More about the classification of vegetation in South Africa

Vegetation of SA

What do we mean by biomes, vegetation types, floral kingdoms? - read on to find out..

More about the classification of vegetation in South Africa

There have been several attempts to classify the vegetation of South Africa in the last century.

Veld types

For many years the Veld Types described by John Acocks were the used and accepted vegetation units. Acocks travelled very widely throughout South Africa during a 40-year period and sampled some 3300 sites. He was meticulous in recording plant species at the various sites and he described vegetation patterns at a scale that is much smaller than the biome. He described 70 Veld Types in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. One can refer to Acocks' 1988 book Veld Types of South Africa for the descriptions, together with photographs, species compositions, and some other characteristics of each veld type.

Acock's Veld Types

Other vegetation maps

There was a map produced in 1935 by Pole Evans that describes 12 vegetation types for South Africa. This was followed in 1938 by Adamson who published a map with 14 vegetation types.

Mapping the Biomes

In 1994 Rutherford and Westfall (1994) mapped six biomes in South Africa :

    Grassland
    Savanna
    Succulent Karoo
    Nama Karoo
    Forest
    Fynbos
    Rutherford (1997) adds Desert.
    Low and Rebelo (1996) include a Thicket biome.

In 2006 Mucina & Rutherford described 435 vegetation types in South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, with 5 units mapped for the Prince Edward Islands in 'The Vegetation of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Strelitzia 19'.

Next time you travel, take time to look around to see if you can recognise characteristic patterns and shapes to the vegetation about you.

Vegetation of SA