THE PLANT ECOLOGY OF DRAKENSBEKG RANGE. DOO 



not SO common. They were found to be more characteristic 

 of the unstable slopes, where Andropogon associations 

 marked a transitional type of veld. In the Drakensberg, 

 where the veld is all of a semi-unstable type, the associated 

 plants are very abundant. In spring, after the first rains, the 

 ground is carpeted with innumerable brightly coloured flowers, 

 especially of the herbaceous and bulbous species, while in 

 autumn the taller suffruticose and shrubby forms meet the 

 eye everywhere. 



These associated plants increase in importance where the 

 veld becomes more and more broken and ultimately passes 

 into rocky scrub. In such rocky situations the grasses are 

 often subordinate to the other plants. 



On the other hand, on uniform or flat stretches which, seen 

 from a distance, appear to be ordinary veld, a closer view 

 shows that there are many bare patches, or moist patches, or 

 places where there is a local variation in the soil conditions, 

 such as small iron-pans, etc. Such small areas — they may be 

 only a yard or two in diameter — -are not occupied by grasses, 

 but by various other species, e. g. woolly Helichrysums or 

 other Composites, or in the case of the bare gravelly patches 

 by leguminous plants, Crassula spp. etc. It will be seen, 

 therefore, that species occupying such situations — broken, 

 rocky ground or patches on the flats and slopes, which have 

 soil conditions unsuitable for the grasses, though they occur 

 in the area occupied by the veld formation — do not grow inter- 

 mingled or intimately associated with the grasses. In many 

 cases it is doubtful whether they should be included in the 

 veld formation. They should rather be considered as so many 

 oases of a distinct and transitional type. 



Many of them also occur in the rocky scrub or around the 

 margin of scrub and bush, and in such cases their transitional 

 nature is easily seen. In the same way, those that occupy the 

 moister patches are transitional to the vleis, and at higher 

 altitudes the patches are transitional to the talus-slopes. 



Apart, however, from the plants of these transitional types, 

 there are a fairly large number of others that do grow more 



