Phenology of mediterranean plants in relation to fire season: with special reference to the Cape Province South Africa

Abstract

A number of different shrubland formations occur in the mediterranean climate zone of South Africa (see Figs. 1 and 2). According to the classification of Acocks (1953) the “Veld Types” represented include West Coast Strandveld, Coastal and Mountain Renosterveld, Coastal Macchia and Macchia. More recently the floristic affinities and the understanding of the phytogeographic relationships of these “Veld Types,” as well as their nomenclature has altered somewhat (Moll and Bossi 1983, Moll et al. 1984). Today we more correctly recognize two basic shrubland formations that occur in the mediterranean climate zone of the southwestern Cape Province. These are true heathlands, or Cape Fynbos communities (Specht 1979, Moll and Jarman 1984a and 1984b), which belong to the Cape Floristic Kingdom; the two sub-types that occur are Mountain Fynbos (=Macchia) and Lowland Fynbos (=Coastal Macchia). The second formation is a non-heath, truly mediterranean shrubland formation, which consists of Cape Transitional Small Leafed Shrublands with essentially Cape/Karoo-Namib phytogeographic affinities known locally as Renosterveld, and Cape Transitional Large Leafed Shrublands with essentially Tongaland-Pondoland/Cape/Karoo-Namib phytogeographic affinities known locally as Strandveld (Moll et al. 1984). These two non-heath shrublands have both Cape and Palaeotropic Florisitic Kingdom affinities (see Fig. 1).