ABSTRACT
P alynological studies in coastal southwestern Nigeria were undertaken as part of an interna-tional project (Th e Dahomey Gap: Vegetation History and Archaeobotany of the Forest/Savannah Boundary in Bénin and Southwestern Nigeria; Sowunmi 2004). Th e Dahomey Gap is the unusual portion of the Guinean-Congolian forest zone, which, instead of forest vegetation, comprises a mosaic of the drier type lowland rain forest and savannah (Figure 9.1). Today it extends from the border between Nigeria and Bénin through Bénin and Togo to the easternmost part of Ghana. It constitutes a break in the Guinean-Congolian forest zone eff ectively partitioning it into western and eastern blocks.
