These last do not seem to deter lemurs that leap blithely apparently unscathed from spiny branch to spiny stem to feed on leaves, flowers and fruits.īaobab with Sisal © Cyril Ruoso, The most iconic tree of the spiny forest is the baobab. In general plants across the region are tolerant of semi-arid to arid conditions having adaptations of succulent and reduced deciduous leaves, long taproots, enlarged, succulent trunks and spines. An additional variable is that the sandy soils and rocks are more water-retentive than those further to the south and west. At Berenty, just on the edge of a rain shadow that intensifies westwards from the coastal mountain chain, rainfall over the last 25 years has varied from a low of 145 mm to a high of 910 mm a year. Even within the spiny forest ecoregion plant assemblages are by no means uniform: rainfall is erratic, soils vary and distinct local species communities have developed. Separated from the Indian subcontinent for 88 million years and from East Africa for even longer (around 125 Ma), a unique biodiversity has developed.
The spiny forests (or thickets) of southern Madagascar are notable for having the highest percentage of indigenous plants on the island, an island already famous for having a greater number of endemic plant species than anywhere else on Earth.
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