Factsheet:
South Africa
Capital: Pretoria (administrative capital), Cape
Town (legislative capital)
Area: 1,220,088 square km
Languages: English, Xhosa, Zulu,
Afrikaans, Ndebele, North Sotho, Sesotho, Swazi, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda (all
official)
Currency: Rand
Total plant species: 23,420
Total plant endemics: no available
information
Total RDL plants: 948
Focal RDL institutions: PRE
Number of Protected Areas: 18
National Parks, including two Transfrontier Parks (Lesotho–South Africa
and Mozambique–South Africa–Zimbabwe), numerous other protected areas, and
several proposed protected areas (including Transfrontier Parks).
Population: 42,106,200 Growth Rate: 1.7% Density: 33.3 people/square km
Phytogeography: Cape in the south
and southwest, Karoo–Namib in the west, Kalahari–Highveld Regional Transitional
Zone in the centre, Zambezian elements in the north and east, Afromontane
patches scattered in enclaves, and Tonga–Pondoland Regional Mosaic along
the eastern coast.
Flora: Fynbos and its variants
in the southwest, arid (Succulent Karoo) and semi-arid karoo shrubland and
grassy shrubland in northern and central Cape, highveld grassland over much
of the central plateau, open savanna woodland on the eastern plateau, montane
forest and grasslands in enclaves, savanna and low-lying forest on the east
coast.
Sources: Anonymous 2000, Cowling
& Hilton-Taylor 1994, Low & Rebelo 1998
