Elim

ELIM’S UNIQUE FLORAL HERITAGE

The historic mission settlement of Elim on the Agulhas Plain comprises 6 500 hectares of land.  Half of this land is under agriculture and for the past one hundred years has been cultivated with the subsequent loss of fynbos.  The remaining + 3 000 hectares of Elim ferricrete fynbos is managed by the Moravian Church and the community at the Elim mission station.

Elim Fynbos, rarest in the world and critically endangered, thrives in rocky soil with moderate fertility.  It also forms part of the Cape Floral Kingdom, and is a small pocket of fynbos belonging to a larger group that makes up one of South Africa’s World Heritage Sites.

A botanical survey conducted of the Elim area recorded 315 plant species, including 17 rare ‘Red Data’ species – and more are expected to be identified with further surveying.  Most of these species are found on the Geelkop Nature Reserve, established in 1998 in association with the World Wide Fund for Nature (SA) and SANParks.  The reserve derives its name from the mass of yellow-flowering plants (mostly Leucadendrons) which covers the hill in springtime.  Stretching over 450 hectares, the reserve offers visitors a circular drive as well as hiking trails.

Elim’s fynbos is used as pasture, and as the resource base of the cut-flower and dried-flower industries.  Elimmers have put the fynbos to a variety of uses.  As early as 1877, everlastings (sewejaartjies) were harvested on a large scale and sent to Cape Town for export to Europe.  Everlastings were also useful for stuffing mattresses and making funeral wreaths.  Reeds and bulrushes could be plaited for baskets, whilst the Protea repens branches were used to construct kraals.

Cut flowers, however, are picked at Elim but taken to other pack sheds in the region for making into bouquets and exporting to foreign countries.  The thatching reed (Chondropetalum tectorum) was used by the indigenous Khoi khoi people to construct dome shaped huts, and later by European settlers.  It is still used by the people of Elim.

The biennial Flower Festival in September attracts tourists to the town, and fosters a conservation ethic among the Elimmers.  During the festival visitors are conducted on a botanical tour explaining the uniqueness and rarity of the Geelkop flora.

Invasive plant species have taken over large parts of the veld and are spreading rapidly, while fires tend to occur too frequently. This is a serious worry and despite various efforts to clear the fynbos area on Elim over the last fifteen years, alien vegetation remains the major threat to this sensitive flora.