Cape Hangklip area. I. The application of association-analysis. homogeneity functions and Braun-Blanquet techniques in the description of south-western Cape vegetation

Abstract

Releve data were collected in two phases from, respectively 150 and 100 sampling points distributed by stratified random means through almost 24 000 ha of vegetation. Association-analysis, Braun-Blanquet and homogeneity function methods were used to treat the data. Only the "normal” association-analysis method was applied. Three sorting techniques for tabulating the data were tested and were compared with a fourth method. Homogeneity functions were used to construct a dendrogram and to determine the degree of similarity between individual releves and groups of releves. After compaiison of the methods, it was concluded that the Braun-Blanquet method is consistently more efficient and more exact, even in the floristically rich vegetation of the south-western Cape Province of South Africa.