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Okavango-Cuvelai Phreatophyte Vegetation Macrogroup | NatureServe Biotics 2019
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Name: Okavango-Cuvelai Phreatophyte Vegetation Macrogroup Reference: NatureServe Biotics 2019 Description: This represents an inland delta or alluvial fan in a semi-arid region in which inflow fluctuations result in large fluctuations in flooded area (10,000-16,000 km2), which is composed of permanent swamp, seasonal swamp and intermittently flooded areas. The delta's floods are fed from the Angolan rains, which start in October and finish sometime in April. The floods only cross the border between Botswana and Namibia in December and will only reach the bottom end of the delta (Maun) sometime in July; the slow meandering pace of the flood is due to the lack of drop in elevation, which drops a little more than 60 m over a distance of 450 km. Soils consist predominantly of sands with an increase in the amount of organic matter in the lower floodplain. The uppermost reaches of the delta are characterized by deep, fast-flowing channels that flow through permanent swamps dominated by <i>Cyperus papyrus</i> with an understory of <i>Thelypteris interrupta</i>. In the transition to seasonal swamps, the emergent communities change first to grasses (<i>Leersia hexandra, Oryza longistaminatum</i>, and <i>Panicum repens</i>), and then back to sedges, of which the communities subjected to the longest and deepest floods are <i>Cyperus articulatus - Schoenoplectus corymbosus, Alternanthera sessilis - Ludwigia stolonifera</i>, and <i>Miscanthus junceus - Digitaria abyssinica (= Digitaria scalarum)</i>. Another group of phreatophyte vegetation of the delta is formed by the backswamp communities which grow on peat accumulated below floating vegetation mats, eventually forming a consolidated substrate on which <i>Cyperus papyrus</i> and <i>Miscanthus junceus</i> grow.  Accession Code: urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:40749-{3BFF7E0B-D65E-4E6D-818C-51DF33A32430} Plot-observations of this Community Concept: 0
	Party Perspective according to: NatureServe (organization) Perspective from: 01-May-2019 to: ongoing
	status: accepted Community's Parent: Southern African Phreatophyte Vegetation Division This Community's Level: Macrogroup This Community's Children: [none]		Names:   UID: ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.861756 NatureServe Explorer   Code: M445   Scientific: Okavango-Cuvelai Phreatophyte Vegetation Macrogroup