CAPE NEWS
West Coast National Park opens its door for the flower season By Babalwa Dlangamandla
Postberg section of WCNP
The West Coast flower season officially opened in the second week of August 2021. According to Pierre Nel, West Coast National Park Acting Park Manager, “The good rains which the area has received this year, should make for an excellent flower-viewing season. We anticipate the flowers to be good from the second half of August up until mid-September. Visitors should select sunny days to visit the park. If at all possible, it is advisable to plan your visit on a week day. Weekend days are often very busy with queues developing at the gate, and congestion in the flower viewing areas. The Mooimaak Area will also be open for flower viewing.” This season is one of the busiest flower seasons ever, the contributing factors mainly being a high amount of rainfall received during wet season and the travel restriction of lockdown being lifted which resulted in local tourists flocking into the park. In this flower season alone, approximately 60 000 people visited the park specifically to see flowers and picnic sites at Postberg.
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During a visit to the park in flower season, visitors can expect to see the following species on display: Suurvy, Elandsvy, Gouwsblom, Bokbaai vygie, White rain daisy, Sporrie, Magriet, and Suituintjie. Come to West Coast National Park and explore flowers in full bloom. West Coast National Park contains mostly strandveld vegetation (24,025 ha), which was previously classified as West Coast Strandveld and Langebaan Fynbos /Thicket Mosaic. In recent years the park has expanded incorporating substantial areas (6,382 ha) of an additional vegetation type /broad habitat unit i.e. Hopefield Sand Plain Fynbos, previously called Coastal Fynbos. Both these habitat units were given a 50% irreplaceability rating; however, sand plain fynbos is regarded to be of higher conservation value than strandveld, due to very little being formally conserved and it being more threatened by alien plant invasion.
