ABSTRACT
Thick and intricate forest composed of a diverse range of hard and softwood species often dominates mental pictures of the North American physical environment. This leafy image is reinforced by recent films such as The Last of the Mohicans, based on the J.Fenimore Cooper novel (1826) set on the wilderness frontier of upstate New York, with its canopy of birch, beech, maple, hemlock, fir and spruce. By contrast, trees (and forests especially) rarely spring to mind when one pictures the South African natural world. Southern Africa does in fact support a large variety of trees and bushes, especially hardwoods, numbering nearly 900 species. But dense forest of big trees is the least extensive type of vegetational cover. The most heavily wooded areas were also those enjoying the highest rainfall-the sub-tropical forest along the east coast and the southern coast of the Cape.
