|
Forests tend to occur in patches, few of which
cover areas greater than 1kmē, 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.
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.
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.
Lekker Links
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
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
pollinators 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.
(Source: "The Vegetation of South
Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland", South Africa
Department of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
