Plants of South Africa

Since at least the 1600’s botanists and naturalists from many places in the world have combed the African jungles collecting live plants and seeds that they tended carefully during long voyages back to their homelands. These became ornamental plants that were first seen only in the gardens of the wealthy, but are now available in many nurseries and home gardens throughout the globe. Not surprisingly then, a lot of the plants that we are seeing in South Africa are familiar to us. For example, the same African Sumac tree that is so prevalent here was also growing in our back yard in Las Vegas. There are still a lot of plants that are not familiar to us and here are a few that we have found very interesting (the banana tree in the first post is growing just beside our front door :)