YELLOWWOODS

LIFECYCLES OF THE TALL AND FAMOUS

the proud forest kings“Like a mighty king it stood towering above the white alder and

mountain saffron, stinkwood, assegai and hard pear. As if God had

planted it long before the others. Its giant roots anchored it to the

ground like giant arms.” ~ Dalene Matthee, Circles in a Forest, 1984

The forest is a layered ecosystem in which each tree, shrub, and herb

plays its part in the ongoing cycle of life. Each layer harbours a range

of plants and animals adapted to exploit the prevailing conditions.

For the plant life, though, it’s often a crowded system in which each

individual jostles for space: young trees push relentlessly upward to

fill any gaps left by dying or fallen specimens until they form a canopy

of interlocking crowns.

Forests in the Garden Route are classified according to their geography,

and the rainfall they receive - both of which affect the kind of trees

that grow in them, and the number of layers they exhibit.

The moist high forests bordering parts of the N2 have a more

layered structure than either the dryer forests or the scrub found

near the coast, the very wet forests which shelter high on the

mountains, or in the shaded parts of the deep valleys of the region.

The layers of the moist high typically include:

• Herbs at ground level

• Shrubs growing 3- to 6 metres high,

• A loosely defined layer of trees at 6- to 12 metres

• A canopy formed by the trees 160 to 22 metres

• Occasional gigantic trees up to 45 metres, usually Outeniqua

yellowwoods (Podocarpus falcatus), may emerge above the canopy

Temperatures in the fully exposed canopy during a sunny day are

typically about 10 °C hotter than on the shaded forest floor. The

canopy also protects the plants below from the effects of wind.

The herb and shrub layers protect young seedlings and saplings

which often grow as stunted trees in the intermediate layer beneath

the canopy. They will begin to race upwards to the sunlight as soon

as a dying or falling tree creates a gap in the canopy above.

Rapid recycling of nutrients is vital to the survival of the

forests, where a remarkably shallow root system exists in an

equally shallow bed of humus (largely made up of decaying

plant matter).

An abundance of fungi and microbes accelerates the process of

decay, which happens many times faster than in other plant

communities like fynbos or savanna.

The canopy of these forests is home to many fruit-eating birds -

like the rameron pigeon and the Knysna loerie, while others,

like the chorister robin, search for fruit, seeds or insects in the

lower layers. Mammals (moles, bats, shrews, monkeys, baboon,

porcupine, wild cats, caracal, leopard, bushpig, dassie, grey

rhebuck, bushbuck, blue duiker, grysbok, elephants, etc.)

and reptiles and insects also populate different

strata of the forest.