The term ‘indigenous’ is used to describe native plants, that is, plants which grow naturally in a region.  South Africa is world famous for the wealth of its indigenous plant species.  Some of these may be found growing in many different parts of the country, while others grow only in certain areas and in some cases cannot be grown anywhere else.

 

An ‘exotic’ plant is not necessarily a plant from a warm, tropical region, as the name might seem to imply, but any species grown in a country other than its natural one.  Where growing conditions really suit exotic plants, they often grow so well that it is easy to forget that they are not indigenous.

 

In South Africa, for instance, certain species – such as wattle, stinkbean and prickly pear – have really taken hold and have become a menace to our indigenous flora.  Most of the popular and widely grown garden plants are exotics, although with the increasing interest in the conservation of our indigenous species (many of which are in danger of dying out), the growing of indigenous plants in the garden is becoming very popular.  Some need less care than exotics, being adapted to the harsher South African conditions of heat and in many cases, poor soils, but others are difficult to cultivate.