West Coast of Northern Cape
This is the low-lying coastal strip of deep sands that lies along the West Coast of South Africa. However it requires distinction from the more southern West Coast north of Cape Town. We define the southern extent of the region as occurring from where the Olifants River enters the sea at Papendorp west of Vredendal, to the mouth of the Orange River at Alexander Bay on the SA/Namibian border. Technically the Northern Cape is further north of Papendorp, but there is no natural barrier to demarcate this region. It is more arid than the southern West Coast and has a significant number of endemics that do not occur in the southern West Coast.
Nodes
Mesembryanthemaceae
Asteraceae
Ornithoglossum
Eriospermum
Pelargonium
Hermannia trifurca
Crassula
Gladiolus
Crassula
Pages
Taxonomy term
Gladiolus
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
La. gladiolus = a small sword; referring to the sword-like shape of the leaves.
Hermannia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
For Paul Hermann (1646–1695), German-born Dutch physician and botanist. He graduated in medicine at the universities of Leiden and Padua, became a ship’s medical officer (1672–1677) for the Dutch East India Company and went to Sri Lanka via the Cape, where he made the first known herbarium collection of local plants, now housed in the Sloane Herbarium, British Museum of Natural History and at Oxford. In 1679 he became professor of botany at the University of Leiden and director of the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden, Europe’s finest botanical garden. His 1687 publication Horti Academici Lugduno-Batavi Catalogus includes 34 Cape plants, and his proposed Prodomus Plantaerum Africanarum was to contain 791 items, but untimely death intervened.
Hirpicium
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Possibly La. irpex or hirpex = a harrow or rake with iron teeth; perhaps referring to the thin reflexed leaves that look somewhat like a rake (and certainly this is a fast-spreading invasive plant that needs to be raked out).
Hypertelis
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. hyper- = above; telos = end, consummation; referring to the fleshy leaves.
Hypertelis
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. hyper- = above; telos = end, consummation; referring to the fleshy leaves.
Jamesbrittenia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
For James Britten (1846–1924), who was born in London and lived there his entire life. He was educated privately with the intention of becoming a medical doctor but favoured botany and accepted a position as an assistant at the Kew Gardens herbarium from 1869–1871. He was subsequently transferred to the botany department at the British Museum and worked there until his retirement in 1909. Britten published a number of dictionaries of British plants and botanists but was also an expert on Old English dialects and folklore and a devout Catholic who devoted time to social upliftment projects. He was evidently much admired by Otto Kuntze, who named Jamesbrittenia for him, as a strong upholder of the Principle of Priority in plant nomenclature and as a longtime editor of the Journal of Botany, a post he filled for 45 years.
Jordaaniella
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
For Pieter Gerhardus Jordaan (1913–1987), South African professor of botany at Stellenbosch University and plant collector. He studied at Stellenbosch University (1931–1937), graduating with an MSc and PhD in 1944 with post-graduate research at Cambridge and Leiden universities in 1952. He was assistant director of the National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria (1937–1939), lecturer in botany at Stellenbosch University (1940–1946), senior lecturer (1947–1952) and professor and head of department from 1953–1978. He collected about 1 000 specimens from Bredasdorp, Caledon and Stellenbosch and worked mainly with Proteaceae and on biographies.
Jordaaniella
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
For Pieter Gerhardus Jordaan (1913–1987), South African professor of botany at Stellenbosch University and plant collector. He studied at Stellenbosch University (1931–1937), graduating with an MSc and PhD in 1944 with post-graduate research at Cambridge and Leiden universities in 1952. He was assistant director of the National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria (1937–1939), lecturer in botany at Stellenbosch University (1940–1946), senior lecturer (1947–1952) and professor and head of department from 1953–1978. He collected about 1 000 specimens from Bredasdorp, Caledon and Stellenbosch and worked mainly with Proteaceae and on biographies.
Jordaaniella
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
For Pieter Gerhardus Jordaan (1913–1987), South African professor of botany at Stellenbosch University and plant collector. He studied at Stellenbosch University (1931–1937), graduating with an MSc and PhD in 1944 with post-graduate research at Cambridge and Leiden universities in 1952. He was assistant director of the National Zoological Gardens, Pretoria (1937–1939), lecturer in botany at Stellenbosch University (1940–1946), senior lecturer (1947–1952) and professor and head of department from 1953–1978. He collected about 1 000 specimens from Bredasdorp, Caledon and Stellenbosch and worked mainly with Proteaceae and on biographies.
Lycium
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. lykion = name of a thorny bush/tree from Lycia in Asia Minor (Turkey) (Lycien, near Xanthos, ancient Anatolia), where the plant grows.
Lycium
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. lykion = name of a thorny bush/tree from Lycia in Asia Minor (Turkey) (Lycien, near Xanthos, ancient Anatolia), where the plant grows.
Manulea
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
La. manus = a hand, plus diminutive; referring to the corolla’s finger-like divisions – the appearance of the five spreading (upright) corolla lobes.
Nemesia
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. nemesion, nemeseion from nemo = to distribute, to enjoy, to pasture, to feed; or nemos = wooded pasture, glade, a grove; name used by Dioscorides for a similar plant, referring to their habitat.
Ornithogalum
{"type":"FeatureCollection","features":[]}
Gk. ornithos = bird; gala = milk, presumably referring to the colostrum-like, high fat secretions produced by the Colombidae (‘pigeon’s milk’) and stored in the crop for feeding the young. Maybe this somewhat resembles the gooey sap that exudes from the cut stems. Some authors suggest that the name merely refers to the milky whiteness of some flowers, while ‘bird’s milk’ to the ancient Greeks was a colloquial expression for something wonderful.