XVI International Botanical Congess

In many ways the coastal plants and communities of the tropics and subtropics of the eastern coast of Africa are similar. For example, Scaevola plumeri, a major dune forming succulent shrub stretches from Kenya to Cape Agulhas. Other pioneer dune species are locally important, but it is the secondary colonising species and change in@ climax@ plant communities that reveals the difference in character along the coastline. The changes in land form and climate, which are responsible fro changes in climax plant communities interior to the mobile dunes, are discussed, In the south, dune fynbos (heathland) is characteristic of the winter rainfall Cape coast, and this changes to coastal grassland, dune thicket and coastal forest as one moves northwards. Some climax species are dominant with extensive ranges (e.g. Sideroxylon inerme - dune thicket), while other are local or endemic dominants (e.g. Erica chloroloma - dune fynbos).