Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

30 ALOES AND LILIES OF ETHIOPIA
8. The Ericaceous belt (EB)
A well developed Ericaceous belt is characteristic for
most of the higher mountains in Ethiopia. However, the
upper and lower limits of this vegetation type are quite
difficult to define. The vegetation is defined somewhat
arbitrarily by its occurrence mainly between the 3000 and
the 3200 m. This altitudinal range borders below with the
upper zone of the Dry Afromontane forest and the Moist
Afromontane forest. The belt is most notable above the
Harenna forest in the Bale Mountains. It borders with the
Afroalpine zone proper at about 3200 m.
The Ericaceous belt is phsyiognomically characterized
by the dominance of shrubs and shrubby trees such as Erica
arborea, Erica (Phillipia) trimera, Hypericum revolutum,
Myrsine melanophloeos and perennial herbs Alchemilla
haumannii, Geranium arabicum, Anthemis tigreensis,
Haplocarpha ruppellii, Helichrysum citrispinum, H.
splendidum, H. gofense, H. formosissimum, Senecio
schultzii, Trifolium acaule and T. burchellianum.
The highest point in Eritrea is the mountain called
MtSoira, c. 3010 m (http://www.eritrea.be/old/eritreageography.htm).
Thus the Erica species might occur, but
possibly not forming a belt. But this has to be verified by
resident botanists.
Lilies are not commonly found in this vegetation type.
However, those species that are found in the Afroalpine
vegetation could also be encountered here. This include
Hesperantha petitiana, Romulea fischeri and R. schimperi
(Iridaceae). This vegetation type is marked in dark pink
colour (Fig. 5) and is represented as shown in Fig. 16.
9. Afroalpine vegetation (AA)
This vegetation type is characterized by small trees,
shrubs and shrubby herbs at the lower altitudes and
giant herbs, small herbs and grasses. It occurs in areas
above 3200 m, occupying the highest mountains in the
Ethiopia. Some examples include: Amba Alagi (3440 m)
in the Tigray floristic region; the Choke Mountains (4070
m) in the Gojam floristic region; the Semien Mountains
(the tallest peak in the Semien Mountains, Ras Dashen
(4620 m), Mt. Buahit (4510 m) and Abba Yared (4460
m) in the Gonder floristic region; Abyue Meda (4305) in