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The Zambezian and mopane woodlands is a tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrublands ecoregion of southeastern Africa.. The ecoregion is characterized by the mopane tree (Colophospermum mopane), and extends across portions of Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Eswatini, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, including the lower basins of the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers.
Baikiaea plurijuga is the characteristic tree of two dry woodland ecoregions of southern Africa, the Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands and Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands, where it can grow in near-monodominant stands. [2] The genus is named after William Balfour Baikie (1824-1864), Scottish explorer of the Niger River.
Botanist Frank White estimated that the region has 8,500 species of plants, of which 4,590, or 54%, are endemic. [3] Trees from subfamily Detarioideae of the legume family are predominant in the region's woodland plant communities, including species of Brachystegia, Julbernardia, and Isoberlinia in miombo woodlands, Baikiaea in Baikiaea woodlands, and mopane (Colophospermum mopane) in mopane ...
Rainfall amount is the most important determinant of the type and distribution of ecoregions. Zambia experiences good rainfall, with extremes of 500 to 1400 mm (most areas fall into the range 700 to ) in a distinct rainy season of four to six months centred on January, when the moist Intertropical Convergence Zone is over the country.
Under the trees there is a rich variety of other flora while the grassland areas in the region lie on sandy soil. One particular feature of miombo woodland is its vulnerability to fire, as the area is dry most of the year round.
The drier Zambezian and mopane woodlands occupy the lowlands along the Zambezi and its major tributaries, including the Shire and Lugenda, and the lowlands of the Limpopo. To the north and northwest, the Eastern miombo woodlands transition to the Central Zambezian miombo woodlands. To the southwest, they transition to the Southern Africa bushveld.
The Zambezian evergreen dry forests, also known as the Zambezian Cryptosepalum dry forest, is a tropical dry broadleaf forest ecoregion of Southern Africa. It consists of several areas of thick forest in western Zambia and adjacent Angola. [2] It is one of the largest areas of tropical evergreen forest outside the equatorial zone.
Dry miombo is an open woodland of mostly deciduous trees, typically less than 15 meters tall with 30 to 60% cover. There shrubs and saplings form a discontinuous understory along with scattered understory trees, and grasses, forbs and subshrubs at ground level.