Bringing new life to our fynbos

​Piece by small piece the Princess Vlei Forum is working to restore and rehabilitate the land around Princess Vlei. On Saturday 18 May, thirty local residents, Stellenbosch University students, and various Lions’ Clubs came together on Saturday 18 May to restore the indigenous vegetation at Princess Vlei.
 
While this work has been ongoing for several years, the project gained new life when the Forum employed a manager for the site, and contracted the services of fynbos restoration expert Alex Lansdowne to draw up a five year rehabilitation plan. The aim of this is to help the damaged ecosystem at Princess Vlei recover and secure biodiversity on site.

Plants put in include five hundred Cape Flats fynbos  and dune strandveld plants that had been propagated locally from plants that are known to have occurred naturally  around the vlei.  The group also sowed seeds of flowering plants such as the rain daisies, to recreate a strandveld meadow – which hopefully will create a  carpet of colourful flowers this spring.
 
Once habitat condition, has been improved, the Forum will embark on species conservation. Erica verticillata (Extinct in the Wild), Leucadendron floridum (Critically Endangered) and Serruria foeniculacea (Critically Endangered) are three threatened species endemic to the city of Cape Town that once occurred at Princess Vlei.
 
This project is supported by the Hans Hoheisen Charitable Trust, managed by Nedbank Private Wealth