What is the vegetation in South Africa?

Answer 1

Grassland
Savanna
Succulent Karoo
Nama Karoo
Forest
Fynbos
Desert.
Thicket

Answer 2

grasslands, forests, and deserts

Answer 3

Vegetation of southern Africa

What do we mean by vegetation? At its simplest, vegetation can be described as the group of plants forming the plant cover of a geographic area. As humans, we tend to classify things, and so vegetation has been classified too.
Floral Kingdoms

At a global scale the vegetation of the world is sometimes described in terms of six Floristic Regions, often called the Floral Kingdoms of the world. The distinction between regions is based on distinctive suites of flowering plants, taking into account those (particularly families) that are exclusive (endemic) to the region. Of particular note to South Africans is that the Cape forms one of these distinct kingdoms; the Cape Floral Kingdom, covering 0.08% of the world's land surface, but containing about 3% of the world's plants. This is a precious resource to be proud of and to conserve for future generations. For more information about the Cape Floral Kingdom, see Fynbos Biome.
Biomes

Groupings called Biomes (biotic communities) have been described for plants and/or animals living together with some degree of permanence, so that large-size patterns in global plant cover can be observed. Biomes broadly correspond with climatic regions, although other environmental controls are sometimes important. Each biome has a characteristic set of plant and animal species as well as a characteristic overall physiognomy (for example a general appearance given by the plant shapes). The general plant characteristics give a characteristic visual signature to the vegetation of the biome.

Rutherford and Westfall (1994) map seven biomes in South Africa:

* Grassland
* Savanna
* Succulent Karoo
* Nama Karoo
* Forest
* Fynbos
* Desert.
* Low and Rebelo (1996) include a Thicket biome.

The descriptions of the biomes on this site come directly from Low & Rebelo, except for the Desert biome, which is not included in their publication.

Map of Biomes (.jpg)
Veld types

John Acocks travelled very widely throughout South Africa during a 40-year period and sampled some 3300 sites, meticulously recording plant species at the various sites. He described vegetation patterns at a scale that is still smaller than the biome. He described 70 Veld Types in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. One can refer to Acocks' book Veld Types of South Africa for the descriptions together with photographs, species compositions, and some other characteristics of each veld type.

Map of Acocks' Veld Types (.jpg)

GIS files
GIS Users can download shape files of these maps

Next time you travel, take time to look around to see if you can recognise characteristic patterns and shapes to the vegetation about you.

Alien Plants

The natural vegetation of South Africa is being invaded by alien plants (plants from elsewhere in the world). These are the Declared Weeds & Invader Plants as listed in 2001.

Red data lists, protected plants and permits

Further Reading on Vegetation

The first three publications listed below may be available from NBI. See the Publications section under Products & Services for details.

Acocks, J.P.H. 1988. Veld Types of South Africa. Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Afr. No. 57.

Rutherford, M.C. & Westfall, R.H. 1994. Biomes of southern Africa: an objective characterisation Mem. Bot. Surv. S. Afr. No. 63.

Low, A.B. & Rebelo,A.G. (edit.) 1996, Vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Pretoria: DEAT. This publication is available online at :http://www.ngo.grida.no/soesa/nsoer/Data/vegrsa/vegstart.htm

Cowling, R.M., Richardson, D.M. & Pierce, S.M. 1997, Vegetation of Southern Africa. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Flora and fauna
Fynbos, a floral kingdom unique to South Africa, is found near Cape Town
Fynbos, a floral kingdom unique to South Africa, is found near Cape Town

South Africa is one of only 17 countries worldwide considered Megadiverse. It has more than 20,000 different plants, or about 10% of all the known species of plants on Earth, making it particularly rich in plant biodiversity. South Africa is the third most biodiverse country in the world[citation needed], after Brazil and Indonesia and has greater biodiversity than any country of equal or smaller size (Brazil being roughly seven times South Africa's size, and Indonesia more than 50% larger).

South Africa's most prevalent biome is grassland, particularly on the Highveld, where the plant cover is dominated by different grasses, low shrubs, and acacia trees, mainly camel-thorn and whitethorn. Vegetation becomes even more sparse towards the northwest due to low rainfall. There are several species of water-storing succulents like aloes and euphorbias in the very hot and dry Namaqualand area. The grass and thorn savannah turns slowly into a bush savannah towards the north-east of the country, with more dense growth. There are significant numbers of baobab trees in this area, near the northern end of Kruger National Park.[7]

The Fynbos Biome, which makes up the majority of the area and plant life in the Cape floristic region, one of the six floral kingdoms, is located in a small region of the Western Cape and contains more than 9,000 of those species, making it among the richest regions on earth in terms of floral biodiversity. The majority of the plants are evergreen hard-leaf plants with fine, needle-like leaves, such as the sclerophyllous plants. Another uniquely South African plant is the protea genus of flowering plants. There are around 130 different species of protea in South Africa.

While South Africa has a great wealth of flowering plants, it has few forests. Only 1% of South Africa is forest, almost exclusively in the humid coastal plain along the Indian Ocean in KwaZulu-Natal (see KwaZulu-Cape coastal forest mosaic). There are even smaller reserves of forests that are out of the reach of fire, known as montane forests (see Knysna-Amatole montane forests). Plantations of imported tree species are predominant, particularly the non-native eucalyptus and pine. South Africa has lost a large area of natural habitat in the last four decades, primarily due to overpopulation, sprawling development patterns and deforestation during the nineteenth century. South Africa is one of the worst affected countries in the world when it comes to invasion by alien species with many (e.g. Black Wattle, Port Jackson, Hakea, Lantana and Jacaranda) posing a significant threat to the native biodiversity and the already scarce water resources. The original temperate forest that met the first European settlers to South Africa was exploited ruthlessly until only small patches remained. Currently, South African hardwood trees like Real Yellowwood (Podocarpus latifolius), stinkwood (Ocotea bullata), and South African Black Ironwood (Olea laurifolia) are under government protection.

Numerous mammals are found in the bushveld habitats including lions, leopards, white rhinos, blue wildebeest, kudus, impalas, hyenas, hippopotamus, and giraffes. A significant extent of the bushveld habitat exists in the north-east including Kruger National Park and the Mala Mala Reserve, as well as in the far north in the Waterberg Biosphere.

Mpumalanga, previously known as the Eastern Transvaal, has much in the way to offer, from scenery, to ancient history and the big 5. With hundreds of species of birds, mammals and reptiles it is the safari destination of choice. Visit Mpumalanga to find out more about the Bio Diversity, the culture, The history and the amazing scenery of this area.

Climate change is expected to bring considerable warming and drying to much of this already semi-arid region, with greater frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, flooding and drought. According to computer generated climate modelling produced by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)[8] (along with many of its partner institutions), parts of southern Africa will see an increase in temperature by about one degree Celsius along the coast to more than four degrees Celsius in the already hot hinterland such as the Northern Cape in late spring and summertime by 2050.

The Cape Floral Kingdom has been identified as one of the global biodiversity hotspots since it will be hit very hard by climate change and has such a great diversity of life. Drought, increased intensity and frequency of fire and climbing temperatures are expected to push many of these rare species towards extinction. The book Scorched : South Africa's changing climate takes much of the modelling produced by SANBI and presents it in an accessible travelogue-style collection of essays.[9]

South Africa houses many endemic species, among them the critically endangered Riverine Rabbit (Bunolagus monticullaris) in the Karoo.


Forests are restricted to frost-free areas with mean annual rainfall of more than 525mm in the winter rainfall region and more than 725 mm rainfall in the summer rainfall region. They occur from sea level to over 2100m above sea level. Forests rarely burn, mainly due to the high humidity - under extremely hot and dry (berg wind) conditions fires may occur and destroy the forest structure.

Forests tend to occur in patches, few of which cover areas greater than 1 km 2, with areas greater than this only common along the Garden Route and Lowveld Escarpment. Even added together, forests cover less than 0.25% of southern Africa's surface area, making this the smallest biome on the subcontinent.

The canopy cover of forests is continuous, comprising mostly evergreen trees, and beneath it the vegetation is multi-layered. Herbaceous plants, particularly ferns, are only common in the montane forests, whereas lianas and epiphytes are common throughout. The ground layer is almost absent due to the dense shade. On the edges of the patches are distinctive communities, the so-called fringe and ecotonal communities, which are able to tolerate fire.

Some 649 woody and 636 herbaceous plant species are recorded from forests. However, forests are not floristically uniform. Three separate forest types are recognized in this account. Specialized forests that occur in small areas and very sporadically - such as mangrove, swamp and fringe forests are not separated from these three types.

Partly because of their rarity, their grandeur and their setting, forests are an important tourist attraction in South Africa. They have been exploited in the past for valuable timber, including Black Stinkwood Ocotea bullata and Outeniqua Yellowwood Podocarpus falcatus. Some forests were removed for the establishment of exotic plantations. A major plant invader of forests is Blackwood Acacia melanoxylon.

Forest conservation has two facets: the maintenance of components and critical processes in the forests - which requires the conservation of the large mammals and birds which disperse seeds and maintain gap processes which allow succession within the forests - and the maintenance of gene flow - which requires allowing seed dispensers and poillinators to move along the corridors between forest patches. Thus the proclamation of isolated stands of forests as reserves may be insufficient for their conservation. Sustainable use of forests may require that their fauna be effectively conserved!




Between 1938 and 1976, J.P.H. Acocks sampled 2700 vegetation sites in South Africa and the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland. The data was used to delineate biomes or veld-types and to describe agro-ecological problems. This historical data set is invaluable for the improved understanding of the processes of global climate change, desertification and the erosion of biodiversity.

South Africa has a rich floral diversity. There are at least 20,000 species of angiosperms. The Cape area itself is home to the fynbos, an area characterized by a Mediterranean climate of cool, wet winters and warm dry summers. This area rivals the tropics in its number of plant species, especially those that are endemic to the area. The South African fynbos hosts 8,600 species of plants, of which two-thirds are endemic.

Even 50 years ago, there was little vegetation in South Africa in its original condition. As farming systems change in response to new land use policy, it is imperative that policy reflect the need to conserve the remaining genetic diversity of the region. The application of modern statistical analytical techniques to the older data set and the new data collected from the resurveying the original sites will provide the South African government with information on which land use policy decisions can be made and strategic decisions for introducing sustainable farming technologies based. At the same time, the international scientific community will acquire an invaluable set of data.

As part of USDA’s commitment to President Clinton’s Initiative for the District of Columbia (DC), teachers will be selected from K-6 DC Public Schools and rural South African schools to work side-by-side with scientists doing the resampling of the Acocks sites. USDA already has a variety of projects underway in support of the DC Initiative that involve DC school children with agriculture and the environment.

The recent results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) finds that U.S. 12th graders were among the lowest performers. A recent editorial on the subject in "Science" calls for teachers to be "shown how to direct student learning through inquiry and investigation." Teacher participants in this project will learn botany and ecology through investigation - and will learn how to teach science in that way.

Background

A plant community integrates the effects of its physical environment and therefore serve as an indicator for ecological variability. Plant communities can also be related to scale because they form hierarchies where smaller communities can be grouped to form larger communities. This implies that the environmental factors which differentiate plant communities at different scales, are also related to scale. Description of areas, based on plant communities, therefore, is for developing land use pollicy and sustainable resource management practices.

Acock’s Veld Types is the most widely used source for vegetation descriptions in South Africa. The scale at which the vegetation was sampled (1:1,500,000) and sampling site selections, were intended to describe vegetation units (Veld types) with variations limited to the same farming potential within each Veld type. In addition to recording the presence of a particular species of plant, the relative abundance - in terms of individuals per hectare based on plant spacing - was also estimated for each species.

Acocks selected sampling sites according to the condition of the vegetation and as representative samples of the variability in the Veld types. Degraded vegetation was not included. Over 2,700 sites were sampled in the Republic of South Africa and the Kingdoms of Lesotho and Swaziland from 1938 to 1976. Raw data credibility is exceptionally high and consistent. All data has been computerized and linked to the site geographical coordinates. Distribution maps with this 50 year old data can be produced from ± 3000 data points using geographic information systems (GIS). The data set is unique in that absence data is applicable, i.e. full species lists were made at each site so absence becomes meaningful.

The current condition of the agricultural resources and the vegetation over much of the South African land surface is much poorer than it was 50-100 years ago. Degradation appears to be increasing at an accelerating rate. Woody thickening is prevalent is some areas while excessive removal of vegetation is prevalent in others. In general, vegetation is being reduced with commensurate increase in water runoff and soil loss. It is assumed that genetic diversity is also be eroded.

South Africa has recognized that ultimate responsibility for the sustainable use of natural resources including genetic diversity rests with local communities. The Landcare Programme, recently adopted in South Africa, would have at least every rural school in the country participating.

Project Description

The Roodeplaat Grassland Institute of the South African Agricultural Research Council has taken the first steps to re-sample Acock’s sites. The sites have been geo-referenced and the historical data has been entered into a GIS database. Project managers will meet in May 1998 to develop a workplan and protocol for re-sampling selected sites. To the extent possible, teachers, local universities and extensionists will be involved in re-sampling sites. In this way local expertise can be developed. US and African K-6 teachers will learn the fundmentals of botany and ecology, and the importance biological diversity, through investigation.

It is probable that many of the original Acocks sites have been lost due to land transformation for crop production, forestry, mining and urban development. Experienced vegetation ecologists will visit all of the original sites to catagorize them. It is anticipated that each of the South African biomes will be represented by 5-10 samples all preferably in "pristine" condition with a few obviously altered or degraded sites for comparative purposes. For each of approximately 80 "core" sites, the nearest school will be identified and will be asked to accept responsibility for future monitoring and data gathering. In order to ensure effective and reliable participation on the part of the local school, equipment and training for monitoring will be provided by the project team. Schools will be phased in as funding and time allows and subject to data collection priorities determined by the project team.

Teacher Preparation

Prior to doing field work, all US teachers will have introductory courses in botany, ecology and the history and culture of South Africa. Project team will develop multi-media packages to be used at each vegetation monitoring site. This will include: a checklist of all known plant species from that particular area (extracted from distribution data) together with visual information (scanned from photos of living plants or from digital cameras), description of the habitat of each species and detail of diagnostic features of each species; geographic information system (GIS) distribution data; functional and biological data (reproduction, ecology, habitat, etc); and use data (from a plant use database being developed). With the multi-media package, anyone will be able to reliably and repeatedly identify plant species at all monitoring sites. Using the package, teachers and local community participants will be introduced to intra-specific variability; plant biology and functioning; and the potential and actual uses of these species for mankind.

Plant Identification

All species which cannot be identified using the multi-media packages at each site will be properly collected and labeled to serve as voucher specimens for scientific verification of the identification. Teachers and local community "samplers" will be trained in pressing plant specimens and gathering locality and habitat information using GPS technology, altimeters, etc. Plant identifications will be done by the National Herbarium of the National Botanical Institute (NBI) and these specimens will add to the national information base on the distribution and morphological variation of South Africa’s floral biodiversity. This information is critically important in the planning of species conservation strategies, location of nature reserves and identifying threatened species and diversity "hot spots." School children will become "parataxonomists" similar to the well-known Costa Rican mode.

Use will be made of barcoded plant names originally recorded and handheld terminals with barcode wands for re-sampling. This system has been tested and the results are extremely satisfactory. Advantages are high data credibility, considerable reduction in capture time and reduced fieldwork time. Site will be relocated using geographic positioning systems (GPS).

GPS and GIS

All participants involved in monitoring the vegetation sites will become familiar with he use of GPS equipment. Participants will also be exposed to the use of GIS information whereby plant distribution data can be interpreted juxtaposed against topographical, ecological, soil, geological and climate layers of the GIS database.

Data Management

Locally developed vegetation classification and plant community analysis programs (PHYTOTAB) will be used to analyze data collected in the resampling. This will define the constituent plant communities of the vold types or biomes both in terms of species composition, structure and cover as well as spatially. These plant communities will provide the basis for vegetation based management units for sustainable utilization. Plant community composition analysis will describe the condition of each community and changes will be monitored over time. Plant community structural analysis will be used to describe the relationships between different plant growth forms making up a community, and change will be monitored.

Data Analysis

Vegetation cover relationships will be used to assess cover adequacy and reveal negative or beneficial changes. Key species can be identified and specific management interventions can be made to improve the species composition to a more desirable state. Rare and endangered species and their distribution localities can be identified and specific conservation measures implemented. Early detection of weeds and problem plants will be possible and eradication measures implemented.

Simple data analysis programs that generate graphs, histograms, etc., will be included in the multi-media kit. This will enable each participating school to demonstrate trends over time and to manipulate this data and to study the causes of this change with simple experiments (exclosures, burning, different grazing regimes, etc.). Each scholar may repeat this monitoring "practical" in each of their final four school years and, with time, the local datasets will become increasingly interesting and informative.

Soil sampling and climate monitoring

Soil samples will be taken at each monitoring site. Opportunities for extending the Mesonet climate monitoring program to all participating schools would enhance the value of the dataset.

Reports and publications

The data from resampling the Acocks sites will have implcations for studies of climate change and desertification as well as the status of the natural resources including biological diversity. A variety of outputs will be possible - gross changes at the biome level, veld type and community dynamics, species change and dynamics data for most of the 20,000 indigenous South African angiosperms, effect of land use practices (livestock, husbandry, fire regimes, natural product harvesting, etc.) and abiotic parameters (e.g. soil type and conditions, climate) on species and community composition. These products will be useful for land use planning for sustainable management, environmental impact assessments, conservation training and tourism. Beneficiaries will be farmers, pastoralists, the traditional medicine industry, the mining industry, energy planning involving biofuels, conservation agencies, education bodies, state departments charged with the management and use of natural resources and the international scientific community.

Outcomes

* Increased awareness of the importance of conserving biological diversity amongst the youth as they will be the custodians and beneficiaries of the future
* Implementation of sustainable resource management practices
* Strategies including priorities for improving teacher preparation in both countries
* Linkages between teachers which undoubtedly will extend to linkages between classrooms and schools
* Linkages between scientists
* Linkages between scientists and teachers
* Transfer of technology from scientists to farmers
* Linkages between institutions with well-established research programs and those developing programs

Measurable objectives

* Resampling to complete an internationally important data set
* Acquisition of plant specimens by the South African National Herbarium
* As a result of the data set, papers may be published in international peer-reviewed journals; areas of interest may be: ecology, conservation of biological diversity, sustainable range management, soil conservation, water management, botany and education
* Changes in the achievement of the participants' students as measured and possibly form the basis for at least one doctoral dissertation
* A prioritized plan for introducing sustainable technologies in Africa
* Credit hours earned by participating teachers
* Graduate degree(s) earned by participating graduate students


Data for Swaziland were not available.