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| | Flora of the Western Cape |
 | | The Western Cape is centered around the city of Capetown and is more or less crescent-shaped, with the flank of its northern horn facing west toward the Atlantic and the flank of its eastern horn facing south toward the Indian Ocean. |
 | | The Western Cape Province shares with Southern California the distinction of being among the five regions of the world which harbor what is referred to as Mediterranean vegetation, the others being southwestern Australia, western Chile, and of course, the coastal Mediterranean. |
 | | The primary vegetation type of the Western Cape is fynbos, a term derived from Dutch and Afrikaans words meaning "fine bush," which typically grows on fairly nutrient-depleted mostly sandstone-derived acidic soils and is dominated by sclerophyllous, that is, evergreen, hard-leaved, flowering shrubs, many of which are Proteas, Ericas, Cape Reeds (Restios), and geophytes (bulbed plants). |
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