ABSTRACT
Recent plant colonization in front of the Tyndall and Lewis Glaciers was investigated. Vascular plants colonize till c. 4 yrs in age, while cryptogams appear on till about 25–30 yrs in age. Colonization appears to be individualistic, and is probably under strong environmental control because of the extreme conditions in front of the glaciers. Dispersal mechanisms do not appear to be related to colonization abilities. The dominant upper Afroalpine species are rare on deposits of Lewis age, and occur more frequently on older deposits of Tyndall age. Liki III deposits support vegetation very similar to that outside the maximum ice limits at similar elevations. Most Liki I deposits are in the ericaceous zone, and support dense shrub vegetation. Vegetation variability appears to increase with age of deposits. The spatial sequence on Mount Kenya is suggested to be a reasonable analogy for a temporal sequence, at least on moraine crests.
