Aloes and Lilies of Ethiopia and Eritrea

36 ALOES AND LILIES OF ETHIOPIA
The salts in the salty lakes in the central rift valley
including Lakes Abijata, Shala and Chitu (all in the
Shewa floristic region) are mainly consisting of sodium
bicarbonate (soda lakes), while the salts in the salt Lakes
in the in the more arid parts of the country, where both
temperatures and evaporation are high, mainly consists
of sodium chloride (the common salt of the ocean).
These include Lakes Abe, Afambo and Bario that are
fed by the River Awash, the desert lakes Lake Afrera and
Karum (Asale) in the Afar Depression. In Eritrea, it is
represented by Lake Kulul and similar lakes within the
Afar Depression at about 75 m below sea level (http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Eritrea). There are
hardly any vascular plants known to occur in these lakes.
This vegetation type is marked in pale yellow colour
(Fig. 5).
Subtype 12b. Salt pans, saline/brackish and intermittent
wetlands and salt-lake shore vegetation (SLV/SSS)
This vegetation subtype is characterized by Suaeda
monoica, herbaceous species of Atriplex spp. and
Salicornia (all in Chenopodiaceae) and is marked in dark
mauve colour (Fig. 5).
Coastal vegetation
This vegetation type is characterized by highly salt
tolerant plant species along the shores of the Red Sea
(Fig. 20). These plants include low shrubs and tussock
forming plants, partcularly in the families Capparaceae,
Chenopodiaceae, Salvadoraceae, Zygophyllaceae and
Poa ceae (grasses). The mangrove species, Avicennia
marina and Rhizophora mucronata are also components
of the coastal vegetation. The areas covered by coastal
vegetation are often rocky or sandy, and the latter ones
are particularly prone to wind erosion. This vegetation
is restricted to the coastal parts of Eritrea, adjacent to
the Red Sea and is not mapped. The total coastline for
Eritrea is indicated as 2 234 km with Red Sea accounting
for 1151 km and other islands in Red Sea accounting to
1083 km (html:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_
Eritrea).