The development of the Fynbos Corridor Collaboration (FCC) was initiated by three Cape Town-based urban greening organisations: Ingcungcu, The Greenpop Foundation and Communitree. However, since 2018, it has become a joint endeavour between many individuals and organisations in Cape Town, South Africa. By generously providing their time, invaluable knowledge and enthusiasm, these individuals and organisations have contributed toward a shared vision of a city where people and Fynbos can thrive together through a restored relationship between people, insects, birds and plants.
Step 3. Choose plants
In this section we will guide you through creating a plant species list for your site. Your ‘mother list’ of plants will be derived from the plants that would have historically occurred at your site. You will then select a few types of plants and shorten that mother list to a smaller list that fulfills the social and ecological needs you aim to fulfill with the garden. Use information from Step 2 to inform your choices.
No matter what you choose as the theme for your plant choice, you should establish the garden in a three step process starting with 1) a foundation of pioneer plants, and 2) aim to recreate the structure (or particular combination of groundcovers, grass-like plants, shrubs) of an existing reference site for the historical vegetation type of your area. Your site will then be ready to provide a healthy soil and sheltered wind environment for the more sensitive Fynbos species, which will then be more likely to survive.
That sounds like a very interesting idea and potentially something that could be replicated elsewhere in the world. Even in London there are for example suburban gardens to the south and north that have very chalky soils which could support rare chalk grassland plants.
Yes, I thought this might be a good idea to use elsewhere.
I see they started at some schools - killing two birds with one stone - education and conservation. There are definitely some spots here on the IOD, but also some schools are aware.
Thinking care homes might benefit from a recommended plant species list.
Dalton Gibbs (city of Cape Town) got factories and all sorts of unusual spots to plant and share their results. His website is still active but sadly, not user friendly.
ASIDE I have some Fish Hoek friends who planted an aloe in their garden, years ago; it attracts so many lovely sunbirds etc and, as they have grown older, they are able to watch the activity without leaving the house.
It’s a legume so micobial associations for nitrogen fixation.
Wikipedia had this :
US trademark controversy
In 1994, Burke International registered the name “Rooibos” with the US Patent and Trademark Office and so established a monopoly on the name in the United Stateswhen the plant was virtually unknown there. When it later entered more widespread use, Burke demanded for companies to pay fees to use the name or to cease its use. In 2005, the American Herbal Products Association and a number of import companies succeeded in defeating the trademark through petitions and lawsuits. After losing one of the cases, Burke surrendered the name to the public domain.[33]
Burke then, like Trump today, overplaying the American right to claim ownership of whatever they fancied ?
Rooibos doesn’t take long to brew, so that’s it for now.
Thinking, when you drink this brew, how many species are on the verge of extinction or possibly already extinct as a result of these farming practices? I remember a talk by a local botanist who was trying to get support to preserve indigenous species - some she said are only found growing at the roadsides,
Extracted this: >
Participation in RBI is voluntary and currently 20 commercial farmers participate in the pilot phase.
Before a farm can participate in the RBI, a pre-audit of the farm is done. All land of the participating farmer should be legally obtained and cleared. Then, environmental management plans that fit in with
GCBC are developed for the participating farm. Various options for land management exist for farmers participating in the RBI, such as the removal of exotic species and the establishment of nature reserves. Furthermore, the following agreements can be made between farmers and Cape Nature to
establish nature conservation areas on their farm (CapeNature et. al 2008):
• The establishment of a contract nature reserve (duration of minimum 30 years to in
perpetuity). Advantages for farmers to establish a contract nature reserve is lobbying on their behalf for incentives, drawing up a management plan, support for habitat management and increased marketing exposure.
• Signing a biodiversity agreement (duration of minimum 10 years to in perpetuity). When a farmer takes this option, he receives advanced extension services and assistance with drawing up management plans. https://edepot.wur.nl/15298#:
You are right to point out that anthropomorphic farming practices ( as apart from leaf farming ants, mentioned recently in another forum) have been responsible for a lot of diversity loss. In ZA poaching of succulents is also threatening plants ( news article posted on another forum this morning).
Shall look for that - yes. it’s unfortunate but posts on iSpot from the Knaersvlakte (sp?) can’t be hidden - and I’ve seen Orchids on the Cape Peninsula - disappear after walks by botanists.
So many hazards - the Parks people seem to delight in enlarging parking and roads to encourage tourism. Frequently, I go back to my observations (tagged by date observed) and see how the landscape has changed - so species are not that safe within a National Park.
“Way beck when” on iSpot I deleted quite a few of my observations when Tony insisted that I should not hide the exact location of special finds. I see John Manning can be quite vague about location - he knows and acknowledged one that I sent to him, so he must have found it.
