The whole of tropical Africa harbours 30.000 plant species in almost 20 million square kilometres - or only 3,5 times as many species in an area 235 times as large. Still more remarkable is the Cape Peninsula with its 2 285 plant species in an expanse smaller than that of London. Table Mountain alone has almost 1.500 species in 57 square kilometres. So super-special is the Cape Floral Kingdom that it has been designated one of earth's six plant kingdoms, putting 
it on a bar with the Boreal Forest Kingdom which covers 50 million square kilometres.Yet this extravagance of life's diversity is little known outside South Africa (and not always within it)... Not even the richest parts of Amazonia come close. Yet few people appreciate the wonder that is the Cape - even though many Cape plants, such as geraniums, have become household adornments worldwide. The Cape Floral Kingdom contains 526 of the world's 740 erica species, with their glorious flowers; 96 gladiolus species of the world's 160; and 69 proteas out of 112 on earth. The Cape is indeed a global epicentre of biodiversity.
Let us celebrate, then, the principal vegetation of the Kingdom, fynbos. Trees are very rare in natural fynbos. Regrettably, though understandably, settlers of whatever sort have wanted wood for construction and fuel, so they have introduced tree species such as pines and wattles, many of which have 'escaped' from plantations and encroached into fynbos habitats. Given the present rate of tree spread, forests could take over as much as half of fynbos habitats by the end of this decade. Because the plant material of forests is much greater than that of fynbos, forests release only half as much water from upland catchments, to the detriment of the fast-expanding human communities in the naturally thirsty Cape lowlands.
Alas, the fynbos and the rest of the Cape Kingdom's vegetation are being backed into a corner, both figuratively and literally. More than 1.400 plants feature in the Red Data list as being critically rare, endangered ore vulnerable - almost as many as the entire flora of the British Isles. An apalling 29 of these are known to have already become extinct. One-third of the original fynbos has already been lost to agriculture, among other forms of development, or to the invasion by alien plants, and most of the rest suffers accelerating attrition. Much wilderness habitat is already broken up into a patchwork of relicts dispersed among farmlands and urban areas. Some plant species hold out in localities of just a single squuare kilometre, and feature fewer than the 500 individuals often regarded as a minimum for genetic viability. One area of a mere one-twelth of a square kilometre contains three endemic species. Another area, in the middle of a racecourse, features four endemics. Yet these areas are 'needed' for a cricket pitch, a housing site and a bus depot. Of all the earth's 'hot spots' (areas with exceptional biodiversity and exceptional habitat threat) the Cape Floral Kingdom ranks among the very hottest.
Fortunately there could be better times ahead. A host of organisations, both official and private, are actively exploring the international scope for 'getting something done'. Both scientists and economists are trying to demonstrate the economic value of fynbos vegetation. The watershed values are sizeable, even if little heeded 
thus far. Cape Town and nearby urban communities depend for 90% of their water on a 1750-square kilometre catchment. After losing much of its natural vegetation to alien invaders, the catchment produces 400 million cubic metres less water than it used to - an amount one-third greater than the present community consumes.
Still more important is the prospect of exploiting the flora for additional ornamental plants to meet the growing demand in export markets far afield...
Most promising of all could be ecotourism. South Africa has lions and elephants aplenty, drawing half a million tourists a year. What if more of these visitors could be persuaded to extend their safaris to the Cape? Their tourist spendings could eventually make plant conservation a highly competitive form of land use... This strategy could do most to safeguard the floristic glories of this 0,02% of the earth's land surface. Could South Africa's Rand belt, with its mineral output worth $14 billion a year, eventually be matched by the commercial muscle of the Cape Floral Kingdom? What counts meanwhile is to publicise the splendours of the Cape and its vegetation...a true wonder of our world and one of South Africa's greatest glories.
Norman Myers (Oxford University)
from:
"Fynbos - South Africas Unique Floral Kingdom"; Richard Cowling , Dave Richardson;
Fernwood Press, 1995