Cradle of Humankind in bloom – Pampas grass

Featuring several hundred plant species, including wild flowers and grasses, towering succulents, rare blooms and many medicinal buds, the Cradle of Humankind represents one of the most diverse plant communities in the world.

The landscape is dominated by rocky Highveld grassland, vegetation made up of rocky slopes, grassy outcrops, and plains of shale and dolomite. Here fire plays an important role in maintaining the balance of trees and grass.

The hairy pampas grass, or Cortaderia selloana, features a long, dry stalk with a hairy tussock at the top – a flowering plant that grows in clumps of “feathered” grass.

Banned from sale and propagation in South Africa, this type of invasive grass is destroyed annually by veld fires, but proves pretty hard to destroy.

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