Cape Flora flowers
Waitrose have introduced a range of Cape Flora lines designed to improve the value of the flora from the Fynbos region, and are working closely with the local growers who are respecting and helping to preserve a truly unique environment.
The flora of the Cape region of South Africa is so unusual that it is regarded as one of the world’s six floral kingdoms. In an area of just 90,000 km2 there are an estimated 9,000 species of plants. Of these, an amazing 69% are found nowhere else on earth. To put this into perspective, the British Isles, an area three and a half times larger, have only 1,500 plants, fewer than 20 of which are endemic.
Fynbos is the name given to the beautiful plants, shrubs and reed-like grasses that make up Cape flora. The biodiversity at the species level is the highest in the world.
Today nearly one-third of the original Fynbos has been lost to burgeoning urban settlements, relentless agricultural expansion and invasion by alien plants. More than 1400 species are listed as being critically rare, endangered or vulnerable, and at least 29 species have already become extinct.
The flora of the Fynbos region sadly has little value and thus is more valuable as land for housing and agriculture. Due to their unqiue biodiversity, once lost, this flora will be lost forever.
We work with a local, worker-owned company to bring beautiful Fynbos flowers to the UK, which we hope will help preserve these unique species. They make a stunning exotic display and can be dried so they last and last.