Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

24 ALOES AND LILIES OF ETHIOPIA
Fig. 11. Dry
Afromontane
forest, subtype
DAF/DS near
Lake Ashenge in
Tigray floristic
region.
Subtype 5c. Afromontane woodland, wooded grassland
and grassland (DAF/WG)
This includes the natural woodlands, wooded grasslands
and grasslands of the plateau. When a tree stratum is
present, this consists mainly of species of Acacia (A.
abyssinica, A. lahai, A. bavazanoi, A. origena and A.
venosa in the Ethiopian highlands. This vegetation type
with woody species occurs on well drained sites and with
edaphic grasslands on areas with black cotton soil which
may be flooded during the rains. Thus the vegetation
type must be assumed to have formed a mosaic with the
forests and evergreen bushland vegetation of the plateau
before the influence of man. Pure grasslands are seen in
the highlands as for example in the Arsi floristic region
between the small towns of Kofele and Adaba.
Some of the Aloe that occur in this vegetation type
include A. elegans and A. camperi (Aloaceae). Other
lilies include Aristea angolensis and Moraea schimperi
(Iridaceae) and Kniphofia insignis (Asphodelaceae). This
vegetation subtype is not be mapped , but represented as
shown in Fig. 12.
Subtype 5d. Transition between Afromontane vegetation
and Acacia-Commiphora bushland on the Eastern
Escarpment (DAF/TR)
This is a complex of scattered transitional vegetation
which includes a range of physiognomic types, but with
characteristic and sometimes very unusual species, such
as Barbeya oleoides, belonging to the monotypic and
isolated family Barbeyaceae. The vegetation ranges from
open forest (e.g. Negelle, Sidamo) to evergreen scrub
with dispersed trees (on the escarpment of the Ethiopian