Bothalia 20.2: 159 165 (1990) A checklist of the plants of the Karkloof Forest, Natal midlands JO. WIRMINGHAUS* keywords checklist. Karkloof. forest. Natal ABSTRACT A checklist of the plants of the Karkloof Forest is presented. Of the 400 ta\a recorded, seven are bryophytes, 69 are pteridophytes. four are gyninosperms and 320 are angiosperms At least 17 of the plants recorded are localized or uncommon in Natal. Two of these are endemic to the area. UITTREKSF.L n Kontrolelys van plante van die Karkloofwoud word verskaf. Van die 4(X) taksons wat aangeteken is. is sewe briofiete. 69 pteridollete. vier gimnosperme en 320 angiosperme. Minstens 17 van die aangetekende plante is tot sekere lokaliteite beperk of is scldsaam in Natal. Twee hiervan is endemics in die gebied. INTRODUCTION Little is published of temperatures within the forest but Oatley (1978) recorded some data over a two year period. Rycroft (1941) carried out the first detailed study of the From his data the mean annual maximum temperature is Karkloof Forest's vegetation and prov ides a preliminary I8.0°C (range 15.2—20.9°C) measured in February, and checklist of the plants. Taylor (1961) gives a brief account the mean minimum is 8.4°C (range 4.6 —12,2°C) in July. of the plant communities of the Karkloof Forest although his paper is directed at its conservation. More recently Most of the collecting for this survey was done near Moll (1976) included the Karkloof Forest in his vegetation the Farms Mbona and Chard which form part of the survey of the Three Rivers region. Natal. Other than the Blinkwater forest patch. Other sites in the Karkloof were above, little has been published on the area, despite the also visited during the survey for the purpose of fact that it is one of the largest remaining patches of completeness. All specimens are lodged at NU. In addition mistbelt forest in Natal. to my specimens, any records of plants from other collectors, which were found in NU. are included. Of The absence in regional herbaria of records of species these, E.J. Moll has possibly contributed the most. Much commonly seen in the area highlighted the need for a of his collecting was carried out in the forest near the comprehensive checklist of the forest plants. Farms The Start. Benvie and Ehlatini. Even though every effort was made to make the checklist as comprehensive STUDY AREA AND METHODS as possible, there will be a number of species that have been overlooked. Bryophytes were only occasionally The Karkloof Forest lies in the Natal midlands and collected during this survey, and field observations indicate covers an estimated area of 6 000 ha (Cooper 1985). It that many more taxa occur in the forest than this checklist extends in length for 40 kin. from about 22 km north of suggests. Howick (29°17'S. 30°09’E) to 13 km northeast of New Hanover (29°14‘S. 30°28’E), and comprises a number of forest patches restricted mainly to the steep eastward side RESULTS AND DISCUSSION of the Karkloof Range. The forest ranges in altitude from 800 m near the Karkloof and Umgeni River confluence Rycroft (1941) recorded 246 species in his preliminary up to 1 700 in on the upper slopes of Mt Gilboa. checklist of the forest plants but did not mention any voucher specimens. He lists 45 species of pterido­ Most of the forests in the midlands region, including phytes, four gyninosperms, 25 monocotyledons and 172 the Karkloof. fall under Acocks's (1988) Veld Type 5 dicotyledons. ( Ngongoni Veld). In addition to mist the forest receives a mean annual rainfall of about 1 6(X) nun (I 300—2 2(X) Of the 400 taxa (266 genera, 115 families) recorded mm) (Rycroft 1944: Oatley 1978; pers. obs.) falling mostly in the Karkloof Forest during this survey, seven (1,8%) in summer. Predominant winds in the summer months are bryophytes. 69 (17,3%) are pteridophytes, four (1,0%) are southeasterly but in winter, as along most of the are gyninosperms and 320 (80,0%) are angiosperms. escarpment, northwesterly berg winds predominate. Of the angiosperms, 67 (16,8%) are monocotyledons and Rycroft (1944) attributes the stunted grow th of forest trees 253 (63,3%) are dicotyledons. Plant families containing in the northwestern Karkloof and the deaths of numerous more than one percent of the total number of species are young forest trees each year to these latter hot. dry winds. listed in order of numerical importance in Table 1. The genera of plants with four or more ( > 1%) species are Asplenium (11 spp.), Senecio, Solatium (7 spp.), Blech- * Dept, of Zoology & Entomology. University of Natal. P.O. Box 375. Pietermaritzburg 3200. num, Cheilanthes, Plectranthus, Streptocarpus (5 spp.), MS. received: 1990.02.20. Canthium, Lvcopodium, Maytenus, Protasparagus and 160 Bothalia 20,2 (1990) TABLE 1.—Synopsis of the plant families of the Karkloof Forest with (Jacobsen 1983) and are known from only one or two sites four or more species (> 1%), listed in order of numerical in the forest. Other plants such as Hilliardia zuurbergen- importance together with the number of genera in each family sis, Lobelia malowensis, Microstegium nudum, Mikaniop- sis cissampelina, Plectranthus elegantulus, Family No. species No. genera Polygonum nepalense and the trees Andrachne ovalis and Suregada procera, are only known from a few localities Asteraceae 26 15 within Natal. The herbs Geranium naialense and Orchidaceae 16 8 Plectranthus rehmannii are the only plants known to be Rubiaceae 16 9 endemic to the Karkloof Forest (Codd 1985; Hilliard & Adiantaceae 13 4 Burtt 1985). Cyperaceae 13 7 Liliaceae 12 7 Aspleniaceae II 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Euphorbiaceae 11 7 Fabaceae 11 9 Poaceae 11 8 The staff of the NU herbarium are thanked for helping Lamiaceae 10 4 to identify much of the material listed here. I would also Rosaceae 8 6 like to thank Colleen Downs for her assistance in the field, Solanaceae 8 2 Acanthaceae 7 5 and Trevor Edwards for his comments on an earlier draft Flacourtiaceae 7 6 of this paper. Aspidiaceae 6 4 2 Celastraceae 6 REFERENCES Scrophulariaceae 6 6 5 3 Anacardiaceae ACOCKS. J.P.H. 1988. Veld types of South Africa, 3rd edn. Memoirs 5 Apiaceae 5 o f the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 57: 1 — 146. Blechnaceae 5 1 CODD. L.F. 1985. Lamiaceae. In O.A. Leistner, Flora of southern Africa Gesneriaceae 5 1 28. part 4: 1-247. 3 Loganiaceae 5 COOPER, K H 1985. The conservation status o f indigenous forests in 5 Rutaceae 5 Transvaal. Natal and O.F.S., South Africa. Wildlife Society of 4 4 Dennstaedtiaceae S.A., Durban. Hymenophyllaceae 4 2 2 GIBBS RUSSELL, G.E.. REID, C.. VAN ROOY, J & SMOOK, I. Juncaceae 4 1985. List of species of South African plants. Part I. Memoirs Lycopodiaceae 4 1 of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 51: 1 — 152. Polypodiaceae 4 3 GIBBS RUSSELL, G.E., WFLMAN. W.G., RET IFF, E., IMMEL Rhamnaceae 4 4 MAN. K L , GERMISHUIZEN. G.. PIENAAR. BJ , VAN Thymelaeaceae 4 4 WYK, M. & NICHOLAS. A. 1987. List of species of South Urticaceae 4 3 Af rican plants. Part 2. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 56: 1—270. HILLIARD, O.M. & BURTT, B I 1985. A revision ol Geranium in Africa south of the Limpopo Notes from the Royal Botanical Pteris (4 spp.). No comparative data arc available tor other Garden, Filinburgh 42: 171—225. mistbelt forests in Natal, but Acocks (1988) also notes the JACOBSEN. W B G. 1983 Ihe ferns and (cm allies o/ southern Africa. dominance of ferns and other genera such as Plectmnthus Butterworths, Durban. LINDER, H P 1989 Notes on southern African Angraccoid orchids. in the forests of this region. Kew Bulletin 44: 317-319. MOLL, E..I. 1976. The vegetation of the Ihree Rivers region. Natal. Natal Although a crude attempt was made to include species Town and Regional Planning Commission. Pietermaritzburg. habitat preferences on the checklist, no indication ol status OATLFY. I B 1978 The breeding biology and ecology of the starred robin Ponogocichla slcllala. M Sc thesis. University ol Natal, is shown (some quantitative data are available but will Pietermaritzburg. appear elsewhere (Wirminghaus & Perrin in prep.)|. RYCROFT. H B 1941 Ihe plant ecology of the Karkloof Forest, Natal. At least 17 of the species recorded from the forest were M Sc thesis. Natal University College, Pietermaritzburg. found to be uncommon or to have localized distributions RYCROFT, H B 1944 The Karkloof Forest. Natal Journal of the South African Forestry Association II: 14 — 25. within Natal. The ferns Arachniodes foliosa, Asplenium TAYLOR, H.C. 1961 The Karkloof Forest: a pica lor its protection. dregeanum, Asplenium preussii, Blechnum capense, Forestry in South Africa I: 123 — 134. Elaphoglossum aubertii, Loxogramme lanceolata and WIRMINGHAUS. JO & PERRIN, M R. In prep. The plant ecology Trichomanes reptans are regarded as rare in Natal of a portion of the Karkloof Forest, Natal. CHECKLIST The checklist is arranged according to Gibbs Russell et al. (1985) and (iibbs Russell et al. (1987). and one orchid according to Linder (1989). All voucher specimens cited are specimens collected by J O. Wirminghaus and housed in NU unless otherwise stated or unless a literature citation is given. Introduced and alien species arc indicated by an asterisk In order to make the list more meaningful, habitat annotations have been added for each species recorded. These are derived either from herbarium specimen labels or from personal field observations and are as follows: I. forest margins; 2, forest gaps or small clearings; 3.