South Africa is famous for having about 24 000 species of indigenous plants. But the country also has a bad reputation: it has the second highest number of plant extinctions in the world! In fact, Kenilworth Racecourse has the most threatened plant species per square metre in the world.

During 2006, SANBI www.sanbi.org revised the Red List of South African Plants. This study showed that more than 1 800 South African plant species are threatened with extinction.

• 208 of 1466 lowland plant species are on the Red List.
• A total of 296 plants are threatened in the city.
• 160 plant species are endemic to the city
• More than 65 of these endemic plants are threatened with extinction. Unless these plants are conserved within the boundaries of the city, they will not survive. It is up to the people of Cape Town to conserve these threatened species.

In this section we will find out about some of the threatened plants in the lowlands of Cape Town.