10 - Introduced plants of the fynbos biome of South Africa

Summary

This chapter reviews information on introduced plants of the fynbos biome in the context of invasions by introduced plants in the southern African subcontinent as a whole. Southern Africa is defined as that part of the continent lying south of latitude 22° S. It covers a land area of approximately 2077 700 km², in which seven biomes are represented: fynbos, succulent karoo, nama karoo, desert, grassland, savanna and forest (Rutherford & Westfall, 1986; Figure 10.1). The fynbos biome occurs only within the boundaries of the Republic of South Africa.

The southern Africa flora region, which extends north of latitude 22° S to the northern borders of Namibia, covers an area of approximately 2573000 km², from which about 20000 indigenous species (Gibbs Russell, 1985) and 1000 naturalised introduced species have been recorded.

Mediterranean-type ecosystems in southern Africa

The winter-rainfall region of southern Africa, treated as a single climatic habitat (Figure 10.2), occupies an area of approximately 160000 km², i.e. 7.8 per cent of the area of the subcontinent. It stretches from the south–western Cape, where rainfall on mountain peaks may exceed 3000 mm per year, northwards for approximately 1100 km, ending in Namibia, where the mean annual rainfall may be as low as 20 mm. The northern extremity of the region, not shown in Figure 10.2, approximates to that of the succulent karoo biome in Figure 10.1.