A floristic analysis of forest and thicket vegetation of the Marakele National Park

Abstract

One of the major plant communities identified in the Marakele National Park was forest. It became clear that this major forest community contained various forest and thicket communities. Relevés compiled in the forest were classified by TWINSPAN and Braun-Blanquet procedures identified six communities that are hierarchically classified. The forests dominated by <em>Podocarpus latifolius</em> and <em>Widdringtonia nodiflora</em> represent Afromontane Forests, whereas the <em>Buxus macowanii</em>-dominated dry forests and <em>Olea europaea subsp. africana</em> represent Northern Highveld Forests. A further group of communities represent thickets on termitaria with floristic affinities to both savanna and forest. The floristic composition and relationships of the forest and thicket communities are discussed

Termite-induced heterogeneity in African savanna vegetation: mechanisms and patterns

“…Mounds (probably Macrotermes ) also had twice the density of trees and three times the woody basal cover of the adjacent miombo woodland in Zimbabwe (Loveridge & Moe 2004). In the Marakele National Park in South Africa, Macrotermes mounds had a floristic composition with affinities to both savannas and forests (Van Staden & Bredenkamp 2006). Some plant species were found to prefer termite mounds more than the savanna.…”

“…Several researchers have also implicated termite mounds in the formation of spotted and banded vegetation patterns in arid areas. Typical examples of spotted vegetation include termitaria‐peppering in Somalia (Macfadyen 1950) and thicket clumps in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda (Bloesch 2008; Moe et al 2009), Zambia (Cole 1963), South Africa (Van Staden & Bredenkamp 2006; Mourik et al 2007) and Ghana (Okali et al 1973). Banded vegetation patterns such as “tiger bush” have also been associated with termite mounds in different regions of Africa (Glover et al 1964; Eldridge et al 2001).…”

“…For example, thicket clumps on termite mounds are resistant to fire (Bloesch 2008). This is probably because the trees on mounds are out of reach of fire as they are usually very tall (Loveridge & Moe 2004; Van Staden & Bredenkamp 2006). Damage and top‐kill by fire is also minimal around thicket clumps (Mourik et al 2007; Groen et al 2008).…”

Major Vegetation Types of the Soutpansberg Conservancy and the Blouberg Nature Reserve, South Africa

“…The data set, containing 846 specific and infra-specific taxa, was entered into a vegetation database created in TURBOVEG (Hennekens & Schamineé 2001). A first approximation of the main communities was arrived at by applying the TWINSPAN classification program (Hill 1979a) to the floristic data, and subsequent refinement of the classification was achieved by applying Braun-Blanquet procedures (Bredenkamp et al 1989;Fuls et al 1993;Kent & Coker 1996;Siebert et al 2003;Van Staden & Bredenkamp 2006).…”

“…The historical prominence of the two Podocarpus species therefore justifies the Soutpansberg forests' inclusion into the temperate forest category (Acocks 1953). The Widdringtonia nodiflora dominated cliff forests along the scarp faces of the southern slopes of the Soutpansberg share some weak floristic and structural affinities with the Highland Sourveld (Acocks 1953) and the Widdringtonia nodiflora-Podocarpus latifolius Short Forest of the Waterberg (Van Staden & Bredenkamp 2006).…”