Field Guide to Fynbos, by John Manning and Colin Paterson-Jones

Field Guide to Fynbos, by John Manning and Colin Paterson-Jones. Penguin Random House South Africa, Imprint: Struik Nature. 2nd revised edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2019. ISBN 9781775845904 / ISBN 978-1-77584-590-4

Images from Field Guide to Fynbos, by John Manning and Colin Paterson-Jones.

Description by John Manning and Colin Paterson-Jones: The southwestern Cape is home to one of the world's richest floras. From an estimated 7000 species of true fynbos, Field Guide to Fynbos describes more than 1150, focusing on the most common and conspicuous plants, with an emphasis on 'showy' flowers, or those that are most likely to be encountered.

Colin Paterson-Jones  John Manning  

Each species, with its common names (where known), comparisons with similar species and notes on traditional uses, is accompanied by a vivid photograph, distribution map and an indication of its flowering season. Easy-to-use keys, specially designed for logical identification, point users to the appropriate family, genus and species. For the first time, non-botanists have a real chance of accurately identifying a significant proportion of the Cape's fynbos species, making this an indispensable guide for wild-flower enthusiasts at all levels, from the recreational flower-spotter to students of the Cape Flora of South Africa.

Cape Times: Field Guide to Fynbos is a comprehensive guide and a must for anyone interested in the Capes unique floral kingdom. A botanist at the SA National Biodiversity Institute, Manning has put decades of fieldwork into this book, and it shows. Beautifully illustrated with - over 1100 photographs, Manning has broken down selected characteristics and arranged them artificially to make the daunting task of identification easier - from the Arum, Agaas weu as vernacular names, in both English and Afrikaans, are given together with flowering months and valuable distribution maps. If you have ever had the frustration of not being able to identify a kind of fynbos, you will find this book exciting.

Example: PROTEACEAE / Protea Family

Protea PROTEA, SUGARBUSH

Shrubs or small trees, erect or creeping, sometimes stemless. Leaves mostly elliptical but sometimes needle-like or round, leathery, hairless or hairy. Flowers clustered into terminal heads at the branch tips, surrounded by enlarged, colourful bracts; the individual flowers or florets are 2-lipped, with 3 of the petals joined into a sheath and the fourth separate, sometimes tipped with a beard of hairs.

Southern and tropical Africa, mainly the southwestern Cape: 115 spp; ±70 fynbosspp. The colourful involucral bracts, which serve to attract various pollinating animals and insects, have made many species and their hybrids popular in gardens and as cut flowers.

The vernacular name suikerbos (sugarbush) was applied originally to Protea repens on account of the copious sugary nectar contained in the flowerheads, which was collected and boiled down to make a syrup (bossiestroop). The waboom, Protea nitida, was widely exploited, with thousands of trees felled annually in the late 19th century. The wood was used for firewood and charcoal, wagon parts and furniture, the bark for tanning leather, and the leaves to make ink.

STYLE 12 - 35 (40) mm LONG

1. Protea acaulos Ground protea
Mat-forming, resprouting shrublet with erect, hairless, narrowly lance-shaped to oval leaves 60-250 mm long; bears cup-shaped flowerheads 30-60 mm in diameter, with hairless, green involucral bracts that have red tips; the style is 25-35 mm long. Sandy flats and lower slopes in the southwestern Cape. June-November.

2. Proteascabra
Mat-forming, resprouting shrublet with rough, erect, needle-like to narrow, channelled leaves 100-300 mm long; bears cup-shaped flowerheads 30-50 mm in diameter with cream-coloured, rusty-haired involucral bracts; the style is 30-35 mm long. Sandstone slopes in the extreme southwestern Cape, flowering mainly after fire. April-October.

3. Protea amplexicaulis
Sprawling shrublet to 40 cm with spreading, grey-green, heart-shaped leaves 30-80 mm long, clasping the stem; bears cup-shaped flowerheads 60-80 mm in diameter, concealed near the base of the branches and yeast-scented, with ivory- coloured involucral bracts that are densely chocolate-velvety on the outer surface; the style is 25-30 mm long. Warmer, sunny sandstone slopes in the mountains of the southwestern Cape. June-September.

4. Protea scolymocephala
Erect shrub to 1.5 m with hairless, narrowly spoon-shaped leaves 35-90 mm long; bears bowl-shaped flowerheads 35-45 mm in diameter with hairless, cream or pale green involucral bracts; the style is 12-25 mm long. Sandy flats and lower slopes in the southwestern Cape. June-November.

This is an extract from the book: Field Guide to Fynbos, by John Manning and Colin Paterson-Jones.

Title: Field Guide to Wild Flowers of South Africa
Author: John Manning
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Struik Nature
2nd revised edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2019
ISBN 9781775845904 / ISBN 978-1-77584-590-4
Softcover, 15 x 21 cm, 488 pages, throughout colour photographs, English text