Vihreä Afrikka: Kasveja ja Kasvillisuutta [Green Africa: Plants and Vegetation]

About this book

Language: Finnish with English summary

The most important vegetation types of Africa are introduced, with East Africa and southern Central Africa as examples. Selected important trees and other plant species are described and illustrated from each vegetation type.

The Introduction includes a short overview on the geological history of the continent, and on the ways those events are now seen in the distributions of various vegetation types, their characteristics and species. The description of African vegetation types focuses on five themes: savannas, drylands, rainforests, montane vegetation and wetlands.

The savannas are divided in two main types: arid savannas and miombo woodlands, and these are analysed in depth. The driest vegetation types are variable and include plenty of local specified forms, and these can be illustrated with selected examples only. The main rainforest areas of the Congo basin and West Africa fall outside the scope of the book, but rainforest ecology is introduced with East African coastal rainforests as examples. Mountains and ranges are restricted and scattered in Africa, but highlands harbour a lush and diverse vegetation, with a high number of endemic taxa.

All this is treated extensively, starting from moist forests of mountain foothills, and ending in the upper limit of plant growth 5 000 metres high up. Wetlands and coastline vegetation are briefly dealt with.
After the description of vegetation types there is a summary of African phytochoria, as they are usually treated in text-books, plus a sketch towards a new approach in which the relationships of the main vegetation types are sought not only from links between trees and other vegetation, but also between their symbiotic mycota.

The last text section deals with the terms of living for African people: agriculture and cultivated plants, plant products cathered from the wild, future prospects and possibilities of nature protection. New Finnish names for over 200 African trees and other plants are here published for the first time – these were compiled by the Plant-name Committee of the Finnish Biological Society Vanamo. In the end there is a glossary of botanical terms, references for each text section, and an extensive list of literature.

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