On my recent trip to South Africa I was really taken by the fynbos, the native vegetation of the Western Cape. From a distance it looks like Mediterranean scrubland, but if you look a bit closer you can see why fynbos is famous for being one of the most diverse types of vegetation around. The Cape floral kingdom is the smallest of the six floral kingdoms, but it’s one of the richest, with 9000 species, 6200 of which are unique to this part of the world.
The wine connection? Well, through the Biodiversity and Wine Initiative (BWI), wine farms have conserved 127 000 hectares of this habitat, which is a great achievement.
I’ve put a gallery of pictures up on the main wineanorak site here.
This is the blog of wine journalist Jamie Goode, online since 2001. Feel free to nose around; your comments are welcomed.
Have a fynbos garden, so if and when you get the chance would love to show you round it, on your next visit Jamie.