The Sudano-Zambezian Region

Abstract

75% of the land area of southern Africa falls into the Zambezian Domain (the subject of this monograph) of the Sudano-Zambezian vegetation region. Preliminary sections deal with phytogeographical concerns such as geographical subdivision and boundaries. Vegetation structure, structural types, ecology of vegetation structure, and the influences of fauna and fire are discussed. It is argued that a floristic definition of vegetation types is preferable to a structural definition for the purpose of this study. The body of the monograph is a description of the following vegetation communities, their subgroups and the prominent issues relating to each-miombo vegetation on drier and wetter soils and sands, and the effect of fire on it; dwarf miombo; miombo of scattered areas such as the escarpments, plateaux, high rainfall areas of Mocambique and Malawi, and its southern limits in Mocambique; Baikiaea vegetation; Mopane vegetation from northerneast Angola to southern Mocambique; other woody vegetation types and grasslands. The last section is divided into fifteen separate vegetation types from the woodlands of Shaba, Zaire, through the Bushveld types to the cool-temperate grasslands of South Africa. Azonal vegetation includes flood plain and dambo grasslands, and woody vegetation (gallery and swamp forests transitional to the Guineo-Congolian Region vegetation) which penetrates far into the Sudano-Zambezian Region. The final phytogeographical area discussed is the transition to the Karroo-Namib Region.