Today our journey continues onward to the KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape midlands. The midlands are mostly undulating, moist grasslands, but there are lovely ‘mist-belt’ forests too. Most of South Africa’s eastern coastal belt is subtropical in climate, but towards the south it becomes cooler and drier.
Around the area of Port Elizabeth, there is a ‘break’ in the moist coastal belt, and drier landscapes appear. In this region a wonderful mix of vegetation types are found – almost everything in South Africa is represented: Karoo-type semi-desert vegetation, grassland, savanna, bushveld, thicket, forests, and even fynbos! The moister vegetation types are found on the slopes of hills and mountains that face the sea, while the drier types are found on the plains or ‘rain shadows’ in the lee of the mountain slopes or steep valleys and gorges.
One of the most fascinating and diverse vegetation types is that of the Albany Thicket. Thickets in the Eastern Cape are comprised of dense impenetrable vegetation dominated by spiny, often succulent trees and shrubs. The ‘canopy’ is low and mostly formed of tough, thorny trees and shrubs, and in the dappled shade one finds a great diversity of other delicate plants. This vegetation type used to be called Valley Bushveld. A fine example of this thicket is the Addo Bush, found in the Addo Elephant National Park.
South and west of the Port Elizabeth region, the coastal plain becomes moist again. In the Knysna-Tsitsikamma region, the plain broadens and is covered by an extensive, moist forest. Unlike the subtropical forests to the north and east, this one is considered a Temperate Forest, being quite cool and even on the cold side in winter. Nevertheless, frosts are rare, and plants grow luxuriantly. Some of the largest indigenous trees in South Africa are found in the Knysna Forest, such as the Outeniqua Yellowwood Podocarpus falcatus, which can exceed 30 m in height and spread, with a massively thick trunk.
From the southern to the western Cape, the coastal plain is covered by a unique kind of vegetation – Fynbos (directly translated into English, it means ‘fine bush’). Coastal fynbos is also called ‘renosterveld’ (rhino-field). Named after one of the dominant plant species, the rhinoceros bush Dicerothamnus rhinocerotis, a shrubby member of the daisy family.
The southern and western Cape also sports an extensive and complicated array of mountain ranges. These are not part of the mountainous ‘rim’ that borders the interior plateau, but are a wealth of separate ranges, most being ‘fold’ mountains, formed by the buckling of the Earth’s crust. These mountain ranges can be very rugged; particularly spectacular examples include the Cederberg, the Little and Great Swartberg, the Hex River Mountains, and the Groot Winterhoek Mountains.
The Cape Fold Mountains host the most diverse vegetation type in South Africa – and one of the most diverse in the world: Mountain Fynbos. This consists mainly of low shrubby plants from the Protea, Erica and Restio family – but there are also vast numbers of other plant species. Up in the mountains, fynbos grows on shallow and rather infertile soil. Plant cover is sparse, making the rocks and geological formations of the mountains easily visible. Fynbos doesn’t support many large mammal species, but a number of small mammals are restricted to fynbos habitat. Insect diversity in this region is fantastic.
The northern regions of the Cape Fold Mountains are drier than the southern regions, such as the Little Karoo, and the Worcester-Robertson Karoo, which are semi-desert areas. Here the plant growth is low and shrubby, with a wonderful diversity of succulent species. Towards the north and the west, this constitutes the Succulent Karoo, which is the world’s richest succulent region. Interestingly, most of the succulent species found here are very small, the Mesemb family providing the greatest number of species. Particularly charming are the many species that mimic rocks and pebbles, such as Lithops, Conophytum, Argyroderma, Bijlia, Pleiospilos, Lapidaria, Dinteranthus and many more.
In the north and west, the Succulent Karoo reaches the ocean, forming ‘Strandveld’ and to the north, Namaqualand and the Richtersveld. It’s a region of dunes close to the sea and rolling hills, with occasional large, domed inselbergs, further inland. Namaqualand is famous for its display of flowers. This region receives very little rain on average – but it varies. Some years – most years, actually – there’s hardly any rainfall, but every now and then, the rains are abundant. When this happens, the landscape explodes into colour! A great many seeds of annual plants that have been lying dormant in the sand, suddenly germinate and in a very short period of time, grow to adulthood and flower. Bulbs that have been buried deep in the soil, waiting for moisture to penetrate, sprout leaves and flower too. Even small perennial herbs and shrubs, that might have seemed dry and dead, suddenly burst into life. The end result being that for a few weeks, the entire desert becomes covered in a carpet of white, yellow, orange, red and purple flowers. People flock to Namaqualand to admire this wonder of nature.
In the northernmost reaches the Namaqualand merges into the Richtersveld, one of the driest and most barren desert regions of South Africa. This is where the Orange River meets the sea. In its lower reaches the Orange River carves its course through a mountainous landscape, which in our border country of Namibia includes the spectacular Fish River Canyon (the Fish River being a tributary of the Orange), and in South Africa, the Augrabies Falls, a voluminous and powerful waterfall, where the entire Orange River is constrained to rush through a fairly narrow, rocky gorge.
The Richtersveld, though extremely dry and barren, hosts one of the richest succulent floras in the world. Here, unlike in the Succulent Karoo, large and strange-looking succulents are found, like the Giant Quiver Tree Aloe pillansii, and the Halfmens or Elephant-trunk Pachypodium namaquanum. Together with the flora, this region also has spectacular rock formations, forming landscapes that might as well belong to a different planet. A surprising number of mammals, birds, reptiles and even amphibians have successfully adapted to this forbidding desert region.
And that brings us to the end of our journey! This was just a small glimpse into the natural landscapes of South Africa. We live in beautiful country, there is so much to explore….so what are you waiting for? 🙂 And if you missed it, here is part one and two.
