At 7am on a Monday morning we’re driving through the wilds of the Grootbos private nature reserve, outside Gansbaai in the Western Cape. We’re knocking about on the back of a game vehicle looking for proteas — which we find, along with Ericas, a multitude of grasses and a selection of incredibly interesting orchids. This isn’t entirely unusual — seeing plants in their natural habitat. But it does become novel when it’s part of a dedicated flower safari: hunting for flowers and their pollinators in the early morning sun throughout the 2,500ha reserve.
“At Grootbos, we want to showcase the exceptional narratives of the flora and biodiversity of the Cape floral kingdom,” says Ruth Crichton, marketing manager of the private reserve. “This is the smallest, yet most biodiverse, of the world’s vegetation types.”
The flower safari takes place every morning and lasts up to five hours. It sounds unfathomable to go bashing through bush looking for pinks and oranges, and the greens of particular reeds, but there’s so much information shared during the drive that the hours pass swiftly.
“Proteas are not actually one flower,” says our guide. “Each bloom is a collection of flowers.” This is just one of the many facts we learn; there’s a vast species list making up Fynbos — there are more than 9,000 plant species in the Cape floristic kingdom and of that, more than 890 can be found on Grootbos. This includes seven entirely new species to science, found nowhere else in the world.
“Our conservation work honouring this exceptional hottest of hotspots has been ongoing for 25 years under our conservation director, Sean Privett,” says Crichton. “It is a sensory, immersive experience. Lots of sights, smells and views over the spectacular landscape.”
On the drive we continue to learn about pollinators — bees, beetles and birds and how they work sympathetically with the flora to support biodiversity, an organisational system that underpins the fundamentals of working ecosystems.
“Without biodiversity, our natural habitats will eventual cease to exist,” says Privett. “For many people, biodiversity is just another catchphrase that gets bandied about when discussing climate change.
"But when guests come here to Grootbos and they see the huge range of flora that naturally supports an evolving ecosystem, conservation becomes so much more alive for them; their engagement with nature has greater fulfilment and appreciation.”
Alongside the flower safaris (which are offered free as part of the overnight stays at Grootbos), the reserve has established the Grootbos Environmental Centre (GEC) that is dedicated to the furthering of the natural sciences.
This includes an entomology project that’s cataloguing the 30,000-plus insects found on the reserve; the team are dedicated to understanding and discovering all their various roles, purposes and stories.
While SA, and indeed Africa, may be well known for the big five game safaris, the team at Grootbos hope to ensure the continent’s floral kingdom starts to gather as much acknowledgment.
“Over the past three years we’ve been busy with a botanical art project, the Grootbos Florilegium,” says Crichton. “This is a world collaboration of highly detailed, scientifically accurate botanical art, documenting the narratives of the exceptional plants and their accompanying pollinators and associated insects in a vignette.
“We now have more than 40 participating artists from as far afield as Japan, Brazil, Italy and Germany, though the bulk of the artists are our accomplished SA botanical artists. The project is headed up by Vicki Thomas, Chris Lochner and myself and is the first of its kind in Africa.” Grootbos is also building a dedicated botanical art gallery that will open by September 2022.
• For more information, visit Grootbos
