Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
were seen again, despite several subsequent fires, until an intense fire in 1999 when
a few dozen plants emerged in the same two populations. Apparently the seeds
had survived since at least 1944, when the last flowering plants had set seed.
Surprisingly, the seeds had also survived three or four subsequent fires without
germinating. Given their importance in shading the understory, and creating
regeneration gaps for understory species, obligate seeding proteas, either seroti-
nous or myrmecochorous, create an unusually dynamic shrubland community
contributing to high alpha diversity in fynbos (Vlok & Yeaton
1999
,
2000
).
Fire in Other Vegetation Types
Renosterveld - the Other Fire-prone Shrubland
Renosterveld is a fire-prone shrubland occurring on relatively clay rich soils and at
lower rainfall than fynbos (
Fig. 7.7
). It has been considered analogous to sage
scrub shrublands in California and garrigue in the Mediterranean Basin (Taylor
1978
). Renosterveld occurs across the entire Cape Floristic Region (
Fig. 7.1
). The
community is dominated by the renosterbos,
Elytropappus rhinocerotis
, a shrub in
the Asteraceae. Other members of this family are also prominent (e.g.
Relhania
,
Felicia
,
Pteronia
). Renosterveld differs from fynbos in the near absence of Protea-
ceae and Restionaceae (Taylor
1978
; Boucher & Moll
1981
; Rebelo
et al.
2006
).
Many other characteristic fynbos families and genera are absent, including all the
Cape region endemic families. Taller broadleaf shrubs, with forest and thicket
affinities (e.g.
Rhus
,
Olea
,
Diospyros
) occur sporadically. Grasses are the most
prominent graminoids, with C
3
grasses in the west and C
4
grasses increasing to the
Fig. 7.7
A patch of renosterveld in the Western Cape, South Africa. (Photo by Jon Keeley.)
