The Western Cape Province of South Africa is part of what used to be called the Cape Province which made up almost half of the country.  That area was subsequently divided into the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape and the Northern Cape, each with its own provincial premier and legislature. The Western Cape is centered around the city of Cape Town and is more or less crescent-shaped, with the flank of its northern horn facing west toward the Atlantic and the flank of its eastern horn facing south toward the Indian Ocean.  The population of the Western Cape is approximately 5.3 million with Afrikaans being the rincipal language spoke. The Western Cape Province shares with Southern California the distinction of being among the five regions of the world which harbor what is referred to as Mediterranean vegetation, the others being southwestern Australia, western Chile, and of course, the coastal Mediterranean.  It is obviously no coincidence that these regions have developed similar types of vegetation, because even a cursory glance at a world map reveals that all of them are situated approximately the same distance from the equator, with Chile, South Africa and Australia being between 30° and 40° south of that line, and Southern California and the Mediterranean being between 30° and 40° north of it, and all of them are either on the western edges of continents or are influenced by prevailing winds from the west.

    The Cape Floral Kingdom or Floristic Region is the smallest of the six such natural areas in the world, and is the only one contained within the borders of a single country. The others are the Boreal or Paleoarctic, Australasian, Neotropic, Paleotropic, and Antarctic.  The Antarctic kingdom, although itself quite small, is nevertheless some 25 times as large. The CFK comprises less than 0.04% of the earth's land surface, yet harbors 3% or 4% of the world's species.  All of tropical Africa contains some 30,000 plant species in almost 20 million square kilometres, which is only 3.5 times as many species in an area 235 times as large.  The British Isles, at 3.5 times as large as the CFK, has only 1,500 species compared to the Cape's 8,600.  And it is not merely its botanical diversity and richness that is significant.  Almost 70% of its species are found nowhere else on earth. Unfortunately, almost three-quarters of all the species in South Africa's IUCN Red Data book of threatened or endangered species are currently growing in this Floral Kingdom, and this means that hundreds of species are facing extinction.

    Let us be clear here on what areas we are talking about.  The terms Western Cape Province, Cape Floral Kingdom (or Floristic Region or Province), and fynbos biome are often confusing, and were to me before I started writing this.  They don't refer to exactly the same thing.  The Western Cape Province is a specific bordered area that stretches about 375km north and about 480km east of Cape Town.  The fynbos biome comprises the majority of the Cape Floristic Region, but does not include those areas of so-called succulent karoo vegetation in the far northern region of the Western Cape Province, those areas of nama karoo vegetation in the northeastern part of the Province, and some small patches of sub-tropical thicket and afromontane forest primarily in the Eastern Cape Province, all of which are properly considered part of the Cape Floral Kingdom (see map).  It should also be pointed out that both the Cape Floral Kingdom and the fynbos biome extend well beyond the boundaries of the Western Cape all the way to Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape.  The Cape Floral Kingdom thus occupies virtually the entire Western Cape Province, a small area in the western part of the Eastern Cape Province, and some very tiny sections of the Northern Cape Province adjacent to the Western Cape. Percentagewise, about 70% of the CFK and fynbos vegetative area is in the Western Cape, about 25% in the Eastern Cape, and about only about 5 % in the Northern Cape.

    A second vegetation type within the fynbos biome that superficially resembles fynbos is called renosterveld and is found in both in the coastal lowlands and the mountains, and dominated to some extent by the renosterbush, Elytropappus rhinocerotis, in the Asteraceae family. Renoster means rhinoceros in Afrikaans, and is probably a reference to the historic habitat of the black rhino.  In the past, because of its richer soils, which are generally more fine-grained clays or silts, renosterveld supported quite extensive populations of many of the large species of animals such as cape buffalo, elephant, rhino, eland, zebra, lion and cheetah, but those animals are mostly gone now except where they have been reintroduced. Also because of its more fertile soils, much of the renosterveld area has been agriculturalized.  There is a great species richness of geophytes, especially irises, lilies and orchids. Generally speaking, renosterveld lacks the Restios (although grasses are abundant), and proteoids are either absent or quite uncommon.  Fairly low ericoid shrubs with small, tough leaves predominate, with a lower layer of the grasses and seasonally-active geophytes.  The Asteraceae is one dominant family.  Rainfall in areas harboring this veld type is usually from 25 to 60cm a year. Where rainfall is higher, renosterveld is replaced by fynbos, and where lower by succulent karoo. Like fynbos, renosterveld is fire prone, and has been referred to as the most endangered vegetation type in the Cape Floral Kingdom.

    There are also other biomes within the Cape Floristic Region, and botanists have referred to these as subtropical thicket, succulent karoo and afromontane forest.  Let me reiterate that a biome is a major distinct ecological community type or a biophysiological grouping of species of plants and/or animals living together.  It is the highest level of plant community, representing a large and relatively uniform natural area, characterized by uniform vegetative life forms closely related to and more or less governed by climate. Succulent karoo is a biome which is not fire prone like fynbos or renosterveld, and exists in areas of flat to gently undulating plains with some hills and broken veld or grassland which supports a vegetation of small, succulent-leaved shrubs including many species of Aizoaceae, Mesembryanthemaceae, Crassulaceae and Asteraceae.  There are numerous annuals in spring and grasses are rare. The soils in this biome are lime-rich and weakly developed.  Rainfall varies from about 2cm-25cm and summer temperatures are quite high.  There is substantial species richness, and a large number of rare and Red Data Book species present.  Little of the area has been conserved, but fortunately there are few invasive alien plants.  Lack of water results in low agricultural potential.  Subtropical thicket is a fairly dense, more-or-less closed semi-succulent and spinescent evergreen shrubland to low forest, often almost impenetrable, generally not stratified and with little herbaceous cover.  It is present in river valleys, on rock screes and coastal dunes.  Rainfall in this biome is too low to produce a genuine forest, yet some degree of fire protection does exist. Most of the floristic components of thicket are present in other biomes and there are few species endemics.  It is in some senses a transitional community.  The afromontane forest is a biome consisting of patches of closed-canopy, evergreen trees which are afforded a large degree of fire protection by the high humidity and rainfall that ranges from 70cm to 200cm.  In the Western Cape it occurs mostly on south-facing ridges and in ravines, but would likely spread into at least some fynbos areas if it were not for the frequency of fires there.  Soils are generally well-developed and may be quite deep in lower valleys.  An understory often exists which is multi-layered and can include many lianas and epiphytes, however ground cover is typically lacking due to a high amount of shade.  Two tree species which have been harvested in the past are the black stinkwood, Ocotea bullata, and the Outeniqua yellowwood, Podocarpus falcatus.