Flora and fauna

South Africa is ranked sixth out of the world’s seventeen megadiverse countries
with more than 20,000 different plants, or about 10% of all the known species of plants on Earth
Vegetation becomes even more sparse towards the northwest due to low rainfall.
The Fynbos Biome, which makes up the majority of the area and plant life in the Cape floristic region, one of the six floral kingdoms, is located in a small region of the Western Cape and contains more than 9,000 of those species, making it among the richest regions on earth in terms of floral biodiversity.
There are around 130 different species of protea in South Africa.
While South Africa has a great wealth of flowering plants, only 1% of South Africa is forest, almost exclusively in the humid coastal plain of KwaZulu-Natal, where there are also areas of Southern Africa mangroves in river mouths.
Plantations of imported tree species are predominant, particularly the non-native eucalyptus and pine.
Numerous mammals are found in the bushveld including lions, leopards, white rhinos, blue wildebeest, kudus, impalas, hyenas, hippopotamus and giraffes.
South Africa houses many endemic species, among them the critically endangered Riverine Rabbit (Bunolagus monticullaris) in the Karoo