25. NATAL CENTRAL BUSHVELD

Synonyms:

Northern Tall Grassland (A64), Southern Tall Grassland (A65), Natal Sour Sandveld (A66).

Statistics:

17 037 km²; ± 80% transformed; 1.56% conserved.

Locality & Physical Geography:

This bushveld type occupies a large portion of the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, in the Newcastle, Vryheid, Dundee and Estcourt areas. The altitude is 600 to 1 350 m.

Climate:

The rainfall is 600 to 900 mm per year, in summer. Mean temperatures for January are around 22C with a mean maximum of 29C. In winter mean annual temperatures in July are about 10C with a mean minimum of about 3C.

Geology & Soil:

The soil is shallow, derived from shales and mudstones of the Ecca Group of the Karoo Sequence. With a rainfall of less than 450 mm it is characterised by subsoils which are either duplex, which renders them potentially highly erodible, or dominated by black clays.

Vegetation:

This is an open savanna, with scattered trees of Paperbark Thorn Acacia sieberiana, Sweet Thorn A. karroo, Scented Thorn A. nilotica and A. caffra. The herbaceous layer is quite variable, with secondary grassland, dominated by patches of tall Common Thatchgrass Hyparrhenia hirta, and sour grassland, dominated by Hairy Tridentgrass Tristachya leucothrix. Other grass species include Narrowheart Lovegrass Eragrostis racemosa, Pincushion Grass Microchloa caffra, Broadleaf Bluestem Diheteropogon amplectens, Trachypogon spicatus, Digitaria tricholaenoides, Elionurus muticus and Themeda triandra.

Key Environmental Parameters:

Where this vegetation type occurs on highly erodible, shallow duplex soils, grazing and fire require careful management.

Economic Uses:

Cattle and game farming, forestry and agriculture.

Conservation Status:

This highly transformed vegetation type is very poorly conserved.

Key References:

Edwards (1967), Moll (1976,1978b).

Author:

Ed Granger.