PlantZAfrica
Curated source
South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)
The South African national botanical authority’s per-species reference for the indigenous flora, with staff-written accounts covering description, distribution and habitat, ecology including named pollinators, uses, and cultivation. It is the closest thing southern African plants have to the role the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center plays for North America, and for many fynbos and grassland species it is the only curated account that names a pollinator at all.
What you'll find here
Indigenous southern African plant traits and habitat
Named pollinators and ecological relationships
Accepted names for South African taxa
Cultivation and propagation in the plant’s own climate
Specific data we draw from it: description and diagnostic traits, distribution and habitat within southern Africa, ecology (pollinators, seed dispersal, fire response), conservation status, growing, propagation and garden use.
Good to know
Named pollinator relationships. The ecology sections name specific pollinators - sunbirds, long-tongued flies, spider-hunting wasps - which is what lets a South African plant carry a real wildlifeRelationship instead of a generic one.
How to cite this source
Cite the specific species page (pza.sanbi.org/<genus>-<species>). VERIFY THE URL RESOLVES rather than constructing it from the binomial: SANBI files some taxa under a different accepted name or a synonym, so the slug does not always match the name the catalog uses. Osteospermum jucundum lives at /dimorphotheca-jucunda and zebra haworthia at /haworthiopsis-attenuata. A constructed-but-dead citation is worse than none, because it looks checked.
License
Text © SANBI. Factual data is not copyrightable but attribution is required; quote sparingly and paraphrase. Photographs are individually credited and are NOT covered by any blanket reuse permission - source imagery elsewhere.
Caution
Scope is the indigenous southern African flora, so a garden hybrid or an introduced ornamental will usually be absent; pair with RHS or POWO for those. Accounts are staff-written rather than systematically peer-reviewed, so for a contested ecological claim prefer a journal source and use SANBI as corroboration.
Cited by 8 plants
Cited by 1 wildlife record