Appendix A
Common Natural Vegetation Types in Namibia
Plant
Description
Growth Requirements
More or less robust perennial, growing either as a dense tussock,
with or without extended stolons or as a continuous stoloniferous
sward. Stolon internodes with or without hairs.
Used for grazing, hay or silage. Suitable for cut-and-carry.
excellent species for beef and milk production
Can grow on a wide range of soil types
from sands to heavy clays. seedproducing lines are better adapted to
sandy loam soils, they also grow
vigorously on clays once established.
Anthephora pubescens
(Bottle brush
grass, Wool grass)
a leafy, palatable, perennial tussock grass. warm season grazing,
also providing useful stand over feed into the cool season
Occurs in the 250-650 mm rainfall areas,
most common in the 350 mm area.
Suited to the lateritic red earth soils and
sandy soils with a pH range of 6-7. It
will not grow on heavy soils.
Brachiaria
nigropedata
(Spotted brachiaria)
Densely tufted perennial, 25-100 cm high with the base bulbous
and with silky tomentose sheaths. Leaf-blades flat, pubescent to
villous, 6-30 cm long and 2-8 mm wide.
Open or bushed grassland, often on
sandy soil and rocky ground
Stipagrostis
(desert grass)
Grows in dense tufts with many erect culms encased in woolly
sheaths. Up to 40 cm. Appears in the desert after rainfall and
regularly in the savannah region. Mainly supports sheep and
goat farming.
Can grow in <50 mm rainfall area, but
only after rains
Grasses
Digitaria eriantha
(Common finger grass,
Smuts finger grass,
digit grass)
Shrubs
Acacia Senegalia
mellifera
(Blackthorn)
Acacia reficiens
(Red-bark acacia, red
thorn, false umbrella
tree)
Deciduous shrub, 5 – 6 m tall. Pairs of thorns are small, black,
sharp and hooked. a multipurpose tree. The leaves, pods and
young shoots are nutritious and make fodder for livestock and
wild animals. Browsed by camels, goats and wild animals such
as black rhinos, kudus, elands and giraffes. Flowers are
attractive to bees, which produce a high quality honey, hence the
name mellifera
Commonly occurring shrub on rangelands throughout the
savannah in western, eastern and southern Africa, terrain
preference is rocky hillsides with rainfall along seasonal
watercourses, mixed with other trees. mellifera is a gregarious
species. It often constitutes almost pure, dense, impenetrable,
even-aged thickets.
It occurs in the rainfall belts between
400 and 800 mm MAR, but down to the
100 mm isohyet in the Rep. of Sudan
along the drainage networks (e.g. Wadi
al Milk, in Kordofan).
Usually found on clay soils, but can
grow on most soils
1-3 m high, but frequently 3-8 m in height. Its bark is reddishbrown or greyish-black, and is quite rough and fissured. Has
both, long, straight thorns and shorter curved/hook-like thorns,
but generally not both in one pair. Considered an invasive
species, especially in disturbed soil.
Around oshanas, pans, dry river beds, hills
grows on gravel and rocky/stony
substrates, seldom on sandy soil
Sources:
Feedipedia http://www.feedipedia.org/
Jim Sweet and Antje Burke (2000; 2006). Country pasture/forage profiles: Namibia. Retrieved
from http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/AGPC/doc/Counprof/Namibia/namibia.htm
Tree Atlas of Namibia http://treeatlas.biodiversity.org.na/index.php