a scrubland vegetation found along a narrow strip of the extreme southern coast of South Africa, composed of many species of broad-leaved evergreen shrubs, especially plants of the family Proteaceae (brownish or grayish shrubs often containing oil or resin). This flora makes up its own floristic region and includes more than 1,500 genera, 30 percent of which are native nowhere else in the world. There are few trees (tree) in the flora, but many small herbaceous plants cover the ground during the rainy season.