Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Long and Entangled History of Humans and Invasive Introduced Plants on South Africa’s Cape Peninsula

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Histories of Bioinvasions in the Mediterranean

Part of the book series: Environmental History ((ENVHIS,volume 8))

Abstract

This chapter provides an environmental history of plant introductions and fire —and how their unintended consequences have been framed and managed—at the Cape of Good Hope , South Africa . The chapter explains why the plants which have proved invasive were introduced to the region, examines the effects of urbanisation on attitudes to introduced tree plantations , and describes the development of concern over the effects of fires and introduced plants on the indigenous fynbos vegetation. The chapter recounts the complex history of environmental management on the Peninsula, discussing the advantages and limitations of the powerful narrative linking invasive introduced plant control with fires and water supplies , and recent controversies between invasion biologists and commercial forestry managers.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The Wild Flower Protection Ordinance, No. 21 of 1957, set out to protect ‘any plant indigenous to the Republic of South Africa, except noxious weeds’ (cited in Hey 1963, p. 68).

  2. 2.

    The blue-leaved wattle is no longer considered a problematic invasive in South Africa.

  3. 3.

    For evidence of the vigorous debate on the impacts of bioinvasions within invasion biology see Russell and Blackburn’s article, and the many responses, in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, January 2017, 32(1).

  4. 4.

    See Pyne (1997) on the Mediterranean as an anthropogenic landscape, its biota sculpted by anthropogenic stresses, notably fire, browsing and grazing.

  5. 5.

    Data is incomplete and not always commensurable, and Turco et al. (2016) find an overall decline in area burned from 1985–2011, with the exception of Portugal.

References

  • Adamson RS (1927) The plant communities of Table Mountain: preliminary account. J Ecol 15:278–309

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adamson RS (1929) The vegetation of the South West Region. J Bot Soc S Afr 15:7–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Adamson RS (1945) Characteristics of the vegetation. In: Wicht WL (ed) Preservation of the vegetation of the South Western Cape. Report for The Royal Society of South Africa. Royal Society of South Africa, Cape Town

    Google Scholar 

  • Aupiais L, Glenn I (eds) (2000) The Cape of flames: the great fire of January 2000. Inyati Publishing, Cape Town

    Google Scholar 

  • Bagnall DG, Louw H (1962) Bokkie the grysbuck. Department of Nature Conservation & Cape Peninsula Fire Protection Committee, Cape Town

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett BM (2010) A global history of Australian trees. J Hist Biol 44(1):125–145

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett BM (2015) Margaret Levyns and the Decline of Ecological Liberalism in the Southwest Cape, 1890–1975. S Afr Hist J 67(1):64–84

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carruthers J (2011) Trouble in the garden: South African botanical politics ca. 1870–1950. S Afr J Bot 77:258–267

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Comaroff J, Comaroff JL (2001) Naturing the nation: aliens, apocalypse and the postcolonial state. J South Afr Stud 27(3):627–651

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Compton RH (1924) News and notes. J Bot Soc S Afr (JBSSA) 10:3

    Google Scholar 

  • Compton RH (1927) News and notes. JBSSA 13:3

    Google Scholar 

  • Compton RH (1928) News and notes. JBSSA 14:5

    Google Scholar 

  • Du Preez B (2017) pers. comm. From Braam du Preez, Forestry Risk Manager for MTO Cape, 12 March

    Google Scholar 

  • Du Toit B (2012) “No” to biased and pseudo-scientific reporting, says Forest Scientist. Available at: http://blogs.sun.ac.za/news/files/2012/05/Forestry-in-Fynbos-reply-BdT.pdf. Accessed on 9 June 2017

  • Forsyth GG, Van Wilgen BW (2008) The recent fire history of the Table Mountain National Park and its implications for fire management. Koedoe 50(1):3–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henkel JS (1943) Preservation of mountain vegetation of the South-West Districts of the Cape Province. Memorandum to the Royal Society of South Africa

    Google Scholar 

  • Hey D (1963) The conservation of flora in the province of the Cape of Good Hope. Lantern 13:68–69

    Google Scholar 

  • Hey D (1978) Report on the future control and management of Table Mountain and the Southern Peninsula Mountain Chain. Repub S Afr Pretoria, Government Printer

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill (Sir) Arthur (1929) Personal diary. Kew Gardens Library and Archive, AWH/1/8 (1929)

    Google Scholar 

  • Huntley B (1992) The Fynbos Biome Project. In: Cowling RM (ed) The ecology of fynbos: nutrients, fire and diversity. Oxford University Press, Cape Town, pp 1–5

    Google Scholar 

  • Keeley JE, Bond WJ, Bradstock RA, Pausas JG, Rundel PW (2012) Fire in Mediterranean ecosystems: ecology, evolution and management. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Kruger FJ (1978) Description of the Fynbos Biome Project. National Scientific Programs Unit: CSIR, South African National Scientific Programs Report 28

    Google Scholar 

  • Kruger FJ, Reid P, Mayet M, Alberts W, Goldammer JG, Tolhurst K (2000) A Review of the Veld Fires in the Western Cape during 15 to 25 January 2000. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry Report, South Africa, 145 pages

    Google Scholar 

  • Le Maitre DC, Van Wilgen BW, Chapman RA, Kelly DH (1996) Invasive plants and water resources in the Western Cape Province, South Africa; modelling the consequences of a lack of management. J Appl Ecol 33:161–172

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lidström S, West S, Katzschner T, Pérez-Ramos MI, Twidle H (2015) Invasive narratives and the inverse of slow violence: alien species in science and society. Environ Humanit 7:1–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lister MH (1957) Joseph Storr Lister, the first chief conservator of the South African Department of Forestry. Journal of the South African Forestry Association 29:10–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lückhoff CA (1951) Table Mountain: our national heritage after three hundred years. AA Balkema, Cape Town

    Google Scholar 

  • Macdonald IAW, Kruger FJ, Ferrar AA (1986) The ecology and management of biological invasions in southern Africa. Oxford University Press, Cape Town

    Google Scholar 

  • Mandela RN (1998) Message from President Nelson Mandela on the occasion of World Environment Day. 5 June

    Google Scholar 

  • Marais C (2008) Interview with the author. Cape Town, 3 October

    Google Scholar 

  • Moll EJ, Trinder-Smith T (1992) Invasion and control of alien woody plants on the Cape Peninsula Mountains, South Africa 30 years on. Biol Cons 60:135–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neely AH (2010) ‘Blame it on the weeds’: politics, poverty, and ecology in the new South Africa. J South Afr Stud 36:869–887

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nixon R (2011) Slow violence and the environmentalism of the poor. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pakenham T (2007) In search of remarkable trees: on safari in Southern Africa. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearson H (1910) Text of speech sent to Col. Pierie, Director of Kew. Miscellaneous Reports: South Africa; National Botanic Garden, 1910–1928, Kew Gardens Archive, 302, R6 (4 November 1910), 1–13

    Google Scholar 

  • Pooley S (2009) Jan Van Riebeeck as pioneering explorer and conservator of natural resources at the Cape of Good Hope (1652–1662). Environ Hist 15:3–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pooley S (2010) Pressed flowers: notions of indigenous and alien vegetation in South Africa’s Western Cape, c. 1902–1945. J South Afr Stud 36(3):559–618

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pooley S (2014) Burning Table Mountain: an environmental history of fire on the Cape Peninsula. Palgrave, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Preston G (2007) Interview with the author. Pearson Hall, Kirstenbosch, Cape Town, 19 October

    Google Scholar 

  • Prins P (2007) Interview with the author. Newlands Fire Base, Cape Town, 19 October

    Google Scholar 

  • Privett SDJ, Cowling RM, Taylor HC (2001) Thirty years of change in the fynbos vegetation of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve. Bothalia 31:99–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rebelo A, Boucher C, Helme N, Mucina L, Rutherford MC (2006) Fynbos biome. In Mucina L, Rutherford MC (eds) The vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Strelitzia 19. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria, pp 53–219

    Google Scholar 

  • Richardson DM, Holmes PM, Cowling RM (1992) Plant and animal invasions. In: Cowling RM (ed) Ecology of fynbos: nutrients, fire and diversity. Oxford University Press, Cape Town, pp 271–308

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaughnessy GL (1980) Historical ecology of alien woody plants in the vicinity of Cape Town, South Africa. PhD thesis, University of Cape Town

    Google Scholar 

  • Sim TR (1907) Forests and forest flora of the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope. Taylor & Henderson, Aberdeen

    Google Scholar 

  • Smuts JC (1942) The Spirit of the Mountain. In Plans for a better world: speeches of field-marshal the right honourable J. C. Smuts. Hodder and Stoughton, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Ukuvuka (2000) The Santam/Cape Argus Ukuvuka Operation Firestop Campaign draft business plan: 2000–2004. Ukuvuka, Cape Town

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Sittert L (2003a) Making the Cape Floral Kingdom: the discovery and defence of indigenous flora at the Cape ca. 1890–1939. Landscape Res 28(1):113–129

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Sittert L (2003b) The bourgeois eye aloft: Table Mountain in the Anglo urban middle class imagination, c.1891–1952. Kronos 29:161–190

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Wilgen BW (2009) The evolution of fire and invasive plant management practice in fynbos. S Afr J Sci 105:335–342

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Wilgen BW, Richardson DM (1985) The effect of alien shrub invasions on vegetation structure and fire behaviour in South African fynbos shrublands: a simulation study. J Appl Ecol 22:955–966

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Wilgen BW, Richardson DM (2012a) Three centuries of managing introduced conifers in South Africa: benefits, impacts, changing perceptions and conflict resolution. J Environ Manage 106:56–68

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van Wilgen BW, Richardson DM (2012b) Fynbos forestry debate response. Available at: http://blogs.sun.ac.za/news/files/2012/05/Fynbos-Forestry-debate-response.pdf. Accessed on 9 June 2017

  • Van Wilgen BW, Cowling RM, Burgers CJ (1996) Valuation of ecosystem services. BioScience 46:184–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Wilgen BW, Forsyth GG, Le Maitre DC, Wannenburgh A, Kotzé JDF, Van Den Berg E, Henderson L (2012) An assessment of the effectiveness of a large, national-scale invasive alien plant control strategy in South Africa. Biol Cons 148:28–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Wilgen BW, Carruthers J, Cowling RM et al (2016) Ecological research and conservation management in the Cape Floristic Region between 1945 and 2015: History, current understanding and future challenges. Trans R Soc S Afr 71(3):207–303

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wall K (2008) Water supply: reshaper of Cape Town’s local government a century ago. In: van Zyl JE, Ilemonbade AA, Jacobs HH (eds) Proceedings of the 10th annual water distribution systems analysis conference, WDSA2008, Kruger National Park, South Africa

    Google Scholar 

  • Wicht CL (1945) Preservation of the vegetation of the South Western Cape. Report for The Royal Society of South Africa. Royal Society of South Africa, Cape Town

    Google Scholar 

Archives

  • State Forestry Department Annual Reports

    Google Scholar 

  • Series reconstructed from personal copies and libraries as follows:

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes House Library, University of Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Republic of South Africa: Department of Forestry: Annual report 1951–67, Shelf No.610.44s. 5

    Google Scholar 

  • Plant Sciences Library, University of Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • BN/South Africa/Department of Environment Affairs: Report, Annual–Forestry Branch; and on Microfilm, Bulletins, P3, BN/Rumania, Forestry and Environmental Conservation Branch Annual Report

    Google Scholar 

  • (This library now rehoused in the Radcliffe Science Library)

    Google Scholar 

  • Reports series (with abbreviations used in text) as follows:

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape of Good Hope (CGH): Department of Agriculture, Reports of the conservators of forests, Cape Colony (to 1909)

    Google Scholar 

  • Government of the Union of South Africa (UG): Forest Department: Report of the Chief CONSERVATOR of forests (ARFD), 1910–58/59

    Google Scholar 

  • Republic of South Africa (RP): Annual reports of the Department of Forestry (ARFD), 1959/60–78/79

    Google Scholar 

  • RP: Annual report of the Department of Water Affairs and the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation (ARFD), 1979/80–83/84

    Google Scholar 

  • RP: Annual report of the Department of Environment Affairs (ARFD), 1984/85–94

    Google Scholar 

  • ARFD (Annual Report of the Forestry Department). UG53-1936; RP20/1961; RP80/1964; 1972/73 RP38/1974; RP18/1972

    Google Scholar 

  • CGH (Cape of Good Hope): 1900 G.39-1901; CGH 1902, 17; CGH 1905; CGH 1892 27-93; CGH1893 G.50-94; CGH 1896 G17-97

    Google Scholar 

Municipal Sources

  • Chancellor Oppenheimer Library, University of Cape Town, Government Publications Department

    Google Scholar 

  • Minute of His Worship the Mayor, Cape Town (MM): 1900–1953

    Google Scholar 

  • Shelf Ref.: G682 VC2 s.2247

    Google Scholar 

  • Incorporating Annual Reports of the:

    Google Scholar 

  • Chief Officer of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (ARFB)

    Google Scholar 

  • Superintendent of public gardens and tree planting (ARPGTP), 1900–09

    Google Scholar 

  • Superintendents of public gardens, and tree planting (separately), 1910–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Director of Parks and Gardens (ARDPG), c.1928–53

    Google Scholar 

  • City Lands and Forests Branch (CLFB), c.1939–53

    Google Scholar 

  • The Corporation of the City of Cape Town: Annual Report of the City Engineer (ARCE), Shelf Ref. G 682 VC ED(ENGI), including

    Google Scholar 

  • Incorporating the Annual Reports of:

    Google Scholar 

  • Forests, Parks and Gardens (ARFPG) c.1954–60

    Google Scholar 

  • Parks and Forests Branch (ARPFB) 1961–94/95

    Google Scholar 

Newspapers

  • Cape Times and Cape Argus newspaper reports accessed on microfilm at the African Studies Library, University of Cape Town, Ref. BZA 76/72, MP 1025, and Rhodes House Library, Oxford, call number 620.18 t. 2

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Argus (1935) £250,000 havoc in great fire. 26 December

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Argus (1935) To safeguard mountain. 27 December

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Times (1942) Stop those mountain fires. Editorial, 27 November

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Times (1943) National Veld Trust. Editorial, 7 January

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Times (1943) Start of war on soil erosion. 20 November

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Times (1943) The enemy within. Editorial, 4 December

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Times (1950) Letters to the Editor. 1 February

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Times (1960) £1.2 million new science drives round Cape. 29 January, front page

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Times (1973) Fire could ruin flora. 18 April: 2

    Google Scholar 

  • Cape Times (2007) ‘Tree Taliban’ ignores please to save green heritage. 3 February: 3

    Google Scholar 

  • Sunday Argus (2007) Author blames ‘eco-fascists’ for tree-culling. 7 October, 11

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Birkbeck University of London, London, UK

    Simon Pooley

Authors
  1. Simon Pooley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Simon Pooley .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. IHC—Institute of Contemporary History, NOVA-FCSH, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Isabel Queiroz

  2. Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Simon Pooley

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Pooley, S. (2018). The Long and Entangled History of Humans and Invasive Introduced Plants on South Africa’s Cape Peninsula. In: Queiroz, A., Pooley, S. (eds) Histories of Bioinvasions in the Mediterranean. Environmental History, vol 8. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74986-0_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation