Untangling an ancient treasure
TK Mtiki learns why the weird landscape that surrounds Port Alfred and Bathurst matters so much to science, and to the world
As climate change pushes the limits of plants’ coping abilities further and further, some parts of Ndlambe have a secret weapon: thicket, or, more correctly, the subtropical thicket biome.
Scores of people converged on Bathurst last weekend to celebrate and understand thicket better at the inaugural Thicket Festival.
The event, organised by Friends of Waters Meeting Nature Reserve, saw thicket plants lovers coming in numbers to drink from the well of Nelson Mandela University’s botany department ecologist Prof Alastair Potts and other experts.
Introducing Potts, chair Dr Rina Grant-Biggs said it was a privilege to live among thicket plants.
Potts spoke about the three different types of thicket: mesic thicket, valley thicket and arid thicket.
Thicket plants needed to be at looked at in different ecological contexts to properly understand them.
For example, as you go north, you find arid thicket plants.
The Kowie River, Potts told the audience, was blessed with unspoiled mesic thicket plants.
“This is predominantly driven by rainfall,” he said.
Along the Kowie River, mesic thicket thrives on an average annual rainfall of 500mm-700mm.
Valley thicket, where plants grow on top of each other and are intertwined, offers particular challenges for researchers, Potts said.
“It is incredibly difficult to walk through.
“The plants love each other and they do not like animals.
“It’s very tough to make your way through valley thicket.”
Potts said they had not quite sold the classification of thicket plants on an international stage.
“Some people still consider thicket the same as forests.”
He explained how this ancient and very unique vegetation type managed to be so resilient and provide dense vegetation cover in arid areas, even in the face of prolonged droughts – a factor that will become even more vital as climate change pushes the limits of plants’ coping abilities.
Many of the plants are succulents and their leaves act as mini water storage “dams”, Potts explained.
Their leaf litter enriches the soil and, when there’s no rain, the plants release moisture into the soil to enhance microbial activity.
In this way, other plants in the vicinity also benefit.
“Thicket operates like a dwarf forest in an arid area: globally that is a weird phenomenon,” he said.
“Clear your name, not the bush”; Thicket under threat:
Nicholaus Huchzermeyer of the Rhodes Restoration Research Group warned that thicket was disappearing, however, with large areas becoming degraded.
This is despite legislation that protects virgin land from being cleared without a permit.
“Habitat fragmentation reduces ecosystem functioning and the number of species,” Huchzermeyer said.
“It weakens climate change resilience, as well as resulting in less carbon sequestration.”
Huchzermeyer said rivers provided a good indication of the condition of the catchment area, as sediments and nutrients washing into them adversely affect the water quality and some species can no longer survive in it.
The estuarine pipefish is an excellent example: it’s found only in five local estuaries: the Bushmans, Kariega, Kasouga and Kleinemonde East and West rivers, but is now critically endangered because of declining water quality.
“You could say the estuarine pipefish is the Bathurst area’s panda,” said Huchzermeyer, referring to the panda bear that is the global symbol of conservation in the logo of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature.
“We can all make a difference.
“Clear your name instead of the bush,” he urged land owners.
Other talks during the twoday festival included Settler life in thicket country (Serena Gess), Birds of the thicket (Ben Smit) and Medicinal uses of thicket plants (Elizabeth Milne).
There were also stalls and guided walks.
The festival ended on an appropriately chilled note, with Music at the Mill, organised by Historic Bathurst.
Locals picnicked on the grass and quaffed their beverages of choice while listening to local musos sharing their talent in the midst of a wild thicket forest.
It was a fitting way to wind up the first Thicket Festival in true Bathurst style.