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nbi vegetation of southern africa 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 have been described based on dominant forms of plant life and prevailing climatic factors biomes have plants and or animals living together with some degree of permanence and one can observe large size patterns in global plant cover biomes broadly correspond with climatic regions as moisture and temperature strongly influence plant establishment and survival 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 physiognomy is used to interpret a person s character from facial features so one can recognize a biome by its general appearance given by the shapes of the plants and the landscape the general plant characteristics give a distinctive appearance or visual signature that enables one to recognize the biome for example grasslands have mostly grass deserts have much bare ground for most of the year but lots of annual plants following rain forests have mostly tall trees with plants growing beneath the canopy at ground layer and at other levels mucina and rutherford 2006 map nine biomes in south africa fynbos biome succulent karoo biome desert biome nama karoo biome grassland biome savanna biome albany thicket biome indian ocean coastal belt forests and two on the subantarctic prince edward islands subantarctic tundra biome polar desert biome rutherford and westfall 1994 map six biomes in south africa grassland savanna succulent karoo nama karoo forest fynbos rutherford 1997 adds desert low and rebelo 1996 include a thicket biome map of biomes jpg map of biomes according to mucina and rutherford 2006 map of biomes according to rutherford 1997 with thicket of low rebelo 1996 map of bioregions according to mucina and rutherford 2006 vegetation map the vegetation of south africa has recently been mapped and described by groups of local experts the book the vegetation of south africa lesotho and swaziland strelitzia 19 was published in 2006 there are 435 vegetation types described in south africa lesotho and swaziland with 5 units mapped for the prince edward islands there are descriptions for each vegetation type in each biome the descriptions include paragraphs that give details about how each vegetation type relates to previously published vegetation maps distribution of the mapped vegetation vegetation and landscape features geology and soils climate lists of biogeographically important and endemic taxa conservation and remarks a vegetation type is not as easy to recognize as a biome the biome can be seen as the broad landscape and looks at dominant life forms and not at species the vegetation type is defined in terms of dominant common as well as rare species as well as association with landscape features such as soil or geology topography and climate veld types for many years the veld types described by john acocks were the used and accepted vegetation units acocks travelled very widely throughout south africa during a 40 year period and sampled some 3300 sites he was meticulous in recording plant species at the various sites and he described vegetation patterns at a scale that is much 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 other vegetation maps there was a map produced in 1935 by pole evans that describes 12 vegetation types for south africa this was followed in 1938 by adamson who published a map with 14 vegetation types 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 acocks jph 1988 veld types of south africa third edition mem bot surv s afr no 57 1 146 rutherford m c westfall r h 1994 biomes of southern africa an objective characterization mem bot surv s afr no 63 low a b rebelo a g eds 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 rutherford m c 1997 categorization of biomes in cowling rm richardson dm pierce sm eds vegetation of southern africa cambridge university press cambridge pp 91 98 isbn 0 521 57142 1 pole evans j b 1936 a vegetation map of south africa mem bot surv s afr no 15 1 3 white f 1983 the vegetation of africa a descriptive memoir to accompany the unesco aetfat unso vegetation map of africa natural resources research 20 paris united nations educational scientific and cultural organization 356p further information on vegetation can be found on the sanbi website various databases with gis information f or publications on vegetation see the sanbi libraray catalogues mary gunn pretoria harry molteno kirstenbosch to purchase literary material on vegetation visit the sanbi online bookshop adapted from an article by les powrie september 2000 updated november 2010 s a national biodiversity institute copyright