant diversity as high as tropical rain forest. Cape Floral Kingdom mainly exists on
the coastal area of the western cape region where a Mediterranean climate prevails, and the majority of it is unique grassland called fynbos.
The fynbos is characterized by an annual precipitation below 500 mm (compare with approximately 1500 mm in Tokyo) and vegetation
dominated mainly by Restionaceae grasses, Proteas and Ericas. The fynbos plants are highly adapted to the
hot and dry summer of Mediterranean climate.
Home of Aloe is the fynbos, South Africa. Aloe, known to be used by Cleopatra for beauty purposes, was introduced to Japan
in the late 19th century when Japan re-opened the country after 400 years of a national isolation policy. Aloe was called Master Doctor
and regarded as a panacea which cures all troubles from burn to stomach-ache. Therefore, aloe quickly became popular among Japanese
people who were most excited at re-opening of the country and the flowing of new things brought from overseas. Aloe is also used as folk medicine
in its home, South Africa. Aloe, which has travelled from South Africa, Arabia, India, south-east Asia, China and
finally to Japan about 150 years ago, is now one of the most popular Japanese garden plants and blooms its strikingly orange flowers in early spring time.
Proteas started to appear in Japanese flower shops about 15 years ago.
With the coming of Australian flower boom, proteas, along with kangaroo-paw and bottle-brush, have started to be sold as cut-flowers at the flower shops. Proteas are indigenous to Africa, Australia and South America. Why on earth are proteas found on these three continents although they are thousands of kilometres apart by oceans? The answers goes back to geological time, far away beyond human history. Approximately 300 500 million years ago, Africa, Australia, south America and Antarctica had been one huge continent called Gondwana . Proteas have already existed on Gondowana and continued evolving even after Gondwana started to break up about 150 million years ago.
It was many later years, approximately 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs have become extinct.
Therefore had it been possible that herbivorous dinosaurs fed on Proteas? I wonder about that when I see Proteas in the
flower shops in Japan.
In Spring-time the side of the streets will be full of Azalea blossoms in Japan and higher in the mountains many Ericaceae alpine plants can be seen.
Japanese people are familiar with the Ericaceae, the plant family with 50 genus and 1500 species. One of the genus, Erica, has 700 species and more
than 80 %
species are indigenous to South Africa. Therefore it is considered that centre of Erica s evolution has been in this region. While Proteas can be
found in other continents, no Ericas are found in Australia or South America. This indicates that Ericas s evolution has occurred in large scale
after Africa became separated from Australia
and South America by Gondwana break-up (150 million years ago) and came to have much drier climate.
No Erica grows natural in Japan. However, a garden plant, Erica canaliculata, has been introduced to Japan about 120 years ago.
It is called snake eye s erica in Japanese,
referring to its flower similar to the snake eyes. Its pendulous flowers are lovely pale-pink.
It is surprising that Freesia and Gladiolus bloom in the fynbos during Spring.
12 Freesia species out of 14, and 250 gladiolus
species out of 260 are native to south Africa. When they were introduced to Japan, Freesia was called Snow aroma orchid owning to
its nice scent, and Gladiolus was called Dutch Iris because it was introduced by Dutch missionaries.
Both Clivia that blooms bright-orange flowers in early spring and Agapanthus that blooms pale-blue pendulous flowers in early
summer are also native to South Africa. The sight of those strikingly beautiful flowers blooming in the fynbos must have impressed
the European plant hunters as they have given them beautiful scientific names. The genus name Clivia was given in honour of
Duchess Charlotte Clive who was a governess of future queen Elizabeth. The genus name Agapanthus is originally Greek words meaning
love flower (Agapa + anthos). Those flowers are now blooming proudly in Japanese home gardens.
Going towards northwest from the fynbos, it becomes much drier with annual precipitation below 200 mm, and a semi-desert
vegetation called Succulent Karoo begins here. Crussulaceae plants whose leaves are
thick and capable of holding water survive in this extremely arid-environment.
Kalanchoes, being popular in Japanese flower shops for its tiny and colourful flowers, originated in the Succulent Karoo and has a
great vitality in its home land.
Kalanchoes withstand hot and dry summer by accumulating water within their leaves. They extend stems parallel to the ground and wherever the stems touch the ground, new roots start to grow, and eventually establish new individuals. This amazing vitality caused Kalanchoes to be given nicknames such as Mother of thousands , Mother of millions and Leaf of life . There are 125 species in Kalanchoe genus and Miracle Leaf (Kalanchoe pinnata) is one of them. The German poet, Goethe, loved the Miracle Leaf very much and presented its new shoots to his friends with babies to celebrate a new birth.
Dollar plant is also a species of Crassulaceae native to South Africa.
The name, dollar plant, comes from a similarity of
its leaves to coins. Similar to Kalanchoes, dollar plant also has amazing vitality; capable of growing into a new individual
from a piece of fallen-off
leaf or branch. When growing in Japan, dollar plant blooms little pink flowers in early spring.
Upon the arrival of Spring, though only a short period of time, a number of Asteraceae flowers bloom
in the Succulent Karoo. The colour of this arid land will be changed into red, orange, white and purple.
Dimorphotheca that can be sometimes found in Japanese home gardens is one of the Asteraceae species blooming in Succulent Karoo.
The name Dimorphotheca (Dimor + photheca, means two seeds in Latin) refers to its ability to produce two types of seed; one is flat,
papery and wind-dispersed and the other is needle-shaped and hard. While the former immediately germinates after being dispersed, the
latter germinates after waiting a period of time. This ability allows Dimorphotheca to survive even when dry summer lasts longer than usual.
Dimorphotheca opens and closes along with the sun. At Kirstenbosch botanic garden,
Cape Town, Dimorphotheca blooming can be seen in southern-hemisphere spring time, July to October.
Gazania is also a species of Asteraceae of Succulent Karoo. Gazania shrinks its leaves during dry season as
if it is almost dead, however, this is to minimize the amount of water deprived by transpiration. Once it rains Gazania
retrieves vitality and blooms its flowers and attracts insects responsible
for carrying pollen. Gazania is also known as terracotta daisy due to its red-soil coloured flowers.
There is Mpumalang region in northeast of south Africa, far away from the fynbos and the Succulent Karoo.
It was 1889 when a first Gerbera species (Gerbera jamesonii) was discovered in this region. Since then a great number of Gerbera varieties
have been created mainly in Netherland. Colours of Gerbera varieties are like those of the sun;
red, orange, yellow and pink. The name Mpumalang means place where the sun rises in Swazi language.
Lastly let s think of Baobab trees.
Fat-shaped baobabs are native to Madagascar and South Africa, and tightly connected to local people s lives in many ways.
Their fibrous and sweet fruits are local children s sweets. Dried barks are used for thatching a roof. And huge hollow trunks are
occasionally converted into a place to stay. The largest baobab ever recorded whose circuit is more than 50 m is at Kruger national park,
and some large baobab
trees with tables and chairs inside the hollow are open to the public as baobab bars in South Africa.
Of course no baobabs are found in Japan. However there is a popular foliage plant of Bombacaceae (same family as baobab) in
Japan, Pachira aquatica.
Pachira is often called as Money tree and it refers to Taiwanese old legend. Once upon time there lived a poor Taiwanese
farmer and one day he found Pachira tree growing in nearby forest. He loved the tree so much that he grew them in his garden and
started to selling them in a market. Immediately the tree became popular among the people and sold well enough to make him a rich man.
At present in Taiwan Pachira is cultivated in large scale for export and the amount of trade sales in 2005 reached 7 million US dollars. Pachira is a
Money tree for Taiwan both in name and reality. Such Pachira tree is a remote relative of baobab trees.
It is a pleasure to come across South African plants in Japan. Someday I would like to visit there and look at
these plants growing in the South African countryside. I wish such fortune comes to me in near future.
10th, August, 2008 written by Ayuho Uchida.
photos are taken from wikipedia and
http://www.hana300.com/index.html