Fynbos Biome Research Paper

The Erica is endemic to South Africa, namely the Cape Peninsula Mountains. The environment which it lives in has a major effect on its chances of survival; it requires certain climatic conditions to thrive. In this essay the main topic is the Erica baccans and how it adapted to the environment to become the plant that it is today. The Erica baccans is a very strong plant which is doing well in surviving. The propagation of the plant will be looked at as well. It is very important to know what the natural habitat of a plant is so that they can be planted and maintained correctly, that their environment can be preserved and that the plant can be kept from going extinct.

Firstly the so called Fynbos biome will be discussed to give a better insight to the general plant species which are endemic to the southern tip of Africa. The name comes from the Dutch meaning fine-leaved plants. It is named the Cape Floral Kingdom and there are only six

If further urbanisation along the Table Mountain area continues the plant will have a poor chance of survival because its natural habitat will be destroyed. Another problem is the quantity of fires. As mentioned before the plant does need smoke and therefor fire to start the germination process, but the fires are sometimes happening too frequently because of human error, that the plant seeds are not ready to be germinated or are not at the correct depth just yet and therefor new plants cannot sprout. Another problem with the fires is that because of the Alien Invasive Species the fires become a lot hotter to what they were before, which causes the old plants and seeds to be burnt, making it close to impossible for them to grow again (Pooley, 2015). Not only do the alien plants make the fires hotter, but they also take over entire areas because they grow so fast and easily, so the indigenous plants lose a lot of space to grow