Swaziland Tree Atlas
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Swaziland Tree Atlas Swaziland Tree Atlas including selected shrubs and climbers Linda and Paul Loffler Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 38 • 2005 • Recommended citation format LOFFLER, L. & LOFFLER, P. 2005. Swaziland Tree Atlas—including selected shrubs and climbers. Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 38. SABONET, Pretoria. Produced and published by Southern African Botanical Diversity Network (SABONET) c/o South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X101, 0001, Pretoria. Printed in 2005 in the Republic of South Africa by Capture Press, Pretoria, (27) 12 349-1802 ISBN 1-919976-19-1 © 2005 SABONET. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the permission of the copyright holder. Editor-in-chief: Marthina Mössmer Subeditor: Lidia Gibson Scientific editor: Otto Leistner Text design and layout: Suzanne Olivier, Antworks Layout and Design, and Marthina Mössmer Cover design: Suzanne Olivier, Antworks Layout and Design Front cover: Top: Euphorbia kethii; bottom left to right: Gymnosporia graniticola, Olinia emarginata and Combretum woodii Back cover: Syzyzium legatii Title page: Protea caffra SABONET website: www.sabonet.org This report is a joint product of the Southern African Botanical Diversity Network (SABONET) and was made possible through support provided by the Global Environment Facility (GEF)/United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/World Conservation Union-Regional Office for southern Africa (IUCN ROSA) (Plot no. 14818 Lebatlane Road, Gaborone West, Extension 6 Gaborone, Botswana), under the terms of Grant No. 690-0283-A-00-5950. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the SABONET Steering Committee or SABONET National Working Groups. Contents Acknowledgments ......................................................................................... vi Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Soils ........................................................................................................................ 1 Climate ................................................................................................................... 1 Hydrology ............................................................................................................... 1 Physiographic zones .............................................................................................. 1 Centres of Plant Endemism ................................................................................... 5 Relevant legislation ................................................................................................ 5 Population, land use, and land tenure ................................................................... 5 Major threats to the indigenous flora of Swaziland ................................................ 7 The Swaziland Tree Atlas Project.................................................................. 9 Methodology ........................................................................................................... 9 Results.................................................................................................................. 11 Species accounts.......................................................................................... 16 Arrangement and sources .................................................................................... 16 Exotic species ...................................................................................................... 16 Voucher specimens .............................................................................................. 16 Distribution and endemism................................................................................... 16 Abundance ........................................................................................................... 16 Habitat .................................................................................................................. 16 Land tenure .......................................................................................................... 16 Conservation status.............................................................................................. 16 Glossary ......................................................................................................... xx Bibliography .................................................................................................. xx Index ............................................................................................................... xx Acknowledgements Many people helped us with compiling the Swaziland Tree Atlas and we could not have done without their assistance. Jean Dobson rescued us when she saw the prolific amounts of data that had to be entered into the database. Without her endless hours of tedious data input there would be no Atlas! We are very grate- ful to her for all her help and support and are amazed at how carefully and conscientiously she went about it. The Mpumalanga Plant Specialist Group were all incredibly generous with their time and knowl- edge and helped us with so many of our queries, even if it meant taking the same sample to them on two or more occasions. Of particular help and encouragement were John Burrows, Mervyn Lotter, Ernest Schmidt, and Warren McCleland. Ara Monadjem has been extremely helpful and supportive over the years, even though he will never admit how invaluable his input has been or that he helped convince us to do the Tree Atlas in the first place. His encouragement and involvement with the Atlas has been very gratefully received. Kate Braun and Anthony Emery both helped with the design and development of the database and endless queries thereafter, for which we are extremely grateful. Our sincere gratitude goes to Titus Dlamini from the Swaziland National Herbarium for his help with organising the publication of the Atlas and his valuable input. We are very grateful to Marthina Mössmer for her help with producing the text from the database, Lidia Gibson for editing the text, and Dr Otto Leistner for the scientific editing. We would also like to thank the SABONET Project and its steering committee for including the Atlas in the SABONET Report Series and for providing the nec- essary financial support. Thank you to Hannelie Snyman at the South African National Biodiversity Institute for providing and updating all the GENSPEC numbers. Many thanks to Tony de Castro, James Culverwell, David Styles, Johan Hurter, Morne Ferreira, Phil White, Peta Masson, Stella Zwane, Alistair Gray, and Kim Roques for their various contributions. A big thank you to all the land owners and reserve managers who allowed us to access their land and helped with accommodation, and lastly to the Swaziland National Defence Force for not shooting us even though they tried on a number of occasions. Oxyanthus pyriformis. vi SABONET Report No. 38 Introduction Swaziland is a landlocked country covering a to- m asl), and lowest in the Highveld (22oC at 1,450 tal area of approximately 17,360 km2. It is sur- m asl). The lowest July minimum temperatures rounded by South Africa to the north, west and range from 5oC–10oC. Frost is recorded most fre- south, and Mozambique to the east. It lies between quently in the Highveld. latitudes 25º 43’ and 27º19’ South, and longitudes 30º 47.5’ and 32º 06’ East. Altitude ranges from Hydrology over 1,860 m in the northwest down to 120 m in The four main perennial river systems, which the east. drain the country from the west to the east, are Although small, Swaziland supports a large va- the Komati, Mbuluzi, Lusutfu, and Ngwavuma. riety of landscapes, geology, climate, and corre- Gorges and incised river valleys are predominant sponding habitat and biodiversity. With its diver- features of these watercourses, each of which sup- gent geology, climate, and subsequent landforms, ports a variety of habitats and flora. Much of the the physiographic regions within the country’s riparian vegetation in the country has been al- boundaries are very distinct. tered by various flooding events—large trees have been swept off riverbanks and channels remoul- Soils ded. Exotic invaders have since established them- The deeply weathered soils of the Highveld and selves along the banks and are working their way Upper Middleveld are characterised by relatively into the surrounding vegetation having a signifi- acidic soils and high clay content, whereas the cant impact on the country’s biodiversity. Lower Middleveld and Lowveld are generally only moderately weathered, shallow, and show a wide Physiographic zones range of soil characteristics with neutral or basic Influenced by soil and erosion processes, Swazi- soils. Soils on the Lebombo Plateau show more land has been classified into six physiographic intensive weathering characterised by high clay zones (Murdoch, 1970; Remmelzwaal, 1993). contents (Remmelzwaal, 1993). Maps 1 and 2 illustrate vegetation and eleva- tion boundaries, which coincide significantly with Climate the physiographic boundaries. Swaziland has a typically subtropical climate with summer rains (October–March) and distinct sea- The Highveld sons. The physiographic zones described above The Highveld physiographic zone lying in the west