Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden Tour
-drawing by MEJ on front cover of MGS 01/13
After living in the Mediterranean area for six years, mostly in Spain and France, I began to appreciate choosing plants for the garden that do not rely on so much irrigation and that are more natural to the area. Drought hits – and then all the care and money we have put into our gardens can simply bring disappointment. With this awareness, I began to look at plants in a different way and also learnt to appreciate the value of indigenous plants. From October 2011 I decided to go south of the equator for the winters, in order to learn about the medicinal plants of South Africa. Cape Town, South Africa, holds one of the most beautiful gardens in the world, Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden.
This garden was the first botanic garden in the world to be devoted to a country’s indigenous flora. It is also the first garden in the world to be included within a UNESCO natural World Heritage Site. Lying in the heart of the Cape Floristic Region known as the Cape Floral Kingdom, the 36-hectare Kirstenbosch Garden is part of a 528-hectare nature reserve. There are over 7,000 species in cultivation at Kirstenbosch, including many rare and threatened plants. The main garden lies on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain. As of September 2004, the National Botanical Institute became the South African National Institute (SANBI) which covers eight gardens of which Kirstenbosch is the largest.
The land that is now the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens was bequeathed to the Nation by Cecil John Rhodes in 1902. A botanist, Henry Harold Pearson, from Cambridge, who came to the Cape Colony in 1903, took up the position as Chair of Botany at the now University of Cape Town. In 1911 he visited the site of Kirstenbosch to assess its suitability for a botanical site. In 1913 Henry Pearson began to live in the gardens and started the long process of turning the area into something that continues to awe visitors to this day. It steadily gained world-wide recognition as a frontrunner in horticulture, culminating in 2008 when it won a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show for the most creative display and the President’s Cup. At the time, this was a new award given by the Royal Horticulture Society President, Peter Buckley, to his favourite stand. Over the years Kirstenbosch has won 29 gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show out of 33 displays.
I discovered that if I joined the Botanical Society of South Africa I could have free access to any of the beautiful SANBI gardens, but it was Kirstenbosch that held my interest. Living in Cape Town has a lot of advantages, especially at the season when winter is setting in in the Mediterranean, while here the blooms are just starting to peak in September and we shall be well into our summer by the time this January article appears. So I hope this little tour of the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens will bring some colour into your winter days if you are north of the equator.
Main overview
There are two main guides at the Kirstenbosch Gardens, Mr Patrick Peterson and Mr Howard Green. If you ever get the chance to go to Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, please remember to take the tour that leaves every hour on the hour and enjoy the amazing amount of information that these two men have in their memories about the plants. I have been on tours with both of them and I never leave without a few sheets full of notes.
The garden includes a conservatory with succulents and also exhibits plants from the savanna, karoo and various fynbos regions. The outdoor areas focus on the Cape region and are highlighted with beautiful and intricate proteas. There is a trail that leads up to the summit of Table Mountain, and another that leads to the forests of Constantia Nek; you can go past the Rhodes Memorial and on to the slopes of Devil’s Peak. The sheer vastness of the mountainous range that backs the gardens makes for quite an impressive view. These gardens are appreciated by not just the visitor, but by locals as well. There are summer concerts on the lawn that bring a mix of people and cultures together under one sky with an incredible backdrop that cannot be found anywhere else on earth.
Fynbos
Fynbos is the natural heathland that occurs in the small belt of the Western Cape of South Africa, mainly in the mediterranean-climate areas. Fynbos accounts for 80% of the plant varieties in the Cape Floral Kingdom. Indeed, the diversity of fynbos plants is extremely high, with over 9000 species occurring in the area and 6200 that are endemic, i.e. they do not grow anywhere else in the world. The Proteaceae are prominent with genera such as Protea, Leucospermum and Leucadendron. There are more than 1400 bulb species that occur among the fynbos, of which 96 are Gladiolus and 54 Lachenalia. In many areas with mediterranean climates, fynbos species such as geraniums and aloes have become popular garden plants. Most of us have also seen the large dried flower arrangements that use the proteas as long-lasting decoration. The fynbos can certainly offer a plant lover a lot to ponder over and learn about, as too the rest of the Kirstenbosch beauties awaiting you. An interesting point is that in the fynbos fire is a necessary stage, common in the dry summer months December-March. Many seeds of fynbos plants germinate only after they have undergone the intense heat of a fire: with destruction comes regeneration, as in all things.
Paths and plants
As one enters the garden with one of the informative guides driven in a golf cart-type vehicle, you go along the path lined with the Cinnamon Camphor (Cinnamomum camphora) tree to enter into a large expanse of green grass surrounded by an explosion of colour from all sides, with the view of the eastern slopes of Table Mountain in the background. The whole experience is overpowering. In the seven countries I have lived I have never seen such a display of grandeur within the small space of a botanical garden. To the right of the first path is a plaque reminding you where you are in relation to the political upheavals the country has had, with a Bird of Paradise (Strelitzia reginae) cultivar originally named ‘Kirstenbosch Gold’ and now renamed for Nelson Mandela as ‘Mandela’s Gold’. It runs throughout the gardens and has a more yellow-gold colour than the orange-yellow we see, in the common – yet also beautiful – species of the Bird of Paradise. There is also a Pepper-Bark tree (Warburgia salutaris) nearby that was planted by Mr Mandela in 1996.
Castle Rock is the name of the expansive area of green grass that runs up to the mountain. There are five huge water dams that are fed by a stream with a flow of 72 cubic metres per minute. The first botanist from Kew Gardens planted some pelagoniums that can be seen still thriving today as one carries on along the path. There are wild olive trees (Olea europaea) that provide shade but bear no fruit. Agapanthus, Silver Trees (Leucadendron argenteum, sometimes called The Cape Tree), Tufted Pincushions (Leucospermum oleaefolium) in bright “Chinese orange” and of course Aloe ferox line the paths and carry you upward as you wind your way closer to the top. A large Garden of Medicinal Plants awaits one, as does a Buchu Garden. (Buchu, or Agathosma, is a genus of about 135 flowering plants in the Rutaceae family. The term buchu formally denotes two herbal species prized for both fragrance and medicinal use; however, this name also applies to a wider set of shrubs and subshrubs.) There is a Garden of Extinction nearby, meaning one containing plants that are being protected and revived into their communities. There is a Braille Trail that allows the blind to experience the gardens by having wooden blocks line the path via hand-held thick rope and is across from a Fragrance Garden so that they can then smell the intoxicating scents along with everyone else enjoying the garden’s delights. There is a wide variety of trees to greet you at every turn: cycads (Encephalartos species), a Moreton Bay Fig Tree (Ficus macrophylla), Wild Banana (Strelitzia nicolai), African Mahogany (Khaya anthotheca), weeping Boer-Bean trees (Schotia brachypetala), Yellowwood (Podocarpus elongatus), Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica), Wild Peach (Kiggelaria africana) and more. The proteas come in bright yellow and deep oranges with pinks and reds interspersed. The Rocket Protea (Leucospermum reflexum) in particular is astonishing. The King proteas (Protea cynaroides) are world-famous and one can see them in all their glory right here where they come from, South Africa. Of particular interest is a bulbous plant called Watsonia (Bugle Lily) which needs little or no attention and does not need much water. It is a bright purple-pink colour and grows all along the Kirstenbosch paths. As one gets to the top of the garden area that is full of fynbos plants and proteas, one can see all the way down to the city, taking in the International Airport, a view of the Cape Flats, Constantia Bishops Court and all the way to Stellenbosch, one of the most famous wine regions outside Europe.
I am sure one could integrate some unique South African plants into mediterranean gardens in other countries. The number of medicinal plants here in Cape Town is almost overwhelming and, with the unique fynbos, there are more than a few books to study. I hope to be able not only to investigate in a future article some unusual medicinal plants (a main interest of mine), but perhaps also to stimulate some new plant life into our northern equator plant lovers’ gardens.
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MARGARET JOHNSTON is a naturopathic doctor/educator and a botanical illustrator/artist. New to the MGS since finishing a diploma in Botanical Illustration through The Royal Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh, she has revived her interest in plants through painting, study and travel. She spends her time between the USA, the UK, Europe and South Africa. Margaret plans on returning to the Mediterranean Basin; however, she is quite taken with Cape Town and creating a life there as she figures out how to chase the sun as a way of life.
