We recently went to the University of the Western Cape Nature
Reserve. Here we were told how the nature reserve is managed, here are some of
my findings; there are two types of vegetation that we identified namely: THICKETS
AND SHRUBS.
These would be your thickets These would be your shrubs
As you can see from the above pictures there is a huge
difference between these two environments of these plants this is largely due
to the fact that the area in which these plants are located is said to have an
ocean where sediments deposited. You may ask then why the big difference, this
is largely due to the fact that the thicket are located in an area that is full
of nutrients such as limestone which is a rock that is composed of biogenic minerals,
they have more than enough nutrients to enable them to grow to their full potential.
The shrubs (right-side) are very low lying and have less leaves. These shrubs
are located in an area that has less nutrients the soil that is found here has
less nutrients, it is very fine with no sign of any limestone. These plants
thus have to make means with what they have and thus have adapted to this environment,
below are pictures of the type of s
Soil
with limestone fine
soil as
you can observe the soils are very different both in content and particle size.we
also observed that the reserve suffered from a fire outbreak that destroyed
many plant species and was an advantage to others.the good news is that the
plants are making full recovery.
AFFECTED
AREA 
