African Flora

African Flora
African Flora

With few exceptions, Africa’s flora (vegetation) is tropical or subtropical. This is primarily because none of the African continent extends far from the equator, and there are only a few high-elevation regions that support more temperate plants.

Listed in order of decreasing land area, the three main biomes of Africa are subtropical desert, tropical savanna, and tropical forest. The flora in southern Africa has been most studied. The flora of central and northern Africa is less known.

The subtropical desert biome is the driest of the biomes in Africa and includes some of the driest locations on earth. The largest desert region is the Sahara in northern Africa. It extends from near the west coast of Africa to the Arabian Peninsula and is part of the largest desert system in the world, which extends into south central Asia.

A smaller desert region in southern Africa includes the Namib Desert, located along the western half of southern Africa, especially near the coast, and the Kalihari Desert, which is primarily inland and east of the Namib Desert.

Where more moisture is available, grasslands predominate, and as rainfall increases, grasslands gradually become tropical savanna. The difference between a grassland and a savanna is subjective but is in part determined by tree growth, with more trees characterizing a savanna. The grassland/ tropical savanna biome forms a broad swath across much of central Africa and dominates much of eastern and southern Africa.

Tropical forests make up a much smaller area of Africa than the other two biomes. They are most abundant in the portions of central Africa not dominated by the grassland/tropical savanna biome and are not far from the coast of central West Africa. Scattered tropical forest regions also occur along major river systems of West Africa, from the equator almost to southern Africa.

Subtropical Desert

Subtropical Desert - Looking for a warm escape? Check out the beautiful desert oases of Libya.
Subtropical Desert

The subtropical deserts of Africa seem, at first, to be nearly devoid of plants. While this is true for some parts of the Sahara and Namib Deserts that are dominated by sand dunes or bare, rocky outcrops, much of the desert has a noticeable amount of plant cover.

The Sahara is characterized by widely distributed species of plants that are found in similar habitats. The deserts of southern Africa have more distinctive flora, with many species endemic to specific local areas.

Succulents of the Subtropical Desert

To survive the harsh desert climate, plants use several adaptations. Mesembryanthemum, whose species include ice plant and sea figs, is a wide-spread genus, with species occurring in all of Africa’s deserts. It typically has thick, succulent leaves.

Such succulents store water in their leaves or stems, which they retain by using a specialized type of photosynthesis. Most plants open their stomata (small openings in the leaves) during the day to get carbon dioxide from the surrounding air.

Succulents of the Subtropical Desert - Euphorbia echinus
Succulents of the Subtropical Desert, Euphorbia echinus

This would lead to high amounts of water loss in a desert environment, so succulents open their stomata at night. Through a biochemical process, they store carbon dioxide until the next day, when it is released inside the plant so photosynthesis can occur without opening the stomata.

To prevent water loss, many succulents have no leaves at all. Anabasis articulata, found in the Sahara desert, is a leafless succulent with jointed stems. Cacti are found only in North and South America, but a visitor to the Sahara would probably be fooled by certain species in the spurge family that resemble cacti.

For example, Euphorbia echinus, another Saharan plant, has succulent, ridged stems with spines. The most extreme adaptation in succulents is found in the living stones of southern Africa. Their plant body is reduced to two plump, rounded leaves that are very succulent.

They hug the ground, sometimes partially buried, and have camouflaged coloration so that they blend in with the surrounding rocks and sand, thus avoiding being eaten by grazing animals. Other succulents, such as the quiver tree, attain the size and appearance of trees.

Water-Dependent Plants of the Subtropical Desert

Water-dependent plants are confined to areas near a permanent water source, such as a spring. The most familiar of these plants is the date palm, which is a common sight at desert oases.

Tamarind and acacia are also common where water is available. A variety of different sedges and rushes occur wherever there is abundant permanent freshwater, the most famous of these being the papyrus, or bulrush.

Ephemerals of the Subtropical Desert

Ephemerals of the Subtropical Desert
Ephemerals of the Subtropical Desert
Annuals whose seeds germinate when moisture becomes available and quickly mature, set seed, and die, are called ephemerals. These plants account for a significant portion of the African desert flora.

A majority of the ephemerals are grasses. Ephemerals are entirely dependent on seasonal or sporadic rains. A few days after a significant rain the desert turns bright green, and after several more days flowers, often in profusion, appear.

Some ephemerals germinate with amazing speed, such as the pillow cushion plant, which germinates and produces actively photosynthesizing seed leaves only ten hours after being wetted. Reproductive rates for ephemerals, and even for perennial plants, are rapid. Species of morning glory can complete an entire life cycle in three to six weeks.

Tropical Savanna

Tropical savanna ranges from savanna grassland, which is dominated by tall grasses lacking trees or shrubs, to thicket and scrub communities, which are composed primarily of trees and shrubs of a fairly uniform size.

The most common type of savanna in Africa is the savanna woodland, which is composed of tall, moisture-loving grasses and tall, deciduous or semi deciduous trees that are unevenly distributed and generally well spaced. The type of savanna familiar to viewers of African wildlife documentaries is the savanna parkland, which is primarily tall grass with widely spaced trees.

Savanna Grasses and Herbs

African Savanna Grasses
African Savanna Grasses

Grasses represent the majority of plant cover beneath and between the trees. In some types of savanna, the grass can be more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) high. Although much debated, two factors seem to perpetuate the dominance of grasses: seasonal moisture with long intervening dry spells and periodic fires.

Given excess moisture and lack of fire, savannas seem inevitably to become forests. Activities by humans, such as grazing cattle or cutting trees, also perpetuate, or possibly promote, grass dominance.

A variety of herbs exist in the savanna, but they are easily overlooked, except during flowering periods. Many of them also do best just after a fire, when they are better exposed to the sun and to potential pollinators.

Plants such as hibiscus and coleus are familiar garden and house plants popular the world over. Vines related to the sweet potato are also common. Many species from the legume or pea and sunflower families are present. Wild ginger often displays its showy blossoms after a fire.

Savanna Trees and Shrubs

Savanna Trees and Shrubs
Savanna Trees and Shrubs

Trees of the African savanna often have relatively wide-spreading branches that all terminate at about the same height, giving the trees a flattopped appearance. Many are from the legume family, most notably species of Acacia, Brachystegia, Julbernardia, and Isoberlinia. With the exception of acacias, these are not well known outside Africa.

There is an especially large number of Acacia species ranging from shrubs to trees, many with spines. A few also have a symbiotic relationship with ants that protect them from herbivores. The hashab tree, a type of acacia that grows in more arid regions, is the source of gum arabic.

Although not as prominent, the baobab tree is renowned for its large size and odd appearance and occurs in many savanna regions. It has an extremely thick trunk with smooth, gray bark and can live for up to two thousand years. Many savanna trees also have showy flowers, such as the flame tree and the African tulip tree.

Tropical Forest

Tropical Forest
Tropical Forest
The primary characteristics of African tropical forests are their extremely lush growth, high species diversity, and complex structure. The diversity is often so great that a single tree species cannot be identified as dominant in an area.

Relatively large trees, such as ironwood, iroko, and sapele, predominate. Forest trees grow so close together that their crowns overlap, forming a canopy that limits the amount of light that falls beneath them. A few larger trees, called emergent trees, break out above the thick canopy.

A layer of smaller trees live beneath the main canopy. A few smaller shrubs and herbs grow near the ground level, but the majority of the herbs and other perennials are epiphytes, that is, plants that grow on other plants.

On almost every available space on the trunks and branches of the canopy trees there are epiphytes that support an entire, unique community. All this dense plant growth is supported by a monsoon climate in which 60 inches (150 centimeters) or more of rain often falls annually, most of it in the summer.

Lianas and Epiphytes

Lianas are large, woody vines that cling to trees, many of them hanging down near to the ground. They were made famous by Tarzan movies. Many lianas belong to families with well-known temperate vine species, such as the grape family, morning glory family, and cucumber family. Other, related plants remain intimately connected to the trunks of trees. One of these, the strangler fig, is a strong climber that begins life in the canopy.

The fruits are eaten by birds or monkeys, and the seeds are deposited in their feces on branches high in the canopy. The seeds germinate and send a stem downward to the ground. Once the stem reaches the ground, it roots; additional stems then develop and grow upward along the trunk of the tree.

After many years, a strangler fig can so thoroughly surround a tree that it prevents water and nutrients from flowing up the trunk. Eventually, the host tree dies and rots away, leaving a hollow tube of mostly strangler fig. Other climbers include members of the Araceae family, the most familiar being the ornamental philodendron.

The most common epiphytes are bryophytes, lower plants related to mosses, and lichens, a symbiotic combination of algae (or cyanobacteria) and fungus. The most abundant higher plants are ferns and orchids. As these plants colonize the branches of trees, they gradually trap dust and decaying materials, eventually leading to a thin soil layer that other plants can use.

Accumulations of epiphytes can be so great in some cases that tree branches break from their weight. Epiphytes are not parasites (although there are some parasitic plants that grow on tree branches); they simply use the host tree for support.

Tropical Forest Floor Plants

Grasses are almost entirely absent from the forest floor; those that grow there have much broader leaves than usual. Some forest-floor herbs are able to grow in the deep shade beneath the canopy, occasionally being so highly adapted to the low light that they can be damaged if exposed to full sunlight.

Some popular house plants have come from among these plants, because they do not need direct sunlight to survive. Still, the greatest numbers of plants occur beneath breaks in the canopy, where more light is available.

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