Pressed flowers: Notions of indigenous and alien vegetation in South Africa's Western Cape, c. 1902-1945

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 599-618

  Pooley, Simon ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADVOCACY; ECOLOGICAL THEORY; HEATHLAND; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; INTRODUCED SPECIES; NATIONAL IDENTITY; SHRUBLAND; SYMBOLISM; TWENTIETH CENTURY;

ARTICLE; BOTANY; ECOLOGY; EDUCATION; ETHNOLOGY; FLOWER; HISTORY; HUMAN; LEGAL ASPECT; POLITICAL SYSTEM; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; RACE; SOCIAL PROBLEM; SOUTH AFRICA; SYMBOLISM;

BOTANY; COLONIALISM; CONTINENTAL POPULATION GROUPS; ECOLOGY; FLOWERS; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; NATURAL HISTORY; RACE RELATIONS; SOUTH AFRICA; SYMBOLISM;

SOUTH AFRICA; WESTERN CAPE;

EID: 77957139157     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2010.507565     Document Type: Article

References (132)

1. These plants are now universally termed 'invasive alien plants' in South Africa, but I prefer the less pejorative terms 'introduced' or 'exotic' to 'alien'.
2. S. Pooley, 'Jan van Riebeeck as Pioneering Explorer and Conservator of Natural Resources at the Cape of Good Hope (1652-62)', Environment and History, 15, 1 (February 2009), pp. 3-33.
3. See A. Sparrman, Travels in the Cape, 1772-1776, 2 Volumes (Cape Town, Van Riebeeck Society, 1975, 1977)
4. C.P. Thunberg, Travels at the Cape of Good Hope, 1772-1775 (Cape Town, Van Riebeeck Society, 1986). Thunberg also published a Flora Capensis (Stuttgart, Cotta, 1823).
5. Pooley, 'Jan van Riebeeck', p. 20.
6. N.L. King, 'The Exploitation of the Indigenous Forests of South Africa', Journal of the South African Forestry Association [JSAFA], 6 (1941), pp. 28-33, p. 45.
7. Cited in L. van Sittert, 'Making the Cape Floral Kingdom: The Discovery and Defence of Indigenous Flora at the Cape ca. 1890-1939', Landscape Research, 28, 1 (January 2003), p. 116.
8. W. Beinart, Twentieth-Century South Africa (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001, 2nd ed.), p. 7, uses the phrase 'a state without a nation' to describe the period of South African history from 1880 to 1948.
9. S. Dubow, A Commonwealth of Knowledge: Science, Sensibility, and White South Africa 1820-2000 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 5.
10. Ibid., p. 6.
11. Ibid., p. 8.
12. J. Foster, '"Land of Contrasts" or "Home We Have Always Known"?: The SAR&H and the Imaginary Geography of White South African Nationhood, 1910-1930,' Journal of Southern African Studies [JSAS], 29, 3 (September 2003), 657-8.
13. V. Bickford-Smith, E. van Heyningen, N. Worden, Cape Town in the Twentieth Century (Cape Town, David Philip, 1999), p. 71.
14. Data from annual reports of the Municipal Fire Brigade, published in Minutes of His Worship the Mayor [MHWM], Chancellor Oppenheimer Library, University of Cape Town, Government Publications, G682 VC2 s.2247, 1909-1945.
15. On the founding of Kirstenbosch, see Dubow, A Commonwealth of Knowledge, pp. 183-4.
16. R.H. Compton, 'News and Notes', Journal of the Botanical Society of South Africa [JBSSA], 13 (1927), 3.
17. Van Sittert, 'Making the Cape Floral Kingdom', 113.
18. P. Anker, Imperial Ecology: Environmental Order in the British Empire, 1895-1945 (Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2001), p. 65. See also pp. 53-7.
19. Ibid., p.62.
20. J. Phillips, 'A Tribute to Frederic E. Clements and His Concepts in Ecology', Ecology, 35, 2 (April 1954), pp. 114-15. Bews was an enthusiastic, but not uncritical, student of Clements's ideas: 'while grassland in forest climatic areas may form a stage in the plant succession and ultimately be ousted by forest, yet in other areas it represents a climax stage'.
21. J.W. Bews, 'Studies in the Ecological Evolution of the Angiosperms (Concluded)', The New Phytologist, 26, 5 (December 1927), 273.
22. On Clements's influence on plant ecology in this period, and his Research Methods, see J.W. Bews, Human Ecology, (London, Oxford University Press, 1935), p. 3.
23. F.E. Clements, Plant Succession: An Analysis of the Development of Vegetation (Washington, Carnegie Institute of Washington, 1916).
24. For a summary, see D. Worster, Nature's Economy: A History of Ecological Ideas (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994, 2nd ed.), pp. 208-36.
25. On Spencer's influence on Clements, see Worster, Nature's Economy, pp. 212-14,
26. D.R. Oldroyd, Darwinian Impacts: An Introduction to the Darwinian Revolution (Milton Keynes, Open University Press, 1980), pp. 205 (for quotation), pp. 207, 209.
27. See J. Phillips, 'Succession, Development, the Climax, and the Complex Organism: An Analysis of Concepts, Part III: The Complex Organism: Conclusions', Journal of Ecology, 23, 2 (August 1935), pp. 488-508.
28. Anker, Imperial Ecology, pp. 62-6, 68.
29. J.C. Smuts, 'South Africa in Science', in Plans for a Better World: Speeches (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1942), p. 165.
30. Ibid., p. 171.
31. Anker, Imperial Ecology, pp. 67-9.
32. S. Dubow, Scientific Racism in Modern South Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 68-71.
33. J.W. Bews, 'Some Aspects of Botany in South Africa and Plant Ecology in Natal', South African Journal of Science [SAJS], 18, 1 & 2 (December 1921), p. 65.
34. J. Phillips, 'Ecology in the Service of Man in British Territories in Africa: Selected Aspects and Examples', Plant Ecology, 5-6, 1 (January 1954), p. 72.
35. J.W. Bews, 'An Account of the Chief Types of Vegetation in South Africa, with Notes on the Plant Succession', Journal of Ecology, 4, 3/4 (December 1916), pp. 129-159.
36. Ibid., 129-30.
37. Physiognomy was central to the scientific racism of the era, and climate was much debated in the 1920s and 1930s as a possible cause of degeneration among Europeans living in South Africa: Dubow, Scientific Racism, pp. 176-9.
38. Bews, 'An Account of the Chief Types of Vegetation', pp. 135-7.
39. On the effects of fire see A.G. Rebelo, C. Boucher, N. Helme, L. Mucina, M.C. Rutherford, 'Fynbos Biome', in L. Mucina and M.C. Rutherford (eds), The Vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland (Pretoria, SANBI, 2006), p. 82.
40. Bews, 'An Account of the Chief Types of Vegetation', p. 137.
41. Ibid., p. 147.
42. G.W. Gale, John William Bews: A Memoir (Pietermaritzburg, Natal University Press, 1954), p. 65.
43. Bews, 'Some Aspects of Botany', 69-70
44. J.F.V. Phillips, 'Fire: Its Influence on Biotic Communities and Physical Factors in South and East Africa', SAJS, 27, (1930), pp. 354-5.
45. Foster, '"Land of Contrasts"', p. 679, observes that veld photography 'offered a sense of stability in contrast to a changing world' - a potential that botanists perhaps found suggestive.
46. W. Beinart, 'Costs and Benefits of Plant Transfers and Bio-invasions in Historical Perspective with Particular Reference to Africa' (unpublished paper, Nairobi, 2008).
47. Bews, 'An Account of the Chief Types of Vegetation', p. 157.
48. C.S. Elton, The Ecology of Invasions by Animals and Plants (London, Methuen, 1958).
49. S.J. Gould, 'An Evolutionary Perspective on Strengths, Fallacies, and Confusions in the Concept of Native Plants', Arnoldia 58, 1 (1998), pp. 6-7.
50. D.M. Richardson, 'Pines - A Model Group for Unlocking the Secrets of Alien Plant Invasions?', Inaugural Lecture, Centre for Invasion Biology (Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch University Press, 2005), p. 4.
51. For an overview of what was researched, see V.C. and P.M. Moran, Alien Invasive Vascular Plants in South African Natural and Semi-Natural Environments: Bibliography from 1830 (Pretoria, CSIR, 1982).
52. J.D. Scott, 'Some Problems in the Restoration of Veld', Farming in South Africa, 10, 108 (March 1935), 105. On Rhenosterbos and H. argyrophyllum, see Union of South Africa, Final Report of the Drought Investigation Commission (U.G. 49 of 1923), pp. 102-4.
53. J.P.H. Acocks, Veld Types of South Africa (Pretoria, Department of Agriculture, 1953), pp. 14, 17.
54. R.M. Cowling and P.M. Holmes, 'Flora and Vegetation', in R.M. Cowling, (ed.), The Ecology of Fynbos: Nutrients, Fire and Diversity (Cape Town, Oxford University Press, 1992), pp. 41-2.
55. On Agave, see Union of South Africa, Final Report, p. 67. On Opuntia species, see W. Beinart, The Rise of Conservation in South Africa: Settlers, Livestock, and the Environment, 1770-1950 (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 266-303.
56. See also J.D. Benke, 'Port Jackson Willow as a Sluit Stopper', Agricultural Journal: Department of Agriculture of the Cape Colony, 32 (1908), p. 652.
57. See Proceedings of the Fourth British Empire Forestry Conference (Pretoria, Government Printer, 1936), pp. 3-6.
58. Union of South Africa, Final Report, p. 67.
59. K. Brown, '"Trees, Forests and Communities": Some Historiographical Approaches to Environmental History on Africa', Area, 35, 4 (December 2003), p. 350.
60. A.M. Avis, 'A Review of Coastal Dune Stabilization in the Cape Province of South Africa', Landscape and Urban Planning, 18, 1 (September 1989), p. 57.
61. Proceedings of the Fourth British Empire Forestry Conference, pp. 48, 109, 115.
62. Ibid., p. 117.
63. Ibid., pp. 48-9.
64. Ibid., p. 178.
65. C.L. Wicht, 'Hydrological Research in South African Forestry', JSAFA, 16 (1948), 4.
66. These concerns form the rationale for the nationwide Working for Water programme in South Africa today: S. Noemdoe, 'Putting People First in an Invasive Alien Clearing Programme: Working for Water Programme - Are We succeeding?', in J.A. McNeely, The Great Reshuffling: Human Dimensions of Invasive Alien Species (Gland, IUCN, 2001), pp. 121-5.
67. C.L. Wicht, 'Forest Influences Research Technique at Jonkershoek', JSAFA, 3 (1939), p. 65.
68. C.L. Wicht, 'A Statistically Designed Experiment to Test the Effects of Burning on a Sclerophyll Scrub Community: I. Preliminary Account', Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa [TRSSA], 31, 5 (1948), p. 479.
69. C.L. Wicht and F.J. Kruger, 'Die Ontwikkeling Van Bergveldbestuur in Suid-Afrika', South African Forestry Journal, 86 (1973), p. 8.
70. For ongoing attempts to classify Fynbos vegetation, see Rebelo et al., 'Fynbos Biome', p. 69-72.
71. Ibid., p. 91.
72. Ibid., pp. 67, 93.
73. H.J. Deacon, M.R. Jury, F. Ellis, 'Selective Regime and Time', in Cowling (ed.), The Ecology of Fynbos, pp. 15, 20
74. H.J. Deacon, 'Human Settlement', in Ibid., p. 261.
75. For a concise account of the effects of fire on Fynbos, see B. van Wilgen, 'Managing Fires: The Science Behind the Smoke', Quest, 1, 3 (2005), pp. 26-33.
76. Anonymous biographical sketch accompanying 'Seventh Award of the South Africa Medal and Grant', SAJS, 11 (1914), pp. xxxii-xxxvi.
77. E.P. Phillips, 'A Brief Historical Sketch of the Development of Botanical Science in South Africa', SAJS, 27 (1930), p. 51.
78. R. Marloth, 'Notes on the Question of Veld Burning', SAJS, 21 (1924), pp. 343-4.
79. R. Grove, 'Early Themes in African Conservation: The Cape in the Nineteenth Century', in D. Anderson and R. Grove (eds), Conservation in Africa: People, Policies and Practice (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 24-5, 28-9.
80. On the persistence of this prejudice, see W.J. Bond and B.W. van Wilgen, Fire and Plants (London, Chapman & Hall, 1996), p. 2.
81. P. Star, 'Ecology: A Science of Nation? The Utilization of Plant Ecology in New Zealand, 1896-1930', in Historical Records of Australian Science, 17 (2006), pp. 197-207
82. G. Duncan, 'Lachenalia Salteri Hyacinthaceae', Curtis's Botanical Magazine, 20,4 (November 2003), pp. 208-9.
83. R.S. Adamson, 'The Plant Communities of Table Mountain: Preliminary Account', Journal of Ecology, 15, 2 (August 1927), pp. 284-5.
84. Ibid., p. 285.
85. T. Rebelo, 'Hakea drupacea?', Protea Atlas Project, available at http://protea.worldonline.co.za/p30hadrup. htm, retrieved on 13 July 2009.
86. Adamson, 'The Plant Communities', p. 303. Although Fynbos requires fire to regenerate, several introduced invasive species regenerate more quickly than Fynbos after fire, gaining a competitive advantage.
87. The complex reasons for this are discussed in D.M. Richardson, I.A.W. Macdonald, P.M. Holmes, R.M. Cowling, 'Plant and Animal Invasions', in Cowling (ed.), The Ecology of Fynbos, pp. 271-308.
88. Adamson, 'The Plant Communities', p. 304.
89. M. Gunn and L. E. Codd, Botanical Exploration of Southern Africa (Cape Town, A. A. Balkema, 1981), pp. 121-2.
90. Phillips, 'A Brief Historical Sketch', 67
91. 'News and Notes', JBSSA, 39 (1953), p. 6.
92. R.H. Compton, 'News and Notes', JBSSA, 12 (1926), pp. 2-3.
93. R. H. Compton, 'News and Notes', JBSSA, 10 (1924), p. 3.
94. R.H. Compton, 'Veld Burning and Veld Deterioration', South African Journal of Natural History, 6, 1 (1926), p. 6.
95. It is true that the Dutch learned the practice from Khoikhoi pastoralists at the Cape - see P. Kolb, The Present State of the Cape of Good-Hope, Vol. 1 (London, W. Innys and R. Manby, 1738, 2nd edn), pp. 62-3. But pastoralists all over the world have used this approach to veld management for millennia.
96. Compton, 'Veld Burning', p. 6-7. Levyns's paper was published under her maiden name, Michell (see note 97).
97. Ibid., p. 9.
98. Ibid., p. 10.
99. Ibid., p. 11
100. Ibid., p. 12.
101. Ibid., pp. 5, 11.
102. Ibid., p. 12.
103. On assumptions about forest as climax vegetation, see J. McAllister, 'Fire and the South African Grassland Biome', in S. Dovers, R. Edgecombe, B. Guest (eds), South Africa's Environmental History: Cases and Comparisons (Cape Town, David Philip, 2002), pp. 160-73.
104. Compton, 'Veld Burning', pp. 12-13. Fynbos was often referred to as scrub, heath, sclerophyllous scrub, or maqui.
105. Ibid., p. 13. In fact, Fynbos thrives on nutrient-poor soils.
106. Ibid., p. 18.
107. Soon afterwards he would write: 'When love of country is linked with beautiful things like flowers, instead of with hideous things like war, then we shall have a truer patriotism than we know to-day'. R.H. Compton, 'News and Notes', JBSSA, 13 (1927), p. 3.
108. A. von Hase, M. Rouget, K. Maze, N. Helme, A Fine-Scale Conservation Plan for Cape Lowlands Renosterveld: Technical Report (Claremont, Botanical Society of South Africa, 2003), p. 8.
109. J.P. Rourke, 'Plant Systematics in South Africa: A Brief Historical Overview, 1753-1953', TRSSA, 54, 1 (1999), pp. 179-90. The dedication is in Cowling (ed.), The Ecology of Fynbos.
110. M.R. Michell, 'Some Observations on the Effects of a Bush Fire on the Vegetation of Signal Hill', TRSSA, 10, 1 (1922), pp. 230-1.
111. M.R. Levyns, 'Veld-Burning Experiments at Ida's Valley, Stellenbosch', TRSSA, 17, 2 (1929), pp. 88-9.
112. Von Hase et al., A Fine-Scale Conservation Plan, p. 1.
113. For Sparrman's comments, see M.R. Levyns, 'The Rhenoster Bush', JBSSA, 16 (1930), pp. 14-15.
114. N. Bergh, 'Elytropappus Rhinocerotis (L.f.) Less.', SANBI (September, 2006), available at http://www. plantzafrica.com/plantefg/elytrorhino.htm, retrieved on 13 July 2009.
115. On the origins of the wild flower trade, shows, and the protection societies, see Van Sittert, 'Making the Cape Floral Kingdom', pp. 119-20, 123-4.
116. On flower pickers burning 'for... the removal of over-ripe veld' see MHWM, Year ending 6th September, 1940, G682 VC2 s.2247, p. 33.
117. R.H. Compton 'News and Notes', JBSSA, 10 (1924), pp. 4-5.
118. For a variety of accounts of its rediscovery (apparently reports of its extinction were much exaggerated) see 'Blushing Bride Serruria Florida, Trots van Franschhoek', available at http://protea.worldonline.co.za/ blushing.htm, Protea Atlas Project, retrieved on 13 July 2009.
119. MHWM, Year ending 13th September, 1911, G682 VC2 s.2247, pp. 47-8.
120. A.W. van der Houten, 'Report of the Director of Parks and Gardens for the Year ended June 30th, 1929', in MHWM, Year ending 8th September, 1929, G682 VC2 s.2247, p. 3.
121. C.L. Wicht, Preservation of the Vegetation of the South Western Cape (Cape Town, RSSA, 1945).
122. Ibid., pp. 7-9.
123. Ibid., p. 53.
124. Jaarverslag van die Departement van Bosbou vir die Jaar Geëindig 31 Maart, 1962 (R.P. 80 of 1964), p. 10.
125. P. Woodworth, 'Working for Water in South Africa: Saving the World on a Single Budget?' World Policy Journal, 23, 2 (Summer, 2006), pp. 31-43.
126. This language has been widely employed for decades, permeating even the prosaic reports of the City Engineer. See Reports of the City Engineer, Chancellor Oppenheimer Library, UCT, Government Publications, G682 VC2 s.2247, for these examples from 1978, p. 19.
127. Noemdoe, 'Putting People First', pp. 121-2. Similar claims go back to the 1870s: Beinart, The Rise of Conservation, p. 273.
128. On the relationship between science, advocacy and politics in fire prevention in the Cape post-1994, see A. H. Neely, '"Blame Itonthe Weeds": Politics, Fire, and Ecologyinthe NewSouth Africa'(M.Sc. thesis, University ofOxford, 2004).
129. D. Southey, 'Wildfires in the Cape Floristic Region: Exploring Vegetation and Weather as Drivers of Fire Frequency' (M.Sc. thesis, University of Cape Town, 2009)
130. G.G. Forsyth and B.W. van Wilgen, 'The Recent Fire History of the Table Mountain National Park and Implications for Fire Management', Koedoe, 50, 1 (2008), pp. 3-9.
131. J. and J.L. Comaroff, 'Naturing the Nation: Aliens, Apocalypse and the Postcolonial State', JSAS, 27, 3 (September 2001), pp. 632-3.
132. M. Draper, 'Going Native? Trout and Settling Identity in a Rainbow Nation', Historia, 48, 1 (May 2003), pp. 55-94 makes a similar point about trout.