Name:
Lower Karoo Semi-Desert Scrub & Grassland Macrogroup
Reference:
NatureServe Biotics 2019
Description:
This type of Karoo vegetation occupies the mostly slightly undulating plains of the basin between the Great Escarpment to the north and northwest and the Cape Fold Belt Mountains to the south, as well as the plains in the area south of the Camdebo Mountains. The soils are predominantly shallow and sandy in places, over mudstones and sandstones of the Beaufort Group. The elevation ranges from 500 to 1000 m, and the climate is dry with 100 to 350 mm annual precipitation, falling in autumn and summer and peaking in March; the exception is one type of vegetation included (Albany Broken Veld) and distributed in the Eastern Cape province, that has higher rainfall and least frost. The vegetation is predominantly a dwarf, spiny shrubland or low to middle-height microphyllous shrubland; in all cases, leaf-succulent shrubs are also intermixed as well as grasses. Sparse low trees are common. Small trees include <i>Acacia karroo, Euclea undulata, Pappea capensis, Boscia oleoides</i>, and <i>Schotia afra var. afra</i>. Shrubs are <i>Lycium oxycarpum, Rhigozum obovatum, Cadaba aphylla, Carissa haematocarpa, Rhus longispina, Asparagus racemosus, Asparagus striatus, Asparagus suaveolens, Blepharis capensis, Chrysocoma ciliata</i>, and <i>Selago fruticosa</i>. Succulents include <i>Aloe striata, Euphorbia ferox, Euphorbia esculenta, Euphorbia horrida, Euphorbia mauritanica, Crassula tillaea (= Crassula muscosa), Crassula corallina</i>, and <i>Portulacaria afra</i>, and graminoids are <i>Aristida congesta, Aristida diffusa, Stipagrostis ciliata, Tragus berteronianus</i>, and <i>Tragus koelerioides</i>.
Accession Code:
urn:lsid:vegbank.org:commConcept:40785-{133E9756-62BA-4AE7-BEC3-886D7DB67205}
Plot-observations of this Community Concept:
0
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