Project Site: Biodiversity

Plants:
The site is made up of several plant families and growth forms. The largest component is that of Asteracea, which range from hemicryptophytic plants such as Macledium anomala and Helichrysum herbaceum, annual stragglers and herbs inhabiting moist pockets amongst the middle, rocky section of the slope; to perennial, woody based branching shrublets such as Helichrysum cooperi and Senecio latifolius in the lower and upper catena's of the slope where the soil is either prone to longer, fluctuating periods of moisture or dryness

Not only is the species level diversity high in this site for Genera such as Helichrysum and Senecio, but diversity of Genera is itself high especially on the moister south-western slopes. With many species growing not just on these cooler, rockier slopes but elsewhere in the site, particularly amongst smaller outcroppings near the peak of the hill and lower down near the floodplain where the soil's clay content is higher, it can be said that there is broader Beta diversity at species level and a more concentrated Alpha diversity in the intermediate band of the hillside where rock outcroppings are most prevalent. This can be attributed to many of the Genera being habitat specialists. There are exceptions to this however, and species specific habitat specialists such as the central Drakensberg endemic Hermannia malvifolia, as well as a possible new ecotype of the Scrophulariaceae member: Zaluzianskya elongata, were found in the southwestern corner of the site, only in area's where the rocky ridges and structure of the vegetation created suitable niches or microhabitats

A SANBI Redlisted plant species has also been discovered at this site, namely Helichrysum oligopappum. This is of great importance in the effort to afford this site some level of protection as this species is only known from 2 other distant localities in the KZN Midlands and is very under-collected

Posted on March 26, 2021 10:31 AM by anthonywalton