Notes on the Vegetation of the Cape Flats

Abstract

Though the Cape Flats, adjoining Cape Town, were among the first explored parts o f South Africa, their vegetation, rapidly being altered by encroachment o f alien plants, has not been described before. In these notes, five inland and four coastal plant communities, delineated by habitat, are described; their relationships with one another and with coast-flats vegetation elsewhere are suggested. Observations on means of regeneration after fire show that the woody, tropical-derived element regenerates rapidly from coppice, while the “fynbos” or temperate sclerophyll element contains many seed-regenerating species. Succession in the fynbos is thus more complex and prolonged.