Home > Ecology of Africa
1 Flora
The vegetation of Africa follows very closely the distribution of heat and moisture. The northern and southern temperate zones have a flora distinct from that of the continent generally, which is tropical. In the countries bordering the Mediterranean are groves of oranges and olive trees, evergreen oaks, cork trees and pines,
intermixed with cypresses, myrtles, arbutus and fragrant tree-heaths .
South of the Atlas range the conditions alter. The zones of minimum rainfall have a very scanty flora, consisting of plants adapted to resist the great dryness. Characteristic of the Sahara is the date palm, which flourishes where other vegetation can scarcely maintain existence, while in the semidesert regions the acacia (whence is obtained gum-arabic) is abundant.
The more humid regions have a richer vegetation -- dense forest where the rainfall is greatest and variations of temperature least, conditions found chiefly on the tropical coasts, and in the west African equatorial basin with its extension towards the upper Nile; and savanna interspersed with trees on the greater part of the plateaus, passing as the desert regions are approached into a scrub vegetation consisting of thorny acacias, etc. Forests also occur on the humid slopes of mountain ranges up to a certain elevation. In the coast regions the typical tree is the mangroveMangroves are woody trees or shrubs that grow in mangrove habitats or mangal (Hogarth, 1999). The mangrove is often considered a type of biome. Mangrove habitat is exclusively tropical and tidal, and therefore having soil or sediment that is water-logged, which flourishes wherever the soil is of a swampA swamp is a wetland that features permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water, generally with a substantial number of hummocks, or dry-land protrusions. Swamps usually are regarded as including a large amount of woody vegetatio character.
The dense forestThis article is about forests as a massing of trees. For other uses of the word, see Forest (disambiguation). A forest is an area with a high density of trees (or, historically, an area set aside for hunting). Forests can be found in all regions capable os of West Africa contain, in addition to a great variety of dicotyledonous trees , two palms, the Elaeis guincensis ( oil palmArecaceae African Oil Palm Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Arecales Family: Arecaceae Genus: Elaeis Species guineensis Binomial nomenclature Elaeis guineensis The African oil palm tree Elaeis gui) and Raphia vinifera ( bamboo palm ), not found, generally speaking, in the savanna regions. The bombax or silk-cotton tree attains gigantic proportions in the forests, which are the home of the india rubber-producing plants and of many valuable kinds of timber trees, such as odum (Chlorophora excelsa), ebonyEbony : Plantae : Magnoliophyta : Magnoliopsida : Ebenales : Ebenaceae : Diospyros Species D. ebenum Indian and Ceylon Ebony D. melanoxylon Coromandel Ebony D. montana ''D. quaesita ''D. dendo Black Ebony Ebony is a fine grained timber of several species, mahoganyMahogany Scientific classification Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Sapindales Family: Meliaceae Genera and Species Entandophragma E. utile Utile or African Mahogany Guarea G. cedrata Pink Mahogany Khaya K. ivoriensis I (Khaya senegalensis), African teak or oak (Oldfieldia africana) and camwood (Baphia nitida.) The climbing plants in the tropical forests are exceedingly luxuriant and the undergrowth or "bush" is extremely dense.
In the savannas the most characteristic trees are the monkey bread tree or baobab (Adanisonia digitata), doom palm (Hyphaene) and euphorbias. The coffee plant grows wild in such widely separated places as Liberia and southern Abyssinia. The higher mountains have a special flora showing close agreement over wide intervals of space, as well as affinities with the mountain flora of the eastern Mediterranean, the Himalayas and Indo-China.
In the swamp regions of north-east Africa the papyrus and associated plants, including the soft-wooded ambach , flourish
in immense quantities---and little else is found in the way of vegetation. South Africa is largely destitute of forest save in the lower valleys and coast regions. Tropical flora disappears, and in the semi-desert plains the fleshy, leafless, contorted species of kapsias , mesembryanthemums , aloes and other succulent plants make their appearance. There are, too, valuable timber trees, such as the Yellow-wood (Podocarpus elongatus), stinkwood (Ocotea), sneezewood or Cape ebony (Pteroxylon utile) and ironwood. Extensive miniature woods of heaths are found in almost endless variety and covered throughout the greater part of the year with innumerable blossoms in which red is very prevalent. Of the grasses of Africa alfa is very abundant in the plateaus of the Atlas range.
