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Harry Hall (botanist)
Harry Hall (22 May 1906 Macclesfield, Cheshire – 15 February 1986 Kirstenbosch), was a British-born horticulturist, botanist and succulent plant authority. Early life and education Hall attended Reaseheath College, Cheshire Agricultural College for one year (1925–26), Reading University in (1926–27) and two years at the John Innes Horticultural Institute in Wimbledon, London, Wimbledon (1927–29). He then enrolled for a further three-year course (1930–1933) at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, followed by being an exchange student for one year (1931–1932) at the Giardini Botanici Hanbury, Hanbury Botanical Garden in La Mortola in Italy. Here his passion for succulent plants was ignited, and on his return to Kew headed the section dealing with the cactus and succulent collection. Career Hall's training at Kew was complete by 1933, whereupon he became curator of the succulent plant collection at Alexandra Park, Manchester. His consuming interest in South African suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macclesfield, Cheshire
Macclesfield () is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is sited on the River Bollin and the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east; the town lies south of Manchester and east of Chester. Before the Norman Conquest, Macclesfield was held by Edwin, Earl of Mercia and was assessed at £8. The Middle Ages, medieval town grew up on the hilltop around what is now St Michael's Church, Macclesfield, St Michael's Church. It was granted a municipal charter in 1261. King's School, Macclesfield, Macclesfield Grammar School was founded in 1502. The town had a silk-button industry from at least the middle of the 17th century and became a major Silk industry of Cheshire#Macclesfield, silk-manufacturing centre from the mid-18th century. The Macclesfield Canal was constructed in 1826–31. Hovis, Hovis breadmakers were another Victorian era, Victorian employer; modern industries include pharmaceutical indus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mesembryanthemaceae
The Aizoaceae (), or fig-marigold family, is a large family of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing 135 genera and about 1,800 species. Several genera are commonly known as 'ice plants' or 'carpet weeds'. The Aizoaceae are also referred to as ''vygies'' in South Africa. Some of the unusual Southern African genera—such as ''Conophytum'', ''Lithops'', ''Titanopsis'' and ''Pleiospilos'' (among others)—resemble gemstones, rocks or pebbles, and are sometimes referred to as 'living stones' or 'mesembs' (short for mesembryanthemums). Description The family Aizoaceae is widely recognised by taxonomists. It once went by the botanical name "Ficoidaceae", now disallowed. The APG II system of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system of 1998) also recognizes the family, and assigns it to the order Caryophyllales in the clade core eudicots. The APG II system also classes the former families Mesembryanthemaceae Fenzl, Sesuviaceae Horan. and Tetragoniaceae Link under the family Aizoacea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus
Harriet Margaret Louisa Bolus ''née'' Kensit (31 July 1877, Burgersdorp – 5 April 1970, Cape Town) was a South African botanist and taxonomist, and the longtime curator of the Bolus Herbarium, from 1903. Bolus also has the legacy of authoring more land plant species than any other female scientist, in total naming 1,494 species. Early life and education Bolus was born in Burgersdorp, Cape Province, South Africa, on 31 July 1877. She was the daughter of William Kensit and Jane Stuart Kensit. Her parents were both British-born. Her grandfather William Kensit was a serious amateur botanist and specimen collector in South Africa. She attended Collegiate Girls' High School in Port Elizabeth, earned a teaching credential in 1899, and was awarded a BA degree in literature and philosophy by the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1902. Career She worked as an assistant to her great-aunt Sophia's husband Harry Bolus in his herbarium while she was in college. In June 1913 she b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Elsie Garrett Rice
Elsie Garrett Rice (25 November 1869 Elton, Derbyshire - 27 April 1959 Cape Town was a British-born South African botanical artist and suffragist. Early life and education Elsie Garret Rice's parents were Mary Gray and Reverend John Feydell Garrett. Elsie and her twin brother John Herbert Garrett were baptised at Elton on 16 January 1870. She and her three siblings, John, Edmund and Amy, were orphaned at an early age and were raised by two of their cousins, sisters Millicent Fawcett and Agnes Garrett. Millicent was a leader in the British Suffragist Movement and was married to Sir Henry Fawcett, sometime Postmaster-General, who had been blinded in a hunting accident. Agnes Garrett was also a suffragist, an interior designer and founder of the Ladies Dwellings Company. Elsie Garret studied at the Slade School of Art and in Florence. Career Elsie Garret taught at Bedales School, which had been founded by her brother-in-law John Badley. At Bedales she met her future husband, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waterberg Biosphere
The Waterberg () is a mountainous massif of approximately in north Limpopo Province, South Africa. The average height of the mountain range is 600 m with a few peaks rising up to 2,000 m above sea level. Vaalwater town is located just north of the mountain range. The extensive rock formation was shaped by hundreds of millions of years of riverine erosion to yield diverse bluff and butte landform.C. Michael Hogan, Mark L. Cooke and Helen Murray, ''The Waterberg Biosphere'', Lumina Technologies, 22 May 2006. The ecosystem can be characterised as a dry deciduous forest or Bushveld. Within the Waterberg there are archaeological finds dating to the Stone Age, and nearby are early evolutionary finds related to the origin of humans. Waterberg (Thaba Meetse) is the first region in the northern part of South Africa to be named as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Geology The underlying rock formation derives from the Kaapvaal craton, formed as a precursor island roughly 2.7 billion yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augrabies Falls
The Augrabies Falls is a waterfall on the Orange River, the largest river in South Africa. Since 1966 the waterfall, set in a desolate and rugged milieu, is enclosed by the Augrabies Falls National Park. The falls are around in height. Some sources cite an approximate height of 480 feet; this is actually the height from the base of the canyon to the top of the walls, not that of the falls themselves. Exploration The original Khoikhoi residents named the waterfall "Ankoerebis" — "place of great noise" — from which the Trek Boers, who settled here later on, derived the name, "Augrabies". The last leader of area's native residents was Klaas Pofadder who lived on an island upstream of the falls, now known as Klaas Island. The first European to see the falls was the renegade Swedish mercenary Hendrik Jakob Wikar. He arrived at the falls in October 1778, after years long wanderings in the wilderness. When another traveler, George Thompson, was led to the falls by his Griqua peopl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camdeboo National Park
The Camdeboo National Park is located in the Karoo and almost completely surrounds the Eastern Cape town of Graaff-Reinet. It contains the Nqweba Dam. The park is located on the southern foothills of the Sneeuberge, Sneeuberg Mountain ranges, with an elevation of between 740 and 1480-metres above sea level. Camdeboo National Park was proclaimed as South Africa's 22nd National Park under the management of South African National Parks on Sunday 30 October 2005. It covers an area of 194 square kilometres. History Following an extensive process of negotiation and discussion between government, conservation groups, and concerned stakeholders, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, announced the intention to proclaim South Africa's 22nd National Park in the area surrounding Graaff-Reinet. This was made possible by the World Wide Fund for Nature in South Africa (WWF-SA), which donated the 14500 hectare Karoo Nature Reserve to be the centrepiece of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Addo Elephant National Park
Addo Elephant National Park (AENP) is a diverse wildlife conservation park situated close to Gqeberha in South Africa and is one of the country's 20 national parks. It currently ranks third in size after Kruger National Park and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. History The original section of the park was founded in 1931, in part due to the efforts of Sydney Skaife, in order to provide a sanctuary for the eleven remaining elephants in the area. The park has proved to be very successful and currently houses more than 700 elephants and a large number of other mammals. Expansion The original park has subsequently been expanded to include the Woody Cape Nature Reserve that extends from the Sundays River mouth towards Alexandria and a marine reserve, which includes St. Croix Island and Bird Island, both breeding habitat for gannets and penguins, as well as a large variety of other marine life. Bird Island is home to the world's largest breeding colony of gannets - about 120 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon's Bay
Gordon's Bay () is a harbour town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is included in the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality Eastern Suburbs region (formerly called Helderberg Basin). It is situated on the shores of Gordon's Bay in the northeastern corner of False Bay about 58 km from Cape Town to the south of the N2 national road and is named after Robert Jacob Gordon (1743–1795), the Dutch explorer of Scottish descent. Gordon's Bay is the smallest of three towns in the Helderberg region (Somerset West, Strand and Gordon's Bay), so named after the Helderberg Mountain which is part of the Hottentots-Holland Mountains which border the locality on two sides. Gordon's Bay was originally named "Fish Hoek", many years before the town of the same name, located on the western side of False Bay, was founded. Evidence of this can be seen on the outside wall of the local Post Office. Gordon's Bay consists of the old village, situated around the old har ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kogelberg Nature Reserve
Kogelberg Nature Reserve is a nature reserve of comprising the Kogelberg Mountain Range, to the east of Cape Town, South Africa. With about 1600 plant species, it contains a floral diversity per unit area that is greater than anywhere else in the world. Ecology Located in the Kogelberg Mountains, along the mountainous coast on the eastern edge of Cape Town, this nature reserve protects a significant portion of Kogelberg Sandstone Fynbos. Among the enormous range of plants in this local vegetation type are hundreds of species of Erica, a wide range of Protea species and a great many plant families which are endemic. The Kogelberg mountains are known as the heart of the Fynbos, and have a floral diversity per unit area that is greater than anywhere else in the world. In addition to its unique mountain fynbos, other ecosystems include wetlands, as well as the riparian vegetation of the Palmiet River, which is the most untouched in the south western Cape and are home to fore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gordon Douglas Rowley
Gordon Douglas Rowley (31 July 1921 – 11 August 2019) was a British botanist and writer specialising in cacti and succulents. Personal life Rowley was born on 31 July 1921 in London, UK to Cecil and Florence Gladys (née Goldsworthy) Rowley. He went to The Lower School of John Lyon, Harrow-on-the Hill. In 1942 he graduated with a B.Sc. degree in botany from King's College, University of London. He died on 11 August 2019. Career From 1948 to 1961 Rowley was employed at the John Innes Horticultural Institution while it was based at Merton Park to curate the National Rose Species Collection and subsequently all the plant collections. From 1961 to 1981 he was lecturer in Horticultural Botany at the University of Reading. Cacti and succulents had been one of Rowley's interests since the mid-1940s but they became the focus of his life. He travelled extensively to see and collect cacti and succulents in Africa and southern America. He developed his own collection of these plan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
