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Biodiversity of Cape Town

Diversity of the natural environment of Cape Town

  • 13 min read
  • 4 chapters

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Floristic region (phytochorion)

The City of Cape Town lies within the Cape Floristic Kingdom, by far the smallest and most diverse of the earth's six floristic kingdoms, an area of extraordinarily high diversity and endemism, and home to over 9,000 vascular plant species, of which 69 percent are endemic. Much of this diversity is associated with the fynbos biome, a Mediterranean-type, fire-prone shrubland. The economical worth of fynbos biodiversity, based on harvests of fynbos products (e.g. wildflowers) and eco-tourism, is estimated to be in the region of R77 million a year. Thus, it is clear that the Cape Floristic Region has both economic and intrinsic biological value as a biodiversity hotspot.

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More in Ecology

ExtinctionTermination of a species' lineageBiodiversityVariety and variability of life formsEcosystemCommunity of living organisms together with the nonliving components of their environmentParasitismType of interaction between speciesHabitatType of environment in which an organism livesEcologyStudy of organisms and their environment