Biodiversity

BIODIVERSITY

Dear Kenridge resident, you may have noticed some areas in our parks that are cordoned off. If you haven’t read about it on Facebook or your street WhatsApp group, or perhaps have some questions, we’ve compiled this info for residents to keep you up to date. These cordoned areas are called biodiversity stepping stones, and they form part of the Wildflower Stepping Stone Project (WSSP).

What is the Wildflower Stepping Stone Project?

The WSSP was started in 2021 as a way for our local fauna and flora to survive and flourish in the urban environment. It means small areas of locally indigenous vegetation are protected year-round to create ‘stepping stones’ for birds, insects and seeds to safely move between the Tygerberg Nature Reserve and the Durbanville Fynbos Reserve. The project works hand in hand with the City of Cape Town, homeowner associations such as the Greater Kenridge Neighbours Committee and local schools, but is 100% reliant on volunteers and donations. It spans several neighbourhoods in the area, including Majik Forest, De Bron, Aurora, Van Riebeeckshof and Protea Valley. Kenridge is an important neighbourhood in this project, boasting 13 stepping stones and three veld types as well as a location that functions as a prominent link in the chain between the two reserves.

To find out more about the WSSP and their work beyond Kenridge, follow them on Facebook (@Wildflower Stepping Stones Project) or Instagram (@wildflowersteppingstones).

The veld types in Kenridge

The Greater Kenridge area features Swartland Shale Renosterveld, Cape Flats Sand Fynbos and Wetland. All three veld types are classified as critically endangered. Cape Flats Sand Fynbos, for example, occurs only within the borders of the City of Cape Town, and nowhere else in the world. While many have heard about Renosterveld, few know that there are several types of Renosterveld. While our area has Swartland Shale Renosterveld, for example, the Renosterveld found just a few neighbourhoods on, in Vierlanden, is classified as Silcrete Renosterveld. The veld type you see when driving to Swellendam is called Overberg Renosterveld. While there are many plants that grow in all these types of Renosterveld, the main difference between these veld types is soil and as a result, there are many specialized species that grow only in one type of Renosterveld.

Swartland Shale Renosterveld

Cape Flats Sand Fynbos

Wetlands

TheKenridgeSteppingStonesandWildflowerWalk

The Kenridge Wildflower Walk was launched in Spring 2023. Walk it in your own time and at your own pace, following the stones painted by local children, artists and residents, or join the guided walks in Spring 2024.

Find the areas of interest on Google Maps: The route with all areas of interest marked.
Thank you to volunteer and resident Lauren Hunter for setting it up on Google Maps.

Individual points of interest:

1. Kenridge Park (start and end)
2. Sorrel sanctuary in Mildred park
3. Lobelia lane in Mildred park
4. The Kenridge MTB skill track and indigenous garden in Mildred park
5. Veerkoppie Circle in Salisbury park
6. Skink Corner in Salisbury park
7. Beetle Lily Circle in Salisbury park
8. Viooltjie Circle in Salisbury park
9. Tygervalley road verge
10. Crassula Corner
11. Dragonfly park

In future, we’d like to extend the walk to include stepping stones in De Bron (Vrymansfontein Park and Butterfly Haven) as well as Durbanville Hills. Support from residents will make this possible.

Get involved

The route, like all the conservation endeavours in the neighbourhood, is heavily reliant on volunteers.

Download the iNaturalist app or use it online and start recording plant, animal or insect species that you see in the protected areas or in the neighbourhood. The app is used by WSSP as well as local and international botanists and other experts, who can view your observations and identify it. Your observations contribute to local research, is an easy way to identify local species, and helps the project by indicating which species grow in the protected areas.
Paint your own stone to serve as a route marker and place it anywhere on the Wildflower route to help make the route clearer. The brighter, the better!
Donate to the Kenridge Bio Fund.
Join the Kenridge Biodiversity WhatsApp group to keep up to date with volunteer sessions and what is flowering, when. To join, send a WhatsApp to 082 4550586 with your name and surname, indicating that you would like to be added to the group. We do not post links to the group to avoid unwanted spammers joining.
Volunteer your time. Join a session with the biodiversity group, or remove invasives whenever you see one. The top invaders are Patterson’s Curse, Devil’s Thorns, Wild Oats and Plantago.

What are donations used for?

Signage to label species and special areas for public education.
Employing a gardener trained by experts to help upkeep our protected spaces, remove invasives and water new plants.
Buying and transporting mulch.
Buying specialized plants from a restoration nursery where applicable. In most cases, volunteers try to propagate the plants, but some species pose challenges.

Beneits of this project to Kenridge residents?

Restoring patches of indigenous spaces enhance the aesthetic value of our parks and green belts, especially in Spring and early Summer, when most of the plants are flowering.
It encourages more people to use our outdoor spaces, which has been proven to work against depression and enhance general well-being.
More residents in our parks mean more eyes and enhanced safety.
Indigenous vegetation with signboards provide unique learning opportunities for children close to home. In 2023 for example, Kenridge Primary included the stepping stones as part of their annual grade 4 heritage walk.
It’s a big milestone to have our local natural heritageincluded in the curriculum!
Protected green spaces reconnect urban dwellers, especially children, to nature.
Local volunteering opportunities means enhanced social and community connection, uniting people behind a common goal.
From a global perspective, it enhances and protects biodiversity, works against global warming and encourages a greater awareness of the environment. The project ties into the United Nations’ Decade of Restoration, where the focus of planting trees has moved to restoring all types of vegetation, including grasslands, wetlands, peatlands and more.
From a local perspective, the project ties into Fynbos Corridors, where communities are encouraged to create indigenous spaces so that more residents of Cape Town may experience the floral kingdom – not just those who have the means to travel, or the neighbourhoods that are situated close to nature reserves.