Vol 3 Land Resource Inventory Report - Department of Environment ...

Figure 3.14. Coastal Forest Type with dominant evergreen like Terminalia catappa,
Barringtonia asiatica and Pisonia grandis. The deciduous (tree without leaves) tree
Gyrocarpus americanus on the slopes.
Other common large trees include Hernandia nymphaeifolia, Thespesia populnea,
Neisosperma oppositifolium, Calophyllum inophyllum, and Cocos nucifera. These trees
on average had heights of up to 12m with boles of 2-3m. The largest tree measured was
Terminalia catappa with dbh of 96cm. Shrubs and sub canopy trees observed included
Hibiscus tiliaceus, Guetarda speciosa, Excoecaria agallocha, Acacia simplex and
Scaevola taccada.
Mangrove Forest
The mangrove forest is not extensive and is restricted only to the south east coast
covering an area of about 600 m 2 . Here a small stand of Rhizophora cf. stylosa was
observed. Trees on average grew to three meters in height with an average dbh of about
35cm.
Dry Forest
The rest of the island is mostly made up of this forest type. The bole of the trees on
average has lengths of about 3m and leaves are sclerophyllous. There are a lot of woody
lianas and Cycas seemannii (Fig 8). Deciduous trees and shrubs found in the forest type
included Gyrocarpus americanus, Pleiogynium timoriense, Millettia pinnata, Erythrina
variegata and Antirhea insconspicua. Two other deciduous plants normally found on
such forest were not observed - Koeluteria elegans and Garuga floribunda. Lianas and
creepers include Entada phaseoloides, Ventilago vitiensis and Dichapetalum vitiense and
are common throughout the island.
The ground cover is covered with sparsely dispersed woody plants like Alyxia sp,
Nephrolepsis sp., the grasses Scleria sp. and Oplismenus sp.
Overall there is evidence of previous grazing and fire but no recent sign of such activities.
The Island overall has only a handful of invasive species that have very little ecological
impact.
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