Patches of the same

Wachendorfia thyrsiflora dominates in its wet patch here on the flat land below the peaks of the Kogelberg. So does the grass in the foreground on the right and the Psoralea just behind. The tiny blue Psoralea flowers, up high among the leaves, contrast against the large yellow cylindrical inflorescences of the Wachendorfia plants of about 1,5m. The Psoralea shrubs are tree-like in height here, but shrub-like in the thinness of their stems. They hold their own against the southeaster, the well-known wind of the Cape, by being united in a dense stand.

Far back upon the slope the fynbos doesn’t grow in homogeneous patches as here. All cohabit there in a multispecies mix of great diversity where immediate neighbours rarely are of the same or even similar kind; something like the colours of smarties in their box.

Repeats of the same species do occur in smaller or larger areas, but interspersed with many kinds that vary in frequency according to their powers of procreation and competition on the particular type of land. As the soil, gradient, sun, water and other variables change, the fynbos species mix changes. The mix also changes in accordance with the number of years since the last fire (Bean and Johns, 2005).