Vegetation Characteristics of Bowé in Benin (West Africa)

Abstract

Bowe are particular form of degraded land where ferricrete, a hard erosion-resistant layer, is exposed. This study investigated vegetation characteristics of bowe (species composition, life form, chorological type, and plant family) in the semiarid and sub-humid climate zones in Benin. In both climate zones, bowe sites were characterized by grassland and savanna. The species composition on bowe varied according to the climate zone. Woody species were frequent on bowe in sub-humid (51% of the total species recorded) than in semiarid (44%). Geophytes, hemicryptophytes and phanerophytes were frequent on bowe in the sub-humid than in the semiarid climate zone. The difference between the two climate zones on the occurrence of therophytes on bowe was not significant. The frequency of chamaephytes was higher on bowe sites in the semiarid zone. Afro-tropical, Afro-Malgache, Pluri regional African and Pantropical chorological types were frequent on bowe than in woodlands in each climate zone while the opposite was found for Guineo-Congolian and Sudano-Zambesian chorotypes. Plant families such as Amaranthaceae, Zingiberaceae, Chrysobalanaceae, Connaraceae, Loganiaceae, Moraceae and Ochnaceae were only found on bowe in the sub-humid climate zone, while Convolvulaceae, Loganiaceae, Rhamnaceae, Araceae, Colchicaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Olacaceae, Pedaliaceae, Amaranthaceae, and Cyperaceae were only found on bowe in the semiarid zone.