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Serruria Aemula
''Serruria aemula'' is a critically endangered species of flowering plant in the family Proteaceae, endemic to South Africa. It is known by the common name of strawberry spiderhead. This plant used to occur in large numbers on the Cape Flats of Cape Town. Its natural habitat now lies under urban sprawl so only a few plants survive on patches of road-side. Several of its subspecies are now in fact extinct in the wild, surviving only in botanical gardens. File:Serruria aemula congesta KirstenboschBotGard09292010E.JPG File:Serruria aemula congesta KirstenboschBotGard09292010D.JPG File:Serruria aemula (Spiderhead).jpg References Serruria, aemula Endemic flora of South Africa {{proteaceae-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Proteaceae
The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Proteales. Well-known genera include '' Protea'', '' Banksia'', '' Embothrium'', '' Grevillea'', '' Hakea'' and '' Macadamia''. Species such as the New South Wales waratah ('' Telopea speciosissima''), king protea ('' Protea cynaroides''), and various species of ''Banksia'', ''soman'', and ''Leucadendron'' are popular cut flowers. The nuts of '' Macadamia integrifolia'' are widely grown commercially and consumed, as are those of Gevuina avellana on a smaller scale. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentrations of diversity. Etymology The name Proteaceae was adapted by Robert Brown from the name Proteae coined in 1789 for the family by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, based on the genus ''Protea'', which in 1767 Carl Linnaeus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; and to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini. It also completely enclaves the country Lesotho. It is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World, and the second-most populous country located entirely south of the equator, after Tanzania. South Africa is a biodiversity hotspot, with unique biomes, plant and animal life. With over 60 million people, the country is the world's 24th-most populous nation and covers an area of . South Africa has three capital cities, with the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government based in Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Cape Town respectively. The largest city is Johannesburg. About 80% of the population are Black Sou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Flats
The Cape Flats ( af, Die Kaapse Vlakte) is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lies within the larger geographical area. Geology and geography In geological terms, the area is essentially a vast sheet of aeolian sand, ultimately of marine origin, which has blown up from the adjacent beaches over a period on the order of a hundred thousand years. Below the sand, the bedrock is in general the Malmesbury Shale, except on part of the western margin between Zeekoevlei to the south and Claremont and Wetton to the north, where an intrusive mass of Cape Granite is to be found. Most of the sand is unconsolidated; however, in some places near the False Bay coast the oldest sand dunes have been cemented into a soft sandstone ( calcrete), and form low cliffs at the edge of the beach. These formations contain important foss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest (after Johannesburg). Colloquially named the ''Mother City'', it is the largest city of the Western Cape province, and is managed by the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality. The other two capitals are Pretoria, the executive capital, located in Gauteng, where the Presidency is based, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital in the Free State, where the Supreme Court of Appeal is located. Cape Town is ranked as a Beta world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city is known for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for landmarks such as Table Mountain and Cape Point. Cape Town is home to 66% of the Western Cape's population. In 2014, Cape Town was named the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Urban Sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growth in many urban areas of housing, commercial development, and roads over large expanses of land, with little concern for urban planning. In addition to describing a special form of urbanization, the term also relates to the social and environmental consequences associated with this development. Medieval suburbs suffered from loss of protection of city walls, before the advent of industrial warfare. Modern disadvantages and costs include increased travel time, transport costs, pollution, and destruction of the countryside. The cost of building urban infrastructure for new developments is hardly ever recouped through property taxes, amounting to a subsidy for the developers and new residents at the expense of existing property taxpayers. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serruria
''Serruria'', or spiderhead is a genus of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, endemic to South Africa. Names ''Serruria'' was named in honor of Joseph Serrurier, a professor of botany at the Utrecht University early in the eighteenth century. It is called spiderhead in English and spinnekopbos in Afrikaans, because of the silky, finely divided leaves looking like they are covered in spiders webs. Selected species Species include: *'' Serruria acrocarpa'' *''Serruria adscendens'' *''Serruria aemula'' *'' Serruria aitonii'' *'' Serruria altiscapa'' *''Serruria balanocephala'' *''Serruria bolusii'' *''Serruria brownii'' *'' Serruria candicans'' *''Serruria collina'' *'' Serruria confragosa'' *'' Serruria cyanoides'' *'' Serruria cygnea'' *'' Serruria decipiens'' *'' Serruria decumbens'' *'' Serruria deluvialis'' *'' Serruria dodii'' *'' Serruria effusa'' *'' Serruria elongata'' *'' Serruria fasciflora'' *'' Serruria flagellifolia'' *'' Serruria flava'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
