The Pondoland Centre of Endemism (PCE)

Pondoland is a region of the Eastern Cape province on the south eastern coast of South Africa (see below). The area is named after the Pondo, a group of Nguni-speaking peoples who inhabit the area.

The Pondoland Centre of Endemism is defined in terms of the underlying Msikaba Formation sandstone which occurs in Pondoland and in the southern part of KwaZulu-Natal. The area has been acknowledged as one of the important centres of plant diversity and endemism in Africa.

The Msikaba Formation is fairly homogeneous and is now known to be unrelated to the Natal Group with which it was previously associated. The Msikaba Formation is most closely related to the Witteberg Group of sediments of the Cape Supergroup. This may be the reason for the area being the northernmost distribution of fynbos species such as Leucadendron spissifolium and Leucospermum innovans.

Soils overlying the Msikaba Formation sandstones are sandy and, due to the high rainfall, are highly leached, and often fairly shallow.

The vegetation of the Pondoland Centre consists mainly of grassveld together with isolated forest patches which are restricted mainly to the protected river gorges although these sometimes spill out onto south- and southwest-facing slopes.

The grassveld is particularly vigorous, and permit a high burning frequency of two to three times per year, and indeed, regular fires are essential for the maintenance of the grassveld biodiversity. However, inappropriate management practices of too frequent fires and heavy grazing have led to loss of floristic diversity and increase in the unpalatable grass Aristida junciformis. In contrast, where fires are deliberately withheld, woody shrub species come to dominate fairly quickly.

The leached soils with low nutrient content combined with the mild temperatures and plentiful sunshine have created unique conditions for the evolution of a diverse group of specialised plants, encouraging a high level of endemism. More than 100 species are believed to be endemic to the Pondoland Centre (click on the heading Pondoland Endemics A-Z above).

Map of the Pondoland Centre of Endemism reproduced with permission from Prof. AE van 
Wyk, an author of Regions of Floristic Endemism in Southern Africa (Umdaus Press, 2001)