Floristic analysis of the Mountain Zebra National Park, Eastern Cape

The following individuals and institutions are sincerely thanked: South African National Parks (SANParks), National Botanical Institute for the use of data from the National Herbarium, Pretoria Computerised Information System (PRECIS) and for ad hoc identifications; Tony Dold at the Selmar Schönland Herbarium, Grahamstown for plant identifications; Barrie Low, Environmental Consultant, for the input and update of the species list via the SaS database and for comment on the draft report; Johan de Klerk, Section Game Ranger at MZNP, for his help and support; Mountain Zebra National Park warden Paddy Gordon (at the time) and staff for accommodating this study. and Technikon SA (TSA) for initiating this study and Applied Natural Sciences.

As part of a larger project to assess the vegetation dynamics and conservation potential of the enlarged Mountain Zebra National Park, a checklist was produced to determine the plant species richness for this area. Six hundred and eighty species, represented by 333 genera and 87 families were identified. One hundred and eighty species belong to the Monocotyledoneae and 479 species to the Dicotyledoneae. By far the largest families are the Asteraceae with 129 and the Poaceae with 82 species. Thirteen Red Data species were recorded. A number of fynbos elements were encountered, the most noteworthy being two families endemic to the Cape Floristic Region, the Penaeaceae and Grubbiaceae. A very high species to square kilometre ratio of 5.05 supports the area’s rich floristic composition.

National Research Foundation (NRF) and Technikon SA