Wild and Wonderful

Our world has, without question, entered the 'Bio-diversity Millennium'. Concerned citizens of the Global Village are showing unprecedented interest in the vast wealth and fragile nature of life on our planet. Evening bulletins regularly bring new eco-disasters to our living rooms...adding to an already-encyclopedic list of catastrophic plant losses. While more radical elements of the Environmental Activist Movement decried its 'lack of teeth', pragmatists lauded 1992's signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity as 'at least a step in the right direction'. Our Kingdom of the Zulu is at the forefront of 'pursuing the enlightened path', as evidenced by recent, successfull lobbying for the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park and mountainous uKhahlamba-Drakensberg Park to join the protected and prestigious family of World Heritage Sites.

The 'outside world' began its love affair with our flowering plants in the early 1600s, soon after Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama's discovery of the Passage to India - an epoch-making journey that included naming our 'Coast of Natalia' on Christmas Day, 1497. The demand spread from continental Europe to British gardens during the mid-19th century, following the arrival on our shores of colonial adventurers and botanical collectors...who were amazed at the rich display among grassland, forest, wetlands and savanna.

zoom Bottlebrush in bloom, Northern Drakensberg.

While the displaced San hunter-gatherers of the Stone Age had left no record detailing their knowledge of plant properties, herbalists and healers within the newly forged Zulu Kingdom revealed to early white settlers an intimate working-relationship with nature's flora that continues to intrigue. Visit any dispensary of traditional medicine and magic - in rural or urban surrounds - for fascinating insights into an intuitive science handed down through the generations.

Despite growing interest in 'ethno-botany' - the study of human interaction with plants - Western requirements, on the whole, remain ornamental and big business. Our natural heritage features prominently in the highly lucrative, global cut-flower and bedding- plant trade...and many species are household names. The so- called 'Yellow Trumpets', for example, so popular in London and medal- winners at the Chelsea Flower Show, were discovered in our Zulu Kingdom and then introduced abroad. Hybrids of the Barberton daisy closely related to our Hilton daisy - now enjoy the highest turnover in European florist outlets...while Drakensberg delights top the list of highly sought-after 'alpines' in burgeoning USA markets.

With more than 11 000 species, our magical Kingdom of the Zulu is without doubt one of the richest floral regions in Africa...and contains two global 'hot spots' - now securely encompassed within the earlier-mentioned World Heritage Sites. Even more impressive, perhaps, is that our 780 tree species comprise more than two-thirds of South Africa's total - and 11 times the total of all of Europe!

This breathtaking diversity owes nought to chance, but all to our spectacularly varied landscapes. As every botanist knows, there's nothing haphazard about the evolution and distribution of plants - temperature, rainfall, altitude and geological formations are the determining factors. With the highest mountains in southern Africa a mere 160km from sea-level, moisture-catching escarpments deeply incised by scores of rivers and warm ocean currents streaming down from the Equator it s not surprising that diversity is our watchword.

This ranges from the sub-tropical abundance of swamp forests, mangroves and some of the highest forested coastal dunes in the world, to classic dry sand-forest and thornveld plus lakes and wetlands, mist-belt forests, grasslands and the montane species that cling to the Drakensberg slopes. Wildflowers follow suit in dramatic fashion - from Vanilla Orchid vines at the coast to carpets of lillies adorning mountain summits in the west...brilliant Impala lillies in the sub-tropical north to Pincushion shrubs in the cooler south.

As by now must be obvious, this bounty of nature is everywhere to be enjoyed. Your gateway to our marvellous Zulu Kingdom alone - Durban Metro - boasts almost 600 species in the wild and in cultivation!

Overview continued ... || Drakensberg || Greater St Lucia Wetland Park || Hluhluwe-Umfolozi || Itala || Mkuzi || Ndumo || Oribi Gorge || Phinda || Tembe Elephant Park || Vernon Crookes || Other