Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ested; and the wettest part of the country, the eastern seaboard, supports extensive tracts of
rainforest. Mangrove forests grow in sites along the coast, particularly near large estuaries.
All of these habitats have suffered extensive disturbance.
ARID LANDSCAPES
The Malagasy have nicknamed baobabs 'roots of the sky', after their
scraggly branches. Legend has it that God made the baobab the most
beautiful tree on earth. The devil was so jealous that he decided to plant
baobabs upside down so that he could view them from hell!
The spiny desert is truly extraordinary: dense tangles of cactus-like octopus trees festooned
with needle-sharp spines are interspersed with baobabs whose bulbous trunks store water,
allowing them to survive the dry season. The baobabs' large, bright flowers are filled with
copious amounts of nectar, often sipped by fork-marked lemurs. About 60 species of aloe
occur in Madagascar, and many dot the spiny desert landscape.
The rosy periwinkle - a flower endemic to Madagascar - has been a
source of alkaloids that are 99% effective in the treatment of some forms
of leukaemia.
Dry deciduous forests are a feature of the western half of the country, although they do
notlookquiteasbareastheirnorthernhemisphere counterparts inthedepthsofwinter.The
thinner winter foliage does make it prime bird- and lemur-watching time however.
THE HIGHLANDS
The vast areas of blond grassland of the
hauts plateaux
are actually the result of extensive
felling by humans. The boundary of the sole remaining patch of natural forest, at Parc Na-
tional Zombitse-Vohibasia, stands in forlorn contrast to the degraded countryside surround-
ing it.
Growing among the crags and crevices of Parc National de l'Isalo are nine species of
Pachypodia
, including a tall species with large fragrant yellow-white blossoms, and the di-
minutive elephant-foot species that nestle in cliff crevices on the sandstone massif.
RAINFOREST
Forest Guises
»Spiny forest, Arboretum d'Antsokay, Tuléar (Toliara)
»Rainforest, Parc National de Masoala
»Dry deciduous forest, Parc National d'Ankarafantsika
