1953] 



VEGETATION OF NYAS ALAND 



177 



southeasterly direction, and most of the other forest relics were in gullies and 

 ravines of tributary streams. Whyte deplored the devastating effects of the annual 

 bushfires, which crept up to the plateau from the inhabited lower slopes of the 

 mountain in the dry months of August and September. The plateau grasslands had 

 been recently burned at the time of his visit. He described the annual attrition by 

 fire of the remaining belts of forest. "In exceptionally dry seasons it appears that 

 these fires have even penetrated some of the damp forests, and hundreds of giant 

 cypresses lay prostrate and piled on each other in all stages of destruction, but 

 generally burned right through at the base of the tree." From Cholo late in 

 September we watched a fire advance up the slopes of Mlanje and in several days 

 reach nearly to the rim of Luchenya Plateau, where it died out. For 20 years or 

 more every effort had been made to protect the remaining forests, and only very 

 minor recent fire damage was noted at the time of our visit. 



The Widdringtonia is the outstanding tree of the mountain, and is approached 

 in size only by Podocarpus milanjianus Rendle, a less common conifer of the 

 forests. Old trees may be over 100 feet tall and their straight trunks, coated 

 with very thick fibrous bark, attain six feet in diameter at the base. It may dom- 

 inate the forest in pure stands on the sides of ravines and other steep slopes, 

 or occur in more open order as a conspicuous super-canopy tree thrusting grey 

 boles and lichen-draped crowns well above a mixed stand of broadleaved trees 

 that forms the actual canopy of most of the forest. The broadleaved trees, thick 

 of stem in proportion to their height of 30 to 60 feet, formed a canopy so dense 

 that on dull days visibility under it was too poor for details in the treetops to be 

 made out or for one to see more than a short distance in the forest. The few 

 species found in flower or fruit included Pygeum 16611, Allophyllus aff. 

 buchananii Gilg, Olina usambarensis Gilg, 16614, 16609, Myrica 16613, and, 

 usually in marginal situations, Royena whyteana Hiern, Maesa cf. lanceolata 

 Forsk., Lachnopylis cf. goetzeana (Gilg) Greenw., and Rapanea melanophleos 

 (L.) Mez. Some of the marginal trees were perhaps second growth elements, 

 grown big. For example, massive old Agauria salicifolia trees occurred in 

 forest edges both here and on Zomba, but on Mlanje and Nyika this was also a 

 characteristic species of secondary forest and secondary savanna. 



In an abundance of bryophytes, prominent throughout and normally saturated 

 and cold from mist and rain, heavily padded on marginal trees, cushioned in 

 treetops, and in the moist er ravines enveloping tree trunks and combining with 

 matted surface roots to form a springy and often treacherous ground cover, 

 these were typical cloud forests. Associated with the mosses and hepatics as 

 epiphytes were many orchids and ferns of rather few species, the former all 

 sterile in June and July, the latter most commonly Asplenium aethiopicum (Burm.) 

 Bech., A. sandersonii Hook, f., A. megalura Hieron., a Vittaria, Polypodium 

 excavatum Bory, Loxo gramme lanceolata (Sw.) Pr., shrubby Oleandra africana 

 R. Bonap., and the massed filmy ferns Hymenophyllum kuhnii C. Chr., H. capillare 

 Desv., and H. polyanthos Sw. Yellow-flowered Senecio milanjianus S. Moore, 

 pendent Streptocarpus goetzei Engl., and Lycopodium ophioglossoides Lam. were 

 striking though less common epiphytes. Without determinations for collected 

 plants, about all that can be said of a floristically poor undergrowth under 

 unbroken canopy in the primary forest is that it was predominantly herbaceous, 

 and Plectrantbus sxuynnertonii S. Moore, 4-6 feet high, was a characterizing 

 species. 



The undergrowth in some forest patches in upland hollows consisted mainly 

 of a fleshy plant of the Acanthaceae (?), growing to 8 feet or more where un- 

 disturbed, but in most of the forest the bushbuck had it cropped down to less than 



