All the major steps in the evolution of the hominin lineage occurred in Africa, from the divergence with the other apes at~ 7 million years ago (Ma), through the first stone tool technology at~ 2.6 Ma, to the origins of modern humans sometime before 100 thousand years ago (ka). The narrative of hominin origins is typically contextualized within the massive Palaeotropical area that dominates Africa, yet the Greater Cape Floristic Region (GCFR) of southern Africa plays a role in this story that surpasses its limited geographical extent. Here we find some of the earliest and most compelling evidence for complex behaviours that are typically seen by scientists as indicating human modernity. Botanists readily recognize the uniqueness and diversity of the GCFR. This self-same botanical novelty translates into a set of opportunities and constraints for hunter-gatherers that differ from the Palaeotropics. The GCFR has an astonishing variety of vegetation types within small areas such that the daily range, let alone annual range, of a typical hunter-gatherer would traverse many types with different taxonomic and functional assemblies. The GCFR is notable in its unparalleled diversity and abundance of geophytic plants, which can be valuable as food for humans. The GCFR also has a resource-rich coastline, and during glacial phases a now-submerged coastal plain was exposed and supported significant populations of large herbivores. These same characteristics that make the GCFR so unique and special to the biologist or ecologist translate into singularity to students of the human past.