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Northern Cape Province, Kamieskroon, Brakwater Farm (between
Arakoep and Verbe farms)
Zonobiome III: Hot Deserts
Subzonobiome: Subtropical Maritime Hot Semi-Deserts
Regional Zonal Biome: Succulent Karoo
Subbiome: Namaqualand Hardeveld
Community: Ruschia robusta-Eriocephalus ericoides Succulent Scrub.
Low scrub (on average up to 60-70 cm tall), with ground layer composed
of low-grown vygies (= succulent Aizoaceae) and scattered small-size
annuals. Some of the annuals (e.g., Heliophila) are already fruiting. The
canopy is semi-open (with extensive vegetation-free gaps. The soils are
coarse, sandy with admixture of fine reddish-light brown loam; not very
deep, covering underlying granodiorites. Some rocky outcrops are visible.
The site is located on a gentle-sloping (5 deg slope, aspect: 160 deg;
hence almost due south; southern slopes are the dry slopes on southern
hemisphere!) piedmont of a granodiorite koppie (rocky hillock) and
borders on infrequently used farm dirt road.
The scrub has been exposed obviously in distant past to extensive sheep
grazing, but no recent traces of it visible. Here and there, there are traces
of animal fossicking (possibly aardvark or porcupine). One taller (up to
60 cm tall) termite mound also located on the site.
The scrub is three-layered: two layers are dominated by shrubs (also leafsucculent
shrubs) and there is one, discontinuous herb-layer composed of
herbaceous annuals and some bulb geophytes (Moraea, Tecophila,
Oxalis) and several grasses.
Total cover: 50%; E2beta cover: 8%; E2apha: 45%; E1: 10%
Slope: 5 deg; aspect: 160 deg; sampled area: 30 x 30 m
(# indicates; & succulents; @ bulbs)
E2beta:
Wiborgia monoptera 5%
Searsia undulata 5%
Viscum rotundifolium (on Searsia) 1% (shrubby semiparasitic epiphyte)
E2alpha:
#Eriocephalus ericoides 30%
&Ruschia robusta 20%
#Hirpicium alienum 3%
Calobota sericea 3%
Muraltia spinosa 2%
Wiborgia monoptrera juv. 2%
#Pteronia incana 1%
#Pteronia (white) sp. 1%
Lacomucinea lineata 1% (no joke; this terribly spiny semiparasitic shrub
is named after me) 1%
Hermannia dissermifolia 1%
@Asparagus graniticus 1%
&Galenia africana 1%
Aptosimum spinosum 1%
&Tetragonia fruticosa 1%
E1:
&Aizoon canariense 5%
&Ruschia robusta juv. 5%
&Conicosia elongata 3%
Heliophila crithmifolia 2%
#Leysera tenella 2%
Lotononis falcata 1%
@Oxalis obtusa 1%
Wahlenbergia annularis 1%
@Tecophila orchidiformis 1% (Tecophilaceae)
#Gorteria diffusa ‘Springbok type’ 1%
@Moraea serpentina 1%
@Moraea filicaulis 1%
@Moraea schlechteri 1%
#Ifloga polycnemoides 1%
#Felicia australis 1%
#Osteospemum sp. 1%
#Cotula barbata 1%
#Leysera gnaphalodes 1%
Pharnaceum sp. 290918/40 F 1%
Grasses:
Ehrharta calycina 1%
Ehrharta delicatula 1%
Bromus pectinatus 1%
Chaetobromus involucratus subsp. dregeanus 1%
Eragrostis sp. 1%.
No visible traces of recent anthropogenic disturbances. The samples (9 x 3) were not stored with silicagel since all samples very
bone dry due to prolonged rain-free period preceding the sampling. |