A checklist of the plants of the Karkloof Forest, Natal midlands

A checklist of the plants of the Karkloof Forest is presented. Of the 400 ta\a recorded, seven are bryophytes, 69 are pteridophytes. four are gyninosperms and 320 are angiosperms At least 17 of the plants recorded are localized or uncommon in Natal. Two of these are endemic to the area.


INTRODUCTION
carried out the first detailed study of the Karkloof Forest's vegetation and prov ides a preliminary checklist of the plants. Taylor (1961) gives a brief account of the plant communities of the Karkloof Forest although his paper is directed at its conservation. More recently Moll (1976) included the Karkloof Forest in his vegetation survey of the Three Rivers region. Natal. Other than the above, little has been published on the area, despite the fact that it is one of the largest remaining patches of mistbelt forest in Natal.
The absence in regional herbaria of records of species commonly seen in the area highlighted the need for a comprehensive checklist of the forest plants. STUDY

AREA AND METHODS
The Karkloof Forest lies in the Natal midlands and covers an estimated area of 6 000 ha (Cooper 1985). It extends in length for 40 kin. from about 22 km north of Howick (29°17'S. 30°09'E) to 13 km northeast of New Hanover (29°14'S. 30°28'E), and comprises a number of forest patches restricted mainly to the steep eastward side of the Karkloof Range. The forest ranges in altitude from 800 m near the Karkloof and Umgeni River confluence up to 1 700 in on the upper slopes of Mt Gilboa.
Most of the forests in the midlands region, including the Karkloof. fall under Acocks's (1988) Veld Type 5 ( Ngongoni Veld). In addition to mist the forest receives a mean annual rainfall of about 1 6(X) nun (I 300-2 2(X) mm) (Rycroft 1944: Oatley 1978pers. obs.) falling mostly in summer. Predominant winds in the summer months are southeasterly but in winter, as along most of the escarpment, northwesterly berg winds predominate. Rycroft (1944) attributes the stunted grow th of forest trees in the northwestern Karkloof and the deaths of numerous young forest trees each year to these latter hot. dry winds.
Little is published of temperatures within the forest but Oatley (1978) recorded some data over a two year period. From h is data the mean annual maximum temperature is I8.0°C (range 15.2-20.9°C) measured in February, and the mean minimum is 8.4°C (range 4.6 -12,2°C) in July.
Most of the collecting for this survey was done near the Farms Mbona and Chard which form part of the Blinkwater forest patch. Other sites in the Karkloof were also visited during the survey for the purpose of completeness. All specimens are lodged at NU. In addition to my specimens, any records of plants from other collectors, which were found in NU. are included. Of these, E.J. Moll has possibly contributed the most. Much of his collecting was carried out in the forest near the Farms The Start. Benvie and Ehlatini. Even though every effort was made to make the checklist as comprehensive as possible, there will be a number of species that have been overlooked. Bryophytes were only occasionally collected during this survey, and field observations indicate that many more taxa occur in the forest than this checklist suggests. Rycroft (1941)   Pteris (4 spp.). No comparative data arc available tor other mistbelt forests in Natal, but Acocks (1988) also notes the dominance of ferns and other genera such as Plectmnthus in the forests of this region.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Although a crude attempt was made to include species habitat preferences on the checklist, no indication ol status is shown (some quantitative data are available but will appear elsewhere (Wirminghaus & Perrin in prep.)|. At least 17 of the species recorded from the forest were found to be uncommon or to have localized distributions within Natal. The ferns Arachniodes foliosa, Asplenium dregeanum, Asplenium preussii, Blechnum capense, Elaphoglossum aubertii, Loxogramme lanceolata and Trichomanes reptans are regarded as rare in Natal (Jacobsen 1983) and are known from only one or two sites in the forest. Other plants such as Hilliardia zuurbergensis, Lobelia malowensis, Microstegium nudum, Mikaniopsis c issa m p e lin a , P lectra n th u s eleg a n tu lu s, Polygonum nepalense and the trees Andrachne ovalis and Suregada procera, are only known from a few localities within Natal. The herbs Geranium naialense and Plectranthus rehmannii are the only plants known to be endemic to the Karkloof Forest (Codd 1985;Hilliard & Burtt 1985).

CHECKLIST
The checklist is arranged according to Gibbs Russell et al. (1985) and (iibbs Russell et al. (1987). and one orchid according to Linder (1989). All voucher specimens cited are specimens collected by J O. Wirminghaus and housed in NU unless otherwise stated or unless a literature citation is given. Introduced and alien species arc indicated by an asterisk In order to make the list more meaningful, habitat annotations have been added for each species recorded. These are derived either from herbarium specimen labels or from personal field observations and are as follows: I. forest margins; 2, forest gaps or small clearings; 3. forest lloor; 4. forest understorey; 5. forest canopy; 6. next to streams in forest.