<P> The word fynbos is often confusingly said to mean "fine bush" in Afrikaans, as "bos" means "bush". Typical fynbos foliage is ericoid rather than fine . The term, in its pre-Afrikaans, Dutch form, fynbosch, was recorded by Noble as being in casual use in the late 19th century . In the early 20th century, John Bews referred to: "South - Western or Cape Region of Macchia or Fynbosch". He said: "In this well - known region where the rain occurs in winter and the summers are more or less dry, the dominant vegetation is of a sclerophyllous type and there is little or no natural grassland, though there are many grasses ..." He also refers to a high degree of endemism in the grasses in that region . Elsewhere he speaks of the term as "...applied by the inhabitants of the Cape to any sort of small woodland growth that does not include timber trees"; in the current vernacular, this still is the effective sense of the word . However, in the technical, ecological sense, the constraints are more demanding . In the latter half of the 20th century, "fynbos" gained currency as the term for the "distinctive vegetation of the southwestern Cape". </P> <P> Fynbos--which grows in a 100 - to - 200 - km - wide coastal belt stretching from Clanwilliam on the West coast to Port Elizabeth on the Southeast coast--forms part of the Cape floral kingdom, where it accounts for half of the surface area and 80% of the plant species . The fynbos in the western regions is richer and more varied than in the eastern regions of South Africa . </P> <P> Of the world's six floral kingdoms, this is the smallest and richest per unit of area . The Holarctic kingdom, in contrast, incorporates the whole of the Northern Hemisphere north of the tropics . The diversity of fynbos plants is extremely high, with over 9000 species of plants occurring in the area, around 6200 of which are endemic, i.e. growing nowhere else in the world . South Africa's Western Cape has a level of botanic diversity that exceeds that of the richest tropical rainforest in South America, including the Amazon . Of the Ericas, over 600 occur in the fynbos kingdom, while only two or three dozen have been described in the rest of the world . This is in an area of 46,000 km--by comparison, the Netherlands, with an area of 33,000 km, has 1400 species, none of them endemic . Table Mountain in Cape Town supports 2200 species, more than the entire United Kingdom . Thus, although the fynbos covers only 6% of the area of southern Africa, it has half the species on the subcontinent--and in fact has almost 1 in 5 of all African plant species so far described . </P> <P> Five main river systems traverse the Cape floral kingdom: the Oliphants River of the Western Cape; the Berg River which drains the West Coast Forelands plain stretching from the Cape Flats to the Olifants; the Breede, which is the largest river on the Cape; the Olifants River (Southern Cape); Gourits and the Groot Rivers which drain the Little Karoo basin and the South Coast Forelands; and the Baviaanskloof and Gamtoos Rivers to the east . </P>

Give three reasons why the fynbos biome is so important to south africa and the world
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