Kirstenbosch

Nice flower, eh?

That's a protea from the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, about 10 minutes from our house. We went there today.

Katie and I had only been to Kirstenbosch once before, but now that we are well into spring here in Cape Town, it was time to go back. Our excuse was that my parents are in town, so we took them along. Actually, they were nice enough to take us along.

The last time we were there was in the late southern-hemisphere-autumn, in March, so we were pretty much blown away by the colors on this visit.

Most of the plants on display are native to this part of southern Africa, which meant that there were lots and lots of proteas and other members of the fynbos family. It also meant that most of the flowers were unlike anything I'd ever seen before.

Fynbos, in case you didn't know, is an entire kingdom of plant species that is unique to the Western Cape. Since there are only a total of six plant kingdoms in the entire world, the stuff growing in this little corner of the world can seem like it came from another planet. There are at least 8,500 plants that you can't find anywhere else.

Trying to describe them is all but futile, so check out the pictures here to get some idea of how amazing the flora here can be.