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Showing 1 to 13 of 13 for “"Cape Flora"”.
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The importance of hydrologic refugia for the diversity of the Cape Flora
… crucial for preserving species richness in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) of South Africa, an area renowned for its exceptional plant species diversity and endemism, which is increasingly threatened by the impacts of global change. Despite the importance of refugia in the CFR, very little is …
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The preservation of the Cape flora : status, causes of rarity, ideals and priorities
The Cape Floristic Region (CFR), covering 90 000 km2, comprises one of the world's six floral kingdoms. With 8600 species, of which 68 per cent are endemic, it ranks amongst the richest of temperate and tropical floras. Although 19 per cent of the CFR occurs in nature reserves, by far the majority …
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Pollination and the evolution of floral traits : selected studies in the Cape flora
… the role of pollinators in the evolution of floral traits in selected Cape plants, and to reach a better understanding of the relationship between floral adaptation and speciation. To establish a set of testable hypotheses, I asked specifically how adaptation to pollinators can explain three …
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Are wetland plant communities in the Cape flora influenced by environmental and land-use changes?
… for grouping and classifying wetlands in the Cape Floristic Region. In the current study, a representative subset of the wetlands surveyed in 1988/89 was re-examined. This thesis characterizes and assesses wetland plant communities and wetland types in both data sets, attempts to identify the …
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Systematics of the genus Cliffortia L. [Rosaceae]
The Cape Floristic Region is the most diverse of the Mediterranean climate floras. Cliffortia (Rosaceae) is one of the ten largest genera within the Cape Flora with 117 species currently recognised, 104 of which are endemic to the region. I investigate the processes that have driven the …
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A quantitative and qualitative study of the indigenous forests of the southwestern Cape
… 'tropical' species in contrast to the temperate Cape flora (Acocks, 1953; Phillips, 1931). However, White (1978) showed that these forests were overwhelmingly afromontane in species composition; an effect of increasing latitude compensating for altitude in this region.
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Chilling injury and the control thereof in selected Leucadendron cultivars
… as a preferred option over airfreight for Cape Flora ornamental stems. This shift has been driven by the rising cost of aviation fuel, alongside a greater awareness of and commitment to reduce carbon emissions. However, this alternative transport comes with a compromise as long-term cold …
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Plants as biotic indicators of Neogene palaeoenvironmental evolution in the Cape Floristic Region
… representing six prominent plant families of the Cape flora (Asteraceae, Orchidaceae, Restionaceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae and Proteaceae) to infer (i) the relative roles of climatic changes and neotectonic uplift in shaping the CFR since the Early Miocene, and to detemine (ii) whether contrasting …
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Pollination biology of four co-occurring Erica species from the Cape Peninsula, South Africa
… have been suggested to drive speciation in the Cape flora, this has not been tested for the largest, florally diverse Cape genus Erica. Speciation studies that focus on pollination biology often use floral syndrome characters to predict a species' functional pollinator group/s. The predictive …
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Species delimitation and speciation process in the Seriphium plumosum L. complex (Gnaphalieae: Asteraceae) in South Africa
The remarkable richness of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) and the high in situ diversification inferred for the region prompt interest in two key areas: first, to what extent has the true species richness of the Cape been discovered and described, and second, what are the key drivers of …
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Dispersal, gene flow, niche divergence and local adaptation in the hyper-diverse ruschioid Aizoaceae: testing alternative modes of speciation in the Knersvlakte quartz field flora of the Succulent Karoo, South Africa
… regions and clades. Diversification in the Cape flora of South Africa has been intensively studied owing to its remarkable diversity, for which significant roles for both ecological and non-ecological speciation have been invoked as drivers. However, much of this research has focused on the …
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Variation in breeding systems and consequences for reproductive traits in Erica
Erica makes up 7% of all species in the Cape flora. It is the most species-rich genus in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR), which has an area 0f 90 000km². Erica species have great inter- and intra-specific variation in floral form as well as in post-fire regeneration strategies. Previous studies of …