Abstract
The role of flooded rivers as dispersal agents for Quercus robur L. was investigated adjacent to the Disa River in the Orange Kloof Forestry Station, Cape Peninsula, South Africa. Three months after the floods, a systematic sampling of acorns was undertaken using 100, 4 m x 4 m quadrats. It was found that those quadrats in areas that had been flooded contained more than four times the number of acorns found in the quadrats of the unflooded areas. Further, flooded areas had a greater percentage of intact acorns and seedlings. It was also found that acorns beneath an oak canopy germinated poorly and that ungerminated acorns had a higher mortality. Since the flooding of this river must be considered a rare event, the efficiency of large scale, episodic dispersal was compared to the continuous low density dispersal carried out by the alien squirrel Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin. S. Afr. J. Bot. 1985, 51: 265–269
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