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South Africa: Global demand spurs sustainable fynbos harvesting

Silver brunia, a plant with perfectly shaped silver-green baubles that is endemic to the Cape Floral Kingdom, has been dubbed "white gold" because of escalating demand in the East.

It is helping to focus attention on the more than 9,000 indigenous plant species in the Cape. Broadly known as fynbos, many species have been exported for decades but some of them, such as the king protea, protea compacta and silver brunia, are trending in Europe, Asia, Russia and other global markets. They have unusual aesthetic appeal and last longer than other flowers.

The Cape Floral Kingdom, also known as the Cape Floristic Region, covers an area of 90,000km², mainly in the Western Cape but also parts of the Eastern Cape as far as Port Elizabeth. Of the 9,000 species, 6,000 are endemic to the region, which is the smallest and richest floral kingdom in the world — surpassing many tropical forest regions in its diversity.

Cape Flora SA statistics indicate that in 2016-17, about 1.7-million stems of silver brunia (Brunia laevis) were exported. It is included in the mixed green stems category used to make up fynbos bouquets. The number of mixed greens exported in 2015-16 was 12-million and in 2016-17, it was 13.17-million, a 9% increase.

Read more at Business Day
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