The hot, dry, windy summers in the Cape create perfect conditions for the veld to burn. In fact, Fynbos needs to burn after about 10-15 years in order to get rid of old, dead and dying shrubs and to clear space for seeds to germinate and for smaller plants like geophytes to grow. Most of the indigenous trees in Cape Town are unable to survive frequent fires. This is why natural forests grew only in areas protected from fire, like boulder screes, steep kloofs and river valleys.

Many Fynbos plants burn readily. They have fine leaves containing oils and resins that catch fire easily, and the bushes have many branches that also burn easily. Late summer is the best time for the veld to burn because the plants are dry, seeds have formed, and animals are not breeding.

In the Cape Town lowlands, fire cycles are no longer natural:

• In some parts of Cape Town (e.g. on Table Mountain), veld fires are happening much more often than they should. This is threatening Fynbos shrubs like proteas and ericas, which burn before they have flowered and produced seed.

• In the lowlands, the veld is too fragmented (broken up) to allow fires to start and spread naturally.

• Because bush fires threaten homes and businesses, they are usually put out soon after they start. In some places this means that the veld doesn’t burn often enough. This can cause some of the plants that depend on fire to die out.

Conservation organisations sometimes have to set controlled fires to allow the veld to regenerate. In 2005 conservationists from CapeNature, the City of Cape Town and Kirstenbosch burned the veld in the middle of Kenilworth Racecourse for the first time in more than 70 years!

Bush fires are becoming more frequent all around South Africa. Some people set fires on purpose and others start them accidentally, but the more people there are, the greater the risk of fire. Woody alien plants like Rooikrans and Port Jackson make bush fires worse, as these plants burn more fiercely than indigenous vegetation.

A project called Working on Fire has been started in South Africa to fight wildfires. Many organisations are working together on this project. The Government is providing funding through the Expanded Public Works Programme to train and employ teams of fire fighters. Find out more about Working on Fire on their website: www.workingonfire.org.

In this section we will find out how some Fynbos and Renosterveld plants and animals are adapted to survive fire.