Abstract
SYNOPSIS Indigenous forest of the southern Cape as delimited on 1:50 000 maps was analysed for distribution, size and ownership in six landscape zones: mountains, foothill, coastal platform, river valley, coastal scarp and dunes. I tested the hypothesis that forest distribution in the study area was limited by annual rainfall below 500 mm and not by geology. A total of 908 forest patches with size ranging from 0,3 ha to 25 706 ha covering a total area of 60 561 ha were analysed. Annual rainfall in areas where forest persists ranges between 500 and 1 220 mm, but the size and distribution of forests shows no relationship to total rainfall (above 500 mm), or to geology. The largest forests cover the foothills, coastal platform, river valleys and coastal scarp. The Goudveld-Diepwalle-Harkerville forest is the largest single, continuous forest in southern Africa and covers all landscape zones except dunes. By contrast the mountains have the largest number of forests but these are of relatively small mean area....
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