The Fynbos Bouquet

It would be hard to find flowers more beautiful than the Fynbos bouquets of South Africa’s Western Cape. The riotous colors and exotic shapes bedazzled me the first time I saw them, for sale on the sidewalk in a seaside village near Cape Town.

Protea-CC

Also known as Cape Floral bouquets, flower pickers harvest Fynbos from the veld or from flower orchards and then workers at pack houses create the bouquets.

Usually, the national flower of South Africa, the Protea, figures in the creation.

The Fynbos is a reqion (or veld) of unique, abundant plants in one of the world’s most diverse floral areas.  The name comes from a Dutch word ‘fijnbosch’, meaning ‘fine bush’, and refers to how the plants look.

Fynbos

Cederberg Mountains

This is Fynbos in the dry season in the Cederberg Mountains about three hours north of Cape Town. It would be a gift to visit when these flowers are in bloom.

The Cape Floral Region is a UNESCO World Heritage site. More on that here.

This post is for Cee’s Flower of the Day.