- Regional Ecology
- Climate and Geology
- The Cape Floral Kingdom
- Afromontane Forests
- Forests and the Economy
Regional Ecology
The elephants of the Southern Cape once formed an integral part of the ecology of the area - they roamed and fed on the grasslands and fynbos when water was plentiful, and delved deep into the forests when the dry seasons came. Their migrations followed well-traveled corridors, and older residents and visitors often tell of seeing them crossing the road at Harkerville and the Garden of Eden - a mere 5 kilometres from where the Knysna Elephant Park stands today.
But, with the great fire of 1869, along with heavy poaching and uncontrolled logging, the noble herds of yesteryear have all but died off. Today, only three elephants are known to be living wild in the area, and they have retreated deep into the forest where they have hidden themselves from man and his destructive ways.
At the Knysna Elephant Park our mission is to provide education and create an awareness of the plight of the elephants, and, by highlighting their plight, to show the world why conservation of our natural resources is vitally important to our survival.
But the elephants, like every species on earth, do not live alone - they depend on the vegetation that surrounds them for food, shelter and even for entertainment. The following information will give you an important insight into the vegetation that is found on and around the Knysna Elephant Park.
(Information extracted - with permission- from The Knysna Community Guide’s Training Manual by Martin Hatchuel)
Climate
The climate of the Western Cape coast is predominantly Mediterranean - much of the area has most of its rain during the Winter months, except for our small portion between George and Tsitsikamma, the Garden Route, which receives rain throughout the year. The rainfall pattern within the region - like that of the soils - is a determining factor in the character of the plant communities.
In the Knysna - Plettenberg Bay area we can expect an average of close to 1 000 mm of rain per year, whereas in the Little Karoo, which lies behind the Outeniqua Mountains approximately 40 km north of the Knysna Elephant Park, only around 350 mm of rain falls.
Geology and Soils
The sandy soils which predominate in the area are derived largely from the Table Mountain Sandstones that are its main geological formations. These soils are usually poor in nutrients, and it is generally well known that the soils linked to the fynbos offer poor grazing and have limited value to traditional western agricultural pursuits.
The soils in the valleys are typically less sandy, with a higher clay content. Confined patches of shale, granite and limestone have a definite influence on the make-up of the soils in localised areas within the region.
The soil-type is a determining factor for the character of the plant community growing on it.
The Cape Floral Kingdom
The Cape Floral Kingdom covers an area of about 90 000 square kilometres around the Southern tip of Africa. It stretches along the Cape Coast from Vanrhynsdorp in the west, round the Cape Peninsula, and eastwards to Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. The inland boundaries are the Cape Fold Mountains: the Witteberg, Swartberg and Baviaansberg along the Indian Ocean Seaboard, and the Hex River Mountains, Cedarberg and Koue Bokkeveld on the Atlantic Ocean Seaboard.
This is not only smallest of the world’s six floral kingdoms - it is also the only floral kingdom that is entirely contained within the borders of one country.
Like the other plant kingdoms, the Cape Floral Kingdom is made up of a collection of biomes - or plant communities. The plants that grow in each biome are closely linked to its soil type and climate. In the Cape Floral Kingdom, these communities include the fynbos, the strandveld (or fynbos / thicket mosaic) and the renosterveld. Patches of Afromontane Forest and Succulent Karoo also fall within the geographical area of the Cape Floral Kingdom.
The Fynbos Biome
It is important to understand that the word fynbos refers to a broad collection of different plants (a vegetation type or plant community ) and not to any one species or family of plants. The plants referred to as fynbos make up about 80% of the species in the Cape Floral Kingdom, and a great variety of plants may grow within a small area (up to 121 species of plants have been counted in an area of 100 square metres).
The general appearance of fynbos is of a shrubby, fine-leaved plant community - there are usually no trees to be seen in a pure stand of fynbos and, if trees are present, they can often be considered as invaders.
The four forms of vegetation which scientists consider to be the characteristic plants of the fynbos are:
the proteoids (Proteas) - which are often the taller plants of the fynbos - are generally between 1 and 3 metres in height and have large, leathery leaves. They include all members of the Protea family, such as Protea (suikerbos), Leucadendron (geelbos) and Leucospermum (pincushion)
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the restioids (Cape reeds) - which resemble reeds, and include all 310 members of the family Restionaceae. This family is closely linked to the grasses, and includes the thatching reeds - dekriete
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the geophytes - which are the bulbous plants, and include the Gladiolus (afrikaners or aandblomme), and the ground orchids Disa (moederkappies). With about 1400 species of geophytes recognised, the fynbos has the largest concentration of indigenous geophytes of any area in the entire world. Many of these plants are not seen during the summer months because their leaves die back after flowering, and the bulbs are dormant during these drier periods of the year.
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the ericoids (ericas) - which are the heath-like plants, and include about 3 000 species, such as the family Ericaceae (the heaths), and Agathosma (buchu)
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Fynbos and Mountain Fynbos
The fynbos and mountain fynbos is found from the foothills at sea-level to the peaks at 2 250 metres. It grows on grey, sandy soils that are sour and leached of nutrients by the predominantly high rainfall, in places as much as 3 300 mm per year.
The fynbos at Knysna Elephant Park falls within this sub-category.
Coastal Fynbos
The coastal fynbos occurs from sea-level to approximately 150 metres above sea-level. Many of the characteristics of this area can be attributed to changes in the coastline during the ice ages - the level of the coast is now some 120 metres below its former level. The soil is a deep, greyish sand that is slightly alkaline to sour.
The Economic Importance of Fynbos
In our water-poor country, the fact that fynbos grows in areas of high rainfall and on poor soils should be sufficient reason for its conservation. Studies have shown that, in a well-managed fynbos area, water run-off after rainfall can be as high as 63% to 85%, whereas only about 9% of the water falling on grassveld, or savannah, reaches the streams. The Fynbos also uses less water than exotic tree plantations and agricultural crops under irrigation. Where the fynbos is well managed, with adequate intervals between fires, the quality of run-off water is higher, being clearer and with less sediment, than in areas where fires are more frequent.
The fynbos provides a large, modern and growing industry with many species of plants which can be used in the fresh and dried cut-flower markets. These include the proteas, ericas, restios and everlastings (Helichrysum spp.), many of which are now cultivated rather than collected in the wild. It is noteworthy that this practice has saved a number of species from extinction.
Rooibos tea (from the rooibos - Aspalathus linearis) and honey tea (Cyclopia spp.) are typically South African products, which come from plants that are endemic to the fynbos. The species are now cultivated commercially.
Buchu (Agathosma spp.) and other fynbos plants are harvested for their essential oils, which are used in the cosmetics and medicines industries. The buchu oil is used as a base for perfumes, and its use in traditional medicine, or example in buchu brandy, is well known. Many of these plants are also now cultivated commercially.
The great variety of plants, and the beauty and diversity of the areas in which they grow, makes the fynbos an ideal attraction for local and foreign visitors alike.
These sustainable industries, all closely linked to the fynbos, provide many jobs, and create many more employment opportunities for the communities of the Southern Cape.
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The Afromontane Forests
The Afromontane (meaning African mountain) forest is a plant community (biome) that is an important part of the vegetation of the Garden Route - and also the history of the elephants of the area.
The forest is characterised by trees such as the yellowwoods (Podocarpusp.) - which can often be seen growing well above the other species - stinkwood (Occotea bullata), white pear (Appodytes dimidiata subsp. dimidiata), terblans beech (Faurea macnaughtonii), and assegai (Curtisia dentata). The forest can be further divided into different types, which follow the general rule-of-thumb that there is a greater diversity of species in the lower altitude forests than in those of the higher altitudes (this is also true for younger stands of forest, which generally have more species than the older forests).
The Afromontane forests are usually found at altitudes below 1 000 metres, in areas that are protected from wind and fire, and in soils that are deeper, more fertile, and more able to retain their moisture than those characteristic of the fynbos. Annual rainfall in these areas is more than 625 mm. These forests are generally not damaged by the periodic fires - partly because of the higher rainfall, but also because their leaves and woody parts are more resilient than those of the fynbos plants.
These forests occur in most of the mountains along Africa’s Indian Ocean seaboard, in a patchwork of small, relatively isolated areas, or "forest islands". The important tree species are common to all of these "islands" throughout the range (there are only about 500 000 hectares of indigenous forest in the whole of South Africa - covering about 0.5% of the total land mass).
The largest continuous example of Afromontane forest in South Africa - and therefore the most important within the Cape Floral Kingdom - is the Knysna Forest, which covers an area of just less than 60 000 hectares between George and Tsitsikamma.
Our elephants have access to a small portion of this forest at Knysna Elephant Park.
There is a common misconception that the forests of the Garden Route once covered most of the landscape in this area. This is incorrect. Before man began to have an impact on this area, the Afromontane forests, fynbos and strandveld would have formed a patchwork across the region that would have been influenced only by the suitability of any one area to support a particular vegetation type.
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Forests and the Economy
The forests of the Garden Route provide employment for many people in the region, and are therefore an important part of its economy.
The forests and their management and exploitation provide employment to, amongst others:
Management and conservation personnel: the scientists, forest officers and labourers who are responsible for the well-being and maintenance of the forests, as well as for harvesting the small quantities of wood that are made available to the furniture and curios industries;
Furniture and curio industry personnel who manufacture and sell curios: cabinet makers, saw millers, sculptors, and salespeople who bring the finished product to the public;
Equipment and tool manufacturers, suppliers and maintainers, who provide their goods and services to the timber and furniture industries;
Tourism trade personnel: tour guides, hotel staff, transport industry personnel and others who are involved in bringing visitors to the forests, etc.
The knock-on effect of this trickles down throughout the economy to, for example, the shops that supply goods and services to people who earn their money in the above- mentioned industries.
Plantation Forestry
Because South Africa is poor in natural forest, it has become necessary to farm with trees in order to supply our timber, pulp and paper needs. The South African Forestry industry claims to plant 90 million trees a year, in a plantation area of nearly 1.5 million hectares - or 1.2% of the country’s total land mass. In the Western Cape, forest plantations account for about 83 280 hectares, or 5.6% of the country’s total.
The principle species of plantation forests are exotic trees (those which came originally from other countries). In the Southern Cape, the following are cultivated:
The softwoods, which are used for timber and pulp -
Pinus radiata i.e. the Monterey pine
Pinus pinasater
The hardwoods, which are used for pulp, telegraph poles and mining timber -
Eucalyptus i.e. the gum trees
Forest plantations can only be created once a permit has been issued by the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry. Also, forest plantations may not utilise more than 70% of their sites - the balance of the ground has to be set aside for preservation of the environment. These are legal safe-guards to prevent the creation of plantations in areas which may be environmentally sensitive.
The forest plantation industry provides employment for many thousands of people throughout the country, with the industry actively involved in community development programmes.
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Invader Plants
A number of plants which are foreign to this country have become pests which are threatening our indigenous vegetation and our water supply. The consequences of not controlling these weeds could create enormous problems such as a dwindling water supply, the danger of runaway fires, and the destruction of natural habitat that is of value to tourism.
The weeds that are perhaps best known in the Southern Cape are the hakeas and Australian wattles, which have invaded large tracts of land in this area:
Hakea (hakea or naaldbos) - these shrubs or small trees have thin, hairy, lance-like leaves and woody, egg-shaped fruits. They pose a threat to the natural vegetation, particularly the fynbos. Fire in stands of hakea tends to burn at higher temperatures than is favourable for fynbos;
Acacia mearnsii (black wattle or swartwattel) - this tree is well-known for its thick bunches of sweet-smelling yellow flowers. It was originally imported, and is still grown, for use in the tannin industry. It has, however, thickly infested much of the country and is a serious threat to our water resources. The Government’s Work for Water Project aims to eradicate the wattle from areas where this is the case. The Knysna Elephant Park helps in the eradication of wattle by regularly cutting stands from the surrounding farms, feeding the fresh-cut material to the elephants who relish it as a special delicacy.
Acacia saligna (Port Jackson willow or goudwilger) - this long-leaved wattle is a particular problem on sand dunes and along the river banks of the South-Western Cape. No indigenous vegetation can survive amongst the thick, impenetrable stands of Port Jackson;
Acacia cyclops (Red-eye or rooikrans) - this tree quickly forms impenetrable stands which prevent the growth of indigenous flora. It is an invader in the fynbos as well as the succulent Karroo and even the forests of this area.
Only constant vigilance on the part of all South Africa’s citizens will prevent these plants from destroying our natural heritage.
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