Thicket types:

Dune thicketValley ThicketXeric Succulent ThicketMesic Succulent Thicket Spekboom Succulent Thicket

5. VALLEY THICKET

Synonyms:

Valley Thicket

Valley Bushveld (A23); Kaffrarian Thicket, Xeric Kaffrarian Thicket.

Statistics:

22 616 km²; ± 51% transformed; 1.78% conserved.

Locality & Physical Geography:

A very dense thicket of woody shrubs and trees which occurs in the river valleys of the eastern parts of the Western Cape, extending through Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal.

Climate:

Rainfall ranges from 400 to 800 mm per year and temperatures are mild or subtropical.

Geology & Soil.

In the Eastern Cape soils vary from sandy clays and lithosols of the Cape Supergroup and Dwyka and Ecca Formations, to deep solonetic soils derived from dolerites of the Beaufort Group.

Vegetation:

The flora has transitional Tongoland-Pondoland and Afromontane affinities. The closed canopy is up to 6 m in height and woody evergreen species are dominant, rather than succulent trees or shrubs. There is a great diversity of species in this thicket type. Locally there may be many endemic species, such as in the Albany "hot spot". Common species are Kooboo-berry Cassine aethiopica, Thornfern Asparagus spp., Plumbago auriculata, Dovyalis spp., Diospyros dichrophylla, Euphorbia triangularis and E. tetragona. However, there are so many variations of this thicket that it is difficult to characterise them in this short account.

Key Environmental Parameters:

Valley Thicket is often confined to river valleys stretching from the coast inland. Valley mists in the drier regions provide moisture. This thicket is invasive into savanna and grassland. In the past its distribution was controlled by large browsers such as rhino and kudu, and it is now spreading into many other vegetation types in the Eastern Cape.

Economic Uses:

It is economically important as the best area for Angora and Boer goat farming.

Conservation Status:

A number of large reserves conserve this thicket type (e.g. Andries Vosloo Kudu Reserve), but it is under threat where there is intensive, poorly managed farming with goats or ostriches.

Key Reference:

Everard (1987).

Author.

Roy Lubke.