Fynbos

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Floral Landscapes

This strange image you see before you is actually the fine details of South Africa's world famous Fynbos. Two of the many specimens I chose are the Protea and the Pincushion. I shot Macro photographs of the flowers to show them in a whole different way and capture the attention of the viewer.

Fynbos plants are readily recognized by the hard, tough, leathery and small leaved nature of all woody plants and characterized by having more than 5% cover of Cape reeds. Additionally, it contains members of seven plant families found nowhere else in the world. True grasses are also relatively rare. Most of the plants have small, thin leaves, typically defined as ericoid leaves. The word Fynbos comes from the Dutch for fine-leaved plants.

Fynbos is the major vegetation type of the small botanical region known as the Cape Floral Kingdom. This kingdom is both the smallest and the richest floral kingdom, with the highest known concentration of plant species: 1300 per 10 000 km2!